《DREADWOLF》


 Chapter 1

    ¡°Think about it, in a world where your all is measured by something so accurate and tangible as a number, and that number directly feeds into how powerful you are, well, of course those with more are going to lord it over those with less. Fantasizing that society wouldn''t be anything but a hierarchical nightmare is simply naive.¡±


    -The man who lived in a pithos.


    ?


    ¡°What level are you?¡±


    ¡°...I¡¯m.... I¡¯m level one¡­¡±


    ¡°Exactly. Like a child.¡± She flicked him on the nose.


    She had to bend down to do so due to his height, a diminutive four foot six, a child¡¯s height. Which would have been fine if he were a child, but as an adult human it wasn¡¯t exactly ideal.


    Rain reacted a moment too slowly to fend off the flick and his skinny arm whistled through the air hitting nothing.


    She laughed at his flailing and wrapped her arm around Adlen¡¯s shoulders.


    ¡°Aww look at the child rage. Pathetic.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not a child. Just help me like you said you would and I¡¯ll grow out of this, that¡¯s how this leveling thing works, it builds up your body.¡±


    ¡°Stamp your foot harder if you want it so much, no, better yet, lick my foot,¡± leered the elf girl.


    ¡°Ew. Are you serious Myra?¡± said Adlen eyeing the Elf hanging off his side.


    ¡°Deadly serious.¡± She flicked off one of her sandals and waggled her toes.


    Rain eyed her foot with dismay.


    ¡°Come on you worthless little shit, tongue between my toes or I¡¯m going to leave you in the forest to die, no one will say anything, and you know you don¡¯t have the levels needed to survive out here. Your life depends on me, on us.¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡±


    ¡°Do you want to die?¡±


    Rain wanted to run away never to see the horrible elf girl again, but he knew he would be throwing away the tiny thread of hope that had drawn him out of town, and likely his life too. Rain was a survivor, his life had centred around it, and survivors did what was needed to survive. So, unhappily, reluctantly, he got to his knees and crawled toward her.


    ¡°Holy shit he¡¯s actually going to do it, what a little freak!¡± laughed Adlen.


    Rain crept forward and stretched out his tongue, the tip about to touch the tip of her toe. Myra shrieked and kicked him in the face hard. He collapsed to the ground.


    ¡°Urgh! Gross! He touched me!¡± said Myra, dramatically wiping her toe on the grass as though to rid herself of the touch.


    Adlen rolled his eyes. ¡°You were going to do that from the start Myra. You¡¯d never let a dirty little runt like him touch you.¡±


    ¡°Mm, true, a level one is no better than trash really. A level like yours on the other hand¡­¡± She looked up at him with half-lidded eyes then grabbed his hand and placed it on her hip.


    Rain looked up at them from the ground. He hated this, he hated his situation that had led him to be so reliant on these arrogant assholes... Most of all he hated himself for being jealous of them.


    Adlen was a muscular giant at six foot three inches and Myra had the look of a toned athlete, tall for a female elf at five foot eleven. The gift of levelling young, levelling young meant a stronger bigger body as it boosted growth and development.


    He himself had none of that, much of his childhood had been marred by nights going cold and hungry, desperate enough to chew pieces of leather to numb the hunger pangs. He remained stuck at level one because there had been no one willing to help him find and kill a monster. Suffice to say the lack of levels and the lack of food had ruined his growth, he looked positively skeletal in comparison to the pair.


    He slowly got to his knees.


    ¡°Keep perving because you¡¯re never going to get this,¡± said Myra, grinding up against Adlen.


    ¡°Tease.¡±


    ¡°Should we do it in front of him? It would be pretty twisted,¡± said Myra.


    ¡°I would, but no, the others will be back any moment now.¡±


    ¡°Fiiine. No show.¡±


    Rain gritted his teeth and held back a scathing comment. He had an overwhelming urge to lay into them, but he was dependent on their goodwill and couldn''t afford to go against them in the slightest.


    He wiped blood from his lip and slowly climbed to his feet.


    ¡°Myra stop fucking around. The horses are hobbled, let''s get inside this damn dungeon already,¡± said an even taller guy than Adlen who pushed aside the foliage and stepped into the clearing. A pair of girls followed behind.


    Rain eyed him warily. While Adlen was an intimidating level nineteen, this one, Brax, was an incredible level twenty eight, a prodigy, and because of that one of the most desirable men in the dungeon town of Lynthia, Rain¡¯s home. Seriously, Rain had seen him simply walk up to a random woman and take her hand and draw her away. She would happily follow, hopping like an eager rabbit into the nearest bedroom with him. It helped that he looked like an idealized adonis with long black slightly curled hair, though as always a person''s level was cause for greatest attraction, a high number charmed people like nothing else.


    That two of the three girls of the team seemed to have attached themselves to him did not surprise Rain in the slightest. In fact he was more surprised Adlen had any chance at all with Myra.


    ¡°Oh we were just having a little fun, nothing serious!¡± she pouted at him.


    ¡°Just a little eh?¡± he slapped his thigh and Myra bounced over to him where he wrapped one large arm around her hips.


    Adlen scowled seeing that. Rain had to hold in a snort of laughter, he knew well that Adlen would love to say something but like himself he would have to keep his thoughts unspoken for fear of getting beaten to a pulp by the higher leveler.


    ¡°Hey you wanted us to go, well, let¡¯s go,¡± said Adlen, clearly hoping to distract Brax from Myra. He gestured behind himself to a stone entrance.


    It was an impressive thing, the entrance to a dungeon. At least twenty feet tall and built from heavy block stonework. Large angular runes from a dead language marked the thick arch, the stone chipped and marred with age beneath thick green moss that crawled across its surface.


    Brax caught Rain¡¯s eye. ¡°Scared, little Rain? This isn''t where runts should tread.¡±


    ¡°If you must know, yeah, I am. Weren''t you scared to fight your first monster?¡±


    Brax snorted. ¡°Nah, power levelling is easy, you just gotta hold a knife steady once the monster is pinned, I stabbed the shit out of mine, was fun as hell.¡±


    ¡°You would say that, you overleveled-...¡± grumbled Adlen stopping himself from finishing.


    ¡°Ooh I bet you could take ¡®em solo these days though!¡± cooed Myra running a hand across Brax¡¯s chest. Brax smirked at Adlen¡¯s irritation.


    ¡°Around here most monsters are easy for me. I would need to find something a bit rarer to provide a challenge.¡±


    ¡°Come on Brax, I¡¯m not here to hear you brag about your levels as well as your prowess in bed.¡± said one of the girls who had followed him into the clearing.


    ¡°Ah, I¡¯m pretty sure I satisfied your curiosity on the latter one. But sure let''s get inside and get you your promised levels. The runt too.¡±


    Myra clung to him as he strode into the darkness of the dungeon and Adlen followed scowling unhappily. He was followed by the two girls then lastly came Rain bringing up the rear.


    Rain had to walk quickly to keep up.


    That he had been allowed to join a team going to power level lower levelers was something that Rain was still having trouble adjusting to. He was the town¡¯s runt or near enough, a stunted level one. How had he come to be like that? Unfortunately for Rain his father had attacked the town¡¯s Ranker when Rain was a child for trying to take Rain¡¯s mother.


    Attacking the highest leveled person in town and its de facto leader when you hadn''t even broken level twenty, well, it wasn¡¯t exactly a wise decision. Still, Rain¡¯s father had fought like a demon and by some incredible fluke he had permanently blinded the Ranker in one eye.


    Which was the worst result imaginable.


    The Ranker had brutally crippled Rain¡¯s father in furious retaliation and then tortured his mother to death in front of him. Then, surprisingly, he sentenced him with a Black Mark and let him live. This meant little to the man who¡¯d seen his wife suffer and die in front of his eyes and from then on he had escaped into the bottle.


    This left Rain with a broken home and a drunkard for a father. Worse, a Black Mark meant that any descendants of the man were to be made to suffer the same punishment, ¡®Sins of the Father¡¯, in practice that meant one person, Rain.


    He didn¡¯t understand at the time, being made a pariah and being banned from being power leveled seemed like nothing, not even a real punishment. It wasn¡¯t until he started to grow older that he realised he had been handed a slow death sentence. No way to increase his level because he was too weak to kill even the weakest of monsters and no one to help him.


    His father had passed a few years ago, a decade of booze and self-harm and Rain had woken one day to find he had not returned home. He found him several hours later having passed out in an alley and caught his death of cold leaving Rain alone in the world. Things only got worse after that and Rain was reduced to begging. Most ignored his pleas for fear of angering the town¡¯s Ranker but he had survived, just.


    And now he was here, having somehow wormed his way into a group going out to a dungeon to power level. It was as he had hoped, the death of his father and so many years having passed had softened people''s hearts and caused them to forget the Ranker¡¯s Black Mark. Of course his weak and pathetic state was not so easy to ignore, but he would just have to make up for that by working really hard once he started levelling.


    Ahead the two girls chattered. One a Human, one a Halfling. He listened warily.


    ¡°Did you hear?¡± said the Human, ¡°Alfreda got her twenty third level a few daysa ago, if she keeps going at this rate she¡¯s going to overtake Brax.¡±


    ¡°Tch, that woman has enough boys hanging off her arms, she¡¯ll be even more smug and insufferable if she becomes one of the top levelers in town.¡±


    ¡°Oh like you can talk about hanging off of arms, you¡¯re like a leech on Brax¡¯s side, suck suck suck, and in more than one way.¡±


    ¡°Hey shut up, it¡¯s paying off, isn''t it? Who else can say they¡¯re getting personally power leveled by tall, handsome, and absurdly high levelled over there.¡±


    ¡°Plenty of girls I¡¯ll tell you. You wouldn''t be the first.¡±


    ¡°I suppose you would know being queen leech.¡±


    ¡°Oh I¡¯m in it for more than just the levelling.¡±


    ¡°Mrmhm. Next guy who comes along with a few more levels and chiselled abs and you¡¯ll jump off Brax like a rat off a sinking ship.¡±


    ¡°...guilty.¡±


    Rain had heard the way levelers spoke for his entire life, but it still managed to set him on edge. He wondered if it was because he was in a lot of ways an outsider looking in.


    They caught up as the others paused.


    ¡°Eliza, Lira, keep it down would you,¡± grumbled Adlen, ¡°You¡¯re going to attract goblins or worse.¡±


    Eliza, the Human, stuck her tongue out at him.


    ¡°We¡¯re going down, there¡¯s nothing up here on the first floor that will gain us levels, well apart from for the runt, but chasing down weak monsters for his sake isn''t something I¡¯m wasting my time with.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s okay, just let me stab whatever you normally fight and forget I¡¯m here otherwise,¡± murmured Rain.


    ¡°Shut it runt,¡± spat Myra.


    Brax snorted then gestured at a wide stairway. The group followed as he descended. The stairs went deeper and deeper, each stair coming down onto a new floor which Brax promptly ignored and moved to go further down.


    Rain would be lying if he said he wasn''t nervous. All the power leveling from scratch he had heard about normally involved the first floor where the monsters were weaker. If he was to be hit by a monster this far down he would be nothing but a bloody smear on the ground.


    He almost verbalised a question, to ask if this wasn''t a bit much, but instead he carefully bit it back and kept it to himself. The last thing he wanted was to be seen second-guessing Brax.


    At last, the stairs ended and they came out into a cavern dimly lit from above by massive grand crystal formations. A lake filled most of the cavern floor.


    ¡°Wow!¡± said Lira.


    ¡°Some of the best monsters this dungeon has to offer like to hang around here. It¡¯s prime real estate for leveling if you¡¯re smart about it, and more to the point, it¡¯s great for power leveling.¡±


    Rain simply stared in wonder as the lake reflected the light of the ethereal glowing crystal. The lake had to be at least a kilometer or so across, likely more.


    What a wondrous place to finally begin his journey and join the leveled.


    He startled seeing the group trundle away from him and raced to catch up, hope rising in his heart.


    ¡°You see, monsters have to drink at some point, guess where they come? This lake, obviously. The short of it is that instead of wandering around aimlessly we can simply wait for the monsters to turn up here one by one.¡±


    ¡°Yeah yeah, very clever, this is a good spot we got it,¡± said Adlen


    ¡°Well they don¡¯t know that, I¡¯m saying it for their sake so shut your trap. Ah, here we go.¡± Brax came to a stop by the shore.


    A large boulder blocked his path.


    ¡°Looks like a boulder doesn''t it? Watch.¡±


    He drew his sword, a brutal looking thing that had clearly seen a lot of use and he swiftly drove it into the side of the boulder.


    The boulder let out a keening scream and its legs that had been tucked beneath its form sprung outward revealing it to be a gigantic toad monster with rough pebbled skin.


    Brax yanked his sword free as the toad leapt away angrily hissing and screaming like a kettle.


    Adlen charged it from the side and jabbed at it with the spear he had unslung from his back scoring hit after hit. The toad raged and awkwardly turned to face him.


    ¡°Myra, care!¡± shouted Adlen.


    He sidestepped as the monster opened its mouth and a long oily black tongue lunged outward aiming straight at him. Myra took the opportunity and flung out her palm. A violet fireball flared and shot toward the toad like a screaming comet, it landed in its mouth where it promptly exploded. The toad''s tongue snapped back as it cried out in pain, trying to spit out and extinguish the fire.


    Adlen took the monster''s distraction as an opportunity and scored a hit on its eye. Eye goop spurted as he successfully blinded it. The toad had lost all reason by this point and was charging around aimlessly. Brax stepped in and with a vicious arcing cut he chopped off one of its legs.


    The toad slumped to the ground where Brax wasted no time in delimbing it.


    ¡°Lira, you¡¯re up.¡±


    Lira stepped forward nervously with a knife in her hand. She swallowed and then with a yell drove the knife down. The monster shuddered as she withdrew it.


    ¡°My turn!¡± said Eliza as she drew her sword and added a practised cut. ¡°Easy!¡±


    Now it was Rain¡¯s turn. His knife was a rusty table knife he had stolen and secreted away. He had obsessively sharpened it before he had left town but it remained a poor weapon. Still, he only needed a pointed bit of metal, enough to draw blood.


    He gripped the handle with sweaty palms and raised it above his head ready to plunge it into the monster''s side. His arms swung down!


    Myra caught his arm mid swing, her arm as unbending as iron.


    She tittered. ¡°Oh you actually thought we would let you level, how cute.¡±


    She twisted his arm until it felt like his bones would break and he was forced to drop the knife with a gasp.


    He watched with mounting horror as Brax leant down and swiftly punched his sword into the toad¡¯s head killing it instantly.


    ¡°Oh! I levelled up! I¡¯m level 15!¡± exclaimed Lira jumping on the spot with glee.


    Rain could only stare at the dead and unmoving toad.


    ¡°Why.¡± he breathed.


    ¡°Because the town Ranker doesn''t forgive or forget, but he does get sick of seeing you begging in the streets for scraps. You make us look bad when out of towners visit.¡± Brax shrugged. ¡°He gave you to us.¡±


    Rain suddenly ran at Brax with hands raised, recklessly trying to throttle him. Brax simply laughed and lightly brushed him aside. To Rain it felt like being hit by a sledgehammer and he was knocked tumbling across the ground. Breath came painfully and he realised he had likely broken a rib, likely more than one.


    ¡°Oops, I forgot how weak you were.¡±


    ¡°Hey don¡¯t break my toy before I get a turn!¡± scowled Myra.


    Rain felt a hand grab his wrist and drag him up.


    ¡°Oh, so weak, so pathetic. You¡¯re like a doll.¡± said Myra.


    She grabbed at his old and tattered clothing and ripped his shirt off followed by his trousers and undergarments.


    ¡°Ah I thought you would just have a nub down there like a doll, guess not, but it¡¯s as stunted as you are, just look at that little thing!¡±


    She pulled a knife free from her belt and poked it at his genitals, Rain¡¯s eyes went round and he screamed as he felt the tip of the blade go in slightly.


    ¡°P-please! I didn¡¯t do anything to you, why are you doing this! Lira, Eliza! Stop them Please!¡±


    Brax scoffed. ¡°They aren''t going to help you.¡±


    ¡°Sorry Rain, it''s better this way,¡± shrugged Lira.


    ¡°You never could accept it Rain. If you are stunted for so long you can¡¯t ever escape that, you never had a hope.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    Myra dropped him and he fell bonelessly to the cold damp stone. Myra drove a boot into his stomach and he went rolling across the ground.


    He clawed at his stomach in pain.


    ¡°T-tell me! What do you mean!¡±


    Eliza looked between Myra and Brax. ¡°Rain, it wouldn''t have mattered, it¡¯s not well known but past a certain point an unleveled and stunted Human is simply unable to gain levels. That''s why humans power level their young so early compared to other races. It¡¯s a racial trait.¡±


    ¡°No! Y-You¡¯re lying!¡±


    Adlen casually poked at him with the tip of his spear drawing blood. ¡°She¡¯s not lying, the only worth you have left is our amusement.¡±


    ¡°Haha yes! Dance my little doll dance!¡±


    Myra flicked fire at Rain¡¯s feet causing him to scuttle back in fear, a fireball landed awkwardly and violet fire splattered up his leg. Rain screamed as it ate into his flesh. He desperately smacked it out burning his hands in the process.


    ¡°Oh he has a voice on him doesn''t he. Care, he might attract monsters.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, we can use them to power level once we¡¯re done with this.¡±


    Rain crawled toward Lira, the Halfling, the only one he hoped would have some sliver of sympathy left.


    ¡°P-please Lira! I¡¯m a leveler! I¡¯m a person! You can''t let them do this to me!¡± he clutched at her boots. ¡°I just wanted to level up like you!¡±


    Lira¡¯s face went from what Rain interpreted as potential sympathy to a sneer of disgust.


    ¡°Don¡¯t touch me with your filthy hands! I¡¯ve seen you scrabbling around in bins. Eliza¡¯s right, you¡¯re just stunted trash and a burden on the town.¡±


    She kicked his hands away.


    Rain paused. He realised it was over. He was surrounded by monsters as bad as the monsters that inhabited this dungeon, no, worse, these monsters killed not for food but out of contempt. Anger built in his chest and all the frustrations of a lifetime kept down for something he didn¡¯t do welled up in him.


    ¡°You- Damn you!¡±


    He stumbled to his feet one hand still clutching at his stomach.


    ¡°You¡¯re all psychotic amoral scum, I don¡¯t deserve any of this! I¡¯ll fucking haunt you, I¡¯ll curse you! I¡¯ll-¡±


    Brax¡¯s sword whipped through the air and lopped off his arm.


    Rain stared down at the stump poking from his shoulder and at his arm limp on the ground. He could feel himself going into shock.


    ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t finish him off too quick!¡± said Myra bouncing up behind him. Her knife went into his side with a sickening squelch.


    ¡°I-...¡± words fled Rain as his thoughts started to shut down.


    ¡°¡®Don¡¯t finish him off quick¡¯ she says as she stabs him in the kidney. Fuck sake Myra,¡± growled Adlen. He flicked his spear and casually dismembered Rain¡¯s other arm at the elbow.


    ¡°Do we get levels for killing him? I should get in on this!¡± said Eliza as she lazily gutted him. His intestines spilled out of the slit in his stomach.


    ¡°Oh gods the mess! Eliza you don¡¯t cut there! Stomachs smell! And no you don¡¯t get levels, that''s monsters only.¡±


    ¡°Oh. My mistake. Well, he¡¯s not much better than a goblin so who knows. ¡±


    Rain could taste blood in his mouth and his vision was going hazy around the edges. He would scream but shock had fully taken hold. He could only watch as Lira timidly came toward him.


    ¡°E-everyones uhm, doing it, so I should too, right?¡± She pushed the knife she held between his ribs. Blood welled up in his throat.


    ¡°Rain, you lived as a stain on our town, be glad you¡¯re being cleaned... S-still, I¡¯m sorry it turned out this way, I still feel bad, you should know.¡± Lira murmured.


    ¡°F-fee..-l b...ad?¡± whispered Rain, red streaming from his mouth.


    ¡°Aww does the runt have a crush?¡± said Myra, she giggled and withdrew her knife from his side.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think getting laid is on his mind right now Myra. I don''t think much is on his mind at all to be frank. Adlen finish the little fucker off, he¡¯s gotten boring. I get the feeling we¡¯ve attracted the attention of a few monsters anyway.¡± said Brax.


    ¡°Tchh, he was never going to be much fun, I mean have you looked at the guy? He makes kids look strong.¡±


    Adlen strode forward and with a swing of his spear he swept Rain¡¯s legs from under him. Rain crashed to the ground insensate and on the verge of blacking out.


    ¡°Here watch this. Watch me toss his ass.¡±


    Adlen stabbed his spear into Rain¡¯s stomach and hefted him up into the air so that Rain was hanging like some grisly war banner. With a heave of his level empowered muscles and a flick of his spear Adlen sent Rain flying over the lake to splash down near its center.


    By the time Rain hit the water he was already dead.


    Stratothrax


    4''6" = 142cm


    6''3" = 192cm


    5''11" = 180cm

 Chapter 2

    Fade¡­.


    Water¡­. Dark¡­. Silence¡­.


    Rain gradually drifted back to some form of consciousness, it felt like it took hours.


    His vision remained hazy and dark around the edges. He attempted to look around. He couldn''t see much. Far above light pierced a rippling watery surface, but it didn''t truly light the place. It was dark down here, far below.


    He belatedly realised that he was in fact underwater; it took only a little while longer for his fuzzed mind to realise that he wasn''t breathing. Strangely he found he didn''t panic, he felt not calm, but near mindless, as though he was still half asleep.


    His vision drifted down and he realised he was floating above a human corpse resting on the lakebed. A corpse that had been brutalised and dismembered. His eyes wandered over it without understanding.


    ¡°You...¡±


    Rain heard a voice. He slowly blinked, or at least he tried to, no eyelids dropped down to cover his sight. This puzzled him, but not for long, it was hard to really be concerned about anything in his current state. Everything was just so unimportant.


    ¡°I want¡­¡±


    Rain¡¯s view eventually drifted from the curious corpse and across the sandy lakebed. Not for long did his eyes drift because something caught his eye. The corpse had caused a recent disturbance in the sand and something had been unearthed. A skull.


    Sluggish images of a wolf drifted across Rain¡¯s consciousness, that was what it reminded him of, a wolf''s skull but different somehow, whatever.


    ¡°Kill...¡±


    Was it the skull that was trying to speak to him? How odd.


    ¡°-ousand years¡­¡±


    Hmm well it didn''t seem important, much like everything else. Rain was content to simply exist in this warm mindless fuzziness.


    ¡°My people¡­ gone¡­¡±


    Rain pondered if it would ever shut up or if he was doomed to hear meaningless rambling for eternity.


    ¡°I¡­ the last prince.¡±


    Rain felt the mild spark of interest the skull had created start to lose its tenuous grip and he went back to examining the corpse. It did feel strangely familiar but he couldn''t place why.


    ¡°You...¡±


    The sand was awfully reddish around the corpse, it couldn''t have been a pleasant death.


    ¡°Avenge¡­?¡±


    Rain¡¯s musing was interrupted by what felt like a question inside his mind, one that he actually had to respond to. Not that he cared about the content but he would quite like the feeling to go away so he could go back to his dreamful musing. He answered in the negative and the question disappeared. The skull stopped talking.


    Time passed and Rain could feel himself gradually slipping away as though he was moving to a more dream like state, somewhere else.


    ¡°Inherit¡­?¡±


    The skull¡¯s voice returned. It seemed to be struggling to get through to him. He didn¡¯t really have an answer as to why that was. More to the point the annoying question had returned and was penetrating his mind, demanding an answer. If he could have sighed he thought he would have. He decided that if one way hadn''t worked then maybe the other way would. He answered in the positive and the question disappeared.


    Peace returned to his dark watery domain.


    Rain settled back into just existing.


    Time passed. He noticed with mild interest that his perspective had changed. The corpse was closer. In fact it was really starting to get quite close now. He felt¡­ whatever he was, touch down on the corpse''s chest. He looked around ponderously at this non-development.


    More time passed.


    He saw movement. Well, some movement. His gradual flow to the dream-like place his mind was going before had halted to his mild annoyance, so the movement was a little more interesting than it would have been.


    He watched as little streamers of blood lifted from the sand and began to drift toward the corpse as though on subtle water currents. More interestingly the sand around the corpse began to shiver and bleached white bones began to tremble and shift themselves free.


    Rain considered that whatever the bones had belonged to it must not have been particularly large, he estimated it was similar to the body in size.


    Anyway, a march of bones began, bones gliding across the sand, all with the aim of traversing the sandy lakebed to the mutilated corpse. One by one they arrived and came to rest against it. The smaller bones didn''t stop there and they began to gradually burrow their way into the body''s flesh.


    The last of the bones to arrive was the skull. It slid across the sand as though drawn by an invisible force leaving a short grooved trail in the sand behind it. It came to a stop touching the neck of the corpse.


    At this point things sped up.


    Bones burrowed and flesh rippled. The body seemed to unknit itself of its own volition, strings of flesh unzipped and muscle and vein bloomed outward like some kind of horrific coral. Rain had the vague sense that he was supposed to feel disgusted with this.


    The head of the body split apart, the skull fragmented and the wolf skull was drawn into place. Flesh wrapped around it and for a time the whole corpse writhed and shifted and bits moved and repositioned and melded and reformed, like a sack wrapped tight around a hundred wriggling snakes that deformed its surface.


    Bones lined up and joined where there were once arms and flesh formed from the stumps to engulf it. It was all quite fascinating in Rain¡¯s mindless ¡®oh this is happening¡¯ sense of the world.


    As the seaweed like fronds of flesh and vein and skin began to retract toward the corpse, Rain felt himself drawn downward into its chest. He didn¡¯t mind, nothing really meant anything, this was just happening apparently.


    His vision slowly fuzzed and blurred and darkened until there was nothing.


    Babump


    Babump


    Babump


    Rain opened his eyes and immediately panicked.


    He was underwater, deep underwater, and in the process of drowning, his lungs were flooded with water.


    On instinct he shoved his legs beneath him and heaved upward with as much strength as he could muster. He shot off the sandy lake bed and rocketed up like a cork.


    The rippling surface light drew closer until with a rush of cold air he broke the surface. He immediately convulsed and a fountain of water exploded out of his mouth. He gasped wretchedly, barely getting air. He bobbed below the surface before thrashing at the water to bring his head above the surface again. Shore. Land. He needed land if he had a hope in hell of clearing his lungs. Burning for breath he spied land and struck out for it. He swam with desperation. More than once he tried to breathe, only managing half gasps that barely kept him going. As he neared the shore he could feel himself losing consciousness, nevertheless he dragged himself onward with pure adrenaline. Sand. Stone. Ground. He crawled from the water like a drunkard and collapsed. Half a second later he vomited water and then continued to vomit water. With shaky arms he lifted himself and water poured from his throat, from his lungs, his stomach. By the time he was done his inside burned from clenching and squeezing. But he could breathe, that was what mattered.


    He flopped on his back and took great heaving breaths.


    He was alive.


    ¡°Why am I alive?¡± he croaked.


    His voice did not sound normal. He opened his eyes blearily and realised there was something partially blocking his vision. He moved an arm upward to move it away and somehow bashed himself in the nose.


    Confused he lifted his hands up to feel at his face, except what appeared in front of his eyes was not his hands but some kind of large furred paw like things with white claws. He yelled and flinched away afraid of a hidden monster.


    When nothing attacked him he paused and looked around. He was alone on the lake shore. No monsters, not even the group he came with. The memory of what they had done to him hit him like a sledge hammer and he had to rush to suppress the memory, box it away, even so he felt himself nearly lose it.


    He shuddered and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.


    Step one, what was the thing blocking part of his vision. He brought one hand up this time and, well, it took only a second of seeing it move to realise that he was in fact looking at his own hand, but become monstrous. No longer a Human¡¯s hand but a cruel looking paw, broad digits with paw pads, claws, even a thumb digit with its own pad and claw. He curled his paw experimentally. A quiet voice was screaming in the back of his head but he felt like he had gone somewhat past the limits of what a human was capable of coping with due to recent events. He brought his hand, paw, up to his face and gently padded at it. The thing partially blocking his view was his new snout, muzzle, nose. Not good. Alarm levels were spiking as his paws wandered downward where a mouth full of razor sharp teeth became known. An animal''s mouth. A wolf¡¯s mouth.


    He sat up and looked down at his body. His legs were no longer the nice and normal plantigrade human legs but a double kneed kind of digitrade wolf leg, worse it was all covered in wet black fur! In fact all of him was! He held up his arms in horror realizing he was entirely covered in the stuff.


    Breathing hard and verging on a panic attack he crawled to the lake¡¯s edge and peered at the water. It took a moment to still the ripples but as he did he saw not a human face reflected back at him but that of a threatening looking black wolf with yellow eyes.


    He slumped backward and scuttled away from the water''s edge


    He tried to clutch at his head but the feeling off his paws just brought the fact he was a monster home.


    ¡°Oh gods oh gods oh gods what is happening to me!?¡±


    He chose to close his eyes again to gather some sense of control.


    ¡°Breathe, just breath Rain, just fucking breathe. Inhale, count to six. Exhale, count to six. Inhale, count to six. Exhale, count to six.¡±


    He remained like that until the sheer animal panic that was attempting to rise up in him had passed.


    At last, after what must have been nearly twenty minutes of calming himself and fighting down trembling gut wrenching panic he felt well enough to open his eyes.


    He was still a monster.


    But this time he didn''t immediately freak out.


    ¡°L-last thing I remember was hearing that voice on the lake bed. Gods, what was it, something about a prince and inheritance. It made no sense, it might as well have been a nonsense dream if it weren''t for this monstrous body.¡±


    Blowing air out of his nose he decided he felt collected enough to stand. This was easier said than done with his new legs and it took more than a few tries. After he fell for the third time he figured out that thinking of it as standing on tip toes would be the equivalent anatomically as a human¡¯s heel would be the second ¡®knee¡¯ of a wolf or a dog.


    At last he was upright, wobbly but definitely upright. He looked down and tried to get a measure of himself.


    ¡°Well... I¡¯m still short, but... at least I¡¯m a little less short?¡±


    He wasn''t certain by exactly how much but he was sure he was a little more above the ground than his past self.


    He looked over his body and found a black wolf tail hanging from his backside, currently soaked and hanging limp. With a discomfited feeling he tried to shake it and to his surprise it responded.


    He suddenly had a thought and snapped his head around to inspect his groin area. He panicked thinking there was nothing there, but after a moment he realised what he was looking at was something like a wolf might have, a black furred sheath. He wasn''t willing to explore further but he was glad he apparently had something down there. He wasn''t sure he wanted to know the details.


    As he acclimatised himself to simply standing his stomach growled, painfully so.


    ¡°Fuck, if this is all new then I¡¯ve basically never eaten.¡±


    He looked around hopelessly. The shore stretched in either direction with no sign of anything foodlike.


    ¡°Well I can''t do nothing or I¡¯ll starve, so I guess I¡¯d best look for something.¡±


    He picked a direction and began walking, or at least a wobbly drunkards version of walking that half the time had him stepping backward to regain his balance.


    He made his way along the shore leaving wolf pad wet footprints in his wake.


    Stratothrax


    Just to be explicit: Rain is a bipedal werewolf like monster.


    His ''paws'' (hands) look roughly like this:

 Chapter 3

    ?


    Many wobbly steps along the rocky shore later and something came into view.


    It was the bloody corpse of a giant toad monster.


    Rain approached it warily.


    ¡°I guess Brax and his group continued to power level after mutila- after what they did to me and dumping me in the lake¡­¡±


    Rain had strong feelings toward the people who had betrayed him but addressing those feelings was difficult when his stomach was in constant gnawing pain from lack of food.


    The toad corpse didn¡¯t look like something a human would like, but he was used to eating horrible food to survive. Raw toad wasn¡¯t about to break him. In fact as he drew closer the enticing scent of its blood began to excite him and he started to drool with the thought of getting his teeth into it.


    Unfortunately something had gotten there first, or rather somethings. Several crabs looked up and glared at him from where they were chewing at the toad¡¯s flesh or trying to pull flesh free with their pincers.


    He made shooing motions with his paws trying to scare them away but the crabs weren''t having it, they snapped at the air and waggled their bodies around on spiny legs.


    ¡°Big monster crabs. Suppose that''s about right for a dungeon.¡±


    The crabs were large, the largest having a shell about a foot across, but that didn¡¯t deter Rain. He could smell meat was close and the hunger drove him onward. He jogged up to the nearest crab and with an awkward kick he booted it as hard as he could. To his surprise it was catapulted into the air and landed in the lake with a Ka-Plonk!! Splash.


    ¡°Holy shit I¡¯m strong! This is incredible!¡±


    Drunk on power he snatched at the nearest crab and holding its leg he flung it out over the lake. It went far.


    ¡°F-fuck this feels amazing.¡± he said as he stared down at his muscular arms. They couldn''t be further from the skeletal sticks devoid of muscle from his past life. He could actually lift and throw things!


    He gleefully freed the toad from the crab buffet, launching crabs one by one into the lake.


    Then he turned on the toad for his own reasons. Food.


    He couldn''t stop himself, he went at it face first and bit into its side. His razor sharp teeth cut into its hide with ease and he ripped free a great chunk of muscle and flesh, blood pouring down his chest he snapped at it, cutting and dicing it before swallowing as quickly as he could manage.


    ¡°Oh gods why does this taste so fucking good!¡± he whined.


    He leapt onto the Toad and began using his jaws to incise into it, moving along its surface and cutting furrows. He groaned as he ripped and tore trying to stuff as much of the meat down his maw as possible. He could only describe it as a perfectly cooked rare steak crafted by a professional chef, jaw achingly delicious. A little voice worried at the back of his mind that being turned into a monster might have adjusted his sense of taste, but his hunger swiftly squashed it.


    Ten minutes later he lay slumped against the toad, his stomach was rounded having been so stuffed. Still, the mountain of toad was perhaps only a quarter diminished.


    He rested a paw on his overtaxed and taut stomach. He could feel it working. In fact he could feel it more than working. He watched with shock as his stomach started to gradually shrink with a growling churning sound. What was more he could feel his body responding, he felt strange, a feeling like stretching when waking up in the morning, in fact he aped the feeling and stretched out his limbs. It felt good, in fact it felt amazing! His stomach slowly diminished over the next minute or so until it returned to his originally flat stomach. He patted it tentatively.


    ¡°Tasted good enough that I don¡¯t think I can say no to more¡­ I¡¯m still so goddamn hungry.¡±


    He turned and laid into the toad once more.


    A while later, and after his fourth round of toad, he collapsed in a puddle of toad blood and watched with fascination as his distended stomach slowly vanished. He stretched out his limbs and curved his spine as the feeling washed over him. This time he tested his theory. He placed a claw so that its tip lined up with a crack in the stone. It didn¡¯t take long, slowly the claw pushed past the crack until it stopped a little beyond it. He was right. He was growing with each meal.


    ¡°Fuck, this changes everything. I¡¯ll take being a monster if I can become bigger and stronger.¡±


    He eyed the toad but with disappointment realised there wasn''t much left apart from bones and he had already cracked said bones to suck out the marrow. He needed more. More food.


    He looked around the lake shore. At some point some of the crabs had returned, ever the scavengers they waited nearby, ready to eat the remains once he left. Unfortunately for them Rain had other plans.


    He casually sat up and glanced around. A rock, perfect. With one motion he leapt to his feet, grabbed the rock and then ran at the crabs. The crabs panicked and scuttled into each other. Too late. He landed amongst them like some kind of wrathful anti-crab god and began laying about himself with his divine weapon. Crash, crack, splinter. He cut down a dozen crabs in his hunt. The rest fled into the water, but it was enough for Rain. He dragged his victims into a pile and sat cross legged in front of them. Strength powered by a hunger both for food and for growth let him rip apart their shells and tear free pawfulls of flesh. He eagerly cracked their claws and poured the contents straight into his open maw.


    One feast later and he looked down at his stomach with disappointment. He wasn''t even two thirds full. He scowled.


    ¡°Not enough mass. Tasty, but I need something more substantial to satisfy my hunger.¡±


    He grumbled and got to his feet.


    ¡°I hope the crabs haven''t gotten to more of Brax and Co¡¯s kills first¡­¡±


    He continued along the shore.


    It wasn''t long before he came upon more, a pair of dead toads, and something else that was a surprise, a Goblin body.


    After smashing a dozen crabs with rocks he had the spot to himself and he crept up to it.


    This was the first time he had seen a Goblin in the wild. The reality was far less dangerous looking than he had imagined but a lot more filthy. The Goblin wore nothing but a loin cloth and some beads around its neck. A deep spear wound in its chest was obviously the work of Adlen.


    Rain decided to ignore it for now and focused on the two toads. He salivated at the sight of them and his stomach growled in anticipation.


    ¡°I think this is the first time in my life I¡¯ve been able to eat to my heart''s content. Can¡¯t say I dislike it,¡± he grinned, his lips raising to reveal his wolfish molars.


    He attacked the nearest toad body and shredded it with his teeth and claws, pushing hunks of meat into his maw as fast as he could bite it into manageable chunks. He was getting better at this, more efficient, but also more hungry.


    By the time he was done with his first meal half the toad was gone. His stomach was rounded like a beach ball, his skin stretched tight. He was fuller than ever before having eaten more in one sitting than anything so far as marked by having eaten half the toad, no small feat considering its size.


    Satisfaction rushed through him as he started to digest and he could feel himself growing. His spine creaked under the changes and his joints popped. He shuddered as he felt the tips of his paws reach a little further than before. Oh this was nice.


    He barely paused as he leapt on to the rest of the toad with savage glee.


    An hour of gorging later and a wolf like monster covered from ear tip to toe tip in toad and crab blood slowly heaved themselves up from the ground.


    Rain had no perfect reference but judging by how far he felt his eye level was from the ground he suspected he was starting to near 5 foot in height. Something he would have given anything for in his past life but now, now he just wanted more.


    He eyed the Goblin body.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ a bit human like¡­ but I am a monster, and monsters eat monsters right?... and sadly I¡¯ve eaten more unappetising looking things as a starving Human.¡±


    He scuttled over to it and sniffed hesitantly.


    ¡°Oh gods it smells wretched!¡± he cried holding a paw over his nose.


    Still, his stomach demanded food so he gingerly lifted up a leg and with the wariness of someone who thinks they are about to taste something awful he bit off a toe, closed his eyes in apprehension, and chewed.


    ¡°That.... that actually tastes pretty good¡­ I guess the smell is just due to them having never heard of the concept of hygiene...¡±


    Rain decided that he would rather get done with it as quickly as possible so he had less time to think about what he was eating. His overriding ravenous hunger was making that a lot easier than he thought it would be, although the little voice in the back of his mind worried if that was more to do with him no longer being human...


    Having practiced eating efficiently he placed the Goblins hand in his mouth, pushed from the shoulder and began dicing it with his teeth making his way along the arm. With a savage bite he dissected the last of the limb from the torso and the chunk slipped down into his stomach.


    ¡°Hrmm, I still prefer toad I think, but it¡¯s a bit better than crab¡­¡±


    He didn''t slow and each limb went into his mouth until he was left with a torso. He grabbed a rock and split open the Goblins skull. He wasn''t a fussy eater, the head is often the bit that gets thrown out at the butchers as no one wants it so he was no stranger to brains and eyeballs. It was just a fact of life and when cooked not as bad as one would expect. In fact he¡¯d heard they were a delicacy in certain noble courts. Here and now though they were fuel for the engine that was his growth.


    A torn open rib cage later and he was muzzle deep in the Goblins organs. Heart, kidneys, liver, even stomach and lungs, he ate it all.


    At last he stopped, stomach stuffed and nothing of the Goblin left except his loincloth, marrow-less bones and cracked open skull.


    He had to admit after eating his way through it that Goblin might be a contender for the top spot. Toad¡¯s days were numbered unless they upped the ante when it came to tastiness.


    Drool still hanging from his chops he sat in fuzzed contentment as he felt his body surge with growth as the Goblin digested to fuel it.


    ¡°Hnnnn.¡± he stretched his limbs and paws in deep satisfaction.


    As the growth waned he caught a sudden motion out of the corner of his eye and leapt to his feet in fear.


    A Goblin met his gaze for a moment, they had been hiding behind a rock and trying to creep past. Seeing Rain absolutely plastered in blood they panicked and ran screaming.


    ¡°Ah. That might be a problem.¡±


    Rain had studied the dungeon, he knew about monsters, Lynthia did have a public library after all and he had spent many days secluded in it reading everything he could on how he might be able to fight and kill a monster and gain a level alone without help. That had proven fruitless of course, even the weakest monster, a Goblin, would be able to kill him with laughable ease in his pathetic state and that was assuming they weren''t alone. Goblins were a pack monster, a tribal monster. Where you met one many were sure to follow.


    He dashed after the fleeing Goblin. He could not let it get back to its tribe and raise a swarm of the things to come and kill him. He suspected he would be able to kill one alone, even if it was armed, but as soon as more than one came into the equation he knew that things would become increasingly risky. Facing more than one monster at a time was worse than facing a single much more powerful monster in many ways simply because it''s difficult to keep track of them and being stabbed in the back was a constant threat. Keeping track of two or three and keeping them at bay in his current state? Maybe. Four or more? Forget about it. Many many levelers died to tribal monsters simply because they do not have eyes in the back of their head.


    The Goblin was a little shorter than him thus shorter in stride and his wolf-like legs increased that difference, they allowed him to sprint forward at speeds he would have only thought possible of someone with significant levels. However the Goblin had a head start and knew the terrain. He chased it from the shore into a cavern and from there into twisting winding tunnels and caves.


    He was gaining and as they passed from a tunnel he leapt and tackled the Goblin to the ground.


    He held onto the wriggling monster as they rolled across the stone before coming to stop.


    ¡°It¡¯s the Dire Beast! Kill it!¡±


    Squawked the Goblin in his paws, which he realised by her voice was female, but that of course was much less of a shock than hearing her speak Common.


    He looked up to see a trio of Goblins sitting around a campfire frozen in the middle of eating what looked like a roasted rat.


    Stratothrax


    This will never end ''cause I want more


    More, give me more, give me more.


    This will never end ''cause I want more


    More, give me more, give me more.

 Chapter 4

    ?


    The three Goblins round the campfire dropped their food and ran at Rain as he struggled with the female Goblin, each pulling free from their belt a rusty blade of some kind.


    Rain made one attempt at breaking the female Goblin''s neck but was forced to give up as the weapons swung toward him. He kicked her free using the momentum to shove himself away from their reach. What looked like a poor attempt at forging a butcher''s cleaver glanced off the stone where he had been a moment before, raising a flash of sparks.


    He scrambled to his feet and paced the trio.


    ¡°Get him! Useless shitty Gobbos, kill the monster!¡±


    The trio charged and Rain was forced to back away toward the wall.


    Worst case scenario, multiple enemies, armed, and he had no easy avenue of escape. He racked his brain for a plan, diplomacy?


    ¡°I, uh, come in peace?¡±


    ¡°KiiLLL IIIITTTTT!!!¡±


    A rusty nicked sword slashed at him and he had to step back to avoid it. Another lunged at him with a dagger and he barely managed to move in time. He grabbed its wrist as they passed and swung them against the wall. The Goblin was lighter than he expected and the monster slammed against it with a teeth rattling impact before slumping to the ground.


    He blinked in surprise at how easy it was. The sword wielding Goblin took the chance and ran at him screaming, Rain reacted just a bit too late and the sword hacked at his stomach, he flinched in terror expecting the oncoming agony and horror of being disemboweled again, he looked down, trembling, expecting spurting blood, flaps of skin, spilling intestine. But there was none of that, instead a trickle of blood where the sword had embedded itself slightly into the muscle of his abdomen. But that was it. Some combination of his stronger body and the bluntness of the Goblins shittily made weapon had saved his life.


    He roared in fear fueled fury and snatched the wrist of the sword wielding Goblin. He swung him into the air like a ball on a rope so hard he dislocated the Goblin¡¯s shoulder. He spun around, the screaming Goblin at arms length and hurled him into the butcher''s cleaver Goblin. Flesh met flesh with a sickening crunch and instantly broke the flung Goblins neck, both Goblins went rolling across the cave in a tumble of broken bones until they flopped to a stop unmoving.


    Rain breathing heavily with a combination of fear and adrenaline turned on the remaining female Goblin. She was holding up as a weapon the spit the trio had been roasting rat on, roasted rat still skewered on it. Seeing his yellow eyes locked on her she dropped it with a yelp and fled.


    ¡°Don''t you run from me you fuck!¡± he roared as he gave chase.


    Another desperate chase through the cave system and Rain was soon gaining on her. The tunnels began to thin and become more varied in shape and the both of them were slowed. Still, his fury wouldn''t be put aside and he reached out a paw, he grabbed, missed, grabbed again and this time he latched onto her ankle.


    ¡°Get off me Beast!¡±


    ¡°Never!¡±


    She twisted and raked her fingernails along the top of his paw. It hurt but it wasn''t enough to make him let go. Unfortunately his paw pads were still bloody from eating and were slippery enough when combined with her squirming to let her slip free. She jerked away and scrambled upward vanishing through a hole in the ceiling of the cramped tunnel.


    Rain, blind with rage, rushed after her, got stuck and after thrashing around for a moment he burst through the opening into a vast cavern lit overhead by a crystal formation.


    His eyes swept around and he slowed in dismay as dozens of eyes looked back at him. He¡¯d popped up right in the middle of the Goblin tribes camp.


    ¡°Oh, oh...¡±


    What looked like a Goblin Chieftain, going by his size and higher quality clothing, stood up from a fire where he was attended by several other Goblins. He was a good inch taller than himself by Rain¡¯s reckoning, tall by Goblin standards. He held a hatchet in one hand, the metal of it in far better care than any weapon he¡¯d seen so far, it gleamed in the crystal light.


    ¡°Chief, It¡¯s the Dire Beast, from the great lake! Like the witch said! It killed four of ours!¡± cried the female Goblin running up to the Chief.


    The Chief used the base of his hatchet and clubbed her around the head.


    ¡°Stupid wretch, why bring it here! Better you die than risk me!¡±


    She whimpered and scuttled behind the growing group of Goblins.


    Rain took a step back but it only took a glance to realise he was surrounded. He glanced back at the hole he had emerged from. It looked ridiculously tiny from this side and he held no illusion that squeezing himself back into it would be anything but a death sentence as he was stabbed from all sides unable to move or escape.


    His eyes roamed over the growing crowd. Only one real choice. If Goblins were anything like levelers then killing their strongest would be devastating for morale. More often than not a leveler army broke and fled if their strongest died in battle, he would have to gamble the Goblins relied on their elites just as much.


    He set his feet and charged, sand pluming up behind his paws as he shot forward like a crossbow bolt straight at the Chief who appeared to have been taken by surprise by this sudden attack.


    ¡°Stop it, don¡¯t let it get near me!¡± yelled the Chief waggling his hatchet at the other Goblins.


    A Goblin with a spear leapt into Rain¡¯s path, the tip of the spear shifted as It tracked him. Rain didn''t hesitate, he knew he would only have a limited window of opportunity to kill the Chief. He reached a paw forward and then as the spear neared he grabbed the blade in his paw and tugged it back and to his side. The Goblin caught unexpectedly was thrown off his feet and face planted into the ground. Blood gushing from his paw Rain didn''t stop and leapt onto the unfortunate Goblin¡¯s back where he drove himself forward in an explosive dive straight at the Chief.


    He sailed through the air, claws outstretched and blood particles streaming from his fur in his wake.


    The Chief screamed, hatchet held high, but Rain caught his arm in his paw and held it away as he lunged for the Chief''s face as he rode him to the ground. Razor sharp reddened teeth puncture flesh and with a savage twist Rain tore half his face off. Adrenaline pumped through his body and kept Rain going, had it not been he was sure he would have been frozen in horror by what he¡¯d just done. Instinctively he¡¯d treated his opponent as food, ripping and tearing as he would a dead body.


    Terrified Goblins began shouting and screaming around him as he crouched over the fallen Chief. Suddenly something rammed into him from the side and he was forced away. He rolled to the side and looked up to see a Goblin even larger than the Chief, a Goblin rippling with muscle. By Rain¡¯s reckoning this bastard had to be at least five and a half foot tall, in other words as tall as a human on the shorter side. The muscled Goblin roared and long strings of drool were flung from its yellow toothed maw.


    Rain tried to find space but looking behind him he found a wall of Goblins holding bits of sharp metal. No dice. In front of him the Chief stumbled to his feet, his face a ragged mess with only one good eye remaining. He held one hand over the gore, trying to hold what remained together. He pointed at Rain and screamed something unintelligible before staggering into the crowd of Goblins.


    ¡°This is the worst case, absolute worst case, gods I¡¯m going to die again aren''t I.¡±


    His breath came ragged as fear built up, mental images of being tortured and mutilated by a vengeful Goblin Chief if he was subdued surfaced in his mind. No. never again. He would either survive this or he would die fighting. There was no other option.


    The muscled giant screamed in anger, beat its chest and charged, its crude wooden tower shield a battering ram aimed at Rain. Rain dove forward and slid onto his back, he raised his footpads and the tower shield slammed into them, he let the momentum carry the shield up and over and then with all he could muster he powered his legs upward. The shield, with unusually large Goblin atop, launched skyward and arced up and behind him.


    He and the Goblins looked on in shock as the flailing Goblin went up and up then crashed into the crowd behind him eliciting angry screams.


    It occurred to Rain that the Goblins were not in fact unusually light weight but that he was instead greatly underestimating his own strength.


    He rolled to his feet, he wasn''t sure what else he could do apart from follow his original plan so he snatched up the spear he had earlier pulled from the first Goblin to come at him and ran at the wall of Goblins that the Chief had disappeared behind. Panicked Goblins tried to get out of the way but only ended up blocking each other. Rain stormed toward them, the spear acting as a lance, and he skewered the nearest Goblin, then the next Goblin, the weight of his momentum forced the spear through three more Goblins until he had a total of five skewered on its length. He barely paused and shoved the screaming howling line of Goblins to the side opening up a hole in the crowd which he dived into.


    A Goblin dove in his way, a sword that was more rust than metal pointed at him. Rain struck it aside and it bent under his paw, his other paw reached up and tore out the Goblin¡¯s throat. He pushed the Goblin out of the way as it clutched its neck. He moved onward. Two more Goblins that were easily brought down one on one tried to stop him, but at last he burst out the other side of the crowd amongst rows of Goblin tents.


    The Chief was there, along with another unusual looking Goblin. This one was covered in blue tattoos and had piercings all over its wrinkly skin where it wasn''t covered in rags. She wore a cuffed short sleeve jacket different from the rest of her clothing, much more finely made than anything else he¡¯d seen the Goblins wear. The strange Goblin held up a staff covered in bones and small animal skulls.


    ¡°So, you have come at last...¡± she hissed from between missing and blackened teeth. ¡°Ancient memory has been passed of your kind and yours from witch Goblin to witch Goblin for hundreds of generations, we always knew your evil never left this world. No matter, long have we been prepared.¡±


    The witch Goblin produced an object from its rags, a wooden carving of a wolf with its head trapped in a cage.


    ¡°See your end Beast!¡±


    Eerie purple and green lights began to form and swirl around the carving, spinning faster as thick white mist began to materialize amongst the tents.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right, you stupid dog, soon you will be mine and I will make you pay for what you did to me. You will beg me for death!¡± cackled the Chief Goblin prancing around beside the witch while one hand held his face together.


    Rain didn''t like where this was going in the slightest and deemed it a good time to abandon the plan. The mist was swelling, enough to hide his escape perhaps. He turned to flee but the carving abruptly began to whine, sharp, like a wolf''s howl. The witch gestured and the green and purple coalesced into a flame that exploded forward like a lightning bolt and struck Rain in a fiery blast of painful light and white mist. Green and purple fiery shockwaves rushed up and down his body, burning¡­


    Well actually that wasn''t the case realized Rain as he looked down at his body that was exactly the same and not burning or in pain at all, whatever that just was had done nothing to him, at least physically.


    The mist gradually dissipated and he was left standing facing the pair.


    ¡°Excellent!¡± crowed the Chief.


    The witch looked slightly puzzled but raised a hand. ¡°Dire Beast you serve us now and you shall be the foundation upon which our tribe shall rise, our slave warrior. Come to me.¡±


    Rain remained standing.


    ¡°I said come, come before me.¡±


    Rain hesitated then stepped forward. He came to a stop in front of the pair. The Chief was practically slavering with glee.


    The Chief pulled a knife from his belt.


    ¡°I need payment for what he did to me, eye for an eye, well in this case more like eye for a lifetime of unending agony.¡±


    ¡°Do not mortally wound it, I do not know of its ability, much has been lost to time about this creature. We have scant to go on.¡±


    ¡°Of course, of course witchy, don¡¯t worry your little head, I¡¯ve had plenty of practice cutting away bits a person doesn''t need.¡±


    His knife wandered down until Rain felt it poking uncomfortably at his groin.


    ¡°No problem castrating it like we did to the big lug yes?¡±


    ¡°That... should be fine.¡±


    The Chief leered at Rain, his fucked up face making it all the more disturbing.


    ¡°Let''s see how much spunk you have in you without your bollocks hrmm?¡±


    The Chief started to press the knife, but then Rain¡¯s paw flashed up and snatched it from his hand and rammed it up through the Chief''s jaw into his skull.


    The Chief flopped down dead.


    The witch stared at the dead Chief, expression frozen in horror.


    ¡°Guess I¡¯m not the Dire Beast.¡± He gave her a wolfish grin.


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 5

    ?


    ¡°Goblins on meee!¡± screamed the witch.


    The Goblins who had been filtering around the tents roared and flung themselves forward. The giant of a Goblin from earlier charged through a tent, one of his arms was limp, dislocated, Rain was pleased to see he¡¯d had some effect.


    Spears and swords rushed toward him, he didn''t hesitate, he grabbed the witch and placed her between himself and them. Her eyes widened and she began to scream for them to stop but too late, a spear punctured her belly.


    Rain backed off as the Goblins realised what they had done, their howls of rage just rose all the higher as the witch sunk to the ground.


    She held her stomach wound and glared at Rain.


    ¡°The spelled trinket didn¡¯t work but I don''t doubt you''re a monster just as awful as what It was meant to stop.¡± She spat blood.


    The witch held up a hand and a fireball began to coalesce in her palm. Fire. Suppressed memories tried to crawl into Rain¡¯s mind, being forced to dance to Myra¡¯s fire while she giggled at his pain, the flames licking up his leg, burning his hands as he desperately tried to put it out.


    He found himself moving before he was even aware of it, he acted so suddenly that the witch didn''t have time to release her fireball and her mouth could only hang open as he flew through the air teeth first. His jaws came down on her neck and tore half of it away before she could move to stop him. The fire in her palms winked out as quickly as the light in her eyes.


    ¡°Motherrrr!!!¡± screamed the large muscular Goblin as it stomped toward Rain, Its bad arm flapping at its side. A calloused hand wrapped around Rain¡¯s neck tearing him from the witch¡¯s corpse and slammed him onto the ground, the Goblin used its weight to pin him, their faces were close, snarling at each other like animals. The crazed look in the large Goblin¡¯s eyes made it clear he intended to kill Rain at any cost. Having no arm to hurt Rain with other than the one pinning him down the Goblin instead went with the next best thing. Its teeth. Angular yellowed teeth bit down on Rain¡¯s snout digging furrows and cutting to the bone. Rain screamed and struggled madly trying to get away from the terrible pressure and pain piercing his face. His claws raked at the Goblin¡¯s sides but to no avail. Out of desperation Rain reverted to instinct. He lunged his head forward forcing his muzzle into the Goblins mouth and then closed his mouth over the Goblin¡¯s lower jaw. The bone held for one second, two seconds, three seconds, and then with a noise like shattering china the Goblins jaw exploded under the sheer pressure Rain¡¯s wolf jaws could exert. His teeth crunched down on splintered bone and teeth and he twisted his head tearing off the Goblin¡¯s lower jaw entirely.


    The Goblin was left reeling, its tongue flopping from the massive gaping hole in its head where its jaw used to be. Rain pulled his feet back and managed to kick the Goblin in the chest flinging him off. The horde of Goblins seeing Rain prone on the ground jumped at the chance and surged over him. His view of the crystals on the cavern ceiling was swiftly blocked by screaming Goblin faces crowding over him, each Goblin carrying something sharp. He felt metal puncture his side, his shoulder, his stomach, he roared in agony desperately trying to get away but the sheer weight of Goblin flesh climbing over him and holding him down kept him from escaping.


    A knife flashed toward his eye and he ducked his head only enough for it to go through his ear. Now mindless with pain Rain stretched his neck and tore out the Goblin''s throat, again with the next Goblin, two Goblins flopped back dead. But there was more, so much more, and he couldn''t reach any more necks!


    No matter. He could start with the extremities.


    He mouthed a Goblins hand and with a snap he severed it from the limb. He whipped to the right where a hand held him down at the shoulder. Snip. Forearm was now two parts and a dismembered arm flopped off his shoulder. A nearby leg, bite, gone. A stomach, torn open. He bit down on a shoulder and crushed the Goblin¡¯s clavicle, it screamed until he managed to get its neck.


    The dome of Goblin flesh united in keeping him down began to crumble as the screaming spread. He freed one of his arms and pulled down a Goblin until he could reach its neck. Another. Goblins who had been brave enough to hold him down as a team now panicked, and once the team started to fall things turned chaotic. Blood splashed across Rain¡¯s body as he ripped and tore. A Goblin tried to escape and his paw snapped out and grabbed its ankle dragging it back screaming into the pile and into his teeth.


    He kicked his legs and struggled. He was stronger than they were individually so the more their pin failed the more his advantage snowballed. By this point he was freely snatching at limbs and dragging screaming Goblins to his mouth as they climbed over each other desperate to escape. Unfortunately for them the press of bodies from Goblins on the edge of the crowd made that difficult so he had free reign to kill and kill and kill. Blood pooled between the bodies so thick that it came up over his feet. He crawled amongst the thrashing and the dying seeking more life to end. Blood ran into his eyes, his vision was red. But he wanted more.


    Some time later he crawled free from a mound of corpses on his hands and knees.


    He was beyond exhausted and on the verge of collapse. He somehow managed to wobble to his feet and take in the damage.


    First he looked at the camp. It was empty, thank the gods.


    Then he looked at his body. A half dozen knives stuck out of his flesh. His paw trembling he wrapped it around the handle of a stubby blade embedded in his belly. With a keening whine he slowly pulled it free, to his relief it was only shallow, in fact as he slowly moved over his body, plucking bits of metal from his flesh, he realised none of them went particularly deep. It seemed to be as before, a combination of the crude bluntness of the metal and his own toughened flesh prevented deeper injury. Still, it fucking hurt, and he was pleased to be rid of it all.


    He limped around and stared at the pile of Goblin bodies, some were still alive but unable to move either due to injury or being crushed by the weight of their peers. He wanted to leave them, but he could feel unconsciousness flitting around the edges of his mind from sheer exhaustion. It limited his options. So with a stony heart he used one of the knives they had stabbed him with and gave the Goblins he could reach a swift end.


    He dropped the knife and stepped away on shaky legs. He needed rest but somewhere he wouldn''t get stabbed in his sleep. He didn''t have much choice. He made his way to one of the Goblin tents that hadn''t been damaged by the brawl and crawled inside its cramped quarters.


    Five seconds later he was out like a light.

 Chapter 6

    ?


    Rain blearily returned to consciousness with a groan. His eyes stung painfully as blood had seeped in, dried, and crusted over. He tried to wipe and clear them as best he could with the back of his paw but it just made it worse. Scrabbling around blindly he managed to find the edge of a ragged blanket and rubbed his face with it. It helped, a little bit.


    With a pounding headache he slowly pulled himself up and crawled out the tent. He had to shield his eyes from the light emitted from the crystals above. He could have sworn that they weren''t quite so painfully bright before, but then again maybe it was the headache fooling him.


    His paw touched at a knife wound he had taken. To his surprise it just felt like a normal touch, no pain. He examined himself more closely and found that he had entirely healed while he slept, and none of the cuts, scrapes, bruises, gashes, and wounds remained. He was whole. He was almost too shocked to process it, this body was aberrant to anything but some freakishly high levelers body. There wasn¡¯t much to be done but be thankful for it.


    With one paw over his eyes he looked around. To his relief the camp still seemed deserted. He had no doubt that many of the Goblins had gotten away and were most likely carrying a grudge. If he wasn''t on the verge of collapse there was no way he would have chosen to sleep anywhere near here. Unfortunately it was what it was and he was glad he had gotten lucky enough to sleep undisturbed.


    He looked down at his body and grimaced. His fur wasn''t so much fur but bits and chunks of dried blood. Miserable.


    ¡°Gods, I don''t think it¡¯s possible to be any filthier. I need to get back to that lake and wash off.¡±


    He wandered through the camp. It wasn''t a large camp, only a few dozen tents, but he supposed if some of the larger ones had more than one Goblin sleeping in them it could keep plenty of Goblins sheltered.


    He wiped at his nose and sighed realising it was plugged with dried blood. Blowing his nose and scraping at it with his claws managed to shift enough of it that he could draw air in. Unsurprisingly he could smell a lot of blood, but on top of that was the stench of the Goblin¡¯s camp. The bridge of his nose wrinkled in disgust.


    ¡°Eurgh. Do these Goblins need to be as foul as possible?¡±


    He wandered past the pile of dead Goblins much the same as it was when he passed out.


    It was a lot of meat. He could already feel his mouth watering, his hunger waking.


    ¡°No, not yet. I need¡­ I need to wash the blood and grit out of my eyes first. Maybe they have potted water somewhere...¡±


    He continued onward and came to the edge of the camp. He found what he was looking for and then some. A small lake of clear water filled about a fifth of the cavern''s floor space.


    With a whoop! He rushed toward it and splashed in, cool fresh water washed over him and his aches and pains were soothed away. Blinking without irritating his eyes was an amazing relief. He sighed and shuddered as blood and muck left his fur leaving a big red stain in the water that spread around him.


    Desiring something approaching proper cleanliness he swam away from the mess he¡¯d made in the water and began scrubbing. It wasn''t ideal but his fur was glossy enough that he was able to remove most of the dirt and blood using furious application of rubbing with his paw pads. He had to find a fresh spot more than once as he turned the water around him red. After the third move he found the water was no longer being discoloured and he stayed in the same spot until he felt he had scrubbed himself as clean as was reasonable.


    He waded his way out of the lake and shivered as water began to evaporate from his fur. He shook himself dry like a dog to hurry the process along. Drying fur was not a fun experience.


    It was in the middle of a bodily shake when motion caught the corner of his eye.


    He snapped his attention to it. It was a Goblin. Just standing there. Looking at him.


    He snarled. ¡°Fuck off! What do you want!¡±


    His recent experiences with Goblins had left him with any desire to deal with the little green people again.


    He stepped forward threateningly. To his surprise the Goblin stayed where it was.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯m done with you, I don¡¯t fear your tribe anymore and I¡¯m not about to chase you down. So you can go. Get lost. Go.¡±


    He waved his paw at the Goblin vaguely.


    The Goblin seemed to hesitate, it looked behind as though considering whether to make a run for it. Then it seemed to make a decision and stepped toward him.


    ¡°Why?¡± said Rain.


    ¡°Because you aren''t the Dire Beast. The witch was wrong.¡±


    He blinked at the Goblin who had spoken in a clearly female voice.


    ¡°Wait, it¡¯s you, isn¡¯t it? The one I chased here¡­¡±


    She nodded.


    ¡°You know I was trying to kill you right? I needed to avoid attention and couldn''t risk letting you go.¡±


    She set her lips in a line and nodded again. ¡°I know.¡±


    Rain dropped his paws in disgust.


    ¡°Then why are you here? I wouldn''t do this if I were you.¡±


    ¡°Because you are strong and you think and speak. Chance you are the better option for me than dying remains of a Goblin tribe.¡±


    Rain was about to scoff at that but his own experiences hanging on the coattails of others and relying on their good will made him pause.


    ¡°I could just eat you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a risk yes. But that is life in a dungeon. Life is always always a risk.¡±


    ¡°True enough I guess. But what makes you think that I¡¯d want you around me.¡±


    She seemed to be caught unexpectedly by that and spent a second thinking furiously.


    ¡°Because I can carry stuff.¡±


    ¡°Really? That''s what you¡¯re going with? You know this isn''t very believable. If I wanted revenge I would consider fooling my target into thinking I am benign and then get them in their sleep. Is that what you wanted? It is, isn''t it?!¡±


    The Goblin shook her head furiously, then with something approaching resignation she withdrew a small knife from a string on her hip and hurled it far out into the lake. She watched forlornly as it sunk out of view. Then she turned on the surprised wolf and marched toward him with arms outstretched to either side.


    Rain had to admit she was very brave, she clearly looked ready to die, but he wasn''t about to start trusting her.


    ¡°Stop, don¡¯t come any closer.¡±


    She paused, then continued walking.


    ¡°If you come any nearer I¡¯m going to kill you.¡±


    She stopped.


    ¡°I don''t understand your motivations. Don¡¯t you want me to die? Look what I did to your tribe! Don¡¯t you care? I eat Goblins for gods sake.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care, not really. Gobbos don''t make tribes for ties, they make them so they can fight better. I was born in a litter of five, we were left to fend for ourselves, my brothers and sisters all killed each other.¡± She shrugged. ¡°The top Gobbos use us as playthings, the witch uses us for blood sacrifice, and the rest of us backstab each other everyday in the hopes of being one of the top. That¡¯s how it is in a Gobbo tribe. No love lost... I¡­ don¡¯t think it is good.¡±


    ¡°Still, they were your people.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°In the dungeon, when a big monster comes and kills us, you decide either to keep your head down or get revenge. All the Gobbos who like revenge are dead now.¡±


    ¡°...I see.¡±


    She grinned ¡°You should know that If I wanted you dead I would have slit your throat while you slept in that tent.¡±


    Rain glared at her. ¡°Doing wonders for my trust here.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s true, even if you don¡¯t want to hear it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right I don''t want to hear it. Look maybe you can stay around, but there''s going to be conditions.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fierce, conditions don¡¯t scare me.¡±


    ¡°This first one might.¡±


    ¡°No it won¡¯t.¡±


    He strode forward until he was standing in front of her, she still had her arms outstretched.


    She looked up at him warily. He had grown taller, but he was still relatively short, still, he was about five inches taller than the diminutive Goblin who was on the short side for her kind.


    He leant down until his breath blew at her long slightly curled black hair.


    ¡°You stink.¡±


    With that he grabbed her by the arms and launched her into the lake.


    She flew through the air with a scream until she landed with a ker-plunk!


    The Goblin spluttered to the surface.


    ¡°Fuck-fucking fucker fuck you you fucking fuck head fuck!¡±


    Rain was already wading toward her and with fear in her eyes she tried to desperately doggy paddle away. Rain caught her by the ankle and yanked her backward, swishing her back and forth through the water until a discolored stain started to form around them. He dragged her away from it to a fresh area and went to work rubbing down the spitting furious Goblin. Grab an arm, hold it out, rub his rough paw pads up and down like some kind of strange scrubbing stone until her skin glowed, grab another limb repeat, ignore kicking and thrashing.


    He got quite into it though he did have another reason for being this callous. He was using it as an opportunity to search her for hidden weapons. Not that there were many places for her to hide one. She had a ragged shirt, he shredded that and it sunk into the depths. Loin cloth gone ripped off and discarded, breast wrap parted with a slice of his claw. She was butt naked and trembling in his paws as he moved onto scrubbing her back. He tried to remain as impartial and cold as possible but he was quickly becoming more aware of her curves. That breast wrap wasn''t for nothing. He let out a rumbling growl as she tried to scratch at him and she froze.


    He snorted and started on her hair. He doubted she had anything hidden in it but it smelled like a fish had somehow gotten lost and died in it. The amount of crud and half rotten food he combed out of her black locks beggared belief. He had to move to a new water spot once again just from hair gunk alone. He slapped a paw down on her head and dunked her under the water a few times just to sluice the last of it out.


    Satisfied, he made his way back to shore.


    ¡°You absolute scumbag! I hope you die! I hate you! Look what you¡¯ve done to me! I¡¯m- I¡¯m clean!!¡± spat the Goblin in fury from where she remained in the lake.


    ¡°I thought you said you were fierce.¡±


    She gave him a death glare.


    ¡°Gobbos are supposed to be dirty, the dirt is good!¡±


    ¡°You can come out of the water now.¡±


    ¡°Fucking dog fuck fuck¡­¡± she grumbled, but waded from the water until water was running off her and she was shivering in the cold air, covering her bits with her arms and hands.


    Rain eyed her, ¡°I kinda thought Goblins would care less about nakedness, levelers certainly aren''t fussed. Shared public baths.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s easy for you to say, I have no clothes!¡±


    He gestured at his body. ¡°I¡¯m naked too you know.¡±


    She glanced at his body and Rain was amused to see her blush. ¡°That''s not fair you have fur!¡±


    Rain scratched his nose and shrugged. ¡°I guess we can find you something.¡±


    He wandered toward the camp again and after a moment she followed after him


    ¡°You know I don¡¯t think you told me your name.¡±


    ¡°...It¡¯s Opal.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ a surprisingly nice name for a Goblin, I was expecting something guttural like ¡®Argg¡¯. My name is Rain.¡±


    ¡°Gobbos name themselves. Why would I pick a shitty name like that?¡±


    ¡°Fair enough. Oh, and fair warning, I¡¯m going to be eating Goblin now. You might not want to be here for that.¡±


    ¡°I want to see. And I want some too.¡±


    Rain suddenly turned and stared at her. ¡°Goblins are cannibals?¡±


    ¡°Yes? Why wouldn''t we be? No monster doesn''t eat their dead in the dungeon, that would be a stupid waste of resources.¡± She gave him a slightly incredulous look as though she couldn''t believe a monster like him didn''t know that was the norm.


    ¡°Oh. That makes a certain horrible amount of sense...¡±


    Rain found his way to the pile of bodies and began carefully picking his way through them.


    ¡°Here, strip each body I bring. You can take any of the clothes you like. If I catch you picking out a weapon though I¡¯ll break your neck.¡±


    ¡°I know, I know,¡± she grumbled as she got to work pulling off bits of clothing, belts, weapons.


    Reasonably quickly the Goblin clothed herself. It wasn''t until Rain pulled out the witch¡¯s corpse that she made a sound, she gasped.


    ¡°She was important?¡± said Rain.


    ¡°Y-yes. She wasn''t one to be crossed. She could magic your skin inside out if you made her mad enough. I don''t know, maybe she can do something in death.¡±


    Rain kicked her corpse and it rolled over to Opal. ¡°Seems pretty dead to me.¡±


    The Goblin flinched away. ¡°Hey!¡±


    Opal hesitated then knelt down and began stripping her. It took awhile due to the number of piercings the old witch had, she got tired of trying to fiddle them off and ended up tearing the rest free. She didn''t hesitate to take the witches jacket however and swiftly replaced it with the ragged thing she had found earlier. It fitted her well, a short sleeve crop jacket open at the front, well made. If Rain was one to judge it had been originally stolen from a halfling or other small leveler species and was not Goblin made.


    ¡°You can eat that one by the way. She doesn''t look very nice to eat.¡±


    ¡°Oh, thanks, think I might starve then,¡± grumbled the Goblin eyeing the unappetising looking witch.

 Chapter 7

    ?


    Sometime later the mound of Goblin bodies had been stripped and laid out in two long rows. Twenty two bodies in total, including the three Goblins who had attacked him first. He had made Opal climb down and drag them up into the camp one by one. At the end was the crown of the spread, the large muscled Goblin which Rain had found away from the rest where it had apparently fallen on a tent and bled to death, which wasn¡¯t surprising considering its jaw had been ripped clean off.


    ¡°You can turn away if you want.¡±


    Opal tilted her head. She was sat by the fire, a certain witch spitted over it and slowly roasting.


    ¡°No, I want to see.¡±


    Rain shrugged. ¡°Suit yourself.¡±


    He snatched up the nearest body and laid into it, blood fountaining around his teeth as he took great bites. It didn''t take him long, his teeth were strong enough to crush bone to fragments simplifying the matter of eating a once living thing greatly. By the end all that was left was a few bones and a skull.


    Rain let out a contented sigh.


    ¡°Regretting your choice to watch Goblin girl?¡±


    Opal stared at his stomach. ¡°....¡±


    Rain raised an eyebrow but moved onto the next making quick and bloody work of it. He belched as he sat back.


    ¡°Are you going to keep going? Surely you can''t eat anymore?¡±


    ¡°Just watch.¡±


    Rain rested a paw on his belly as it growled, then abruptly it began to shrink. Mass disappeared below his paw and he let out a grunt as the feeling of his bones elongating and thickening washed over him. He curled his toes and stretched his digits out enjoying the addictive sensation.


    He turned his head to see Opal with her mouth hanging open.


    ¡°I thought I was seeing things at the great lake but you really do digest that fast.¡±


    Rain smirked. ¡°Well if I didn''t I¡¯d be here for weeks eating all of these Goblins.¡±


    ¡°R-right.¡±


    He rolled over and moved onto the next Goblin, quickly grinding his way through it, and then the next, then a pause to digest, then the next and so on.


    It was when he was nearly halfway through the group that Opal piped up again.


    ¡°H-hey, what¡¯s going on. Are you¡­. Are you bigger?¡±


    Rain finished stuffing a limb down his throat and turned to her.


    ¡°You didn''t think I was just eating for fun, did you? I eat, I get bigger. I won¡¯t feel safe taking on levelers or bigger monsters unless I do, Goblins are one thing but they aren''t exactly heavyweights.¡±


    ¡°You want to take on levelers?¡± Said Opal wide-eyed.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s-! Do you even know how strong they are!? I¡¯ve seen a leveler behead a bear in one blow!¡±


    ¡°I know. And that''s not even close to what the top leveled can do.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re crazy. My tribe would only take on levelers if they were seen struggling with really weak monsters and even that was considered incredibly risky.¡±


    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll need to get strong then.¡±


    Opal scowled at him.


    ¡°Hey I¡¯m not planning on just marching right up to the first leveler I see, I¡¯m not stupid. This is a dungeon right? Obviously any levelers that come in here are going to be fighting monsters at some point. I figure there couldn''t be a better time to lay an ambush than while they are distracted fighting. I just have to sneak up behind and get them in the neck or back.¡±


    ¡°Hmpph. Madness. You don''t know this dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Actually you¡¯re right I don''t, so hey, there''s something you can do instead of just ¡®carrying stuff¡¯.¡±


    She grumbled but turned back to the fire and poked at the slowly cooking witch.


    Rain continued making his way through the line of bodies. By the end he was pushing himself and managing nearly two Goblins before having to pause to digest.


    At last, he came to the end of the line and he found himself facing the big Goblin.


    He eyed the horrendous scarring that covered the Goblin, clear signs of long term abusive mutilation. ¡°You really weren¡¯t treated well, big guy. I suppose that lines up with Opal¡¯s story about life in a Goblin tribe¡­ Well, I hope I killed the one who did this to you at least. Now you¡¯ll live on as part of me, maybe, I don''t know if it works that way¡­ probably not...¡±


    Avoiding the lifeless gaze of the Goblin Rain started on his arms. The Goblin wasn''t just taller than most Goblins but also broader, with fingers like sausages, something that Rain found he appreciated as he ate. What few sausages he had managed to get his hands on in his past life were rarely appetising, often they had a sheen of rot and he had made himself sick more than once trying to eat them. Not that he had a lot of choice, it was either risk it or starve. Those who would feed him were few and far between, most often charity came from out of towners who didn''t know his story, and least often from locals. Those with a lot of levels and wealth were least giving of all, either afraid of the town ranker¡¯s wrath or just uncaring. He held a petty grudge in his heart for that type of person. The way things worked tended to favour those who had connections and wealth and as power and wealth are wont to do it did not create particularly pleasant people.


    He tore free a bicep and began devouring it.


    I¡¯m not the one to change things as much as I hate how things are. He mused while chewing. I¡¯m just a bitter survivor who¡¯s become a dangerous monster with a need for revenge... and to eat.


    His mind drifted to fantasies of finding Brax and Myra and making them suffer for what they did. As he mentally played out his bloody revenge he tore into the Goblin all the faster, shredding it with his teeth, mincing bone with as much ease as muscle. He ripped it¡¯s heart free and bit into it causing blood to explode out the sides of his muzzle. Skull cracked and brains scooped, organs gobbled and ears chewed.


    By the end of it he was laughing, just think of what he would do to them! He forced down the last bit of Goblin meat, greedily gulping it down.


    ¡°H-hey. Are you okay?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± said Rain. ¡°Of course I¡¯m okay, I feel great!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re crying¡­¡±


    Rain blinked and realised it was true. He quickly wiped at his eyes and looked away.


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Just some dust in my eye.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    Rain ignored her and settled a paw on his distended stomach as it began to digest. It didn¡¯t take long before it efficiently began to break down what he¡¯d eaten, growling and gurgling in the process. He groaned as waves of growth washed over him, this was a big one and he felt his joints popping as they surged. He cracked his jaw and paws in satisfaction as his now larger body settled into its new size and his stomach returned to being flat and toned.


    He climbed to his feet and found Opal staring up at him. She had to look up quite a bit further than before. The top of her head used to come up to his jaw, now it was about level with his clavicle. He¡¯d grown a good five or six inches he judged, more than when he had eaten the giant toads. Not surprising he mused considering he¡¯d just eaten half a tribe of Goblins.


    ¡°Big.¡± said Opal.


    Rain scratched his chin. ¡°Yes. Still hungry though.¡±


    ¡°I can fish.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°I can fish a little.¡±


    ¡°Well that works out because I need to wash all this blood off me anyway.¡±


    Rain towed the Goblin girl away from the pile of bones. He paused on the way, noticing that she¡¯d only eaten part of the witch. Not willing to let a meal go he grabbed the spit from the fire and walked and ate.


    Opal disappeared inside a tent for a moment and came back out carrying a fishing rod over her shoulder.


    ¡°Fish.¡± she said.


    ¡°Sure?¡±


    The unusual pair made their way back to the small lake where he made Opal strip again. She complained loudly as he spun her around checking for weapons. Satisfied she hadn''t smuggled anything from the dead Goblins, he let the blushing Goblin clothe herself.


    Rain lowered himself into the water with a sigh. He found washing wet blood off was trivial compared to matted dried blood and he was soon clean and glossy furred once more.


    Opal sat and set up her fishing rod on a large protruding boulder in the shallows. She deftly tied a length of twine to the fishing rod''s tip and then a lure at the other end to which she attached a severed toe from the witch. With a flick of the rod the lure sailed out into the centre of the pool where it gently bobbed up and down. She settled herself cross-legged and got ready to wait.


    Rain lazed in the water letting the cavern''s crystal light wash over him. He sighed.


    ¡°Do you think the rest of your tribe, the part that escaped, will return to this cavern?¡±


    ¡°Mmm, doubtful, this is far from the only cave like this and without any top Gobbos they won''t have the guts to come in case you are still here. Most Gobbos fear their own shadow if they don''t have someone to boss them around.¡±


    ¡°Is that why you came to me?¡±


    She snorted. ¡°No, I wanted a better life and I think you can get me it.¡±


    ¡°Mhmm.¡± replied Rain floating in the water with his eyes half closed. ¡°Just so you know I¡¯m not sure I can. My goals don¡¯t exactly coincide with ¡®a better life¡¯. Mostly they consist of revenge and killing.¡±


    ¡°Revenge against anything bigger than you is not worth it. Gobbo life lesson.¡±


    ¡°The ones who I want revenge on are certainly bigger than me. Well, that''s only scratching the surface. They have levels, magic, I¡¯m just a monster and have neither¡­ Having second thoughts about being around me?¡±


    The lure in the middle of the pool began to wobble and Opal took notice.


    ¡°Well, I figure it¡¯s like you said, I just gotta make sure you¡¯re bigger than they are.¡±


    The lure plopped below the water and the twine zipped taught. Opal braced herself on the rock, leaning heavily back with both heels dug into a crack in the stone. She was immediately yanked off the rock with a yelp and crashed into the water with a splash. Rain blinked and then struck out toward her in alarm as she was towed away. He grabbed her ankle and heaved backwards, but he didn''t make much headway as his feet slipped on the sandy lakebed.


    ¡°You¡¯ve gotta let it go!¡±


    ¡°Blub blub blub.¡±


    ¡°Shit.¡±


    He managed to tow her toward himself a little and got his paws wrapped around the fishing rod. He leaned into it and drove his feet across the lakebed again and again until great sandy drifts flowed in his wake. After a minute of thrashing against the sand the shore started to near and footing became more stable as the water level dropped. He strode free one slow step at a time towing the rod behind him. Water sheeted from his fur as he made it onto dry land. Behind, a shadowy shape below the water jerked back and forth, occasionally breaking the surface and revealing a scaled form.


    Rain didn''t relent and began tugging and pulling until the monster was in the shallows and then up onto the shore. It was a gigantic fish, twice the size of Rain.


    ¡°Quickly! Kill it!¡± said Opal spitting water from where she had crawled onto the beach.


    ¡°How?!¡±


    Rain moved left and right unsure how to approach the thing as it violently thrashed around out of water.


    ¡°Use a rock you dumb dog!¡±


    Rain shot her an annoyed glare but scooped up a stone the size of his head and rushed the fish. He brought it down on its head with a fleshy crunch. The fish opened its mouth and began screaming to Rain¡¯s distress. He brought the rock down again and again and again until the fish let out a wet gurgle and flopped down limp.


    Breathing hard he eyed the fish assuring himself it was actually dead.


    Opal patted the fish''s side.


    ¡°Sometimes the tribe gets fish.¡±


    ¡°Oh. That''s a bit bigger than I expected.¡±


    Rain¡¯s stomach growled and he licked his teeth.


    Opal rolled her eyes and gestured at it. ¡°Well get on with it.¡± She found a comfortable spot to watch as Rain let his instinct take over and he leapt on top of the fish and buried his maw in its side eating scale and all. He worked back and forth, stripping the fish down to the bone from the top.


    He had to stop about halfway through to rest, his stretched taut stomach as big as a beach ball. He belched loudly.


    ¡°I think fish is my new favourite. Gods It tastes so fucking good. Second place is toad, third place is Goblin, well, Goblin in third as long as I don''t try too hard to smell what I¡¯m eating.¡±


    Opal scoffed but wandered over to where he sat. She hesitated then placed a small hand on his bulging stomach. It growled and trembled and then began to gradually shrink. Opal watched hungrily as he stretched his limbs, his bones popping as he grew half an inch taller.


    ¡°You like watching me grow?¡±


    ¡°N-no, it¡¯s just strange.¡±


    ¡°Uh Huh.¡±


    She withdrew her hand from his flat stomach as Rain examined his larger body.


    ¡°Uhnf. I can never get enough of that,¡± said Rain.


    His eyes slid back to the rest of the fish, already he was beginning to drool. He crawled into the mess he had made and continued ripping and tearing at it, hungrily gulping more and more of the fish down. He made quick work of it devouring it down to the ground until there was nothing left.


    He felt a pressure on his stomach and realised Opal was leaning on him.


    ¡°Hey!¡±


    She only whimpered in reply as his stomach began to recede beneath her until she was resting on his toned abdomen and feeling his body shift and grow beneath her touch. She seemed to realize what she was doing all of a sudden and glanced up at him in horror. She scrambled off of him blushing furiously and breathing harder than normal.


    ¡°S-sorry!¡±


    She ran away, snatching up the fishing pole and rushing back to the rock where she turned her back to him.


    He grumbled about personal space but decided to let it lie. He waded back into the water to rid himself of the awful fishy smell which to his annoyance seemed to cover him from tip to toe. Not surprising, but he was definitely considering knocking fish down the ranking for it.


    A few hours went by without the lure dipping below the water again and Rain''s paw pads were starting to get wrinkly, he flopped on a big flat stone on the shore to dry off.


    ¡°Hey, do you think that was the only fish?¡±


    Opal hunched her shoulders, hesitated, and then turned to him.


    ¡°I think there were more, but¡­ well the fish around here aren''t stupid and the pool leads to other pools underground so they don''t have to stay. When we fished as a tribe it was rare we caught more than one big fish before having to wait. Sometimes that took days.¡±


    ¡°Giving up?¡±


    Opal sighed then threw the rod down. ¡°Yes. Fuck fishing. I¡¯ve got another idea.¡±


    She leapt onto the shore from the rock and beckoned him to follow. He climbed to his feet and wandered after her.


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 8

    ?


    The Goblin led him to the edge of the Goblin tribe''s cavern. As they walked a fine drizzle started to fall from the crystal formation that crisscrossed the ceiling. Rain held out a paw and a few small droplets landed on his paw pads. He realized belatedly that the Goblins used tents for more than just keeping the perpetual crystal light out of their eyes when they wanted to get some sleep. The ecology of the dungeon was more than anything he had imagined in his past life.


    They came to the cavern wall and slipped into a small side tunnel. The light from the cavern crystals rapidly dimmed and vanished behind them. Fortunately they both had excellent night vision so this wasn''t an issue as it would have been when Rain was human.


    A short distance later Opal held up a hand and they came to a stop. She pulled a wooden device from a nook in the wall and Rain realised after a moment that it was some kind of handmade trap. Not hard to figure out considering the foot long dead rat inside.


    Opal pulled apart the wooden frame and extricated the rat, removing a small wooden stake that had ended the rat''s life in the process.


    ¡°Uhm, well it''s not as big as the fish¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± said Rain taking it in paw. ¡°A hungry person doesn''t complain when given food. And I¡¯m always hungry.¡±


    He munched on the rat as they walked, every twenty meters or so Opal would stop and magic a new trap from some crack or hole in the wall. Most of them contained rats but two had a small lizard that was delicious if not very filling.


    ¡°You seem to have a natural affinity for caves and tunnels.¡±


    ¡°Well I was born to be a scout.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean?¡±


    ¡°I was born with some memories from Gobbo ancestors, a knack for telling direction, knowledge of the dungeon¡¯s shape, how to recognize when water is near, trap making. I was lucky.¡±


    Rain blinked at her. ¡°Like you came out of the womb knowing this stuff?¡±


    ¡°Yes, exactly. Monster tribal memory is powerful. Gobbos are born knowing how to speak Common, that¡¯s why Gobbo babies are so annoying, they can tell you exactly what they are demanding and in great detail.¡±


    ¡°I was going to ask how you spoke Common so well, I didn¡¯t think Goblins would have much need for teaching.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t, Gobbos learn mostly from tribal memory.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Maybe Gobbos could make a better life for themselves if they did, but Gobbos just don¡¯t make very nice or constructive tribes. I realised that because I was a scout and spent more time away from the tribe than other Gobbos.¡±


    ¡°Was your tribe the only Goblin tribe?¡±


    ¡°Nope. We were the great lake tribe, just one of many, though most aren''t very powerful. Ours was one of the deepest, most Gobbo tribes prefer to remain near the surface. Less monsters and the levelers tend to be weaker and not as much of a threat.¡±


    ¡°Do you think that any of those tribes might come and try to move into your tribe''s cavern now they are gone?¡±


    ¡°I think, that¡­ that¡­¡±


    She paused suddenly and started listening intently, her knife ears twitching.


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°Shh.¡±


    She gestured and they moved up the tunnel.


    Toward the end, a flicker of light appeared. Warily they approached it trying to not make a sound. They reached the edge and peaked around the corner. An open cave met their eyes and in the centre a fire upon which a rack of rats were roasting.


    Around the fire sat a half dozen Kobolds. Scaled lizard people a multitude of colours with long tails and about the same height as a Goblin.


    Opal tugged Rain back.


    ¡°You know I was going to say who might move into the crystal cave?¡± She hooked a thumb at the light. ¡°Those Kobolds would. They don¡¯t like Gobbos, I don¡¯t like Kobolds, nasty vicious things, they would love to roll over Gobbo territory.¡± The light flickered off her eyes as she looked at Rain with intensity.


    ¡°What should we do?¡±


    ¡°We should definitely kill them,¡± she hissed. ¡°Kill and eat them.¡±


    Rain gnawed on a claw. ¡°Alright, but how? I saw them, they have spears, and while I might have tougher skin than you would expect I don''t want to risk some fluke hit taking me down.¡±


    Opal rubbed her chin. ¡°Well, they aren''t actually holding their spears, they¡¯re on the ground by their sides, so if you can take them by surprise¡­¡±


    ¡°What did you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll go round the side and draw their attention, you wait here and watch, and then attack when they are distracted.¡±


    She shifted past him and vanished into a crack in the wall. Rain settled down to watch, an eye peeking around the corner to spy on the Kobolds. They hadn''t noticed anything fortunately and they seemed relaxed.


    One of them belched and lazily poked at the rats roasting over the fire with his foot.


    ¡°Stupid Gobbos, just leaving their traps out,¡± grumbled the Kobold.


    ¡°Weird though,¡± said another.


    ¡°Whatdya mean?¡±


    ¡°Well I¡¯ve never seen all of the traps full when we try to steal from them, usually they check to see if they caught anything. It¡¯s like something happened to stop them doing the rounds.¡±


    ¡°Pshh, it¡¯s just Gobbo laziness, same reason we haven''t seen any patrols.¡±


    ¡°Dunno if I believe that. Gobbos are lazy but they don''t want to starve.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, somethings gotta have happened to ¡®em. Maybe a big monster found them.¡±


    ¡°We can only hope!¡±


    The group cawed with laughter.


    ¡°Hey I¡¯m serious!¡± said an indignant Kobold flicking sand at the Kobold next to him with his tail.


    The target Kobold spluttered sand out of his mouth and glared at the indignant Kobold.


    ¡°h-hElp,¡± quavered a distant voice.


    ¡°Hey, what was that?¡±


    ¡°Huh? I didn''t hear anything.


    ¡°H-help mee.¡±


    ¡°No, there''s a voice, there it is again.¡±


    The most attentive Kobold, and least lazy, climbed to his feet and looked around with curiosity.


    At that point Opal came limping from around a corner. She¡¯d removed all her clothes and was buck naked only covering her shame with her hands.


    ¡°Holy shit, is that a clean Gobbo?!¡±


    Opal paused for a moment hearing that, a look of irritation momentarily crossing her face, but then she regained control of herself and kept walking.


    ¡°Why¡¯s she naked?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know do I. Why don''t you ask her?¡±


    ¡°Hey, Gobbo girl, why are you naked? And why are you approaching us?¡±


    ¡°I- Oh gods, it was terrible! A group of Human levelers! They¡¯ve taken over our Gobbo camp and turned us all into slaves, even worse they made us bathe!¡±


    ¡°See! See! I told you something had happened! I told you so!¡±


    ¡°Oh shut up Kiln.¡± One of the Kobolds tossed sand at the triumphant Kobold.


    ¡°Okay Gobbo girl so you lost your tribe, but that doesn''t explain the nakedness.¡±


    ¡°The l-levelers, they took all of us girl Gobbos and they, they, oh I can''t even say it, you know what they do to monster slaves. I escaped when one of the men tried to pin me down and ravage me, now I¡¯m here¡­¡±


    The Kobolds grumbled.


    ¡°Levelers, tchh, they get worse every year, this is our dungeon, a monsters dungeon, they got no right coming in here, even if it is Gobbos getting killed we¡¯ll be next on the chopping block.¡±


    ¡°Well whatcha wanna do with this one?¡±


    ¡°Let''s eat her.¡±


    Opal let out a pitiful whimper.


    ¡°Eat her huh?¡± said one raising a brow suggestively.


    ¡°No, shutup, I mean kill her and eat her.¡±


    ¡°No! P-please! I¡¯ll do anything! Just protect me!¡±


    She scrambled toward the standing Kobold and came to her knees in front of him, clutching at his thighs


    ¡°I-I¡¯ll do anything! I¡¯ll be your rutting post! I got skills! I can suck the polish of a pommel, l-let me show you!¡±


    ¡°H-hey! Get off!¡±


    The other Kobolds shook with laughter as the unfortunate standing Kobold tried to push off her advances.


    ¡°Ahahah! Ooh Bairns gonna do it with a dirty Gobbo! Have a bunch of half Gobbo kids!¡±


    ¡°N-no, I''m not! Get off me you crazed Gobbo!¡±


    ¡°Mind, I¡¯ve ever seen a clean Gobbo, she¡¯s not bad on the eyes¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh, you too? Wait till I tell your girl Kiln, she¡¯ll run a sword up your butthole just for thinking that!¡±


    ¡°No wait! I was joking! Nasty ugly Gobbo! Yuck!¡±


    By this point most of the group was rolling around belly laughing.


    Rain took this as his opportunity and slunk from the wall, padding across the sand as silent as a shadow. Three seconds, four seconds, five, he saw Opal eye him from around the standing Kobold¡¯s thighs that she was holding tightly in place.


    Suddenly one of the Kobolds happened to glance his way and the Kobold froze. Rain Moved.


    He shot across the remaining sand like a thunder bolt. Half the spears were collected on one side of the fire and he managed to kick them into the fire before twisting his momentum and falling on the nearest Kobold. A flickering sight of a terrified Kobold face passed his vision and then his jaws closed around his throat and he ripped out the unfortunate lizard person¡¯s windpipe. Blood sprayed from the wound arcing with his jaws. It sprayed across the nearest Kobold from head to toe, paralysing the monster with the abrupt and unexpected violence.


    The Kobolds started yelling and screaming, pure panic making them mindless. Opal took the opportunity to push the Kobold she had been harassing into the fire, the Kobold screamed as the flame licked over him. She managed to grab two of the spears and throw them in with him.


    Rain launched himself from his first victim. He ignored the one who had been splattered with blood, better to focus on those who were trying to fight back than those frozen in fear. He landed on a Kobold attempting to drag one of the spears from the fire, burning his claws in the process. He hit its back hard and slammed it into the sand where he was able to get at the back of his neck unrestricted. He crunched down and crushed the Kobold¡¯s spine instantly stilling its desperate attempts to escape.


    ¡°Behind!¡± screamed Opal. Rain turned just in time to dodge a Kobold carrying a smoking spear that he had managed to drag from the fire. The Kobold roared in frustration as the blade tip missed Rain¡¯s head by inches and he tried to pivot to hit Rain with its shaft. Unfortunately for the Kobold a paw landed on said shaft and the Kobold was taken completely by surprise by Rain¡¯s strength as Rain ripped it from his claws and smashed him around the head with it so hard it broke his neck. The Kobold corpse flopped bonelessly to the ground.


    A burning Kobold ran screaming from the fire before collapsing on the sand.


    Only two left standing. Opal was handling the blood-spattered one, or at least was trying to. The best she could do was fend it off as it tried to snap and bite at her. The other Kobold had the only spear that had not fallen into the fire.


    ¡°You bastard! I¡¯ll kill you!¡±


    It charged at Rain and he dove out of the way. The Kobold was far more prepared than its brethren however and pivoted to track Rain with the spear tip. Rain could only watch in frustration as the metal point punctured his shoulder, unable to escape its reach. He howled in agony as the Kobold pinned him to the sand.


    ¡°What new kind of monster are you!? What dark abyss did you crawl from?!¡± snarled the Kobold.


    Rain struggled but just moving caused lances of agony to grind through his body. He was pinned like a fish and unable to escape or reach anything that might help.


    ¡°Kiln! You need to tell the tribe! Tell them that- oof¡±


    Opal who had been backing away from the other Kobold bumped into the spear Kobold¡¯s back, he stumbled forward and quick as lightning Rain¡¯s paw whipped out and caught him by the ankle and pulled him over. The Kobold fell prone with a whoosh of breath, winding and stunning him. Not for long though as the Kobold felt teeth come down on his foot, and then he could no longer feel his foot, there was only pain. The Kobold looked down in horror to see the wolf creature shoving his leg into his mouth, already he had devoured up to his shin. He howled and tried to kick at the wolf monster¡¯s head but it grabbed his free leg and its sheer strength held him as sure as iron manacles.


    He could only watch and scream as the rest of his leg disappeared down the monster¡¯s throat. Nothing could stop the sheer strength of those jaws and they scissored up from his hips and began dividing his torso in two. He blacked out as the black wolf¡¯s nose reached his sternum.


    ¡°Hey, stupid dog! Stop eating and help me!¡± yelped Opal.


    Rain shook himself free from the bloody gorge he had instinctively made of the Kobold¡¯s torso and stumbled to his feet. His savage attack on the Kobold had worked the spear free but he still had to hold a paw across the agonizing wound as blood sheeted down his arm to drip from his claws onto the sand.


    He caught himself and blinked a few times. Opal. Right. He glanced around and found the Goblin wrapped around a Kobold desperately trying to crawl away, using her own body to weigh him down and trip him. Rain stumbled over to him.


    ¡°I- I got him, you can let go.¡±


    He dropped a paw on the Kobolds shoulder but his blood slicked paw and the Kobold¡¯s smooth scales caused him to slip. He blundered into the pair and the Kobold, seeing its chance, twisted and squirmed until Opal¡¯s hands slipped off him.


    ¡°No! Get him!¡±


    Rain lunged and his teeth came down on the Kobold¡¯s tail, closing like a steel trap. The Kobold ran out the length, slammed to a halt, then kept going as his tail detached itself from his butt.


    Rain stared in confusion, detached tail hanging from mouth, as the tail-less Kobold vanished into a nearby tunnel.


    ¡°Gods dammit!¡± scowled Opal kicking the sand.


    Rain dropped the tail into his paws. ¡°What.¡±


    The Goblin sighed. ¡°They do that when their tails get caught sometimes, it¡¯s an escape trick, like a lizard. It¡¯s my fault, I should have told you they can do that.¡±


    She crouched on the sand and looked glum.


    ¡°Will this be a problem? That he escaped?¡±


    ¡°Kinda. Not really. The nearest Kobold tribe is aways away, it¡¯ll take days for him to get back and organise a raid, that is if their top Kobolds even want to... I just wanted to feed him to you and make you bigger.¡±


    She made a circle in the sand with her fingertip dejectedly.


    ¡°Well it¡¯s fine, five is plenty.¡± He winced as his shoulder twinged causing Opal to look up.


    ¡°Oh you¡¯re hurt!¡± she leapt to her feet and rushed up to him and gently prodded at his wound. He hissed through his teeth.


    ¡°Oh no, this is my fault, I should have distracted them better, or- or gotten more of their spears!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, really, Didn¡¯t you think it was odd that I wasn''t injured when I took on your entire tribe alone? Well, I was, but I healed.¡±


    ¡°Gods that''s not fair, a wound like this would kill a Gobbo half of the time.¡±


    He shrugged and winced at the pain from moving his shoulder.


    ¡°Let''s just count ourselves lucky we came out alive. You didn''t exactly get away unscathed either you know.¡± He gestured at a claw scratch across one of her cheeks.


    She smiled, ¡°A Kobold war wound is a Gobbo mark of pride.¡±


    ¡°Sure it is. Now strip these bodies for me.¡± he flicked the Kobold tail at her leg playfully.


    She grumbled but moved to do so, dragging each Kobold toward the fire until they were lined up.


    The Kobolds as Rain had noticed had much better gear than the Goblins. The spear heads were mostly unrusted and the few helmets they had had only a few puncture holes. Opal was quick to nab a pair of low-waist cuffed shorts one of the smaller Kobolds had worn and wiggled her hips into them. Rain tried one of the helmets on but found that it was never realistically going to fit being shaped for a Kobold¡¯s head. He tossed it aside. Wouldn''t have fit once I¡¯ve grown a bit more anyway. He thought.


    Opal found a small coin pouch which she showed to Rain. It contained five small gold coins and ten silver. More than Rain had seen at any one time in his previous life.


    ¡°Keep it. Some monster tribes trade right? Plus levelers do, though I guess a leveler is more likely to kill us and take it than offer to trade. Still, hang onto it.¡±


    Rain passed the dismembered Kobold tail to Opal and after he had eaten the remaining rats that had been cooking over the fire Opal spitted the tail and set it to roast.


    Rain rubbed his paws together looking over the Kobold spread. He could already feel his mouth watering. His stomach growled in anticipation.


    ¡°Do you think you¡¯ll ever tire of eating?¡± said Opal settling in to watch with eager eyes.


    ¡°Well, would you, if you always felt like your last meal had half a day or more ago? Plus, I can''t get enough of the bit that comes after¡­ the growth. I need more.¡±


    He dove on the nearest Kobold and blood began spattering across the sand as he enthusiastically consumed it.


    One Kobold down and he rolled into a sitting position and breathing hard, his tongue lolling from his jaws. His belly gurgled as it shrank down.


    ¡°Holy shit that¡¯s spicy! My mouth feels like it''s on fire!¡±


    ¡°Too much?¡±


    ¡°Hell no! I want more!¡±


    Opal pulled the Kobold tail from the fire and ran it under her nose breathing in the scent.


    ¡°Gobbos love Kobold tail, after a fight we divy up the loot, top Gobbos always get the tails.¡±


    She bit into it and moaned. ¡°Shco fshucking gshood¡± she mumbled from around amouth full of tail.


    ¡°Never tried it before?¡±


    She shook her head as she devoured the tail.


    ¡°I suppose the top Goblins would never let the lower Goblins have anything nice when they could take it for themselves. Leveler society is similar.¡±


    She nodded absentmindedly in reply.


    Rain snorted a breath from his nose and left her to it. He moved onto the next Kobold which he quickly worked through, even the claws went down his gullet to be digested. He noted he¡¯d even started to eat bone he would have ignored before, it was just so easy to splinter and crush with his teeth and it was more food. He liked more food. As such there was little but the skull left by the time he was done.


    ¡°Hot!¡±


    He was Sweating with his mouth hanging open but he didn''t wait. In fact, he didn''t even wait for his abdomen to finish shrinking down before he began forcing the feet of the next Kobold into his mouth. The spiciness was quite addictive.


    Partway through his fourth Kobold he glanced up to see Opal watching him intently and surreptitiously rubbing herself through her shorts. Next time he glanced her way she was blushing and looking away. He gravelled out a laugh as he polished off the fifth Kobold, happily slurping up its tail and gnashing it to pieces before swallowing it all down. He belched long and loud and circled a paw around his stretched stomach.


    Opal silently wandered up and put a hand on the rounded surface. She watched with her lips slightly parted as it trembled and shrunk, making an impressive growling as sound as it did so.


    Rain groaned as his body surged, gaining mass, pushing outward and becoming larger, his muscles swelling in size. He shivered in delight as it finished and then he stood up.


    He¡¯d gained a couple of inches since eating the Goblins and now he estimated he must be at least a foot taller than Opal, a bit more even, the top of her head came midway up his pecs. She bit her lip and placed a small hand on his chest, it looked outsized.


    ¡°M-more,¡± she breathed.


    ¡°Yes, more.¡± he agreed. ¡°But not now, we should go back to camp, we can continue tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Y-yes, tomorrow.¡±


    He had the Goblin girl pick out a spare change of clothes from the pile of clothing stripped from the Kobolds. He used to be human so he knew the value of having two pairs and the Kobold¡¯s clothing was much better quality than anything the Goblins had. He almost let her take a spear but hesitated and decided to wait still. He considered picking one out for himself but his previous life had provided exactly zero experience using one and in this life he was an instinctive master of tooth and claw, best to focus on what he knew. He checked his wound and found that while it wasn''t fully healed it had healed slightly and stopped bleeding making it manageable.


    After burying everything and kicking out the fire to make the cavern look untouched they broke camp and left. After a short journey back, slightly delayed because Opal insisted on sidetracking to empty the rest of the rat traps for Rain to eat, they made it back to the crystal cavern and the Goblin tribe¡¯s camp.


    Thankfully it remained untouched, whatever monster tribe or monster that may have been interested in claiming it for themselves were still oblivious to its recent depopulation.


    Rain made his way to a Goblin tent and crawled inside. He was pleased to see his shoulder wound had started to heal over. Soon his eyes started to drift and sleep took him.


    Some time later he awoke to a noise. He stilled himself and listened carefully. Movement. With one of his eyes cracked he spied the flap of his tent open. Opal cautiously looked inside trying to not make a sound, and then carefully, like a scared rabbit, began to crawl inside.


    That little bitch, this is it, I fucking knew it, this is where she backstabs me. I was wrong to trust her, gods I¡¯m such a fool and to think I was willing to let her close after I''d already died once from being betrayed! Why, why did I let her close!


    He watched carefully with a steely gaze, his paw tensing, ready to grab her and drag her close to tear her throat out.


    She raised both her hands and he was confused to see that she was empty handed. His paw untensed a little as he watched and waited. She crawled up beside him, ready to stick a hidden knife in his ribs? No, she was... Putting her head on his chest?


    Opal curled up beside him resting her head against his chest, her body under his arm and curling her hand through his fur. She relaxed into him.


    Oh¡­ That¡¯s why I let her close...


    Afraid to move and make her aware he was awake he watched as she fell asleep, lips slightly parted.


    This... isn''t bad¡­


    Eventually sleep took him too. When he woke in the morning she was gone from his tent and neither said a word about the night before.


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 9

    ?


    Opal cried out in frustration and threw her fishing rod on the ground.


    ¡°Maybe they just left, you said the fish were pretty smart,¡± murmured Rain, lazing against a rock with his paws behind his head and his eyes closed.


    ¡°Grr, I know, but it¡¯s been a day, the fish usually come back.¡±


    ¡°I did kill and eat one of their own on the shore, that would scare anyone away for a long time.¡±


    ¡°Stupid nosey fish. Fine. Let''s go fishing at the great lake. Maybe they went there or maybe there are other fishies in that lake to catch.¡±


    Rain cracked an eye. ¡°We can do that, but I want to make it a proper hunting trip. We¡¯ll stay the night by the lake. Go and get a pair of tents and whatever else it is you need to put up camp.¡±


    Opal glared at him but scampered off into the Goblin tribes camp. After a few minutes he heard her returning footsteps. He sighed and rolled to his feet.


    A large rucksack sat on her shoulders with a number of cooking utensils hanging off the side with string. She shifted her shoulders making it comfortable.


    ¡°Well? The sooner we get to the lake the sooner you can eat, are you coming?¡±


    He eyed the rucksack. It very clearly held one tent, not two.


    Rain opened his mouth to say something, then paused as images of snuggling with the vulnerable Goblin last night came to mind. He slowly closed his mouth. He found he couldn''t make himself protest her choice to his chagrin.


    Shaking his head at his own softness he gestured for her to lead the way and he followed as they left the crystal cavern behind. They left different way than how he had originally entered, but probably for the best, he considered, if he had difficulty fitting through that tiny entrance before he certainly would not be able to fit now.


    The Goblin took them through a maze of tunnels often lit by small crystals dotting the ceiling but often enough in darkness, or sometimes barely lit by some luminous moss or other foliage. For the most part it was deserted, apart from the occasional scuttling rat which Opal attempted to catch by throwing rocks. She missed without fail to her growing irritation and Rain¡¯s growing amusement.


    Eventually, they emerged from a jagged crack in the wall of the cavern that contained the great lake. It stretched before them for two kilometers and the vast purple and blue crystal formation hanging above glowed with light just as impressive as when he had first come across it.


    He paused to take it in.


    This is where I died¡­ And was turned into a monster. I hope it was worth it Brax, Myra, Adlen, Eliza, Lira. I¡¯m going to climb out of hell and kill you all.


    ¡°Anything wrong?¡± said Opal looking back at him.


    ¡°No. Just bad memories. Let¡¯s find a good fishing spot. A rock or something that juts out into the lake.¡±


    She nodded and the pair began wandering along the boulder-strewn lake edge in companionable silence. Every so often a blue shelled crab would scuttle from behind a boulder and Opal would exclaim and rush up to grab it and then carry it back to Rain. Rain would then kill it and snack on crab as they walked, crunching open shells and sucking down crab meat.


    ¡°Hey what is that?¡±


    Rain paused from splitting open a shell and followed Opal¡¯s pointing finger. A large form lay slumped on the lakeshore. At first he thought it was a bleached white tree trunk that had somehow been beached, it¡¯s top side covered in glowing moss. But as they drew closer he realised that it was a monster, an unmoving monster. An absolutely huge white alligator. Glowing crystal nubs dotted its top side and its head was topped by a crown of jagged crystal which was ringed at the base with a worked gold circlet. Its eyes were white, blind. The pair stared at it slack-jawed.


    ¡°Holy shit that''s a big lizard.¡±


    ¡°Think how much meat that is!¡± exclaimed Opal.


    ¡°It¡¯s dead right? I hope it¡¯s dead, I wouldn''t want to fight it, it looks extremely dangerous.¡±


    Opal moved closer and using a stick she poked at a leg. The alligator remained unmoving.


    Rain moved closer, even lying on its stomach the top of the alligator must have been twice Rain¡¯s height. Round eyed he placed a paw on its worn and scarred scales.


    ¡°How do you think it died?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, old age maybe? It looks ancient, there''s even small plants and mosses growing on it.¡±


    Rain looked up to see that Opal had abandoned her rucksack and had climbed on top of the alligator and was walking its length with arms outstretched for balance. The thing was so long that half of its tail remained below the surface of the lake.


    ¡°So it just dropped dead now? After living for decades or centuries? After I¡­¡±


    ¡°What? Why does that matter?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right it doesn''t. I¡¯m more surprised that you didn''t know this thing was living in the lake. You didn''t, right?¡±


    ¡°I had no idea this big monster was here. Although it¡¯s possible it came from an underwater tunnel connected to somewhere else.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I guess if stuff like this lives in the lake it explains why the witch didn¡¯t like us going in the water.¡±


    Rain had the gut feeling that the alligator had indeed been living in the lake, a mindless guardian for the bones he had died upon. The fact that the alligator had something as obviously unnatural as a gold circlet made him all the more suspicious.


    He walked around to its head and with difficulty climbed on top of its snout. On closer examination the circlet was definitely artificial although tarnished and worn. It had strange angular runes marked around its side. The lines of the runes looked like claw marks to his eyes, in fact he held up his own claws to the marks and could actually recognise the similarity. He gnawed on his lip and wondered what it could mean. What the witch Goblin had said worried him. Her spelled artefact hadn¡¯t worked on him but who was to say him merging with the remains on the lake bed hadn¡¯t been enough to simply confuse it and he really was the thing that the witch suspected.


    ¡°Hey! Are you going to take that or what?¡±


    ¡°I, I don¡¯t trust it. It may be magical, maybe magically trapped. Besides, it¡¯s fused pretty tight with the crystal, I¡¯d have to break it to remove it.¡±


    Opal gestured at the scales below her feet. ¡°No need to if you¡¯re going to eat the thing. Just eat all around that part.¡±


    ¡°Uh, right.¡±


    He pulled himself around the crown of crystal growing from the alligator¡¯s head and stepped onto its back.


    ¡°C¡¯mon, c¡¯mon! Start eating!¡± said Opal looking at him with starry eyes.


    Rain rolled his eyes but dropped down and placed his teeth on the white scale.


    He began to apply pressure. And then more pressure. Perturbed that nothing was happening he bit down as hard as he could. The scale remained intact.


    ¡°Well, what are you waiting for? Eat! eat! eat!¡±


    ¡°Ihm twryinhg.¡±


    He applied so much pressure that he felt like his teeth were going to break. He growled and stopped and then sat back rubbing his jaw.


    ¡°I can¡¯t pierce it. It¡¯s like trying to bite a stone.¡±


    ¡°What.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s true. This monster¡¯s natural defence apparently hasn''t left it in death.¡±


    He slapped a paw down on the completely immovable scales.


    ¡°Shit. Well, let''s try a different bit, maybe the side.¡±


    She grabbed his paw and they slid over its flank and landed on the ground.


    Rain placed his jaws on its side and bit but to no avail, the scale wasn¡¯t even scratched. Opal, growing more frustrated dragged him to a foot and then when that failed dragged him around to its mouth.


    ¡°It¡¯s simple, you open its mouth and then eat the soft fleshy bit inside.¡±


    ¡°Hrmm.¡±


    Rain placed both his paws on the top lip of the creature and heaved. The head remained immobile. He crouched down and examined it. It looked like it might open, but the gap between its teeth and lips was a perfect seal. He scowled and tried lifting it at different angles. Nothing worked, the head didn''t even rock, It remained eerily motionless as though locked in place.


    ¡°What are you doing! Just open it already!¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t you dumb Goblin. I think¡­ I think the alligator might be a lot heavier than it looks, it¡¯s like how gold weighs more than it looks, like those coins we looted. It doesn''t help that I¡¯m trying to lift its entire skull too, it¡¯s not like I can get at its lower jaw.¡±


    He sighed and sat on the gator''s snout.


    ¡°I¡¯m not actually sure this is even flesh anymore. It¡¯s almost like it petrified or crystalised when it died.¡± He scratched at the scales with his claws. It didn''t leave a mark.


    ¡°But it¡¯s right here! So much meat!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just too stone like, it probably is stone or as good as.¡±


    Opal huffed and crossed her arms.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s likely to be scavenged by a monster any time soon if it makes you feel better.¡±


    Opal looked a bit happier hearing this, although still grumpy.


    ¡°I-¡±


    She stopped speaking abruptly and tilted her head, her knife like ears directed down the shore. Then with her brow raised she put a finger to her lips and spoke to Rain in a whisper.


    ¡°I hear voices, come on.¡±


    She gestured for him to follow and she rushed to pick up her rucksack before the both of them scuttled behind a large boulder.

 Chapter 10

    ?


    The voices came nearer and the pair peaked around the boulder. A group of four people came into view and Rain instantly recognised them as an adventuring team, one he had never seen before.


    He was uncertain exactly how long it had been since he had died, days probably, but he was still frustrated to realise that it wasn¡¯t Brax¡¯s group, he had hoped that his murderers might have stayed by the lake. He let himself relax slightly, he wasn¡¯t sure it would have helped if they had been Brax¡¯s, he had no way of defeating them in his current state, levelers killed monsters all the time and he was by no means an atypical challenge for someone immensely strong like Brax... yet.


    He didn¡¯t let himself fully relax. This was still a dangerous team of levelers and he intended to gather information if possible.


    There were four of them in the team, a male human, a male elf, a female Satyr, and a female half-elf-half-felis: that is an elf with feline features.


    No one Rain knew. He suspected they may have come from out of town as he knew many of the adventurers who made a home there. A pretty common occurrence as the town of Lynthia was built originally to be a stopping off point before entering the local dungeon. People came from far away to get access to the dungeon all the time.


    ¡°What the? What a monstrous alligator! We don¡¯t have to run do we?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know Belle, how would I know- hey stop!¡±


    The male elf booted the giant alligator. The alligator didn¡¯t respond.


    ¡°Hey, that''s dangerous! What would you have done had it been alive?¡± snapped the Human.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I used one of my Skills to check. Things stone cold dead, died of old age by the looks of it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the kind of thinking that gets an adventurer killed, especially when they aren¡¯t familiar with the local monsters. For all you know it could have been hibernating and giving the illusion of death, or hell, it might be an undead, it¡¯s the right color for it.¡±


    The elf pursed his lips but took a step back from the alligator.


    ¡°Look at that thing on its head! That¡¯s got to be worth a few coins.¡±


    ¡°I bet the monster parts are worth more, high levelers will pay out the nose for good quality materials.¡±


    ¡°I don''t know, that is a fair bit of gold.¡±


    ¡°I checked the sides, looks completely unmarked, no sign it was killed by a monster or adventurer. As the elf said, it most likely died of old age.¡±


    The Satyr wandered up to it and withdrew a longsword from a scabbard at her side.


    ¡°Good, that means it¡¯s ours. All we got to do is lopp of a foot and take it back the guild as proof of our claim. Then we can come back with some pack mules and cart it to the surface in bits. Hopefully no one tries to poach it while we¡¯re doing that.¡±


    She took a few steps back and swung the sword around a few times to warm up, then stretched her neck and shoulders. Finally, she raised it above her head and with a yell swung it down on the wrist of the alligator.


    ¡®Tink!¡¯ Her sword snapped in two and the broken part of the blade flew off and plopped into the lake.


    ¡°OH MY GOD MY SWORD!¡±


    ¡°What? What happened?¡±


    ¡°My sword! Do you even know how much I paid for this?!¡±


    The Satyr hopped up and down on the spot in pure rage.


    ¡°Well, it can''t have been very much if it broke like a cheap piece of tin.¡±


    ¡°It was enchanted surefire steel damn you!¡±


    ¡°Well damn. Maybe you got scammed?¡±


    ¡°ARGHHHH!!!¡±


    ¡°Look, just let me handle it, I have more levels than you anyway,¡± said the Human as he unhooked an axe, one of two, from his back.


    The Satyr glared at him as she cradled her broken sword like a wounded child.


    ¡°It¡¯s not gunna work.¡±


    The man rolled his eyes and without preamble heaved his axe down on the alligator¡¯s wrist. The axe head promptly shattered and chunks of metal exploded across the ground.


    ¡°This thing is made out of bullshit!¡± screamed the man.


    ¡°I told you! I told you so! But would you listen! Nooo, nobody listens to the Satyr. Just a dumb drunkard species, who needs their advice? You just had to try it didn''t you!¡±


    ¡°Shut up! Shut up! I am higher level than you and I demand you shut up!¡±


    ¡°Please you two,¡± said the half-elf calmly. ¡°It¡¯s pretty clear that this monster is extraordinarily strong or under some unknown effect now it is dead. I doubt anything less than Lynthia¡¯s ranker would be able to cut its body.¡±


    ¡°Then what do we do then? We found it!¡±


    ¡°I don''t see that there is much we can do. If we get the town¡¯s ranker involved he will no doubt steal it from us and we won¡¯t be able to say a word against him as he is significantly higher level than we are.¡±


    ¡°So, what? We just destroyed our weapons for nothing?


    The calm half-elf pursed her lips. ¡°I don¡¯t see any other way it can be interpreted. The most we can expect is a reimbursement from the guild for the information, that is if someone else hasn''t already told them. We appear to have little or nothing.¡±


    The male elf groaned. ¡°Why did I choose to team up with you idiots?¡±


    ¡°Because no one else would take your sorry ass.¡±


    ¡°Go orgy yourself Satyr girl.¡±


    ¡°Hey! That''s speciest!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, is it?¡±


    ¡°Yes! It¡¯s a stereotype. Satyrs don''t just do orgies you know.¡±


    ¡°They mostly do, let''s be honest.¡±


    ¡°Okay, granted, but still.¡±


    The man sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.


    ¡°Or at least that would be the case,¡± continued the half-elf. ¡°If there were not a rather large chunk of what looks like pure gold, gold that is soft enough to cut, attached to the alligator¡¯s head.¡±


    The four adventurers looked up at the circlet in silence.


    ¡°Well, who wants to try and remove it?¡±


    ¡°Not me.¡± grumbled the Satyr. ¡°Might be magicked. I¡¯ve already lost one expensive thing today.¡±


    The human and the half-elf shared a look.


    ¡°Oh, you bunch of pansies,¡± spat the elf as he jumped up on the Alligators snout. He strode forward and unsheathed a dagger at his side before stabbing it into the circlet.


    The circlet immediately exploded.


    The elf was blown off the alligator and slammed into a nearby boulder where he slid to the ground, the shield on his back having cracked the stone he hit so hard. Pieces of gold were flung in all directions, mostly far over the lake, the rest cracked against any nearby stone with enough force to make sparks. The Satyr flung herself to the ground with a yelp. The half-elf rushed to the side of the male elf who had been catapulted by the explosion and began checking him over, green light suddenly shone from her hands as her feline tail lashed behind her. After a moment of this the male elf groaned and woke up.


    ¡°I¡¯m not saying anything. Not saying anything at all. My wine-loving lips are sealed,¡± said the Satyr from prone on the ground.


    ¡°I¡­ I think I made a silly mistake¡­¡± moaned the elf.


    The half-elf sighed. ¡°You¡¯re fine. A few broken ribs but I¡¯ve already fixed them. Next time don¡¯t be so reckless.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re so stupid lucky we have a healer on the team,¡± said the man. ¡°Not exactly a common Class.¡±


    The elf groaned but held up a shaking hand within which he held a good eighth of the circlet.


    ¡°Just take my sacrifice into account when we split the loot.¡±


    ¡°Pssh you wish.¡±


    The team busied themselves with picking up the shattered chunks of gold. There wasn¡¯t as much as they were hoping, maybe a quarter in total, less than they expected having seen how much came down on land. The Satyr stared forlornly over the lake''s dark waters.


    ¡°This has been mostly a complete disaster. Look, I¡¯m going to go find some monsters to kill with my one remaining axe so I can grind out a level up. Come with me?¡± said the man.


    The Satyr scowled at him but gestured her agreement.


    ¡°Wait, let me make a note claiming we found the monster body first.¡±


    The half-elf pulled a piece of paper and ink from her satchel and scratched out a note. She then tucked it in between the alligator¡¯s lips so that it hung down limp.


    ¡°All our names right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°You know my names spelt with a ¡®k¡¯ right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± said the half-elf slightly more forcefully.


    ¡°Alright fine, let¡¯s go.¡±

 Chapter 11

    ?


    Opal held up her hands and showed all the gold she had filched from the adventuring team as they looked to pick up what had been scattered across the shore.


    ¡°That¡¯s... a lot of gold.¡±


    ¡°Hmmph, I¡¯m the one who has to carry it.¡±


    ¡°You did say that was what you were good at.¡±


    Opal set her lips in a line but didn''t reply.


    ¡°We''re going to follow them, I want to see what else they do, and I want information about other adventurers so we¡¯ll eavesdrop when we can, though this lot seem, ah, a bit clueless.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen such a useless bunch of idiots in my life,¡± grumbled the Goblin.


    ¡°I doubt we saw them at their best. They made it this far down into the dungeon so they are likely fairly high level.¡±


    ¡°Mmmm.¡±


    They set out after the adventurers using the boulders for cover as they went, but not before Opal pulled off the note on the alligator, balled it up, and threw it in the lake. They kept their distance but not far enough that Rain couldn''t over hear the group.


    ¡°This place where we¡¯re headed, you¡¯ve been there before?¡± asked the Satyr.


    ¡°Yes,¡± replied the man. ¡°A couple of times. It¡¯s easy pickings for leveling if you know what you are doing and I do know what I¡¯m doing.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve already lost one of your axes so excuse me I have my doubts about that.¡±


    ¡°Funny words from an Elf that got blown off his ass and nearly broke his only shield. If you must know I am perfectly fine fighting with one axe.¡±


    ¡°And Belle?¡±


    The Satyr drew a shorter blade from a smaller sheath below the one that had contained her long sword. She spun the broken sword and the shortsword, one in each hand.


    ¡°I¡¯ll manage.¡±


    The Elf threw his hands up in the air. ¡°Fine. Don¡¯t blame me when things go wrong.¡±


    ¡°We already did that when you blew half our loot into the lake.¡±


    ¡°Not my fault!¡±


    ¡°Oh, it most certainly was.¡±


    ¡°Like you lot would have come up with anything better to remove it. We were going to lose some of the gold no matter what.¡±


    ¡°We could have prepared! I don''t know, maybe you could have covered in something to catch the gold before touching it, look I-¡±


    ¡°Shh! Did you see that?¡± said the Satyr.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°... I...I saw something, a black-furred thing in the shadows, behind us.¡±


    ¡°I don''t see anything¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure there was something. Let¡¯s Just take care, something might be stalking us.¡±


    The axe-wielding man grunted. ¡°We¡¯ll report it when we get back to the guild but It¡¯s probably one of those wild dogs, they like to follow adventurers, got black fur, not a threat.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know... I¡¯m sure it was bipedal, it was walking on two legs.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. The place is just through here.¡± The man gestured before leading the group inside a crack in the cavern¡¯s wall.


    Opal leaned back as she watched them go in.


    ¡°They almost saw you. You gotta be more careful.¡±


    Rain grunted in reply.


    The pair followed the team through the crack, though a craggy tunnel, and then down where it opened up into a massive cavern. Rain looked on in awe at the underground forest that was revealed. Shallow rolling hills gave the appearance of waves as the ancient treetops fell and rose, mist climbing between the slopes. The jagged ceiling was marked with a spattering of minor crystal as well as carpets of glowing moss giving the cavern an ethereal atmosphere. They¡¯d come out on a small open plateau that overlooked all this, ahead the adventuring team had begun to climb down.


    Opal suddenly grabbed his paw and dragged him down behind a rock.


    ¡°It¡¯s just a forest, why are you staring? They¡¯re gonna see you just standing there like that.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a forest, underground!¡±


    She gave him a curious look. ¡°So? That¡¯s pretty common for dungeons.¡±


    ¡°Uh, right.¡±


    The pair dropped down from the shallow plateau and slunk into the woods, then came to a slow stop as the adventuring team stepped out into a clearing.


    Ahead of them, dotted across the grass, were several enormous seven foot tall mushrooms. Fat white trunk like bodies with blood coloured caps and black markings. They seemed to shift slightly in the breeze, which was odd Rain realised as there was no breeze.


    The Elf spread his arms. ¡°There¡¯s nothing here! Gods what a waste of time!¡±


    ¡°Oh shut up already. Look.¡± said the man. He picked up a rock and tossed it overarm at the nearest mushroom where it glanced off its side. The mushroom shuddered to life and stood up upon a pair of chunky stump legs before spinning around looking for what had attacked it. Two beady black eyes fixated on the team and the mushroom roared, a long vertical line splitting down its middle to reveal a maw full of jagged triangular teeth.


    The mushroom charged. It was shockingly fast on its stumpy legs, nearly as fast as a Human running, using its sheer strength to propel itself.


    ¡°Oh great. Now we¡¯re hunting vegetables,¡± grumbled the Elf.


    ¡°What vegetables are you eating that have teeth!?¡±


    The man spun his axe and readied to take on the oncoming mushroom, the Satyr and the elf stepped up either side of him and the Half-elf held up her crystal tipped wooden staff behind them, its tip swirling with oily colours.


    The man roared and swung his axe. An arc of fire exploded from its edge and slashed into the mushroom carving and burning a long wound up its trunk.


    The mushroom stumbled and the Satyr danced forward on nimble hooves, her blades spinning through the air eager to dice and slice. She came into contact and the short stubby arms on either side of the mushroom were severed and flicked into the air and then with a thunk thunk thunk its cap started to fall to pieces as metal met shroom flesh.


    The mushroom slowed and then ponderously toppled over.


    ¡°You see? It¡¯s easy! Just don¡¯t let them get a bad angle and they¡¯re easy experience!¡±


    ¡°Yaha!¡± cheered the Satyr standing on top of the fallen mushroom.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t let me hit it you dumb Satyr! I didn''t get anything!¡±


    ¡°Oh quit your whining, you had your chance.¡±


    ¡°He has a point, we need to allow each of us to attack it before killing it so we can all level. That includes our healer.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I gain levels residually from buffing you,¡± said the Half-elf smiling serenely.


    ¡°Oh, uh, right. Well, anyway.¡±


    The man picked up another stone and bounced it off a nearby mushroom, the stone bounced far enough that it struck a second mushroom closeby. It bumbled to its feet and followed after the first mushroom that was now heading toward the team.


    ¡°Don¡¯t panic everyone. I¡¯ve been here enough times, even two or three can be dealt with. Just follow my lead and watch your footing.¡±


    The team began moving up and around the pair of mushrooms, manoeuvring them into an advantageous position or kiting them.


    Opal turned to Rain. ¡°I want to try something, but I uh, need you to climb a tree.¡±


    Rain raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°It¡¯ll make sense, I promise. Look, this tree is perfect. Please?¡±


    Rain frowned but reluctantly began climbing the tree. He was pleased to note how easy it was, having outsized strength like a leveler had its benefits. Opal disappeared into the foliage and he settled down to watch.


    The adventuring team, despite the occasional spat with each other, seemed to function well. They kept the angry mushroom creatures well-controlled and led them into positions advantageous to themselves where they flanked them so as to avoid their dangerous maws. Rain watched with interest as they wandered around the clearing drawing the attention of each dormant mushroom and then cutting it down. They were about halfway through this when the foliage at the edge of the clearing began to shake and a new mushroom jumped out and charged toward the group.


    ¡°Watch it! We¡¯ve got a stray!¡± yelled the axe wielder pivoting to face it.


    ¡°Where did that come from? We haven''t thrown a rock anywhere near that part of the wood.¡±


    ¡°It must have been awoken as we walked in here and gotten stuck on a tree or something, it came from the same direction.¡±


    ¡°No matter, it¡¯s just more levels.¡±


    ¡°Sure. sure.¡±


    The group evolved tactics and added the new mushroom to their strategy. They were adapting quite well until two more mushrooms burst from the treeline behind them. Then three more. Then five more.


    ¡°What is happening?! Why are they coming out of the wood for us?!¡±


    I don''t know, I don''t know! This- this hasn¡¯t happened anytime I¡¯ve been here before!¡±


    ¡°I assume something is in the woods awakening them and directing them to us.¡±


    ¡°Fuck! I bet it was that black thing that was shadowing us earlier. It knows we¡¯re vulnerable, it was just waiting to get us!¡±


    ¡°Calm down, don''t panic. We just need to retreat to the plateau while stopping them from getting close. They won''t be able to climb up it with those stubby legs and we¡¯ll be safe. Stay together, on me!¡±


    The group formed up and began to retreat in an orderly fashion as more and more of the furious mushroom monsters lumbered into the clearing. They were doing well, using a combination of hit and run tactics to keep the shrooms at a distance and using their positioning to cause the shrooms to trip over each other.


    In fact, they looked like they were going to make it, up until a dozen mushrooms burst out of the tree line that they were trying to flee into. Rain watched with interest as Opal danced past silently below avoiding the eyes of the apparently narrow sighted mushroom creatures and directing their attention to the clearing with tossed sticks and stones.


    ¡°This all your fault you damned Human!¡± screamed the male Elf as he used his shield to desperately keep away the teeth of a shroom.


    The man caved its cap in with a mighty blow of his axe. ¡°It¡¯s fine! Everythings fine! We¡¯re going to make it!¡±


    ¡°Look out!¡± cried the Satyr as a surge of mushrooms climbed over each other to get at them.


    ¡°Th-There¡¯s too many!¡±


    A particularly tall and aggressive mushroom abruptly clambered over the pile of dead and lunged at the Elf. The Elf, eyes going round, tried to stop it with his shield, but too late, it closed on him, its maw open wide. The Elf panicked and with a cry shoved his shield into the monster¡¯s mouth before turning and running. The mushroom barely noticed the shield, letting it drop free and instantly charging after him, swiftly gaining ground.


    ¡°N-no! Get away! Get the fuck away from me!¡±


    He ran at the Half-elf and grabbed her by the shoulders and then to the rest of the team¡¯s and Rain¡¯s shock he turned and threw her at the mouth of the chasing mushroom which closed shut like a guillotine removing her head and part of her shoulder from her body. She had only had a moment to cry out before she was permanently silenced.


    ¡°NO!!¡± screamed the Satyr.


    ¡°Damn you Orden! Dam you to hell!¡± roared the man.


    The fight descended into chaos as the Elf fled into the woods. The man and Satyr held on valiantly but it was clear they were fighting a losing battle. The mushrooms rolled over the two and they became fully surrounded, almost disappearing from Rain¡¯s sight.


    ¡°Belle, this is my fault, I¡¯m going to make space. When I¡¯m done, go, don''t think of anything else.¡±


    He stepped forward and roared, axe held high. Blue fire engulfed the head of the axe and then washed over his body entirely covering him in flame. He charged the mushrooms as flares of blue fire erupted from his body in all directions reaching for meters.


    Many of the mushrooms ignited or tried to flee the terrible fire, the Satyr taking her chance raced through the gap made by the man as he fell to his knees. She darted into the forest as the man collapsed to the ground, a burning azure pyre.


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 12

    ?


    Sometime later Rain climbed down from the tree and wandered into the clearing. Dead mushroom monsters littered the ground. He counted sixteen, the other surviving mushrooms had wandered off into the forest.


    ¡°Dammit, I only got two of them, and one of them got turned into ash!¡± grumbled Opal appearing at his side.


    ¡°That was a pretty clever plan but I¡¯m not sure I wanted them dead.¡±


    She glared up at him. ¡°I did it so you can eat them.¡±


    ¡°Woah, woah, I¡¯m not eating levelers!¡±


    ¡°What? Why not?!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m just not okay. Look, help me with these mushroom monsters, go grab the bits that satyr chopped off... and get that half-elf¡¯s body out of my sight.¡±


    The goblin gave him a suspicious look but started to do as he said as he stepped over to the nearest mushroom. He had yet to eat today so he was especially ravenous, drool was already starting to drip from his mouth and his stomach growled irritably. Without preamble he leapt on the mushroom and ripped a mouthful of mushroom flesh free, it parted easily beneath his teeth and he was able to consume it swiftly. Two bites, four bites, six, he gorged on mushroom, but rapidly began to slow and then come to a stop.


    ¡°Bland! Oh gods, why is this so bland! Uggh!¡±


    He tried rolling the mushroom around in his mouth, scenting it, swallowing it quickly, but to no avail, the food remained unbelievably bland and papery, like eating a block of tasteless plant fibre.


    ¡°To the bottom of the ranking with you.¡± He growled as he mentally placed it below anything he had eaten so far.


    He looked down at the masses of mushroom bodies with dismay and slumped his shoulders.


    ¡°Well the sooner I¡¯m done the sooner I can find something appetising to eat,¡± he sighed.


    He went back at it, this time with significantly less enthusiasm. Ten minutes later he had managed most of the first mushroom monster and was beginning to digest. He curled his toes in anticipation and stretched his claws out along with his arms. His stomach gurgled and then began to shrink down. He closed his eyes waiting for the feeling to hit... and waited... and then a feeble sense of growing rolled through him, barely a whisper. He opened his eyes.


    ¡°Is that it!? This stuff is terrible.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s food, It should make you bigger yes? Why isn''t it?¡± said Opal from where she had been watching.


    ¡°Yes, it should, but I am like a wolf, a carnivore, so maybe whatever causes me to grow doesn''t work as well with, uh, not meat. Carnivores don¡¯t fight their way up the food chain to eat vegetbles.¡±


    Opal raised her arms up and looked at the huge pile of mushroom flesh she had pushed together and then dropped them and sighed.


    ¡°You grew, you definitely still grew right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, a little bit. It¡¯s enough to make me want to eat the rest... even though I hate myself for it.¡±


    He went back to eating. And eating. And eating. At some point he had given up speeding through it and had resigned himself to a miserable grind. An hour later he found himself on his back as Opal pushed mushroom bodies and limbs toward him. He genuinely began to wonder if it would ever end, but eventually the last chunk of bland mushroom was choked down. He estimated he¡¯d gained less than an inch of height even after eating so many.


    ¡°Urggghhhh. If I ever see a mushroom again it will be too soon.¡±


    ¡°But I can find a live one in the woods and you can kill it. They¡¯ve gone dormant again so I will have to go throw sticks and stones to wake one up and lead it here, It¡¯s food, that¡¯s good right?¡±


    ¡°No, I don''t know If I can kill them and even if I could it would only make me grow a tiny bit, not worth it. It¡¯s better to go find real meat.¡±


    ¡°We do have real meat you know.¡±


    ¡°That meat being the half-elf¡­¡±


    ¡°You should eat her.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t want to.¡±


    ¡°But why! She¡¯s dead, she won¡¯t care!¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s not a monster.¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯m a monster! We both are!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re different.¡±


    ¡°How!? I think and feel just like her. You were happy to kill and eat so many goblins just like me.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°The only difference between us and them is that they have the ability to level by killing monsters.¡±


    ¡°I...I¡­Gods, let me look at the body.¡±


    Opal grinned wickedly and grabbed him by the paw and towed him through the trees to the small plateau. It was covered in roots for hand holds so they had no trouble scrambling up its side. On top the goblin led him to where she had made camp while Rain had been eating. The body of the half-elf half-felis was laid out and stripped naked nearby as though prepared for Rain. He gave the goblin an annoyed look, she¡¯d never intended to let him avoid it.


    The half-elf had been bisected from armpit to neck across the clavicle. Her eyes stared sightlessly up at the cavern ceiling. She had the typical eerily perfect elven features but along with that she had tipped cat ears poking from her long hair, a cat tail, and where she would have had ordinary elven legs she instead had furred digitrade cat legs, her pale skin transitioning into white cat fur about six inches down her thigh.


    Rain grimaced. He¡¯d known a number of elves and half-elves in his previous life. They strictly went into the ¡®people¡¯ category whereas goblins were obviously ¡®monsters¡¯. Of course, his current situation was forcing him to rethink things. Monsters were a lot more ¡®people¡¯ like than he had imagined. It made him doubt everything he¡¯d been taught.


    ¡°This is the way of animals and monsters. Once something is dead it is dead and nothing but food to keep others alive, arrogant levelers just like to pretend they are different. If you don''t eat her some other monster will. Just eat a bit, you¡¯ll see it''s the same as anything else.¡±


    Opal held up one of the half-elf¡¯s hands and Rain dropped to his knees and took it in his paws. He eyed the hand. This hand had held a magic staff once. It had protected and healed people. Now it was nothing but meat. Like at the butcher¡¯s shop. It was only the preconceptions of his past life that stopped him. He was a monster now. Things were different. His new monstous instincts were roaring in his ear, Eat! Eat! Eat! This is food, you need food, you are a beast, a monster, you live to eat! you eat to live! Devour!


    ¡°FUCK!!¡± He bit down on the hand and severed her fingers, blood exploded in his mouth washing away the taste of bland mushroom and setting sparks of flavour dancing across his tongue.


    ¡°Oh no, she¡¯s delicious.¡±


    He couldn''t control himself and he tore into the half-elf like a ravenous wolf, consuming her from fingertip to shoulder in seconds, bone and all, then savagely rending flesh with whetted teeth and eagerly shoving it down as his taste buds were electrified. He growled deep and low as he gorged himself, a ball of nothing but the instinct to devour, subsume, gobble up all that was in front of him. He ate her in her entirety, all of it, even the fragments of her skull. He belched noisily as he slumped on the grass, his stomach well rounded.


    His gut snarled to life and began to digest as he squeezed his eyes shut and splayed out his limbs. Growth surged up within him more than ever before and he let out a long satisfied groan as he felt his paws moving across the grass as his arms lengthened, bone creaking and muscle expanding, his toes curled and stretched in joy and his spine arced. By the end of it he was slumped on the ground breathing hard and sweating.


    ¡°F-fuuuuck. That was better than anything I¡¯ve ever eaten and more than I¡¯ve ever grown at one time. Levelers. I need to eat more levelers.¡±


    He lazily rolled his head to see Opal openly shoving her hand down her shorts and rocking back and forth. She eyed his body hungrily then seemed to realise he was looking at her. She froze in shock for a moment then snatched her hand up before blushing furiously and turning away.


    ¡°You like it, don¡¯t you? The growth.¡±


    Opal¡¯s shoulders tensed.


    ¡°You like that I¡¯m growing and getting bigger. You really like the growing size difference between us.¡±


    ¡°N-no, I d-don''t know what you¡¯re talking a-about.¡±


    ¡°I know you like it, even though you won¡¯t admit it,¡± he taunted, amused at her embarrassment.


    ¡°I k-know your secret too!¡± she yelled back at him with a voice higher pitched and more wobbly than normal. ¡°I know w-why you didn''t know about underground forests, and know about levelers, and why you didn''t want to e-eat them!¡±


    Rain frowned. Did she figure out I used to be human?


    ¡°You were a monster slave, born into it, outside of a dungeon. You were brought up around levelers and taught their ways, you then escaped when they took you to this dungeon. It¡¯s the truth isn''t it? Isn¡¯t it?¡± said the goblin, her breath rapidly getting heavier. ¡°And now you can eat freely instead of the scraps the slavers gave you, now y-you can g-grow b-Bigger!¡± The goblin swallowed, the blush on her face only deepening.


    Should I tell her I used to be a human, a leveler? No, it may put a wall between us, levelers hate goblins and goblins hate levelers. Wait, why do I care what she thinks? I don''t care, right?


    He looked up from his musing to find Opal stumbling toward him and tearing at her clothes, breathing hard, her eyes alight with a different kind of hunger.


    ¡°Wh-What are you doing?!¡±


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 13 (R-18)

    Opal


    ?


    ¡°I can¡¯t take it anymore,¡± said Opal as she hopped forward on one foot then the other, dragging off her shorts and fully denuding herself. ¡°You¡¯re just there, every minute, with your overwhelming body, and it gets bigger and stronger every d-day, t-taunting me!¡± She eagerly dove on his legs where he lay.


    ¡°You don¡¯t even know what you¡¯re doing to me. It¡¯s like just looking at you causes me to heat up,¡± she said as she moved up his legs, her hands clutching at his thighs.


    ¡°And when you get bigger in front of me, your body growing before my eyes, oh gods!¡±


    She stopped with her hands resting on his hips, her breath tugging at his fur.


    ¡°O-opal! Are you serious? Have you lost your mind?¡±


    ¡°Fuck no, I¡¯ve found it. I should have jumped your bones way sooner.¡±


    She scooted up his thighs until she was sitting over his lap and her hands moved to encircle his black-furred sheath which was already starting to thicken.


    ¡°I want you Rain. You do things to me that make me squirm.¡±


    Rain was squirming himself under her fondling. As she pushed and squeezed at him the tip of his dick began to become visible. Opal lent down and ran her tongue around it, slipping inside his sheath as she did so. He let out an involuntary groan and bucked into her, his hips moving of their own accord.


    She placed her lips over the tip and gently sucked then glided down until her lips met his sheath pushing it down and freeing more of his rapidly growing length. He could feel it swelling into her, touching up against her teeth, the roof of her mouth. He clawed the ground as her tongue swirled around his tip twisting and dragging pleasure from him he hadn''t imagined possible. She bobbed her head as he grew inside her slowly stretching her mouth wider until her lips wrapped around his length in a lewd O shape. She suckled on him as she bobbed her head up and down, teasing his sensitive spots in waves. It didn¡¯t take him long at all to cum and he spurted long strings into her mouth which she greedily swallowed down. She removed her mouth, a string of cum connecting her lips to his tip for a second.


    He hadn''t seen his new body like this before, at least six inches of dick protruded from his groin. It looked massive next to the tiny four foot five Goblin girl.


    She shuffled up his legs, rocking her hips provocatively and leaving a wet trail along his fur from where her reddened puss drooled gel-like fluid in long strands. His eyes rose upwards. He had never paid so much attention to the Goblin¡¯s body before but what he saw was making him question why he had not. She had smooth clear skin, diving curves into flared hips that drew the eye, and relative to her size an impressive bust, it was no wonder she normally wore a wrap as every motion was causing her breasts to rock and jiggle. His gaze wandered up to her half-lidded eyes and slightly parted lips. She was breathing so heatedly he was surprised the air wasn¡¯t steaming.


    ¡°I n-need y-you.¡±


    Her knees came down either side of his hips and her sopping heated muff pressed his shaft down against his abdomen. She began rubbing herself up and down, pressing against it and gliding her snatch along its top side leaving a glossy wet trail behind, she went faster and faster and Rain felt himself begin to get hard again. Her grinding became jumpy and she started to lose rhythm, her clit pushed free from its hood as she ground herself down on top his length, she squealed as the friction dragged against her. Her legs started to stiffen and she rammed herself down and clapped a hand over her mouth holding in a shriek. The Goblin collapsed against his chest and curled her fingers through his fur as orgasm rocked her, then slowly relaxing, her breathing slowing as she came down from it.


    Rain was left frustrated, his monstrous instincts even more so.


    ¡°...I hope you enjoyed that.... but now it¡¯s my turn.¡± Growled Rain as his paws wrapped around her hips, the beast inside of him rising up, all instinct and animal predator hungry to fuck and mate and breed.


    ¡°Y-yes, fucking dominate meee!¡± squealed Opal as Rain picked her up and slammed her down in the grass. He loomed over her, his dick slapping against her stomach, throbbing eagerly. It lay from her groin up and past her belly button such was their size difference.


    ¡°You thought you could leave me unsatisfied, after you¡¯ve seen me eat, seen my appetite.¡±


    He leaned in and opened his mouth to the side of her head. Razor sharp white teeth, a drooling maw. A deep bone shaking growl began in his chest and rumbled outward shaking the air and vibrating through the Goblin where they were pressed together.


    ¡°You¡¯re mine, my toy to do what I like with. I¡¯m going to fuck you into the ground. Your legs will be so weak you won''t be able to walk straight. I¡¯m going to ruin you.¡±


    ¡°YeS! pLeAse! hNYAaaA!¡± wailed the Goblin as her eyes rolled up into her head.


    Rain gravelled a deep chested laugh and lent back to align the tip of his dick with her reddened entrance. He pressed himself into her and her muff squished below the broad head of his dick. The pressure increased, slowly applying his strength until with a lewd wet schlop! he slipped inside her, her puss tightly stretching around his width in a thin ring, pushing the limits of what she could contain.


    She cried out and had to bite down hard on her lip to prevent herself from screaming as her back arched in pleasure. Her hands scrabbled at the grass helplessly and Rain could feel her walls clenching and unclenching around his length as she came once more.


    ¡°You¡¯re so tight, you¡¯ve never had anyone as big as me before have you?¡±


    She shook her head furiously as she rode out the aftershocks, her eyes tightly closed.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to stretch you to my size as I grow larger so you can¡¯t live without my dick Opal. You¡¯ll be mine and you¡¯ll beg for it because you won¡¯t be able to live without feeling me fill you to your limit.¡±


    The Goblin gasped and her lips parted as a line of drool ran down her cheek.


    ¡°J-justt fUcK MEEEEE! OH GODS FUCK MEEE PLEAASE!¡± begged the Goblin as she squirmed on the ground her hips bucking, trying to push more of Rain inside of her.


    Rain grinned, his lips drawn back showing his carnivorous teeth, and then he rammed himself home. Then, as she squealed, he sawed himself out and slammed inside of her once again. And again. And again. He got into a rhythm, their hips noisily slapping and smacking together, each connection causing the Goblin to shift across the ground as Rain¡¯s hips crashed up against her muff.


    Rain could feel his sheath peeling back and he looked down to see that a ball of flesh was pushing free from where it had been hidden, a thick knot of reddened meat at the base of his dick that beat against Opal¡¯s entrance with each crash of his hips, pressing into her clit and squashing it up against its clitoral hood. She wailed as he increased his tempo and her eyes shot open, going round as she came once more, this time Rain felt fluid explode around his length and he looked down to see her twitching puss trembling and quaking and gushing fluid, squirting up his abdomen and drenching his fur. Her mouth hung open limp, her hands latched onto his shoulders and clawed at him as she rode out the orgasm, her entire body shaking and twitching, her puss contracting around his length.


    Rain didn''t give her time to recover, only increasing the tempo, slamming into her so hard that her butt jiggled and her breasts went reeling across her chest. She wailed as he rutted her.


    ¡°H-hArDER! HARDERRR!!AAAA!!¡± She managed to get out as she lost control of her voice.


    He complied and his knot rammed into her, once twice, three times, then with a lewd squelch her labia stretched around his knot pushing beyond her limit, it peaked over the thick ball of flesh and then slipped down engulfing it.


    Opals eyes rolled up and her legs went up, her toes splayed in the air, her mouth hanging wordlessly open as she squirted once more, spraying fluid up between them and soaking them both.


    Rain gripped down on her hips and dragged her away from his crotch, the poor Goblin began gibbering as her muff was pulled outward by Rain¡¯s broad knot and the with a lewd Schll-pop! he pulled free as her pussy went wild, twitching and clenching and drenching his fur as sprays of fluid exploded out of her washing down his length in girlcum, her fingers digging into his shoulders as her back arched into the air.


    Rain did not relent for a moment. His knot slammed home once more and Opal¡¯s puss was forced to take it with no choice in the matter.


    The Goblin howled, her pussy went mad, clenching and rolling and desperately trying to hold Rain inside, but to no avail, he pulled himself free once more as the Goblin rolled from one sloppy squirting orgasm into the next.


    Schl-pop! Gush! Squirt! Schl-pop! Gush! Squirt! Schl-pop! Gush! squirt!


    Opal was a helpless mess, her tongue lolling from her mouth and her eyes unfocused as chain orgasms crashed over her.


    At last, Rain could feel himself readying to cum, his knot started to expand. With a savage growl he forced himself inside of her, his dick swelled in size and hot white cum exploded outward spraying down the Goblin¡¯s insides.


    ¡°AAIIEEEEEE!!!!¡±


    Howled the Goblin as her legs went up, her thighs shaking and her knees quaking, her puss clamped down so hard on Rain that it was verging on painful, but he didn¡¯t stop, he pushed at her hips as surge after surge of cum left him, thick white rope after thick white rope, fifth, sixth, seventh, Rain howled as he was milked dry by her clenching convulsing puss, more than he knew he could possibly cum, it just kept going and going, drenching her insides and filling her to the brim until she could take no more and ropes of cum spurted from where her cunt stretched around his dick. White exploded up Rain¡¯s abs and thighs and landed in splatters on the Goblins belly, filling her belly button.


    At last, as his twelfth load left him, he collapsed on the sweating heaving Goblin completely and utterly spent.


    After some time spent just bathing in the afterglow Rain levered himself upward on shaky arms. Opal moaned at his movement but seemed otherwise insensate. He looked down to find himself still inside of her, in fact as he shifted around and tried to pull out he realised that his knot had swollen to such a degree that he was locked in and knotted to the Goblin. Even gripping her thighs and pushing her away had little effect, only bulging out her muff from the knot trapped inside of her, the Goblin gasped and seemed to come to her senses.


    ¡°Oooooh Oh g-gods, I can barely move my legs, everythings so tingly, so trembly, I f-feel like I¡¯m glowing, so so- H-hey w-what are you doing?


    ¡°I can¡¯t pull out, I¡¯m trapped inside of you.¡±


    ¡°R-really?¡± said Opal biting her lip and looking down. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ kinda hot.¡± She wiggled her hips and giggled.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how long this is going to take to go down. Let¡¯s move to the tent.¡±


    ¡°Okay, but how?¡±


    ¡°Put your arms around my neck and I¡¯ll carry you.¡±


    Opal lifted a wobbly arm up but was unable to raise herself up enough to get a grip and she slumped back to the ground


    ¡°You turned me into jelly, I feel like my limbs have weights hanging off them.¡±


    Rain smirked. ¡°You did ask for it. Multiple times.¡±


    He put a paw under her butt and one around the small of her back and with a grunt he lifted the Goblin and climbed to his feet causing her to gasp again. She hung off him, pressing down on his sheath, her arms rested limply on his shoulders and her fingers pathetically clutched at the fur on his back. She tried to lift her legs to wrap around him but after several failed attempts they simply flopped down to hang limp. A line of cum ran down her inner leg to drip from her toe.


    He turned and was surprised to see he¡¯d come several feet from the spot where Opal had jumped him having fucked her across the ground leaving a wake in the grass. He followed the trail back to the tent and with difficulty pulled open the flap and awkwardly crouched down and crawled inside, the Goblin clinging to him, softly moaning with each bump.


    He couldn''t help but feel a sense of pride in having left her such a sloppy moaning mess as he lay down on his side, spooning the Goblin carefully. His breath moved her long back hair as she occasionally twitched, still feeling aftershocks. As he watched her chest rise and fall he felt something that he had never felt in his past life, something completely alien to his experiences. He felt protective.


    Eventually, after what must have been half an hour, Rain felt himself begin to soften and he slowly pulled his hips back. With a soft ¡®Schlpup¡¯ his dick slipped free from her folds and a waterfall of cum oozed from her snatch, it ran down her ass cheek as she lay curled on her side and pooled on the blanket.


    By this point the Goblin was already asleep and Rain soon followed.

 Chapter 14

    ?


    Rain gradually came back to consciousness as something tugged at him with greater and greater determination. His eyes cracked open and he looked down blearily to see Opal tugging on his arm, her small hand gripping at his fur. She looked up at him and bit her lip.


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡±


    Rain wiped some of the sleep from his eyes as he slowly became more alert.


    ¡°Is something happening? Why did you wake me up?¡±


    ¡°... I want¡­¡±


    ¡°You need something?¡±


    ¡°I want to feeeed youuu!¡±


    Rain blinked at her.


    ¡°We¡¯re wasting time just snoozing in bed, I want to go and find monsters and levelers for you to eat and make you bigger and bigger and Bigger! C¡¯mon c¡¯mon! Let¡¯s go!¡±


    Rain sighed.


    ¡°You might have an addiction.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t feel hungry, you¡¯re always hungry.¡±


    ¡°Now you mention it I am ravenous and there''s a cute little snack right beside my bed.¡± He opened his mouth flashing his carnivorous teeth at her.


    Opal slapped his arm. ¡°Not me, I¡¯m not a snack, I am cute though.¡±


    He gruffed a laugh and sat up.


    ¡°We can go hunting, but not mushrooms, too slow and inefficient, I need meat, real and bloody and juicy meat.¡±


    ¡°Yes! And lots of it!¡±


    ¡°What about fishing?¡±


    Opal made a face, ¡°I can fish, but It¡¯s not enough, one big fish every one to three days, it¡¯s just not enough. I¡¯m not a fishing Gobbo, I¡¯m a scouting Gobbo, I¡¯m better at not-fishing stuff.¡±


    Rain gave her a questioning look. ¡°Okay, so what not-fishing things do you have in mind?¡±


    Opal smiled slyly. ¡°Oh, I have something in mind. I know the area you know.¡±


    ¡°I know you know.¡± He gestured with a paw and Opal crawled from the tent. He watched with amusement as she left a few drips of white behind her, still leaking from the night before. He crawled out after her and clambered to his feet where he opened his maw wide and yawned, cracking his joints in the cavern light. He had no idea if it was truly morning or night, the dungeon seemed to operate on a casual cycle, I.e sleep and wake when you want. It didn''t matter what your sleep schedule was, the moss and crystal light would always be steady and continuous.


    Opal was still on the ground having crawled out of the tent. She looked up at him and then with a look of determination in her eye she got her feet under her and with trembling legs slowly rose to stand. Her knees shook as a line of white rolled down her inner thigh.


    ¡°I¡¯m, I¡¯m okay, I can walk, watch.¡±


    She lifted a foot forward carefully, then stepped, paused to catch her balance, then took another step. She looked up at Rain with a grin.


    ¡°See.¡±


    She lost her footing as she looked up and her legs buckled. She grabbed at Rain¡¯s waist and clung to him to keep herself standing.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure I do see. Your legs are like a pair of wet noodles.¡±


    ¡°No they¡¯re not!¡± she glared at him fiercely.


    Rain pursed his lips and stepped away from her. Without support she sunk down to the ground and sat down.


    ¡°This is your fault!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right it actually is, I fucked you silly until you went weak in the legs and you loved it. I didn¡¯t know you would take such a long time to recover from it however. Just stay there and try to recoup your strength while I decamp.¡±


    She crossed her arms and huffed but watched as he pulled down the tent and kicked apart the fire then stowed all their stuff in Opal¡¯s rucksack.


    He looked between the Goblin who was currently struggling to rise to her feet and the large rucksack.


    ¡°You¡¯re not good for much if you can¡¯t even do the thing you said you could contribute you know.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not fair! Your dick made me like this!¡±


    Rain scratched his chin and rolled his eyes. He then stalked over to the Goblin and to her dismay lifted her up onto his shoulders using his outsized strength. She protested loudly but being able to do nothing to stop him she soon quieted down. He picked up the rucksack with one paw.


    ¡°Directions.¡±


    ¡°Hmphh. Still need me huh?¡± She lifted one hand from where she was holding onto his wolf ears for balance and pointed. ¡°It¡¯s that way.¡±


    Rain nodded and set off across the plateau and climbed down into the forest. He stomped through the grass and undergrowth between the trees, Opal wobbling along on his shoulders and trying to avoid any low hanging branches. It wasn¡¯t long before they made their way to the edge of the foggy ancient woods and came to a halt by a dark cave that sloped away into the ground. The Goblin had guided them well away from any sleeping mushroom monsters and they had been undisturbed as they walked.


    Opal tugged at his ear.


    ¡°W-wait. Let me get some clothes on first.¡±


    She wiggled and he gently lowered her to the ground bum first and then tossed the rucksack beside her. She gave him an annoyed look but rifled through it.


    ¡°Have you never heard of any kind of organisation damned wolf. Wait, Did you bring a knife? ah, here we go.¡±


    She pulled out a knife that had belonged to the half-elf Rain had eaten and put it aside, then she pulled her clothes free and wrapped her chest. She then tried fruitlessly to put her shorts on. Rain watched and couldn''t help but let out a laugh at her clumsy weakness. After a moment he leant down and grabbed the shorts from her hands then shoved and handled her feet until they lined up with the holes and forcefully dragged them up her legs to sit snug on her hips lifting her up into the air a bit as he thrust them into place.


    ¡°Hey! Careful! I¡¯m still sensitive down there!¡±


    She batted away his paws from her hips and picked up the knife. She looked up at Rain questioningly who after a pause gave her a slight affirmative nod. Trust. The Goblin¡¯s cheeks coloured.


    She then laboriously climbed to her feet. She took a few wobbly steps, then a few more.


    ¡°Oh! I can walk again!¡±


    ¡°Small miracles,¡± murmured Rain.


    ¡°Shush. Look, it¡¯s this way, the place where we might be able to get food. Oh, we might have to fight for it, just so you know,¡± she waved the knife taken from the half-elf in the air enthusiastically and then sunk to a crouch as her legs gave way.


    Rain held out an arm and the Goblin swallowed her pride and grabbed onto it. She pulled herself to her feet and Rain began walking down into the cave with the Goblin holding onto him for balance and support.


    They wandered through the dark for some time, slowed by Opal¡¯s occasional missteps, though that was happening less and less as she rapidly recovered her strength. They came across a thin jagged seam in the wall of the long cave they were traversing and through it Rain could see another large open cave with clean white sand covering the floor.


    ¡°This is it,¡± whispered Opal. ¡°Look, you can see their camp.¡±


    Rain peeked through the seam and saw what looked like what had been a fairly significant camp with four separate fires and multiple bedrolls and tents, though it was deserted now.


    ¡°What am I looking at?¡±


    ¡°Kobold outpost. They liked to raid our tribe whenever we went hunting in the ancient forest. There are about twenty of the bastards.¡±


    ¡°Twenty? That¡¯s way beyond anything I can deal with. We had enough trouble with just a few, don¡¯t you remember?¡±


    ¡°Oh that¡¯s easy, we just need to draw them out into the forest and then I can repeat the same trick with the mushrooms. We¡¯re near enough that they should follow that far. That is if they are still around.¡±


    ¡°Hrmm. If they find us I¡¯m going to carry you out of here just so you know. I don''t want to be running and then see you flop down like a wet fish because your legs won''t hold your weight.¡±


    ¡°Fine. But if we¡¯re smart they shouldn''t get close, I know a bunch of secret passages they don''t know of around here.¡± She gestured at the seam as though it were an example.


    The Goblin led the way further down the passage and then down a side tunnel, through a crack in the wall and then through a low hanging wide cave that they had to crouch to get through.


    It was as they were leaving the cave that a sound met their ears, a hissing growling roaring sound, like a snake¡¯s hiss but multiplied in intensity.


    Rain gave her a questioning look but she just shrugged her shoulders. They came out of the low ceilinged cave and emerged into a massive sandy cavern. Huge house-sized boulders were everywhere, often with large glowing crystals growing from them leaving the distant ceiling dark but the ground flooded with warm sunlight like light.


    They scampered into the massive cave and hid behind a rock as another terrible roaring hiss sounded and dust trickled from the ceiling far above.


    ¡°I bet whatever that is is behind why your Kobold outpost is deserted.¡±


    ¡°Probably. This might be a good opportunity for us if we can take advantage.¡±


    She took his paw and led them on a meandering path through the boulders. She paused and then put her back up against one particularly large rock and peeked around it. Rain leaned over her and did the same.


    A sandy circular clearing met their eyes which was populated by fifteen or so Kobolds spread out around it. Much more importantly was the gargantuan snake that they were facing. A bulky blue and green and black scaled beast of a monster at least fifty-foot long from tip to tail. Its head was raised up in the air putting it at least a dozen feet off the ground and towering over the Kobolds.


    It let out another hissing roar, flashing its saber sized fangs and a bloodied mouth.


    ¡°What do we do? Attack?¡± asked Opal.


    ¡°We wait for our moment.¡±

 Chapter 15

    ?


    The group of Kobolds began to coalesce around their leader, a taller than average green and red Kobold wearing a gold chain necklace and carrying a wide-bladed cutlass.


    He held up his sword, ¡°On me! On me! Can¡¯t you see it¡¯s wounded! It is ours to kill!¡±


    The other Kobolds roared and held their weapons aloft. The nearest Kobold to the snake charged right at it with a spear and actually managed to pierce its scale. The furious snake snapped around as soon as it felt pain and the Kobold managed only one terrified look before a terrible pink mouth engulfed his upper body, swallowed, lifted and gulped the kobold down. A bulge slowly sunk down the snake¡¯s neck joining five other bulges that ran the length of its body which Rain realised were the other five other Kobolds missing from the twenty Opal had expected.


    The leader ignored this and busily arranged his Kobolds into a shield formation, a line of seven Kobolds carrying heavy plank shields while a line of seven more behind them held spears that poked between the shields. ¡°Slow forward!¡± cried the leader and the shield line moved.


    The snake hissed in anger and snapped at the air in front of them trying to get at the kobolds but fearing the sharp spears that tracked its face.


    The wall neared and the snake backed up hissing and spitting as the sharp spears jabbed at its scales. The leader Kobold dived between the shields and with a twisting slash carved a jagged line up the snake''s side. The snake screamed and lurched backwards, its coiled body oscillating and forming up to wrap around itself protectively.


    The motion shifted and brushed the sands aside revealing smooth white and round objects hidden beneath. Eggs. The snake realised what it had done and moved its body to protect the eggs, but the spears came on relentlessly. With blind fear in its eyes the snake roared once more and seemingly having decided it had no better option it dived at the shield wall, risking everything in an act of protective desperation. One, two, three spears punctured deep into the snake¡¯s body, but it made it through! It crashed down on the shields with a roar of victory instantly crushing three of the Kobolds below its weight. Its coiled body swept through the sand like a whip, once, twice, three times, an unstoppable force fueled by pure outrage. Kobolds tumbled before its scales, smashed aside with broken bones.


    The Kobold leader roared and flames exploded from his open mouth in a cone that washed up against the snake and engulfing part of its body in fire. The snake thrashed in pain and tried to escape the flame but the Kobold tracked its body with his head blackening and crisping its scales in a huge swathe.


    It seemed like the snake was done for but the leader Kobold was clearly starting to struggle. His expression was strained and his brow furrowed in concentration, reddening with effort. Suddenly he choked and the flame winked out. He looked on in horror as the blackened but still perfectly mobile and increasingly angry snake roared and lunged for him.


    The Kobold deflected the scything teeth with his cutlass and on the back foot he retreated as the snake repeatedly snapped and bit at him looking to end him before he could breathe fire once again. The leader backed up against a particularly large boulder and was left with nowhere to flee as the snake cornered him.


    ¡°For blood and riches!¡± howled the Kobold as he went for one last desperate gambit, diving under the snake''s swift jaw and raising his cutlass to stab up into its soft underbelly. Unfortunately, the snake saw it coming and twisted from his reach. Its head whipped around and its teeth took him in the side. Blood splattered across the white sand and the Kobold, minus his leg and a good chunk of his side, was tossed against a large boulder where he slumped to the ground leaving a bloody smear. The snake hissed in triumph and reared up above the Kobold, gloating in its well-earned victory. The Kobold spat blood and raised his sword from where he lay in the sand, the tip of his blade wobbling as it pointed at the serpent.


    ¡°I hope you choke on me you shitty snake, I-¡±


    A shadow dropped from the top of the boulder and landed on top the snake''s neck at the base of its skull. A grizzly crunch met the Kobolds ears and the snake thrashed in panic. Another crunch, the snake screamed in agony. One more bone splintering sound and the snake went lip and fell to the ground like wet rope.


    A black-furred monster pulled its head from the bucket sized hole it had made in the snake¡¯s neck, shards of spine dropping from its muzzle. Blood washed down its front and hung in grizzly strands from its teeth. The Kobold looked into its yellow eyes and saw a hunger unlike anything he had ever known, a beastly greedy hunger that knew no limits.


    His eyes drifted to his soldiers groaning in the sand, nursing broken or shattered bones or crawling away.


    ¡°G-get away!¡± He called blood burbling up with every word. A number of the Kobolds looked up. ¡°R-Run you fools! Flee! It¡¯s something- something worse! Run for your lives!¡±


    A flicker of green at his side and a knife appeared at his throat.


    ¡°They¡¯re already dead, they just don¡¯t know it yet. They are all going in my wolfies belly, every last one. Save your breath for the gods.¡±


    The Kobold could only watch in dismay as the evil wolf thing went from injured Kobold to injured Kobold and extinguished their life with a snap of his jaws. They could do nothing, even as they realised what was happening and tried to crawl or limp away the wolf simply pounced on them and ended their lives. There was no honour here, only death.


    ¡°Y-you could have let them live¡­¡±


    The Goblin ignored him and joined the wolf thing, helping it strip the bodies of his soldiers. The Kobold watched as it began to devour his people. He couldn''t believe his eyes. The monster did not simply eat, it consumed. Sliding whole sections of limbs into its jaws then biting and swallowing then continuing onward into the torso, its teeth scissoring through scale and flesh, making whole chunks of his soldiers disappear with casual ease. The monster''s stomach bulged with his people. Surely the beast had to stop soon, which it did, and then it sat. The Kobold watched, with rising dismay, as the stomach of the wolf thing trembled and then began to shrink down flat.


    ¡°What fresh horror has this dungeon wrought upon us,¡± he murmured as his eyes slowly drifted shut and darkness bloomed.

 Chapter 16

    ?


    Opal looked at the Kobold leader¡¯s body slumped against the boulder and tilted her head.


    ¡°That one was dangerous. Glad the big snake took him out. If he had won against it then it might have been better for us to just leave.¡±


    Rain looked up from where he was shoving the last of a Kobold leg down his maw. His teeth crushed its claws and he swallowed and let out a belch. He wiped his mouth.


    ¡°Spicy. Oh, the leader? Yeah, he was pretty impressive. Fire breath is something I would like to avoid, because, you know, flammable fur.¡± He gestured vaguely at his body.


    ¡°Kobold¡¯s don¡¯t normally breathe fire, that¡¯s only the second time I¡¯ve seen it.¡±


    ¡°I guess he was just an unusual breed of Kobold then.¡±


    The Goblin gave him a curious look. ¡°Breed? I¡¯m not sure what you mean, Kobolds are born all the same, that Kobold evolved.¡±


    ¡°Evolved? What is evolved?¡± said Rain, raising an eyebrow.


    ¡°Gods your old slave masters really taught you nothing about monsters huh. It¡¯s simple, sometimes something happens that triggers a monster into evolving to a better form. You already met an evolved monster, the overgrown Gobbo that my old Chief castrated, he was a kind of Hobgobbo which is a better Gobbo.¡±


    ¡°Oh?... Wait, wait, hold on, does that mean you could evolve too!?¡±


    ¡°...Yes¡­ But I don''t know what would make that happen. I wouldn''t want to chase it either, we used to mock evolution chasers in the tribe, they would all without fail get themselves killed having gotten nothing.¡±


    ¡°Interesting. I wonder if it works like leveling, kill monsters, or maybe in a monster¡¯s case kill levelers, and then evolve.¡±


    Opal shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I knew of Gobbos who had done lots of that but nothing happened. Even My old tribe''s Chief, he killed tons of things, but he never evolved, which frustrated him, not even the Witch Gobbo knew why.¡±


    ¡°Well, maybe the chance to evolve is hereditary.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s never had any rhyme or reason that my tribe noticed. I just know that it¡¯s rare and always makes a monster stronger.¡±


    ¡°Stronger hmm. That leader Kobold looked almost noble fighting that snake, that was more than strength,¡± said Rain picking a scale from his teeth.


    ¡°Eh, It¡¯s not like he came here for good reasons, not that Kobolds ever do anything good if they can help it.¡± She pointed at the clutch of eggs that had been uncovered during the fight. ¡°Kobolds love snake eggs and they take crazy risks to get at them. They must have stumbled upon the snake guarding its nest, and the leader wanted its eggs bad enough that he got himself and every Kobold with him killed for his greediness.¡±


    Rain grinned at that. ¡°He did, and now everything is mine.¡±


    He turned back to the pile of stripped Kobold bodies and went back to eating. The delicious spice of the creatures made his mouth water and he eagerly tore into them, bones and all. If he were much larger he would have liked to have eaten them like the snake, but since he was not he contented himself with taking large bites at a time. Kobold was reaffirming its position near the top of his list. Still, he didn¡¯t hesitate to leave a Kobold tail to the side, he knew Opal liked them.


    He was pushing how much he could digest at once, filling his stomach and compressing it down. When he¡¯d first eaten Kobold he¡¯d only managed one at a time, now he was taking in one and a half or more before needing to digest. He liked to push it because more inside of him meant he would grow more in one go. He liked that feeling of growth more than he felt he could describe in words.


    The pile of fourteen Kobolds quickly diminished beneath his slavering jaws and endless hunger and soon he was reaching for the last of them. He pushed himself and managed to stuff inside the last two Kobolds as one. Opal didn¡¯t miss the opportunity and fell to her knees practically hugging him, her breath coming in little gasps. His toes curled and uncurled and he stretched his arms above his head as his stomach growled and began to shrink down. His body began to grow in mass and height, bones creaking and popping, skin stretching over swelling muscle. He groaned and Opal let out an accidental moan as his stomach vanished and his feet pushed against the sand, his legs growing in length shifting Opal with them.


    He¡¯d gained inches from eating the fourteen Kobolds, far better than any crappy mushrooms.


    Opal clutched at the fur on his pecs and looked up at him.


    ¡°W-we¡¯re not done y-yet.¡±


    Her eyes tracked to the massive body of the snake.


    ¡°Eggs first, I¡¯ve never had a snake egg before. Go and get them for me.¡±


    ¡°R-right.¡±


    After a moment to prepare herself she slid from his body and climbed to her feet. She wiped a little drool from her lip with the back of her hand.


    She busied herself digging out the white eggs from the sand one by one. There were a lot, more than expected, nearly twenty of the things. She pulled them free and slowly lined them up by Rain. Each was roughly the size of a melon and she had to roll them across the sand due to their surprising weight.


    Rain pulled the first one over as she worked. White, with a hard shell with a little give. He held out a claw and poked a hole in the top then held it up and let the yellow yolk pour into his mouth.


    ¡°Hmm. Not awful. Slimy. Kinda tasteless.¡±


    Rain made a face suddenly recalling the blandness of the mushroom monsters and put the shell down.


    Opal rolled the last of the eggs over. ¡°Let me try and cook one before you eat anymore.¡±


    She swiftly pulled out a pan and dropped an egg into it. She then threw down a root thing she had taken from a mushroom monster as well as some twigs and branches from the bottom of her rucksack as well as fluffy tinder she had taken from a lake reed. She knocked together a flint and steel and the tinder caught and then with a whumpf so did the mushroom root as it burst into flame and began burning furiously.


    Ten minutes later she hooked out the egg and rolled it over to Rain. He picked it up, bouncing it from paw to paw due to the heat and then tried to poke a hole in the top. He managed it, but nothing came out.


    ¡°It¡¯s solidified you silly wolf.¡±


    Rain grunted then dropped it back in the sand where he rapidly tore off the shell revealing the soft white interior. He scented the fresh steaming eggwhite, his eyes slowly widening at how enticing it smelled. He tore into it, devouring it to the yolk, then pausing as he took in the savoury eggy flavour. It didn¡¯t take long to scarf the rest down and he was left licking the inside of the shell.


    ¡°It¡¯s good. Rich. Normally I prefer food raw but this is better cooked.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen Kobolds eat eggs raw but never snake eggs, I figured there must be a reason.¡±


    She piled up a few more of the eggs over the fire and then rushed around the sandy clearing digging up bits of very dry and very old dead wood which she tossed on the pile. Quickly enough Rain had more eggs incoming and he happily ripped them apart and licked the shells clean.


    He found he could manage a lot of the things before he had to wait and digest them so it only took a few rounds to entirely polish off the eggs. Each time Opal came up and lay on top of him, feeling his body grow beneath herself.


    After a little time spent basking in the afterglow of a big meal, Rain sat up and shifted the Goblin off his chest.


    ¡°I¡¯m still really really hungry, and having that snake so near is not helping.¡± He licked his lips as he eyed the great beast then getting his feet underneath him he stood.


    ¡°Yes! Eat the snake! You can grow so much from it, bigger and bigger!¡± said the Goblin, her eyes sparkling as she looked up at his new height, inches taller than before. She grabbed him by the paw and excitedly led him to the end of the snake.


    Rain picked up the tail and put the tip in his mouth. Opal helped hold it up in the air and he pushed the thing into his maw and bit down and chewed. The scales of the snake had a shockingly lemon fresh crisp taste to them, and the interior a lush and juicy umami beef flavour, totally different from anything he had expected but a strangely brilliant combination that he instantly relished. He eagerly tore into it, two feet of snake, three feet, four. He shoved forward eager to fit more inside and rapidly reached six foot along its tail. The snake''s body was getting thicker by this point and Rain¡¯s jaws had to spread wide to take it in, he didn''t stop though as his stomach expanded. Opal was trying her best to push the snake toward his mouth but it was becoming too much for her. Fortunately rain could rely on his own strength and helped haul more toward his teeth.


    He slowed as he reached the limit of what he could eat in one go.


    ¡°M-more!¡± said the goblin, her hands shaking as she tried to hold the weight of the snake¡¯s tail up.


    Rain shook his head and closed his eyes unable to speak with so much snake filling his mouth. He furrowed his brow, readying to break off, then opened his eyes in surprise as he felt his stomach rumble to life and begin to digest. He groaned as he felt growth stutter start then stop, as though it was being delayed and banked up, as though it were unable to begin working on his body because he was still eating.


    Instead of stopping and just letting the growth happen however he let his instinctual hunger drive him and pushed forward, managing to rip and bite another foot of snake inside himself, pushing out his shrinking stomach again.


    ¡°A-are you digesting as you eat?¡± said the goblin, as another foot of snake pushed into the wolf''s mouth.


    Rain ignored her and focused on eating. He was digesting as fast as he could bite and push the snake meat down his throat by now, and he hurried to press forward even as he felt the potential growth amassing, waiting to get to work. Fifteen feet up the snake he came across the first bulge a Kobold made in the snake¡¯s body. He eyed it and grimaced. No time to waste. He bit down on the snake, swallowed, then dove on the encased Kobold, unwilling to let his digestion end. He succeeded and managed to rip through and shove enough of the spicy meat down his gullet that his gut was kept busy and his tastebuds excited at the variation in flavour. The snake was stripped away and the kobold inside was eaten limb by limb, even the head was taken apart. With a slightly crazed look in his eye Rain threw himself onto the rest of the snake using his claws to help rend it apart and shovel its meat into his mouth all while gulping down everything he could fit his teeth around and bite down on.


    He didn''t stop, his hunger just kept rising and rising and he drove forward eager to sate himself. The second Kobold¡¯s body met its fate beneath his jaws and then the third and the fourth, by this point the snake¡¯s body was a few feet wide and he had to slow down just due to the increased mass he needed to cover. He could feel his jaws tiring as he went, making the speed with which he ate a little less. It was a marathon, but one he couldn''t tear himself away from, his hunger demanded more, always more. All the while the growth banked up and up inside, it had an almost real weight to it, eager to crash down on his body.


    He finished the fifth embedded Kobold and moved on up to the head of the snake. Bone didn''t stand a chance beneath his teeth and crumbled and splintered under the pressure so that when he hit the boniest part of the snake, the skull, it didn''t slow him at all. He bit ragged chunks from it, rapidly working his way through the head until he was left with nothing but the tongue and snout, and then that was gone too. He collapsed to the ground knocking Opal aside and writhed as the massive surge of banked up growth rolled through him. It felt like a morning stretch multiplied by a thousand, almost painfully so. He clawed at the sand and his back arched as his bones grew, muscle expanded, teeth lengthened, his very blood felt like it was heating up and rushing through his veins, his skin stretching over his broadening shoulders, longer limbs, larger paws, his claws extending outward, until with a final rough surge it ended and he collapsed limply on the ground and immediately passed out.


    He awoke a few minutes later to find Opal sitting on his chest and poking at his nose.


    ¡°Urghh,¡± he groaned. ¡°Why did I do that?¡±


    He noted his voice was a little deeper. The more he grew the deeper it got, and after the snake noticeably so.


    ¡°Dunno. Guess you were hungrier than you realised.¡±


    ¡°I feel exhausted.¡±


    ¡°Well, you did grow a lot.¡±


    Rain rubbed at his face. ¡°I¡¯m not surprised. I just ate an entire fifty-foot snake plus five kobolds.¡±


    ¡°Yes. Yes you did.¡± said Opal biting her lip.


    Rain pushed the goblin off his chest and tiredly clambered to his feet. The goblin had to crane her neck to look up at him now as the top of her head didn¡¯t even reach the bottom of his pecs. He estimated he was well over 6 foot, maybe 6 foot 5 inches, a significant jump from when he had left the goblin camp, over a foot taller.


    She placed her hands flat on his abs and admired their difference in size.


    ¡°W-we should find m-more,¡± she stammered her voice coming out wobbly.


    ¡°You¡¯re more insatiable than I am. No, no more for the moment, I feel like I fell down a hill and hit every rock on the way down, twice.¡±


    ¡°Beast, I hope you die!¡± came a strained voice from behind.


    The pair turned to see that the leader Kobold was still alive somehow, though he was surrounded by an alarmingly large pool of blood.


    ¡°Oooh, and we don''t even have to go far for your next meal!¡±


    The Kobold spat blood to his side. ¡°I¡¯ll curse you on the way down your gullet beast. I hope I poison you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re dying.¡± said Rain, looking at the missing leg of the Kobold and the chunk torn from his side.


    ¡°Really? Brilliant observation wolf- whatever you are. You¡¯d make a good detective.¡±


    Opal held up her knife. ¡°I¡¯m going to end you, you miserable shitty Kobold.¡±


    Rain put a large paw on her shoulder to stop her however.


    ¡°Do you have any enemies?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± said the Kobold momentarily confused, although that could have been the blood loss.


    ¡°Anyone you want to suffer, people you want vengeance on? I¡¯m still going to eat you, but your fight with that snake impressed me, so if you tell me where I can find your enemies I might find I happen to cross their path and eat them too.¡±


    The Kobold barked out a long laugh that ended in a wince as he shifted his injury.


    ¡°Hilarious. The beast thinks he isn''t my enemy. I would wish that you eat yourself but I don''t think you will do that sad to say. Fine. I have no enemy inside of my tribe that I would risk a monster like you going anywhere near my tribe. But outside, yes, always. Before we found this clutch of magnificent snake eggs and our unfortunate meeting with their owner we were tracking a team of levelers, bastards that often raid us, kill my people, and worse. We lost track of them and the trail had gone cold, but maybe you¡¯ll come across them. If they haven''t left already they will most likely be encamped at the goat shaped rock, that way¡± He lifted a shaky arm and pointed with his cutlass before it fell from his feeble grip and impacted with the sand. ¡°They are led by a skilled and tall leveler with black hair and a sword. Bite his face off for me will you? Preferably while you are dying with a sword in your gut.¡±


    Rain lunged forward and grabbed the kobold around the neck.


    ¡°Tall, black hair? Did you hear of his name? Was it Brax?!¡±


    The Kobold smiled, showing his bloody teeth, and then spat blood over Rain¡¯s face.


    Rain reeled back as it splashed across his eyes and hurriedly wiped it away only to find the Kobold leader had expired and lay still as stone.


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 17

    ?


    The goblin swung her new cutlass experimentally and admired her new gold necklace as they walked.


    Rain worked a green scale free from his teeth with a claw. The Kobold leader had posessed a much tougher body to chew on than the other Kobolds, another sign that it would have been a bad idea to fight him when he was unwounded.


    ¡°Rock shaped like a goat?¡± muttered Rain, turning over what the Kobold had said.


    ¡°Yeah, I sometimes went there when scouting for the tribe. A lot of the time it would have levelers camped by it so it was dangerous. They like the spot for some reason, I guess it¡¯s a convenient safe place near the stairs to a higher floor of the dungeon.¡± She shrugged and pointed with her new cutlass. ¡°It¡¯s right there, follow me.¡±


    She led the way through a crack in the wall and they shuffled through until they came out on a shelf of rock overlooking a vast cavern which had in the centre what seemed a monolithic upright cuboid rock formation. The formation had apparently been carved in some distant time past as the top quarter was loosely shaped like a goat¡¯s head. A cluster of trees grew on top of the rock formation draping greenery down its side.


    The rest of the cavern was relatively barren with only a number of rocks spread sparsely around the sands, as such it was easy to see the campfire and rising pillar of smoke at the base of the formation.


    ¡°Oh shit, they really are there,¡± exclaimed Opal.


    ¡°We don''t know if it''s the same group that the Kobold mentioned, we need to get closer.¡±


    They climbed down from the shelf and wandered into the cavern proper. It didn''t make for good cover and the pair were wary with how they approached and carefully hid from sight.


    The campfire as it came into view was surrounded by more people than any single adventuring team Rain had ever known. It wasn''t until they got closer that he realised why that was. A number of Goblins and Kobolds were chained around the edge of the camp while a skinny Hobgoblin oversaw them.


    The actual adventuring team sat around the fire. A tall Elf with black hair, an even taller female Orc who looked to be nearly seven foot tall, and beside her a Human woman. The woman had wavy blonde hair and wore form fitting hunting leathers under a loose cloak, a staff lay by her side.


    ¡°I know why you want this Brax person, he was one of your old slavers, wasn''t he?¡± Opal nodded at the Elf.


    ¡°No. I have no idea who that Elf is. But the woman, that¡¯s Eliza. I don''t know why she is with a shady group like this but that isn''t going to stop me from killing her.¡±


    ¡°Well you aren''t getting at her like this surrounded by her allies.¡±


    Rain gnawed on his lip. ¡°We should get closer, maybe if we hear their plans we can figure something out.¡±


    They crept to the edge of the camp, maybe too close, a chained Goblin spotted Rain and he froze unsure what to do until Opal raised her finger to her lip in a shushing motion and the Goblin quite deliberately looked away from them. Rain hurried to get out of sight behind a boulder.


    ¡°Lucky. That Gobbo could have called out.¡±


    ¡°Maybe we can free the Goblins without being noticed and then when they are chasing them down I get Eliza.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure I¡¯d be able to get near without being noticed to free them, you definetly can''t.¡±


    Rain frowned but remained quiet to listen. Voices drifted over and they peeked around the stone.


    ¡°Here, Eliza, warm my meat.¡±


    ¡°No! I¡¯m not that kind of mage! How many times have I told you, I don''t do fire. If you want it warmed stick it down your pants you stupid Orc.¡±


    ¡°Bwahahah! Ola, quit being a tease, you¡¯ll just get slapped down again.¡±


    ¡°Not my fault she has a stick up her arse and can¡¯t take a joke,¡± the Orc grumbled.


    ¡°Hey, relax, we got a good haul, plenty of throwaway slaves we can sell off. Just think of the money.¡±


    ¡°Eurgh, don¡¯t say that. I feel dirty enough working with you two.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll change your tune with a fat stack of coin in your hands, don¡¯t you worry.¡±


    ¡°No way! I wouldn''t be doing this if I weren''t in so much debt for buying this stupid staff. Soon as we¡¯re done we¡¯re parting ways.¡±


    ¡°Ola here said something similar back in the day and now she¡¯s my reliable partner in business.¡±


    The Orc nodded. ¡°Honour and all that is bullshit. Strength is the only virtue, everything else is meaningless, you know that, it¡¯s the same with leveling. The strong stand on the weak and relish every moment of it. Someone ten levels above you can lean on you, someone twenty levels above you can take everything you own and make you their bitch and you won''t be able to do a thing about it. Same shit we do with these level-less monsters. You can think of them as level one if you like, it¡¯s not our fault they are so weak.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ I knew someone who was level one¡­ as an adult.¡±


    ¡°Really? Bet they got squashed like a bug hah!¡±


    ¡°It¡­ It wasn¡¯t like that.¡±


    ¡°But they were squashed in the end no? You see my point.¡±


    ¡°Oih! Your high and mighty levelernesses!¡±


    The Orc narrowed her eyes in annoyance. ¡°What is it Hob?¡±


    The weedling voice that had spoken up belonged to the skinny Hobgoblin who had been walking amongst the slaves and seeing to their chains.


    He held up a Goblin by the scruff. ¡°This one says we got a Gobbo stalker. Probly followed us from that little tribe we raided.¡±


    ¡°Oh?,¡± said the Elf. He rose from sitting and unsheathed a rapier at his side. Wind seemed to come from nowhere and blew out the tail of his coat dramatically. ¡°An after dinner hunt to settle the stomach, I¡¯ll enjoy this.¡±


    He began to slowly float into the air.


    ¡°Hey, don''t piss off and leave me alone with the Human,¡± growled the Orc standing and heaving up what appeared to be an actual fullsized blacksmiths anvil on the end of a squared steel rod partly wrapped in cloth for grip.


    ¡°Fine, but it¡¯s none of my concern if you can¡¯t keep up.¡±


    As his eyes turned outward and scanned the area Opal and Rain panicked.


    ¡°What do we do?!¡± hissed Opal.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, that Orc looks strong enough to snap me over her knee, and I don''t even know what that Elf is capable of.¡±


    ¡°We run, we gotta run.¡±


    Rain nodded. ¡°No choice, it''s our only shot.¡± He looked down at her legs. ¡°You¡¯re okay to do that right? You¡¯ve got your strength back?¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, I¡¯ve been fine for ages now, worry about yourself,¡± she said, stretching her legs as though readying for a race.


    ¡°Alright, on one. Two. Three!¡±


    They bolted from behind the rock and fled back to where they had entered into the cavern.


    ¡°There! I see the Goblin! And something else! What the fuck is that? Ola, care!¡±


    The Elf swooped through the air quickly gaining on them and Rain glanced behind to see the Orc was sprinting from the camp, her muscular legs pounding the ground like pistons, each step causing an explosion of sand behind her.


    Fortunately their entry point was nearing, a crack In the cavern wall on a slightly raised shelf of stone.


    Lightning exploded to one side and Rain yelped as speckles of molten sand rained over him.


    ¡°Missed! Damn it! Stay still so I can shoot you Goblin girl!¡± came a scornful voice from above.


    ¡°Leave some for me you stupid Elf!¡± bellowed a voice further behind.


    Rain zigzagged hoping to avoid being hit, but no more attacks came and he succesfully made it to the rock shelf and scrambled up its side to the crack. It was only then he turned and realised Opal wasn''t with him. She was far behind, half running on shaky legs, half jogging, as he watched she weakly sunk to the ground before getting control of herself and rising to run again.


    The Elf was casually floating above looking down at her with amusement. She ran, but the end was inevitable. The Elf flourished his hand and the Goblin was slammed into the ground as though buffeted by a gale force wind. As she hit the sand the Orc stomped up behind them.


    ¡°There, gotcha.¡±


    ¡°What is that?¡± said the Orc staring at Rain. ¡°Is it drenched in blood? It¡¯s like some kind of bipedal wolf thing.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. It¡¯s like no monster I¡¯ve seen or heard off before and I¡¯ve come across quite a number.¡±


    ¡°Some kind of leveler, an intelligent higher species that''s not well known? Most levelers are bipedal.¡±


    ¡°Doubt it, it looks feral. Just look at its eyes, there¡¯s something wrong with it. Unsettling.¡± The Elf shivered despite himself.


    ¡°Bet I could take it.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid Ola. It¡¯s a complete unknown. There are old slavers and there are bold slavers, but there are no old bold slavers. You know that.¡±


    ¡°Hmpph. Fuck that noise. Hey, black and bloody! Come get some!¡±


    ¡°Shh! Don¡¯t provoke it!¡±


    Ola held up a thick finger at him. ¡°Listen closely Elf. Go find a pair of rocks about the size of my fist, get that stupid scarf you wear, tie those rocks up, and then dangle them from your crotch. Hopefully that will inspire you to grow a pair.¡±


    ?


    The Elf shot a bolt of lightning beside the Orc causing her to yelp and drop her anvil hammer.


    ¡°Stop being a fool. This is a Dungeon not an Orcish brawling house.¡±


    The Orc glowered at the floating Elf. ¡°Fuck you!¡±


    The Elf ignored her and drifted down to the ground beside Opal. He produced a steel collar from his coat and snapped it around her neck. Rain could only watch, frozen in place. His instincts were screaming at him to run and leap at the Elf and kill him but his reason earned in his previous life warred back in a panic telling him he stood no chance at all against someone high level enough to freaking fly and someone who could wield what must have been an entire four or five hundred pound anvil as a hammer.


    ¡°I won''t be a slave!¡± screamed Opal clutching at the collar. Her eyes caught Rain¡¯s for a moment and that one look alone was enough to communicate all of her intent. She had said ¡®slave¡¯ to tell him that she would not die immediately and not to risk himself yet. She had said ¡®won¡¯t¡¯ because she intended to escape at some point in the future, he need only follow and wait for the opportunity to help.


    He grit his teeth until it felt like they would crack. He wanted Opal back. He had never expected to feel so covetous and possessive over the Goblin. She was his. He managed to control himself with difficulty and then forced himself to move to the shadowed crack in the cavern wall. With one last glance behind he disappeared inside.

 Chapter 18

    ?


    Opal yelped as the Hobgoblin smacked her to the ground. Her gold necklace was in one of his fists and her cutlass was at his hip.


    ¡°Why are you doing this? Why help the levelers?¡± said Opal rubbing her cheek.


    The Hobgoblin shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s a life. That us Gobbos are shit to each other makes it easy.¡±


    ¡°We can escape, rise up, get freedom.¡±


    The Hobgoblin picked his nose. ¡°Nah. I¡¯m here cause I get paid. How do you think these clueless adventurers even find Gobbo tribes.¡± He jabbed a thumb into his chest, still picking his nose.


    ¡°But they see you as nothing! Just experience for levels!¡±


    ¡°A Hob like me ain¡¯t worth shit in experience to those high levelers. I got more value than that as a guide and tracker. Economics innit.¡±


    Opal sighed, disappointed that he wasn''t going to be persuaded. Not that she expected him to be, if he were then the other enslaved Goblins would have escaped by now.


    The levelers that the Hobgoblin served were busy packing up, the Elf had decided he didn¡¯t want to sleep with Rain nearby. Opal considered that a wise move.


    Already the Goblins and Kobolds were being shuffled into a line by the Hob, each chained to the next slave in line. Opal was near the end, a chain connected to her collar. The Elf flew around the camp keeping a lookout as the Orc and Eliza packed the last of their stuff away. It all fit in an overly large duffel bag which the Orc swung over one shoulder. Opal eyed her bulging biceps, the Orc really was astonishingly strong. She would need to be killed in her sleep if they were to have a chance.


    The procession of slaves set out with the Orc at the head with a chain in the same fist that gripped her hammer. She tugged on it and the row of two dozen slaves stumbled into motion.


    ¡°I still think you¡¯re overblowing things,¡± grumbled the orc.


    ¡°Yes I agree, what on earth did you see that spooked you enough to want to decamp?¡± said Eliza.


    ¡°It¡¯s just risk management. You see a monster you¡¯ve never seen nor heard of before and it¡¯s covered from tip to toe in blood, enough blood that it didn''t come from one creature alone, well, you get the fuck out of town.¡±


    ¡°That does sound worrying.¡±


    ¡°Pshaw. It¡¯s just some monster. I could break it like a toy.¡±


    The Elf drifted by in the air, his posture as though he were on an invisible couch with his ankle rocking on one knee and his hands behind his head.


    ¡°I do wish you would learn from our peers'' frequent premature demise Ola. There is a reason that we are still going when so many quite respectable slavers have perished.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s because I¡¯m strong as fuck.¡±


    The Elf covered his face with one hand and shook his head.


    ¡°No, my dear Orc. It¡¯s because we don''t take risks. We don''t go after the truly dangerous monsters and we don''t push our luck.¡±


    Eliza raised her hand. ¡°But aren''t the dangerous monsters more valuable?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, what she said. Who¡¯s to say that black furred fucker wasn¡¯t worth a million gold?¡±


    ¡°Let me put it this way. The slaver that goes after the truly dangerous monsters dies within a year. The slaver that goes after the less dangerous monsters, but doesn''t make as much, lives, and over time they come to own a fortune multiple times the size the risk taker ever had. It¡¯s all about playing the long game. Economics.¡±


    The Orc grumbled but didn''t protest, irritably pulling on the slaves¡¯ chain as they left the goat head cavern.


    They soon came to the base of a great stair that led between floors of the dungeon. A massive thing made by some unknown civilization eons ago, forty feet wide, with two or three hundred steps going upward and vanishing into the dark, and this was just one floor.


    ¡°Right you Goblin and Kobold fucks, try to keep your feet in order. If one of you falls make sure you catch them. Last time we led slaves out of here they all fell down like dominoes after the one at the front slipped over. I dragged the lot of them to the top on their asses. Two of them died on the way. You¡¯ve been warned.¡±


    The slaves looking nervous formed into a relatively straight line behind the Orc as she took to the stairs. They followed meekly after her.


    Opal eyed the surroundings and wasn''t surprised to see a dark shadow disappear behind a rock. They had a stalker.


    She elbowed the Goblin next to her and hissed at them. The forlorn looking Goblin looked up.


    ¡°Hey,¡± she said, ¡°I got someone on the outside looking to break us free. They''re strong, if we give them an opportunity they can kill any one of those leveler assholes as long as it''s a surprise attack.¡±


    The Goblin stared at Opal. ¡°...Why are you so clean?¡±


    Opal scowled and avoided looking her in the eye.


    ¡°I... fell in a lake. Listen, forget that, I¡¯ve got someone who can help who isn¡¯t in chains.¡±


    ¡°Our whole tribe was crushed just by the Orc. What chance does one lone Gobbo stand.¡±


    ¡°He isn''t a Gobbo, and he took down my old tribe alone, including our witch goblin and Hobgobbo.¡±


    The Goblin gave her a funny look. ¡°Why is he with you now then?¡±


    ¡°Would you pick teaming up with the dying remains of a Gobbo tribe or the one who beat them but is open to help?¡±


    ¡°Fair. I guess.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, the thing I wanted to ask is, well, you lot have been here longer than me, surely you¡¯ve got something? An escape plan?


    The Goblin shrugged. ¡°Not really. But the Kobolds? Yeah, maybe.¡± The goblin kicked the Kobold in front of them in the tail. She turned around with a scowl.


    ¡°What do you want you stinky unwashed goblin?¡±


    The Goblin grinned back at her. ¡°This one says she¡¯s got a friend on the outside.¡±


    The Kobold eyed Opal suspiciously, clearly noting how clean Opal was and raising an eyebrow. ¡°Why did you have a Kobold cutlass and necklace when you got here?¡±


    Uh oh ¡°Oh, that, right. If you really want to know me and my friend came across a dying Kobold leader. The Kobold had found a giant snake¡¯s nest and tried to kill the snake and take the eggs but the snake and the Kobold only managed to kill each other after a great battle. The Kobold impressed my friend so much with his courage that he offered him a boon before his death. He told us to kill this leveler team he said was raiding his tribe. It didn''t really go as planned since I¡¯m here and the team isn''t dead.¡± Mostly true, but I don¡¯t think she¡¯s gonna buy it.


    ¡°Why would you tell me that? That sounds completely unbelievable.¡± She was silent for a moment. ¡°This Kobold, did he have green and red scales?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that''s the one, he could breathe fire too.¡±


    ¡°Grexin that pompous scaly asshole, I knew I recognized that cutlass, of course he would get himself killed greeding for sneggs. Alright fine, that¡¯s atleast a little believable.¡±


    ¡°Well, have you got a plan?¡±


    The Kobold sneered.


    ¡°She reckons her friend can kill one of the levelers if it¡¯s a sneak attack. Says he took on her old tribe alone and won,¡± said the Goblin.


    The Kobold eyed Opal. ¡°Well you came to complete that boon so I suppose you have motivation you otherwise would not.¡± She hesitated and then opened her mouth showing a crude solid gold key hidden beneath her tongue.


    Opal blinked. ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s gold isn''t it. Soft. I had a gold coin and now I have a key because I shaped it with my teeth.¡±


    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s actually legitimately impressive. It works?¡±


    The Kobold seemed pleased and nodded. ¡°Already tested it. Just waiting for them to sleep.¡±


    The line had made it up to the top of the stair by this point and they stumbled onto flat ground. Opal took a moment to peer back down and spotted a black tail sliding behind a pillar on one side of the stair.


    The levelers were conversing up ahead and after a moment the Orc sighed and pulled on the chain once more.


    ¡°One more floor so the princess can sleep easy.¡±


    The slaves groaned but trudged after the Orc as they made their way over to a second giant stair and began to ascend.


    Sometime later they crossed onto the next floor and the elf led them through a number of dark caves until they came to one that was dimly lit by veins of crystal running through the walls. The Elf had the Orc and Eliza make camp and soon they were as they had started, tents, fire, and slaves chained to iron stakes that the Orc rammed into the ground with her hammer.


    About an hour later the levelers crawled into their tents and fell asleep. A few hours after that a shadow crept into the cave. Out of the gloom a pair of unsettling yellow eyes approached. Opal had to put a hand over the mouth of the nearest Goblin as they saw Rain and tried to cry out.


    ¡°It¡¯s a friend. They¡¯ll help us escape,¡± she whispered.


    The Goblin slowly nodded but looked scared as the shadowy beast moved nearer and then looked like they were going to wet themselves when Rain grinned at Opal.


    Opal put a hand on her collar. ¡°I¡¯ve got something for this. Hangon.¡±


    She turned to the Kobold with the key who was watching Rain warily.


    ¡°Well?¡±


    ¡°What is that monster?¡± She shook her head. ¡°Nevermind, not now.¡± She plucked the key from under her tongue and unlocked her collar then passed it to Opal who did the same, then to the next Goblin in the line and so on, swiftly freeing more and more.


    ¡°Hey, whatchu doing?¡± came a nasaly voice. It was the Hobgoblin who had been crouched near the tents and distractedly carving a bit of wood.


    The Goblins and Kobolds froze.


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 19

    ?


    ¡°Go!¡± cried Opal.


    Rain burst into motion and his legs powered him across the camp in one fluid leap. He landed on the Hob and smashed him to the ground where his teeth came down on the unfortunate Hob¡¯s neck. With one savage motion he tore out his throat, literally ripping it from his body.


    Opal rushed up beside him as the sound of disturbed sleep started to emanate from the tents.


    ¡°They¡¯re waking!¡± she whisper hissed.


    Rain swung between the three tents unsure what to do. He made a decision and sprung on the nearest. Ripping through the side he came down on its sleeping occupant teeth first, viciously biting down with the intent to kill as fast as possible. He had one split second look at a terrified Elf who had woken up to see Rain''s blood covered head sticking through the wall of his tent and then his maw descended on the Elf¡¯s face and savagely tore it off in a fountain of gore, along with a good portion of his skull and brain leaving behind a horrifying ruin.


    A furious roar came from the tent next door and the Orc charged through the side of her tent crashing directly into the tent Rain was in. A muscular shoulder rammed into him and he went flying from the canvas with a yelp and slammed into the cave¡¯s wall before slumping down. The Orc roared once more and ripped apart the tent covering her with her bare hands. She swung around looking for what she had shoulder checked but completely missed Rain who blended into the shadows. Instead she was distracted by the recently freed Kobolds and Goblins running around in a panic.


    ¡°You fucking shits! What did you do to my Elf!? I¡¯m going to kill you allll!!!¡±


    She stomped back to her tent and ripped it apart then pulled her massive anvil hammer free, hefting it easily. She turned and brought it down on a Goblin. The Goblin exploded under the sheer force of it, spraying blood and skin and mashing everything solid that was left into the ground.


    She torqued and spun the hammer around herself causing it to obliterate two Kobolds and catapulting part of them across the cave at extreme speed where they pulped against a wall.


    She strode forward swinging at targets as Eliza crawled from her tent and used her staff to climb to her feet. She looked around wide-eyed at the chaos and brought the staff up. Water boiled from a chunk of azurite on its tip and four water orbs began floating around her, each nearly a foot in diameter. She swung her staff and they began gliding forward, homing in on escaped slaves. Once they reached a target they engulfed the unfortunate victim¡¯s head and clung in place as they desperately thrashed around trying to move the unbreathable ball of fluid. Most hadn''t been quick enough to hold their breath and were rapidly drowning.


    She suddenly flinched and turned, holding her staff up as a set of teeth leapt from the shadows. Paws grabbed her staff and the teeth came down on it, instantly snapping the staff in two. She let go and the black furred monster flung the two halves aside.


    She stumbled backwards in fright as it came on.


    ¡°Do you recognize me Eliza? I climbed out of hell for you, but look at the monster I¡¯ve become.¡± He spread his paws wide, bits of Elf gore dripping from his snarling muzzle.


    ¡°W-what?!¡±


    ¡°Let me give you a clue. Me, you, Lira, Adlen, Myra, and Brax all went to do a little power leveling. Then you all stabbed me in the back and tortured me to death for fun.¡±


    Her mouth flapped open, working up and down as she tried to find words.


    ¡°Rain!?¡±


    ¡°Yes! You threw me away like trash, and for that, I am going to kill you.¡±


    ¡°W-wait! Please! I didn''t mean it! I said as much, I said, I said it was a mistake! I felt bad about it!¡±


    ¡°After you gleefully gutted me like a fish Eliza.¡±


    Eliza''s face went from pleading to scowling anger in an instant, as though a switch had been flipped.


    ¡°Oh go fuck yourself Rain. You turned into a monster? Yeah, that would be fitting. I¡¯ll ensure it¡¯s a short lived experience.¡±


    She lifted her hands into the air and the water orbs rushed back toward her in a dizzying orbit. They met and merged forming one massive two foot wide ball of water with a splash. She flung her hands forward and it rocketed at Rain, he tried to dodge but it homed in on him and engulfed his shoulders and head.


    ¡°We threw your worthless ass in the lake so I think this is a fitting end for your second death!¡± She giggled as she held out her palms keeping the huge ball of water over Rain as he stumbled about hopelessly swinging at the yielding liquid. Air bubbled up from his mouth as he panicked, he tried to reach for Eliza but to no avail, she simply backed away and kept him submerged.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to skin you and sell your pelt so you will have at last found a way to contribute a little value to our town Rain. Choke and fill your lungs and di- wait, what are you doing?¡±


    Rain had stopped moving and was standing still with his mouth open wide. Eliza blinked and stared at him.


    ¡°Are you... are you trying to drink it? You can¡¯t be serious. Pffaahaha!¡±


    Rain met her eyes through the watery orb and the corners of his mouth curled. Then he began to swallow. The water rushed inward as though sucked in by a whirlpool and the orb rapidly diminished, within seconds shrinking down to a foot across and then vanishing down the wolf¡¯s throat. He belched and patted his stomach.


    ¡°Nice try. But it was never going to work.¡±


    ¡°N-no!¡± She wrenched her hands to the side trying to affect the water trapped inside of him, but Rain simply set his feet and used his superior strength to override her globular control of the mass of water.


    He belched again. ¡°Urff, never drank water like that. Oh, here we go.¡± He rested a paw on his stomach as it rapidly shrank down to nothing and returned to flat. ¡°Was wondering if that would work, too bad there¡¯s no growth though.¡±


    Eliza stared at his flattened abdomen. ¡°What? Wh-where, did it go!?¡± She moved her hands trying to shift the now non-existent water.


    ¡°Oh is that all you¡¯ve got? Guess this is going to end quicker than I like. Oh well. Time to eat you.¡±


    He stepped toward her causing her to back away in fear.


    ¡°H-hey, hold on, you can¡¯t be serious. You¡¯re just some level-less freak, you can¡¯t eat me!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to bite your legs off and splinter your bones Eliza, I¡¯m going to make you watch me eat you alive bit by bit, your fingers, your toes, your limbs, you will beg me to kill you.¡±


    Eliza¡¯s eyes went wide. ¡°No! No! You can¡¯t! R-rain! I¡¯ll do anything, what do you want? Money? P-power leveling?¡±


    ¡°Power leveling? Is that a joke?¡± He snorted. ¡°No. Karma caught up Eliza. This is the end.¡±


    Her knees shook as she backed up against the cavern wall, unable to take her eyes off Rain''s own yellow eyes she scrabbled blindly behind herself, desperate for an escape.


    ¡°Rain! Look out!¡± cried a Goblin voice and Rain dropped to the ground as the Orc¡¯s anvil hammer flew through the air having been hurled, sailing just past where his torso had been. It struck the wall next to Eliza and fractured it from top to bottom with an ear splitting boom. Huge sheets of rock sloughed off and toppled to the ground. Eliza screamed and threw her arms over her head as she was peppered with high velocity splinters of stone.


    ¡°Fuck! Fuck! Fuck this!¡± She grabbed at her side and ripped off a water skin attached to her belt. She frantically pulled the cap free and upended it on the ground squeezing it out as fast as possible. Rain looked up in surprise from where he lay prone. She slammed her hands together in a strange hand seal and began breathlessly and rapidly chanting. The puddle of fluid she stood in began to faintly glow and then to Rain¡¯s utter outrage she began to sink into it, her legs quickly disappearing. He scrambled to his feet and lunged at her, arm extended, paw reaching, he grabbed a fist full of her hair and heaved back causing her to scream. Rain underestimated his own strength however and that the pool had an unstoppable grip on her and a good third of her long blonde hair was ripped from her scalp leaving an angry red welt behind. She screamed again and slapped her hands down over her bleeding head. A tearful face shot him a look of pure withering hatred.


    As she dipped below the puddle¡¯s surface Rain could only watch as her lips formed words with no sound, carefully directed at him. ¡®I liked what I did¡¯. She vanished below and the water stopped glowing and became normal unmagical water once more.


    Rain stood there with a chunk of bloody blonde hair held limply in his paw. His whole body trembled with rage. ¡®I liked what I did¡¯. She had enjoyed gutting him. Her pretences were always just that, a facade, she¡¯d never had an ounce of kindness in her. She was as twisted as Myra or Brax or any of the others. Demons without the outward appearance of Demons.


    He snarled and flung her hair to the ground. He spun around looking for something to take his growing fury out on, just in time as a heavy Orc fist was flying toward his head. He shifted aside as it whistled past, actually brushing by his fur. He dove out of the way of the charging Orc and scrambled to keep his feet under him.


    Ola stumbled to a stop having missed and almost lost her balance.


    She turned with a massive grin on her face and her eyes gleaming with excitement.


    ¡°It¡¯s you! You bloody black furred fucker! You¡¯ve come to fight me!¡±


    Rain ignored her words and lunged at her, arms outstretched, eyes wild with rage.


    ¡°Woah there!¡± said the Orc as claws reached for her muscular neck. A massive green fist came up and grabbed one of his arms by the forearm but not before his other claws managed to lacerate her skin sending a sheet of blood washing down the side of her neck.


    ¡°Savage fucker aren''t you. Strong too. I¡¯m gonna enjoy beating you to a pulp.¡±


    She swung her arm out, holding Rain up in the air and away from herself as he struggled. She then shook him back and forth so violently that it caused Rain to be momentarily stunned.


    ¡°Aww does the little monsty not like it when he gets pushed around?¡±


    Rain¡¯s yellow eyes stared her down. ¡°I¡¯m going to make you regret that.¡±


    The Orc blinked in surprise. ¡°Oh, you can tal-AAARGHHG!!!¡±


    She screamed as Rain lunged up and bit one of her fingers holding him clean off. The Orc instinctually threw him aside, sending him tumbling and rolling across the ground.


    ¡°You piece of shit! Look what you¡¯ve done to me!¡± cried the Orc holding up a bleeding stump where her index finger once was.


    Rain crawled to his feet and rolled his jaw. He then opened his mouth and quite deliberately showed the Orc her dismembered finger resting there.


    ¡°H-hey, give that back, there¡¯s healers that can reattach shit like this. Good monster, just hand it here.¡±


    Rain swiftly diced the finger with his teeth and swallowed the chunks. Blood dripped from his mouth as he gave her his most predatory grin.


    ¡°FUUUUCKK YOOU!¡± roared the Orc and she lunged for her anvil hammer where it lay, grabbed it up, swung it over her head, and hurtled toward Rain.


    Rain was caught unprepared by her explosive speed and cut a close dodge, the hammer came down, but it was a bluff and she caught it halfway through the arc. She set her hips and legs and twisted her body torquing into a side swing, it just glanced off Rain¡¯s side, he could practically hear his ribs creak as they deformed under the brushed weight of the anvil. He was sent rolling, his limbs flailing as he went down.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got you now you finger eating fuck head!¡± crowed the Orc as she strode forward and swung the anvil hammer down on him from above like an unstoppable meteor.


    Rain tried to get up in time, desperately trying to get his feet under him quickly enough to have time to get out of the way. Too late. Only one choice left. He reached out his paws above his head, and he caught the anvil. BOOM! The pressure wave blew through him and the stone floor fractured as his feet were pushed down with unfathomable energy. His bones screamed and he could physically feel his muscles shredding apart under the immense weighted momentum he was desperately trying to hold back. His claws dug into stone and rock sheared and shattered in a widening circle around him as he struggled to keep from being crushed. The anvil kept on crashing down and down onto his shoulders. He roared and blood flecked from his mouth and the very air trembled with the noise. But, he held. The anvil stopped still on his shoulder, the hammer had nearly broken him, and his legs shook like leaves in the wind. But, he held.


    The Orc stared at him stunned.


    ¡°Well. That¡¯s a first.¡±


    She kicked him in the chest.


    Rain stumbled backwards helpless to watch as the Orc heaved her anvil hammer around in a full body swing and hundreds of pounds of metal came at him, he couldn''t even lift his ruined arms to stop it. The hammer freighted into him. His arm dangling by his side took it first and it shattered instantly, breaking up and down its length. Then his ribcage behind caved in, snapping ribs like twigs. The blow took him off his feet and the force of it sent him flying across the cavern to slam into the cavern wall where stone fractured and flesh tore before he crashed to the floor in a heap.


    Rain tried desperately to cling to consciousness as the heavy boots of the Orc approached.


    ¡°HAHAHA! Almost had me going for a second you fuck. You¡¯re done now though, it¡¯s a small miracle you¡¯re still breathing. I think I¡¯ll mount your head on the wall as my trophy. You¡¯re bodies a mess so ain¡¯t much salvaging that yeah?¡±


    Rain ignored her and pushed himself back up against the wall, then with immense effort he pushed upward with his legs, managing to stand, leaning against the stone for support, his back leaving a bloody smear in its wake, his arms useless at his sides.


    ¡°Oh the fire in you. Shame Elfy died, woulda done him good to see someone with a pair.¡±


    Every breath Rain took was pain.


    ¡°You¡­¡± he whispered.


    The Orc stepped closer to hear.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got green on you.¡±


    She tilted her head not understanding and Opal slipped her knife around the Orc¡¯s throat and slashed at her muscular neck. The blade penetrated, but shallow, the Orc yelped and a hand came up to grab at the Goblin riding her back, but she was already gone, only a cut to match the previous one Rain had made with his claws left in her wake.


    Rain leapt on the opportunity and heaved himself away from the wall. His jaws opened wide and his teeth fell on the forearm of the arm carrying the hammer and bit down like an unstoppable guillotine. Skin, fat, muscle, all split apart, teeth met bone and sheared through them such was his do or die strength. The hammer crashed to the ground with a green hand and part of an arm still clutching it.


    ¡°WHAT!?¡± screamed the Orc staring at her severed stump in horror. Rain stumbled forward blood sheeting from his maw, his eyes intense and wild. The Orc panicked and grabbed at his face with her other hand trying to keep him away. SNAP. Half her fingers vanished down Rain¡¯s throat. BITE. Her hand was inside his mouth and rapidly disappearing. She tried to pull away but his jaws would not let go and each bite made more of her vanish behind those hungry greedy teeth, already he was working his way toward her elbow.


    She screamed wordlessly and smashed her head down on the wolf in a wild headbutt. It worked, stopping Rain long enough for her to pull her arm free.


    She turned and ran, long legs shoving her forward, one step, two- A weight clamped down on her ankle and she tripped and fell. She turned and looked down in fright to see the black furred thing had thrown itself and managed to catch her in its jaws once more. It crunched down and severed her foot. Then it began to eat its way up her shin. She screamed and bellowed in fear and her other foot came down to kick at the wolf. CRUNCH. The teeth bit at that foot too, shearing through her boot and right through to flesh and bone. She could only watch as it continued to eat her alive bit by bit, using its legs to shove itself forward as its arms were broken. It was consuming her from the feet upward.


    She screamed herself hoarse and tried to crawl away, the stumps of her arms fruitlessly dragging against the ground as she hyperventilated.


    ¡°Stop! P-please! Oh gods!¡±


    Rain didn¡¯t hear her. He was no longer conscious and his body was working of its own accord.


    Her muscular thighs soon went inside the beast, then her hips, then her abs and stomach.


    Her vision was getting dark and she stared up at the cavern ceiling unseeing.


    ¡°The Elf was right¡­ He was right damn him. There¡¯s always something¡­ something out there... something worse than a nightmare...¡±


    Her eyes fluttered shut as implacable teeth met her rib cage and devoured her.

 Chapter 20

    ?


    Rain''s eyes crept open as growth stretched his limbs. He groaned and his back arched, his feet slipping across the floor as he pushed himself up.


    As the surge of growth left he slumped back down breathing deep.


    Opal looked down at him from where she was crouched over his head, worry creasing her brow.


    ¡°Hey.¡± said Rain.


    Opal pouted. ¡°I thought you were gonna die.¡±


    Rain paused. ¡°So did I. What happened exactly?¡±


    ¡°You got smashed up by the Orc leveler real bad. I stepped in and saved your life.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I remember that bit.¡±


    ¡°And then you seemed to black out and go into an eating frenzy. You ate that Orc bitch alive.¡±


    ¡°Ah.¡± He waved his paws in front of his face, both attached to quite healthy and undamaged arms. ¡°I¡¯m uninjured.¡±


    ¡°Well you did eat a pretty big leveler, and then later, while you were still unconscious, I fed you five squished Kobolds and a few Goblins, and then all the camps food supplies, and then even later the annoying floaty Elf guy which finished off the healing, that last bit of growth was from that.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ see.¡±


    ¡°Hmphh, no need to thank me.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Opal. I mean it, I¡¯d be dead without you.¡±


    She blushed despite herself and looked away.


    ¡°It¡¯s f-fine.¡±


    Rain gathered himself and after a moment managed to sit up and then get to his feet.


    ¡°Woah, taller again. Voice is a little deeper too.¡±


    He looked down at the Goblin who couldn''t help but keep snatching glances at him. He estimated he¡¯d gained nearly two inches of height. The wonders of eating levelers.


    ¡°Did they leave anything useful in their camp?¡±


    Opal pulled her shiny new rapier from her side which was a match for her reacquired cutlass resting on her other hip. After showing him the sharp blade she sheathed it.


    ¡°Mhmm. That elf guy liked his quality. Sacks of coin too.¡±


    ¡°Really? How much?¡±


    Opal shrugged and went and fetched three bulging coin bags which she poured out onto the ground. A heaping pile of gold met Rain¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Apparently slaving pays pretty well. That''s more gold than I¡¯ve seen in my whole life, not that I¡¯ve ever had the opportunity to see much.¡±


    ¡°Levelers kill monsters, but taking us as slaves is something Gobbos actually fear more. The ones who escape do not have happy stories to tell. You would know that though, right?¡±


    Rain hesitated. He wasn''t unfamiliar with monster slaving, the town of Lynthia where he lived his previous life even had a small monster slaving market. It was a bleak place that¡¯s streets often ran red with blood and the stories of casual cruelty that came out of it were enough to make your hairs curl.


    ¡°I know. Goblins are known as disposable slaves.¡±


    He hadn''t actually thought of the slave market as anything but part of life and out of sight and mind in his previous life, something for the wealthy, it was always just... there. He was beginning to wonder if that thinking was wrong somehow with his shift in perspective. He shook his head. Not his problem, not now that he was an ungodly terror of a monster.


    He had Opal gather the coin back together and stow it in the bottom of her rucksack.


    ¡°I can''t help but notice you still have three slaves chained up.¡± said Rain gesturing at two Kobolds and a Goblin who were watching them warily.


    Opal scowled. ¡°Yes, most got away even though I managed to get the key back. I tried to find and recapture them but they all went to ground, vanished into the tunnels. You can eat these ones now though yes?¡± She seemed to cheer up a little at that last bit.


    Rain eyed the chains, recalling Opal wearing them. ¡°No, not right now¡­¡±


    ¡°But why? It¡¯s free food! Aren''t you hungry?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ still recovering. They¡¯re not going to get away, are they? They can be snacks for later.¡±


    The chained up Goblin whimpered hearing that and the two Kobolds eyed Rain fearfully and backed away as far as their chains would allow.


    Rain pursed his lips. ¡°You fed me in front of them, didn''t you?¡±


    ¡°Maybe?¡±


    He sighed. ¡°Nevermind. Look, I want to be stronger, unstoppable, for next time I see¡­ those who enslaved me.¡± He curled his paw into a fist. ¡°I want to figure out how to do that and fast. We¡¯re two floors up from where we started. The monsters are weaker around here right?¡±


    ¡°Mm, Sort of. The middle dungeon just has a lot more tribal monsters whereas the lower floors have fewer but more powerful single monsters, though you can still find them here too.¡±


    ¡°...That actually sounds like a good thing. Tribal monsters are much easier to kill and there''s more to eat if I kill a group.¡±


    ¡°Yes, the middle floors will be good for food, lots of monsters, lots to eat. Many levelers come here too, many more than the lower floors, and usually not as high a level so they are easier to kill,¡± she grinned.


    He nodded his agreement and then had her pack away the only tent that hadn''t been ruined by the Orc, Eliza¡¯s tent. It was much much nicer than the old Goblin tent they had been sharing, with no patches or tears, a big upgrade. Rain picked over the camp but there wasn''t much of value that Opal hadn''t already taken and packed up, most the slaves had gotten away and what food there had been Opal had already fed him while he slept. He eyed the blood covered anvil hammer lying on the stone floor, a brutal reminder of just how dangerous taking a leveler head to head could be.


    Rain didn''t want to carry the chains the three slaves were attached to so it was left to Opal. She handled it surprisingly well, turned out that a rapier was quite good for motivation and discipline when prodded into the softer parts of the body.


    They wandered deeper into the tunnels looking for easy signs of monsters or levelers. It didn''t take long to find. A sandy stretch of unusually large tunnels lit by moss-light. In the sand were many many webbed footprints, an alarming amount even.


    They decided to secrete the slaves in a side cave temporarily and then hide in a crevice tucked away behind a boulder so that they could spy on any potential passing traffic.


    A few minutes later they were disturbed from their watch by the sound of many tramping feet.


    ¡°This is them, it¡¯s gotta be, that big a group must have been what made all those footprints,¡± said Opal peeking around the boulder excitedly.


    The owners of the many feet soon came into view. Rain already felt his mouth watering. Fish people. Fish. He liked fish.


    The fish-like people were blue-green scaled, short, barely five foot tall, and had ray fins protruding from their forearms, shins, tail, head, and back. Their heads were very fish-like and large with droopy barbels and wide catfish-like mouths. They were also heavily armed with bone tipped spears and wooden bucklers.


    ¡°How many do you count? Forty four?¡±


    ¡°I count forty four of them yeah. I know these monsters, they¡¯re called Piscine. S¡¯lot. Must be a big tribal lake nearby.¡±


    ¡°Urgh, don¡¯t talk to me about lakes, I¡¯d kill for a bath right now.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn''t do that in their territory, they are nearly unbeatable in water, they just love to drag unsuspecting Gobbos under and go into a feeding frenzy.¡±


    ¡°Hmm really? At least they don''t look as well-armed as Kobolds, better trained though...¡±


    They watched the group march past. For the first time Rain heard a language that was not Common, the Piscine seemed to have their own unique language that consisted of burbling warbling noises that the lead Piscine of the march babbled at each other.


    The marching Piscine disappeared around the corner and the pair slunk back away from the tunnel.


    ¡°The problem is that we can¡¯t beat that many Piscine in one go, there''s just too many spears. They¡¯d turn us into pincushions.¡±


    ¡°Then we just need a strong monster to come and kill them, like the giant snake.¡±


    ¡°Sure, but we don¡¯t have that. So¡­¡±


    Rain scratched at his ear thinking hard.


    ¡°We¡­ we just need a different kind of trap right? Maybe a more traditional trap?¡±


    ¡°No materials,¡± scowled Opal.


    ¡°Yes we do, we have the remains of the slavers camp.¡±


    ¡°... We¡­ we do have that, that is true¡­¡±


    Rain could see machinations ticking into place behind Opal¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Got something?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe. Let¡¯s go back to the camp.¡±


    They collected the secreted slaves and took them back through the path they had come by.


    Rain helped stake them down then sat and watched as Opal picked around the camp examining things with new eyes.


    ¡°Maybe, maybe we could do something with this...¡± she said as she dragged the remains of the tents to the centre of the camp.


    ¡°Well?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not complicated. We make a pit trap. We can use this canvas stitched together to cover the hole along with the tent poles. Piscine walks over, and splat, they fall in.¡±


    Rain peered skeptically at the heap of canvas. ¡°I hope you don''t mind me saying so but this plan has some flaws.¡±


    ¡°No it doesn''t, It''s perfect!¡±


    ¡°Really now? And what¡¯s going to stop the back part of the army from stopping once they see the front half fall in?¡±


    The Goblin paused. ¡°I hadn''t gotten that far.¡±


    ¡°And what happens once they are in the pit? Can¡¯t they just climb out?¡±


    ¡°Well, that''s why we make sharp things to put in the bottom of the pit.¡±


    ¡°How? out of what?¡± said Rain looking around the camp.


    Opal gave him a sour look before suddenly brightening up. She scampered to a pile and pulled out a slave stake, a metal rod about three foot long with a point designed to be hammered into the ground so slaves could be left securely.


    ¡°Alright, that could work, maybe, and for the back half not falling in?¡±


    Opal turned and her eyes fell on the increasingly nervous looking slaves.


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 21

    ?


    A slightly manic looking red-scaled Kobold wandered through a sandy tunnel. His eyes skittered off the walls as though terrified something was stalking him.


    The kobold was well armed in a manner of speaking, he held a sword in one claw. What was less obvious was that beneath his newly endowed clothing his wrist was chained to his hip so he was unable to raise it. On his front was a rectangular piece of canvas stretched over a wooden frame that hung down from his neck to his knees. On the canvas was a rather crude charcoal drawing of a Kobold doing lewd things to a female Piscine while a different Piscine looked at the scene and cried. The copulating Kobold and Piscine had a number of poorly drawn hearts floating around their heads.


    Unsure of what he was waiting for the Kobold peered down the tunnel. He couldn''t see much as a corner blocked his view. Still, he soon quite clearly heard the nearing tramping of many feet and began to back away. A deep growl came from somewhere behind him in the shadows and made him freeze in place out of fear. He could do nothing but watch as what appeared to be a small Piscine army rounded the corner and came into view.


    The front line stared at the Kobold as they kept marching and then as their eyes wandered downward and took in the drawing attached to the front of the Kobold they began to slow and angry muttering broke out, then warbling shouts and pointed fingers. A cry of rage came from a particularly personally offended Piscine at the back.


    ¡°H-hey!¡± said the Kobold. ¡°I¡¯ve got nothing to do with this! It¡¯s some kind of trap! You¡¯ve got to listen to me!¡±


    The Piscine ignored him and continued to argue and point.


    ¡°Please! I¡¯m just a poor slave being made to do this against my will! I¡¯m not your enemy!


    A more leaderly looking Piscine with gold scales and carrying a trident in his webbed hands slammed the butt of his weapon into the ground and pointed an accusing finger at the Kobold. He then asked what was probably some kind of important question. Unfortunately it was in the Piscine language and completely unintelligible.


    ¡°Oh gods they don¡¯t speak Common, Oh no no nooo.¡±


    The Kobold panicked and not knowing what else to do he shook his head in the negative.


    This seemed to infuriate the leader and he screamed at the poor Kobold and took a step forward. The rest of the Piscine army took a threatening step forward too.


    The leader held up a hand and as though to give the Kobold one last chance to explain himself he asked something else, biting off each word as though he was desperately trying to put aside his anger.


    The Kobold listened. Paused. Then he turned and ran.


    The Piscine looked on in shock. Then their eyes fell on the second different canvas rectangle attached to the Kobold¡¯s back. This one showed a quite clearly pregnant Piscine in the background while in the foreground a cheekily grinning and winking Kobold gave a double thumbs up while taking a large poo in the open mouth of a crying Piscine. The poo was quite detailed and someone had put quite a bit of time into shading it.


    As one beast the Piscine army screamed their rage and stampeded down the tunnel. Howls of indignation echoed off the walls, none more so than from the leader Piscine who¡¯s eyes were bulging out of his head out of sheer apoplectic wrath.


    The unfortunate Kobold fled like the hounds of hell were on his tail.


    Sand flashed by, a newly built wall that diverted the tunnel into a side tunnel, then some slightly odd looking sand, then normal sand again. A flash of green to the side and a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him into a slim crack in the wall. A knife pressed into his side and that one Goblin who seemed to help the terrifying beast that ate everything appeared.


    He could only watch with her as the army of Piscine charged forward and over the odd bit of sand. They lasted only a moment before the canvas and tent pole frame collapsed under the strain and a yawning chasm opened up below them. The sheer rage of the Piscine kept those at the back driving forward so those who were at the front and saw the hole coming could only howl in frustration as those behind pushed and shoved forward tipping them into it.


    Opal stepped from the crack as the last few survivors stumbled to a stop and looked down in dismay at the hole that their brethren had fallen in. Not for long though as a long stick prodded one in the back and shoved him into the hole. Then the next. It took a few seconds for the remaining Piscine to realise what was happening and they turned to find Rain prodding them in one by one with an extended pole that easily out ranged their own spears. They gnashed their teeth and screamed at him but could do little as he used his overwhelming strength and range to punt them into the hole one by one.


    The Kobold slave shivered. What a ruthless strategy. He feared this pair not just for his own sake but for the rest of Kobold kind.


    ¡°I am a genius!¡± cried Opal.


    ¡°I¡¯ll admit that went better than expected.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, praise me. That was glorious!¡±


    ¡°Be praised,¡± Said Rain, bemused.


    Rain leapt across the hole in the ground and stood beside Opal to peer down into it, not before staking down the trembling Kobold slave however.


    ¡°Finding this hole really simplified things huh,¡± said Rain observing the mass of death far below.


    ¡°Well it was either dig a hole or pile some rocks up to divert a tunnel. We don¡¯t really have anything useful to dig a hole with so...¡± She shrugged, ¡°We got lucky this area has a lot of vertical shafts to be honest.¡±


    ¡°Sure sure. Here tie off the rope.¡±


    Opal unwound the rope she had taken from the slavers and tied to a nearby rock and handed it to Rain. He let the coil drop and slung himself down, rappelling down what must have been forty feet of sheer rock face ending in a hard flat stone floor.


    His feet hit the bottom and Opal scrambled down soon after.


    A huge pile of bodies met his eyes, some still groaning as they had fallen on their comrades and hadn''t been quite so fortunate to have a quick death. They wasted no time and Rain ended lives with his teeth as Opal used her rapier to poke holes, though many had holes already as they had fallen upon a number of sharp metal stakes embedded in the ground.


    The Goblin then pulled down the bodies one by one and stripped them bare of any clothing and equipment. Mostly loincloths and oddly shaped cuirasses. Soon she had a line of bodies forming. Rain didn''t wait for her to finish and tore into it, devouring two at a time, compressing them down inside before needing to stop to digest.


    ¡°Gods, fish is a blessed food. If it weren''t for levelers and giant snake I think this would have taken my top spot in my ranking," opined Rain as the growth surge ended. The deep brine buttery saltiness and oily firm texture was something Rain found he could really get his teeth into.


    He sighed, then opened his eyes and leapt on the next to be eaten, slavering maw open wide, eyes alight. He gorged on the Piscine from feet to head, scales and webbing all, all of it went into his stomach, great bites letting him tear through the monster with spectacular speed.


    By the time he was a quarter of the way through the army he was beginning to reduce the pauses between eating and he simply moved onto the next mid digestion banking up the growth like he had done with the snake. Opal finished laying out the dead and began happily shovelling them toward his gullet helping him consume the Piscine all the faster, she held them up one by one and literally pushed them toward his mouth letting him focus on fitting as much as possible inside himself as quickly as possible. His stomach was managing to keep up, his ease of handling so many a sign he was growing overall larger.


    Rain blitzed his way through the unfortunate Piscine army, halfway through, three quarters, then as he slowed with exhaustion he came to the last, the gold scaled Piscine leader, especially tasty, but he didn¡¯t slow or he was sure he would collapse. The leader was eaten body, limb, and tail and Rain flopped over on his back, distended stomach poking in the air and heaving breaths as the wave of growth caught up to him and crashed into his body. He let out a long mindless groan as his paw pads inched across the ground and his body swelled, claws lengthening, chest enlarging, muscle expanding, bones elongating. Opal leapt on top of him as he grew shoving a hand down her shorts and grinding her hips down into her hand, a line of drool ran from her slightly parted lips as she watched and felt him grow larger beneath her, her breath shaky and arrhythmic.


    Finally, it was all over, and Rain slumped on the ground as limp as a wet noodle. Opal lay herself over his chest, her eyes looking up at him half lidded, she bit her lip.


    They just lay there, basking in the aftermath for a time, not a worry in the world.


    ¡°...Gods I would kill for a bath.¡±


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 22

    ?


    Inquisitor Baera looked up as a fist hammered on her office door. She frowned and put her pen down beside the reams of paperwork she had gradually been working through.


    ¡°You may enter.¡±


    The door opened and a girl slumped through breathing hard. Her blonde hair was a tangled mess and lank with sweat. She looked as though she had run to her office from wherever she had come from. Judging from her appearance she was an active adventurer of the dungeon. Not that informative considering the town was built to service one. What was more curious was the huge patch of hair that appeared to have been ripped from her scalp leaving an angry red bleeding welt behind.


    Baera leant to one side and rested her chin on her fist as she eyed the girl.


    ¡°Girl. What makes you think it wise to come to me in a state like this. You¡¯re so out of breath you can barely get a word out and you look like you¡¯ve been in a fight with a Barber¡¯s wife.¡±


    The girl shook her head and then seemed to steady herself. ¡°I want to report a problem. Something new.¡±


    ¡°Please, go on. I am just in complete suspense to hear this,¡± said the Inquisitor so dryly that it made deserts appear as oceans.


    The girl seemed to realise just who she was speaking to and cleared her throat awkwardly.


    ¡°Uhm, Right. I was on a trip into the dungeon, part of a slaving team that liked to focus on minor tribal monsters like Goblins-¡±


    ¡°To the point girl.¡±


    ¡°S-sorry. We were on our return trip when we came across a monster none of us had ever seen before. At first I only saw a glimpse of a shadowy figure, but later I saw it in full. It looked sort of like a bipedal wolf gone feral, with yellow eyes and black fur completely drenched in blood. Our team leader decided that he didn''t want us to fight it and so we avoided it and went up two floors of the dungeon.¡±


    ¡°I hope that there is more to this story than just a sighting or I will have you cleaning out the stables for a month for wasting my time.¡±


    ¡°Yes! There¡¯s more. We made camp in east quadrant and thought we were safe but soon after we had gone to sleep the creature attacked and set our slaves free. It killed our Hobgoblin scout and then killed the leader of our team, a powerful Aeromancer. But what came after was why I came here.¡±


    She took a deep breath.


    ¡°The black furred monster attacked me, I fought back, and then it spoke to me. It told me that it used to be someone I knew, a human.¡±


    Baera lent forward, her brow furrowing.


    ¡°I, or rather a prior group that I was with, were given permission by the town¡¯s ranker to kill that person. We took him out to the dungeon for ease of disposal, killed him, and threw his remains in the big lake on the bottom floor. The black furred creature knew of this and named everyone who was there, it claimed that it was that human but returned from the dead and turned into a monster. He promised revenge, I only escaped due to my new unique magic.¡±


    ¡°Curious. It¡¯s true I don''t know of any monster or species with that physical description and I know more than most. A human leveler that became a monster?¡±


    ¡°Yes! That¡¯s the thing, it sounds insane, but it¡¯s real! He had some strange ability that allowed him to consume and absorb things, I didn¡¯t get to see what he was capable of but he let slip that it''s linked to growth.¡±


    ¡°And an ability I have also never heard of. Hrmm, if you did not seem so sincere I would suspect you were making this up.¡±


    ¡°Never! I would never lie to an Inquisitor, only a fool would do such a thing!¡±


    ¡°Quite. Very well, your name?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s Eliza. Uhm, t-there¡¯s a reward right? It¡¯s just I recently got a special Class and I lost my new water staff for th-that and you know how, they¡¯re uhm, expensive.¡±


    ¡°Eliza. You did well to come to me. Inquisitors place high priority on seeking out dungeon anomalies before they become an issue and nipping them in the bud. If I can confirm your words, then yes, you will receive an appropriate reimbursement. However, I will command you not to breathe a singular word about this. If this truly is as you say a leveler somehow become monster then this is a¡­ highly confidential matter. Now go and get yourself cleaned up and leave this with me.¡±


    The girl hesitated, bowed, and then fled from the Inquisitor''s presence.


    Baera rubbed her chin. ¡°A shadowy monster? Where did I read that recently?¡±


    She rifled through some minor reports at the side of her desk and pulled a paper free, a single sheet. A statement on the demise of half of a team of adventurers to a horde of Shroomlian monsters. Nothing unusual for this dungeon. Idiot levelers got themselves killed all the time. What was curious was that one of the survivors seemed convinced that they were being stalked by a black furred shadowy bipedal thing, and that it had caused the shroomlians to swarm and attack the team. An interesting data point perhaps grounding this Eliza girl¡¯s story. She noted that the two survivors of the team were currently accusing each other of having murdered the team''s healer. She put the report back from where she had retrieved it.


    She tapped her pen on the table thinking.


    An Inquisitor had many responsibilities as the Queen¡¯s eyes and claws, ensuring that a dungeon didn¡¯t become a problem was one of them. There were towns and cities wiped off the map when particularly powerful monsters escaped a dungeon, or a monster species had bred out of control and spilled out over the land.


    Making up her mind she put her pen aside and stood from her desk. She opened her armoire and pulled on her favourite black pauldrons over her blouse and then affixed her black vambraces to her arms, then, at last, her favourite black gauntlets. High quality and lightweight, they were decorated around the edges with gold filigree, a gift from her mother. She affixed a ruby pommelled longsword to her hip, taking care to arrange it so it could be withdrawn with ease, a habit borne from long practice.


    She checked herself in the mirror. A Human face, well, mostly, a pair of black Dragon horns emerged from atop her white wavy hair, a mark of her distant Dragon bloodline. She considered herself blessed to have even this small mark, her parents, both Human, had none as the mark was rarer to manifest so many descendants later. The horns gave her an imposing figure, not that she wasn¡¯t already intimidatingly severe. She hummed contentedly with her appearance. Her parents had teased her about her vanity, she personally felt it appropriate as Dragons were known to be vain.


    She spun on her heel and her armoured boots clicked as she left her office.


    She snapped her fingers as she passed through, the sound like a whipcrack that hurt the ears. A red-haired human girl who had been napping in a chair in the hallway squeaked and jumped to her feet looking around in fear.


    ¡°Come Jilli. We¡¯re going to the dungeon to look into an anomalous report. Maybe you can learn a thing or two.¡±


    ¡°¡±Y-yes Inquisitor!¡± said the girl, flinching to attention and then hurriedly following after the striding Inquisitor as she blew past.


    ¡°Uhm, will it be dangerous? I have my sword, b-but.¡±


    ¡°I do not know, It may be nothing, though my instinct tells me something is afoot. It has been a while since the Queendom has seen a serious monster emergence from a dungeon, I¡¯d like to keep it that way.¡±


    ¡°Of course Inquisitor!¡±


    The pair clumped downstairs and emerged into a bustling room where scribes working under the Queen talked and exchanged paperwork. Baera strode up to the largest figure in the room, a Minotaur lazing on a chair, his hooves on the table. Several empty beer mugs lay strewn around him and a Goblin slave held a freshly filled one ready as the minotaur worked through his current one. He burped and gave the Inquisitor a sour look.


    ¡°About that time huh? Coulda given me some warning, I ain''t ate yet.¡±


    ¡°Then choose breakfast over beer next time you insufferable moron.¡±


    ¡°Oh! Never! The nectar of the gods fuels this body of mine!¡±


    He belched loudly and Jilli covered her nose and mouth in disgust.


    ¡°You won''t be receiving coin to pay for said beer if you don¡¯t get to your hooves and move Drumus.¡±


    ¡°Yeah yeah.¡± grumbled the Minotaur. He slugged back the last of the beer he was drinking and then grabbed the second beer from the Goblin slave causing her to stumble forward. He then chugged that to the dregs and belched lazily once more. Then with more effort than was probably warranted he slid his hooves off the table and climbed to his feet. He picked up a well worn mace from where it lay by his chair.


    ¡°Roight, I¡¯m ready. Let¡¯s go fuck up whatever needs fucking up.¡±


    The Inquisitor set her lips in a line. ¡°We need to acquire one other before heading to the dungeon. Come.¡±


    The Minotaur nodded then paused. ¡°One sec.¡± He clubbed the Goblin slave over the head and she fell to the ground limp. He then grabbed her by a leg and picked her up in the air.


    ¡°Oh, Mister Drumus, Minotaur sir? Is- is that legal?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry yourself lass, it¡¯s just a rental,¡± said the Minotaur stomping out the building after Baera, Goblin dangling in hand.


    They passed by a wooden slave bin with the words ¡®Temp-slave drop off¡¯ marked on the side and he tossed the Goblin inside and closed the lid.


    ¡°See, their problem now.¡±


    Jilli raised a hand as though to protest but the Minotaur ignored her and stomped after Baera


    Baera stalked through the streets, passing pedestrians leaping to get out of her way when they noticed who she was. The trio arrived at an inn and without preamble she kicked open the door.


    The noisy interior went silent as she stepped inside and looked around, a hundred eyes watching her in surprise or fear, beers halfway to mouths, coins held in the air mid-transaction.


    Her violet eyes came to rest on one large table covered in cards and coins. Her eyes narrowed seeing a shirtless Halfling lying atop a mound of coin, a pipe in his mouth.


    ¡°Ah, shit.¡± said the Halfling.


    Baera snapped her armoured fingers causing half the inn to flinch and Drumus charged toward the table. The Halfling tried to scramble away but a large meaty hand came down and grabbed him by the seat of his pants and yanked him into the air.


    Baera beckoned and they began to leave. She paused at the door and glanced back.


    ¡°As you were.¡±


    The inn moved back into motion and a number of fights started over the coin the Halfling had left behind.


    They stepped back into the street and continued.


    ¡°Hey hey hey! What''s the big idea you can''t just kidnap me!¡±


    ¡°You know as well as I do Fosco that you are under contract to the Queen. If you do not wish to have your debauchery interrupted then I suggest you write a letter and have your contract voided. For the moment however you are mine and I am not pleased with your previous convenient disappearances whenever an excursion into the dungeon is planned. I suggest you make an example of yourself or I will use my superior level to end you. No one will stop me and I will face no repercussions.¡±


    The halfling quit struggling and gulped.


    ¡°Good. Now here we are.¡±


    The group pulled into the towns stable, a huge thing due to the number of travellers who came to try the dungeon.


    It only took a moment for a simpering stable master to find the Inquisitor and offer the group their best horses. Five minutes later the group galloped out of town and rode through the surrounding forest until they came upon the Inquisitor''s intended destination, the dungeon.


    They tied down their mounts outside and entered on foot.


    ¡°Not that I¡¯m complaining but would somebody tell me why we are here? How am I supposed to know what I¡¯m tracking If I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m tracking? I¡¯m pretty good but I¡¯m not that good,¡± grumbled the Halfling.


    They were descending one of the massive stairs that lead between floors as he spoke. Baera paused then nodded.


    ¡°You are here to track down a new monster that has been reported on as of recent events. Black fur, wolf-like, bipedal.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I can work with that. There are no wolves in this dungeon, nearest would be mountain wolves but they are a hundred miles away at least, so If it really is wolf-like as you say then its tracks should be distinct from everything else in this dungeon. Anything else?¡±


    She paused. ¡°It¡¯s reported to be drenched entirely in blood.¡±


    ¡°Really? That¡¯s a bit gruesome. You know I¡¯m not much good in a fight right? You better protect my half-ass¡±


    ¡°Myself and Drumus are enough to deal with any threat.¡±


    The Halfling eyed the minotaur. ¡°I suppose that is¡­ comforting. Anyway, I have a skill that gives me an enhanced sense of smell. If this monster really is covered in blood as you say then I should be able to smell it.¡±


    They went on in silence until Baera held up an armoured hand. ¡°We¡¯re here. This Is the floor it was last sighted on. Come, it should be in this direction. Be aware of your surroundings. This new potential monster is not the only threat in the dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Yeah yeah I know, monsters, dungeon shit, whatever,¡± said the minotaur picking his teeth with a knife.


    ¡°Hey,¡± said the Halfling. ¡°I can already smell something, come on, just follow me.¡±


    The group followed as the Halfling led the way through twisting passages until at last they exited onto a sandy causeway tunnel lit by mosslight, much broader than the ones they had arrived through. A medley of footprints marked the sand as though many webbed feet had passed by.


    ¡°Hrmm. Looks Piscine. I know there are some lake tribes around here. Guess they must come through here for whatever reason.¡±


    ¡°Oh! I found something! This might be it!¡± exclaimed Jilli pointing at a footprint.


    The Halfling shuffled over and peered down. ¡°Curious.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°There are two sets both with wolf-like aspects, one was made a little after the other. The odd thing is that the newer set is from a larger pair of paws.¡± He got down on his knees and stared closely at the two, switching between them every so often. ¡°If I were an inferior tracker I would tell you that we are facing two of this monster¡­ But these paws are functionally identical, they do not have any of the micro deviations in anatomy that occur between different people of a single species.¡±


    ¡°Oh stop trying to make yourself look good and get to the damn point Halfling,¡± grumbled Drumus.


    The Halfling glared at him irritably. ¡°It¡¯s the same monster but grown larger.¡±


    Baera crossed her arms. ¡°Hrmm.¡±


    ¡°I know, it sounds strange. I suspect we are against a monster that is absurdly quickly growing in size.¡±


    ¡°There was speculation of something like this in the report. It seems like this could indeed become a problem if left alone. Very well, please continue.¡±


    The Halfling finished his inspection of the tracking and gestured for them to follow. He led them further down the tunnel then round a corner. He paused.


    ¡°That blood smell, it¡¯s gotten, uh, quite strong.¡±


    ¡°You think the monster is near?¡±


    ¡°No, this is too strong a smell for just one monster, I¡¯m not sure what it is exactly I¡¯m smelling.¡±


    They continued onward, passing by a part of the tunnel closed off by piled up rocks. They slowed as they came across a gap in the sand.


    ¡°Gods! The smell! it¡¯s so strong! I, I believe it''s coming from that chasm.¡±


    The group edged nearer and peered over the edge,


    ¡°Wha-What, what is that? Is that all blood?¡± said Jilli, her face paling.


    ¡°Dear gods it¡¯s like someone painted the floor and walls in the stuff! How many must have died for this?¡±


    ¡°More importantly¡­ Where are the bodies¡­¡±


    ¡°I.. I don¡¯t like this, we should go,¡± whispered Jilli.


    ¡°Wait, hold on, where''s the Minotaur?¡±


    Baera blinked at the Halfling and turned from the hole to look behind. No Minotaur.


    ¡°That idiot probably got bored and wandered off to take a nap. You¡¯re a tracker aren¡¯t you, let''s retrace our steps and see where we got separated.


    They edged away from the hole, perhaps a little too thankful to no longer be near it, and began to make their way back.


    It wasn''t long before the Halfling found hoof prints and indeed they diverged from their path and went down a dark side tunnel.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to strip a line of hide out of that Minotaur when I find him,¡± growled Baera.


    ¡°I just want to find him again¡­ I don''t like these gloomy caves,¡± shivered Jilli.


    The trio entered the narrower near pitch dark passage. They had no lantern as the Minotaur had taken it with him. It wasn''t long before they started to hear something. Crying.


    The Halfling and Inquisitor exchanged a puzzled glance then crept around the corner.


    A Goblin sat against the wall, hugging its legs and openly weeping.


    ¡°Look, that Goblin is a slave, see the slave collar?¡±


    ¡°Tchh. Maybe this is what drew Drumus¡¯s attention.¡±


    ¡°Well, why isn''t he here?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, ask the Goblin.¡±


    Fosco gave her an annoyed look but crept toward the crying Goblin.


    ¡°Heyyy, Goblin girl, did you happen to see a Minotaur come by here?¡±


    The Goblin looked up at the Halfling with bloodshot crazed eyes.


    ¡°He ate them, He ate everyone! He¡¯s Going To Eat Us! He¡¯s CoMinG To eAt Us ALl!¡± The Goblin shrieked and darted into a crack in the wall disappearing from sight.


    ¡°Oh, okay.¡± said the Halfling in the still silence that followed.


    ¡°C-can we go?¡± keened Jilli.


    ¡°No, look, there are tracks over here. Fosco come look,¡± said the Inquisitor.


    ¡°I hate to admit it but I¡¯m starting to get just a little unsettled. Maybe the girl is right.¡±


    ¡°Just look,¡± sighed the Inquisitor.


    The Halfling grumbled and stepped over and began tracking. He beckoned the others to follow. He paused after a few meters.


    ¡°Something happened here. It looks like there was a struggle. Wait, I see blood.¡±


    The group moved warily forward and out of the gloom a bloody track appeared, a gouge in the sand as though a large body had been dragged. Then it stopped. Baera leant down and picked up the Minotaur¡¯s mace. It along with a few pieces of the Minotaur¡¯s armour and clothing lay scattered around a patch of blood and gore. There was nothing else.


    ¡°This is bad isn''t it, this is really bad,¡± whimpered Jilli.


    Baera said nothing but drew her longsword and looked around, staring into the darkness.


    ¡°We need to leave. Now,¡± said the Halfling, his voice strained.


    ¡°Start retreating. Carefully. If you see anything, call out.¡±


    They began to shuffle backwards, weapons drawn and pointing outward. The dark was quiet and oppressive.


    ¡°I¡­ I think something is wrong,¡± said the Halfling pausing.


    ¡°What? Forget it, we¡¯re leaving.¡±


    The Halfling turned and looked at the other two. He gulped. ¡°I can still smell Drumus¡¯s blood nearby.¡±


    A set of teeth appeared from the dark and closed on the back of the Halfling¡¯s head side on.


    His skull immediately collapsed under the pressure, his face grossly distending as his head was crushed inward. One of his eyeballs burst from his eye socket as it caved in and landed on Jilli¡¯s cleavage. The trainee Inquisitor screamed her lungs out and fled into the darkness as fast as her legs could carry her.


    A longsword that was now glowing a faint blue suddenly thrust through the air as though propelled by a bolt of lightning. It pierced through the Halfling¡¯s head and almost skewered the shadowy creature on the other side if not for it moving at the last possible moment. It disappeared back into the dark.


    Baera withdrew her blade and let the tracker''s corpse flop to the ground.


    She eyed the shadows.


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard you can speak, monster.¡±


    A deep bass growl of anger was her reply, so deep and heavy that the very air vibrated and Baera could feel it trembling the ground through her boots. The sound echoed around the tunnel giving it an unclear origin.


    ¡°Angry? You do not like the one who told me that, do you? Do not worry, I will end your life and relieve you of your grudge.¡±


    ¡°You can try.¡± gravelled a deep voice.


    Motion in the corner of her eye made her move and she twisted her sword up just in time. The creature''s teeth momentarily bit down on her blade before it let go. She twisted her weapon and slashed, scoring a minor hit. A spray of blood and a shallower cut than expected. Tough body, resistant to blades. The creature vanished back into the shadows.


    She held her sword up in one hand tracking where she thought it fled. Her eyes momentarily crossed her blade and she was surprised to see teeth marks on the steel somehow despite the spells she had cast on it to strengthen and sharpen the metal. Its teeth are extremely hard, shocking jaw strength.


    A scuffing sound from behind and she spun. A knife flew out of the gloom aimed at her head. She parried it sending it flying through the air to clatter against the cave wall. It uses weapons? No, doesn''t fit, this is a trap!


    She swung her sword and twisted around as bloody teeth lunged at the back of her neck. Her sword arm came up, but too late to hit, only enough to block. The brutal trap of its maw came down on her forearm. Teeth dented metal and she looked on in shock as her prided vambraces abruptly buckled under its jaws, an unstoppable bite pressing down with such force that the squealing deforming metal dug deep into her arm. She screamed and thrashed as skin and flesh and muscle was squeezed apart under the unstoppable pressure, her sword dropped from her hand as she lost feeling, clanging as it hit the sand. She pounded at the monster''s head with her free fist but nothing slowed it. Her bones began to splinter then split apart as the squeezing force of her own vambrace ground them down. The monster bass growled and savaged her arm, shaking its head and violently dragging her, Baera desperately tried to resist but the breathtaking agony was causing her to falter.


    She set her teeth. It wasnt going to let her go. No choice. She slapped her hand down on the vambrace and twisted it then kicked out at the monster. Her arm felt like it was on fire, but with a wordless scream, and the grisly sickening parting of flesh, she pulled a ragged shredded stump free from her vambrace. The monster gave her a look of surprise before she pulled a device from her belt, closed her eyes, and threw it to the ground. An explosive ear-shattering sound and an eye-searing flash of light and the monster yelped. The Inquisitor opened her eyes. Her ears were ringing but she could see well enough in the dark to run and escape down the tunnel away from the thing that had maimed her.


    She cradled the ruin of her arm as she fled and promised revenge, no, Extermination.


    Stratothrax

 Chapter 23

    ?


    Rain sucked in air through his teeth and picked at the wound the Inquisitor had given him, a shallow slice that ran from his shoulder down to his elbow. It oozed blood.


    ¡°Who was that leveler?¡±


    ¡°An Inquisitor. I¡¯ve heard of her. She¡¯s new to the local dungeon town¡­. Dangerous¡­ Inquisitors are known to hold grudges, so she will probably try and come for me again.¡±


    ¡°Hrmm. Too bad that Minotaur stumbled upon us. Stupid noisy Goblin slave.¡±


    ¡°They saw what we did to the Piscine and they knew about me so they needed to die. The Minotaur was bad luck though, or maybe good luck, we did need to separate them. Did the Goblin slave get away?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± said Opal, looking annoyed. ¡°I had to get out of sight quickly and I accidentally dropped the chain. They could be anywhere in these tunnels by now.¡±


    Rain shrugged but then got to his feet. Having eaten the Minotaur he now towered over Opal at an intimidating seven foot tall, the top of her head only coming up to around the bottom of his rib cage. The Minotaur had been unlucky. Unaware Rain was there he had crouched down to talk to the Goblin slave, the perfect opportunity for Rain to put his nearly unstoppable bite to use. The back of the Minotaur¡¯s neck had lasted only a moment under his jaws.


    ¡°...I had better eat the Kobold slaves if I¡¯m going to speed recovering this wound.¡±


    ¡°Well we have the Halfling and this too you know,¡± said Opal waving the severed arm of the Inquisitor and letting the hand and fingers flop around.


    Rain blinked down at it. The arm, or rather, hand and half a forearm, was encased in black metal armour decorated with gold. The segmented fingers of the gauntlet were incredibly intricate and beautifully crafted to provide maximum flexibility and protection.


    He snorted. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s important to finish a meal I guess. See if you can get it out of the shell.¡±


    Opal dropped herself down on the ground to sit cross-legged and began poking around and fiddling with the armour. Meanwhile, Rain picked up the longsword the Inquisitor had dropped in the sand. The blade was still glowing a faint blue but was rapidly dimming as the spells on it faded away. The sword was exquisite, just like the armour, with a heavy ruby in the pommel and a wyrm curling around the grip, its wings outstretched to form the cross-guard.


    He nibbled on his lip. Something was bothering him. This was some awfully ornate looking gear even for an Inquisitor. It appeared to be more the sort of thing a noble would carry. He recalled the black horns on the Inquisitor¡¯s head, a sign of her being some kind of half-breed. He knew little of her when he was human, she had only arrived at the town of Lynthia recently, not enough time for rumours to filter down to the castoffs of society.


    He considered that the Inquisitor could come after him a lot harder than he might expect.


    Well, she can come if she wants. I just need to get bigger and stronger faster than she can keep up with. Speaking of which.


    He turned and dove on the Halfling tracker the Opal had conveniently already stripped. It didn''t take long to make his way through the diminutive body and soon there was nothing left but a bloody smear in the sand.


    Rain groaned as he felt himself get a little taller. A respectable seven-foot and a little bit of an inch. He was increasingly finding he had to eat more and more to gain height, each gained inch of height requiring more and more body mass he assumed.


    ¡°Halfling is pretty good, but I¡¯ve got to deduct points for not being a full portion despite having the tastiness boost of being a leveler,¡± he said, scratching his jaw.


    ¡°AHA!¡± said Opal as a clicking sound signified she had figured out the trick to opening the ornate armour. She peeled off the gauntlet revealing the pale hand beneath and then tugged it free from the vambrace, with difficulty as it was still partially trapped under the crushed metal.


    She cheekily stuck her tongue out. ¡°Here you go wolfy I¡¯ve got a treat for you.¡± She tossed the arm upward and Rain snapped it from the air on instinct. He froze.


    Opal blinked at him. ¡°Uh, you okay?¡±


    Rain¡¯s jaws slowly began moving and his eyes rolled up. ¡°Soooo guud,¡± he moaned. ¡°What even is this.¡± His ears folded down and his tail wagged of its own accord. His taste buds ignited as the lush sensation spread, he actually had difficulty moving his jaw just from the sheer overwhelming flavour.


    ¡°It¡¯s like the most savoury yet richest meat I¡¯ve ever eaten. Dear gods it¡¯s melting in my mouth!¡±


    ¡°Are you messing with me?¡±


    ¡°No! It¡¯s something about the meat.¡± He closed his eyes as the last of it slipped down his gullet. ¡°Rank one food, no, I might need to make a new special rank for this. Oh, it¡¯s good for growth too!¡± said Rain, rolling his shoulders as his body grew a little once more.


    Opal tilted her head to the side. ¡°Now you¡¯ve made me regret giving it to you instead of keeping it for myself. Why was it special? You¡¯ve eaten levelers before.¡±


    He shook his head as though to clear his overwhelmed senses. ¡°It¡¯s that Inquisitor, she wasn¡¯t entirely Human, I know whatever made up her other part- it was special, just tasting that mere fraction of it- gods I want to eat whatever species that is.¡±


    Rain considered just what the Inquisitor could partly be. Most obvious was Drake or Wyverling which would be fitting for the sword, perhaps even a rare breed of Minotaur or Goatrian would cause those horns, or maybe, maybe even a Drag- but no, that couldn¡¯t possibly be... could it?


    ¡°Hrmm. Well too late to chase her down now and that other Human that ran off screaming has vanished, so I guess you¡¯ll have to make do.¡±


    Rain sighed and felt a little depressed to his surprise. Just the thought of not getting more immediately was almost too much to bear.


    ¡°Fine, if I can''t have quality then I''ll just have to settle for quantity. Where can I find lots and lots of monsters to eat Opal? I want, no, I need to eat and become stronger.¡±


    ¡°Well, the Piscine seem to have abandoned this floor. Disappearing one of their armies would do that. Uhm, I do know of somewhere we could try, not far, lots of food, but it might be very dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let''s see if we can scout it out.¡±


    He handed over the longsword to the Goblin who attached it to the top of her pack. She now had three swords, a cutlass and a rapier, one at each hip, plus the new longsword.


    They left the darkened tunnel and found themselves by the two remaining Kobold slaves that Opal had chained up. The two Kobolds looked up at Rain with fear, backing away nervously. That fear was not without reason.


    ¡°I, I helped you with your trap! You¡¯ve got to let me live! Look, eat this guy, he¡¯s way tastier than I am, just look how fat and obese his tail is!¡± said the red-scaled Kobold.


    The fat-tailed Kobold screamed in outrage at this and attacked the red-scaled Kobold clawing at his face before a massive paw came down on his shoulder and pulled him back into Rain¡¯s jaws swiftly ending his life. He ate him from top to bottom entirely, fat tail included. He checked his injury and noted it was gradually starting to heal.


    ¡°Listen, I can help! Just let me live, please!¡± said the remaining Kobold.


    ¡°Sorry scaley, big and hungry over here already has me,¡± said Opal, picking under her nails with her knife.


    Rain paused and glared at the Kobold. ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°H-how?¡± stammered the Kobold. ¡°Uhm, uh, I can c-carry stuff!¡±


    Rain snorted, then laughed aloud.


    Opal gave Rain a scathing look.


    ¡°He has a point and your pack is getting kind of full,¡± said Rain giving her a pointed look in return. ¡°Besides, it makes it harder for you to do important stuff lugging that around.¡±


    ¡°Grr. Okay fine. Don¡¯t make me regret this you scaley bastard.¡±


    She dumped her rucksack and removed the longsword which she strung across her back. Then she grabbed the chains that the other two slaves had been wearing and formed an extra long chain with which to use on the newly promoted pack Kobold.


    ¡°I won¡¯t disappoint you! You can count on me to provide top tier stuff carrying services!¡± said the suddenly hysterically happy Kobold.


    ¡°If you try to run away I will eat you while you¡¯re still alive so you can watch it happening,¡± growled Rain.


    The Kobold let out a little high pitched squeak and hurried to hide behind Opal.


    The group set off into the cave system with Opal leading the way. Soon they left the area that the Piscine liked to inhabit and were moving into a more green and plant-filled cave biome. Grass began to carpet the tunnel floors and vines were strung across the walls and overhead. It wasn¡¯t long before they came across an exceptionally lush and beautiful cavern. White crystals embedded in the ceiling cast the room in picturesque natural light.


    What halted Rain in his tracks though was the crystal clear and shining pool of water in the middle of the cavern.


    ¡°Oh. We¡¯re stopping here.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what, why?!¡± cried Opal.


    ¡°Bath.¡±


    Opal looked over herself. Filthy and splattered in blood. Then she looked at Rain. Absolutely drenched in blood.


    ¡°But we¡¯re both perfectly clean! we don''t need nasty water on us!¡±


    Rain¡¯s brow rose at that. ¡°You know it''s not surprising Goblins have a bad reputation.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going in! No way!¡±


    Rain picked her up and held her over his head kicking and screaming.


    He marched down to the lake and dropped down the Kobold¡¯s chain then kicked a boulder over it to keep it in place.


    ¡°Stop! Let me down! Kobold slave, I demand you stop him!¡±


    The Kobold looked up at the Goblin as though she had just told him that monsters and levelers could all live in harmony, in other words, bonkers crazy talk.


    ¡°Uh. I¡¯m moving this up the chain of command, that would be your call your wolfliness, pleasedon''teatme!¡± said the Kobold as he ducked behind the boulder.


    ¡°NUUUU!!¡± cried Opal as Rain took a running leap and cannonballed into the lake with a Kersploosh!


    The Goblin spluttered to the surface and spat water.


    ¡°Why do you do this! This is the worst!¡±


    ¡°Because it¡¯s good to be clean,¡± he said as he grabbed her and dunked her below the surface. He held her down as he tore all her clothes off before letting her swim back to the surface.


    ¡°You¡¯re so mean about it too!¡± she pouted, her cheeks colouring.


    Rain simply grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away from the massive discoloured patch of water they had created. He then began rubbing her down with his paw pads, scrubbing her skin clean through dint of effort. He didn''t even pretend shame and squeezed and pawed at her chest before moving on to the next part. Even her privates did not escape this treatment and the goblin made her gasps quite verbal. At last he came to her hair and ran his claws through her black locks over and over as she sat in his lap until it was as clean as he could manage.


    The Goblin looked over her spotlessly clean body and scowled.


    Rain lazed in the water and casually ran his paws over this own fur. He gave her the side eye.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to need to get used to it. I intend to bathe you at every single opportunity possible.¡±


    ¡°GRAAH!¡± said the Goblin slamming her fists in the water. She turned on Rain.


    ¡°Fine. But this isn''t going to be one sided.¡±


    She leapt on the wolf and began furiously rubbing his chest fur. Rain simply continued cleaning his arms and pretended not to notice. Her hands worked their way down his torso and abs until they were touching up to his oversized sheath, it had grown enormously since last time she had been with him, enough that she couldn''t even get her hands around it. A lewd leer crossed her face as she began to fondle and rub at him, her breath coming in pants as her cheeks reddened. A huge paw came down and enclosed her hands however.


    ¡°We¡¯re about to attack some very dangerous monsters. Remember what happened last time? after the mushrooms? You couldn''t walk straight for a full night and then you got kidnapped by slavers when your legs turned to jelly at the worst possible moment.¡±


    The Goblin made a strangled scream and slammed her small fists down on his thighs before flouncing away.


    Rain sighed and relaxed back into his bathing routine.


    Half an hour later he emerged from the lake and shook himself dry, his glossy clean black fur gleaming in the cavern light. He had the Kobold go and fetch Opal¡¯s clothing from the water and then he hung the clothing over a bush to dry. A little later he found Opal sulking and throwing pebbles in the lake. She looked up at him as though expecting a talk. Instead, he picked her up and put her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and marched back to her clothing while she swore up a storm. When she refused to put on clothes he began dressing her himself. He held her arms up In the air in one paw and carefully wrapped her chest with the other. Then lifted her off the ground and put her legs in the holes of her shorts before ramming them up causing her to yelp.


    The Goblin looked like she was about to explode and her face was blushing bright red. Rain gravelled a laugh.


    ¡°You wanted me to do that didn¡¯t you.¡±


    Opal opened her mouth to angrily retort, paused, closed it, and bit her lip. She turned away as she reached new never before known heights of blushing.


    The group set off and Opal, trying to avoid looking Rain in the eye, led the way.


    Stratothrax


    Rain current height: 7 Feet, 0.8 Inches = 215.392 Centimeters

 Chapter 24

    ?


    ¡°This tribe is one my old tribe sometimes fought. There was always lots of bad blood between us, that¡¯s normal for Gobbos, but recently they started to win all of the battles.¡±


    ¡°Really? What changed to make your tribe start losing.¡±


    Opal pursed her lips. ¡°Half-goblins.¡±


    Rain tilted his head. ¡°As in half Goblin and half¡­ something else?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they aren''t picky. Look.¡±


    She pointed from where they hid upon a rock shelf overlooking a cavern filled with lush foliage and jungle trees. A sandy dirt road of sorts wound through the centre of it and ended at the entrance to another cavern. To either side of the entrance were a pair of guards holding spears. They were taller than the average Goblin, at first Rain had thought they were Hobgoblins but on closer inspection he realised that they had non-goblin features. One had some Human like features, tall, a beard, long black hair, hairy arms and chest. The other had the upper body of a particularly large Goblin but its lower body was that of a snake, a Lamia.


    ¡°They look strong. Why didn''t they conquer your tribe?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve fought Half-Gobbo tribes before, I even have some tribal memories of past Gobbos doing it. The reason that smart Gobbos don¡¯t make their tribes into Half-Gobbo tribes is because they always always die out, they go extinct. We just needed to outlast and avoid this one and the problem would take care of itself.¡±


    Rain furrowed his brow. ¡°Really? Why would they die out?¡±


    ¡°Think about it. A bunch of half breeds are born who are stronger than regular Gobbos. What happens? They take over the tribe. Then to keep the Half-Gobbo faction strong and in control they breed with more non-Gobbos. If they are breeding with strong monsters they eventually kill the regular Gobbos and split up because they are not tribal monsters. If they are breeding with levelers sooner or later a half who can level is born who then takes over the tribe from the half breeds. The leveler eventually kills every monster in the tribe for levels, as levelers do, then leaves for the surface. You wouldn''t think it would be that way every time but it always is. Half-Gobbo tribes get outbred and burn out.¡±


    ¡°I suppose it would have to have happened that way or there would be no regular Goblin tribes left.¡±


    Opal began pulling things from the rucksack the Kobold carried.


    ¡°I used to scout this place sometimes for the tribe, keeping an eye on what they were doing. I think we can take it but¡­ I need some information.¡±


    She pulled out a simple brown travelling coat with a hood that had belonged to the Halfling tracker then removed her swords and jacket and swept the coat over herself. She then grabbed a palmful of dust and dirt and rubbed it over her face.


    ¡°I¡¯m going inside to see.¡±


    ¡°What? No way. That''s far too dangerous.¡±


    The Goblin snorted. ¡°I¡¯m just another little Gobbo to the halfs, they won''t give a shit, it¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s too risky.¡±


    ¡°You want to eat and become strong? You said yourself that Inquisitor is going to come for you. You have to be ready.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ just... just be careful,¡± said Rain sighing.


    Opal flashed him a white-toothed grin. ¡°Easy. Now watch.¡±


    ¡°W-wait, you can''t leave me alone with him!¡± whimpered the Kobold, chained to a rock behind them.


    Opal flatly ignored that and slipped down from the rock shelf and disappeared into the jungle foliage, climbing down a tree to reach the ground.


    Rain watched silently as the hooded figure of Opal made her way out of the brush and onto the road and then hiked her way up it to the round opening guarded by the two Half-Goblins.


    They pointed their spears at her and barked a command. Rain nearly leapt off the shelf to go after her but with difficulty managed to control himself, his claws scoring the stone as he held himself back. Opal meanwhile put on an act filled with simpering body language. She nearly fell to her knees she was so supplicant, repeatedly nodding her head and pleading with her hands. One of the halves eventually laughed and shook his head. He knocked the other¡¯s spear aside and she was allowed in. She entered through the circular tunnel and disappeared.


    Rain leant back against the rock with a sigh. He rested his arm on his knee and settled in to wait.


    About an hour later she returned and scrabbled back up the tree and leapt onto the shelf discarding the cloak.


    ¡°Okay. I got what I needed. This should be easy breezy. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully¡­. I think.¡±


    ¡°What did you see?¡±


    ¡°A big cavern, but not open, it¡¯s nearly all filled with trees as I thought. That''s what makes me think we can do this. All the trees mean they can¡¯t fight in a big group or find us easily.¡±


    ¡°Makes sense. I can probably take on any Goblin or Half-Goblin one on one, just not the whole tribe at the same time.¡±


    ¡°Exactly. The only problem is that Gobbo tribes always have multiple escape routes, it¡¯s how you got into my old tribe¡¯s camp remember? So while we can get in and take out a few of them most of the tribe will flee and vanish into the dungeon if they think they can''t win.¡±


    Rain snorted. ¡°You found all the escape tunnels didn''t you.¡±


    ¡°Yuss. There¡¯s three of them, not many, but this is a very defensive tribe for Gobbos. They made a lot of enemies by being so aggressive and bloodthirsty.¡±


    ¡°We sneak in, block all the exits then kill the tribe bit by bit while they have no escape. You¡¯re getting scarily good at thinking up traps.¡±


    She grinned. ¡°I know.¡± Then pursed her lips. ¡°Though there are some strong looking Half-Gobbos in there. This Gobbo tribe is wow, so slutty. They really banged anything they could get their grubby little hands on.¡±


    Opal grabbed the Kobold¡¯s chain and they slipped down into the jungle. They didn''t take the road but slunk through the dark shadowy jungle following the wall of the cavern. Ahead Rain saw the two guards, this time from the side and close up. They were on a slight rise but not far from the edge of the foliage they hid under.


    ¡°You need to kill them both quick, can''t let them get inside and call the alarm.¡±


    Rain nodded his agreement and set his feet, half crouched and ready.


    Opal watched until they seemed particularly distracted, both talking to each other and looking away from where they hid, and then she dropped the hand she was holding up.


    Rain moved. His feet drove down into the soil so hard it compressed beneath them. He exploded out of the foliage like a demonic shadow, his paws came down on the Lamia-goblin¡¯s shoulders and his jaws snapped shut on his neck like a bear trap instantly severing his spine. He rode the falling corpse to the ground and keeping his momentum fell on the second guard as they started to scream holding their spear up to try to defend themselves. Rain jabbed him in the gut ending the scream in a gargle then he grabbed his head and forcefully twisted, snapping his neck. The Human-goblin flopped to the ground dead.


    Opal emerged from the foliage with the Kobold and slunk up by the side of the round tunnel to look in. After a moment she sighed in relief.


    ¡°No ones coming, looks like that scream wasn¡¯t heard, there''s still no one there. Here, let''s take them inside.¡±


    Each grabbed a guard by the arms and they dragged them through the short two meter tunnel. On the other side trees and bushes grew up close and they found a tree surrounded with dense foliage a little away from the entrance. To the Kobold¡¯s horror he was tied to the tree with the two half goblins either side of him. He gave the two corpses a wide eyed look.


    ¡°Y-you¡¯re just going to leave me here?! With these??¡±


    ¡°Yup!¡± said Opal brightly.


    They returned back to the tunnel. On this end of the tunnel was a massive thick stone disc to one side. Pegs were driven through a section of the disc with which ropes had been attached and left to dangle.


    ¡°This is the main door thing. They all heave on the ropes and pull the disc over the entrance blocking it off when they need to defend from other monsters or levelers or monster tribes.¡±


    Rain examined the disc and then stepped to one side and set his shoulder against it. He then heaved. His feet slid against the ground as he strained, but after a moment the disc began to ever so slowly move, inch by inch, then picking up speed it rolled over the entrance sealing it off. Opal drew her cutlass and then hacked all of the ropes attached to the pegs until there was nothing remaining. While Opal was doing that Rain found a wedge-shaped rock and together with another rock he hammered it under one side of the disc using his abundance of strength, ensuring it was nigh impossible to remove.


    Opal gave him a thumbs up and they dashed off into the jungle. She led them around the perimeter until they came across a hole in the ground.


    ¡°Uh, got any ideas?¡±


    Rain scratched his chin and frowned looking around, he then looked at a nearby tree growing next to the cavern wall. He moved up to it and tried pushing the trunk to no avail. He then tried wrapping his arms around it and heaving, it moved, but only a little. Frustrated he climbed between the tree and the wall and pulled up his feet against the bark, then using the wall as leverage he shoved outward with all his might. He snarled and pushed himself to the limit. The tree cracked, and then with a groan it began to fall, finally crashing down over the hole and blocking it with its trunk. He couldn¡¯t have imagined doing something like this when he had first stumbled ashore on the great lake starving and soaked, he¡¯d come a long way, his strength outpacing even his size.


    Opal jumped around the trunk trying to see if she could slip down any gap. She could not and gave Rain the nod before they moved on. They were about to leave when a Goblin dashed out of the jungle.


    ¡°H-hey what was that noise? Wait, what is that monster you got with you!?¡±


    Opal froze before quickly shifting disposition and making placating gestures.


    ¡°I was coming back with a new nice monster for the tribe to breed with and this tree fell on the hole I came in through just as I was getting out!¡±


    ¡°Uhh, really? Huh. Lucky you didn¡¯t get squashed¡­ Wait why are you so clean apart from your face?¡±


    She rolled her eyes. ¡°It¡¯s embarrassing but if you must know I tripped and fell in a lake, I¡¯ve only just got around to reapplying some nice dirt.¡±


    The Goblin eyed her suspiciously.


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know, that sounds kinda- ghurk!¡±


    Opal stabbed him in the neck. Several times. Then dragged his body under a bush.


    ¡°Did that Goblin really just find the fact that you are clean more suspicious than the fact you have a monster like me with you?¡± said Rain in disbelief.


    ¡°You wouldn''t get it. It¡¯s a Gobbo thing.¡±


    She grabbed his paw and pulled him back into the jungle. They quickly found the second escape tunnel. This one was more easily blocked with a nice nearby pile of rocks, they shoved and heaved them into the hole filling the bottom of it.


    Soon enough they were on the way to the third potential escape route having yet to see another Goblin. That luck abruptly came to an end however as the final escape tunnel was right next to a camp of Half-Goblins.

 Chapter 25

    ?


    Rain carefully parted the large leaves of a plant he was hiding behind and peered out at the camp. The word monstrous seemed particularly apt for what he saw sitting around the campfire.


    Half-goblins. But the term didn¡¯t quite represent the abomination of it.


    Nearest were a pair of Lamia-goblins, large Goblins with the lower bodies of giant snakes, their flesh transitioning into green and black scale at the hip. Their broad lower bodies knotted and curled around each other in a heap.


    Next to them was a male Human-goblin, taller, bearded, and with long hair, which of course was an unusual sight for a male Goblin as normally only female Goblins had hair. His hand rested on the back of a Diredog-Goblin, a creature that was singularly disturbing to look at. A large quadrupedal furless dog with two heads, except where there would normally be dog heads there was a pair of Goblin heads and where its skin would normally be black it was instead a dirty green with black markings. One of the heads gnawed on a bone while the other talked with the Human-Goblin.


    Opposite from Rain and Opal and across the fire was an absolutely massive bear-like creature, a Cavebear if Rain had to guess, nine foot tall and incredibly broad. Its fur was dark green with slashes of black and its claws yellowed. Its head, framed by a large mane of fur, was goblinoid but more feral looking and elongated than any Goblin Rain knew, with oversized triangular teeth that didn''t fit in its mouth and faintly glowing red eyes. Long lank black hair hung over its eyes and head in strands giving it an unsettling appearance.


    A number of regular Goblins were huddled around the fire as well. They did not look particularly happy to be there.


    One of the Lamia-goblins spat in the fire causing it to sputter.


    ¡°Hey,¡± grumbled the Human-goblin. ¡°I¡¯m cooking on that fire.¡±


    The Lamia-goblin hiss-laughed. ¡°Maybe it¡¯ll add flavour, gods know it needs it with your cooking.¡±


    ¡°Looking to start something, you slippery bitch? It won¡¯t end well for you. It¡¯s not like your mother will notice another dead Lamia with the number of eggs she shits out. There¡¯s always a spare to replace you.¡±


    The Lamia-goblin flicked her forked tongue out. ¡°You¡¯re right, mother doesn''t care. But she doesn''t care about most things these days, apart from where the next dozen dicks are coming from, which, by the way, is still better than your mother who can''t even string two words together.¡±


    The Human-goblin held up a rusty knife. ¡°Watch your forked tongue snake. I won¡¯t hear a word against her.¡±


    ¡°Tch. Delusional.¡±


    ¡°Oh do shut up,¡± said one of the heads of the Diredog-goblin. ¡°At least your mother can speak and has some basic reasoning ability. When I met my father he tried to eat me.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that''s pretty rough. Not to mention the two heads thing.¡±


    The Diredog sniffed. ¡°Ah, well, at least Clarence understands not to bite me... most of the time.¡±


    The second Goblin head on the Diredog looked up at the first with the bone still in its mouth. The Diredog-goblin¡¯s tail wagged.


    ¡°Ohh, I can''t stay mad at you,¡± said the first head affectionately.


    ¡°I miss my mother,¡± gravelled the Cavebear-goblin, its sad eyes peeking between its lank hair.


    ¡°Your mother was a disaster. I told those idiots we needed to make stronger chains. Did they listen? Of course not. And then the damn thing escaped and killed a dozen Gobbos before running off into the dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, probably for the best. You would not believe the number of Gobbos that died trying to do the deed with her.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a fuckin bear, what did they expect!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, to not get turned into a bear snack?¡±


    ¡°Ah, it¡¯s just basic Gobbos who gives a shit. Look.¡±


    The second Lamia-goblin leaned over and grabbed a regular Goblin. The Goblin screamed as it was dragged up into the air but was unable to do a thing as the Lamia-goblin¡¯s jaw unhinged and then yawned unexpectedly horrifyingly wide. The Goblin was pushed inside and then disappeared from view as the Lamia noisily swallowed it down. The goblin sank downward as a large bump in the Lamia¡¯s throat then body and then tail where it came to a stop.


    The Lamia burped and then glared at the regular Goblins. ¡°Want to make a fuss?¡±


    The regular Goblins shook their heads in fear and huddled closer to each other.


    ¡°Good. Know your betters.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t bully them,¡± gravelled the Cavebear-goblin its sad eyes turning on the Goblin eating Lamia.


    ¡°Oh not this again,¡± said the first Lamia who had not partook of Goblin. ¡°Look, you guys can hammer out whether it¡¯s bad to eat them or whatever, I¡¯m going to the toilet.¡±


    The Lamia-goblin uncoiled herself from her brother and slipped over to the jungle right where Rain and Opal were hiding. The pair shuffled backwards in alarm. Luckily the Lamia missed them and glided by. Opal raised her eyebrows at Rain and he got the message. They slunk after her.


    The Lamia muttered to herself and seemed to be examining trees. This went on until she came to a tree that she seemed to approve of. She looked up at it and sighed.


    ¡°Fucking leggy bastards have it so good. If only they knew how much of a pain in the tail it is to pass water with a body like this and not get any on you.¡±


    She shook her head then pulled herself up and over a low hanging branch so that her front was facing the ground and her ¡®hips¡¯ rested on it.


    ¡°Ah, that should be good. Oh gods, who is that, hey, I can hear you you know! Do you mind! I¡¯m trying to go here!¡±


    Rain walked around from behind her and looked at the awkwardly compromised Lamia-goblin hanging over the branch, her head at a height with Rains.


    ¡°Uhm. Hi. Can I, uh, help you?¡±


    Rain pulled back his lips showing his teeth.


    ¡°Wha-


    His jaws flashed through the air and he tore out her throat. The Lamia-goblin gurgled blood and her eyes rolled back as she slumped over the branch like a wet rope.


    Opal rested a hand on the snake part of the Lamia¡¯s body and chewed her lip, thinking.


    ¡°I¡¯m wondering if we didn''t so much trap them in here with us but trap ourselves in here with them. That Cavebear-or whatever-goblin is huge and very strong looking. It¡¯s not too late, we could still escape.¡±


    Rain snorted. ¡°Hell no. I came to eat and grow strong or die trying. I want the strength to punish those who wronged me. I want to frighten the arrogant and slaughter those who would try to stop me. I want the size to terrify those who I injure so that they never come back... I want to eat this entire tribe.¡±


    Opal smiled then laughed. ¡°Well alright, you¡¯ve convinced me.¡±


    They crept back to the camp where the other Half-goblin monsters rested. The remaining Lamia-goblin was busy arguing with the Cavebear-goblin and getting increasingly angry as the Cavebear-goblin was implacable.


    ¡°I¡¯ve already told you, get it into your thick skull, basic Gobbos are our lessers! If they weren''t then we wouldn''t have been able to take over the tribe with such ease. They basically worship us for gods sake!¡±


    ¡°Not better. Same.¡±


    ¡°Look at you, you¡¯re like ten times their size at least! You could roll over and kill one in your sleep! Hell, I¡¯ve seen what you do when we raid Gobbo tribes. They¡¯re basically insects to you!¡±


    ¡°Not insects. Same. Be good.¡±


    ¡°I am good, I-¡±


    The Cavebear suddenly held up one claw filled paw. The group stared at her.


    ¡°Something wrong.¡±


    The Lamia-goblin was completely thrown off and could only look at her with his mouth hanging open.


    ¡°H-hey, didn¡¯t she say something like that just before her mother escaped?¡± said the Diredog-goblin


    ¡°What?¡± The Lamia looked down and blinked.


    ¡°It¡¯s just something she said. Hey, Where did your sister go? She¡¯s taking kind of a while.¡±


    ¡°Hmpph. Not long for a Lamia, you wouldn''t believe how much a pain in the tail it is to-¡±


    The Cavebear-goblin suddenly stood up to the surprise of the group.


    ¡°Uh, what¡¯s she doing?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know do I! Maybe she¡¯s going to check on sis.¡±


    ¡°Would you lot calm down, I¡¯m trying to cook here. Let the damned bear have her way.¡± grumbled the Human-goblin.


    The group watched in silence as the Cavebear-goblin strode around the fire and toward where Rain and Opal were secreted.


    She delicately pushed apart the foliage and peered down.


    Rain dropped on her head from the tree he had climbed and tried to bite down on her neck.


    Unfortunately, he¡¯d underestimated her. The bear whipped her head back before Rain could get a real bite on her broad neck and she flung herself down rolling onto her back. Rain looked to his side in surprise as a pair of Cavebear feet hurtled toward him and belted into his stomach with a thump. With a whoosh of released breath he was launched into the air toward the camp. He came down rolling but not stunned. He turned the roll into a half leap half flail and landed on top of the Human-goblin. The Human-goblin yelped and they both went sprawling, rolling over each other and throwing wild blind punches. Blood flew through the air, but not Rains, the Human-goblin was having difficulty harming Rain¡¯s tough body and Rain swiftly pushed home his advantages. He grabbed the Human-goblin¡¯s arms and shoved them aside, stopping him from defending himself as he ripped his face off spraying gore across the ground. The regular Goblins took one look at this and ran screaming into the jungle.


    ¡°What is that thing?! Fucking kill it you useless bear! Save him!¡± cried the Lamia.


    The Cavebear-goblin roared and charged across the camp at Rain as the Diredog-goblin barked at him, seemingly scared of coming closer. Rain snapped at it and it whined and backed away.


    ¡°No! stop running away! Dammit Claaarence!¡± yelled the head of the Diredog that could speak Common to the head that could not.


    Rain didn''t stop to hear more but flung himself at the Cavebear and then as its massive arms capped with ten-inch claws came at him he dropped down and skidded between her legs rolling back to his feet on the other side. The Cavebear stumbled and nearly fell over herself.


    Rain set his feet to launch himself at her back but suddenly coils of glossy black and green scale swept around him and looped up his body until he was entirely encased in snake body.


    The Cavebear at last turned around and found the Lamia looking smug.


    ¡°Got it. See wasn''t that hard, why am I always the only competent one, sigh. No idea what the fuck It is we caught but I bet it¡¯s good breeding stock. I think I should get some pretty nice privileges from the chief from this you kno-¡±


    The Lamia suddenly froze and looked down. His mouth opened wordlessly and his eyes went round.


    ¡°Oh, Oh gods! It- It¡¯s eating me! H-help! Help!! Get it off!! Get it off me!¡±


    The Lamia tried to uncoil itself but black furred arms and legs shot out from between the coils and held him in place as blood began to waterfall down from the gaps in his coils.


    The Cavebear rushed up as the Lamia started to thrash and she tried to pull apart his tail from the black bloody shadow that was tearing the Lamia apart from the inside. The Lamia-goblin, now wild eyed and with blood pouring from his lips began to shake and desperately clutch at the bear.


    ¡°G-get it out, k-kill it!¡­¡±


    The bear roared in frustration and panic as the Lamia died and she forced apart the coils only to find... nothing. Then pain hit her, and she looked down to see black fur shifting against her own dark geen and black fur, the creature had eaten its way through her stomach wall and was digging up into her body. The Cavebear staggered backward, her lank hair flying as she shook her head. Large clumsy paws came down and tried to grab the monster eating her from the insides but its body was so slippery with blood that her paws simply slicked off. She sat down with a whuff as the agony started to overwhelm her mind and she went into shock. She put a paw on her chest as she felt the grinding chewing jaws of the beast move toward her heart.


    ¡°Feels¡­ Warm.¡±


    She slowly lowered herself to the ground as her sight started to go dark.


    A few seconds later a blood drenched mass pulled itself from her stomach with a grizzly sucking sound as gore and Cavebear skin sloughed off.


    Rain shook himself, cleaning off the worst of it.


    ¡°CLAARENCEE!!¡±


    Rain looked up to see the Diredog-goblin race past with a wild eyed Opal riding on its back. She gripped its barrel with her legs and then with her cutlass held in both hands she recklessly swung at the monster¡¯s heads. Missed. Swung again, and by some fluke managed to chop into the neck of one of them.


    The Diredog crashed to the ground as half its legs gave out. Opal rode it down as it slid to a stop.


    The remaining head whined in confusion and pain and licked the now still and dead head that once could speak.


    ¡°Be with your sibling,¡± said Opal as she swiftly ended its life. She sighed. ¡°This whole tribe is just one big self-inflicted pile of nasty. The fools should have taken our ancestors'' warnings about making Half-Gobbo tribes seriously.¡±


    ¡°They seem worse than your old tribe, but you pity them?¡±


    ¡°Pshh. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m still gonna kill ¡®em, they''re bloodthirsty and aggressive and have butchered Gobbo tribes, I¡¯ve seen what''s left of tribes they conquered.¡± She shivered despite herself.


    Rain grunted but said nothing more. Instead he turned and grabbed the Cavebear-goblin by the upper jaw and dragged her, with difficulty, across the grass until he came upon a hole in the ground, the third exit from the cavern. He pushed the massive corpse down into it, filling it and sealing it off.


    ¡°That¡¯s the last one. There¡¯s no passage out of this cavern now, except for passage to the afterlife.¡±

 Chapter 26

    ?


    ¡°Those Gobbos that fled screaming when you killed that Human-gobbo, well, I think the tribe knows we are here now,¡± said Opal as voices and footsteps started to reach them from the surrounding jungle.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, they won¡¯t know what¡¯s happening yet and it¡¯s too soon to have drawn the attention of many. Just need to keep on top of them as they come,¡± said Rain wiping blood from his nose.


    Opal withdrew her rapier and scuttled under a nearby bush as Rain set his feet.


    ¡°All yours big guy.¡±


    Rain spread his paws as two Lamia-goblins exploded from the foliage followed by a dozen or so regular Goblins.


    The two Lamia didn''t hesitate for a moment and dived on Rain using their bodies to engulf him entirely in an attempt to squeeze him to death. If only they had seen what had happened to the last one.


    Rain disappeared behind their scales as the Goblins whooped their victory. It wasn¡¯t long before the screaming started. Blood sprayed from between the Lamia¡¯s coils shocking the Goblins out of their celebration.


    ¡°Uncoil! Get it out!¡± cried one Lamia-goblin as the surrounding Goblins started to panic.


    ¡°I- I Can¡¯t! Gobbos! Use your weapons, stab between our coils, go damn you!¡±


    The crowd of Goblins seized on the command and swarmed over the entwined Lamia, using their poorly made swords and knives to poke between the slipping moving coils.


    It was working! More blood than ever was pouring out from between the coils! They were injuring it! Surely!


    A massive paw burst from the coils and wrapped around a Goblin¡¯s head and then dragged him inside screaming. The Goblins faltered. Another Goblin was pulled inside, then another.


    ¡°D-Don¡¯t stop! You must save us! Please!¡± said one of the Lamia as they held the other up, blood pouring from their mouth.


    The Goblins began to back away.


    ¡°What are you doing?! Stop! Don¡¯t run! Oh- oh gods it¡¯s eating through my spi-.¡±


    The Lamia slumped to the ground as the Goblins stepped back fearfully toward the trees.


    A blood covered head burst from the Lamia¡¯s flesh causing the Goblins to freeze in fright. It turned on them, its yellow eyes alight with hunger, tongue running along its teeth.


    ¡°B-Beast! Run!!¡± squeaked one of the Goblins as with a snarl Rain bounded from the Lamia¡¯s corpses and gave chase. They fled into the jungle, the beast hot on their tails.


    It leapt and landed on a Goblin crushing it into the ground and instantly snapping its back with its weight, a paw lashed out and snatched up another goblin bashing its brains out on a nearby tree. The chase continued, Goblins dropping like flies as the beast outpaced them due to its longer legs. Soon enough only three desperate Goblins remained, though not for long.


    A dark shadow loomed over the slowest of the Goblins but before it could reach out something cried out from above, an ear-splitting avian screech of a sound. The black furred shadow tumbled to the ground as a pair of wings cannoned into it.


    A tall naked female Goblin crashed into view, but instead of arms it had wings, and instead of Goblin legs it had the feathered legs of a bird of prey complete with oversized hooked talons made to rend flesh. It scratched and clawed at Rain as he rolled across the ground, keeping his arms up to protect his eyes. The Harpy-goblin avian screeched again and it was joined by a second. They seized on Rain¡¯s shoulders, their talons puncturing his flesh, they then furiously flapped their wings. The Harpy-goblins slowly began to rise into the air, up above the foliage, above the jungle where they were joined by more of their sisters, flapping and cawing.


    ¡°We have it sisters! We have the intruder! The prize is ours!¡±


    ¡°What a feral looking beast, what creature would come to be if we were to breed with it I wonder?¡±


    ¡°We should take it to Mother, he can be ours alone and strengthen our blood!¡±


    ¡°All the better. The time we take over the tribe is near! We shall look down on our lessers from above as it is meant to be!¡±


    A large paw wrapped around the leg of one of the carrying Harpy-goblins. She looked down in surprise that the creature could still move with their claws piercing it. Normally their prey was left in agony and unable to struggle.


    The paw¡¯s grip tightened and to the Harpy¡¯s shock she felt it drag her down.


    ¡°H-hey! You¡¯re not supposed to do that! We¡¯ll fall!¡±


    Yellow eyes looked up at her with contempt and then its jaws opened and bit off her leg. She screamed and watched on in horror as her limb fell into the jungle canopy below.


    ¡°Drop it! Drop it! The mad beast is suicidal!¡±


    ¡°I- I can¡¯t let it go! It¡¯s got my leg! Help me sisters!!¡±


    ¡°Me too! Attack it! Rend its body to pieces!¡±


    The two Harpy-goblins flapped desperately at the air trying to keep aloft as the other Harpy-goblins flocked around them, their claws outstretched and slashing at the prey. Rain¡¯s foot lashed out kicking at them and trying to keep them back, but there was only so much he could do being attacked from both sides. Growling in frustration he yanked down one of the harpies holding him up and bit through her neck letting her drop.


    The Harpy-goblins cried out in anger and rushed him. His paw lashed out and wrapped around a Harpy-goblins¡¯s neck. Panicked eyes searched for help but nothing could stop his inexorable strength and the Harpy was dragged into his jaws. Claws lacerated his body but his paw reached out again, and then again. Harpy-goblins were dropping one by one. Unfortunately, the one Harpy-goblin Rain was hanging onto wasn¡¯t enough to keep him aloft and they were rapidly sinking into the treetops. A flash of green and the crash of branches and they slammed back into the jungle. Rain had one momentary sight of a second Cavebear-goblin before he and the Harpy collided with it at high speed. The three of them smashed into the ground, the Harpy¡¯s wings audibly snapping as Rain rolled on top of her, crushing her between himself and the Cavebear.


    The Cavebear-goblin roared in confusion and lashed out blindly with its massive claws. One swipe took the Harpy-goblin in the head and partially beheaded her. The next swipe came on but Rain held up his paws and caught it, each paw gripping a massive ten-inch yellowed bear claw. He stumbled nearly losing his footing atop the Cavebear as the incredible strength of it slammed into him like a landslide. His feet dug into the Cavebears torso as he resisted, slowed, and then to the Cavebears surprise he managed to push back its paw. Rain took a step forward and twisted the arm of the Cavebear down forcing it into submission.


    Unfortunately for Rain the monster had two paws and the other slashed up to eviscerate him. He was forced to release its paw as a set of yellow scythes whipped past his gut. He leapt backwards from its chest and landed back on the ground as it roared in fury, foam flecking from its lips. The Cavebear-goblin charged and Rain dived out of the way easily enough, the clumsy fury of the creature making it easy to predict.


    The hissing of a snake tugged at his ear and he tried to turn but a moment too late, coils lashed through the air and encircled his arms and legs from paw to shoulder and foot to hip and wrapped multiple times around his waist. He stared at the coils. More than one, more than two, in fact as he looked over his shoulder he counted no less than seven Lamia-goblins behind him each using their tails to enwrap a different part of his body but far enough away from his head that he couldn''t bite them. These Lamia-goblins had been informed of what he could do and had come prepared. He tried to move his arm but the grip of two Lamia heaved back keeping him trapped. He snarled and lent into it, flexing his biceps and pecs. The Lamia began to shift as they were dragged across the ground.


    ¡°He- He¡¯s too much to hold! We need more!¡±


    To Rain¡¯s dismay two more coils looped around his arms and dragged him back into the exposed position the Lamia wanted him in.


    ¡°Hey, you! Cavebear-gobbo! Get over here and gut this beast! I¡¯m not sure how much longer we can hold him!¡±


    The Cavebear-goblin who had been watching narrowed its eyes and began to step forward.


    ¡°Your Mother,¡± said Rain.


    The Cavebear paused.


    ¡°Your Mother, the true Cavebear, was ashamed to have half Goblin trash for children. That¡¯s why she broke her chains and left, because she couldn''t stand to look at the dogshit that had fallen out of her vagina. She hated you.¡±


    The Cavebear¡¯s eyes widened as though she couldn''t believe what she was hearing. Then, her whole body trembling, she spread her arms and roared in blood spitting fury. Her eyes locked onto Rain and she charged.


    ¡°H-hey, Cavebear, this bastard is lying! W-wait, No! NO! STOP! STOOOOP!¡± screamed the Lamia as the Cavebear-goblin freighted into them at full sprint.


    Rain, tangle of Lamia, and furious Cavebear crashed into each other and the hissing, howling, roaring ball smashed aside trees as it rolled through the jungle.


    Blood spilled in the tangles trail as a pair of unstoppable jaws flashed through the tumult, ripping and tearing and raising shrill screams as buckets of flesh were incised and separated. Giant bear claws ripped and tore, blind to friend or foe only trying desperately to get at the slippery black shadow that squirmed between coils and Cavebear. The shadow tore from the Cavebear then dived back into the coils as the bear tried to strike it, only hitting Lamia instead. Blood and gore covered everything as the Lamia started to disintegrate under the onslaught, their bodies mauled apart by the scything claws of the bear and the tearing of the wolf.


    The tangle of death slowed and the bear lost track of the wolf. Multiple holes punched in its stomach poured blood, but the mindless fury of the Cavebear kept it frantically pulling apart coils and corpses. It wasn''t until it felt the weight on the back of its neck did it realise its mistake. Too late. Immense pressure, pain, then the splintering crunch of a spine, no more pain. The Cavebear-goblin flopped on top of the horrific pile of shredded Lamia.


    Rain rested on all fours atop the Cavebear for a moment, breathing hard, his head bowed.


    ¡°Cutting it a bit close maybe,¡± said a voice.


    He looked up to see Opal pushing aside some foliage. Blood spattered her clothes and both her cutlass and rapier were red up to the hilt.


    ¡°Yeah, well, they figured out engulfing me in coils was a bad idea. I couldn''t bite my way out, so I had to change the situation.¡±


    ¡°By having a half-Cavebear land on you?¡±


    Rain laughed.


    ¡°It worked didn''t it?¡± he said, as he wiped gore from his face.


    ¡°Barely I-¡±


    ¡°SCRAAAWW!!¡±


    Rain turned back to the Goblin as an actual full blooded Harpy, not a half breed, crashed through the canopy and snatched Opal up in her talons. The Harpy cackled and began to lift her into the air.


    Rain scrambled down the side of the bear and stumbled to his feet shedding gore and blood with every motion.


    ¡°Opal!¡± roared Rain as the Harpy made it past the canopy and began to glide over the jungle.


    Rain ran underneath her following in her flight path.


    ¡°Daughters of mine! I have the traitor that¡¯s spoken of! Come see!¡±


    Rain snatched up a stone about the size of a large fist from the ground as he ran. He leant backwards stretching his arm behind him, tilting his waist, then with a savage growl he torqued, twisting his hips and using all the momentum of his run he swung his arm so hard he thought it might snap. His paw whipped around and with a crack the rock left his paw and shot up through the canopy with an explosion of leaves. The rock took the Harpy in the back of the head sending a sprinkle of blood into the air. The Harpy squawked and crashed back down through the canopy ahead of Rain. She hit the ground hard in a spray of dirt, her wing breaking beneath her as she landed atop it.


    The cries of many alarmed Harpy-goblins rang through the air as he raced up to the crashed true Harpy. She was still alive, just moving groggily. Blood marked her pale naked skin and dripped from her long black hair, her red eyes were unfocused. Opal was lying near her, by some fluke having landed atop her then rolled away.


    Rain pulled the stunned Goblin into his arms and checked her over. Amazingly she was unharmed. The cries of anger above the canopy were nearing so he quickly thrust her out of sight beneath the nearest bush.


    The true Harpy blinked and seemed to gather herself. She tried to move her broken wing and hissed in pain, then she painfully climbed to her feet. She touched the corner of her unharmed wing to the back of her head and it came away bloody. She eyed the red smear.


    ¡°You attacked a Queen. That was a mistake. By Harpy law I will see a hole cut in your navel and your intestine hooked free, then I will watch as my daughters nail the end to a tree then chase you around it using a flaming branch until your bowels wrap round it like thread around a bobbin. You will then live like that until you begin to starve and become weak upon which time we shall force feed you our guano until your stomach bursts.¡±


    Rain wrinkled his nose and made a face of disgust. ¡°I think I understand why levelers hate Harpies so much, you actually are the worst of what levelers say about monsters.¡±


    The Queen Harpy hissed and stepped forward. At ground level, and standing, she was at a height with Rain, much larger than any of the half harpies, with massive brown and cream wings.


    ¡°Insolence.¡±


    She strode forward then sprinted then leapt into the air feet first, her body parallel to the ground, her massive twelve-inch razor talons aimed at Rain¡¯s face.


    Rain lunged forward and his paws slammed into the clawed feet of the Harpy arresting her momentum, the Queen shrieked her fury and beat her one massive wing blowing dust into the air, rippling the grass and shaking the trees. They wrestled, Rain¡¯s paws struggling to hold back the powerful kicks of the avian as her one good wing beat the air keeping her aloft. As they fought and grappled, Rain began to be pushed back from the sheer wild strength of the Queen and around them Harpy-goblins descended through the canopy.


    ¡°This cavern will be mine and every Goblin and Half-goblin will be my property! My army! You will not stop this, you cannot stop this, you cannot stop me!¡± roared the Queen as her talons raked at Rain¡¯s forearms.


    ¡°No,¡± came a voice, ¡°But I can.¡±


    The Inquisitor''s longsword pierced through the back of the Queen and burst up from her stomach on the other side, bright steel coated red, a strange growth. The Queen screamed and fell to the ground as Opal scrambled back between Rain¡¯s legs and under the bush.


    Rain stood over the Queen as she lay curled on the ground, one wing clutching at the sword through her gut.


    ¡°My children will avenge me beast, they are loyal.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see.¡±


    He grabbed the Queen by the throat and lifted her into the air as a dozen half Harpies surrounded them, crying out their anger.


    ¡°If you don''t back off I will end her right now,¡± growled Rain.


    ¡°What have you done to Mother!¡±


    ¡°Mother we can still save you, do not worry!¡±


    ¡°What do you want beast?¡±


    Rain looked over the dozen half-harpies eyeing him warily.


    He held up a paw and spread his digits. ¡°For the bargain price of five of you to die beneath my teeth I will let her go.¡±


    The Queen¡¯s eyes rounded. ¡°N-¡± Rain tightened his grip, cutting off her words.


    ¡°No! Fuck you wolf! Never! We will never sacrifice our own, we lo-¡±


    The one who had spoken up paused as a Harpy-goblin wing came down on her shoulder, then on her other shoulder.


    ¡°Sorry sister but you just aren''t worth much to us, you¡¯ve always been weak winged. We need Mother more than we need you, she¡¯s the only one who can keep our Harpy blood from becoming diluted.¡±


    ¡°Wha- b-but-¡±


    The two Harpy-goblins either side of her hauled her forward, her heels digging into the ground uselessly.


    ¡°N-No! S-sisters!¡±


    ¡°Die for Mother.¡±


    They held her still as Rain ripped out her throat, her eyes shifting from wide eyed fear to the relaxed visage of death.


    The brown haired one on the right shivered, her eyes transfixed by Rain¡¯s bloody teeth.


    The one on the left spoke up. ¡°Beast, we gave you one of our own, surely this is enough, Harpy-gobbos aren¡¯t Gobbos, we¡¯re worth so much more, even this one. Return our Mother, be reas-¡±


    The brown haired one suddenly lunged forward, but not at Rain, instead she wrapped her wings around the one on the left and flung her into Rain¡¯s waiting jaws, instinctively he ended her life with a snap.


    The rest of the Harpy-goblins stared at the one who had suddenly sacrificed her sister. She breathed in and out shakily.


    ¡°I¡¯m- I¡¯m not going to be one of the five to die! I want- I need to live!¡±


    Bedlam broke out. Sister attacked sister and the air was filled with screams and talons rending and incising flesh, flashes of blood sprayed through the air to spatter down on the green leaves of the jungle. Feathers torn from wings littered the ground and small downy feathers floated through the brawl.


    At last a trio of Harpy-goblins were forced down on the ground, their sisters pinning them. Rain was fairly sure one was already dead and judging by the amount of blood on the ground the other two wouldn''t last much longer.


    A bedraggled sister with flecks of red covering her face and hair lank with blood turned to Rain.


    ¡°You got your bargain and then some beast,¡± she said between heaving breaths, ¡°Blood payment has been rendered under Harpy law. Give her to us and we¡¯ll let you leave.¡±


    Rain pushed the Queen in front of him and released her neck.


    ¡°Daughters, did you not see his eyes?¡± said the Queen sadly. ¡°It was never going to end this way.¡±


    Rain grabbed the hilt of the sword sticking out her lower back and heaved the Queen forward, the blade protruding from her belly pierced the half-harpy in front skewering her. The Queen embraced her daughter as she screamed.


    The remaining six Harpy-goblins roared their fury and threw themselves on Rain, anguish disfiguring their faces. Rain backed away, his arms raised to protect his face. When an opportunity arose he grabbed at their talons and hauled one toward his mouth where he swiftly ended her, one, two, three, their strength was nothing compared to the Queen and their talons could not cut far into his body.


    The barrage of talons continued, lacerating his arms and causing the wolf to retreat through the jungle. He tripped over a root and rolled backwards, bursting unexpectedly from a treeline into a large grassy clearing. The last two harpies followed him howling their mindless rage and he grabbed them both from the air hauling them down to the ground. Their strength faltered below his own and he held them in place while one by one tearing out their throats.

 Chapter 27

    ?


    Rain stumbled to his feet exhausted, each footstep leaving a blood red mark in the grass.


    He turned around looking for enemies but none appeared. He was alone. Looking up at the domed cavern ceiling overhead he realized he must be in the center of the cavern. It seemed the jungle stopped at the center and was replaced by a wide field of grass.


    The clearing did not appear uninhabited. A cluster of goblin tents was at one end verging on the tree line. At the other end was a long barn like building crudely made from wood. In the center was a cluster of wooden buildings.


    He began walking toward the buildings in the center. He figured if he wanted to kill the leader of the tribe then now would likely be a good time as it seemed that what remained of the Goblins and Half-goblins were out hunting for him in the jungle.


    As he neared he began to hear voices. A deeper voice along with a scratchy female voice that sounded somehow unnatural and awkward.


    He slunk up to one of the buildings leaving a trail of blood in his wake and ducked to peek through one of the glassless windows.


    A back faced him, a very muscular back, one leaning back in a chair. Five uneven horns protruded from its head, bull horns. A horse-like mane of hair ran down its neck.


    Rain didn''t have any difficulty recognizing a Minotaur when he saw one having killed and eaten one recently, though the mutated horns and angular ears poking from the sides of its head were new.


    ¡°This creature, you say it came from some lake a few floors down?¡± said the Goblin-minotaur with a predictably deep voice.


    ¡°Yessss. The ancestral memories are fragmented but the description fits and I know no other creature which might pass as it. I know something terrible was done at that lake. I know the ancestors dreaded a return of what was put down there,¡± said the scratchy female voice.


    Rain couldn''t see much else due to the angle so the owner of the voice was out of view.


    ¡°It seems unlikely a monster would return from over a thousand years ago, still it is just another monster, nothing to worry about.¡±


    ¡°My witch¡¯s memories say otherwise. They feared these things like no other, especially their ruler, their king. This may sound insane and beyond belief to you, and I would not speak of this knowledge to any other, but to stop these things monsters and levelers fought together on the same side.¡±


    ¡°Bullshit. That did not happen. Not possible.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s true, though it is hard to imagine a situation desperate enough where that would have come about. Just speaking of such a thing would anger any monster who heard it in this era so I will not repeat this outside of this room.¡±


    ¡°Faulty memories, it¡¯s happened before, not everything survives the generations intact.¡±


    ¡°The most traumatic memories do, and this one scarred generations of Gobbos.¡±


    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll humour you. We have a resurrected, or whatever, monster from an age past running around in our cavern. Theoretically, it¡¯s pretty strong. Isn¡¯t this a good thing?¡±


    ¡°...I don¡¯t follow.¡±


    The Minotaur leant forward. ¡°It¡¯s obvious, isn''t it? We want strong monsters to grow our power, we capture this beast and have the regular Gobbos breed with it, they fill it with halves or themselves pop out a few halves, and they¡¯re on our side. Hell, if it¡¯s as scary as you make it out to be then we¡¯ll be unstoppable. We¡¯ll be able to take over the dungeon and then we can conquer the surface. It can all be ours, we can take everything.¡±


    The scratchy voice hissed in annoyance. ¡°We can barely keep what we have, look what happened to the Harpy Queen, she escaped and lives on the cavern ceiling forming her own faction with her daughters, a perpetual thorn in our side forever demanding more influence. A monster like this would surely be uncontrollable and its spawn chaotic. Far from ideal.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know that. Our Cavebear half-breeds are placid, unless you do something to anger them, but no ones stupid enough to do such a thing. Besides, if it turns out to be a problem we can always just kill them. Remember the Slime-gobbo disaster? Same thing.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I remember, and if I ever see a tentacle again it will be too soon.¡± There was a rustling sound of movement. ¡°This thing is not like other monsters Cairn. It is something from a more savage era when rivers of blood were the norm. A time when few tribal monsters could speak as the ancestral memories were not as developed as they are today. We would likely be doing the dungeon, no the world, a service by ensuring it does not leave our cavern alive.¡±


    ¡°Pah, fuck the world. This is an opportunity to seize power like never before. Hell, I¡¯ll fuck a few kids into it myself if it¡¯s female.¡±


    ¡°Bah, I¡¯ve had enough of this idiotic Minotaur bravado.¡±


    There was a scuttling tapping noise and the scrape of a door. Rain slunk around the building and hid behind a poorly made crate. He peeked over the top as the front door opened, a long black spike crept from the door and hooked around it. It took a moment for Rain to realise he was looking at a gargantuan spider leg as several more thin legs slipped through the door and then the body of the creature, a terrifying spider with the top half of a goblin sticking up where its head might have been. The monster needed to turn its body at an angle to fit its bulbous black abdomen through the door and even then it was a struggle, it got stuck and had to tug itself free. Standing on the grass the bottom of her spider torso must have been six foot off the ground such was her size.


    Behind her the Half-minotaur ducked through the door. His dark green fur slashed with black rippled over thick slabs of muscle as he moved, heavy hooves impacting the ground. His face was more squashed than a Minotaur with pointier teeth and long knife ears and orange eyes. The twisted crown of horns on his head gave Rain pause, so did the fact he was massive, standing eight foot tall, larger than any Minotaur Rain had seen before.


    Not just a Goblin-minotaur. He thought. An evolved Hobgoblin-minotaur?


    The Spider-goblin turned to Cairn. ¡°I¡¯m going to cast a locating spell to see if I can pinpoint the creature and then we are going to gather our strongest, even the Harpy Queen if she can be convinced, and we are going to destroy this intruder into our tribe''s home.¡±


    He sneered but remained silent. The half-spider rolled her fingers and stretched her wrists before cracking her knuckles and forming a complicated sequence of seals with her hands. A large intricate symbol on her spider abdomen began to glow blue and mist started to spill from it. She focused, deep in concentration.


    Cairn scratched his balls through his loincloth. He peered around, bored. He yawned. He paused mid yawn however when his eyes alighted on a trail of red through the grass that led to the building they had just come from. He blinked and furrowed his brow.


    ¡°Hey.¡±


    ¡°Remain quiet, this is not an easy spell and far from my usual area of expertise. I almost missed that leveler with it this morning. I need to focus.¡±


    ¡°Hey, I see red.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I see red, on the grass.¡±


    The Spider-goblin paused and the mist began to dissipate. She scowled.


    ¡°Just, go look into it, I¡¯m losing my spell with your blabbering.¡±


    The Spider-goblin closed her eyes and the mist resurged.


    Cairn sighed and strolled off to investigate.


    Rain backed away from the crate and returned to behind the building. He looked up. The building was crude but it did have a roof. He set his claws in the uneven wooden planking and hauled himself up until he clambered atop. Crouched low he made his way across the wooden tiles until he could peer down. The Minotaur was looking at the bloody grass while vaguely scratching his chin.


    ¡°Curious.¡±


    His eyes tracked the red following it until they came to the window Rain had hid by to listen in on them.


    ¡°Cairn! It¡¯s here! The damn thing is here!¡± cried a scratchy voice causing Cairn¡¯s eyes to widen.


    Too late. Rain dropped from the roof like winged death, his claws outstretched and maw open ready to bite down on the Half-Minotaur¡¯s neck. At the last possible moment the Minotaur caught sight of Rain¡¯s shadow and twisted his head aside. Rain¡¯s teeth latched onto his shoulder. The Minotaur¡¯s arm swept up before he could bite deep and crashed into him. Rain was flung away from the Minotaur with a flap of his skin hanging from his front teeth and went tumbling across the grass.


    The Minotaur roared his pain and jerked around to see Rain picking himself up. Blood washed down his shoulder.


    ¡°That was good, you almost got me. I can see why you¡¯ve survived with a nasty bite like that. You¡¯d just need to get up close and Bam!¡± The Minotaur closed his thick fingered fist in front of his chest. ¡°Unsuspecting prey would fall like flies.¡±


    Rain grinned. ¡°Suspecting too.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. Too bad you¡¯re not female, I¡¯d have liked to have some kids with teeth like that. I¡¯ll still enjoy breaking you in for the regular Gobbos however.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll pass thanks.¡±


    ¡°You won''t get a choice in the matter. You won''t be the first monster I¡¯ve caught for the tribe, nor will you be the last.¡±


    Rain snorted. ¡°You threaten, but I will devour you.¡±


    Cairn¡¯s nose wrinkled in annoyance.


    The Spider-goblin scuttled around the building at this point and came to a stop seeing Rain, a worried look crossed her face.


    ¡°Listen, thing that came from the lake, you haven''t fought anything like me before,¡± boasted Cairn.


    ¡°We¡¯ll see. Your Harpy Queen talked big too, but she¡¯s dead now.¡±


    Cairn blinked at him and turned to the Spider-goblin.


    She grit her teeth. ¡°I do not think he is lying.¡±


    Cairn turned back to him with a snarl. ¡°You¡¯ll regret that.¡±


    The Spider-goblin began to make seals with her hands and violet fire sparked between her fingers, then a large three foot wide violet fireball bloomed above her glowing spider abdomen and hovered in place.


    Rain felt a shiver go up his spine seeing the fire. Magic fire. Rain hated magic fire. He almost lunged at the Spider-goblin but was barely able to control himself. He could feel the memories of his death crawling up his back, slithering around his neck. His breathing accelerated.


    ¡°Burn him up Lazia,¡± said Cairn, unbuckling a pair of hatchets from his belt. They were really broad bladed axes but they appeared as hatchets in his meaty hands.


    ¡°Wiser words you have never spoken,¡± said Lazia as she flung her hands forward. A dozen fist sized fireballs sprung from her fingers and zipped through the air. Rain threw himself out the way as they phut phut phut shot one by one into the grass sending sprays of dirt into the air. The fireballs didn''t stop and Rain had to scramble out of the way as the stream chased him.


    Cairn bellowed and charged toward him with hatchets raised. Rain dove and angled himself so that the Minotaur was between himself and the Spider and blocking her aim. Then he raced toward him. He dove down below the angle of the hatchets and his teeth shot toward the Minotaurs shin aiming to maim him. The Minotaur saw this however and fell forward snatching his leg up into the air and away from the slicing teeth. He rolled when he hit the ground and smoothly leapt to his feet facing Rain who was once again being bombarded, only for a moment however as Rain lunged toward Cairn once more. This time Cairn did not have momentum and he crossed his hatchets to block the hurtling wolf. Rain thrust his paws forward intending to rip the hatchets from the Minotaur¡¯s grip, his paws wrapped around the shafts just below the blades and he twisted back torquing into the ground and heaving his weight into them. The Minotaur¡¯s hooves slid across the grass but then he stabilised and heaved backwards pulling Rain off his feet to his surprise. Cairn roared and flung him to the ground where a hatchet whipped down to take Rain in the chest. Rain rolled to the side just avoiding it and reached for the Minotaur¡¯s hooves to drag them into range of his teeth but the Minotaur predicting this danced away giving the Spider-goblin line of sight.


    Fire rained down as Lazia unleashed and Rain¡¯s vision was filled with violet. He scrambled out of the way but one of the fist-sized fireballs landed on his lower leg in the same spot that Myra had hit him in his previous life. He howled in pain and rolled across the grass desperately trying to slap the fire out. At last the fire died, but not in his mind, he could still see it, Myra¡¯s fire. He looked at the Spider-goblin and he saw Myra. It was happening again. No. Not like this. His heart rate spiked and his lips raised in a savage snarl that shifted into a deep bone shaking roar that sent the grass around him trembling and the air rippling.


    He moved.


    Feet cratered the earth as he exploded forward, yellow eyes locked on to the Spider-goblin who was backing away fearfully.


    ¡°Cairn! Stop him! Stop him!¡±


    She spun her hands, frantically spitting out fireballs as she formed a fiery net. Cairn rushed forward, his hooves stomping the grass flat, but he was too slow and Rain outpaced him, dashing straight into the oncoming fireballs, shifting and slipping around them ever onward.


    The Spider-goblin suddenly threw up her hands and a massive spectacular net of fire bloomed in front of her forming a wall between her and Rain. Unfortunately for her the net formed slightly above the ground. She hurried to manipulate it downward but Rain threw himself down and slid underneath, his momentum carrying him through. He scrambled to his feet and turned on the spider who was skittishly backing away.


    ¡°C-Cairn!!


    Rain dived under the spider as she moved her hands back to throw more fire and he disappeared from her line of sight. She yelped and scuttled back, lifting her body high to try to avoid the wolf.


    CRACK-SNAP!


    She looked to her side wide-eyed and trembling as one of her legs fell to the ground having been bitten from her body.


    ¡°Burn! Burn damn you!¡±


    She raised her hands into the air and the huge fire ball floating above her abdomen exploded, washing over her in a wave of violet fire. Solar flares of violet licked off her body as she was engulfed, lashing between her legs and boiling the air. The air sizzled but the Spider-goblin was unharmed, she swung her head about, desperately looking to see if she had hit Rain as the last of the violet fire wisped away.


    CRACK-SNAP!


    She screamed as another of her legs fell to the ground.


    Cairn bellowed and charged through the dwindling net of fire that still hung in the air, burning himself in the process. Furious, the minotaur rushed to the spider, his hatchets raised. Rain ducked behind her as he moved trying to get a clear strike, Rain didn''t give him one and danced between her legs as the Minotaur circled Lazia in growing frustration.


    Rain suddenly grabbed one of the Spider¡¯s legs and heaved, pulling her away from the Minotaur and towards the building. Cairn bellowed again and rushed around to strike at him, Rain used the time it took from him to circle him to place his teeth once more on one of the Spider¡¯s legs. The Minotaur snarled and in desperation threw one of his hatchets, the steel hurtled through the air like a meteor toward Rain¡¯s head. Rain flinched back, surprised by the force and accuracy of the throw, barely avoiding it. The hatchet missed Rain and smashed into Lazia¡¯s leg.


    SNAP!


    Lazia screamed as her leg broke and her legs went out from under her. She fell. Unfortunately for Rain he was ducking back underneath at the same time and the entire weight of the Spider-goblin came crashing down on him. He slammed into the ground flat with a whuff of breath, the weight of her resting on his back.


    He struggled to get free but could do nothing as heavy Minotaur hooves stomped toward his head.


    ¡°Got you, you piece of shit.¡±


    A massive meaty hand came down on his neck and he found himself being forcefully dragged from beneath the Spider. He was hauled up into the air and a pair of arms wrapped around his chest straight jacketing him to Cairn¡¯s torso, the Minotaur¡¯s arms were long enough that he could still grip Rain''s neck with one hand while keeping his arms pinned. Rain struggled but found that with leverage the Minotaur¡¯s strength far outstripped the Cavebear¡¯s. He was trapped as solidly as though he were wrapped in bands of steel.


    Lazia climbed to her feet with difficulty, breathing hard.


    ¡°You okay Lazia?¡±


    ¡°No I¡¯m not fucking okay! My legs! My beautiful legs!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll get over it. You got spares.¡±


    The Spider-goblin made a strangled scream.


    ¡°That thing, that hateful thing, that thing needs to die!¡±


    She lifted up a hand and it was engulfed with violet fire.


    ¡°Now hold on. I¡¯ve caught it see? Literally all we need are collars and chains from the breeding pens and we have a new breeding stud.¡±


    ¡°Fuck your stupid plan to make kids with this fucking horror Cairn.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not stupid! Don¡¯t you see the potential Lazia? just think of the potential! We could conquer the dungeon! Monsters could rule the surface!¡±


    The Spider took a step forward and her other hand ignited as well.


    ¡°Do I look like I¡¯m thinking about goddamned potential?¡±


    ¡°No, but c¡¯mon Laz, I jumped through your own fire for you.¡±


    The Spider stepped forward and Rain snarled as the fire came nearer, struggling with all his might.


    ¡°And then you broke one of my legs!¡±


    ¡°That was an accident!¡±


    Rain growled and snapped at the air, pushing himself to the limit, but Cairn¡¯s grip was unwavering.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to kill it Cairn. Hold it still.¡±


    Cairn backed away as Lazia came on.


    ¡°NO! It¡¯s mine! I caught it!¡±


    ¡°Let me kill it!¡±


    Lazia lunged forward and Rain saw only Myra¡¯s fire.


    He let out a snarling furious roar unlike any before. It rose up deep from within himself, deeper, as though it came from his very soul, a throbbing bass rumble that surged up like distant thunder. Rain¡¯s muscles strained against his binds, his head drew back and then thrust forward, maw yawning wide, and the sound physically collided with the air as it was unleashed, the bone-vibrating shock reverberation causing the air to shimmer outward in a shockwave, strings of blood and drool flung from his teeth as his jaws shuddered wider.


    The roar built on itself, growing and booming. All grass in every direction was blown flat as waves of limitless bass flooded forth. The ground trembled and quaked beneath Cairn¡¯s hooves as though the very earth was afraid. But it didn''t stop, no, it just became louder. Trees shifted in the distance, the fire in Lazia¡¯s hands was blown away, stones and dust began to drop from the cavern ceiling far above, the buildings they stood by shifted and creaked, wooden tiles crashing to the ground as they were shaken loose. And then it became even louder.


    Cairn could see Lazia¡¯s lips moving but no voice reached him, it was all he could do to hold onto the wolf as it released a staggering ear numbing ripsnarl roar. Lazia was screaming silently at him now but his sight was starting to go dark around the edges. He blinked and felt fluid run from his eyes, no, not just his eyes, his ears were running too and his nose and mouth. He licked his lips, the iron taste of blood. The vibrations were so strong now that he could barely breathe, he could feel his heart struggling to beat under the pressure waves. Oh, was it the wolf? Everything was going dark. His fingers slipped from around the beast. Why did he do that? Why did he fall to his knees? Why was the dark ground rushing up toward him?


    Cairn slumped to the ground with blood pouring from every orifice as the roar came to an end.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character alts and nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server though I am new to setting this kind of server thing up so you will have to bear with me while I''m learning the ropes.


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    >?)))áê  ?? w ??

 Chapter 28

    ?


    In the aftermath Rain¡¯s ears were filled with nothing but high pitched ringing. His jaw and throat ached.


    He was stunned enough by his own roar that it took him a moment to realise that the Spider-goblin was drunkenly moving toward him holding up Cairn¡¯s axe over her head. Blood ran from her nose and ears but she was still mobile. He struggled to move his body properly, everything felt sluggish and unresponsive. He held up his arms pitifully and the axe came down. By chance she stumbled forward as she swung and the head of the axe flew over the top of his feeble defence leaving Rain to catch the haft on his arms. Crazed eyes looked back at him, Lazia¡¯s mouth opened in a silent scream of rage revealing strange spider like mandibles amongst fine white needle like teeth. Rain grabbed the axe and hauled down on it at the same time as he pushed upward. He smashed his forehead into Lazia¡¯s face, breaking her nose with a burst of blood. She let go of the axe.


    This seemed to knock her free of her mindless rage and fear momentarily crossed her gaze. Then however she seemed to commit herself to her chosen path, her jaw clenching in hard-hearted determination. Her hands snapped out multiple seals and glowing markings washed across her entire body. Violet fire bloomed above her abdomen once more, but this time it did not stop coalescing and the ball of fire continued to grow, three foot, five foot, seven foot across, the heat from the vast ball of fire was enough to scorch the grass.


    Rain shielded his eyes from the growing brightness then, finally recovering some basic rationality, he began to step away, wary of the Spider''s intent. The Spider matched him and came on. Rain turned tail and fled as solar flares of violet fire began to jump from the fifteen foot wide fireball. It radiated so much heat he could feel it sear his back. The Spider chased after him, fingers swiftly dancing and forming ever more seals.


    Rain gripped the axe from where he had been hugging it to his chest out of sight and suddenly, without warning, twisted mid bound, his arm whipping around as he swung his all into it. The axe flung from his paw like a bolt from a crossbow and tore through the air. But Lazia was ready. A solid violet disc conjuring into place in front of her chest to block the thrown axe. Unfortunately for her, Rain wasn''t aiming at her body. The axe came down on one of her legs and snapped it like a twig. Rain caught sight of a moment of open dismay on the Spider''s face before she came down hard. She crashed to the ground top half first and her abdomen rose up, fireball in tow, peaked, then came plummeting down to earth like a meteor.


    Rain desperately flung himself away, but he was still picked up and thrown by the blast like a child''s toy to be sent bouncing and rolling across the grass.


    He came to a halt in a heap.


    Several minutes passed with him unmoving. Then with a groan he slowly lifted his head.


    All that was left of Lazia was a crater in the ground.


    ¡°Crazy suicidal Goblin¡­ Now I can''t eat you¡­¡±


    With difficulty, he sat up. Every part of him ached. Bruises and cuts felt like they''d been uniformly patterned over his body.


    ¡°Ow- m- e-rs¡±


    Rain looked around to see Opal twisting a finger in her ear.


    ¡°I can¡¯t hear you, hold on.¡±


    Rain cracked his jaw and poked at his own ears. The ringing sound dropped off a little


    ¡°I said, Ow my ears. I think you scared the snot out of every Gobbo in the damned cavern. First that, whatever that roar was, and then kabooming spidey.¡±


    ¡°She was going to blow herself up no matter what I did, she was a, uh, witch. Goblin witches don¡¯t seem to like me very much.¡±


    ¡°And the roar? I thought the cavern was going to come down for a moment there.¡±


    Rain shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, I didn''t know I was capable of such a thing.¡±


    Opal tapped at her chin. ¡°Maybe it has something to do with growing. A bigger body, outsized strength, and, well, a bigger roar?¡±


    ¡°It was a little more than just a ¡®bigger roar¡¯. I straight up killed a Minotaur with my voice alone. I think if the witch had been on top of me as well she wouldn''t have survived either.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll try think up some way to use that, but right now I¡¯m going to make you hate me.¡±


    Rain tilted his head to the side and blinked. ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡±


    ¡°What do you think the entire tribe is doing right now now that you¡¯ve thoroughly spooked them all with all that noise and ground trembling? Yep, that¡¯s right. They¡¯re all fleeing toward the exits.¡±


    Rain groaned and rubbed a paw over his face. ¡°Meaning that they will be trying to figure out how to get past the obstacles we made and will sooner or later succeed....¡±


    Opal simply stood there and with her hands behind her back and rocking on her heels excitably. ¡°Can¡¯t let food escape.¡± She grinned. ¡°Coming?¡±


    Rain pressed his lips together in a line but rolled to his feet.


    The Goblin led him into the jungle and they made their way back to the main entrance of the cavern. It quickly became clear that as predicted the entire remaining population of the tribe was trying to escape at once. A crowd was fighting at the entrance, unable to keep order long enough to figure out how to move the stone disc and simply throwing themselves at it and shouting their frustration. A pile of them had built up, standing on each other to haul on the wooden pegs that ran along the part of the wheel. Unfortunately for them they had not noticed the stone wedge Rain had placed below so their efforts were wasted and in fact made it impossible for the few Goblins who had noticed the problem to remove it leaving them helpless.


    There were a number of Human-goblins mixed in the crowd of regular Goblins as well as three Diredog-goblins. As the pair watched cohesion started to break down. The Human-goblins lost their temper and started laying into the regular Goblins with swords and clubs, the Diredog-goblins seeing this quickly joined in. This seemed to push the terrified regular Goblins beyond all reason and weapons were unslung and used with abandon. They swarmed the surprised half Goblins and through sheer dint of numbers overwhelmed them, though not without heavy losses.


    ¡°This would have happened sooner or later. This whole tribe was a tinder trap waiting to ignite and go up in flames,¡± said Opal.


    ¡°Mrmm, the ones in charge of all this had no idea what they were sitting on.¡±


    A dozen regular Goblins survived, many of them injured, so when Rain pushed aside the foliage and stepped into their midst it was not a terribly difficult fight. However a couple did still manage to escape into the jungle. Opal drew her cutlass and stalked after them.


    Rain went on to the exit he had blocked with a tree but found no Goblins near and the tree untouched. When he came to the next exit however he found a pair of Lamia frantically trying to remove stones from the hole they had filled. Unfortunately for them they were inside the partially cleared hole and had no way to escape so that when Rain dropped on them they could do nothing but scream.


    He climbed out of the hole a little more bloody than before and moved on to the last escape tunnel. Unsurprisingly it was still blocked as the Cavebear-goblin he had dragged into it was massive and impossible to move. More surprising however was a second injured Cavebear-Goblin surrounded by the remains of maybe two dozen regular Goblins which had been smashed and sliced under foot and claw in what had clearly been a desperate fight. The Cavebear-goblin hadn''t escaped unscathed, the Goblins may have been weak but that hadn''t prevented them from exacting a heavy toll. There were only bloody pits where the Cavebear-goblins eyes had once been. Rain could only guess what had led to the fight but judging by the footprints around the hole the new Cavebear-goblin had tried and failed to remove the body blocking it prior to the fight.


    It snuffed the air as Rain neared, ears twitching, trying to locate him. He didn''t give it a chance and leapt on its back and bit down, then again, and then again. The Cavebear died with barely a whimper and Rain had to take a moment to realize he had started eating it, he reluctantly managed to pull his jaws away. His stomach growled painfully in protest. He was starting to lose himself to instinct, biting so many monsters without actually eating them was sending his monstrous animal hunger into overdrive, having an effect on him he wasn¡¯t sure he could control, making him act irrationally.


    Rain slipped off the Cavebear¡¯s back to the ground with a sigh. He looked back at the body and frowned, then after a moment shook his head.


    ¡°One last place to check.¡± He rubbed the back of his paw past his lips, drool coming with it. ¡°Gods, I feel hungry enough to eat a tribe, or three.¡±


    He reappeared back in the central clearing in which he had fought Cairn and Lazia. First he checked the Goblin tents but as he had assumed they were currently unoccupied. Then he came to the crude wooden buildings in the center, apart from the main one they seemed to contain only basic supplies, not of immediate concern.


    The last building of the clearing lay at the opposite end. A long crude wooden building much larger than the others. Rain made his way over to it. He diverted toward one end as a flash of movement caught his attention. He rounded the end and blinked in surprise. A naked person stood there, her hands chained above her head to a tall wooden post.


    She had the body and face of an Elf, partly, her legs were like that of some kind of bipedal sheep species, with black cloven hooves and soft and puffy white cloud like sheep fluff. The sheep like legs began about six inches down her leg from her hip, transitioning from pale skin to fluff with a particularly large puff of fluff like the tops of stockings. A small square of cloud like fluff sat above her mons and another large burst of cloud like fluff at the top of her sternum between her breasts. Her arms were encased in a sheath of white from nearly the top of her biceps to her wrists each end capped with a puff of white. It gave the impression she was wearing close fitting white sleeves with a cloud of fluff at each end.


    Voluminous hair framed her head, her thick white locks framing her face. She was short for an Elf at five foot six inches. A pair of blue eyes looked back at him from a worried but resolute Elfin face.


    ¡°You- what are you? Monster? Leveler?¡±


    Rain looked down at his blood soaked body. ¡°Take a wild guess.¡±


    The Elf-sheep paled. ¡°O-oh. I suppose you aren''t here to rescue me then.¡±


    ¡°No. I¡¯m here to kill everything in this cavern.¡±


    ¡°Hold on a moment, you can¡¯t be serious! I¡¯m not part of this tribe! I only just got here!¡±


    Rain tilted his head to his side. ¡°You aren''t one of the breeding stock they use to make half Goblins?¡±


    She blushed. ¡°No, I am most certainly not! I was caught by that wretched witch spider thing only this morning. I have nothing to do with this, so you can¡¯t kill me! I¡¯m not part of whatever grudge you have against the Goblins!¡±


    ¡°Whoever said I have a grudge?¡±


    ¡°Then why are you doing this?¡±


    Rain showed his teeth. ¡°Because I want to eat you all.¡± He took a step closer.


    The Elf-sheeps eyes rounded. ¡°What kind of- W-wait. Look, you¡¯re clearly sapient and intelligent, let¡¯s just talk this out for a sec.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I¡¯m listening.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to kill me, I¡¯m just a low leveler, a scrub, level fourteen, I¡¯ve barely begun, totally not worth it.¡±


    ¡°Mm, I¡¯d bet you¡¯d taste pretty good though.¡±


    ¡°Wha- No! Listen, there''s something in that barn you need me for.¡±


    ¡°And what would that be?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll show you. Just unchain me.¡±


    Rain narrowed his eyes. ¡°You want me to let you go free? For nothing? Do you think I¡¯m a fool?¡±


    She raised her chin. ¡°I¡¯m serious, take me inside, you will need my help, it¡¯s not something you will want to deal with on your own.¡±


    Rain stepped forward abruptly and slammed a paw onto the post above her head causing it to shudder. He was significantly taller than the Elf-sheep and he towered over her. He snarled as he spoke. ¡°I need nothing from you but your body. You do not get to tell me what I will or will not do.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of you! You great brute!¡± She gave him such a look of confident defiance that he was momentarily taken aback.


    ¡°I know what I¡¯m about. Your intimidation does not work on me, I¡¯ve faced down worse than you.¡±


    Rain gave her a curious look. ¡°You seem to genuinely believe that, but¡­¡±


    He stepped back and his gaze ran down her body to where her knees were turned inward and trembling like leaves in the wind. A line of fluid ran from her crotch to splatter on the ground.


    The Elf-sheep followed his gaze and seemed to realize that she was openly wetting herself.


    ¡°Oh! Oh! I- That¡¯s not me! I¡¯m not doing this!¡± She blushed furiously as liquid continued to loudly hit the ground.


    ¡°You pretty clearly are¡­¡±


    ¡°No! This is my sheep half! I- Gods, it must be some kind of inherited physical fear of whatever species you are, I swear I¡¯m not wetting myself, it¡¯s my body reacting on its own! I- I¡¯m not afraid of you!¡±


    Rain snorted, then let out a small laugh, then a larger one. ¡°That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.¡±


    ¡°It''s true! I swear! It happens sometimes, it¡¯s like ancestral memory, like tribal monsters!¡±


    Rain paused. ¡°Do you have any idea what species of monster I am?¡±


    The Elf-sheep blinked. ¡°Uh, no?¡±


    ¡°...Neither do I. I do know that my kind scared the shit out of a lot of monsters and levelers a long long time ago though¡­ Maybe there is something to what you are saying.¡±


    ¡°Wait, how do you not know what kind of monster you are?¡±


    ¡°Because I am the only one of my kind. I¡¯ve never met or heard of another like me.¡±


    ¡°...Well, okay, but you still definitely need me.¡±


    Rain pondered her words. He wasn''t impressed with this Elf-sheep¡¯s promises, but he had to admit he found her half-fear half-bravery intriguing.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so, but I¡¯d like to see where you¡¯re going with this.¡±


    He grabbed the chain that rose above her hands and yanked it down, the iron pin that it was attached to came free from the wooden post with a shower of splinters and broken wood. The Elf-sheep began to sink down as her legs gave out, but with a yelp she managed to awkwardly crab walk by the puddle she¡¯d made.


    She looked up at him from a crouching position.


    ¡°This has never happened before. I disassociate myself from my legs!¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t do that. They''re still your legs.¡±


    ¡°Yes I can! I declare my legs persona non grata!¡±


    Rain opened his mouth then closed it again unsure what to say to that. Instead he pulled up on the chain, pulling her arms into the air and lifting her up to standing. Her legs wobbled dangerously but she managed to keep upright. After a moment Rain let her stand unaided, he still kept the chain hanging in his paw however.


    ¡°Show me what you want to show me. It had better be good or you¡¯ll find yourself becoming intimately familiar with my teeth.¡±


    The Elf-sheep visibly gulped and began shakily walking toward the entrance. Rain noted as she turned that above the huge fluffy ball that was her tail she had several welts across her back as though she had been whipped, the reason for being tied up outside made clear.


    They passed beneath the entrance and into the shadowy interior of the breeding pens.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character alts and nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server though I am new to setting this kind of server thing up so you will have to bear with me while I''m learning the ropes.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    ?????

 Chapter 29

    ?


    Inside the breeding pens dried grasses covered the ground and the air stunk of musk. Muffled voices hidden by wooden walls broke the silence.


    They paused at the corner of the first wall and Rain poked his head around. A pair of Goblins were arguing beside some kind of lumpy blanketed table.


    ¡°It¡¯s my turn!¡±


    ¡°Your turn? This is the end of the tribe. If we¡¯re all gonna die I want to go out riding dick!


    ¡°W-what! That¡¯s ridiculous! I¡¯m on the schedule for today, look, look, my mark is on the schedule. It¡¯s clear that you haven¡¯t a leg to stand on, he¡¯s all mine. ¡±


    ¡°Fuck the schedule, and fuck you.¡±


    The Goblin punched the other Goblin in the eye, she went reeling and sat down with a thump.


    ¡°You bitch!¡± said the Goblin, rubbing her eye.


    The Goblin who had thrown the punch was no longer looking in her direction however and was pulling aside the sheet. A pair of stumps, legs that had been severed at the knee, were revealed, as well as a wrapping of chains, then as she pulled the sheet back further a loincloth.


    She licked her lips and crawled up on top of the table.


    A growl from behind made her freeze up and slowly turn around. Her eyes glanced over the corpse of the punched goblin lying on the ground and then up to the massive blood covered black wolf monster.


    ¡°Ahaha heyyyy there. Don¡¯t suppose you¡¯d let me have a little fun before you get me? maybe?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    A paw flashed out and she was dragged into his jaws with a squeal of fear, swiftly ending her life.


    Rain tugged on the chain and the Elf-sheep who had been holding onto the wall to keep herself up whimpered and tottered after him. Her entire lower body was trembling uncontrollably now and she looked near ready to keel over.


    Rain walked to the far end of the table and pulled back the sheet. A pure blood Minotaur¡¯s head was revealed, his head encased in a metal frame and his jaw forced open with a metal bar. Scars marred his face and one of his eyes was missing. The good eye looked up at Rain, pleading. Rain tilted his head to the side, he didn''t think anyone about to die by his jaws had ever given him that look before. He gave the Minotaur what he wanted and ripped out his throat. The look of sheer peace that crossed the Minotaur¡¯s face gave Rain a moment of pause. It was incongruous with his experience and it bothered him, prey normally did not want to die like this.


    The elf-sheep appeared at his side.


    ¡°He was a Minotaur, one of the most prideful species. I think this must have been a hell tailored to his worst nightmares, poor guy.¡±


    ¡°I assume he tried to escape more than once going by the wounds.¡±


    ¡°Most likely. Some species do much worse than others in captivity, some better. This tribe should have been exterminated a long time ago, if only the local town ranker wasn''t a lazy asshole.¡±


    ¡°I know of him. He is on my list.¡±


    ¡°What list is that?¡±


    ¡°The list where they get eaten bit by bit while still alive.¡±


    The Elf-sheep shuddered and gave him a wary glance.


    ¡°Is this what you wanted to show me? Because it¡¯s not enough to save your life.¡±


    ¡°N-No! No, this is something else, I didn¡¯t know about this guy or what was being done to him. What I wanted to show you is further in, I think¡­ I hope.¡±


    ¡°Hope?¡±


    ¡°Know with absolute certainty to be one hundred percent factual. I have supreme confidence that it is the case with zero doubt whatsoever that it is anything other than what I know to be true.¡±


    Rain squinted at the nervous looking Elf-sheep. Then tugged on her chains and they passed through to the next partition. A pair of human women were curled up in the piles of dry grass. Rain realised that this was what the Elf-sheep had wanted to show him for they were both clearly pregnant. The pair looked up at him with fearful eyes and scrambled back.


    The Elf-sheep stepped forward.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay now, everything¡¯s going to be fine.¡±


    She turned on Rain with a quietly confident look.


    ¡°See, told you, it¡¯s something you wouldn''t want to deal with.¡±


    ¡°Why.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s obvious, isn''t it. You¡¯re not going to eat pregnant people!¡±


    Rain furrowed his brow in thought.


    The Elf-sheep blinked and then worry crossed her face.


    ¡°Y-you a-aren''t are y-you?¡±


    Rain knew he was now a monster and no longer Human, it was just a fact, not that he had led a particularly normal Human life. Still, he remained at his core Human, even if he was now drenched in so much blood.


    This feels like a line that Human me really doesn''t want to cross. I don¡¯t want to cross it either, but I¡¯m just so hungry, so painfully hungry, and they are just there, but they¡¯re not like bloodthirsty monsters, or even regular callous and cruel levelers, or the already dead, this is...


    Conflicting emotions and powerful instincts wracked his mind and he worried the problem. He could practically hear his animalistic hunger roaring in his ear, telling him to eat! eat! eat the prey!


    ¡°H-hey, hold on, there¡¯s another reason!¡±


    Rain looked up and blinked.


    ¡°There is?¡±


    ¡°Yes! There was an old fisherman who lived by a lake.¡±


    ¡°What.¡±


    ¡°J-just listen. The old fisherman fished everyday, he fished and fished and he ate every fish that he caught. Now the old fisherman had a brother who lived by a different lake, that fisherman did not eat all of the fish he caught and instead threw back the pregnant fish and the young fish. One day the first fisherman went to the lake and fished and found that he did not catch anything. He put his head below the water and found that the lake was empty of fish. He then starved to death while his brother lived on because the fish in his lake kept making more fish. So, you see, you need to let some fish go to keep fishing in the long run.¡±


    ¡°Or I could go to the brother¡¯s lake and eat him and then eat his fish.¡±


    ¡°I- I don''t think fishermen eat other fishermen normally, fishermen eat fish not other fishermen.¡±


    ¡°Hmmm.¡±


    ¡°I-it¡¯s a metaphor uhmm.¡± She pointed at the pregnant Humans. ¡°They¡¯re fish, see, and the dungeon is the lake.¡±


    ¡°Hmmmmmmm.¡±


    He abruptly strode toward the Humans and crouched down in front of them. They obviously freaked out and tried to scramble away but his paw came out and clamped down on one''s wrist like a vice. He dragged her toward him.


    ¡°Fish! She¡¯s fish! You can''t eat her! Sustainable fishing!¡±


    Rain brought her hand up to his mouth. The pregnant woman was hysterically bawling her eyes out by this point. Rain paused.


    ¡°Fish... Fine.¡±


    He dropped her hand and she scrambled back into the pile of dried grass.


    The Elf-sheep let out a desperately relieved sigh of relief.


    Rain wasn''t actually sure whether the morality of it or the consideration for ¡®sustainable fishing¡¯ had let him overcome his currently screaming visceral hunger. Maybe the latter had allowed the former, he couldn''t say, still, this felt like a turning point in better controlling himself, one where he could have gone down a different path. The Elf-sheep had led him here.


    As if remembering something he suddenly stood up and turned back to her.


    ¡°You got what you wanted, but you seem to be forgetting something.¡±


    ¡°I, uh, am?¡±


    ¡°You are clearly not pregnant.¡± His eyes came to rest on her flat stomach.


    She blushed once more. ¡°That¡¯s something I was getting to! H-hold on!¡± she said as Rain took a step toward her and she quailed, her legs nearly buckling under her. ¡°I¡¯m not pregnant, but you need me still!¡±


    ¡°No, I do not.¡±


    ¡°What do you think is going to happen to these fish!¡±


    ¡°I do not care.¡±


    ¡°Sustainable fishing! Sustainable fishing!!¡± she cried as though it were a ward against him.


    ¡°Stop saying sustainable fishing at me.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s true though! Just letting them go in the middle of the dungeon is not that, they wouldn''t last five seconds out there, without the tribe protecting them they are all dead dead dead!¡±


    Rain glared at her. ¡°That is... annoyingly true. What of it?¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad you asked.¡± She gave him a winning smile and pointed at her chest with her thumb. ¡°Expert danger navigator and avoider of monsters, well-renowned saver of persons and items. I am your best bet, and best value, for rescuing such things from places of peril as I have the legendary and famed Rescuer Class! My prices are quite reasonable and I have excellent reviews.¡±


    ¡°You expect me to pay you to take food away?¡±


    ¡°Oh no no! Sorry sorry, force of habit, this will of course be pro bono.¡±


    ¡°Hrmm. Avoider of monsters? I don¡¯t think you are doing particularly well at that.¡±


    ¡°Hey, that¡¯s not my fault, that stupid witch had some kind of locating spell, they swarmed me before I could do anything!¡±


    ¡°I saw she could do that. Well, that¡¯s not something you need to worry about any longer. There¡¯s nothing left of her but a crater in the grass.¡±


    ¡°Good! Stupid Spider-goblin. Come on, help me break their chains.¡±


    Rain watched silently as the Elf-sheep scooped up their chains and tried to fruitlessly pull them from where they were attached to the wall. After a moment he sighed and grabbed up the chains with one paw, with a grunt he pulled them both from the wall with a shower of splinters then put the ends in the Elf-sheeps hands.


    ¡°Yours.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, just a few more places to check now!¡±


    Rain stepped toward the next stall as the Elf-sheep encouraged the terrified humans to their feet. They reluctantly followed, keeping the maximum distance from Rain that their chains would allow. The next stall was empty of people, although talon marks marred the walls, including a crudely made picture of a pair of wings plus a crown, below which someone had written ¡®Harpy Reign¡¯. In one corner was a shattered pair of chains, in the other was a pile of discarded clothing.


    The Elf-sheep wobbled over to this.


    ¡°Oh! My clothes!! My precious stylish clothes! Oh, how I have missed you!¡±


    She quickly snatched up a pair of shorts and wiggled into them and grabbed up a jacket and a few other things. She threw a pair of blankets at the pregnant women as Rain pulled on her chain and moved onto the next stall.


    He had to stop as he entered as the stall was dominated by a very large and very pregnant pure blood Lamia, a human-like upper body with red hair and a green scaled serpentine lower body.


    A snake tail coiled around his stomach and pulled him forward playfully.


    ¡°Oh? What¡¯s this? Did the little Gobbos send me a new toy to play with? They could have at least cleaned you first, tch. Though these muscles, this build, ooh this isn''t bad at all,¡± said the Lamia, as she ran the tip of her tail over his body.


    ¡°If you don''t remove your tail you¡¯re going to lose it snake.¡±


    ¡°Ohoho! He¡¯s a spicy one! I likey!¡±


    ¡°You uh, know what I said about certain species dealing with captivity better than others...¡± said the Elf-sheep giving Rain the side eye.


    Rain grabbed the Lamia¡¯s tail which was trying to fondle his rear and threw it aside.


    The Lamia had a significantly nicer stall than the others, an actual bed was in one corner as well as several trays of different foods, also unlike the other she had clothes, nice clothes. She was still collared and chained however.


    ¡°I¡¯m here to take you home, you don¡¯t have to stay here any longer,¡± said the Elf-sheep.


    ¡°Ah, really? That¡¯s good I suppose. How about a little roll around in the sack first though?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± said Rain.


    ¡°Aw. But we could have fun!¡±


    ¡°Still No.¡±


    Rain grabbed her chain and hauled it from the wall then handed it to the Elf-sheep and started to make his way out, ex-prisoners in tow.


    ¡°What about you sheepy? I can do things with my tail that would make your fluff frazzle and your toes curl.¡±


    The Elf-sheep jumped as the tip of the Lamia¡¯s tail ran up her leg.


    ¡°Erm! I-I¡¯m okay, th-thankyou for the offer though. I¡¯m on the job and that would count as fraternization in the workplace, sorry!¡±


    ¡°Blegh. You¡¯re no fun.¡±


    ¡°Aren''t you at all worried about your pregnancy?¡±


    ¡°Oh, this? No, Lamia have the easiest pregnancies in the world, and all the little cutie Lamia-gobbos that come out make it more than worth it.¡±


    ¡°Uhhh¡­¡± said the Elf-sheep her eyes drifting to Rain¡¯s blood covered back.


    ¡°I¡¯ll have to say goodbye before we leave, they are so precocious and care so much for me, this really has been a wonderful experience, really broadened my horizons. I had no idea tribal monsters had become quite so civilized, why some of the things we experimented with in the bedroom would boggle the mind of Lamia high society. I will have quite the tale to tell when I return, and some rather fun demonstrations!¡±


    ¡°I already spoke to your offspring! They said they were happy to have a mother like you and wished you well but wouldn''t be able to meet you!¡± blurted the Elf-sheep.


    ¡°Oh? That¡¯s sad, I wanted to say goodbye,¡± pouted the Lamia.


    ¡°It happens,¡± said the Elf-sheep soothingly. ¡°Sometimes stuff comes up. Don¡¯t worry though I¡¯m sure they will keep you in their hearts, and you know you can always send them a letter or something!¡±


    ¡°You think so?¡±


    They emerged back into the light of the cavern and began walking through the grassy clearing. As they did so a red-scaled Kobold emerged from the treeline dragging a Goblin body by the arms. He pulled it across the grass and put it by a growing collection of Goblins, as of yet there were no Lamia-goblins visible to the Elf-sheeps relief.


    ¡°I didn''t think you were serious about eating them all¡­¡±


    ¡°I like eating, particularly levelers.¡± He eyed the Elf-sheep¡¯s body.


    ¡°I don¡¯t count! And hey, why don¡¯t you eat the Kobold?¡±


    ¡°He works for me, I doubt he¡¯s happy about it though. Opal, another, is more like my partner, a Goblin. She¡¯s more ruthless than I am, she won¡¯t like that I¡¯m letting you go, she''d want me to eat you.¡±


    ¡°Partner? She wants to work with you?¡±


    ¡°Very much so, and more than work.¡± He gave her a wolfish grin.


    ¡°Huh. That¡¯s uh, brave... little bit reckless, just saying.¡±


    Rain gave her a flat look.


    ¡°Wolves don''t lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.¡±


    Soon they were walking below the foliage of the tree line and they passed by several Harpy-goblin corpses until they passed the corpse of the Queen Harpy. She had survived a little while impaled on the Inquisitor¡¯s sword and had dragged herself over to slump against a tree before she had expired.


    ¡°Oh my, I did wonder what had happened to her. She was a terrible apartment mate you know, dreadful screeching and she kept disembowelling her sexual partners and throwing their bits over our separating wall,¡± said the Lamia. ¡°Terribly uptight, some people need to learn to live a little and stop chasing shadows.¡± She shook her head. ¡°I could have predicted an end like this, I said as much at the time.¡±


    ¡°She was a monster, there''s a reason levelers aren''t huge fans of Harpies.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, I know but prejudices against tribal monsters are a real thing. Most levelers don''t even consider them truly sapient. I plan on speaking in favour of some kind of outreach when I get back, I see such potential, really this ancestral memory of theirs is far underestimated, it changes everything. This isn''t hundreds of years ago, things are different. I can smell change on the air!¡±


    ¡°Uh, I¡¯m not so sure that will go over so well¡­¡± muttered the Elf-sheep.


    ¡°Just watch darling, I have rather a lot of influence amongst Lamia.¡±


    Soon they reached the entrance and the stone disc.


    Many of the bodies had been moved already but Rain still had to move one or two aside. He reached down and gripped the stone chock holding the disc in place and with a grunt pulled it free. He then set his back and heaved. With a grinding rumble the disc rolled to the side revealing the entrance cavern with the path winding through its middle.


    ¡°Oh gods, freedom!¡± said the Elf-sheep.


    Rain growled and stepped close to her causing her to wilt and her legs to spasm in fear. He grabbed the chain manacling her wrists together and pulled her close.


    ¡°You¡¯re going back to Lynthia, meaning you¡¯ll speak to levelers. If you don¡¯t want to make it onto my list then do not speak of me.¡±


    ¡°O-of c-course not! I take client confidentiality very seriously! My lips are sealed and welded shut one hundred percent!¡±


    Rain gave her a searching look but he couldn¡¯t tell if she was being genuine or not. He grabbed the metal bracelets on each wrist then began to pull them apart. The short metal chain holding the bracelets together squealed as it deformed before abruptly the rings came apart with a screech leaving her arms free to move as she pleased.


    She took a moment to stretch her limbs and crack her knuckles until she noticed Rain¡¯s gaze and blushed. She rushed to put on the jacket she had recovered from the breeding pens and cover up her chest.


    ¡°Ahem. Well, I shall be departing now. It was a terror meeting you, I mean uh, a pleasure. I thank you for your business and -¡±


    Rain snarled and the Elf-sheep yelped and flinched away.


    ¡°-I -I guess we¡¯ll be going now! Goodbye!¡±


    She hurriedly pulled on the chains of the two Humans and the Lamia and they shuffled after her through the entrance and wasted no time rushing and slithering down the path.


    Opal appeared at Rain¡¯s side.


    ¡°Hey, are you really just going to let food go like that! Nasty levelers even?¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just watching a load of fat juicy steaks go wandering off, you can¡¯t be serious!¡±


    ¡°Sustainable fishing.¡±


    ¡°...What?¡±


    Rain ignored the Goblin and slunk from the entrance and into the nearest tree line. He made his way after the group of four hidden from sight, not difficult as they weren''t particularly fast.


    They eventually made their way to the exit from the cavern where the path ended. Rain watched from the shadows.


    ¡°Gods that was close, I really thought I was dinner for a moment there. Fucking scary wolf thing, that monster is going to be a threat to the local town I just know it, hell I wouldn''t be surprised if they are already aware of a monster like that.¡±


    ¡°Oh he didn¡¯t seem so bad, we¡¯re alive aren''t we?¡± mused the Lamia.


    The Elf-sheep turned on her. ¡°It wouldn''t have been necessary had you not gone gallivanting off into the dungeon and gotten yourself kidnapped your Ladyship. You do know I came here for you yes? Your husband paid me to come and rescue you.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Well all''s well that ends well I suppose. Back to regular life as it were.¡±


    The Elf-sheep worriedly eyed her clearly pregnant belly.


    ¡°Er, sure...¡±


    She turned to the two Humans.


    ¡°I will take you as far as safety but no more, is that okay?¡±


    One of them nodded furiously but the other simply looked scared.


    ¡°Oh poor things, I suppose they must have had a rougher time of it, Gobbos do need a strong hand at their worst, easier for some than others.¡±


    ¡°R-right. Well, for now let''s make our way back. I need you to trust me on this part and not let go.¡±


    She managed to get the trio in a line behind her and got them to link hands. She grabbed the hand of the Lamia at the front.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be shocked, this is perfectly safe, though I¡¯m not sure how long I can sustain it with so many, I¡¯ll need to take breaks. On three. one, two, three.¡±


    The group abruptly blinked out of existence.


    Rain stared at the spot where they had been. Teleportation¡­? An extremely rare power, and unheard of to be viable with multiple people, it didn¡¯t really fit with how the Elf-sheep had gotten captured however. As he watched he noticed a shift of dust and dirt near the exit. He narrowed his eyes. Invisibility. And not just invisibility for oneself, but others too, not only that but possibly near full invisibility if it covered the voice and removed most tracks as he suspected, he certainly couldn''t hear them speaking any longer.


    He suddenly felt a lot more regretful letting her go.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    ?????

 Chapter 30

    ?


    Rain pushed through the foliage and emerged back into the central clearing of the Half-goblin tribes cavern, he held a dead Goblin in one paw, the last to be recovered after scouring the place. Things had progressed quickly and there were many many bodies laid out before him. Forty regular goblins, sixteen Lamia-goblins, six Human-goblins, eighteen Harpy-goblins, a Minotaur-goblin, a legless regular Minotaur, a Queen Harpy, six Diredog-goblins, and two Cavebear-goblins. It would have been three but Rain couldn''t get the one he had pushed down a hole out of it so he had eaten it where it was.


    It was a lot. Easily more than twice as much meat as the piscine army had been. Drool dripped from Rain¡¯s mouth and his lower jaw trembled in anticipation. His stomach had demanded he eat with every body he dragged to the clearing, it had been immensely difficult to hold off so long and his hunger was verging on pain. His paws curled and uncurled as his eyes ran across the last of the bodies that Opal and the Kobold were busily stripping.


    Enough. He had waited long enough for this. Eyes alight he threw the last Goblin on the pile and dived on the nearest Lamia-goblin. He hadn''t tasted Lamia before. It tasted saltier than he expected, a little bit like eel which he had sometimes stolen from the butcher''s shop in his previous life. The interaction of Goblin and Lamia was interesting, a two-tiered flavour that left a Gobliny after taste. He sucked up the Lamia-goblins tail into his mouth like spaghetti until he was forced to start biting off chunks and gulping it down. It didn¡¯t take long to consume his first Lamia-goblin, he was absolutely ravenous, and he immediately pounced on the next and then the next barely stopping to let the growth shudder through him. He groaned involuntarily, how he had lasted this long without going mad he didn¡¯t know, he needed the feeling of growth, the feeling of power and strength welling up inside him like nothing else, addictive didn¡¯t begin to describe it.


    It wasn¡¯t long before he had eaten all ten Lamia-goblins and regretfully the last went into his mouth.


    More.


    He leapt on the Human-goblins and began to consume them. Flavour: mediocre. The mix of human and Goblin taste went poorly, the flavours trying to overpower each other while at the same time cancelling each other out, as a result he found them dissatisfying and it left him wanting. Still, it did not stop him from gorging himself and soon the six were gone.


    More.


    Next was the Harpy Queen, her comparatively large body was the starter to the Harpy course. Opal had taken back the Inquisitor¡¯s longsword and the Queen was laid out next to her daughters. Rain didn¡¯t sit on ceremony and pulled one of her thighs into his mouth. One bite, two bite, thr-- he paused. Sweet! What had started as a mild background taste became as overpowering as eating cake frosting. He struggled to adjust to it, the fact meat could taste like this was jarring to say the least. It took him a few moments but he managed to start eating again, though the overpowering sweetness made him want to gag at times. When the Harpy queen was devoured at last Rain actually felt the need to wipe his tongue on his paw to help rid himself of how sweet it was. He eyed the other Harpy-goblins with distaste and shifted to eating a Cavebear-goblin for now to cleanse his palate. The smoked oaken taste of the bear was a balm to his taste buds and washed away the feeling of having just eaten a bucket of sugar. The Bear was big, a massive amount of meat, and it took him a long time to get through it with multiple breaks. By the time he was nearing the end Opal had joined him, resting her hands on his chest and feeling him grow larger.


    He finished up the bear with a few snaps of his jaws and reluctantly turned back to the Harpy-goblins. Hesitantly he nibbled on a corner, then took a small bite, then a larger, he blinked in surprise. The sweetness was still there but the mixture of Goblin had massively reduced it and introduced a savoury element. Gleeful at finding an unexpectedly highly ranked food he chowed down on the half Harpies quickly grinding his way through them. The last of them soon disappeared behind his jaws


    More. More. More.


    Next he moved onto the Diredog-goblins. Fiery, more fiery than any Kobold, much more so. The disturbing looking creatures burned on the way down and Rain was soon breathing hard, his mouth on fire. However, despite the pain, he found that he couldn''t stop himself from taking another bite, morish was an understatement, the spiciness made them sadistically satisfying and he couldn''t help but shovel more mouth burn into his mouth. His eyes were watering by the time the last Diredog was done with. He collapsed onto the grass panting like a bellows as his stomach began to digest. Opal fell atop him and hugged his torso.


    He groaned as his bones began to grow once more and his stomach flattened. Opal came to rest on his muscular abdomen with a little sigh.


    ¡°So worth it. Spicy but so good.¡±


    He looked down at her, so much smaller looking than when they¡¯d first met.


    She looked up at him and smiled. ¡°I made a good call, yes? This tribe was prime for getting  eaten.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you did, it was a smart idea. I feel that much bigger and I haven''t even finished yet. You¡¯re starting to look so tiny.¡± He held up one of her hands in a giant paw, just one of his paw pads was nearly the same size as her hand.


    She blinked up at him.


    ¡°Tiny?¡±


    ¡°So small. I must weigh several times what you do by now.¡± He gave her a wolfish grin.


    A flicker of emotion crossed Opals face, first immense pleasure, then worry, then unhappy frustration. She bit her lip and abruptly got to her feet. She looked like she was about to say something, then shook her head and ran off.


    Rain looked after her in surprise.


    ¡°...doesn''t she like that?¡±


    He furrowed his brow but he couldn''t think why she would suddenly feel upset. He grumbled but as his stomach growled for more he put it to the back of his mind.


    Forty Goblins awaited his jaws and he wasn''t going to let them remain outside his stomach. He ground his way through them, compared to larger monsters Goblins were becoming trivial to eat due to his larger body, appetite, and maw. There were a lot of them but he was very very hungry, hungry enough that he was eating Goblin before the previous had fully digested. Gut rounded with Goblins he eventually consumed the fortieth goblin. Without pause he went straight into the remaining Cavebear-goblin. It didn''t take long and soon there was nothing left of the hill of flesh but a wide puddle of blood. He belched loud and long as it digested and the resulting growth washed over him with a satisfying stretching feeling.


    Of the half goblin tribe only Cairn and what Rain assumed what was Cairn¡¯s unwilling father now remained. He could only compare it to eating two entire cows. He gave the Minotaur he had mercy killed a moment of thought, a thankyou for his body and his sympathy for what had happened to him.


    Rain had consumed an entire monster tribe, a large one. Ninety two once living beings had gone inside him and been made a part of him, fuel for his immense surging growth.


    ¡°G-gods, I¡¯ve never eaten so well in my life.¡±


    He simply lay there for a moment, a wolf in a field of blood. There was so much blood that it covered most of the grassy clearing.


    After a little while, he rolled to his feet. The ground was significantly lower than he remembered, a sign of his growth. He estimated he¡¯d hit eight foot tall at this point, nearly a full foot of growth, which was a huge amount of increased mass, more mass than his previous two foot of growth combined. His sheer weight left broad paw pad footprints in the grass as he walked through it. He felt stronger too, in fact as he came up to the building in the middle of the clearing he felt like testing his strength. He placed a paw on one of the support beams and squeezed, the wood splintered then broke beneath his grip. He then placed his paws against the building¡¯s walls and pushed. With a creaking screech the entire crude building fell over and collapsed, although, he considered, the building likely had been weakened since he¡¯d caused a mini earthquake.


    He clenched and unclenched his paw in front of his eyes. He definitely felt much stronger, he knew his strength was going up disproportionately to his growth.


    He stepped over to one of the small central buildings and with a snarl ripped its roof off. He then pulled down its walls. Inside was a large comfortable looking bed, the Minotaur-goblin¡¯s he assumed. The first sight of a real bed in his new life was too much to resist and he was too exhausted to stop himself. He let out a long long sigh and slumped down on top of it, the bed letting out a groan of distress from his weight. Sleep soon took him unawares and his body steadily continued to heal.


    Stratothrax


    Rain current height: 8 Feet, 0 Inches = 243.84 Centimeters


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    ?????

 Chapter 31

    ?


    The Kobold gripped his spear and squinted over the rough stone parapet.


    Furrowing his brow he nudged the Kobold beside him, the second Kobold startled and looked up from where he was fiddling with a metal puzzle toy.


    ¡°Hey, do you mind? I think I almost got it.¡±


    ¡°Stop messing around with that, I think I saw something. You know what they said, keep an eye out for anything strange.¡±


    The second Kobold blinked at him then turned and looked over the parapet. Below the wall and across the bridge over the bottomless chasm there was an entrance to a cave system.


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t see anything. I think you¡¯re losing it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll make you lose it in a second if you give me any more lip. Look.¡±


    The Kobold jabbed out with a claw, pointing. The second Kobold stared, then after a moment, a flash of red appeared from around the edge of a rock.


    ¡°What was that? I thought I saw a¡­ tail?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I thought. Some idiot Kobold on the outside, dunno why they¡¯re not coming forward though.¡±


    ¡°Why would anyone be on the outside? We¡¯re in lockdown after the chief freaked.¡±


    ¡°Do you know why we''re in lockdown?¡±


    ¡°No?¡±


    ¡°Mm, well I heard talk. You know that Half-goblin tribe down a floor?¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, they tried to raid us a while back, fat chance that was going to work with these walls.¡±


    ¡°Well apparently one of our scouts we placed to keep an eye on them threw a fit. He came back raving about some new monster he¡¯d never seen before, said he saw it make its way inside their base, and then nothing.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean nothing?¡±


    ¡°I mean they¡¯re all gone. He watched and waited and the new monster left and then he crept inside their base and there was nothing left. No goblins, no half goblins, no nothing except a massive lake of blood in the center of the cavern.¡±


    ¡°Wha- That¡¯s a joke right?¡±


    ¡°No, not the way I heard it. He came screaming back up here terrified out of his mind and babbling incoherently. Had to ply him with a few drinks before they could get the story straight, once they heard it though, and sent someone down to check its truth, they were real disturbed like. And here we are. Buckled up tight. Hey, Hold on, looks like our friend out there is making a move.¡±


    The two Kobolds leaned over the parapet and stared intently as a red Kobold stumbled reluctantly from behind the rock. He looked around unsure for a moment before he focused on the wall the two Kobolds stood upon. The wall was across a bridge and set access the entrance to a large cavern. It featured a heavy iron door. The wall around the door was riddled with arrow slits from which dozens of bows were being aimed. The top of the wall bristled with Kobolds carrying spears.


    He blinked in surprise seemingly caught unawares by just how fearsome a defence it presented.


    A stick wobbled from behind the rock and poked him in the tail. The Kobold jumped and seemed to collect himself. He produced a piece of paper and held it up. He squinted at it then cleared his throat.


    ¡°I- uh, I¡¯ve come with news! There¡¯s a uh, terrifying! Monster on the prowl, and uhm, it can dig through stone like swimming through water! My tribe, uh, Kobold tribe, has d-died! All dead! We underestimated the beast and it came up from under our feet! It is only I who survived! I come here now to beg you to follow me! Flee from behind your safe walls before it is too late! Come with me if you wish to live!¡± His head turned to the side and he whispered loudly. ¡°I-Is that okay? I thought that went okay.¡± The stick prodded him in the tail again and he shut his mouth and turned back to the wall.


    ¡°Who the fuck are you?!¡± yelled a Kobold.


    ¡°Me?! Oh I¡¯m just a survivor, I¡¯ve had a, truly, dreadful time, you would not believe it. Uhm, but I hope you will listen! Heed my warning!¡±


    ¡°What if he¡¯s telling the truth?¡±


    ¡°Oh shut up. He¡¯s clearly trying to get one over on us.


    ¡°Hey, it could be true, I swear I heard scratching in the walls last night, what if it''s this monster?¡±


    ¡°That was your girl tickling my balls.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you Folen, that¡¯s not funny.¡±


    ¡°Whoever said I was joking?¡±


    A short lived fight broke out on the wall.


    ¡°Uhm,¡± said the red Kobold. ¡°Do you think any of you will be coming out?¡±


    ¡°Hell no! You¡¯re probably with the monster!¡±


    ¡°I am most certainly not! I would never voluntarily-¡±


    ¡°Hey, is that a slave collar around that Kobold''s neck?¡±


    ¡°It fucking is as well. Hey, this Kobold¡¯s being puppeted!¡±


    ¡°Th-this? This is a-a fashion accessory!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s attached to a bloody chain!¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s the necklace part! It''s long because it''s fashionable of course! It¡¯s really popular on the bottom floor of the dungeon!¡±


    An arrow zipped out of one of the arrow slits and struck the stone by his foot with a shower of sparks. The red Kobold leapt into the air in fright.


    ¡°You almost shot me! Scale rot you! Do you have any idea what I¡¯ve been through? My own kind having the audacity to shoot an arrow at me? Have some decency you cretinous- !¡±


    Three more arrows struck the stone around him and the red Kobold was abruptly yanked behind the rock with a tug on his chain.


    An annoyed looking Goblin met his eyes.


    ¡°You suck at acting.¡±


    ¡°No I don''t, it''s just that you gave me an impossible act to follow!¡±


    ¡°Nonsense, my plan was fine.¡±


    Rain moved away from the wall. ¡°It was not very likely to work Opal, let''s be serious.¡±


    ¡°Hmph!¡±


    ¡°They somehow heard about what happened.¡±


    Opal scowled. Then sighed and her shoulders slumped. ¡°It¡¯s my fault. My old tribe posted scouts on the Half-goblin tribe, I should have realized that other tribes would do the same. Half-goblin tribes are dangerous so it¡¯s smart to do that.¡±


    This was the fourth tribe that Opal had brought them to, and the second on the floor above the Half-goblin tribe. They had left the Half-goblin tribe intent on finding a regular goblin tribe and repeating the same plan, unfortunately each time Opal brought them to one of the nearby small Goblin tribe''s home caverns they found it devoid of Goblins, with only a few signs that a tribe had recently been there. What had happened to the Half-goblins had spooked them enough to go to ground and vanish into the dungeons extensive cave systems. After the second time they found nothing Opal had suggested they take the stair up a floor, they did so only to be met with another tribe¡¯s deserted cavern. Word had apparently spread far. This had led to Opal wanting to test the local Kobold tribe, if unenthusiastically, as the Kobolds were clearly entrenched and impossible to attack.


    ¡°It happens. We just need to adapt.¡±


    Opal bit her lip and shivered. Rain noted her knees were slightly turned inward. He looked over the Goblin carefully. He could sense something was off with her since she had run away while he ate the Half-goblin tribe yesterday but he couldn''t precisely say what. She¡¯d stayed away from him until they¡¯d made to look for more food and then he kept catching moments where she was looking at him nervously.


    ¡°Adapt, right, uhm, well we don¡¯t need to go after tribes.¡±


    ¡°We can kill other monsters, monsters that hunt alone or in small packs. Monsters that aren''t sapient. Larger monsters.¡±


    Opal tapped her lip. ¡°Larger monsters might work, you¡¯re waaay stronger now, I bet you could take down something pretty big with some tricks, and if they are big that means lots to eat.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true, but how do we find something like that?¡±


    ¡°I know of a potential place, maybe. Follow me.¡±


    She tugged on the red Kobold¡¯s chain and entered into the tunnel. She paused for a moment as she walked and trembled, her breath hitching. Rain narrowed his eyes but after seeing nothing more he followed.


    She took them on a winding route through the caves until the ground began to be covered with the verdant moss of a new biome. Small green and white flowers speckled the walls as they went deeper. The scent of plant life filled the air and golden pollen floated lazily about them. The twisting winding tunnel eventually came to an end and the trio exited into a vast crystal lit cavern that was segmented into several broad tiers covered in verdant greenery, trees, and grassy moss and flowers. Giant flower bulbs hung from the ceiling unbloomed. The air was full of pollen.


    Rain sneezed.


    ¡°Smells like I¡¯m sitting in a bath full of flowers.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s blooming season, it also tends to attract a certain monster species that come here to feed. A scary monster that likes to crawl through tunnels and hunt Gobbo tribes.¡±


    ¡°Crawl?¡±


    ¡°Well, it is big.¡±


    She yanked on the Kobold¡¯s chain and made her way to the edge of the tier they stood upon, a crescent moon that''s inner curve dropped off as a cliff down to lower tiers. Below them, ancient gnarled trees dotted the mossy grassy ground.


    ¡°There, do you see it? It¡¯s called a Panthara in Common.¡±


    Rain peered over the edge. A yellow, white, and black-spotted furred creature was moving below the treetops, tall enough to push aside branches. It took Rain a minute to figure out what he was looking at. It was like a giant sized leopard, except, like a centaur, where the head would normally be there was the upper body of a humanoid leopard. Two six foot long scaled tentacle barbels emerged from its muzzle and floated behind its head. It¡¯s four feet and two hands weren''t like a normal leopard''s, instead transitioning from fur to scale with large eagle-like talons on each digit. Its eyes were a solid flat blue that glowed eerily in the pollen filled air.


    ¡°That looks¡­ Dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ Don¡¯t worry though, I have something in mind.¡±


    She walked along the cliff edge until she came to a large rock. She rested a palm on it, it was nearly as tall as Rain and looked immensely heavy.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to drop this on it.¡±


    Rain eyed the rock and then eyed the Panthara a fair distance away and definitely not directly below the cliff.


    ¡°You know I can''t pick that up and throw it right?¡±


    ¡°We just need to get it over here and then you push the rock over the edge.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    Opal let slip an evil grin and her eyes slid over to the Kobold.


    ¡°W-wait, why are you looking at me? What¡¯s with that look? H-hold on now,¡± said the Kobold slowly backing away.


    Opal tossed the end of the chain to Rain and lunged at the Kobold who let out a high pitched scream. After a moment of struggle the Kobold stumbled forward and Opal dodged to the side, she cackled and a foot impacted with his rear. He yelped and then to his horror he went over the cliff, his eyes wide and mouth open he fell until with a choked gargle he hit the limit of the chain hanging ten feet or so above the ground. He scrabbled at the collar and chain and managed to get enough of a grip to hold himself up.


    ¡°You ASSHOLE! You tried to hang me!¡± he yelled up at them.


    ¡°Oh hush, you¡¯re a Kobold, as tough as an old boot.¡±


    ¡°I could have died!¡±


    ¡°Yes, keep making noises like that, you¡¯re attracting the Panthara.¡±


    ¡°I- Damn you!¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s looking over here now!¡±


    The Kobold made a choked off scream of rage and stilled himself trying to avoid attention.


    Too late, the Panthara was prowling through the trees, shifting branches aside to peer at the dangling Kobold. Its barbels twitched and snaked in the air as it narrowed its eyes.


    The Kobold who was frozen in fright began to bounce up and down, he looked up in horror to see Rain dangling him around like bait on a hook.


    ¡°S-Stop damn you!¡± he furiously whisper hissed.


    ¡°Wiggle around more you scaly worm!¡± yelled down Opal with her hand cupped to the side of her mouth.


    ¡°Nuuuu!¡± he cried, tears forming in the corner of his eyes.


    Opal sighed and glared at the Panthara that remained watching with idle interest from the trees.


    ¡°Is this really not enough? Fine.¡±


    She turned around and dropped her shorts and with a whip crack slapped her rear.


    ¡°Come and get me you ugly shitty pussy cat!¡±


    The Panthara glared up at her from the trees and let out a snarl of irritation. It parted the branches and rushed straight toward the Kobold who proceeded to freak out.


    ¡°It¡¯s coming!¡±


    Rain dropped the chain and the Kobold fell with a scream, he then leapt behind the rock and rammed into it, his feet scouring the ground and his claws tearing up the earth as he torqued forward with all his strength, straining to his utmost limit. For a moment he feared he didn''t have it in him to move it, but with a grinding sound it began to shift, tip, and then fall over the edge of the cliff. The rock plummeted downward, amazingly on target with the Panthara who was standing over the Kobold who had curled up on the ground in the fetal position. Unfortunately, the creature seemed far more aware of the situation than they had given credit and when the rock began to fall the Panthara simply took a step backwards. The rock landed with a boom, spraying dirt in all directions along with a screaming Kobold. The Kobold¡¯s sudden flight came to an abrupt halt as the chain now trapped under the rock choked him off.


    The Panthara held its arm up to protect its eyes from the dust, then once it had settled scowled up at Rain and Opal who were peering over the edge.


    ¡°Shit.¡±


    ¡°What now?¡±


    ¡°Nothing. Things too smart to fall for such basic traps it seems.¡± She sighed. ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± she said, turning away from the edge.


    A distant voice from below pleaded ¡°Don¡¯t leave meeeee!¡±


    ¡°I know some other place we could try I-¡±


    The swift sound of claw on stone came from below. Opal¡¯s eyes widened and she whipped around as a huge taloned hand came over the edge of the cliff and the Panthara hauled itself up.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    ?????

 Chapter 32

    ?


    The Panthara¡¯s head came over the edge of the cliff and you would be forgiven for thinking that there was a satisfied sneer on the creature''s leopardine face. Standing at its full height Rain was made painfully aware of just how large the creature was. He himself was by no means short at an intimidating eight feet but this creature''s ear tips were nearly twelve foot up from the ground! The sheer mass of its body must have put its weight at several tons, which was worrying as it said a lot about the strength of the monster to haul its entire bulk up a cliff with such ease and speed.


    It looked down on Rain and Opal with contempt then, shockingly fast, it lunged forward, open taloned hand reaching for Opal. Rain saw it coming however and he grabbed Opal by the shoulder and yanked her backwards sending her sprawling. His other arm came up to block and the monster¡¯s hand came down on his forearm like a vice.


    The Panthara¡¯s eyes widened slightly then focused on Rain. Its grip tightened further and it tried to pull Rain toward it, Rain buckled down, dug his feet in, and resisted. To his surprise the monster managed to shift him, slowly dragging him across the ground despite his strength. However, the Panthara seemed even more shocked than Rain that he was able to resist it at all and had not been pulled off his feet.


    It snarled in frustration and its barbels trembled, twisting and coiling in the air. Then it set all four of its lower legs and heaved forward, pushing into Rain as though to bowl him over. Unfortunately for the Panthara this pushed the scaled hand wrapped around Rain¡¯s forearm toward his mouth. His maw snapped open and came down like a steel trap on one of the Panthara¡¯s fingers. The scales were tougher than anything that Rain had tried to bite before with the possible exception of the Inquisitor¡¯s steel armour, however he was stronger now than at that time. The scale resisted but it could not stop the inevitable, his teeth sunk into the Panthara¡¯s flesh.


    The Panthara roared and flinched back as it realised what was happening, tearing free its hand as Rain¡¯s canines met bone. Blood sprayed and scales came loose as it freed itself, only its ridiculous strength allowing it to escape from the press of Rain¡¯s teeth.


    Red spattered the grass and moss.


    The Panthara paused and examined the damage to its hand. It then eyed Rain warily, its long lizard like tail lashing the air as it began to circle Rain looking for an opportunity to attack.


    Rain cricked his paws and neck, shrugging his shoulders up and down a few times and limbering up.


    He spread his arms wide and grinned confidently at the monster, showing all his teeth, freshly reddened with the Panthara¡¯s blood.


    ¡°Did you think it would be that easy? I¡¯m not a Goblin you stupid fuck.¡±


    The bridge of the Panthara¡¯s nose wrinkled up as it let loose a snarling-roar, it¡¯s whiskers twitching madly.


    ¡°Come at me.¡±


    The Panthara charged, dirt and moss exploding up behind it as its gigantic feet tore into the ground, using all the advantages of being quadrupedal to put on explosive acceleration. The monster erupted forward, the talons of its hands and front legs up and spread ready to lacerate Rain and rip and tear and shred.


    Rain ducked down and put on his own burst of speed but at the same time dove to the ground and rolled between the monster¡¯s legs, he came up sliding and his eyes locked onto the back legs of the monster, he opened his jaws wide ready to bite into and take its leg. Abruptly the Panthara¡¯s front legs came down and it snapped its back legs up, retracting them into the air as it used its upper body as counter weight to instantly lever itself away from Rain¡¯s grasp and avoid his best weapon, his teeth. Rain could only watch in frustration as he slid out from underneath the monster.


    Unfortunately the Panthara seemed to have supernatural prescient awareness and its massive lizard tail came down like a bullcrack whip, it hit Rain across the chest and with a bone cracking crunch and Rain was sent tumbling and rolling across the ground until he crashed up against a tree in a heap.


    He drew in a painful shaky breath. Cracked rib, maybe more than one. Rain could only compare being hit by that muscular tail to being hit by a landslide of solid stone. He coughed, breathing roughly and trying his best to ride out the pain. He looked up expecting to see the Panthara charging toward him aiming to attack him when he was down, he expected a shadow to fall over him at any moment. Instead, the Panthara simply stood where it was and watched him silently. Rain took the moment to gather himself and using the tree he hauled himself up onto his feet. One paw clutched at his chest, each breath was pain. He was furious with himself for underestimating how aware of its environment the thing was.


    He watched as the Panthara eyed him, a disturbingly intelligent expression crossed its face. This was definitely not some simple minded monster, no, its cunning was on par with any leveler or tribal monster.


    Its eyes narrowed and slid off Rain until they came to rest on Opal who was hiding behind a nearby tree, poking her head around to watch the fight. Opal froze seeing it look at her and then with a yelp of fright dashed away.


    The Panthara roared and its four feet churned the ground up as it charged toward her, tail lashing the air and a cruel grin on its face.


    Rain blinked in surprise as the unexpected worst thing possible happened. Irrationally, out of nowhere, it was going to kill Opal. A flush of extreme rage and fear bloomed in Rain¡¯s chest and his heart rate peaked as blood pounded in his ears and his vision narrowed. Instantly forgetting the agony of breathing he tore away from the tree, feet driving him forward, compelled by desperation, he sprinted toward the monster. But he just did not have the same explosive acceleration this monster possessed and he could only watch in dismay as it swiftly caught up to Opal, its massive paws thundering across the ground. A huge taloned hand swept down and with a scream Opal was snatched into the air. The Panthara let out a cry of victory and started turning, holding up the Goblin as though it had caught a hostage to hold Rain in place.


    Instead, a black furred missile cannoned into its barrel like a bat out of hell. The Panthara¡¯s eyes went wide and its feet went out from under it, its massive pendulous bulk came down to earth with a crash that shook the ground. Wolf, Goblin, and Panthara went rolling. Turf and dirt were ripped up into the air as giant talons clawed the ground in a panic, Opal screamed as she was flung aside and the Panthara roared as it felt a pain like nothing it had ever felt before. It scrambled to its feet, eyes wide, but the pain remained. It bucked its back up, twisted and shook itself, to no avail. It twisted its upper body around to see the black furred beast latched onto its lower back, its teeth already carving bloody furrows of flesh from its fur creating a gory mess.


    The Panthara roared and snarled in fury and tried to reach for Rain, turning its upper body, its taloned hand reaching to grab at Rain and pull him from his back.


    Rain simply moved to the far side of its lower body and continued ripping bloody chunks, the grasping hand could only snatch at thin air. The Panthara snarled in frustration and twisted around the other way only for Rain to switch sides once more, latching onto its back like a rat worrying a cat. The Panthara tried once more but was once again met with frustration. It bellowed and roared and began running and then sprinting across the grass, shaking and bouncing desperately trying to shake Rain from its lower body. Blood was waterfalling from its back in sheets by this point and Rain was starting to expose the white bone of ribs to the air as he gnawed his way into it.


    The roars of the Panthara were starting to become shrill and beginning to sound more like screams of agony and fear. In desperation it threw itself to the ground and rolled over the moss and grass, attempting to crush Rain beneath itself. Rain let it happen, he was blind to pain, he didn''t even feel the splintering of his cracked ribs under the pressure, even with the full weight of the monster on top of him did not stop, he was a ball of savage mindless instinct. He simply focused on hanging on and burying his teeth ever deeper.


    The Panthara gave up trying to roll and sprung back to its feet, careening across the grass out of control, froth built up at its lips and wild eyed it crashed into a tree flattening it, stumbling and thrashing free it screamed as Rain¡¯s teeth finally found its spine. The chilling grizzly sound of bone fracturing and breaking apart under immense pressure broke the air and Rain¡¯s teeth cleaved the Panthara¡¯s lower spine in two. Its back legs immediately stopped all motion and the monster came crashing down the ground. Frightened eyes looked back at its unmoving back legs, the upper body twisting round to see, uncomprehending why a good third of its body had stopped responding. Its front legs pawed at the ground and it dragged itself forward, it¡¯s back legs limp behind it.


    Crunch. Rain moved upward.


    The Panthara screamed. Its upper body thrashed as its lower body slowed and failed to respond. On its back Rain made a crater of gore as he began to eat the creature alive, ribs and muscle and flesh disappearing into his savaging maw. He was ruthless and ate his way down into its chest devouring the monster''s lower body as the upper body screamed and shrieked in fear and torment. Strange organs, muscles, hearts, all were blindly consumed, it wasn''t long until Rain had split the creature in twain, leaving behind the back half of its lower body as the upper body desperately clawed at the ground and dragged itself forward, spilling its guts out behind it as it went. It didn''t help, Rain ate upward, soon the front legs lower chest were gone, unrelentingly consumed and only the upper body was left, panicking breathless and wild eyed it weakly dragged itself along the ground, its entrails falling out leaving a bloody smear across the grass. Teeth flashed and more and more of it disappeared down Rain¡¯s throat. Fearful eyes looked down and could only watch as its body swiftly disappeared. Blood welled up in its mouth and streamed from its lips as the monster died, an expression of terror frozen across its face. It slumped to the ground. Rain kept eating.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    ?????

 Chapter 33 (R-18)

    The last of the palatable Panthara¡¯s tail disappeared into Rain¡¯s mouth and he shivered as the banked up growth washed over his body.


    Not even the discomfort of his fractured ribs shifting and healing could overcome the immense satisfaction of feeling the height and mass pile on, like the king of morning stretches.


    ¡°Maybe¡­ maybe next time I¡¯ll try to find something a bit less dangerous,¡± said Opal.


    She clutched her arm which was marked with a nasty bruise on the upper part. It made Rain feel deep and powerful things he couldn''t describe to see her injured. She was his, his to protect as his, all of her, every captivating inch, from her toes to her long black locks, inside and out. She belonged to him in a way he couldn''t verbalise, like a second bestial carnal hunger.


    ¡°...Yeah. That Panthara monster was shrewd, shrewder than most tribal monsters I¡¯ve come across. Just because it couldn¡¯t speak Common was not a good reason to underestimate its intelligence. A hard lesson learned.¡±


    Opal grimaced and rubbed at her shoulder, rolling it to get rid of the stiffness. ¡°I¡¯d rather see you fight three Cavebears at once than come across a monster like that again. The look in its eyes was unsettling, it¡¯s like it knew things it shouldn''t.¡±


    ¡°That look disappeared pretty quick after its spine shattered under my teeth.¡±


    She snorted. ¡°Sure, but I think most monsters wouldn''t be particularly happy about that.¡±


    Rain wiped blood from his nose and climbed to his feet. He was surrounded by a small lake of the stuff, the grass turned from a healthy green to a macabre red.


    ¡°Come on, we need to go get that Kobold.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right, he survived didn''t he, huh.¡± There was a breathy hitch in her voice as she said ¡®huh¡¯ that puzzled Rain, another moment of her acting or speaking not quite as she normally would, although perhaps it was just a twinge from her injury.


    They walked over to the edge of the cliff, Rain clutching his injured ribs and Opal her arm. They peered over the edge to see a Kobold desperately trying to pull his chain from under the rock Rain had pushed off the edge.


    ¡°Gods dam you! Why? why is my luck so shitty?!¡±


    The Kobold heaved on the chain, his claws scrabbling at the ground unable to find purchase. He slipped and came down on his tail with a thump and a yelp.


    ¡°Am I cursed? Was it because I slept with your girl Theo? Is this karmic retribution? To be trapped under the paw of a thing that crawled out of my worst nightmare and its psycho girlfriend?¡±


    He scrambled to his feet.


    ¡°I can¡¯t take it anymore! I don¡¯t deserve this- this! HELL!¡±


    He kicked the rock hard and squawked in pain as the stone failed to move in the slightest leaving his foot to deform against it. A claw snapped and plinked off the stone.


    ¡°Arrgghh!! Whhyyyy!??!!¡±


    He jumped around on one foot clutching the other as tears sprang up in the corners of his eyes.


    A vine fell down the cliff and he looked up in surprise to see the black furred horror climbing down with the Goblin on his shoulders. The Kobold stifled his pain and dropped his foot, managing to plaster as innocent an expression as possible on his face.


    ¡°Oh- h-hey there, uh, nice to see you survived the kitty thing.¡±


    Rain dropped Opal off his shoulder and pushed the Kobold aside. He placed his paws on the rock and with a grunt and a heave he slowly rolled it aside. He picked up the chain and approached the Kobold who cowered and tried to back away but found himself at the end of the chain. He looked up at Rain in fright.


    ¡°Your nightmares have nothing on me Kobold. Keep that in mind.¡±


    ¡°Y-yes!¡± said the Kobold in an unfortunately high pitched squeak. ¡°I-I-I¡¯ll behave!¡±


    Rain snorted and shook his head.


    ¡°I saw something down here from up on the cliff that I need, I really really need it. Follow me.¡±


    He led the way through the grassy mossy terrain and gradually the trees became more frequent until it was becoming crowded. Crystal light filtered down between the branches dappling the grass.


    They suddenly stepped free from a treeline and a crystal clear pool of water was revealed.


    Opal froze mid step, her eyes going round.


    ¡°I- but- what- NO! You just bathed and I¡¯m cle- mostly clean!¡±


    Rain tied the Kobold¡¯s chain to a tree.


    ¡°Bathing regularly is important, plus I¡¯m covered in Panthara.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not! I didn¡¯t eat Panthara!¡± said Opal slowly backing away.


    ¡°You¡¯re covered in half-goblin blood and all kinds of muck.¡±


    ¡°That- that¡¯s just the lighting!¡±


    Rain¡¯s paw whipped out and engulfed her arm. Opal only had time for one look of desperation before Rain launched her up into the air to come screaming down into the lake with a splash. Rain soon followed, producing a much much larger splash that caused waves to wash up against the shore.


    He revelled in being in water again, the blood of the Panthara and the last of the Half-goblins washed away by thorough use of his paws leaving him fresh and pleased and glossy furred. He caught Opal as she was surreptitiously trying to make her way to shore and dragged her close.


    The Goblin squirmed in his grasp but she could do nothing as he stripped her of her shorts and breast wrap and thoroughly washed her, her hair, her limbs, her back. His rough paw pads ran over her green skin scouring the dirt from her and leaving shiny blemish free skin behind.


    She seemed to give up and accept this was happening a lot sooner than last time to Rain¡¯s amusement, her body gradually relaxing as he cleaned her. His paws ran up over her chest and he slowly, teasingly, mauled at her breasts, roughly squeezing them together and rolling them between his digits, kneading them and making her produce cute little gasps. His paws followed the curve of her chest outward and he pinched at her nipples, each stiff little thing pressed between his heavy pads. He pulled on them, milking them in his massive grasp, rolling his pads forward and then easing back, her soft breasts compressing and moulding under his ministrations. The goblin squirmed desperately in his lap, her small hands frantically clutching at his fur, her hips pushing and butting back into his enormous sheathe of their own accord, little helpless noises emerging from her lips.


    He paused as her breath came out in a long lush moan. He then moved his paws downward, running over her flared hips and onto her thighs and then between them.


    She let out a gaspy moan as his paw pads ran over her crotch, dipping between her thighs to press up against her soft folds and smearing her sensitive lower lips apart. He could feel the Goblin girl¡¯s clit starting to poke from its hood as his massive paw rolled past it, the cute little rigid nub desperately pressing into his pads, throbbing with arousal.


    He wondered if he could ever convince the Goblin that bathing was good and important and not just an annoyance. He was sure she liked this part.


    His brow furrowed however when his paws ran back up and across her stomach where he felt something, a slight hard bump. What was this? Opal let out a different kind of gasp and shivered in his paws as he pressed his paw down on her abdomen. Thoughts started to coalesce, her recent reticence, the random trembling, no, it couldn''t be, they had been together only once, and that only a few days ago, this couldn''t be what he was thinking¡­ but then weren''t Goblins supposed to be one of the fastest reproducing monsters? He was so shocked that Opal managed to squirm out of his grasp. She glanced at him blushing furiously then darted away. He blinked then hesitantly followed after the goblin.


    Stratothrax


    This is a triple chapter release.


    Rain current height: 8 Feet, 1 Inch = 246.38 Centimeters


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 34 (R-18)

    Opal, clearly upset, rushed away from the lake only to pause by a nearby tree, she looked back as Rain strode from the lake, water falling off his large body in sheets.


    ¡°Opal.¡±


    She shivered, one arm covering her chest, a hand holding herself steady against the tree, her knees slightly turned inward, legs trembling.


    ¡°What are you hiding from me? Tell me Opal.¡±


    ¡°N-nothing! It¡¯s you, you won¡¯t want me!¡±


    Rain furrowed his brow in confusion.


    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I want you? I l- I need you.¡±


    Opal shook her head in frustration.


    ¡°Not like that, It''s because you''re getting huge¡­ and I am still smol,¡± she said, looking down at her feet, rubbing the ball of her foot on the ground. She paused and a strained look crossed her face. She bit her lip.


    Rain¡¯s confusion was just increasing. ¡°I don¡¯t see why that would matter. Opal I thought you were¡­ preg-¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Said the goblin suddenly blushing red and stepping forward. ¡°That¡¯s stupid why would you think that!¡±


    Rain¡¯s eyes narrowed and his massive paw came down on her hip and dragged her stumbling toward him. His other paw flattened against her stomach and she gasped and let out a little moan.


    ¡°Hnya! S-stop! I- I C-can¡¯t h-hold i-i-it innnn!!¡±


    Rain increased the pressure, his paw pads squeezing into her body. The Goblin¡¯s mouth opened in a gasp, a thin line of drool linking her lips. Her legs quaked and trembled barely keeping herself up.


    ¡°Guh! I-it¡¯s coming o-oouut!!¡±


    Rain¡¯s ear twitched hearing a long wet Schlorrrp! And he looked down in time to see a large rubber object emerge from Opal¡¯s pussy, stretching her wide before slipping free. It slapped wetly against the ground in a puddle of fluid, the solid chunk of greenish rubber vaguely shaped like a penis.


    Opal¡¯s eyes rolled back and her jaw trembled open. Her whole body shivering and she nearly sunk to the ground, if Rain hadn''t been gripping her in his huge paws she likely would have fallen.


    ¡°Wh-what the fuck?¡± said Rain.


    Opal blushed so furiously that Rain would have sworn he felt actual heat radiating from her face.


    ¡°This is your fault!¡±


    ¡°What?!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going to grow forever and I¡¯m, I¡¯m not going to be able to take you!¡±


    Rain felt like he was starting to put two and two together but he was still boggled by the Goblin¡¯s thought process.


    ¡°You think you¡¯ll be too small to take me?¡±


    Opal looked away with a dark expression. ¡°It¡¯s true, isn''t it? I want you bigger and I don¡¯t want you bigger at the same time. When you killed and ate that Orc slaver I found a few of her ¡®toys¡¯ in her tent and I sneaked them into my rucksack, I¡¯ve been practising taking the bigger ones but I don¡¯t know if I can keep up with you...¡±


    ¡°You have a pretty gods damned perverted mind you know that right?¡±


    She snapped back at him and snarled, showing her teeth.


    ¡°It¡¯s serious stupid wolf!¡±


    ¡°If I didn¡¯t know better I¡¯d think you were pulling my leg. You are a special one, Opal.¡±


    He gripped her tight and pulled her close. The top of her head only a few inches above his navel such was their size difference.


    He loomed over her, his yellow eyes luminous.


    ¡°You¡¯ll always be mine no matter what happens. I will never not want you.¡±


    Opal looked up and bit her lip.


    ¡°Will you?¡±


    Rain simply snorted and grabbed her around the ass and lifted her up in the air. He then stepped forward and pressed her back up against the tree so that her crotch was at head height and her legs rested on his broad shoulders.


    ¡°I hunger for you, I would rather starve than go without you.¡± His lip curled in amusement.


    Opal tried to hold back but a small smile broke over her face.


    Rain rested his chin on her stomach and looked up at her, the size of his head in contrast to her body made it so his muzzle covered a large portion of her tummy.


    ¡°Mmm. I wonder how you taste?¡±


    His large tongue slipped from between his fangs and ran up her stomach. She squeaked at the rough sensation.


    ¡°H-hey!¡±


    ¡°Tastes good. More.¡±


    ¡°Hold on I-¡±


    Rain ignored her and moved so that his tongue was lined up with her reddened folds. He dipped his tongue, licking from bottom to top, the roughness of it dragging at her soaked lips. His tongue rolled over her clit and she gasped and squirmed in his grasp.


    ¡°Rough!¡±


    Rain rested his nose against her muff and looked up at her with half lidded eyes.


    ¡°You know it would be simpler if you just told me what the problem was in future.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that simple, I-eeep!¡±


    Rain¡¯s tongue pushed into her, the sheer size of it stretching her wide, she shuddered in his grasp as Rain¡¯s front teeth bucked up against her entrance. He pulled his tongue back slightly and then he pushed deeper into her depths at the same time as rolling and curling his tongue, rubbing up against her walls. He paid attention and when he found an area that elicited a reaction from the goblin he doubled down his focus on it, his tongue concentrating the roiling pressure applied over and over.


    ¡°Oh! Oh! G-gods! H-how are you so good at this?!¡±


    Rain didn¡¯t reply but moved from simply coiling his tongue to retracting and digging back in, his tongue was large enough that he was essentially tongue fucking the Goblin, rapidly pushing apart her sloppy folds. He pushed his muzzle close, compressing her muff, eager to reach further into her depths as the goblin let out a long lewd moan.


    ¡°Fuck! Fhuckkk!¡± Cried the Goblin as Rain increased in intensity.


    She grabbed at Rain¡¯s ears and held on for dear life, a large ear grasped in each hand, her body trembling and her hips instinctively trying to grind against Rain¡¯s face as Rain went even faster and harder. Her legs went up and her toes stretched as her nerves exploded. Her mouth formed an O as she screamed and her ankles drummed against Rain¡¯s back as her back arched.


    ¡°s-slow downeeeeee!¡±


    But Rain wasn¡¯t done. His paws gripped her all the harder and from deep in his chest came a deep reverberating boneshaking bass growl that made the leaves of the tree shiver. Being pressed up against his mouth the sensation was a hundred times stronger and Opal¡¯s fingernails dug into his ears as the solid vibration hit her puss, especially her clit as his teeth pressed up against it. At the same time Rain peaked with his tongue fucking, forcefully shoving his tongue in and out with all the outsized strength he possessed in the thick muscle, roughly parting her lips and stretching her rippling walls around it.


    ¡°w-w-waaaiiiAAaaaAHHAahh!!!¡±


    Opal¡¯s eyes rolled back as the combination freighted into her senses, her vision popping and flaring as lightning shot up her body. Her toes curled and her thighs desperately squeezed at Rain¡¯s head before the feeling climaxed and her legs shot out straight, stretching to her limit, her toes splayed, as her mouth opened and she screamed full throatedly.


    ¡°AAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!¡±


    Her walls gripped down on Rain like a vice, wildly clenching and unclenching and convulsing along the length of his tongue practically slurping on the muscle as she bucked her hips. Rain only had a moments notice before fluid exploded outward, a massive spurting sloppy squirt that gushed around his tongue, once, twice, three times, she came Hard into his muzzle, fluid filling his mouth to waterfall out to the ground far below, her juices pouring from his lips, although most he eagerly drank down.


    At last, she fell limp, coming down from mind-blowing orgasm, flopping bonelessly in Rain¡¯s paws, her body still twitching every other second from aftershocks.


    ¡°Th-tha-That growling is cheating!¡± she managed to get out between deep heaving breaths.


    Rain withdrew his tongue from her folds with a schlurp and lapped any remaining fluid from her swollen muff, his rough tongue dragging her puffy labia up with each lap. She moaned helplessly as he finished.


    ¡°No. It¡¯s all me.¡±


    ¡°I-I¡¯ve never felt anything like that, gods, you¡¯ve ruined me for anyone else ever.¡±


    ¡°Were you planning on doing it with anyone else ever?¡±


    ¡°Hell no!¡±


    Rain snorted and lowered the goblin from his shoulders and back to the ground. She immediately fell on her ass as her legs turned to jelly and flopped out from under her.


    ¡°Nuu! Not again!¡±


    ¡°You really react badly to heavy stimulation huh.¡±


    She scowled up at him.


    He smirked and casually dropped down to the ground, his back against the tree.


    Stratothrax


    This is a triple chapter release.


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    ?????

 Chapter 35 (R-18)

    ¡°I¡¯m not letting you get away with this!¡± said the Goblin as she crawled over to him, her legs trying their best not to obey her.


    Rain simply raised an eyebrow as her hands ran over his thighs and up toward his groin. They came to rest on his large sheath and her breathing hitched as her fingers failed to encircle it.


    ¡°So big¡­¡± she whispered, unable to look away.


    Rain relaxed as she began squeezing and prodding at it in blushing fascination.


    Soon a flash of pink showed amongst the black fur and Opal cooed. She pushed her hands against the sheath as hard as she could, exerting herself, pulling down at it, trying to free the broad tip. With a small lurch she succeeded and the head of his slowly hardening dick slipped free, pushing free from the sheath, stretching it wide with its sheer mass.


    It gradually poured out. So thick and heavy that Opal struggled with it and it hung down under its own mass, filling both of the Goblin¡¯s arms with its immensity. She staggered under the weight of it, her arms trembling as she struggled to just keep it up, the surface so hot it warmed her arms where it touched.


    At last his uninflated knot squeezed out of his sheath with a soft pop and his massive cock began to stiffen. Opal enthusiastically ran her hands up and down it, her eyes wide with excitement, each bump and vein her small fingers caressed heightening the hungry heat in her groin.


    Rain watched lazily as she squeezed and massaged and tongued the surface, eagerly coaxing it harder and larger. By the time he was fully hard her eyes were round and there was a little fear there. She bit her lip and shakily held up her forearm against the brutal looking tool, she let out a little whimper seeing it reached from elbow to fingertip and completely out massed it, a skinny branch in comparison to a hulking trunk. A whole solid thirteen inches of dick, a bit more than 4 inches across in diameter throbbed in Opal¡¯s hands. A little over twice the length he had been but as with his height it did not give a good picture of just how much larger he was in mass, his dick was over ten times the volume and weight it had been when they had last fucked. Large enough that Opal couldn''t get her fingers to touch around it using both hands, the largest vein on it was as thick as her pinky.


    ¡°H-holy shit, it¡¯s so much bigger than any of the Orc¡¯s dildos,¡± whined Opal, her legs trembling at the sight, a fresh scalding hot line of lubrication running down her inner thigh.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous.¡± said Rain with half lidded eyes.


    Opal nodded and swallowed. She put her hands on either side of the dick and with difficulty lined its jerking length up with her mouth. She kissed the tip, then pushed her lips up against the head. Unlike last time she could not even fit the head in her mouth no matter how she strained her jaw, her front teeth could only butt up against the hard flesh. She whined anxiously as she did her best to swirl her tongue around the tip, her hands pumping his length.


    A paw appeared behind her and she only had a moment of surprise before it gripped the back of her head. Her jaw stretched further than she thought possible and her lips popped over the head of his dick. Wild eyed she looked down its length as her small hands scrabbled against its hard surface trying to regain control of the situation, but her strength was nothing compared to the beastial strength holding her and she could do nothing but take it as Rain¡¯s dick was pushed a further inch inside. She was then pulled back and pushed forward once more heavy pressure filling the back of her mouth. Her eyes looked up, pleading, but Rain was relentless as he used her mouth as a sleeve for the head of his dick, straining her to her limit. Raw masculinity filled her, she could taste and smell and feel nothing else, it overwhelmed her senses and she could only desperately hold on and ride it out. As she reached her limit she let out a long involuntary moan and another hot line of fluid ran down her inner leg.


    Rain paused, and then, slowly, he pulled her head away from himself. A flood of precum waterfalled from her mouth as her reddened lips popped from around the head, sticky lines of fluid joining her lips to the tip of his dick for a moment before snapping free one after the other.


    Breathing hard, her reddened lips parted, she glared up at him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look, I know you love it.¡±


    Her mouth shut abruptly but she couldn''t stop a fresh flush from reddening her face.


    ¡°I could have done that on my own,¡± she muttered looking aside.


    Rain gruffed a laugh. A massive pair of paws came down on her hips and the goblin looked down at them fearfully. They gripped her waist and dragged all of her up into the air, her legs kicking at nothing, dangling below her.


    Rain¡¯s dick throbbed and twitched as he lined up her snatch with the tip. The Goblin¡¯s breathing accelerated as her hands gripped at his forearms. She looked down, her eyes slowly widening like frost across a winter pond as the size difference was suddenly made very very real. She watched as the broad tip came to rest against her small puffy pussy, dwarfing it. She was sopping wet and dripping, to the point that it only took a moment for a dozen rivulets of herself to run down his throbbing length.


    ¡°I¡¯m not worried about you fitting Opal. Because I¡¯ll make you fit. I¡¯ll stretch and mould you to fit me until you are mine down to your very soul.¡±


    ¡°Oh, g-godsss!¡± whined the goblin biting her lip. ¡°M-make me youurss!¡±


    Rain grinned ferally and began to push her hips down. His cock head pressed up against her muff, squashing it. The pressure was enough to squeeze her clit entirely free of its hood. He increased the downward weight on her hips relentlessly until with a sudden lurch and SCHL-POP! His cock head pushed inside of her, her lower lips stretched obscenely wide around his girth in a thin O shape. Opal howled and her legs spasmed, Rain had to hold her steady as her pussy reacted, desperately clenching and gripping at the massive invader as fire ran up her spine, she hadn''t realised she had orgasmed until a moment later and it hit her hard.


    ¡°HNNYYAA! Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuuuck! gods what are you waiting for! Give me mooore!!¡± cried Opal a line of drool running down her chin.


    Rain complied and slowly pushed her down his length to her verbal gasping delight. One inch, two inch, three inch, the goblin began hyperventilating seeing his length disappear inside herself.


    ¡°Yes, yes! Oh f-fuuuck!¡±


    Rain began shifting his hips, each push in he would drag her down a little further until an entire six inches was inside of her, the full length of his cock last time they had done it but now it was less than half.


    ¡°D-don¡¯t stop! m-more!¡± said the goblin as her snatch desperately tried to milk his overpowering length.


    She descended down two more inches and a small bulge appeared on her stomach. She gasped and put her small hand over it, feeling the massive cock inside herself distending her belly.


    ¡°Gods that¡¯s so fucking hot.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not done yet. Rain dragged down her hips and she slowly, deliciously, slipped down to come to rest on his uninflated knot, her puss compressing down and refusing to go further.


    Opal clutched at the visible now fist sized bulge in her belly with both hands, eyes wide and lips parted.


    ¡°Holy fucking shit, you''re so fucking big!¡± she panted.


    ¡°Told you I¡¯d make it fit.¡±


    He gripped her hips and lifted her up, the bulge vanished from her stomach and her puss being dragged down as the massive tool left her with a lewd sound. She whimpered seeing most his length freed, slick and shiny with her juices.


    Rain eased her back down, the bulge in her stomach reappearing as she descended. She moaned helplessly as she felt herself utterly filled once more.


    ¡°F-faster¡­ p-please! G-go! Fuck me! Use me!¡±


    Rain lifted her, using her like a cocksleeve to pleasure himself, lifting and dropping her with ease as she got used to being so stretched and filled. He began to pick up speed, and her ankles bounced off his hips as he became rougher, more forceful.


    ¡°hArDwer!!¡± She cried, hands clutching at her stomach, mouth hanging open.


    Rain complied and pulled her down to slam into his knot. Her clit squashed up against it then she rocketed back up with a yelp as he lifted her free and slammed her down again crushing and grinding her muff into his knot. She gasped and squeaked as the pressure built, her fingernails digging into her distended stomach and she let out a helpless scream of pleasure as she was lifted yet again.


    ¡°Ahn! AhhN! AHHN!¡±


    Rain adjusted and drove her down all the harder. He could feel her insides convulsing and clenching down on his length desperate to keep him inside, but he was relentless and forcefully dragged her back up. Her labia stretched tight around his girth was dragged and pulled down, slipping and deforming over every bump and vein on his throbbing cock.


    He growled and then he brought her down hard.


    ¡°AIIIEEE!!!!¡±


    She howled as she squirted, her eyes rolled back and fluid exploding from her tightly stretched cunt, high pressure spraying over Rain¡¯s knot and drenching his stomach and thighs. Her fingers scrabbled at the bulge in her stomach and her ankles drummed against his sides as her whole body trembled and shook.


    Rain paused as she collapsed against his torso, still with him deep inside herself.


    ¡°I¡¯m not done you know,¡± said Rain cocking his head.


    ¡°G-gods, j-just give m-me a-a second.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    He grabbed her by the hips and pushed up the boneless whimpering twitching goblin. One paw engulfed a leg and pulled her around, twisting her body around so that her back was facing his chest. This was, of course, brutal on her pussy and she moaned whorishly, peaking in a squeak as she was roughly shoved into place. He then got his feet under him and stood, the Goblin letting out a gasp as the ground dropped below her. Opal hung off his dick, her limbs dangling, her body supported by his paws around her hips and the length inside of her. He growled and tightened his grip around her hips.


    ¡°C-careful!¡±


    ¡°Is that Opal speak for ¡®be rougher please¡¯¡±


    ¡°...Fuck you. Fucking fuck. Damn you, alright it¡¯s true, I want you to use me like a fucking sex toy, make me your living cock sleeeeve!!¡±


    His claws dug into her hips.


    ¡°You never had a choice.¡±


    ¡°Okay okay okay, hnyaaa!¡± she whined as Rain lifted her up, exposing his cock to air.


    He eased her back down as her breathing started to accelerate and her reddened muff was pushed against his knot.


    ¡°W-wait!¡±


    Rain paused once more.


    ¡°You.¡± said Opal. ¡°Kobold. I can see you watching.¡±


    A sudden rustle in the foliage drew Rain¡¯s attention and he saw a flash of red scales.


    ¡°Get out here.¡± snapped Opal.


    Awkwardly the Kobold slipped from behind a bush and peaked out at them.


    ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing,¡± growled Rain, his eyes narrowing.


    ¡°I- I n-nothing! I j-just heard you and-¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a pervert!¡± said Opal.


    ¡°No! No I¡¯m not!¡±


    ¡°Sure you are, tell you what, you can watch.¡±


    ¡°No! I uh- wait what!?¡±


    Rain leaned forward slightly. ¡°You want him to watch?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, he wants it bad enough he should see what a real monster is capable of.¡±


    Rain leaned back and barked a laugh. ¡°Fine.¡±


    ¡°Show him how to fuck a girl pro-


    Rain ignored her and roughly pushed her up against the tree, her forearms resting on the bark trying to hold herself up as he pulled his hips back and then thrust into her.


    ¡°oh! Ohhh! GoOODS!!¡±


    He actually put his strength into it and his cock pistoned in and out of the Goblin¡¯s poor abused cunt, each time her ass collided with his knot and thighs it let a out a lewd wet slap causing her globular cheeks to jiggle and bounce, each draw back had gossamer strings of fluid linking from the knot to her crotch until he went to far and they snapped only for him to come slamming back in to her.


    She wailed, desperately trying to get some kind of balance against the tree, but she could only barely hold on as she was used, her long black hair and tits bouncing up and down out of control from the rough treatment.


    Drool running down her chin she tried to compose herself and stare down the Kobold.


    ¡°S-See AHH! seE kOb- OHH! -old! Thi s ish howh yoiuh fUCCCCK!!¡±


    She nearly bit her tongue as she was roughly pushed against the tree, her breasts squishing against the bark. Rain pulled his hips back far and her pussy let out an obscene wet schurlp as the mass was nearly removed leaving behind a vacuum.


    The Kobold was trying to look away but kept snatching glances at Opal as she was fucked silly. To his shame his loin cloth tented and he had to push it down.


    ¡°Hnnnnyyyaaaa!!¡± squealed Opal as the tempo increased and accelerated, each thrust hammering into her muff and squashing her sensitive clit. Shoving her roughly up against the tree closer and closer until the bulge in her belly was pressing up against the bark and Rain could feel the press of the smooth wood through the Goblin¡¯s body, the additional pressure squeezing against her pussy walls sending Opal wild.


    As Rain came close his motions started to become arrhythmic and jerky. He leaned forward as he rutted the goblin, slamming into her harder and harder. Then with a savage roar he thrust one last time and with a lewd loud SCHL-POP!! Her cunt yawned wide, lips going thin before slipping around the mass of flesh that was his knot, the knot rapidly swelling up within her canal, inching outward and locking them together.


    Opal howled.


    ¡°AIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!¡±


    Her legs kicked at the air and she thrashed in Rain¡¯s grasp. Her hands grabbed at the bulge in her stomach, fingernails raking red lines in her skin. Fem cum exploded from her puss, spraying down the ground between Rain¡¯s legs repeatedly and spattering up the tree darkening the bark, what didn''t make it free waterfalled over his sheath to wash over his balls. Her walls rippled and spasmed, stretched beyond all reason and sensation, her nerves exploding and lighting up like fire crackers as chain orgasm racked her body, her eyes rolled up and her tongue lolled and strained from her mouth as she thrashed and squirted and climaxed over and over without end.


    Rain groaned and shuddered as he came, a massive load high-pressure spraying into Opal¡¯s womb, then again, and again, Rain¡¯s hips bucked upward involuntarily as each surge of cum exploded from him, hosing down Opal¡¯s insides and rapidly filling her. It just didn''t stop and Opal¡¯s hands shifted as her belly was filled, fifth, sixth, seventh load gushing into the over filled Goblin, more and more and more, distending her stomach like she had eaten a huge meal, a smooth arc from her ribs down to her mons, her hands clutched at her rounded cum belly, Rain¡¯s swollen knot holding everything inside.


    With one final straining gushing release inside of her the wailing screaming Goblin¡¯s belly surged outward another entire inch.


    Rain slumped against the bark breathing hard, then after a moment he slipped down to lie with his back against the tree. The Goblin flopped on top of him, still twitching as she came down from overwhelming chain orgasms, Rain still fully inside of her. Her taut rounded belly heaving and wobbling with each breath.


    They remained like that, basking in the aftermath, Opal lying atop Rain. The Goblin had her eyes closed, her mouth slightly parted, a string of drool connecting her lips that shifted with her breath. She occasionally trembled as pleasure aftershocks rolled up and down her body.


    A little while passed in glowing satisfied peace. Rain put a paw on Opal¡¯s curved out belly and stroked the smooth arcing surface. It was warm.


    ¡°There¡¯s something I need to tell you.¡±


    ¡°Can''t we just lay here like this, with so much of you inside me?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ but I want to say this anyway.¡±


    ¡°Mmm.¡±


    ¡°I wasn''t always a monster.¡±


    ¡°Wait... what are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°I was never a slave and I wasn''t always what I am now, I used to be a leveler, a Human, I died at the great lake on the bottom floor of the dungeon and was reborn as this, merged with, something, on the bottom of the lake, an ancient long dead monster I think. I thought it better you didn¡¯t know because monsters like you hate levelers.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°Do you hate me now?¡±


    ¡°...I ...I don¡¯t know¡­ did you wait until we were like this to tell me on purpose?¡±


    ¡°No, I just can''t keep anything from you when we are this close, entwined, inside you.¡±


    ¡°I think... All we¡¯ve done together, you¡¯re no leveler Rain, you¡¯re a monster.¡±


    ¡°Am I?¡±


    ¡°Trust me, as a monster, I know. Maybe you were a leveler once but you aren''t anymore.¡±


    ¡°Maybe you¡¯re right, I never actually got to ¡®level¡¯ in my old life, and merging with the thing on the bottom of the lake, it¡­ changed how I feel. I feel more assured, more assertive, more... animal.¡±


    ¡°Mmm¡­ gooood.¡±


    She wiggled and cuddled up to his broad chest, winding her fingers through his fur.


    Rain looked down at the Goblin and decided to let her be for the moment. He let his head fall back against the tree and looked up at the cavern. The massive flower bulbs hanging from the ceiling peeked from between the branches, their bright glowing petals filling the cavern with a golden summer light, the pollen particles drifting lazily through the air lent an amazingly peaceful atmosphere. As he watched the bulbs slowly began to bloom, their vast petals unwinding and spreading out, their multicoloured natural beauty on full display.


    He felt himself drifting off.


    He woke a little while later feeling motion atop himself. He opened his eyes to see Opal trying to move. She was sitting crouched over him, her feet to either side of his hips. She sucked in a breath, set her legs, and then with a grunt she tried to lift herself. Her legs were like wet rope however and after a moment of straining and trembling they collapsed under her and her feet went out to the side with a whimper.


    ¡°Your legs are too weak.¡±


    ¡°N-no they aren''t!¡±


    Rain snorted and put his paws under her armpits causing her to gasp. He lifted her as her hands desperately clutched at his paws. He watched with interest as her puss was slowly dragged down and stretched out as his still partially swollen knot tugged her labia downward. Her lips stretched wide and then with a sudden Schl-pop! His knot burst free.


    ¡°OOHH!!¡± moaned Opal as she fell from his paws and onto the ground dragging the rest of his massive length from her folds with an obscene wet schlurrp!!


    Her swollen belly hit the grass and compressed.


    A stream of cum gushed from her abused gaped puss. She shuddered as it was forced from her folds, a thick hose of white that splattered and puddled on the ground pooling around her as her belly shrunk down to normal. She whined as she was emptied, her legs trying to move but only flopping helplessly against the ground.


    She managed to roll onto her side, a river of white rolling from her reddened swollen muff over her thigh and ass to pool on the ground.


    Rain watched the Goblin lying in a small lake of his own jizz with amusement.


    ¡°You know I¡¯m going to bathe you again now.¡±


    The Goblin tried to escape but her legs wouldn''t listen.


    ¡°NUUUUU!!¡±


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


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    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 36

    The Elf-sheep slipped from the cave tunnel and peeked around a large rock into the huge cavern.


    Ahead of her was a permanent encampment, this being the second floor of the dungeon it was a common stop-off point for levelers. She was surprised to see it not as it was when she had last been here however. The camp which normally held at most two dozen people, and that only rarely, had swelled to over a hundred. Wooden palisades had been put up around its perimeter and it buzzed with activity amongst the uneven rows of tents as levelers rushed around preparing for¡­ something. An expedition if she had to guess. She was shocked, it was rare to see such a large showing in a dungeon because organizing levelers was like herding cats.


    Her eyes quickly found the reason why this had come about. An Inquisitor with a fearsome pair of horns crowning her head strode through the camp, shouting and commanding people. A red haired girl rushed to keep up in her wake, a terrified and sleep deprived look in her eyes. She noted with curiosity that the Inquisitor appeared to be missing part of her arm, only a bloodstained bandaged stump a little after the elbow remained. She pitied the one who had injured the Inquisitor, Inquisitors were known to be viciously sadistic in their retribution.


    She decided she would rather avoid the Inquisitor¡¯s attention. An Inquisitor was not to be fucked with after all, and this one especially judging by her barely restrained fury. They were one of the few who did not require being very highly leveled to command others, instead relying on the authority and threat of the Queen. Not that she suspected this one was low leveled, the Inquisitor held herself far too assuredly for that.


    She noted that the group she was seeking had come with the expedition, a dozen Lamia with their own set of large domed tents had cordoned off one corner of the camp for their own use.


    She turned behind her to where the pregnant Lamia was delicately holding onto her hand and peeking past her shoulder with curiosity, the pair of Humans behind her looked on warily.


    ¡°We made it, you¡¯re safe now. But I want to hold the invisibility for just a little longer, it would be best if we avoided attention, it looks like something important is happening and I don¡¯t want to get caught up in it.¡±


    ¡°Oh darling, of course, anything for our wonderful Rescuer.¡± Beamed the Lamia.


    ¡°Is-is it really safe? I can¡¯t believe it, this is like a dream,¡± said one of the Humans fearfully.


    ¡°Yes,¡± said the Elf-sheep. ¡°There''s a huge camp of levelers just over there, I¡¯m sure they could take on and defeat just about any monster or monster tribe in this dungeon comfortably. There¡¯s nothing to fear, I promise.¡±


    One of the Humans started crying and clutched at the other.


    ¡°Th-thank you! Thank you for rescuing me! I can never repay you for this, you saved my life!¡±


    The Elf-sheep waved it off. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I did agree to help you pro bono, not that I wouldn''t have without an agreement anyway.¡±


    ¡°Oh dears, dears, I am so sorry you had such a time, I should have helped, this is partly my fault. My Half-goblin children listened to me, had I known you were so unhappy I could have said something. My apologies, I just wish I could turn back time. Listen, I need to make this up to you, come live with me while you recover and ah, give birth. I am fabulously wealthy and I¡¯m quite happy to spend it to make you two comfortable in this trying time.¡±


    ¡°Really? I have nowhere else to go, that would mean so much!¡± said the dry eyed human who was now looking a little less dry eyed.


    ¡°P-please, if you can hide me until I give birth, I- I don''t want my husband to see me like this,¡± said the one with streaming eyes.


    The Lamia scoffed. ¡°Your husband is a fool if he cannot love you despite this. Silly Humans. But of course I will be quite happy to put you up no matter the case.¡±


    The tip of the Lamia''s tail slithered around the crying woman until the tip reached her head, The Lamia then wiped away the woman''s tears with her tail tip.


    ¡°Lead the way Lyra, let us away!¡± said the Lamia, nodding at the Elf-sheep.


    ¡°Yes, just remember to hold on tight, it would be awkward to become visible at the wrong moment.¡±


    The chain of four, with hands linked, slowly and carefully made their way around the rock and descended down onto the grassy cavern floor.


    Several dirt paths lead away from the camp. The paths had enough traffic that Lyra decided to take them over the grass and avoid them altogether. They neared the palisade warily. It was not that tall but tall enough that three pregnant people did not have a hope of climbing over it. After a moment of consideration Lyra led them along the wall and they neared a gap where a dirt path led inside.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to have to slip by the guard. Care not to break the invisibility, it¡¯s fragile. We¡¯ll have to hold to luck that they aren¡¯t on the lookout for invisible levelers.¡±


    The three nodded in determination and Lyra slunk forward. The entrance was being guarded by a severe looking Elf and a Human, each fairly highly leveled and well off judging by their gear. She paused and let a man with a heavily laden handcart pass and then slipped into his wake. Fortunately, the man was slow enough that her own procession didn''t have any trouble keeping up.


    The Elf''s sharp eyes paused on Lyra for a moment as she passed, did he know? Elves had an aptitude unlike others to sense the use of magic. A pair of magical spectacles with violet lenses hung on a chain around his neck. He would only need to lift them to his eyes and pour mana into them and he would be able to see straight through Lyra¡¯s invisibility, all four of them instantly laid bare to his sight.


    The Elf furrowed his brow causing Lyra¡¯s breath to hitch. The Elf¡¯s hand began to move toward the spectacles, but the Human suddenly motioned to something behind them. A cart being pulled by a number of Goblin slaves had stopped by the path as one of the Goblins had fainted from exhaustion. The Human guard began to approach the cart and the Elf guard followed.


    Lyra let out a breath of relief and quickly shuffled her pregnant procession on into the camp.


    They snuck amongst the rows of tents. The tents differed as it seemed that the Inquisitor had rallied from the locale populace of levelers. They varied from small tents, to medium tents, to large expensive tents owned by the highly leveled. People bustled between them and Lyra had to navigate through the gaps and least busy areas.


    A clopping sound caught her attention and she turned her head in time to see a particularly large female Gnoll type Centaur heading toward them, she dragged the group out of her path in alarm as the Centaur trotted oblivously by. Curiously a black cloaked figure rode on the Centaur¡¯s back, their face obscured by a wooden mask. They weren''t the only ones to notice and the Centaur attracted stares.


    ¡°My, what is that Centaur doing? Allowing a person to ride her back? Scandalous!¡± Whisper hissed the Lamia.


    ¡°I couldn''t tell you, it is odd though, I thought Centaurs hated allowing others to ride them unless they absolutely had to.¡±


    ¡°They certainly do, oh, I¡¯ve seen a Centaur demand a duel to the death just for a drunk fool attempting to climb atop them!¡±


    ¡°Hrmm. Maybe the Lamia will know, and more to the point maybe they will know what this whole thing is about.¡±


    They continued along behind the tents, by coincidence following the Centaur. Lyra kept a careful eye on her, wary of where she was going, she did not want to be accidentally trampled by the strong looking leveler. While her lower body was that of a wild mare the upper body was that of a powerful looking Gnoll, muscle rippling beneath her coat. She had a grumpy look in her eye.


    As Lyra watched the Centaur suddenly came to a stop in front of a Human. Lyra had to take a moment to take in this new Human as he was jarringly large, over seven foot she estimated. He was extremely muscular with arms like tree trunks and long black hair and a fearsome black beard that hung over his chest, braided at the edges with silver rings. One of his eyes was covered by a black and silver eyepatch. A fat black cigar hung from the corner of his mouth, he rolled the cigar between his teeth as he eyed the Centaur from beneath a heavy brow. He sat on a wooden throne which creaked beneath his muscular bulk, that someone had gone to the trouble of dragging it out to the camp an indication of the man¡¯s power. His large ring bejeweled hand rested on the head of an actual real Hellhound by his side. The Hellhound¡¯s eyes glowed red as it observed the Centaur with its master. On his other side a six and a half foot long black greatsword was thrust into the ground, although it could barely be called a sword, more a rough slab of brutal looking iron.


    This Human leveler had a fearsome aura about him, as though he could crush any who approached with ease, a dominating presence that made others hold their breath and mind their manners while around him, scared to even come under his gaze.


    Lyra knew who this was.


    It was the town Ranker.


    The grumpy Centaur scowled. The figure on her back remained silent and still.


    ¡°Why are we out here Bane? I¡¯m not even part of your town.¡±


    The Ranker stared at her silently, dark smoke curling from his mouth, spiralling lazily into the air.


    ¡°Because the long legged bitch demanded it.¡± He gravelled, his voice like heavy dark stone. ¡°Had it been anyone else I would not be here and I would have put them in the ground for trying to tell me what to do.¡±


    ¡°Then she incited who she works for as a threat right away? Damn, what happened to make her go so far?¡±


    ¡°She hasn''t said. Some monster, that was made clear enough by her commanding a lockdown of the dungeon.¡±


    ¡°And now we¡¯re stuck here? I heard some talk of a multi-evolver, can¡¯t say I believe it, or maybe I just don''t want to believe it.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s hiding something and she¡¯s new. No doubt she fucked up and lost her arm to one of the nastier regular monsters, a Panthara perhaps, and all this is just bratty revenge.¡±


    ¡°A Panthara? Ugh great. I¡¯d rather not spend the next few weeks hunting all over for one of those hateful fuckers.¡±


    ¡°Feel free to take it up with her...¡±


    The man lazed back in his throne, smoke curling through his beard.


    ¡°I''ll pass thanks. She looks mad enough to bite my head off.¡±


    The Ranker raised an eyebrow but then looked away, disinterested. His gaze passed over where Lyra hid and for a fraction of a second she felt irrational panic. Had he seen her? But then, thankfully, his gaze moved on.


    Lyra swallowed, her throat dry. She tugged on the Lamia¡¯s hand and they crept away.


    The invisible procession slipped between a row of tents and came out in the small area that the Lamia had cordoned off as their own. The tents were markedly different from the others, mostly due to them being of much finer more ornate quality, far larger and all round in shape instead of the wild variety in the rest of the camp.


    A pair of Lamia with coiled tails played cards outside one of the tents as another group sparred with spears in a small sandy clearing.


    ¡°Oh! It¡¯s my brother cavorting over there, he will be pleased to see me!¡±


    ¡°Please my Lady, I am to see you to my commissioner first of all.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, let''s be done with it then.¡±


    Lyra eyed the group then scanned the tents until she found the one she wanted, the largest and most expensive looking one.


    She pulled at the Lamia¡¯s hand and the group followed. She approached the tent and looking around she surreptitiously pulled aside the tent flap. Inside was a large space containing a full sized four-poster bed as well as a full sized writing desk, absurd things to bring into a dungeon, but then Lyra¡¯s commissioner was quite wealthy.


    He sat at the desk writing a letter, his black and red scaled tail draped and coiled around his seat.


    Lyra made sure the last two Humans were inside and let the tent flap flop closed.


    The male Lamia¡¯s head jerked at the sound of falling cloth and turned to look at the entrance. Of course there was nothing to be seen and he furrowed his brow, his chiselled jawline clenching slightly as suspicion rose. Then after a moment he seemed to realise something.


    ¡°It¡¯s you, isn''t it? The Rescuer I sent out to save her.¡±


    Lyra let the invisibility drop and the four of them were revealed.


    ¡°Target acquired, service rendered my Lord, all in a day¡¯s work, I know, I am quite brilliant. Your Seers were correct as you surmised, your wife lived and survived despite the naysayers who declared her death. May I present your erstwhile captive wife, Lady Glyrieth!¡±


    The Lamia, Lady Glyrieth, clapped her hands together and cheered.


    The Lord only had a flat stare for Lyra. His gaze moved to Glyrieth¡¯s very clearly pregnant belly.


    Lyra coughed lightly into her fist. ¡°Uhm, is that okay?¡±


    His emotionless gaze moved back to Lyra.


    ¡°What happened to the two I sent with you?¡±


    ¡°Oh, uh, about that, In the process of, uh, rescuing I might have been slightly captured myself.¡±


    ¡°Slightly.¡±


    ¡°Y-yes, and sadly the two mercenaries you sent with me refused to be restrained, they were killed in action. Very brave.¡±


    ¡°...I see.¡±


    ¡°Oh don''t be a stick in the mud Wranvyre! She did wonderfully, it¡¯s all quite adventurous, being rescued, although admittedly a tad unnecessary.¡±


    The Lord frowned. ¡°What do you mean... unnecessary?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not how we thought! I descended from high society to slither and adventure amongst the dungeon, oh what did I think of the tribal monsters, I expected mindless wordless creatures incapable of anything but barbarism. But no, they showed thought, reason, and an interest in learning. I would have eventually come to an understanding.¡±


    ¡°I, uhm, tracked her down to a Half-goblin tribe, she had been there for some time I believe.¡±


    The Lord''s eyes narrowed and he moved from his seat, his long tail uncoiling itself and lifting him up.


    ¡°You mean to tell me.¡± He slithered closer. ¡°That this pregnancy is the result of monsters?¡±


    ¡°Oh hush, it wouldn''t be the first time I''ve lain a clutch with another, nor your self having lain with another and openly parented a few bastards, nobody cares, no Lamia anyway.¡±


    ¡°With levelers, Glyrieth, not monsters. Never filthy monsters.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure that there is that much of a difference these days, at least with the tribal ones.¡±


    ¡°Words I abhor to hear just came from your lips Glyrieth.¡±


    ¡°Words that are true! Whether you like it or not things are going to change around here and I intend to see that is the case. My half Goblin children will be an excellent example to show society once I birth them. You¡¯ll see, their tribal memory is nothing to underestimate. I intend to form a movement, I have a cause!¡±


    ¡°A cause.¡± Wranvyre¡¯s eyes glittered.


    ¡°Quite. My companions,¡± she gestured at the two Humans who flinched. ¡°Will also both birth-¡±


    ¡°Do feel well Glyrieth?¡± he interrupted. ¡°Perhaps your pregnancy and ordeal has had an effect on you and you are not yourself.¡± He slithered closer and took her hand.


    ¡°Hardly. I enjoyed the experience, it made so many things make sense and click into place. Plus, you know, monsters can be quite interesting lovers, I think you could learn a thing or two husband.¡±


    ¡°You compare me to monsters?¡± The Lord''s brow rose.


    ¡°In the art of pleasure there is always mo-¡±


    A black knife appeared in Wranvyre¡¯s hand and punched into Glyrieth¡¯s throat. A wash of red ran down her chest as her eyes widened in shock. She tried to scream but only a wet gurgle was produced as more blood burbled from the wound.


    The others froze, the attack had been so sudden and violent that it took more than a moment to process what had just happened.


    The Lord spun as one of the Humans opened her mouth to scream and his hand shot out, the knife leapt forward like a bolt from a crossbow slamming into her eye socket. She slumped down dead.


    As the blade hit and the woman died the Lord''s tail snapped out at the same time. It slithered up the leg of the remaining woman who was turning to see her companion die, her face ashen. She tried to cry out but the tail reached her head and the tip wrapped tight around her throat preventing her from making a noise.


    Glyrieth slowly sunk to the ground as the light went out of her eyes.


    Lyra backed away wide eyed. She raised her hand to use her invisibility skill.


    ¡°Stop. Or the girl dies.¡± Wranvyre raised his hand.


    Lyra paused, the pregnant woman''s desperate eyes begged for help as she clutched at the tail squeezing around her neck.


    ¡°I, I don''t have anything to do with this you crazy bastard, nor does she!¡±


    ¡°You did not have anything to do with my wife¡¯s insanity. Her decision to try and suicide bomb my reputation and standing was hers alone.¡±


    ¡°Then let us go!¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately Uxoricide is not looked well upon. Her family would seek to harm me for killing my wife.¡±


    ¡°Well you shouldn''t have done it damn you! She didn''t deserve to die, you should be punished for what you did!¡±


    ¡°As far as they will know I did not kill her. You hold the knife that did the deed after all.¡±


    Lyra blinked at him then looked down at her hand. Her hand held the black blade that had formerly been embedded in the pregnant woman''s eye socket. Somehow she now held it, her hand was even spattered with blood.


    ¡°I- what? H-how?!¡±


    The snap crack of a breaking neck made her look up and she only had a moment to cry out before the dead body of the other women held in the Lord''s tail was flung toward her with all the power of a high leveler. The pregnant woman collided with her brutally and she was blown out of the tent flap and sent tumbling across the ground, knife flying from her hand to go skittering across the dirt. She collided with a Lamia¡¯s tail in a heap.


    She clutched her arm, the impact had been hard enough to bruise bone and she winced and hissed breath between her teeth as she gathered herself. She looked up to see that the Lamia she had rolled up against was Glyrieth¡¯s brother.


    ¡°What¡¯s this now? Are you okay?¡±


    ¡°Hel-¡±


    Before she could finish however Lord Wranvyre burst from the tent and drew all eyes. Lyra was amazed to see he barely looked the same person, tears ran down his cheeks and his body language was stricken.


    ¡°She came back, she came back! But we¡¯ve been betrayed!¡±


    ¡°Woah, hold on now, calm yourself Wranvyre, what are you talking about?¡±


    Wranvyre jabbed an accusing shaky finger at Lyra.


    ¡°That freak Mutt, she- she brought Glyrieth back, we were momentarily reunited, but this thing, this wretched criminal demanded a hundred times the payment, and when we denied her she murdered Gylrieth in hot blooded retribution!


    ¡°NO! No! It cannot be so!¡±


    ¡°Glyrieth¡¯s dead body is incontrovertible, she was slaughtered by this money hungry wretch.¡± He ripped aside the flap to his tent showing the body of Glyrieth in plain view of the entrance conveniently arranged to show her bloody neck.


    A hand grabbed at Lyra¡¯s hair and she was dragged up into the air, the furious brother got in her face, then he grabbed her arm and held up her blood covered hand.


    ¡°What have you done!¡± screamed the brother.


    ¡°I-¡±


    ¡°Hold her still, I¡¯m going to end her, I cannot allow this sub-sapient trash to breathe a moment longer.¡±


    A green fireball began to coalesce in Wranvyres palms, it was smaller than most, just the size of a marble, but it gave off a frighteningly deadly air.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t me! He did it!¡± cried Lyra, although none of the watching Lamia looked like they believed her.


    ¡°Lies! She has a heart as black as any monster. A defect of her mutt birth. Just look at her bloodied hands, the hands of a murderer!¡± roared Wranvyre.


    Glyrieth¡¯s brother held her up, a cold look in his eyes.


    Lyra could only stare as the green flaming marble darkened and Wranvyre prepared to throw it.


    This was the end, she was sure of it. She had come to this dungeon town hoping to start a new life only to be caught up in another plot.


    She closed her eyes, there was nothing left to do, the Lamia who held her was far above her level and his grip was as iron.


    Mother I am sorry, I couldn''t amount to much.


    A hilt suddenly and unexpectedly materialised in her hand out of thin air. The black knife!


    She didn¡¯t hesitate. Her arm whipped around and she stabbed the Lamia who held her. The knife sunk deep. She pulled it free as the Lamia screamed and plunged it in again, and again, leaving a dotted row of wounds up his tail and abdomen. The Lamia dropped her as agony made him lose control of his faculties.


    Lyra used her Skill faster than ever before in her life. She vanished. The green fireball shot from Wranvyre¡¯s hands like a straightened bolt of lightning, stabbing through the air where Lyra had been visible a second before. It hit nothing however and snapped into the dirt leaving a small smoking hole.


    ¡°Healer! Get me a healer!¡± cried Wranvyre.


    ¡°Fuck the healer, kill the mutt,¡± groaned the brother, as he sunk down to the ground, his hands trying to cover the bloody puncture wounds.


    A healer pushed through the forming crowd and rushed up to the fallen Lamia. The commotion was large enough that it had drawn levelers from other parts of the camp as well as the nearby Lamia.


    ¡°You all saw it! That mutt not only murdered my wife but also tried to murder my brother in law!¡±


    The crowd was angered.


    ¡°I want her dead, no, I need her dead! The first to bring me the Rescuer¡¯s severed head on a gilded platter I shall reward twenty, no, Fifty Thousand Gold!¡±


    The crowd roared.


    Lyra looked back at the crowd in dismay as it disintegrated and began sprinting through the tents with weapons drawn, randomly jabbing at the air. Her arm clutched in pain, the black blade clenched in her fist, she hurried away, praying fervently that her invisibility would hold true.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 37

    Rain picked up the now clean and dry and clothed Goblin having bathed her once more, despite her furious protestation.


    She had her arms crossed and wouldn''t look him in the eye. Her legs dangled beneath her uselessly.


    ¡°This sucks.¡±


    ¡°Not my fault if you can''t handle a good hard fucking.¡±


    ¡°Shush you.¡±


    ¡°Maybe if we do it enough you will get used to it so you won¡¯t have this problem.¡±


    Opal scowled but an interested look crossed her eyes.


    Rain put her up onto his shoulders with her feet dangling over his chest. She grabbed at his fur to hold her balance. He was far larger than last time he had carried her like this and her legs were spread wide.


    ¡°Where can I find more to eat Opal? I don¡¯t want another Panthara, that monster was far too cunning, and much too dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Yeaaah. Pantharas are a big nope. It¡¯s fine, there are tons of monsters in the dungeon. We could walk for miles across just one floor, we''ll definitely find something at some point. Hmm...¡±


    As Opal spoke about where various monsters could potentially be found, Rain untied the Kobold¡¯s chain from where he had looped it around a tree. The Kobold was already up and waiting to go with Opal¡¯s old rucksack on his back. The Kobold seemed distinctly disinterested in mentioning what had happened earlier and was trying very very hard to pretend it had not happened.


    Rain gripped the end of the chain in his fist and they made their way out of the giant flower cavern.


    Walking didn¡¯t take as long as it used to as Rain¡¯s increased size meant longer legs and a longer stride. The Kobold had to hurry to keep up.


    They wandered through the endless warren of dungeon tunnels, occasionally popping in and out of minor caverns and varying biomes. At one cavern a dozen small horned rabbits fled from Rain''s presence as he went to grab them, eager for a snack. They disappeared into tiny burows carved into the cavern wall. Growling in annoyance he turned away.


    His hunger was starting to rise and pull at his attention when they emerged from a dark twisting tunnel into an extremely large cavern. It was by far the largest Rain had seen in the dungeon so far. A vast plain of long grass stretched out before them, the ceiling so far overhead that clouds had seemingly formed. The clouds scudded across the underside of the cold glowing crystal and rock. A ruin was in the middle of the cavern and dozens of smaller stubs of stone dotted the grassy plain.


    ¡°Is... is this normal for a dungeon?¡± asked Rain looking at the other side of the cavern several miles distant.


    ¡°Uhm, I don''t know, but the witch in my old tribe warned Gobbos from coming here. We should go around¡­¡±


    ¡°If that witch didn''t want people coming here then I want to know why. Goblin witches hate me because of whatever species of monster I am, this could be related, it could be an answer. It... It feels like something is here...¡±


    ¡°Or it could be that there''s just some nasty monster and she didn''t want Gobbos dying pointlessly.¡±


    ¡°True, but I''ll kill and eat it if there is.¡±


    He strode out onto the plain, long grass flattening under his feet. The Kobold required a tug to be moved from the safety of the tunnel.


    ¡°H-hey, my tribe knew of this place too!¡± squawked the Kobold as he stumbled onto the grass.


    Rain turned to him with a frown. ¡°They did? Do you know what this place is?¡±


    ¡°Uh, well, sort of, It¡¯s uhm, Haunted! We shouldn''t go here! Maybe! Please don''t eat me!¡±


    ¡°Haunted?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    The Kobold looked around frantically. The plain stretched out before them. A breeze brushed the long grass.


    ¡°Haven''t you noticed? There¡¯s wind in here! In a dungeon!¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s right, that is kind of strange,¡± murmured Opal.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably because this cavern is so large, or maybe there is air rising up from lower caverns disturbing the air in here. I¡¯m not turning back because of some wind.¡±


    Rain marched further into the cavern, fearful Kobold in tow. They came across one of the stone stubs dotted throughout the grass. Now that Rain was close he realised that it was the very last remnant of a structure. Blocks of stone littered the ground around the small finger-like chunk of masonry that was all that remained standing.


    His eyes followed the stone blocks peeking from amongst the blades of grass into the distance.


    ¡°I think this cavern used to be filled with buildings, like a city¡­ A huge city...¡±


    Opal peered down at the heavy block stonework. ¡°It looks old, like the stone stairs between floors.¡±


    ¡°Maybe it was the same people who built them. It would make sense that they would leave something other than just stairs behind right?¡±


    They wandered across the plain, various pieces of ruin becoming visible, a piece of fallen arch, a corner of a tiled floor, a stumped pillar. whatever had been done to the place had leveled it, torn down every structure stone by stone until only the one ruin in the middle was left standing.


    As they approached it Rain realised it was a part of a castle, although nearly destroyed beyond all recognition. The walls were shredded and scarred, the dark stone blasted and melted in places. The ruin had a skeletal bleak feel. The wind blew through stoney gaps with a hollow echoing sigh.


    Opal shivered on his shoulders.


    ¡°This place is creepy...¡±


    Rain didn''t reply but approached a wall. On the wall was something familiar. An angular runic script that looked like it had been clawed out of the stone. It was the same as the script around the gold band on the giant petrified alligator they had found dead by the great lake. He put his paw flat on the wall, the runes were the same, although this time his claws dwarfed the markings.


    ¡°I was right to listen to my gut, these runes, I think they were made by my kind, these marks were made by claws like mine.¡±


    The Goblin peered down at them sceptically. ¡°I guess they could be, the dead thing that was on the bottom of the great lake was supposed to have lived a long long time ago. It¡¯s possible it was part of the people that built this stuff.¡±


    ¡°Maybe there will be more inside¡­ Maybe a clue about what happened here...¡±


    Opal hesitated then nodded her head. ¡°Yes... there might be.¡±


    They wandered beneath ruin, into the shadowed halls and broken rooms. The ceiling was tall, enough for Rain, with Opal on his shoulders, to just fit beneath. The wind was muffled here and Rain was a little disturbed to hear it sound a little like a susserating whisper in some unknown language as it filtered through the ruin.


    The Kobold yelped suddenly and Rain turned to him.


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°I- th-thought I-I s-saw something, there was a weird pale head, at the end of the hall looking around the corner!¡±


    Rain narrowed his eyes and rushed forward. He came to the end ready to catch whatever monster was there but found the following hallway empty.


    ¡°What did you see? Tell me.¡±


    The Kobold yelped as he was pulled forward on his chain. ¡°Elf! Or H-human maybe! I can''t tell they all look alike to me!¡±


    Rain blinked in surprise. ¡°Not a monster?¡±


    ¡°No! I don¡¯t think so anyway, but then again it could be a, uhm, harpy. W-we should go, really!¡±


    ¡°If there really are levelers here then they would have come for monsters so that they can kill and level up from them, so if you did see a leveler then we can be sure there are monsters too,¡± murmured Opal.


    ¡°Caution it is,¡± said Rain. He shook the Kobolds chain and gave him an evil grin. ¡°You go first.¡±


    ¡°W-what!¡± spluttered the Kobold. ¡°B-b-but I can¡¯t! I- I- have a condition!¡±


    Opal scoffed. ¡°Oh yeah? What¡¯s that?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m scared.¡±


    ¡°Good. It¡¯s like fishing, a wiggling worm on the hook attracts more fish, or something,¡± leered the Goblin.


    Rain yanked on the chain and the Kobold yelped and scuttled forward with tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.


    He approached the next corner.


    ¡°WhymeWhymeWhyme, should have kept my mouth shut, oh godsohgodsohgods.¡±


    The Kobold slowly stuck his snout around, ready to bolt at the slightest motion.


    After a moment he released a breath.


    ¡°There''s nothing here, it¡¯s just a big empty room.¡±


    Rain approached behind him and peered around. The hallway terminated just a few feet ahead and opened into a dark and shadowy hall.


    ¡°This must be in the center of the Ruin, if there''s anything important I bet it''s here.¡±


    They slowly emerged into the hall, it was a vast thing with great square pillars marching down its length to either side. The occasional crumbling gap in the ceiling let pinpoint beams of light through. Dust motes hung sluggishly in the light, giving a still and heavy feel to the space.


    The hall was deathly silent until suddenly a thud and the click clack of a lock behind them caused them to turn. A pair of heavy bronze doors had shut themselves over the entrance they had come through. The Kobold rushed up to them and desperately tried to pull the doors open but they remained solidly immovable.


    ¡°Oh gods we¡¯re all going to die!¡± moaned the Kobold. He turned on Rain. ¡°I told you! I told you so! This place is! It¡¯s h-HAUNTED!¡±


    ¡°Quiet.¡±


    The Kobold¡¯s mouth clicked shut with a terrified look up at the wolf.


    ¡°Is it just me or is the end of the hall¡­ darker.¡± whispered Opal. The oppressive stillness and weight of stone holding her back from speaking aloud.


    Rain narrowed his eyes at it. It was true, the hall was unnaturally dark, and despite his excellent night vision, he could only barely perceive that there was a stone throne at the end.


    A voice came from the shadows, a dry husk of a voice.


    ¡°Unusually observant, but then you appear to not be a band of foolish levelers who have wandered once more into my domain. Curious. A Kobold, a Goblin, and a¡­¡±


    The shadows suddenly drew together and a cloaked thing materialised upon the throne. Its pitch black clothes made from layered rags that writhed of their own accord. The creature was large, or rather the throne was large, yet it still sat comfortably upon it. Its hood was shadowed yet it was still possible to see seven humanoid skulls of various species packed inside, one even had horns. Squeezed amongst the skulls were smaller skulls, rat skulls, bird skulls, canine skulls, cat skulls. Each eye socket of every skull had an eerie green flame flickering in it.


    ¡°If I may ask, what exactly are you?¡± it said, ¡°I know of most if not all monsters in this dungeon, and I have been here a very very long time, yet I have not seen one of your kind.¡±


    As the creature spoke the jaw bones of each skull shivered and trembled and the flames flickered and flared.


    ¡°An old species. I couldn''t tell you what I am, I don¡¯t know myself,¡± answered Rain warily.


    ¡°What a strange answer.¡± A breeze seemed to lift and brush against its rags. It smelt like ancient death.


    ¡°You say you¡¯ve been here a long time? Then you must know something of what happened to this city we stand in?¡±


    The creature seemed to study Rain.


    ¡°This dead city has always been here for all the centuries that I have existed, it has always been, just as the rest of the dungeon has always been, these things just are. If that question is your only reason you have come to my domain then you are truly as foolish as all the levelers who came before. No matter, you shall make a fine addition to my collection, a body such as yours will be well suited.¡±


    Opal suddenly piped up. ¡°It¡¯s not your domain!¡±


    The ¡®eyes¡¯ of the creature looked above Rain and focused on the Goblin. ¡°I have lived here longer than tens of generations of your kind. All you see is mine.¡±


    ¡°Doesn''t matter. Wolfie here¡¯s people built the place.¡±


    ¡°An absurd claim.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s true! You¡¯re a squatter!¡±


    The creature seemed to pause hearing this, a ripple of irritation crossed its pitch black rags.


    ¡°No, I am not.¡±


    ¡°Yes you are! You¡¯re living in someone else''s home without permission! You¡¯re a bum!¡±


    The fire seemed to flare in its eyes. ¡°Stop talking.¡±


    ¡°Squatty squatter! How about building your own house instead of squatting all over the place!¡±


    ¡°Nonsense. I shall endeavour to flay your skin from your body before you become mine Goblin.¡±


    ¡°Big talk coming from a lazy bum squatter squatting in other people''s property because you''re too cheap and lazy to build your own house. Squatty squatty bum bum, squatty squatty bum!¡±


    ¡°Shut up! Shut up! I command you to shut up!¡± shouted the creature, its eyes blazing in fury.


    ¡°Squ-


    ¡°ENOUGH!¡± it roared.


    The creature abruptly stood from the stone throne, its ¡®hands¡¯ emerged from the sleeves of its cloak, each bone hand had at least twenty digits and were a mix of different creatures, claws and talons and fingers, even some small creatures'' arms acting as fingers. The disturbing looking ¡®hands¡¯ roiled and twitched, the fingers clawing and twisting at the air. A scraping sound soon came from the empty entrances around the throne and a white thing rushed across the ground, a snake? snakes? No, it took Rain a moment to realise what he was looking at was not a pile of snakes but dozens of spinal columns twisting and writhing and slithering across the ground, coming together to twist into a larger boney length. Large black triangles were attached at various points on the spines and were dragged into the bone mass giving the effect of a thorny vine.


    The ¡®snake¡¯ slithered up to the cloaked creature''s feet then coiled upward into its hands where it formed into a thick staff. The black triangles, which on closer inspection appeared to be some kind of giant shark like teeth, arranged themselves so that the top quarter of the staff was studded with the things, the largest at the top, each tooth the size of a fist. A brutal looking spiked club.


    ¡°I would have liked to have avoided damaging you. Oh well.¡±


    The skulls grinned.


    Its free hand came up and the many fingers made a beckoning motion at the darkness. After a moment the air was filled with a moaning and shuffling and Rain and Opal could only watch as figures stumbled from the doorways. They poured in, a veritable crowd of species, everything was present, monsters, levelers, Goblins, Kobolds, Humans, Elves, even to Rain¡¯s dismay, a huge Panthara.


    As they came into the lighter part of the hall their rotted faces were revealed, haggard torn skin hung from shambling bodies, injuries in life having remained in undeath, missing eyes, torn open bellies, broken bones. The undead stared coldly at Rain, their dead hands gripping whatever weapon they had held in life, now rusted without a care.


    ¡°Behold.¡± said the creature. ¡°My collection.¡±


    The trio were surrounded by well over a hundred of the undead, the crowd only broken up by the massive pillars supporting the hall.


    The Kobold squatted on the ground with his claws over his head, his eyes squeezed closed, letting out the occasional whimper.


    Opal leant down and whispered in Rain¡¯s ear.


    ¡°Get close, it¡¯s our only hope.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± said Rain, coming to the same conclusions as the Goblin.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 38

    ¡°Bring them to me!¡± rasped the bone creature.


    The undead broke into motion. They were fast! The front rushed forward in a wave of rotten flesh their rusted weapons held overhead, mouths opening in a collective desiccated howl.


    In one smooth motion Rain stepped forward and his foot freighted up under the crouching Kobold¡¯s rump. The Kobold only had a moment to scream in surprise before he was punted forward like a stone from a catapult. He went flying through the air tumbling out of control and crashed into a particularly rotten looking undead snapping its spine, he hit the one behind it breaking it too, then he smashed into a third undead in a tangle of limbs.


    Rain charged in behind as Opal, still atop Rain, smoothly drew her cutlass and rapier, one in each hand.


    Rain¡¯s paw swept forward, swiping at the head of an undead Human. The force of the blow caved its head in and it collided with a trio of undead behind it bringing them down too. The undead were not slow to react to Rain¡¯s sudden aggression however and they swarmed him. Dozens of smaller undead latched onto his legs, their claws and teeth and knives piercing his tough flesh with varying levels of success, the taller undead howled and chopped down with their rusted blades at his arms and torso, and the weaponless lunged at him trying to climb toward his throat.


    He could only struggle, his paws lashing out and crushing rib cages, snapping necks, and fracturing skulls, but there was always more and more and those who weren''t completely broken always came back.


    Opal¡¯s blades swished through the air, each slash ending with a meaty ¡®shunk!¡¯ as she chopped down those trying to climb her wolf steed. It was not enough to stop the swarming numbers and soon Rain was at the center of a hurricane of undead spiralling in on him, crawling over each other to claw and rend and tear his flesh.


    Despite the weight of countless bodies dragging him down he managed to, slowly, heave one foot forward, then he heaved the other foot forward, taking another laboured stride, each heavy motion physically dragging the entire chaotic swarm along with him. He strode slowly, heavily, toward the many skulled bone creature, his eyes locked on, blood washing down his body, the weight of over a hundred undead furiously trying to hold him back and failing against his power.


    ¡°My you are a determined one,¡± the many skulled bone creature sneered.


    It raised its staff overhead and the undead hurricane with rain as the eye of the storm seemed to double down on their fury even as they were dragged against their will. As the seething mass neared the bone creature the undead seemed to avoid touching it, shifting away even as Rain took another leaden step forward.


    Rain simply snarled back at its words and brute forced his way forward through sheer strength, dragging the entire spiralling heaving crowd of undead with him and somehow succeeding. He was getting near.


    ¡°You aren''t a leveler, you have no skills or magic, you are simply another monster. Give your body to me and gain a little worth as one of mine.¡±


    The bone creature swung the staff down at him. Rain didn''t hesitate, he ripped his arm free from the undead trying to hold him back and grabbed the staff mid-swing. The teeth cut at his paws causing agony to shoot up his arm but he held on, he held onto the staff! With a snarl he heaved it toward himself dragging the boney creature into his clutches, or at least that is what he expected to happen, instead the staff parted halfway down its length leaving the boney creature where it was and Rain holding half the staff.


    ¡°You would not believe the number of levelers who have fallen for that old trick,¡± said the creature, its hood tilting to the side and the skulls within rattling and grinning in cruel joy.


    Rain could only look on in dismay as the half staff he held in his hands unravelled into dozens of spines covered in razor sharp teeth and began winding themselves up his arm, the teeth cutting long bloody furrows through his fur.


    ¡°Rain! Panthara!¡±


    Rain turned his head in time to see the undead Panthara reaching for him. It was taller than him and its talons reached over the undead on long arms to latch onto his shoulder. Its half missing muzzle and one remaining eye seemed to snarl in evil cruel glee as the talons sunk deep and hit bone, the species as foul hearted and malicious in undeath as in life. Rain shuddered and gasped in pain, for once he was covered in blood not of those he ate but his own. He could feel his body failing, pieces of him being sliced away by innumerable wounds and stabs and rending claws and teeth, grinding him down with sheer numbers.


    ¡°Fuck you! You can''t have him!¡± screamed Opal and he thought he felt her lunge over his head toward the boney creature. He opened his mouth to yell for her to stop but instead of appearing in front of him she lunged from his side, the longsword unsheathed from her back and swinging through the air. It came down on the Panthara¡¯s rotten shoulder like a guillotine and sunk deep.


    ¡°Use it!¡± he heard her scream before she vanished over the Panthara¡¯s shoulder and into the crowd of undead.


    His paw shot out and gripped the Panthara by the upper arm. With a savage roar he twisted his whole body and wrenched on the arm so hard that it was ripped from the creature''s rotten shoulder in an explosion of gore. With wild wrathful eyes Rain turned back on the boney creature and with a snarl drove forward in desperation, muscles straining, using every ounce of strength he had, each step dragging tons and tons of writhing undead flesh with him.


    ¡°My Panthara! How dare you! Do you have any idea how much of a pain it is to get one of those nasty horrible creatures! You! Yo-¡±


    Rain¡¯s paw whipped out with Panthara arm held by the stump and its wicked hooked claws caught the boney creature''s rags. The fire in the creature¡¯s eyes died down for a moment as they stared at the Panthara talons snarled up in its clothing.


    ¡°Uh-¡±


    Rain hauled back on the arm with all his strength and the bone creature stumbled toward him, near enough that Rain could drop the arm and reach out with his own paw. He grabbed a wrinkle of black rags in his fist and dragged the bone creature close.


    ¡°Fool. You will still die, you have just sped your end along!¡±


    The skulls began to chant, a whispery dry wind sound, the green fire in its numerous eye sockets flaring up bright. Rain dragged his other arm free, still covered in the crawling spines. His broad paws slapped down on the shoulders of the bone creature and he brought his head back, and back, until he was leaning as far back from the creature¡¯s hood as possible.


    The creature¡¯s chanting went up a notch in tone and began to rush, panicked. Too late. Rain brought his head forward and dragged the creature toward him at the same time. The skulls single chant splintered and the smaller skulls screamed as Rain¡¯s head rocketed toward them.


    ¡°Wai-¡±


    ¡°Stop!¡±


    ¡°No!


    ¡°You ca-¡±


    ¡°Plea-¡±


    The larger skulls screamed or pled in the moment between but it was too late, Rain¡¯s forehead collided with the horned skull in the center of the seven larger skulls like a blacksmith¡¯s hammer striking an anvil. Bone met bone and the horned skull not being firmly attached to anything blasted backward and exploded out the back of the creature¡¯s hood leaving a hole that could be seen straight through. Green electricity sparked between the remaining howling skulls.


    The undead stumbled, seeming to become sluggish, weakened. Rain leapt on the chance and surged forward forcing his paws into the gap the horned skull had left. He grasped the sides and forced his arms apart. The skulls seemed to resist, green lighting dancing between the bones desperately holding everything in place, but with a ripsnarl roar Rain tore through and ripped the creature¡¯s hood across sending skulls and spines pouring out the sides.


    He didn''t stop and swiftly tore the creature to pieces, ripping away hunks of cloth and hurling away paws full of bones. Mounds of ribs and spines washed out of the holes in the disintegrating creature to clatter to the floor. The undead fell with it, their motions becoming weaker and weaker until they slumped under their own weight like ragdolls.


    Rain tore the thing to pieces until it was nothing but bones scattered across a room with a ripped up pile of rags at the center.


    Breathing hard he dragged himself free from the mound of undead, the snake like spines slipping from his torn up arm.


    ¡°Opal! Are you alive?!¡± he roared.


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    The Goblin squeezed herself from underneath the body of the Panthara where she had hid.


    Rain breathed a sigh of relief. But still limped over to her and checked her over. She batted his paws away.


    ¡°You¡¯re hurt. Forget me.¡± She looked over his savaged body with dismay.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I just, I just need to rest.¡±


    ¡°I hope you die from blood loss you horrible mangy dog!¡± cried a voice and Rain turned to see the horned skull resting on the stone throne where it had landed. Its voice was a touch higher than when it had been part of a larger body.


    While the other skulls littered around the room were immobile and still a crackle of green sparked around this one, its eyes sputtering as it desperately held onto life.


    Rain¡¯s eyes narrowed.


    ¡°All that work, all the time I put into crafting the perfect collection, and you stumbled in and ruined it all! Damn you!¡±


    Rain stepped toward the skull. ¡°You attacked us without cause, you got what you deserve and you likely had it a long time coming. You were a leveler once weren''t you?¡±


    ¡°You know? Pah. What does it matter.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard stories about forbidden classes turning levelers into horrible things. Necromancy. You seem like the sort.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I was a great Necromancer, in fact, over level sixty, until that bitch of a Queen found me. I only escaped by transferring my soul to a skull I had secreted away, unfortunately the side effects were¡­ problematic, I lost my status as a leveler and became a level-less undead, more''s the pity.¡±


    ¡°And you spent the centuries down here pissing around and not planning revenge?¡±


    The skull gave him a sour look. ¡°Do you not know what the Queen is? I couldn''t defeat her in a thousand lifetimes. I was retired, you know, this was my retirement you ruined.¡±


    His words bothered Rain for some reason. ¡°If you had just wanted it badly enough you- AAH!¡±


    Rain¡¯s back arched back as something cleaved into his spine and he fell to the ground, a spot of white hot pain burning up his lower back.


    He rolled over and tried to scramble backwards with his legs. To his horror his legs didn''t respond, not even a little, he looked down at them, they remained limp and unmoving, paralysed. An image of what he had done to the first Panthara flashed through his mind, helplessness. Panic began to seep in.


    A black clad figure holding a long handled axe materialised in front of him out of thin air. The blade of the axe dripped with his blood.


    ¡°Oh poor wolfy can¡¯t use his legs?¡±


    She stood over him but not by much. A black leather covered Dwarf, a leveler. Judging by how serious and professional looking her equipment was a particularly high leveled one at that.


    Behind him the skull cackled, ¡°It¡¯s karma! Karma I tell you!¡±


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 39

    The Dwarf kicked at Rain¡¯s limp foot and laughed. ¡°Oh my you have caused a fuss. I¡¯ve never seen an Inquisitor as pissed as you made ours, she was practically spitting acid!¡±


    ¡°She sent you?¡±


    ¡°Of course. Although she did ask for you to be taken alive, and I quote: ¡®Get me that monster so I can skin it alive and wear its fur while I draw and quarter what remains.¡¯ Town was like a kicked beehive let me tell yah. Well, no sense dawdling.¡± She hefted the axe. ¡°I was going to take you alive but after that display I think it safer you come as a corpse. You can thank me in hell.¡±


    Rain¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, but he wasn''t looking at the Dwarf. The Elf-sheep had suddenly materialized out of the air just behind her. What was this? The Elf-sheep had betrayed him?


    The Dwarf noticed his look and tried to turn but before she could the Elf-sheep stabbed a black blade into the side of her neck with an anguished cry. The Dwarf¡¯s mouth opened to scream but she could only gurgle as blood flooded her mouth.


    The Elf-sheep stepped back with a horrified expression at what she had done, her eyes snapped to Rain who was staring at her and her legs nearly buckled underneath her. With a yelp she turned and vanished into thin air.


    The Dwarf was wobbling but still up, her hands scrabbling at her belt. Rain suddenly recognised that the glass bottle she was desperately trying to remove was a healing potion. He swiftly leaned back and pawed the skull sitting atop the throne.


    ¡°G-get off of me you damned dog! I- no stooop!¡±


    With one swift motion he threw the skull and just as the Dwarf managed to get the potion free from her belt the skull struck it. It was knocked from her fingers and flew across the room to shatter on the stone. The skull bounced up against a pillar with a crack and the last flickering dancing green of undeath whisped out of existence. The skull rolled to a stop, still and quiet.


    The Dwarf stared at him in silent fury but even as she did her legs buckled beneath her and she toppled backwards. She was dead before she hit the ground.


    Rain let out a rattling breath but then his head snapped around as Opal rushed past, another black clad leveler chasing her, this one a Human.


    The Goblin turned and her cutlass swung up to deflect a sword stroke from the leveler. She was clearly outmatched, she was just a small monster and he a powerful leveler, the cutlass was nearly blown from her fingers with the strike and her arm was wrenched around brutally just from the colliding metal. She held him back only by the skin of her teeth, even as he watched her legs buckled, going weak at the knees. The Goblin somehow used her unreliable legs to her advantage and dipped below the Human¡¯s blade, letting it whistle over head. She backpedaled, desperately trying to stay up as her legs failed her. It was going to happen again, the same as when she was kidnapped by slavers, falling at the worst possible moment.


    ¡°Save her!¡± he roared, but no one answered. He searched around for something to throw, but nothing was in reach. He could only watch as Opal desperately parried using her two swords, each blow nearly her death.


    A Kobold crawled from the mound of undead at that point. He looked around surreptitiously and then ran toward one of the doors. The chain ran out and with a squawk he fell on his tail as it yanked on his neck. He scrambled to his feet and tried to pull the chain free from the undead but it was caught underneath something. He looked around fretfully and spotted Opal as she was backed up against one of the pillars. The Kobold clawed at his face and then with a miserable cry he ran toward them and leapt on the leveler¡¯s back. The leveler cried out and tried to grab at the Kobold biting and clawing at him.


    Opal didn''t hesitate and she plunged her rapier through the leveler¡¯s chest and into his heart.


    The leveler dropped to the ground, the Kobold still attacking him.


    ¡°You can stop. It¡¯s over,¡± she said, breathing hard, her hands on her wobbling knees.


    The Kobold slumped on the dead leveler¡¯s back.


    ¡°Oh gods why me,¡± he moaned.


    Opal looked around at Rain and her eyes widened. Rain couldn''t blame her, he was sitting in a slowly growing puddle of his own blood.


    She rushed over to him.


    ¡°Wh-what happened!¡±


    Rain nodded at the Dwarf. ¡°Assassin, like the one that attacked you. From the Inquisitor.¡±


    Opal made an unhappy face as she fretfully looked over his wounds.


    Rain simply snorted, trying his best to ignore her worry. With difficulty he pushed himself backwards using his paws so that his back rested against the foot of the stone throne.


    ¡°They must have been following us for a while, looking for a moment of weakness to attack. Attacking something while it¡¯s distracted or weakened is a plan we would try, but this time it was used against us.¡±


    Opal¡¯s hands clenched into fists. ¡°I¡¯ll kill that Inquisitor for this.¡± She suddenly seemed to realise just how far gone Rain was as he coughed and blood flecked from his lips. She turned on the Dwarf and quickly began stripping her, efficiently removing her clothes until she was butt naked. She then dragged her over to Rain¡¯s side. He weakly gripped the Dwarf and brought her to his mouth where he bit off her head, not bothering to start with her extremities.


    ¡°Tough. Chewy. Guess that¡¯s to be expected from a Dwarf.¡±


    He quickly devoured the rest of her, only requiring two dozen or so bites to completely swallow all of her down. While he ate Opal dragged over the Human and stripped him too. The Human quickly followed the Dwarf into his gullet as the Dwarf was digesting. He expected there to be at least some growth from having eaten two likely quite high levelers but he was disappointed by what turned out to be next to nothing, his body too heavily focused on healing to do anything else.


    He checked his wounds and to his relief the bleeding had stopped although he was still in bad shape.


    His eyes wandered over to where the healing potion had been thrown and broken. Could there be...?


    He pointed at the shattered glass. ¡°Opal, can you check that glass, it is, well was, a healing potion.¡±


    A little hope lifted Opal¡¯s brow and she scampered over to the glass and crouched over it.


    ¡°There- There¡¯s a tiny bit in a curved piece of the glass!¡±


    ¡°Good, bring it here.¡±


    The Goblin reverently lifted the little piece of glass, careful not to let a single drip fall.


    She carried it over to him and delicately put it to his lips, tipping it back. The sip of remaining liquid landed on his tongue and Rain swallowed.


    They both checked his wounds. Gradually, slowly, they started to visibly heal, then the healing seemed to slow down, the sip of healing potion limited in what it could do with so much damage and his body being so large.


    ¡°It¡¯s not enough!¡± fretted Opal worriedly checking him over.


    She rushed over to the pile of undead and dragged free an undead Goblin corpse.


    Rain eyed it dubiously.


    ¡°You need to heal better, you got to eat this!¡±


    She shoved the body into his paws.


    Rain looked over the inedible looking corpse. It looked absolutely terrible, but it was true he needed food.


    He hesitantly raised one of its arms and tore it off.


    ¡°Eurgh! It tastes like bitter jerky marinated in garbage!¡±


    He made a face but managed to force it down and then started on the rest. Three bites in he started to slow and then come to a stop. He looked down at his stomach and grimaced.


    ¡°I¡­ I think I¡¯m going to be si- BLEURGHH!¡±


    Bits of partially digested undead splattered against the floor as Rain heaved up the Goblin.


    He spat the taste from his mouth and wiped his tongue with his paw.


    ¡°Gods that was disgusting. Can¡¯t eat undead. Noted. Bottom of the food ranking you go.¡±


    Opal dropped the corpse she was dragging over with the help of the Kobold and gave him a hopeless look.


    ¡°I¡¯ll live Opal, I just need to sleep, and I¡¯ll heal.¡± He left his worries and doubts unsaid as there was nothing else to do but hope the worst of his injuries would fix themselves.


    The Kobold stared at Rain warily, it wasn''t hard to see that he was hoping Rain would drop dead.


    Rain glared back at him and the Kobold flinched.


    ¡°Why did you help Opal?¡±


    ¡°Because I am an honourable Kobold, I see a monster in need and it tugs at my heartstrings, I could not leave such an injustice alone.¡±


    Rain narrowed his eyes. ¡°Why did you help Opal?¡±


    The Kobold swallowed and looked away. ¡°Because I can help the team! I¡¯m all in with you guys!¡±


    Rain snarled and the Kobold took a step back in fright.


    ¡°Okay! Okay! Fine. It¡¯s because had the levelers won then I would have been nothing but an experience snack for them, dead where I stood. Levelers don''t let monsters live without reason, I was either definitely dead with them or maybe going to die with you lunati- uh, very nice monsters!¡±


    Rain nodded in satisfaction.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    The Kobold blinked at him in surprise. ¡°Y-you want to know my name? Really?¡±


    Rain nodded.


    The Kobold coughed into his fist and cleared his throat. ¡°Rixquintalios¡¯alos the third, third in line for the noble house of Salamansos¡¯firilianaranse. Esteemed giant rat hunter, famed amongst my peers!¡±


    ¡°...I¡¯m not pronouncing that. Your name is now Red.¡±


    ¡°Wha- You can''t change my name!¡±


    ¡°Your name is Red.¡±


    ¡°Nuooo! That¡¯s not even a real name! That¡¯s the name of a child''s toy!¡±


    ¡°Red.¡±


    ¡°-But!¡±


    Rain loomed at him, which was impressive given he was slumped against the throne still.


    The Kobold whimpered and looked at his feet. ¡°My name is Red.¡±


    Opal slapped him on the shoulder. ¡°Thanks for saving my ass Red.¡±


    The Kobold stumbled forward under the slap and made a pained face.


    ¡°That¡¯s... you¡¯re welcome...¡±


    Rain snorted then turned to look around the hall. He narrowed his eyes.


    ¡°I know you''re here, watching, listening. Show yourself.¡±


    The hall remained still.


    ¡°You did what you did for a reason, Don''t Leave Me Waiting.¡±


    Standing half behind a pillar the Elf-sheep suddenly became visible, her face pale and her legs visibly trembling.


    ¡°H-hi...It¡¯s, uhm, me...again.¡±


    ¡°You saved my life.¡±


    ¡°...And m-murdered a leveler, oh g-gods, what have I done¡­¡±


    ¡°You did what you felt you needed to do, though I would like to know why.¡±


    The Elf-sheep seemed to gather herself, as though building up toward a speech she had been going over and over in her head.


    ¡°I came because I want your protection, and to ¡®join¡¯-¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s yours.¡±


    ¡°-I feel I have a lot to offer your, uh, band. I am out of contract and a free agent, I have a very particular set of skill- wait what did you say?¡±


    ¡°I said you have it. I watched you from the forest as you left the Half-goblin tribe. You can turn yourself and others invisible. I want that.¡±


    ¡°O-oh.¡± She seemed to relax a little. ¡°You know I had thought of quite a lot to persuade you, it was really good and very persuasive.¡±


    ¡°Well you can still tell me if you wish.¡±


    The Elf-sheep sighed. ¡°The moments kinda passed but you should know I¡¯m not doing this out of the kindness of my heart.¡±


    ¡°I know, otherwise you wouldn''t have said protection.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°I might have gotten in a speck of trouble.¡±


    ¡°A speck large enough to throw yourself on the mercy of a monster? Some speck.¡±


    ¡°Ahaha, yes. Well, uhm, you know that pregnant Lamia you freed who wanted to bridge the divide between monsters and levelers? Wellll I kinda have a bounty on my head for her murder.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t murder her did you. If you had you wouldn''t have been as bothered by what you just did.¡±


    ¡°...No... I was framed by her horrible husband.¡± She held out her hand and a black bladed knife appeared out of thin air in it. ¡°Framed and handed a cursed item I cannot get rid of.¡±


    Opal spat. ¡°Levelers. Backstabbing rats. Why should we keep her around? She¡¯s just as likely to betray us as the leveler that betrayed her.¡±


    ¡°She did save my life¡­¡±


    The Elf-sheep scowled. ¡°You think I want to be here?! My Class is called Rescuer! I rescue levelers who get into trouble in Dungeons, from monsters, monsters like you lot!¡±


    ¡°Well now you can rescue monsters.¡±


    The Elf-sheep groaned and put her head in her hands. ¡°Did I really make the right choice?¡± She peeked between her fingers. ¡°You know there''s over a hundred levelers looking for you right? I should have known it was you from the start, you took the Inquisitor¡¯s arm didn¡¯t you?¡±


    Opal held up the longsword with a grin. ¡°Took her sword too!¡±


    ¡°Of course you did, things couldn''t get any better could they.¡±


    Opal scowled. ¡°Why do you even want protection? You¡¯ve got invisibility, you can just scuttle away like a rat!¡±


    ¡°I can''t leave and I have a very fragile kind of invisibility. The only reason those two assassins didn''t know to look was because they hadn''t heard the news yet. If you know to look and have the right tools or skills it¡¯s not hard to see me.¡±


    ¡°See! She¡¯s useless!¡± said Opal triumphantly.


    The Elf-sheep opened her mouth to protest but Rain held up a paw.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Tell me, none of your skills let you see others who are invisible right?¡±


    ¡°No, I can maybe get a feeling someone with invisibility as fragile as mine is nearby, I¡¯m part Elf, but someone high level? Not very likely.¡±


    Rain nodded. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ not good. We need to change the situation, either we find some way to see the invisible¡­ or we leave the dungeon, go where they aren¡¯t.


    Opal turned on him in surprise, even the Kobold looked surprised.


    ¡°What!¡± said Opal. ¡°We can¡¯t leave!¡±


    ¡°Sooner or later at least some of those levelers are going to find us and if they are in large groups we aren''t going to win. If there are any more assassin types all they have to do is get lucky as we have no way of seeing them. The simple answer is to go where they are not without them knowing, that way they spend their time scouring the dungeon looking for something that is already gone.¡±


    ¡°B-but!¡±


    ¡°It will be fine Opal, it¡¯s safer on the surface normally, away from a dungeon swarming with levelers? Definitely so.¡±


    The Goblin gave him an offended look, as though she couldn''t believe he was considering this.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, It¡¯s a nice idea, but it¡¯s not going to work,¡± said Lyra ¡°The Inquisitor, she put the dungeon in lockdown, nothing and nobody can leave or enter, it¡¯s literally impossible.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°I saw it myself, I went to check the entrance before I found you. We can¡¯t leave.¡±


    Opal scuffed the ground with the ball of her foot. ¡°Why don''t you just take one of the other ways out?¡±


    The Elf-sheep blinked at her. ¡°What are you talking about? There are no other ways, dungeons only have one way out, obviously.¡±


    ¡°Hmphh, you''re so cocky and arrogant, typical leveler. I have something you don¡¯t sheep girl, I have memories, memories of Gobbos in past lives, I know there are other ways out of this dungeon because Gobbo scouts used them in the past.¡±


    Rain and Lyra stared at the Goblin.


    ¡°Dungeon m-monsters can leave a dungeon whenever they w-want?¡± said Lyra, a little childhood fear creeping into her voice.


    Opal crossed her arms. ¡°It¡¯s a secret Gobbo route, for special Gobbos. Like me.¡±


    ¡°You can show us the way out Opal? A way to avoid the lockdown and leave all the levelers hunting me hunting ghosts instead?¡±


    ¡°Well yeah, that¡¯s what you want right? That¡¯s easy.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe this, how can there be another way out that levelers don''t know about, we have mages that use magic to look for that kind of stuff!¡±


    ¡°Levelers are all drooling nasty morons, it¡¯s really not that surprising they¡¯d miss a clever Gobbo thing like that.¡± said Opal, lifting her head at Lyra and looking down her nose at her.


    ¡°I¡¯ll believe it when I see it. It seems far more likely you had a weird dream and are confusing it with ancestral memory.¡±


    Opal stuck her tongue out at Lyra. ¡°Hmph, suit yourself, get ready to eat crow though.¡± She turned away and joined Red in sorting through the undead.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name Elfy-sheep thing?¡± said Rain.


    She wrinkled her nose in annoyance. ¡°It¡¯s Lyra, and I¡¯m not half sheep, I¡¯m half-Elf half-Woollie. My father was an Elf, my mother a Woollie, and please keep the jokes about sheep to yourself, and the ones about Elves sleeping with anything on two legs.¡±


    ¡°My name is Rain. The angry Goblin is called Opal.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not angry!¡± seethed Opal.


    ¡°I need you to come here Lyra.¡±


    Lyra eyed him and then nodded, she took a step from behind the pillar, her legs trembling out of control. She took another step and nearly fell over. She looked down at her shaking sheep legs in frustration.


    ¡°I hope spending time around you cures me of this. This is quite humiliating.¡±


    She slapped her thighs twice and drew in a deep breath then took another step forward, this time it was a little better and she made her way over to Rain, though still occasionally having to stop to gather herself.


    She eyed Rain warily.


    ¡°You¡¯ve gotten bigger since last time I saw you, you- you, you¡¯re growing when you eat aren''t you? That¡¯s why you ate that entire tribe!¡± Her voice quavered as she spoke.


    Rain gave her a full wolf fanged smile.


    Lyra shivered.


    Rain brought up one of his massive paws and held it out to her.


    ¡°I can¡¯t move, my spine is broken. I am healing quickly, thanks to the healing potion, but I can¡¯t move until then. You need to make me invisible so others can''t find me while I rest.¡±


    Lyra eyed the paw. ¡°I-I can do that, though my mana won''t last forever, a few hours before I need to rest or drink a mana potion if we¡¯re staying still.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. That should hopefully be enough.¡± He beckoned her with his claws.


    She looked at his paw and visibly gulped then extended her trembling hand forward. It came to rest over one of his paw pads, his digits were large enough that each digit was as thick as her wrist and had she tried to wrap her fingers around one it might not have reached.


    ¡°Oh, oh, your paws are warm. Uhm, o-okay, I¡¯m going to do it in, three, two, one.¡±


    She finished and Rain waited to see what would happen. He blinked, nothing had happened. He looked down at his body, it was the same? No, it was not the same, his fur seemed like it was suddenly darker, as though shadowed. The room was already quite dark despite his night vision but there was a difference. He looked over at the nervous looking sheep girl, her bright white fur was distinctly darker, the effect much more obvious. It was as though less light was illuminating her body.


    He turned hearing a gasp and saw the Kobold looking nervously in his direction, his mouth hanging open.


    ¡°Oh g-gods, are you telling me this hellish nightmare monster can turn invisible now!?!?¡± he looked faint. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to have a good night''s sleep ever again.¡±


    Opal tried to sneer at him but she couldn''t stop a grin from breaking over her face. ¡°Hunting should be easy peazy now. Lots and lots of food and growth and getting bigger and bigger!¡±


    ¡°They can¡¯t hear us but if you shout as hard as you can it will break the invisibility, sudden movements or running too, or attacking. I hope you weren''t expecting something better, sorry, I¡¯m not that high leveled,¡± said Lyra eyeing the pleased Goblin.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. You should sit.¡±


    ¡°I- I should?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m going to sleep. I don''t think you want to hold my arm up for hours, no?¡±


    ¡°Uh, right.¡±


    She awkwardly sat on the flagstone beside the throne and crossed her legs. Rain lowered his paw into her lap, the size of it near filling it. She looked down at the giant paw she was holding, the bloodstained claws a reminder of what this monster was. She shivered and bit her lip.


    ¡°Try to relax.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just, you know, you¡¯re¡­¡±


    ¡°Intimidating?¡±


    She nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯m on your side now. Whatever you feel about me you now have against those who are after you. I¡¯m between them and you.¡±


    ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve caught the tiger¡¯s tail and I can¡¯t let go.¡±


    ¡°Well you aren''t wrong.¡± He grinned wolfishly.


    She gave him a despairing look.


    ¡°You deal with the cards you are dealt. It¡¯s just how it is.¡±


    Rain closed his eyes and made himself as comfortable as was reasonable considering where he lay.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to make my cards grow however,¡± he murmured.


    He felt her hand stiffen for a moment before relaxing. He fell asleep listening to her breathing and Opal and Red arguing.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??


    p.s

 Chapter 40

    Sometime later Rain opened his eyes, or at least tried to, the moment he did he was hit with a blinding headache and he immediately snapped them back shut. He groaned and rolled over, pulling his paw from Lyra¡¯s lap.


    The pain wasn¡¯t going away and he clutched at his head in the fetal position. This wasn''t a headache, it was a full on migraine. He belatedly realised he was healed as he was able to move his lower legs, though judging how his body felt it wasn''t a complete healing. It felt like someone had taken a meat tenderiser and gone bananas beating every inch of his body.


    ¡°Oh gods, never again, healing is the worst.¡±


    He managed to crack open an eye and saw Lyra next to him. She was slumped against the throne, asleep with her mouth slightly open. A line of drool had run down her cheek.


    He turned his head to see Opal approaching him. She carried a tin bucket in one hand.


    ¡°Hey.¡±


    ¡°Hey.¡± Rain gravelled back, his teeth gritted through the pain.


    ¡°I tried to find something for you to eat but,¡± she shrugged her shoulders, ¡°nothing seems to live here, I guess most monsters are savvy enough to stay away.¡±


    Rain grunted in response.


    ¡°It¡¯s all empty rooms and cobwebs and bones, I think this place is too old to have anything left but stone apart from what the boney bitch boy took from his victims. I did find a working well though, here I brought you water.¡±


    Rain reached out a paw gratefully and took the bucket. He put it to his lips and gulped down the water in one go, the bucket being more like a large cup at his size.


    ¡°Thank You. I needed that.¡±


    ¡°Old Gobbo trick for headaches, drink it away with lots of water.¡±


    ¡°Mm, it helps, I think.¡±


    Rain was feeling a little better and managed to sit up.


    ¡°How long was I out?¡±


    ¡°Dunno. A while.¡±


    Rain squinted at the Goblin. She had changed her wear since he had fallen asleep. She now sported an ornate looking gold gladius underneath where her cutlass was strapped to her belt, and an emerald pommeled dagger beneath the rapier on the other side.


    Sharp metal things just seem to sidle up to the Goblin and beg to be with her, she really was a Goblin shaped magnet for weapons.


    She¡¯d also found a couple of bejewelled gold rings as well as three earrings which now bedecked her knife ears. She¡¯d clearly scoured the ruin for everything not nailed down, and probably some things that were nailed down too.


    ¡°I have to ask Opal, how are you going to use five blades?¡±


    ¡°Options, it¡¯s about options, the right weapon for the right situation.¡±


    If Rain could squint harder he would have.


    ¡°...Sure.¡± he deadpanned.


    The Goblin turned away in a huff.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing you looted all the levelers who had become undead.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not going to leave all that stuff there.¡±


    ¡°Did you get any coin at least?¡±


    She pointed at the Kobold. Rain¡¯s eyes drifted over to him. Red was squatting on the ground with a slightly manic look on his face. In front of him were stacks and stacks of gold, silver, and copper coins that he was happily shifting around, and another mound of unsorted coin next to that which his claws greedily picked through and carefully sorted.


    ¡°I think Kobolds like money.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    He looked at the Kobold¡¯s digits which were crammed with rings.


    ¡°And the rings?¡±


    ¡°I figure I need my fingers mostly free to fight with and he has nothing on his claws. He¡¯s my jewellery box.¡± She grinned.


    ¡°With that great big pile of coin we¡¯re rich you know.¡±


    The Goblin shrugged. ¡°I can¡¯t wear coin, even the shiny ones.¡±


    ¡°If we make it out maybe we can get Lyra to go into town to buy you some stuff with it. More swords perhaps.¡±


    The Goblin¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Really?¡±


    Rain rolled his eyes, though doing so caused him another jab of head pain.


    He rubbed his brow irritably.


    ¡°Get Red to pack up, I don¡¯t want to spend longer than we have to here. If one group of levelers found us then so can another, the sooner we can use Lyra¡¯s ability the better.¡±


    The Goblin nodded and turned away to yell orders at the Kobold.


    Rain sighed and turned to the sleeping Lyra.


    He shifted over to her and poked her in the shoulder with a claw.


    ¡°Don wanna, jus¡¯ one mo hour,¡± she murmured incoherently.


    Rain poked her again and this time she blearily opened her eyes to see Rain¡¯s big yellow eyes staring into hers.


    She screamed and leapt upward like a frightened gazelle, somehow defying gravity to go from sitting to instantly leaping through the air.


    ¡°Don''t eat meeeeee!¡±


    She landed on her butt with a whumpff and scrambled away hyperventilating in fear.


    Rain just watched in amusement.


    ¡°You, you bastard!¡± she said between heaving breaths. ¡°You did that on purpose!¡±


    ¡°You said you wanted to get used to being around me.¡±


    ¡°Giving me a waking heart attack is not that!!¡±


    Rain tilted his head to the side.


    ¡°Oh screw off.¡± She scowled and tried to stand. Her legs immediately turned to jelly however and she sunk back down to her butt.


    ¡°You and Opal have at least one thing in common. Unreliable legs.¡±


    Lyra set her lips in a line and glared at him.


    Rain growled out a laugh and climbed to his feet. He stepped over the still sitting Elf-sheep and looked down at her. Sitting she only came up to his thigh. She looked up at him with round eyes.


    ¡°It doesn''t help that you are so damned huge, on top of part of me being blood line scared of you. You¡¯re like part giant or something.¡±


    Rain leant down and opened a paw. After a moment she raised her hand for him. His paw engulfed her arm and dragged her into the air. He set her upright and let her find her feet. She immediately began to sink downward again and Rain had to hold her up. Her legs shook violently, fluffy knees nearly knocking together.


    ¡°I c-can¡¯t stand straight with you right next to me, holding me.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going to have to get used to it, how else are you going to make me invisible.¡±


    ¡°Damn you!¡±


    He walked over to where Opal and Red were busily packing bags. Opal¡¯s rucksack was there, but it was joined by a new slightly mouldy and very old looking one seemingly taken from the undead levelers. The both of them were stuffed and overflowing with loot. He held one paw up in the air as he walked which Lyra dangled from, desperately trying to find her feet and keep herself upright under her own power.


    Opal was busily slotting swords into gaps in one of the bags. The pile of fancy looking swords she was taking from wasn¡¯t getting much smaller.


    Rain raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°I need them!¡± said Opal, noticing his expression.


    ¡°For what army?¡±


    She held up an arm and slapped her bicep fiercely.


    ¡°These armies!¡±


    Rain almost said something but instead let her get on with it. He couldn''t stop the corner of his lip from twitching with amusement however.


    Soon enough everything was packed, both Red and Opal carried large well filled packs on their backs that rattled with metal obnoxiously with every step.


    Rain took one last look around the hall. The stone remained as it would no doubt for centuries more. An empty shell with nearly all signs of its ancient inhabitants lost to the ravages of time. The people who had created it gone and dead with only himself a sole lone life centuries after their light had been extinguished. He wasn''t going to give up on figuring out what had happened, what these mysterious wolf people were, but he¡¯d need to find some other approach. This ruin was clearly the nexus of the dungeon for the people who had built this place and it had given him nothing, he needed someone who could read their script, tell him of ancient history, he needed a scholar.


    His eyes paused on the rags of the bone creature. A thing that had given up on revenge because it was too hard, instead choosing to indulge in its amusements and hobbies, hiding itself away from the world, choosing to forget. The very idea repulsed Rain, he had no interest in giving up, hard things were the things most worth doing, the most gratifying¡­ A small thought seeped into the back of his mind, he instantly jumped on it, locked it away with the rest of the memories of his death. That thought had said the only way he could get rid of his trauma was by crushing its root, an uncomfortable thought with sharp edges, one that inspired fear, because what would he do if he could not?


    Lyra glared up at him from where she half dangled from his paw.


    ¡°Can you let me down now please?¡±


    Rain experimentally lowered her. Her legs wobbled, a look of hope crossed Lyra¡¯s eyes, and then her knees folded and she sunk down with a groan.


    ¡°How are you going to use your ability if you can''t walk?¡±


    Lyra didn¡¯t reply.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 41

    Rain took his first few steps back out into the grassy plain. A light rain was falling from the clouds above. Lyra scowled at him from where she hung from his paw.


    ¡°I can stand now! I promise! My legs aren¡¯t afraid anymore!¡±


    Rain lowered his paw a little, letting her take her own weight. Her legs held for a moment then she began to sink earthward. He pulled her up again.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t fair! You¡¯re not even doing anything but you''re still so- so!¡±


    Rain interrupted, ¡°You need to fix this fear thing, but for now we¡¯re going to have to do something you won''t like.¡±


    ¡°Wha- Wait, hold on! N-no!¡±


    Rain wrapped his large paws around her hips and lifted her, then ducked underneath her legs and put her on his shoulders. The sheep girl trembled in fright.


    ¡°Oh, oh gods, this is such a bad idea!¡±


    She looked down, the ground was suddenly very far away. She swallowed and her legs shivered and shook out of her control. She sat over his shoulders, her thighs spread by his neck, her hooves hanging down over his pecs. She was literally riding this terrifying beast! Her breathing accelerated.


    ¡°P-put me d-dooowwnn! Oh goddssss!¡±


    ¡°No. And if you pee yourself up there I¡¯ll go with the simplest solution and eat your legs.¡±


    ¡°Nuu! Don''t say that! You¡¯ll make it worse!¡±


    She tried to curl up on herself, make herself smaller, but found herself getting closer to Rain''s head. Her trembling hands found his ears and she clutched at them desperately, one large warm ear held in each hand. She could feel Rain¡¯s powerful heartbeat through her thighs. She was so close! So close to him!


    She let out a cute little helpless whimper.


    ¡°You¡¯re fine see? There¡¯s nothing to be scared of.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m riding an eight foot tall super strong wolf monster who loves to eat people! There''s a lot to be scared of!¡±


    The sheep girl clutched her thighs tight as she could around Rain¡¯s neck, her hooves drawing together. She couldn''t get away, everywhere she looked was predator! There was only one answer. She closed her eyes¡­ Yes, already she felt a bit better, there was only the huge muscular mass between her thighs, the rise and fall of his breathing and- oh gods this didn''t help at all!


    ¡°J-just g-go! The sooner we are done with this the sooner I can get off!¡±


    ¡°Hold on!¡± said Opal. She was looking up at Lyra with her arms crossed, clearly pretty annoyed. ¡°Why does she get a ride? She¡¯s taking my spot! I should be riding you!¡±


    Rain paused and looked down at the Goblin. ¡°She can¡¯t walk so she can¡¯t use her ability to make me invisible without being carried.¡±


    ¡°So? Who needs that shitty power. Just attack anything that approaches!¡±


    ¡°You don''t really mean that Opal.¡±


    ¡°Hmphh!¡± the Goblin huffed and turned away. As she turned Rain saw her lip tremble slightly. He tilted his head. Was Opal... jealous of Lyra? Well, he wasn''t about to let her stay feeling down. He reached out with his paws and scooped the surprised Goblin up into his arms, cradling her up against his chest, relieving her of her rucksack in the same motion. Opal looked up at him with round eyes then snuggled into his fur.


    ¡°This, this works¡­¡± she murmured softly.


    Red gave the now girl-covered wolf a worried look.


    ¡°I¡¯m not doing that! You¡¯re not carrying me!¡±


    ¡°I was never going to,¡± said Rain flatly.


    Opal waggled the Kobold¡¯s chain. ¡°You¡¯re the vanguard Red, you meet the enemy head on, like a hero.¡±


    Red put a claw to his chin, thinking. ¡°Wait a second, that¡¯s just a fancy way of saying I¡¯m bait!¡±


    ¡°Really heroic bait yes,¡± murmured the Goblin.


    ¡°I¡¯ve changed my mind, please pick me up!¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°C-can we go now?¡± said Lyra, her legs clutching ever tighter around Rain.


    ¡°Yes, make us invisible¡­ This will hide our tracks right?¡±


    ¡°Oh, um, yes, well you¡¯ll see.¡± The sheep girl shifted her hips and steadied her grip on Rain¡¯s ears. ¡°Okay, on one, two, three!¡±


    Rain looked down to see that the Goblin held in his arms appeared as though she was cast in shadow. He glanced at Red who was staring around where Rain stood, a wary look in his eye, seeing straight through him and into the distance. Rain looked down wondering how Lyra¡¯s ability dealt with the chain. It didn''t seem to, or at least that is what he first assumed, then he noticed that the length of the chain hanging from Opal¡¯s fist that dipped below the grass was more shadowed than the length of chain that led up from the grass to the Kobold¡¯s collar. Partial invisibility. Imperfect but he supposed it wouldn''t be that noticeable considering the length of the chain.


    He experimentally shifted a foot, then lifted it up. The grass beneath his paw fuzzed and then seemed to unfold and slip back into an unflattened state, the blades straightening and arranging in such a way that it was indistinguishable from the rest of the grass around it, it was as though nothing had ever touched it. He pressed his broad foot pads down on the grass experimentally squashing it down then lifting away watching the grass blur and fuzz and shift back to normal.


    ¡°Is this an illusion or is it actually happening?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s uhm¡­ Well I don¡¯t understand it fully if I¡¯m honest, when I got the Class, Rescuer, I went to see a Class scholar. They said it was only the third time they¡¯d come across the Class and then they told me lots of complicated stuff about true manifesting illusions which went over my head. What¡¯s left behind, in the end, is real I think.¡±


    ¡°...Could you use this to repair things?¡±


    ¡°Mmm, I don''t think so, not unless you broke the thing you wanted repaired yourself while under the effect of my skill and it would have to be something that suggests you were there when left behind.¡±


    ¡°What happens if you accidentally drop something? Like a note that has your destination written on it?¡±


    ¡°I dropped a sandwich once. The Skill vaporized my sandwich after I took a few steps. It was really traumatic. Uhm, other times I have dropped coins and the skill buried them in the ground, it took forever to find and dig them up. There¡¯s also, well this is a little embarrassing, once I dropped a pair of panties and the skill merged them into the carpet!¡±


    ¡°What a strange Skill.¡±


    ¡°Suits her, she¡¯s strange and weird,¡± grumbled Opal, her face buried in Rain¡¯s fur.


    Red politely coughed into his fist. ¡°I can''t hear you three, how am I supposed to know what to do?¡± He looked around warily. ¡°That is if you''re still here and haven''t hopefully abandoned me.¡±


    ¡°Silly Kobold. He thinks I¡¯m going to abandon my walking jewellery box.¡±


    ¡°How do we leave the dungeon Opal? Tell us where to go.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Oh yes, it¡¯s that way.¡±


    The Goblin pointed and Rain began walking. After a moment the chain went taught around the Kobold¡¯s neck, tugging him forward with a lurch. Red spluttered and scrambled to keep up with the invisible trio, having to jog across the grass to keep up with Rain¡¯s long stride.


    With Rain keeping pace it didn''t take them long to reach the edge of the vast cavern and step into a dark crack in the wall. The cave was tall enough that he didn''t need to duck with Lyra on his shoulders. He felt Lyra tense up as darkness engulfed them.


    ¡°You don''t like the dark? I thought Elves had good night vision?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not an Elf, I''m a Half-elf!¡±


    ¡°So you can''t see in the dark?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I can, mostly, but¡­¡±


    ¡°You find it intimidating don''t you.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°Do you find the dark scarier or me?¡±


    ¡°You! Wait, that¡¯s just my legs!¡±


    ¡°Well I¡¯m on your side so you don¡¯t need to be afraid of the dark anymore.¡±


    ¡°I- I-...¡±


    Rain felt her fingers tense up on his ears for a moment.


    ¡°I¡¯m not afraid, really!¡±


    Her legs fluttered against his chest as she spoke belying her words.


    ¡°Sheepy is lying, she¡¯s scared of monsters and the dark and big bad wolves,¡± murmured Opal, her eyes closed and her head resting against Rain¡¯s chest.


    Lyra¡¯s breath hitched and she tried her best to still her trembling legs and compose herself. She took in a few deep steadying breaths.


    ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of anything.¡±


    Rain didn''t reply to her although he felt Opal silently laughing in his arms.


    After a time he felt Lyra relax a little bit, getting used to the dark perhaps.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking,¡± said Rain as he walked. ¡°It seems likely that there will be levelers watching the stairs between floors if they are looking for me and you.¡±


    ¡°That might be true by now, yes, if they have any sense at least, but they weren''t when last I checked.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not a problem,¡± said Opal. ¡°Levelers like to camp the stairs because they think they are being clever so monsters know plenty of ways to go between floors without using them.¡± She pulled on Rain¡¯s fur to get his attention then pointed down a side tunnel. ¡°This way will take us up a floor without using the main stairs.¡±


    She led them into a network of caves, the tunnels quickly became more cramped and starting to lead upward.


    ¡°I can''t fit while carrying you both¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes, please put me down!¡±


    ¡°Carry me more please Rain!¡±


    They climbed upwards, ascending onto the next floor of the dungeon through the secret ways of monsters. They eventually came out on a different floor where Rain picked the girls up and Lyra made them invisible once more.


    They traversed the tunnels carefully until they emerged out into a larger cavern. The grass on the ground was frosted over and Rain¡¯s breath steamed in the air in great billows of white. A cold biome. He watched Red wander out into the cold cavern, the Kobold looked around nervously, his breath coming in short little fearful puffs. He shivered in the cold, his arms crossing and his tail wrapping around his hips.


    ¡°A-anyone th-there? U-uhm?¡±


    Rain walked straight past him completely unseen and the Kobold had to hurry to catch up with the snaking chain that coiled through the icy grass seemingly of its own volition.


    Red watched as the chain passed between the sporadic trees and he carefully picked the same path, wary of getting caught going the wrong direction and getting himself wrapped around a trunk. He was so focused on looking down and following the chain that he was caught completely by surprise when a large mossy green furred boar with frost coated bone nubs on its back tried to gore him. A yellowed tusk glanced off his shoulder as it charged past sending Red spinning like a top to land on his butt.


    He blinked, the attack was so sudden he hadn¡¯t quite processed it. He turned his head to see the boar had turned around and was pawing the ground, its breath huffing white.


    The Kobold scrambled backwards on his rump, his clawed feet pushing at the ground until his back bumped up against a tree.


    ¡°H-Help! S-save meee!¡±


    The boar¡¯s beady murderous black eyes locked onto Red. It lowered its head, readying to charge. It leaned forward, front leg lifting, stepping-


    Rain suddenly materialised behind the boar and fell upon it, Opal leaping to the side, hacking at its leg even as Lyra rolled off Rain¡¯s shoulders and ungracefully landed on the icy grass with a yelp.


    Rain linked his arms around the boar¡¯s neck and used his raw muscular strength to crush the boar¡¯s windpipe. The monster struggled desperately, bucking up against Rain¡¯s weight, trying to kick him, but it was hopeless, its hooves bounced off of Rain doing nothing. He forced the boar to the ground as it began to slowly weaken, the lack of oxygen making it sluggish.


    ¡°Lyra, do it now!¡±


    The sheep girl scrambled to her hooves and held out her hand. A black knife appeared. She grasped the hilt in both hands and charged toward the boar Rain was holding down. She plunged the blade into the boar¡¯s neck with a cry, then again, and again, panic and fear and memories of using the knife to kill, washing over her, overwhelming her, sending adrenaline roaring through her mind.


    At last the boar lay dead and still and Lyra slumped backwards onto the grass, her arms outstretched, her blue eyes staring at the cavern ceiling far overhead. She let the knife fall from her fingers.


    ¡°It worked, I leveled up.¡±


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 42

    Rain took a huge slavering bite from the boar¡¯s side, gulping it down eagerly. He had been getting hungrier and hungrier, the dual pressure of being wounded and time passing since his last major meal making him increasingly ravenous so the relief of devouring the boar was immense.


    It wasn¡¯t the first boar. Using Lyra¡¯s power they had baited and drawn out over a dozen green-furred boars, piling up each kill until Rain had a small hill of pork waiting for him. He hadn''t waited on ceremony, once they¡¯d checked the cavern was empty he had instantly leapt upon the delicious mound, indulgently gorging himself. He was hungry enough that he didn''t even stop for a moment between eating, letting the intense backed up feeling of coming growth build up inside of him, edging the release by continuing to stuff more and more meat into his underfed maw.


    The pile of boars rapidly disappeared, warm blood spilling across the icy grass as he fed, steam rolling off it in thick foggy waves. Lyra blinked as the mist rolled over her, it didn''t stop her from looking away though, the sight of such a monstrous primal endless hunger stunning her, making her feel faint and weak at the knees. She understood Rain ate a lot, but actually seeing such an incredible amount of mass disappear inside of him so quickly was a sight to behold.


    Rain gorged on the boar until there was nothing left but a slick layer of steaming blood across the frosty grass. He leaned back and belched, curling his digits as the delicious feeling of growing larger and stronger rolled through his body, he arched his back in pleasure, his claws scrabbling across the ground, leaving furrows in the dirt. Oh gods how he had missed this! He needed more! More! He let out an involuntary groan as his joints popped, adjusting to their new size, his limbs lengthening, muscle swelling. He grunted as Opal made a flying leap on top of him and hugged at his torso as his ribs creaked outward, his chest and pecs broadening, his feet shifting across the ground, kicking instinctively.


    ¡°Beeger! Yess!¡± whimpered the Goblin as she rolled and humped her hips against his abdomen.


    At last, the final bit of growth was done and he slumped back breathing hard, a faint glowing satisfied feeling filling his body, like an after sex glow without the sex.


    Lyra stared at the pair with big round eyes.


    ¡°C-could you grow f-forever? Eat forever?¡± She swallowed dryly. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m ever going to get used to this,¡± she said queasily.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it becomes the new terrifying normal after a while,¡± said Red beside her, his tone flat, that of someone who was long jaded by the sight.


    ¡°How could this ever be normal!¡±


    Rain checked his body over, Opal still hanging off him, and was pleased to see his remaining minor wounds and cuts were shrinking and healing. Still some ways to go but he was rapidly returning to full physical health.


    He glanced up at the sheep girl. His gaze made her flinch.


    ¡°You killed these boars you know, all of them, you held the knife and stabbed them until they died while I held them down, so why do you feel that way about me eating them?¡±


    ¡°I- I know I did! That¡¯s not the problem!... I¡¯m a leveler, I¡¯ve always had to hunt monsters to level up, it¡¯s always been this way. When I was a low leveler desperate to find a way to make ends meet and not be stuck as a bottom feeder I managed to scrape together enough money to get cheaply power leveled. It... it was rough, only two of us made it back alive, I had to kill so many monsters just to survive. I¡¯m used to killing monsters...¡±


    ¡°Then there''s no problem.¡±


    ¡°There is! You¡¯re eating them!¡±


    ¡°What would happen if a leveler had come across them and killed these boars? They might cook one part of one of them, or hack off some valuable part, but most of the time they''d wastefully leave the rest to rot. I¡¯m actually making use of what''s left behind. It¡¯s a good thing.¡±


    ¡°That- that¡¯s different! You¡¯re- It¡¯s just different okay! Levelers don''t eat everything!¡±


    ¡°Good thing I¡¯m not a leveler then.¡± He grinned at her, showing his bloody teeth.


    The sheep girl shuddered.


    ¡°Tell me, what level are you now?¡± said Rain looking over her trembling body.


    ¡°I- I was level fourteen, after k-killing that first boar monster I became level fifteen, I don¡¯t know how many more I¡¯d have to kill to reach level sixteen, it feels like a lot, levelers need to kill more monsters or more powerful monsters as they level up, we need that much more experience.¡±


    ¡°Did you get anything for level fifteen?¡±


    The sheep girl hesitated then nodded her head. ¡°Leveling doesn''t always give something, but I got a climbing Skill, so I can rescue people who have fallen down ravines or something...¡±


    ¡°How lame!¡± sneered Opal.


    ¡°It¡¯s not lame! Gosh!¡±


    ¡°Mm, no it''s pretty lame.¡±


    Lyra glared at the Goblin, uncertain if she was just trying to annoy her, she was pretty sure it was the latter, but her pride still stung.


    ¡°Just watch this!¡±


    The sheep girl turned to the nearest tree. She looked up at it. It was a fairly barren winter tree with a few branches high up. It was a bit more of a challenge than she had been anticipating. She furrowed her brow and glanced back at the Goblin. Opal was looking at her, a mocking smile pulling at the corner of her lips.


    Lyra curled her hands into fists. She wasn¡¯t going to let that Goblin laugh at her, she was just a stupid little Goblin! Lyra was a leveler!


    She drew in a breath, readying herself, then brought the Skill to the forefront of her mind and triggered it. Energy flooded through her body and she leapt at the tree, her hooves digging into the bark with ease, her fingers somehow finding unnoticeable crevices that gave just enough grip to let her swiftly ascend the tree. She popped up on top of one of the larger branches sticking from the trunk, wobbling from a moment before getting her balance. She looked down smugly at the Goblin who was staring up at her in disbelief. Then she noticed just how far from the ground she was. She gripped the tree trunk extra hard as blood drained from her face.


    ¡°S-s-s-see! It-It¡¯s a g-great S-Skill!¡±


    ¡°Interesting,¡± said Rain looking up at her. ¡°And you can use this often?¡±


    ¡°W-well until my mana runs out, and I can''t use it consecutively lots of times or I¡¯ll get exhausted.¡±


    ¡°Goddam levelers have it so good¡­¡± grumbled Opal.


    Lyra turned and shakily activated the Skill again, she climbed down from the tree, this time significantly more slowly.


    Her hooves touched down on the icy grass and she breathed a sigh of relief.


    ¡°Levelers get stronger as they level right?¡± said Rain.


    ¡°Yes! Whenever a leveler levels up it improves them physically and makes their existing skills slightly better.¡±


    ¡°And when you get a Class or an advanced Class it comes with key skills¡­Too bad the secrets to acquiring good classes are hoarded by family dynasties.¡±


    Lyra blinked at him. ¡°How did you know that?¡±


    Opal opened her mouth to say something but Rain suddenly plugged it with a paw pad. Her teeth bit down on him harmlessly and she glared up at Rain.


    ¡°It¡¯s just something I heard somewhere,¡± graveled Rain.


    Lyra narrowed her eyes at him. She couldn''t say what it was but Rain was¡­ different from other monsters. Not just that he was scary and growing larger but the way his mind worked, it didn''t quite seem¡­ She wasn¡¯t sure how to explain it, it was like he wasn¡¯t all monster.


    ¡°We should move, sitting out in the open like this is inviting trouble.¡±


    Lyra was jerked from her pondering and looked up to see Rain standing, the Goblin girl in his arms.


    ¡°Er, right. I am looking forward to getting out of this dungeon. If that¡¯s really possible as Opal says.¡±


    ¡°Course it is, you¡¯ll learn, Gobbo scouts know the way.¡±


    As Rain stepped toward Lyra, his heavy feet crunching the icy grass underneath, Lyra was taken aback by his significantly more bloody state after eating the boars.


    ¡°W-wait! Wait a second!¡±


    Rain paused. ¡°You¡¯re going to get carried whether you like it or not.¡±


    ¡°G-gods, okay fine! Just let me¡­ let me get on your shoulders myself!¡±


    Rain gave her a puzzled look.


    ¡°If you think it helps, okay, we can do that.¡±


    He turned around and sat down on the ground cross-legged, his back facing Lyra, Opal in his lap.


    ¡°Climb up.¡±


    Lyra stared at his broad back. She really hadn''t thought this far ahead.


    ¡°O-ok-kay I¡¯m g-gonna climb up.¡±


    She remained standing where she was.


    Rain looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow.


    Lyra screwed her face up and slapped her pink cheeks, drawing in big breaths as though readying herself for something impossibly hard. She was ready. She was really ready.


    She took a step forward. And immediately fell over. But she caught herself! But now she was stumbling toward Rain out of control! She squeaked as she fell against his back, her hands pressed against his fur, she could feel his powerful muscles shifting beneath her palms. Her legs shook wildly, knees turned inward, barely holding her up, her breath coming in desperate gasps. She- She could still do this! Probably.


    She set her jaw and activated her new climbing Skill. Her hands slid up him, her fingers curling into his fur. With a yell she launched herself upward, slamming her body into his unyielding back, her fear weakened legs kicking, her hooves pawing at him, slipping and sliding. She clambered up his back shakily, until she was awkwardly holding his head. Rain didn''t make comment as she clumsily shifted her body, her large breasts pressing up against the back of his head as she lifted her leg, missed, slipped back, managed to recover, then slipped one leg over his shoulder and then the other. She leaned over his head breathing hard, her hand hanging off the bridge of his snout, her head hanging over his, her chest tight against his head.


    She opened her eyes to see Rain¡¯s yellow ones looking up at her. She squeaked and snatched her hand away.


    ¡°I- I did it!¡±


    ¡°Congratulations.¡± deadpanned Rain. ¡°Hold my ears so you don¡¯t fall.¡±


    He shifted his legs and stood up, Lyra letting out a little whimper as the ground dropped beneath her.


    To his right something rattled and Rain turned his head to see Red. Opal had decided she didn''t want to carry the second rucksack anymore and had spent time while Rain was busy eating fixing her rucksack to the overburdened Kobold. The Kobold¡¯s torso was now comically sandwiched between two over stuffed packs, his arms sticking out to either side and his head resting atop the pack attached to his front. He gave Rain a confused and concerned look.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about this!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine,¡± said Opal lazily from Rain''s arms.


    ¡°I will?¡±


    ¡°Yes, those packs are full of metal things, It¡¯s like really good armour!¡±


    Red gave the Goblin a ¡®you can''t be serious¡¯ look.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go, Lyra, make us invisible.¡±


    The sheep girl twitched at his voice but gathered herself and Rain sensed shadow falling over them. The Kobold looked around, suddenly alone.


    His chain shifted across the ground and he hurried to follow it, uninterested in being jerked off his feet while his body was surrounded by bags full of sharp pointy things.


    He waddled furiously forward, the packs clanking around him obnoxiously. Soon they had made it to the edge of the cavern and the chain started shifting toward a nearby cave entrance. They were about to enter it when a huge paw suddenly came down on the pack on Red¡¯s back and lifted him into the air. He was whisked away behind a massive boulder to one side of the cave entrance.


    Red looked at his arms to either side of him. They were unnaturally shadowed. He looked up at Rain who was holding him up.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°There are levelers coming.¡±


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 43

    Rain set his claws against the boulder and leaned his muzzle around it just enough to peek his yellow eyes and observe the levelers who were emerging into the cavern. He was wary of Lyra¡¯s invisibility not holding up, mostly because the sheep girl seemed to lack confidence in it. That turned out to be a wise decision as he quickly spotted an Elf amongst the group of levelers, the Elf had a pair of violet lensed spectacles hanging around his neck on a chain.


    ¡°That Elf, he can sense the use of magic, and those spectacles, the instant he looks through them we will be completely visible to him. We- we might be in a little bit of trouble¡­¡± said Lyra, peeking around the boulder above him, her hands held tight on his ears.


    ¡°Why isn''t he wearing them now?¡±


    ¡°They continually drain mana, and not a small amount of mana, I¡¯ve seen people faint after just twenty minutes of wearing them. It¡¯s kind of a thing to give them to Elves since they can sense if any magic is being used and it¡¯s a good time to put them on. Traps, invisibility, illusions. Truth lenses can see through all of it.¡±


    ¡°Wow, that makes your magic invisibility totally useless! I didn''t know you could be any more terrible sheepy but you continue to surprise me,¡± said Opal.


    ¡°H-hey! They aren''t that common and if you don''t know to look then they aren''t very good! I- I think!¡±


    As they watched a large-bodied leveler emerged from the dark of the tunnel. It took Rain a moment to process what he was looking at. A Centaur, except their upper body was that of a muscular Gnoll. A cloaked figure wearing a wooden mask sat stiffly on their back. Their lower body was that of a wild horse, powerful and rippling with muscle, their broad hooves flared with fur. Rain narrowed his eyes. This leveler felt different from the others. Strong, yes they seemed very very strong. The way they held themselves, casually strolling across the frozen grass as though they owned the place indicated a confidence in their own power. She had the look of a high leveler, someone used to looking down on others and squashing monsters with ease.


    ¡°O-oh, it¡¯s that person¡­¡± mumbled Lyra.


    ¡°You know them? Who are they? I didn''t know there was such a thing as a half Centaur half Gnoll.¡±


    ¡°She is just a Centaur, not a half, just a rare bloodline that you don''t commonly see outside of the plains. Centaurs have a thing for Humans and discriminate against Centaurs who aren''t the Human type. I¡¯ve heard they won¡¯t even let bloodlines like hers into cities that have a large Human type Centaur presence.¡±


    ¡°Is it like Gobbos and half Gobbos?¡± said Opal. ¡°Half Gobbos are a threat to regular Gobbos so we don''t like them very much.¡±


    Lyra shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t know why they treat them that way, Centaur clans do their own thing.¡±


    ¡°You didn''t say who they are.¡±


    ¡°I only saw them in passing when I rescued Lady Glyrieth and took her to the leveler¡¯s camp. That Centaur was there, she spoke to, uhm, the town of Lynthia¡¯s Ranker! The town¡¯s Ranker is in the dungeon right now!¡±


    The stone beneath Rain¡¯s claws suddenly shattered as his paw tensed, his claws shearing inward. Stone fractured across the boulder sending splinters of stone flying. Lyra yelped as stone peppered her legs.


    Rain blinked and looked down to see the broken stone beneath his paw. He slowly removed his digits, stone dust coming away with his fur. He flexed his claws. The Ranker was here? In the dungeon? So close?? He didn''t know how he felt about that. Dark and terrible memories began to stir, like a great bear waking from winter hibernation.


    ¡°Y-you don''t like the Ranker that much?¡± squeaked Lyra.


    Rain remained silent.


    ¡°What was that?¡± said one of the Human levelers, turning toward them.


    ¡°Oh no! The stone splinters went outside the range of my skill!¡±


    The Centaur turned her head. ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°I thought I heard something, Like small stones hitting something.¡±


    Rain looked at the levelers and then looked back at the fractured boulder. Already the stone was reforming, shifting and blurring into place. If he squinted he could see that there was some kind of illusion over the rapidly filling crack, a temporary disguise while the skill repaired the stone. Unfortunately, it was a little too late.


    The Centaur crossed her arms. ¡°Hrm. Keep in mind that there are, supposedly, Panthara around here. Drawing in the unwary with a sound is a trick they like to use. One wrong move and,¡± she curled her hand into a fist, ¡°you¡¯ll be eviscerated and lose your guts.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve fought one of them before mistress, uh, Drassi?¡±


    The Centaur traced a scar that ran down her arm, her fur had grown over it askew.


    ¡°No, I didn''t fight one, I fought a pack of ¡®em.¡±


    The group of levelers all snapped their gazes to her, their backs straightening, suddenly a lot more conscious and aware of the power level of the Centaur.


    ¡°Y-you d-did?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn''t recommend it. I¡¯d rather avoid fighting any ever again if I can help it, horrible nasty shitters that they are.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe it was a Panthara unless Panthara¡¯s have taken to using magic,¡± said the Elf of the group. He squinted at the boulder by the entrance and his fingers reached for his violet lensed spectacles.


    ¡°You sense something?¡± said Drassi


    ¡°Hmm, I¡¯m not sure, there¡¯s something¡­ Some strange magic...¡±


    He raised the spectacles to his eyes and furrowed his brow. He removed them and then put them back on, comparing.


    ¡°Someone used magic here, I¡¯m just not sure what. I¡¯m not seeing anything unusual.¡±


    The Elf closed on the boulder, looking over it carefully, rounding its side.


    ¡°I can feel it, something happened here very recently.¡±


    He put the spectacles to his eyes and¡­ nothing, there was no one there and the stone looked perfectly natural and whole. He frowned.


    ¡°The lenses show nothing. Whatever it was that was using magic is no longer here.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps our erstwhile Rescuer is nearby. I wouldn¡¯t mind getting my mitts on all the gold that filthy rich snake asshole is offering,¡± said the Centaur, her eyes roaming around as though looking for a sign of the Elf-sheep. She turned to face the chilly cavern. ¡°Keep the lenses on for now, see if you spot anything amongst the trees.¡± She strode forward and the group followed.


    Rain stepped back further into the shadows of the tunnel from whence the levelers had emerged.


    ¡°Phew,¡± said Lyra. ¡°Elves are real bastards you know, I get caught out by them more than any other species.¡±


    ¡°Aren''t you half Elf?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but only the good bit, the bad half missed me, I¡¯m all good.¡±


    ¡°Could have fooled me!¡± said Opal, her words dripping with smugness.


    ¡°What? You¡¯re a monster! You''re all bad! You don¡¯t know anything!¡±


    Rain scratching his jaw thoughtfully. ¡°Anything your Skill leaves behind is natural and completely non-magical¡­ That does make sense I suppose, if what was left behind was magical that would just be another kind of track to follow.¡±


    ¡°Yes, like footprints in the snow. My invisibility needs to be so complete because injured people I rescue from dungeons aren''t very good at being stealthy, mostly they just bleed everywhere and stumble into things and cry a lot.¡±


    Opal guided them away from the cold cave and through several side passages, the endless stone pressing in on all sides. Rain had to breath in and turn sideways to fit through one part, it was a very tight fit.


    Eventually, they came to a stop by a large rock. The Goblin jumped out of Rain¡¯s arms and wiggled around a gap beneath the stone where it pressed up against the wall. She disappeared behind it after a moment and then a muffled voice called back.


    ¡°Okay, you can move the rock, this is it!¡±


    Rain¡¯s paw came down atop it and he set his feet and heaved. The rock pulled away from the wall far more easily than he expected and he stumbled backwards as it fell with a crash and rolled away. He had to shift his foot to avoid the rock rolling over it.


    Opal was standing on a worn smooth looking set of stairs on the other side, her hands on her hips.


    ¡°Oh you are getting strong,¡± she grinned.


    Rain set Red and Lyra down and examined the revealed stair.


    ¡°These stairs seem old, like the big stairs that go between floors.¡±


    ¡°Mhm! It''s the same!¡± Opal hopped up the first few steps and beckoned Rain to follow. Rain eyed the small space sceptically. The stair was cramped, very cramped. It seemed more like something that was used for maintenance or that a servant might use than a main passageway, and it was in far worse repair than the main stairs of the dungeon, the steps uneven and cracked, dipping in the middle like they had been eroded by water.


    ¡°Oh come on you¡¯ll fit, besides you can always force your way through.¡±


    They began to climb, Red, Opal, and Lyra ahead, Rain bringing up the rear.


    Rain had to hunch over to fit, his shoulders scraping against the walls, his ears squished up against the ceiling. They climbed up the dark spiral stair, ever higher.


    At one point there was a break in the wall and a tiny stream merged with the stair, waterfalling down its steps. The steps became slippery and wet and algae covered and Rain found himself having to dig his claws into the stone to remain standing.


    Red wasn''t quite so sure-footed and the Kobold suddenly slipped on his rump and gracelessly bounced down the steps, his metal filled packs making a racket in the small space until the Kobold crashed into Rain. He looked up at the hulking wolf, eyes wide with fear.


    ¡°P-please! It was an accident! Have mercy!¡±


    Rain didn''t reply but grabbed the Kobold by one of the packs and put him back on his feet. He then placed a paw on the back of the pack and applied pressure, surely but steadily pushing the terrified Kobold upwards.


    At last, after what seemed like thousands of steps the spiral stair ended. Opal slipped through an exit in the wall and out of sight.


    Calling it an exit might have been a bit generous, it was more a small deformed hole crisscrossed with stalactites and stalagmites touching from wobbly uneven edge to edge.


    Opal waved back at him through it.


    ¡°Come on, what, are you not strong enough to break it?¡±


    ¡°I can break it, but I feel like you might have a bit of a blind spot when remembering how big I am and if I can actually fit through small spaces Opal. I¡¯m not small anymore.¡±


    Opal put her finger to her lip. ¡°Mmm, nah! You said you¡¯d always fit remember! You just need to push it in hard and stretch out the small space until it¡¯s used to you! You showed me really well!¡±


    Rain squinted at the Goblin unsure if she was still referring to the stone kind of small spaces.


    He wrapped a paw around one of the stalactites and ripped it free. It came away easily, or maybe that was just him. In any case it only took a few moments to tear down the stone from the hole and make a space that he could maybe fit through. He let the others go first and then approached it.


    He fit his head through. Opal was on the other side watching him with a strange expression on her face.


    He put one arm through and shifted forward but abruptly came to a halt as his chest got stuck. He scowled and pushed, his back feet scraping and slipping against the slick stair behind, trying to force himself through the too-small hole, his muscles straining.


    ¡°You¡¯re just so big and huge and massive!¡± said Opal, her breathing getting heavy.


    ¡°Opal this really isn''t the time for that.¡±


    The Goblin swallowed, a little drool on her lip, and nodded.


    Rain shoved forward with a grunt and the stone began to crumble and break apart around him until with a crash part of the wall fell down and he stepped free, chunks of stone clattering across the cave floor as he stood.


    ¡°How close are we to the dungeon exit? There will be a lot of levelers around here since it¡¯s the first floor you know,¡± said Lyra.


    ¡°Oh it¡¯s not far, the secret way out is across the floor, we¡¯ll have to pass by the main exit to get there.¡±


    ¡°O-oh¡­¡± said the Lyra, suddenly looking around nervously, as though expecting an attack at any moment. She squeaked as a huge paw wrapped around her hip and lifted her up, placing her atop Rain¡¯s shoulders. She gripped his ears.


    ¡°I- I can do that on my own! I don''t need you to pick me up!¡±


    Rain ignored her and gathered up Opal into his arms and then put a large paw on the Kobold¡¯s shoulder. Red¡¯s eyes bugged out in fear.


    ¡°This is it, we get one shot at this,¡± said Rain. ¡°We make it out completely undetected and we¡¯ll be free, at least for a time.¡±


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 44

    ¡°This is it, we get one shot at this,¡± said Rain. ¡°We make it out completely undetected and we¡¯ll be free, at least for a time.¡±


    Lyra swallowed, suddenly feeling the gravity of the situation.


    ¡°Just be careful not to break my invisibility okay.¡±


    She activated her Skill and the group dematerialised.


    They slipped out of the small cave the spiral stair had emerged into and into a side passage. They passed through winding passage after winding passage until Opal suddenly elbowed Rain and pressed her finger to her lips.


    ¡°Just past here is the entrance to the dungeon. Scary place for monsters, there are always loads of levelers around, lots of weak levelers especially, they like to attack in mobs, very dangerous,¡± said Opal.


    ¡°I¡¯d be willing to bet that Inquisitor set a guard for me,¡± said Rain


    ¡°And the people after my bounty too, but it¡¯s not just a guard.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡±


    Rain slunk down the tunnel, careful not to accidentally kick any stones out of range of lyra¡¯s invisibility. Ahead a light cast across the tunnel from a break in the wall, noises could be heard coming from it.


    Rain slowed as he approached


    ¡°Let''s throw Red at them to bait them,¡± said Opal with an evil grin.


    ¡°Wha-! No, please don¡¯t! I¡¯m carrying your stuff, you going to throw that too?¡±


    Opal snorted in reply. ¡°I¡¯d take that off first, obviously.¡±


    Rain ignored them and stepped toward the edge. He slowly peeked his head around it and the dungeon entrance came into view. He recalled how it had looked when he had first entered the dungeon in a different lifetime. A twenty foot tall arch constructed out of heavy block stonework worn and weathered and broken down by time, covered in moss and crawling vines.


    This time however it was different. The entrance was not open, instead a pair of monumentally thick and heavy doors had been closed, blocking the exit. Each door was a solid block of stone over a meter thick covered in scars and pockmarks as though they had been attacked many many times but weathered all. Rain looked at the stone with a new understanding, the stone was damaged in the same way that the castle in the center of the dungeon city had been damaged. Whatever had been done to them had been done with the intent to destroy.


    A few inches above the surface of the two stone doors a huge glowing circular fractalgram hovered, a maze of complex symbols and curlicue scripture running around the circle in concentric lines very slowly spinning in opposite directions. In the center of this amazingly complex and powerful piece of magic was a bright glowing icon that looked like a crowned dragon''s head.


    ¡°That¡¯s why nobody can leave, the Inquisitor used a gift of the Royals to enchant the entrance. She alone controls when the dungeon reopens and goes out of lockdown,¡± said Lyra leaning over his head.


    In front of the huge sealed door a large wooden palisade had been built, like a minor fort, behind which were a group of levelers camping out and watching all the many tunnels that led from the entrance cavern.


    Two elves stood on the outside. One was smoking some kind of roll up while the other was nervously fiddling with a pair of violet lensed spectacles in his hands.


    Rain pulled his head back.


    ¡°Two elves. One with a pair of spectacles.¡±


    ¡°Hrmm. That¡¯s bad. Two elves will be difficult to get past without them sensing my magic.¡±


    ¡°You should just kill and eat them both,¡± said Opal.


    ¡°I can¡¯t. If I do that then they¡¯ll know we were trying to leave.¡±


    ¡°Did they look alert?¡±


    ¡°Not really.¡±


    ¡°Then we should watch and wait and hope they get distracted, I can hold the invisibility for a while yet.¡±


    Rain crept forward and peeked around the corner once more. The Elves hadn¡¯t moved.


    ¡°Stop fiddling with it. You¡¯ll go blind,¡± said the smoking Elf.


    ¡°Haha, very funny. Do you have any idea how to work these?¡±


    ¡°Pshh naw, this shit is for guards and merchants trying to stop thieves. I kill monsters for a living. The fuck would I use one of those for?¡±


    ¡°Rich people use them.¡±


    ¡°Yeah and If I was rich maybe I¡¯d have a use for one. I should be down there in the dungeon hunting whatever this monster is the Inquisitor bitch wants us to kill, not up here like some shit level town guard.¡±


    ¡°SHH!! You can¡¯t say something like that! She¡¯ll publicly castrate you if she hears!¡±


    The nervous Elf looked around as though expecting the Inquisitor to jump out of thin air brandishing a pair of testicle scissors.


    ¡°Bah.¡±


    Rain pulled back.


    ¡°I want to go now. While they are distracted.¡±


    ¡°Uhm, we could still wait?¡±


    ¡°I think this is the best time. They aren''t going to move from the entrance and they¡¯ll just pass the spectacles to the next Elf who comes to guard. Going while they haven''t figured out how to work the spectacles is the least risky.¡±


    ¡°I suppose you''re right. Okay I¡¯ll- I¡¯ll try my best to keep us invisible, just remember, no sudden motion or anything!¡±


    Rain nodded and slipped into the entrance cavern, his broad feet padding carefully across the stone cavern floor, his toe pads spreading as he eased each foot down flat.


    He neared slowly, watching the Elves carefully.


    ¡°You should probably stop messing around with that you know, if you break it the cost of it will come out of your own hide, those things are unbelievably expensive.¡±


    ¡°Well I gotta know how it works, what if that Rescuer girl tries to come by here? Fifty K, fifty thousand big fat gold coins! Are you kidding me? Of course I want to be the one to catch her.¡±


    The smoking Elf grunted. ¡°Alright, that''s fair. Have you tried pushing your mana into it? There''s a bit on the side that looks like it would make a good mana focus.¡±


    The Elf blinked. ¡°Huh, so there is.¡±


    Rain took his chance before the Elf worked out what he was doing. He padded across the entrance cavern to a dark tunnel on the other side. The nervous Elf squinted at the spectacles until one of the lenses suddenly let out a whining sound and smoke began to whisp off its surface.


    ¡°What are you even doing?¡± said the smoking Elf with a scowl. ¡°You broke it! Look give it here.¡±


    The smoking Elf snatched the spectacles from the other Elf¡¯s hands. Unfortunately, the second Elf fumbled it at the same time and the spectacles clattered to the ground. An awkward tinkle of glass broke the silence. The two Elves stared down at the spectacles.


    ¡°What did you dooooooOOOOO!¡±


    As the two Elves started yelling at each other Rain drew further and further away.


    ¡°You could kill and take them with us you know,¡± whispered Opal.


    ¡°No, there¡¯s more levelers behind the palisade, look.¡±


    The pair of angry Elves who had started throwing punches at each other were joined by several more levelers who instead of trying to separate them joined in the scrum.


    Rain finally made it to the tunnel and felt Lyra let out a held in breath above him.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t see us, we actually did it! That couldn''t have gone better, they weren''t even aware of my magic!¡±


    ¡°These levelers were nearly as dumb as the ones I set mushroom monsters on,¡± said Opal crossing her arms.


    ¡°The Inquisitor must be very confident in that seal to not put better people on it...¡±


    Opal guided them away from the main entrance of the dungeon and down increasingly narrower and narrower side passages that wound up and down in a tangle. Rain was beginning to worry that Opal had gotten them lost when they came across a cavern filled to the brim with mushrooms and fungi. Every single surface was coated in the things, some fungi had even grown on top of mushrooms. Mushrooms grew tall and thin across the ground like a layer of grass. Rain had a sudden flashback to a certain traumatic mushroom taste. He firmly decided against eating anything in this cavern.


    Opal walked up to one wall that was particularly crowded with fungi and put her hands on her hips and stared at it.


    ¡°This is the way out?¡± said Rain.


    ¡°Yup!¡±


    Opal continued to stare at the fungi wall.


    ¡°Well? Don¡¯t your tribal memories show you what to do next?¡± said Lyra


    Opal looked a little uneasy.


    ¡°Well, it was more of a story¡­¡±


    ¡°Wait, what are you saying?¡±


    Opal tapped her index fingers together nervously.


    ¡°It¡¯s a uh, a story, uh told around a campfire, the memory is of listening to it.¡±


    Rain and Lyra and Red stared at the Goblin.


    ¡°Hey, it was from a really respectable Gobbo!... in the memory.¡±


    ¡°Oh my god we¡¯re all going to die down here!¡± said Lyra.


    ¡°What did the Goblin telling the story say?¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°Erm, that there¡¯s a worn knob on the wall under a small blue unique fungi and if you twist it you can get out of the dungeon through a special secret passage.¡±


    Rain turned to the wall. The wall was covered from top to bottom in blue fungi.


    ¡°This might take a while¡­¡±


    ¡°We can''t take a while! This floor is full of levelers!¡± said Lyra.


    She stomped up to the wall and grabbed one of the fungi and began pulling it.


    ¡°This will take forever and these fungi are attache-¡± She suddenly lurched backwards with the fungi in her hands. A worn down smooth stone nub was revealed on the stone behind it.


    ¡°...¡±


    Opal slapped Lyra on the ass causing her to yelp and drop the fungi.


    ¡°See! I told you I was right!¡±


    ¡°W-well even though we found it the thing might not wor-¡±


    Opal twisted the stone and the air was filled with a grinding stone sound. Rain took a step back. A set of seams appeared on the wall around a central point, fungi getting torn and ripped apart in the process as sections of the wall slowly drew back revealing a dark dank passage behind it. Dirt and dust fell from the ceiling in thin streams.


    Wary of a leveler stumbling upon them he bustled the group inside. The door slid shut behind them.


    ¡°This isn''t going to work,¡± said Rain. ¡°Those fungi were all torn up by the door opening, it will look suspicious. Lyra, use your skill.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Oh uhm right, that¡¯s a good idea!¡± The sheep girl concentrated and nodded her head.


    ¡°Okay it¡¯s working, I think. Any sign we were here should be being repaired, all the fungi set back where they were.¡±


    Rain had them wait a minute just to be certain. He noted that there was a certain familiar set of claw gouged runes on the wall as he waited. No question who had built this passage.


    Once he felt confident that the fungi were repaired on the other side of the door they moved on and began making their way down the passage. It was long, longer than he expected, twisting and turning and dipping and diving. After some time walking he noted that the ceiling had white tree roots curling and growing from it as though they were below a forest, and more concerningly in some parts dirt had spilt through the walls where the stone had crumbled.


    They eventually came to the end of the passage and Opal fiddled with a stone nub on the wall. Rain realised that an angular paw shape had been carved onto the stone, the nub at the entrance had likely had the same design at one point but had been worn away.


    After some effort she managed to twist it and with a grinding rumble the wall split apart and they stepped through into a cave on the other side.


    ¡°I can''t believe this passage actually exists, I think I understand why no ones been able to find it magically, any spell must be reading the door as part of the dungeon,¡± murmured Lyra, looking on in wonder as the door slid shut behind them.


    ¡°Come on, we¡¯re nearly out!¡± said Opal rushing ahead of them to where a beam of sunlight filtered down.


    They emerged out of a hole in the ground into a wide grassy glade on a rise overlooking an endless forest for miles and miles. As Rain blinked in the bright sunlight and looked around he realised that the hole he had just crawled from was amongst the roots of a gnarled old tree in the middle of the glade.


    Overhead the vast vast sky was an azure gradienting up to a royal blue. Cumulonimbus cloud mountains towered tens of miles into the sky, incredible cloud scapes that moved languorously in the warm summer breeze. After being underground so long he had forgotten how wide the world was.


    He stumbled to a halt as he walked into Red. The Kobold was staring up at the vast sky, pure unbridled terror in his eyes. The Kobold flinched, squeaked, and then immediately fainted, falling flat on the grass with his tail pointed skyward.


    Rain looked down at the spread eagled Kobold and furrowed his brow. Was it the sky? It suddenly occurred to him that a monster that had lived their entire life inside a cramped cave might not be prepared for the sheer endlessness of the outside world.


    ¡°They¡¯ve never been out of the dungeon before, they¡¯re overwhelmed...¡± said Lyra to his side.


    Opal was ahead of him, standing frozen, her hands limp at her side, her head raised up at the sky. As he watched she started to lean and then stumbled to the side as though struggling to keep her balance.


    ¡°Wh-what is this? I never thought¡­ H-how!? H-help!¡±


    Opal cried out, her eyes reeling from side to side, it was so big! So endless! The ground suddenly felt like it wasn¡¯t holding onto her, that she was falling into infinity! Her stomach dropped and she fell to all fours as everything became dizzy, the ground shifting and tilting beneath her, she couldn''t breathe, it was like her childhood fear of heights, like being held over an immense drop about to fall to her death! She held onto the grass with a white knuckle grip like her life depended on it, sheer terror blanking everything, her whole body tensed up and  trembling in fear.


    Huge furred arms suddenly wrapped around her and drew her close, pulling the Goblin into a tight embrace. She drew in a shuddering breath as a sense of powerful safety enveloped her. She curled up in Rain¡¯s arms burying her face in his chest, tears rolling from her eyes and wetting his fur.


    "Everything will be fine, I promise, I will always protect you," whispered Rain, his body curled around Opal.


    Lyra stood and stared at the embracing monsters. What was this? How were they so¡­ caring? Were these two really monsters? The sheer amount of protective affection radiating from Rain was bothering her, this wasn¡¯t right¡­. This wasn¡¯t right¡­.This wasn''t right... Lyra blinked as a thought slipped into her mind, something new, something unexpected, something uncomfortable.


    She wanted to be cared for like that.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 45

    The idyllic glade was warmed pleasantly by the summer sun, golden light bathing the air and highlighting the multitude of colourful flowers peeking from between the blades of grass. Azure winged butterflies flitted from flower to flower.


    A wobbly clawed foot lifted into the air and slowly, carefully, came back down.


    Red looked down at his foot in amazement. ¡°I- I did it!¡±


    The sheep girl holding his clawed hand up in the air looked down kindly at the shaky legged Kobold who was on the verge of collapse for what was perhaps the twelfth time.


    ¡°Okay, now you have to take more than one step you know. I don¡¯t think stepping only one foot forward is going to be very useful.¡±


    The Kobold gave her a frightened look, the very idea of taking another step! Madness! But then he grit his teeth, leaned forward and lifted his other foot. His foot slowly sailed through the air before coming down with a carefully placed step. Red let out a gasp of delight. Then he made the mistake of paying attention to the sky once again, that endless blue void framed by ten-mile tall clouds that slowly sailed through the air like unimaginably vast galleons.


    He squeaked and his legs turned to jelly. Lyra grunted as she caught the suddenly floppy limbed Kobold.


    ¡°Hah, he¡¯s just a little scaredy lizard, he can¡¯t do anything!¡±


    Lyra turned and glared at Opal. Only the Goblin''s face was visible, tucked below Rain¡¯s arm where he sat cross legged, her entire body wrapped in wolf with only her head sticking out.


    ¡°Oh you''re one to talk, you can''t even leave Rain¡¯s lap!¡±


    ¡°Yes I can, I totally can!¡±


    Lyra squinted at the Goblin. ¡°I don''t believe you. Goblins are all cowards.¡±


    Opal gasped. ¡°No they¡¯re not!¡±


    Lyra gestured at the ground. ¡°Well, care to prove otherwise?¡±


    Opal eyed the grass, then her eyes slowly shifted upward to the sky. She whimpered and pulled back into Rain so that only her amber eyes were visible between Rain¡¯s black fur.


    ¡°That¡¯s what I thought. Goblins are known as dungeon rats for a reason, they scamper off and hide whenever there is even the slightest hint of danger. It¡¯s no wonder Half-goblins have such an easy time dominating you.¡±


    Opal¡¯s eyebrows drew together and her eyes narrowed as she spoke, the only part visible of her amongst the fur. The Goblin became increasingly agitated toward the end until with a yell she burst from Rain¡¯s fur to stand on the ground and point an accusing finger at the sheep girl.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know anything! Gobbos are one of the top tier monsters of the dungeon, we just get unlucky! We¡¯re- we¡¯re really strong!¡± said Opal, her voice quavering a little.


    Lyra put a hand on her hip. ¡°Unless you intend to walk around up here the entire time wearing a blindfold you are going to have to take your hand off your eyes. Yes, no, now your eyes are closed. Open them.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I can do that.¡±


    She stood there awkwardly, eyes still closed.


    ¡°Come on little Goblin, going to be a little scaredy cat forever?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re afraid of everything! Shut up!¡±


    ¡°Well? I¡¯m waiting.¡±


    Opal scowled and made a rude gesture at Lyra. After a moment she cracked an eyelid, then slowly opened her eyes. An expression of triumph crossed her face. Then she looked up. Her knees buckled and her breath hitched. With a cry she turned and dived back into Rain¡¯s arms, curling up in his lap and returning back to where she was with just her eyes visible. She glared daggers at Lyra who had a hand over her mouth trying not to laugh.


    As the sun crawled across the sky Red and Opal gradually began to get used to the outside world and the blue infinity above, Opal through pure outrage at Lyra¡¯s increasingly pointed taunting and teasing.


    By the time the sun was setting Red was frolicking in the grass chasing butterflies while Lyra watched from the shade of the tree. Opal was standing with her hands on her hip, glaring at the sky, daring it to scare her anymore.


    A large paw wrapped around the Goblin¡¯s stomach and drew her close. She gasped as Rain put his head next to hers.


    ¡°I knew you would conquer it.¡±


    ¡°Was nothing to conquer, I was fine from the start, I just liked how comfy your lap was is all.¡±


    ¡°I do have a very comfy lap, but still, I¡¯m glad you are okay now.¡±


    He squeezed her and she leaned her head into his.


    It was starting to get dark out by this point and Rain had Opal put out the two tents, the old Goblin tent which he gave to Lyra, and the newer undead leveler¡¯s tent. He crawled inside with difficulty, being so much larger that even the new larger leveler¡¯s tent was a poor fit and his legs were left sticking outside the tent flap. After a moment Opal crawled in too. There wasn¡¯t anywhere for her to lay as he took up the whole interior so after a moment she decided to simply lie on top of Rain.


    He drifted off into a heavy sleep to the faint sound of Opal breathing into his chest, her small hands curled in his fur.


    -


    Rain slowly came back to consciousness as a soft dragging sound met his ears, and then a moment later, what sounded like muffled shouting. The worrying sounds hooked him awake and he opened his eyes. What was going on? It took him a moment to realise that the weight of Opal was missing, she wasn''t in the tent. Increasingly concerned he sat up, having to squeeze down due to the tent being too small, and leaned toward the tent flap. With one claw he pulled it aside and peeked out.


    Opal was there, with her back to him. She was dragging something across the grass, something larger than her, something struggling. After a moment of heaving and pulling at the thing she turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin seeing Rain with his muzzle sticking from the tent, his yellow eyes faintly glowing in the dark.


    ¡°Oh! Gods you startled me!¡± said Opal, wiping sweat from her brow. ¡°This is perfect though, you can eat her right now!¡±


    Rain eyed the Goblin and then peered around her to see Lyra completely buck naked and tied up in an incredibly compromising position, her arms tied behind her back, her shins tied tight to her thighs and her legs spread obscenely, her pussy exposed to the air. The sheep girl¡¯s large breasts wobbled dangerously as her chest rose and fell in terror. Rain found the source for the muffled shouting, Opal had stuffed a few rolled up socks in her mouth and Lyra was making panicked bleating noises around them.


    Lyra gave him a fearful look, tears forming at the corners of her eyes.


    He looked back at Opal questioningly.


    ¡°It¡¯s simple isn¡¯t it, we don''t need her anymore, we got out of the dungeon so we don''t need invisibility, we can do without her and so now you can eat her and grow bigger!¡±


    Rain raised an eyebrow but shifted forward pulling the tent back around him until he was outside it. He reached forward with one huge paw and grabbed hold of the rope wrapped around Lyra¡¯s leg. He roughly dragged her across the grass and crawled over her, dominating her with his size.


    Lyra shook her head in a blind panic but Rain couldn''t be stopped, he ran his paw pads over her thick thigh and up her stomach then opened his mouth and tongue bathed her quivering belly. Lyra squealed at the sensation, her struggling becoming more frantic and desperate. Rain didn''t stop there, he opened his mouth, saliva stretching between his teeth and placed his maw over her hip, his teeth dimpling her skin.


    The sheep girl¡¯s eyes rolled up in fear and the sound of liquid hitting the grass could be heard as she openly pissed herself in the incredibly compromised and obscene position she was in.


    After half a minute of squeaking and trembling and the continual loud splatter of fluid hitting the ground Lyra finished.


    Rain eyed her from where his teeth were touching her skin, then he rolled his eyes and removed his jaws.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to eat you, I will never eat you Lyra. I said I would protect you and I will, but you need to get over this fear thing.¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± shouted Opal. ¡°What do you mean you won¡¯t ever eat her!? She¡¯s got to be eaten!¡±


    ¡°No. Not happening.¡±


    Opal balled her hands into fists.


    ¡°This! This isn¡¯t fair! It¡¯s because of what you used to be, isn¡¯t it? You¡¯re giving her mercy like you wouldn¡¯t to a monster because you used to be Human, a leveler!¡±


    Rain watched as Lyra suddenly froze up, her eyes going round. She struggled for a moment and then with great difficulty she managed to spit out the socks in her mouth.


    Breathing hard, her lips parted, she glared at Rain.


    ¡°What the fuck does she mean you used to be Human?!?!¡±


    Stratothrax


    I made a banner for the story ? Gotta admit seeing Opal blink is very cute, I had an inordinate amount of fun making this


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 46

    ¡°What the fuck does she mean you used to be Human?!?!¡±


    Rain scratched his jaw and shrugged, looking at the sheep girl coolly. ¡°...I died at the bottom of the dungeon, when I woke I looked like this, a smaller version anyway. It¡­ wasn¡¯t a kind death, I was killed by levelers¡­ I used to be a Human and now I am a monster, through and through.¡± A sense of long brewing acceptance filled Rain that he hadn¡¯t known he had been holding onto. He really was a monster now, it had been hard to truly accept that after a lifetime of being indoctrinated into fearing monsters.


    ¡°My gods, h-how?! Wait, wait, back then, when you somehow knew about family dynasties keeping the secrets of Classes, and- oh! You didn''t react anything like Red or Opal when we first came above ground, you¡¯ve been outside of the dungeon before! You were a leveler!¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°But- but how is this possible!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Where I died may have something to do with it, I died on a grave left undisturbed for¡­ a long time.¡±


    Lyra stared at him and then blinked. This, this changed things. The monster in front of her wasn¡¯t just a monster, he was a monster with the additional experience and knowledge of being a leveler. She didn''t know whether that made Rain more comfortable to be near or ten times more terrifying.


    ¡°I don''t understand this, this isn''t supposed to happen, levelers can''t become monsters. That just isn''t done!¡±


    Rain reached out and grabbed her hips and the sheep girl froze up in fear. He picked her up and pulled her into his lap with her back facing toward him.


    ¡°Wh-what are you doing!¡± wailed the sheep girl as her body began trembling out of control.


    Rain remained silent and ran a paw pad down her arm to where her wrists were bound in rope. Opal had gone a little overboard with the amount of rope used and she was tied several times over. He carefully used his claws to tug and tear apart the rope until she was freed.


    Lyra snatched her hands away from him and rubbed at her wrists. She froze up again as Rain¡¯s arms wrapped around her and he began plucking at the ropes tying her legs up.


    ¡°Y-you don''t have to do this I can take them off!¡± she whimpered as he made progress.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s easier this way.¡±


    Lyra made little helpless noises as his claws pulled at the knots, pulling and pushing her roughly in his lap. She couldn''t help it, she reached out her hands to steady herself against his arms before she realised what she was doing.


    Soon enough Rain was done and Lyra was able to move her legs properly once more. She sighed in relief, stretching out her legs as far as she could in front of her, her hooves pointed outward, her legs crossing and uncrossing. The feeling of being free was wonderful.


    It suddenly occurred to her that she was completely stark naked and sitting in a male monster¡¯s lap while stretching her legs, her rear pressed up against his crotch, her hands resting on his forearms.


    This, this was really not good! She squealed and jumped to her feet, her large chest bouncing up and down as she desperately tried to cover her nipples and privates with her hand and arm. She gave Rain one pink cheeked scandalised look before she dashed away and dived into her tent.


    Opal watched her go, her arms crossed.


    ¡°I bet she would have been delicious and made you grow really big. Some nice tasty mutton walking around on two legs. Hmph!¡±


    Rain gave her the side eye. ¡°You make my appetite look mild sometimes you know. I¡¯m not going to eat her, the least of which reason is because I want to go into Lynthia, the town. You know I want revenge on a certain group of levelers, I don¡¯t think all of them will have joined the Inquisitor in the dungeon, in fact, I¡¯m certain some of them will have remained in town.¡± Rain lifted his paw up in front of him and curled it into a fist. ¡°This might be the perfect opportunity to get them, Lyra¡¯s power will be essential for that.¡±


    ¡°Stillashittypower,¡± muttered Opal, but it was clear she was reluctantly coming around.


    Rain watched as the huge many coloured moon dipped below the horizon and the sun began to rise sending golden rays across the glade, lighting up the grass and creating a faint mist as the night dew evaporated. Rain had Opal pack away their tent. Eventually, Lyra emerged from hers, this time fully clothed, although a faint rosy blush remained on her cheeks.


    Rain retrieved Red from where he was tied to the tree they had emerged from, curled up just inside the cave entrance. They put both the packs back onto the Kobold and before long they were leaving the glade and passing into the forest proper. The light became dappled as they passed beneath the canopy, leafy shadows casting a pleasing patina across everything.


    Rain eased his pace so the others didn''t have to rush to keep up with him and watched as Opal stared around in curiosity, occasionally darting aside to inspect a weird bug or tree or the way moss grew across a boulder, her natural instincts as a scout showing.


    Red was more the sort to just wander around slack jawed, occasionally tilting his head to listen to bird song in the treetops.


    A few hours into this and Opal, who was slightly ahead of the group, paused and furrowed her brow, staring into the distance through the gaps in the trees.


    Rain came up behind the peering Goblin. ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s something there that isn''t very foresty. I think it¡¯s a building.¡±


    Rain became much more alert as he paid attention to her words. He focused on where she was pointing and yes, he could see a building with his sharp eyes.


    ¡°A building out here? Away from the protection of a town or city¡¯s walls?¡± said Lyra coming to a stop beside them.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably abandoned.¡±


    ¡°We should go look, there might be a leveler to eat in there!¡± said Opal, suddenly dashing forward.


    ¡°Er, you should probably stop her, just in case¡­¡±


    Rain followed after the Goblin as they neared the building which turned out to be an old wooden cabin built from heavy planks and wooden shingles and covered in thick moss.


    Opal stepped up onto the decking and peered through the window inside.


    ¡°It¡¯s empty?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± said Opal, ¡°I can see an old Human man inside. Might be a bit chewy, but still, breakfast time!¡±


    ¡°H-hey hold on, you can¡¯t just eat a random old man in the woods!¡± said Lyra. ¡°That¡¯s wrong!¡±


    Opal glared at the sheep girl. ¡°Why? He¡¯s old anyway, might as well use him for something useful before he keels over dead. Plus he¡¯s a leveler, that means he is a terrible person.¡±


    ¡°Wha- how can you say that?¡±


    ¡°Duh, all levelers are terrible, you kill monsters for fun.¡±


    Lyra stared at the Goblin. ¡°That¡¯s, that¡¯s! No! we don¡¯t! We- we-!¡±


    ¡°Rain forget her, let¡¯s eat this old bastard, I bet you¡¯re really really hungry, you barely ate anything yesterday, only a dozen boars.¡±


    Rain¡¯s stomach snarled in reply. She was correct of course, he was very hungry. This wouldn''t be so bad, would it? No one would miss this old man living out in the middle of nowhere in the woods right?¡±


    ¡°No, don¡¯t do it, don¡¯t eat him! He¡¯s just a nice old lonely man in the woods probably!¡±


    ¡°Yes, eat him! Devour him all and take everything to grow bigger and bigger and bigger!¡±


    Rain had the strangest feeling an angel and a demon were sitting on his shoulders.


    ¡°I-¡± began Rain.


    ¡°Give me a damned moment you silly bastards, my old bones ain¡¯t gonna jump up lickety split to answer the door like that,¡± came a voice from inside.


    ¡°Oh no,¡± said Lyra as the sound of steps neared the door. The click clack of a latch being thrown made the sheep girl jump forward in front of Rain and Opal. She grabbed the door handle as it began to open and held it, stopping it from going further. She stood in the gap hiding the monsters behind her as an old face appeared. Weary and bleary eyes behind a pair of spectacles looked up at her, the spectacles were perched on a large slightly reddened nose below a bald head.


    The hunchback old man blinked. ¡°Yes? What can I do for you lass?¡±


    ¡°Uhm! Uhm! I got lost in the woods! Please let me in for a moment!¡±


    ¡°Oh? Have you been wandering all night? My my, that¡¯s not good, please come inside, I¡¯ll make you some tea.¡±


    ¡°Y-yes! That! P-Please!¡±


    She shuffled through the door awkwardly, trying to keep it as closed as possible so that the old man didn''t see the three monsters standing on his porch. She got inside, snatching a glance of Opal with her arms crossed before the door shut behind her.


    Inside the cabin wasn¡¯t very impressive, the old man was either an extreme minimalist or very very poor.


    He bent over a stove and began fiddling with a flint and steel until with a small flash a fire started. He put a kettle on top of the stove.


    As he was doing that Opal appeared at the window and pressed her face against it, sticking her tongue out and licking the glass and squishing her nose flat. Lyra shook her head frantically at the Goblin. Opal flatly ignored her. Just before the old man turned around she stepped in front of the window, hiding the Goblin with her body.


    ¡°Wha-what causes you to live out here in the woods sir?¡±


    ¡°Oh the usual leveler backbiting and drama. It¡¯s best I don¡¯t bore you with it lass. Suffice to say I get by just about, although it¡¯s been tough out here at times on my rickety old bones. But what about yourself? A young leveler like you, out here with no visible weapon? You must be a support Class if I¡¯m not mistaken? How you came to be alone though I would like to know.¡±


    ¡°Uh. I got separated from the band of levelers I was with, a uhm... forest... bear surprised us.¡±


    ¡°Tsk tsk. The monsters around here have been getting worse. Fortunately not as bad as dungeon monsters but still, you can never be too careful eh?¡±


    ¡°Er, right, yes.¡±


    ¡°Mind some dungeon monsters make surface monsters look weak. Goblins, for instance, are like floppy little jellies compared to a forest bear, why I remember slaughtering the little buggers by the dozen-¡±


    The front door was suddenly booted open, a furious Opal standing in the frame.


    ¡°FUCK YOU GOBBOS ARE AWESOME!¡±


    The kettle began to whistle behind the old man as he stared bug eyed at the sudden appearance of an angry Goblin in his cabin.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 47

    Opal stood in the door glaring daggers at the old man, no, she was angry enough that these weren¡¯t daggers being glared but full on swords.


    Rain ducked down behind Opal, having to crouch down a foot or so to fit his head beneath the door frame, filling it entirely with his body.


    ¡°What in the blue blazes! M-monsters! Run lass run! Save yourself!¡±


    ¡°Hold on now! Wait!¡± said Lyra, not liking the way the situation was escalating.


    ¡°Never! This leveler killed loads of Gobbos and thinks Gobbos suck! You heard him!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s- you can''t just kill him!¡±


    Rain took a step into the cabin, having to duck down his head as he was too tall for the ceiling, his ears squashed up against it and the planks beneath his feet groaned alarmingly under his weight.


    Lyra stepped in between Opal and Rain and the old man and spread her arms.


    ¡°You can''t have him!¡±


    ¡°Lass, I appreciate it but you can¡¯t do this, don¡¯t sacrifice yourself for me.¡±


    The old man suddenly cricked his neck. Lyra blinked at the sound and turned her head. Behind her the old man was limbering up, cracking his knuckles and stretching his limbs.


    ¡°H-hey, you can¡¯t be thinking of fighting? You¡¯ll die! Please just run away!¡±


    The old man squinted at her. ¡°I don''t know what¡¯s going on here lass but I see dungeon monsters and it gets me blood up.¡±


    ¡°B-but you''re just a frail old man!¡±


    The old man suddenly slid his feet apart and breathed in, centering his core. He curled his arms and tensed them. Muscle exploded up from his hands, pounds and pounds of heavy defined musculature rolling up over his anatomy, his body transforming, swelling outward as his back straightened and his chest broadened, his pecs ballooning as his shirt tore open.


    Lyra could only watch with rounded eyes and eyebrows raised high enough that they looked like they would detach from her head and float away. The frail old man rapidly transformed into a hulking old man, his bald head perched atop a six-foot body that would be the envy of bodybuilders anywhere.


    Rain reached out a paw to grab the startled Lyra and pull her out of danger when the old man snapped a hand forward shoving Lyra aside in the same motion his other bulging arm rocketing forward with his step to meteor up into Rain¡¯s gut.


    Rain had only a moment to process what was happening and how hard he had just been hit before he was launched off his feet and thrown through the wall of the building, planks disintegrating around his body as he blew through the wood and was sent tumbling and rolling across the forest floor.


    Lyra stared at the old man slack jawed.


    ¡°You, you aren''t an old man?¡±


    ¡°Course I am lass, I am old as oak trees, just got a few leveler tricks left in me still. Ya know how it is eh?¡± he grinned beneath his white beard.


    ¡°Rain!¡± cried out Opal staring at the massive hole in the wall Rain had disappeared through. She turned on the old man, her fists balled.


    ¡°What have you done! You ancient fuck!¡± Opal drew her rapier and cutlass, raised them into the air and charged the old man.


    ¡°Ah, this reminds me of the old days, squashing and bursting Goblins, good times. Give me a sec lass just lemme deal with this one.¡±


    ¡°DIE!¡± cried Opal swinging her blades down. The metal struck home, landing on the old man¡¯s outstretched arm. Unfortunately it did next to nothing, only leaving behind a pair of slight scratches before the blades slid off, Opal simply lacked the strength to really harm his Skill reinforced body. A few thin lines of blood ran down the old man¡¯s arm.


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re a feisty one for a Goblin, not even evolved too? Come ¡®ere, let me pop you.¡±


    The old man reached out with one large hand toward the Goblin who had suddenly gone pale and was backing away. Before his grasping hand could latch onto her head however the wall exploded and a huge black mass blasted paws first into the cabin setting the structure creaking and rocking like it was going to collapse. The old man was spear tackled and went flying into the hot stove behind him, the kettle crushing beneath his back.


    He hissed in pain as hot water splashed up his back. Before he could recover however a massive paw wrapped around his neck and slammed him against the wall causing the entire cabin to shudder.


    ¡°Just for threatening her I¡¯m going to make this a screaming death for you leveler.¡± Rain drew back his lips and snarled, teeth flashing, saliva dripping from his lips.


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± snarled back the old man from beneath Rain¡¯s paw. ¡°Monster filth like you should be enslaved or exterminated or placed in experience farms to die and die and die.¡±


    Lyra jumped up beside them and spread her arms, crossed them, then spread them again.


    ¡°TIME OUT!¡±


    Rain and the old man paused and looked at Lyra. She quailed under their gaze for a moment before steadying herself.


    ¡°Listen, this is bad, you can''t kill each other!¡±


    ¡°You are telling me what to do? You?¡± said Rain, his eyes narrowing at the sheep girl. Her legs began violently shaking under his yellow eyed gaze.


    ¡°N-no, b-but there has to be a better way!¡±


    ¡°Never! Blood and thunder, I¡¯ll go out killing monsters like a true warrior!¡±


    ¡°There is no better way. You know how it is as a leveler Lyra, we both do.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t! Just, just-¡± Lyra looked around desperately, for anything to stop what was about to happen. Her eyes came to rest on Red who was carefully picking his way through the debris, struggling a little with the heavy packs he was carrying¡­ wait¡­


    She turned back to the old man. ¡°What do you do out here! Tell me truly! Please! It matters!¡±


    The old man watched her in silence for a moment. ¡°I quit the leveling rat race because my Class is flawed, broken. I¡¯m a herder.¡±


    Lyra snapped her fingers together. ¡°That''s it!¡±


    ¡°Nothing is it sheepy, we¡¯re gonna kill the leveler and then we¡¯re going to eat him¡­ and then his herd,¡± said Opal.


    ¡°He¡¯s not going to tell us where his herd is!¡±


    ¡°Yeah so?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you want more food for Rain, to grow him bigger?¡±


    Opal paused.


    The old man suddenly spoke up. ¡°Dunno what you¡¯re thinking lass but this monster ain¡¯t getting anywhere near my birds, I¡¯ll take the location of their pen to my grave.¡±


    Lyra suddenly flashed him a strangely mercantile grin and shoved her hand into one of the packs on Red¡¯s back. She pulled out a fist full of gold coins and then forced them into the old man¡¯s hands. Red¡¯s eyes bulged out of his head at this transaction, why were they giving away his-, uh, the group¡¯s coin?!


    Rain looked down at the gold in the old man¡¯s hands unsure where this was going. He slowly removed his paw from where he pinned the old man against the wall.


    ¡°Lass, I ain¡¯t being bought by some fucking monsters.¡±


    Lyra shoved another two fistfuls of gold into his hands and the old man¡¯s eyes widened slightly.


    ¡°I- I¡¯m not,- this, this is more than about money-¡±


    Another two fistfuls of gold were pushed into his hands, much spilling onto the floor. Red was vibrating on the spot by this point looking like he might explode if he didn''t say something.


    The old man was starting to wilt under the weight of so much gold.


    ¡°This- this isn''t!¡±


    Another two fistfuls of gold and a fat ruby.


    ¡°Nooo You can''t! My gods why do you have so much of this!?¡±


    A diamond necklace was wrapped around his wrist along with more gold as the old man slowly slumped downward unable to look away from the increasingly large amount of treasure being thrown at him. Even more gold was handed to him.


    He was panting by this point, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.


    ¡°H-how is there so much?! Godsdammit! I give! I give! Okay you win!¡±


    ¡°But that''s the gold-!¡± Red slapped a pair of claws over his muzzle forcefully shutting his own mouth. He couldn''t look away from all the treasure in the old man¡¯s lap however.


    Lyra nodded her head confidently.


    ¡°Business is business! One transaction please! Your herd for all this gold and the requirement you leave the area immediately and don¡¯t go to the local town.¡±


    The old man sighed. ¡°This is more money than I¡¯ve seen in my entire life several times over lass. Is this really okay?¡±


    ¡°Your herd and your silence is what we want. You won''t go to Lynthia and say anything right?¡±


    He looked up. ¡°Hell no. Fuck everyone in that shitty town, why do you think I got stuck with a flawed Class? They are all abhorrent assholes, especially the Ranker and his people, acts like a fucking despot warlord.¡±


    Rain twitched at that last mention.


    The old man snorted softly and then wiped a tear from his eye. ¡°I hope you give ¡®em a real bad day if you''re headed there.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s on a need to know basis I¡¯m afraid.¡±


    ¡°...Right.¡±


    The old man gathered all the gold and gems up in the remains of his shirt and then stowed it in a homemade heavy leather bag. He hefted it, making an impressed sound at its weight. He then grabbed a pack from under his bed and threw a spare set of clothes into it. He looked around the trashed cabin apprehensively, knowing he likely would never see the sparse room again.


    Lyra coughed into her hand. ¡°Your herd?¡±


    ¡°Come with me.¡±


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 48

    The old man led them outside and into the woods. About half an hour later, and after following a small stream for a time, they came to a stop by a large and heavy disc-shaped stone. The old man set his muscular body and heaved against it. The stone gradually began to move, then suddenly lurched to the side as Rain joined in and pushed it more easily. The stone was shifted out of the way revealing a cave


    ¡°Uh, thanks,¡± said the leveler awkwardly.


    ¡°...No problem.¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°My bird herd is inside here, forty-odd of them. I¡¯d stick around but I¡¯d rather not know what you¡¯re about to do, so¡­¡±


    The old man backed away and then turned and jogged back into the forest.


    Opal watched him go.


    ¡°This sucks.¡±


    ¡°You think we could have found this herd without paying him?¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    Red lowered his voice in a way he hoped Rain wouldn''t hear. ¡°That was the gold! H-how could you!? The precious goollllld!¡±


    Opal snorted. It¡¯s gold not swords, plus that was nothing, there¡¯s still heaps.


    ¡°I think it was worth it, at least this way I don''t feel bad,¡± said Lyra with a sigh.


    A bird squawk came from in the cave and Opal turned to see that Rain had already gone inside.


    ¡°Mmm. Maybe it was worth it for this bit,¡± she said hurrying toward the entrance.


    Inside she found Rain already going to work, the animals in the cave weren''t so much birds as huge flightless ostrich-like raptors, each with large hooked claws reminiscent of a Panthara and serrated beaks. Despite supposedly being domesticated animals they did not go down docile and came at Rain with a wild fury. Opal looked on in shock as Rain disappeared behind a cloud of feathers and a cacophony of echoing squawking. It wasn''t long before the birds realised they were hopelessly outmatched however and tried to flee. Rain didn''t let them, his paws reaching out and dragging their long necks into his teeth sometimes two at a time.


    Only two of the birds managed to get away and Opal was waiting for them, their necks made nice targets for her blades.


    She finished to see Rain sitting in the middle absolutely covered in feathers, a feather balanced comically on the bridge of his nose. Opal couldn''t help but laugh.


    ¡°What?¡± The motion of speaking lifted the balanced feather into the air for a moment before it drifted back down somehow in the same spot.


    ¡°N-nothing!¡±


    ¡°Hmmm.


    Rain lifted the bird in his paws and took a bite out of its side, feathers and all.


    ¡°Tastes like turkey chicken,¡± he mumbled from around his teeth.


    He pulled away to see Opal staring at him, her lip twitching. He checked himself and realised he had a fan of feathers sticking from his mouth, the quills stuck between his teeth. He scowled and plucked and spat them out.


    ¡°Taking off points for featheryness¡­¡±


    He continued with the bird and as he was finishing it Opal rolled another into his lap and he devoured that one too. He wasn''t going to let the feeling of growth he craved go to waste nor minimise it by dividing it up so he dived straight onto the next one, letting the growth bank up deep inside of himself like a lake above a rickety dam just waiting to burst free.


    He enthusiastically gorged himself, trying his best to ignore the feathers, rapidly eating his way through ten, twenty, thirty of the birds, Opal eagerly shoving another bird into his paws as soon as he was done with the current one, the Goblin getting progressively more excited as he neared the end.


    At last he tore into the last bird and devoured it all. He spat free the feathers caught in his teeth and flopped backwards on the ground, which happened to be covered in loose feathers making a surprisingly comfortable natural bed. A growl slipped from his lips as the dam began to break, ¡®lumber¡¯ splitting and falling as more and more of it spilt forth until with a sudden rushing surge the growth exploded outward, rolling down his body in pulsing waves. He felt Opal climb atop him, her legs wrapped tight around his hips. She ground her crotch down on him, her hands clutching at his abdomen as she was lifted up into the air by rain as he arched his spine bucking his hips upward as his insides shifted and stressed and strained outward, growing larger and longer. He gasped as the feeling peaked and he collapsed back to the ground, the Goblin riding him going limp across his chest with a little breathy whimper.


    ¡°So fuckin gewdd!¡± sighed Opal. ¡°I need to find you so much more food so you can surge and grow beneath me bigger than ever!¡±


    ¡°Maybe we¡¯ll find something in town.¡±


    After a moment of resting in comfortable silence Rain sat up, Opal falling into his lap.


    She pouted up at him.


    ¡°I can¡¯t sit here like this. I¡¯m covered from head to toe in feathers and muck and there''s a stream nearby. I can have a bath.¡±


    Opal let out a pained groan and covered her face.


    He stood up, tipping the Goblin off of himself and stepped outside. Lyra¡¯s face dropped in confusion when she saw him until she realised the feathers he was covered in must have come from the birds. Red made round eyes and firmly put his claws over his muzzle, even still a small giggle escaped his lips. Rain gave him a dangerous look and he immediately froze up.


    The stream was quite small and not very wide but still fairly deep. That didn''t stop Rain though, he sat down in the middle, his back facing downstream, and the water flowed around the large obstacle of his body. The blockage was enough that a broad pool started to form where the water ran into him, filling out and deepening. An absurd amount of feathers fell from his body and were washed downstream as he sat in the water.


    Opal emerged from the cave and narrowed her eyes, watching as Rain washed, eyeing the water around him nervously. Gulping in anticipation, she carefully stretched out a leg and dipped a toe. She immediately jumped backwards like a startled hare and rubbed her toe where the water had touched.


    ¡°Disgusting nasty water!¡±


    ¡°I know you secretly want to come in, try again,¡± gravelled Rain.


    The Goblin set her lips in a line, unimpressed, but after a moment approached the water once more. This time she closed her eyes before dipping her toe in. She managed to hold herself in place for a moment, this... wasn¡¯t completely awful... the sensation of liquid on her skin was kinda nice.


    A large paw wrapped around her foot and she wailed in distress as she was pulled into the water with a splash. She bobbed with only her eyes above the water and glared at Rain.


    He grinned at her. ¡°Progress.¡±


    On the shore Lyra crouched with her arms wrapped around her legs and her head on her knees peeking at Rain as he splashed around in the water. She wasn''t going to admit it out loud but the interaction with the old man had upset her. The leveler had attacked them first and had casually professed to enjoying murdering Goblins in front of Opal. Lyra had killed Goblins for levels herself of course but¡­ she hadn¡¯t enjoyed it and she wouldn''t rub killing them in Opal¡¯s face, not unless she made her mad anyway. She wasn¡¯t quite sure how she had come to this new attitude, nobody cared about the Goblin slaves in her home city, not that they were around long enough to grow attached to them. Why bother feeding them properly when getting a fresh one was so cheap?¡­ Was that wrong somehow?


    She eyed Opal. The Goblin had moved to sit in Rain¡¯s lap and was preening as he washed her hair. Goblins at home didn''t act like that, they were all demure and quiet and didn''t speak up, they acted like they were plants or part of the furniture trying their best to not interact with levelers. That was what a good high quality and well trained slave did. That was.... Lyra bit her lip¡­ that wasn¡¯t trying to do a good job, that was fear of dying. Seeing how alive and sapient and leveler like Opal was put her memories of the city in a horribly uncomfortable light.


    She was busily worrying the problem when water splashed on her. She looked up to see Opal looking smugly at her. The Goblin was quite naked, her breasts above the waterline. Lyra blinked and a droplet of water fell from the tip of her nose.


    ¡°Gonna daydream forever sheepy?¡±


    ¡°N-no¡­ what are you doing in the water anyway? I thought Goblins hated being clean?¡±


    Opal scowled at her. ¡°I¡¯m different, y-yeah? It¡¯s about mindset, water is nasty and disgusting, therefore water is a type of filth, I am now filthy with water.¡± The Goblin seemed like she didn''t believe her own words even as she spoke them.


    ¡°...I¡¯m not sure that¡¯s how that works, but okay.¡±


    A sour expression crossed Opal¡¯s face, this was not a subject she wanted to think about.


    Behind her Rain stood up and the small pool he had formed suddenly rushed downstream between his knees, causing Opal to get caught in the current and wash up against him. He caught her and picked up the naked Goblin and carried her to shore. They found a large flat stone and both of them lay down atop it, the hot summer sun quickly drying them, evaporating the stream water away.


    Soon they were dry and ready and set off back into the forest. A few hours later the forest started to thin and the group slowed. The trees parted and they came out on a rise overlooking a shallow forested valley. In the center of the valley was a walled town, the walls heavy and thick with crenellations. Two large defensive gatehouses set at the front and back, a cobbled road winding from each. Outside and separate from the town was a large mansion with its own private walls all built from heavy stone. Rain knew that mansion. It had always been there, for all of his life trapped behind the walls of Lynthia. It was the town Ranker¡¯s home.


    An incredibly vivid memory from his past life flashed before Rain¡¯s mind. His knees curled up against his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs, trying to keep in as much body heat as possible as the overcast sky drizzled rain. He sat at the corner of a street, a tin cup in front of him. That cup combined with his ragged appearance would cause anyone to assume he was a beggar, which was essentially the case, although most beggars had an easier time of it than he did. An old woman paused in passing and looked down at the tin, pity in her eyes. She reached for her coin purse, but then she paused. She glanced down the street and up, the mansion outside of town just visible over the town¡¯s wall from where she stood. Rain could see the usual calculation in the old woman¡¯s eyes. Was it worth the risk of annoying the Ranker and therefore her life for some small charity? The answer turned out to be a no as she reluctantly removed her hand from the purse, but Rain was used to that. The old woman left and Rain continued to shiver in the cold. His stomach hurt, he hadn''t eaten in three days.


    Ran shook his head slightly, the memory wisping away.


    He looked down to see Opal staring at the town.


    ¡°That¡¯s where levelers are from? But there are so many people in there!¡±


    ¡°I thought, but I never imagined, by tail and scale we never stood a chance of stopping the levelers from coming to the dungeon...¡± murmured Red.


    ¡°This is just a town, cities are far larger. It¡¯s a dungeon town that was built because there is a dungeon nearby, lots of levelers make use of it,¡± said Lyra.


    Rain eyed the walls. ¡°I want in. How do I get past those walls without the entire town coming together to attack me?¡±


    ¡°I, I don''t know, they will likely have precautions for my invisibility. Uhm, I can go look, I am a leveler unlike you, they won''t give me a second glance unless I''m trying to be suspicious. I don¡¯t think they will know about my bounty yet, the dungeon was sealed this whole time so nobody outside of it will have heard. That will change once it is unsealed but for a little while I can go about without being hunted by bounty hunters and people looking to get really rich.¡±


    ¡°... Fine. Lyra, go into the town and see if you can find out about what''s happening, what the people in the town know, who went to the dungeon with the Inquisitor, and the whereabouts of the levelers: Brax, Myra, Lira, Eliza, and Adlen.¡±


    ¡°Uhm, I can do that, I think, that shouldn''t be a problem. Will you wait here?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Rain turned and narrowed his eyes at the mansion. ¡°I¡¯m going to the mansion.¡±


    Lyra couldn''t help but shiver at his words. ¡°To do what?¡±


    Rain remained worryingly silent.


    After a moment of hesitation, Lyra set off down into the valley. He watched her go then turned and led Red and Opal toward the mansion as the sun was dipping below the horizon in a blaze of deep orange.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 49

    The blonde haired woman pressed the needle under the captive''s fingernail, pushing it up and parting the nail from his finger. She watched with fascination as the shadow of the needle moved beneath the keratin, then she winced as the man¡¯s muffled screaming reached a higher pitch, apparently she had scraped bone.


    ¡°Is that enough? I don''t particularly want to keep doing this. It''s such a chore.¡±


    She eyeballed the Halfling to her side who was crouching and inspecting the chair the man was manacled to, preventing him from moving an inch. The heavy wooden chair, more a throne, was carved with an occult jagged scripture, the lettering faintly glowing orange-red as though burning from the inside.


    The Halfling flicked her eyes up to the blonde.


    ¡°No Bella. The gem needs to be darker.¡±


    On the captives head was a steel circlet, embedded in the front of the circlet was a red ruby, or rather, what had been a red ruby. The ruby was slowly darkening, going from a ruby red to a blood red to a deep dark red closer to black.


    Bella let out a sigh. ¡°Why can¡¯t anyone else do this? This really isn''t my thing.¡±


    ¡°Because it¡¯s your turn. Plus everyone else is still obliterated from all the mana cut opiates they were messing around with late last night. If you can wake any of them up and get them to do this for you feel free.¡±


    ¡°What about you?¡±


    The Halfling grinned showing off her gold tooth. ¡°I already did it a lot. Like a lot a lot. But Bane wants all his girls to get familiar with doing this, it¡¯s kinda his thing. You¡¯ll end up enjoying it though, it¡¯s like a game to see who can get the most out of the subject.¡±


    She scowled. ¡°Fine. Let¡¯s get this over with. What''s the next step?¡±


    ¡°The needle in his neck, see if you can¡¯t get it in a little further, be careful, but make it as painful for him as possible.¡±


    Bella reached out and her fingers touched upon the fat steel needle inserted in the man¡¯s neck, more a knitting needle than a sewing needle it was so large. The man tried to shake his head but the steel clamps held him still, his eyes wide and terrified, his nose flaring as sweat rolled down his heated skin.


    She glanced at him and rolled her eyes. ¡°Oh don¡¯t give me that look. If you wanted to avoid this fate you shouldn''t have tried to cheat the Ranker. You only have yourself to blame.¡±


    Returning her attention she gripped the needle and began to slowly push it into his neck. The man screamed around his gag. The motion of his scream caused him to move slightly and that in turn caused the needle inside his neck to tear his flesh. He screamed some more.


    ¡°Yeah, this is good, the ruby is going fast now. You might have a knack for this you know.¡±


    Bella tweaked the needle causing the man to jerk and twitch in agony.


    ¡°You really think so? I know Bane likes it when he gets a good ruby! Gosh, I could show him this myself!¡± said Bella, sparkly eyed.


    The Halfling gave her a flat look and muttered under her breath. ¡°I do feel sorry for the village robbed of its idiot sometimes.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°...Nothing.¡±


    Bella focused back on the man and stuck her tongue out the corner of her mouth, concentrating hard as she wiggled the needle deeper and deeper into his flesh.


    ¡°Girls,¡± came a harsh voice.


    She yelped in surprise and her hand jerked, the needle went somewhere it wasn''t supposed to and blood began pouring from around the man¡¯s gag.


    ¡°Oh fuck! Oh shit!¡±


    ¡°What have you done! godsdamn it! We could have gotten it so much darker before he popped his clogs!¡± cried the Halfling.


    The person with the harsh voice stepped into the room, a severe looking female Elf wearing close fitting all blacks. A close lidded third eye was centered in her forehead suggesting that she was not quite all Elf.


    ¡°Congratulations on killing your first. A little premature but not bad for a newcomer judging by that ruby.¡±


    Bella turned to the Elf. ¡°It¡¯s still good?¡±


    ¡°You show some promise, perhaps you will be able to help Bane with other more important issues.¡±


    Bella gasped and looked almost giddy at the suggestion.


    The Halfling scowled. ¡°Naw, she¡¯s a ways off from that.¡±


    The Elf sniffed, looking down her nose at the Halfling distastefully. ¡°Perhaps. In any case that Is not why I am here.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± said Bella as the man in the chair let out a grizzly death rattle and expired. She carefully ignored that.


    ¡°Something triggered the proximity enchantment.¡±


    The Halfling stood up on the arm of the chair and plucked the now vanta black ruby from the circlet. She pocketed it and jumped down, heading toward the door the Elf stood in as Bella followed.


    ¡°And that matters why? It¡¯s probably just a bear again, they¡¯ve been getting lively as of late, it is the middle of summer after all.¡±


    ¡°It matters because Bane isn''t here and there''s an aggressive Orc clan in the area.¡±


    ¡°And?¡±


    ¡°Let me boil it down for you: being successfully raided by Orcs would be very bad and Bane would be very very angry and likely take it out on us. Do you want to anger Bane?¡±


    The Halfling froze up for a second and hunched her shoulders. ¡°No. Okay fine, I still think it¡¯s a bear though.¡±


    The Halfling and Elf left the torture chamber and passed into the main lobby of the mansion, a huge room full of cushioned furniture. Two skinny cat-eared Humans were lazing on a couch, one with her hand down the other''s pants, the one below squirmed under her ministrations. The Halfling and the Elf paid them no attention.


    ¡°Well, even if something is close to the mansion it¡¯s no big deal.¡±


    The Halfling stepped over to one of the drinks cabinets and began pouring herself a drink. She had to reach up awkwardly to do so due to her height.


    ¡°Why is it no big deal?¡± said Bella.


    ¡°Because they won¡¯t be able to get through the front gate.¡±


    The horrendous screech of iron being torn apart suddenly ripped through the air emanating from outside.


    The two girls on the couch who had been all over each other flinched and pulled apart, staring wide eyed in the direction the sound had come from.


    The Halfling paused and slowly turned toward the front door. ¡°Was that¡­?¡±


    ¡°Uhm, I think that was the front gate,¡± said Bella, her voice increasingly nervous and on edge. The Halfling and the Human gave each other wary looks.


    ¡°You don¡¯t think it actually is the Orc clan?¡±


    The Elf frowned. ¡°You really need to start listening to me. If it is anything it¡¯s going to be that.¡±


    ¡°But there¡¯s just no way, they¡¯d never be brazen enough to attack the Ranker¡¯s mansion like this.¡±


    ¡°Yes, they would, you don¡¯t know Orcs, they¡¯d see us as a challenge to be conquered.¡±


    ¡°Well they picked a pretty time for it with Bane being away. Fuck.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s... manageable. In the end we can deal with Orcs, we have a lot of magic between us, and we only need to keep them off until the others can be woken.¡±


    BOOM.


    The double front doors shuddered as though they had been hit by a massive battering ram and thin streamers of dust rolled from the ceiling shaken loose by the impact. A large floating transparent azure rune flickered to life over the door along with a transparent field, the mansion''s main barrier designed to prevent entry. A low heavy rumbling snarl came from behind the door that seemed to vibrate through the ground. The dust suspended in the air rippled as the sound passed by.


    ¡°Uhhh, what the hell was that?¡± said the Halfling.


    ¡°A really angry Orc?¡±


    ¡°What Orc makes a sound like that?? I was right, it has to be a bear.¡±


    ¡°I know of no surface bear capable of breaking through a solid iron gate. It will be a leveler of some kind, most likely an Orc, albeit a very angry one.¡±


    The Elf began kicking over tables and pushing them toward the door, creating obstacles.


    ¡°Wha- why are you doing that? The barrier isn¡¯t going to break.¡±


    ¡°They may have a shaman if it is Orcs, in which case the enchantment may be partially unravelled. Prepare yourselves.¡±


    The women readied, the two cat-eared Humans pulling out longswords while the Halfling cracked her knuckles. Bella pulled out a knife and held it anxiously in both hands.


    ¡°If it¡¯s not a shaman it''s fine, the barrier will hold, it is rated for physical attacks.¡±


    BOOM.


    The door bulged inward as a room shuddering force hit it, the glowing barrier over the door flickered and strained under the impact. One of the girls nearly lost her balance as the whole building quaked. Anything loose on any of the table tops was knocked off or sent rolling. The magical lights that lit the room flickered and began to die as the barrier drew in mana from the entire mansion to maintain itself.


    ¡°An Orc shaman brute forcing it with kinetic spells m-maybe?¡±


    ¡°What the hell kind of shaman can do that?!¡±


    The Elf was starting to look a little less confident in the barrier.


    BOOM-CRASH!


    The wood of the door started to disintegrate as it bulged inward, only being held together by the straining barrier. As shards of wood fell away a massive shadow became visible behind the gaps.


    ¡°That¡¯s no Orc, what the fuck is that!?¡±


    ¡°M-monster! It¡¯s a Monster!¡± cried out one of the cat eared girls.


    A muzzle full of large terrifying teeth pushed through one of the gaps in the door, its nose pressing up against the barrier, its yellow eyes faintly luminous as it stared at the group. Then it began to push forward, forcing its way through with sheer impossible brute strength. The barrier stretched around its head even as a massive clawed paw pushed through another part of the door and began pushing out the barrier there too.


    ¡°It¡¯s j-just a monster, it can¡¯t break it, it¡¯s impossible!¡± wailed Bella.


    ¡°You really believe that!?¡±


    The transparent field flickered and strained and flashed under the insane pressure, stretching in a way it was not meant to be stretched until with a thunder clap the barrier broke.


    The group screamed as the huge nightmarish thing broke into the room, nothing at all between them and its violent savagery. They unleashed everything they had. The room exploded with popping flaring magic, lances of ice and violet fire and spinning discs of darkness and neon lightning, a veritable broadside barrage of magic.


    The lobby was filled with thick smoke and the acrid stench of burning wood by the end of it. The group peered through the opaque haze as it gradually dissipated, the dark room dimly lit by the wreaths of magic around the cat-eared girl¡¯s longswords. There was nothing left of the monster, only one of the damaged doors¡­ one of the damaged doors standing where the monster had been.


    ¡°Oh fuck.¡±


    The wolf thing launched the door it had used as a shield forward and it hit the three eyed Elf full on, knocking her off her feet.


    The claws on the monster''s feet tore up the floorboards as it exploded forward in the door¡¯s wake, charging straight toward the nearest leveler, one of the cat eared humans. Her face was a picture of terror as the black furred monster landed on her, smashing her to the ground. Its jaws came down on her entire head and ripped it from her torso in a fountain of gore sending copious amounts of blood spraying over the furniture.


    ¡°F-fucking kill it! KILL IT!¡± screamed the Halfling.


    The Elf with the third eye scrambled to her feet and turned on the monster, thrusting out her palms. The eye on her forehead flashed bright and cracked open and a bright violet glow emanated from it that wisped yellow, reminiscent of a Gazer. A beam of light burst from the eye, a pulsating solar line of fire that burned through the air lighting up the poorly lit room. The thing leapt to the side as the beam struck but it still glanced across its stomach eliciting an angry growl and burning away a line of fur.


    It bounded forward and grabbed a couch, throwing it at the Elf even as it scooped up the table next to it to use as a shield. The Elf dodged easily and the beam of light continued to follow, rolling across the room and scoring black flaming marks on every surface.


    The remaining cat eared girl ran and leapt from a chair going flying into the air, her longsword crackling with electricity swinging over her shoulder as she spun acrobatically toward the beast. This would be easy, monsters made poor judges of just how dangerous her weapon was, her blade swung down like a guillotine, eager to part the beast¡¯s head from its body.


    At the last possible moment the wolf thing stopped and torqued its hips, swinging the table in its paws around like an immense bat. The corner of it took the leaping leveler in the side, her ribs caved under the brutal body blow and she was tossed across the room with a scream abruptly cutoff by slamming into the wall.


    The Elf took the opportunity and whipped her beam toward the unshielded beast, she smiled, this was it, she had it. Bane would be angry about what had been done to the mansion but he would appreciate her kill, yes this could come out in her favour and the rest of the harem¡¯s disfavour. She snorted contemptuously as the light hit home and the beast roared in agony. With each second the beam touched its body the monster became more and more paralysed, unable to move or escape as the beam slowly burned its way inward. This was what made her so dangerous, she was inescapable once locked on, nothing survived, she was one of Bane¡¯s favourites for a reason!


    ¡°Hah! Patheti-¡±


    A steel blade stabbed her in the back and she stumbled forward, the beam going wide, zig-zagging wildly up the wall.


    ¡°Get fucked Elfy!¡± came a voice behind as she caught a flash of green out of the corner of her eye.


    Gritting her teeth against the pain she turned her attention back to the main threat. Unfortunately for her it seemed to have known that the backstab was coming and the monster was in the middle of hurtling toward her. She panicked and fumbled her aim, desperately trying to realign her beam toward the black meteor, but it was all simply too late. It crashed into her full bodied and she was blown off her feet. She landed on the couch behind her, the monster coming with her, her beam flickering on and off before dying, plunging the room into darkness.


    She could feel the weight of the monster on top of her making it difficult to breathe, its hot breath on her face, tugging at her hair.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how you lived with yourself, being with the Ranker,¡± it graveled. She could feel its heavy bass voice vibrating through her body.


    She blinked, this monster could speak?... Well, why not, it didn¡¯t matter anymore.


    ¡°...It was easy, I loved every minute of it. Someday I would have out leveled him and made him mine alone but being with him had plenty of benefits in the meantime.¡±


    ¡°Despite who he is? What he does?¡±


    She grinned fiercely.


    ¡°That was the best part, that and the money, and fame, and levels, and power. You will never understand, as sub-sapient monster filth.¡±


    It remained silent as if studying her, then, without hesitation, the beast sunk its teeth into her neck and tore out her throat.


    The Elf died and the room became dark and quiet.


    And then, light flickered. The mana powered lights of the mansion struggling to dimly illuminate. Flickering light separated by pitch black seconds.


    A massive shadow could be seen in those fractional moments of light. Each time the light flickered back on it had moved.


    Bella clutched the knife to her chest wide eyed, her breath coming in short pants. She huddled behind the desk, knees drawn close. She hadn¡¯t signed up for this! She just wanted to fuck the hot high leveled Ranker and potentially get some nice levels and money as an aside. This, this wasn''t supposed to go like this! Some terrifying thing was in the room with her, the kind of monster she heard stories about as a child, from the deepest darkest unfathomable depths of a dungeon, the kind of dark horror that levelers only spoke of in hushed whispers!


    The floorboards creaked beneath its broad heavy foot pads. It was drawing closer. It was coming in this direction! She stilled her body and held her breath, desperately trying to avoid being found.


    Quiet.


    Creaaak.


    Trembling, she slowly turned her head. A pair of large yellow eyes were looking right at her from the dark. Her skin crawled as though it wanted to rip from her bones and flee where those terrible eyes could not follow. She screamed and stabbed wildly with her dagger. A huge paw came up and caught the blade, the knife slipping a little into the pad, but not far. The huge digits curled around her hand, engulfing it.


    ¡°P-please! Don¡¯t kill me!¡± she sobbed, tears forming at the corners of her eyes.


    ¡°...Why?¡± It growled.


    It was asking why?? Could she maybe talk her way out of this??


    ¡°I¡¯m- I¡¯m really new! I only recently came to this town unlike the others, I don¡¯t know what''s going on, I¡¯ve never done anything wrong! I¡¯m completely innocent! S-spare me! I¡¯ll do anything, anything!¡±


    She waited, her thoughts going a million miles a minute. The monster seemed to be thinking, considering.


    It shifted.


    Then a voice came from behind her.


    ¡°Torturers aren¡¯t innocent, especially an apple polishing bitch like you.¡±


    The vrsssh sound of magic exploding from a palm rent the air and Bella only had a moment to realise what was about to happen, far too little time to do anything about it. The yellow eyes were already gone. A wide black cutting disc crossed her gaze¡­ below her. Now she was falling, she looked as the light flickered, not fully understanding. Her hips and legs were beside her¡­ she was separate, cut in two, bisected at the navel. Her trembling hands touched at the warm mass that was her guts slowly spilling across the floorboards. Everything was going fuzzy, but strangely she wasn''t panicking, just confused, why was this happening? It didn''t make sense, it was just nonsensical. Things were getting cold now, and she felt so weak. Bella felt herself slipping away but she didn''t understand, she wasn¡¯t like the man she had killed, she was different, special, She couldn''t just die, she couldn¡¯t. She was utterly convinced of this even as consciousness left her and her chest stopped moving.


    The room was dark and quiet once more.


    ¡°Tch. Missed,¡± said the Halfling from the shadows.


    ¡°You killed your ally just to get to me? You didn''t need to do that. No wonder the Ranker keeps you about, you¡¯re as twisted and awful as he is.¡±


    ¡°Nearly worked, didn''t it? Fuck her. Tell me who you belong to monster, whose slave are you? Who put you here? The Orcs?¡±


    It huffed air out its nose.¡°I belong to nobody, I do whatever I want.¡±


    ¡°Hah! Good joke. It doesn''t matter, the Ranker cannot be defied or resisted, he¡¯s far far too strong. Once he returns he will hunt down whoever sent you and make them wish they¡¯d never been born.¡±


    ¡°He already did that, a lifetime ago.¡±


    ¡°Hmph, nonsense. You have no idea of what he is really capable of. Now be a good monster and die for my levels.¡±


    A cacophony of Vrsssh-ing sounds filled the air as disks of darkness were shot out blindly. The Halfling turned on her heel as she fired the last and fled from the lobby, slamming the door behind her. She thundered down the hall as fast as her small legs could carry her. Behind her the door exploded into splinters and the hall was filled with the monster as it chased after her.


    The Halfling dove down a side corridor, up some stairs, then left, then right, using her memory of the interior to keep ahead and navigate the darkness. At last she found what she was looking for and burst through the door. A large master bedroom was revealed, the center of which was filled with a vast and heavy oak bed, big enough for the Ranker¡¯s bulk and all his girls. The flickering light revealed over a half dozen people of various species on the bed all sleeping extremely deeply, the result of all they''d imbibed last night. The Halfling sent a quick thankyou to the gods for having chosen to skip that particular party.


    The creaking of floorboards was approaching so she dove beneath the bed, wiggling and crawling until she was near the center and on her back, the heavy crossbeams of the bed above her.


    She calmed her breathing as best she could and waited.


    The door swung open with a creak and a heavy foot pad came down in the room, then another, the Halfling listened carefully as the monster drew near. It paused for a moment observing the bed, then the bed creaked and groaned as a new huge weight crawled on top of it, the wood bending alarmingly beneath the burden.


    She heard the questioning murmured sigh of one of the girls, apparently not all of them were completely out of it.


    The murmured sigh choked off as a pair of jaws moved in the dark.


    The Halfling bit her lip. This dangerous monster had perfectly taken the bait. She had problems with aiming her cutting discs, but this, this would be like shooting fish in a barrel. She spread her arms and legs and centered her core. She could hear the monster above, moving across the bed¡­ Now.


    Black discs exploded up from all over her body, they penetrated the wood above her, ripping through it, up through the bed, up through the pile of women sleeping above her, tearing slicing shredding.


    The Halfling stared wide eyed at the bottom of the bed above her. Many long dark slots in the wood were now patterned across it. As she watched blood began to drip and then after a moment pour and then waterfall from the slots, falling across her body and the floorboards.


    A cruel smile curled her lips, her gold tooth glinting in the dark. She¡¯d done it. She¡¯d killed the monster and somehow Bane would be all hers... Wait, shouldn''t she have leveled up from a really strong monster like this? Maybe it wasn¡¯t as strong as she had assumed?


    Her train of thought was suddenly derailed by the groaning shriek of wood failing under load.


    Her eyes widened in horror as above her the bed collapsed, the heavy crossbeams plus the pile of diced people atop it falling on the Halfling. She might have survived, but then one of the beams landed on her throat, cutting off her breathing and pinning her in place. Her eyes bulged out as she realised just how trapped she was. She scrabbled at the wood in panicked desperation, her fingernails scoring long lines, but nothing she did could move it with so much weight on top.


    As she ran out of air and everything started to slip away she heard the floorboards creak with the sound of heavy pads.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 50 (R-18)

    Lyra picked her way out of the forest and through the front gates of the mansion, or what remained of them. The large iron gates had been torn off their hinges and thrown aside. A worrying sight. What the hell had Rain done?


    It was dark out but she was still able to see, the great many coloured moon in the sky above helped a little with its illumination. As she neared the front of the mansion she realised that the entrance doors were missing. Wasn¡¯t there supposed to be some kind of magic barrier to stop this kind of thing? Had it been mistakenly turned off? She knew most estates outside of walled towns and cities had one, it just made sense when monsters filled the countryside.


    As she cautiously stepped inside the mansion the mana powered lights flickered on, dimmed, then managed to hold somewhat steady, then growing steadier. Her brow raised as she looked about the destroyed lobby. Furniture had been turned into kindling and anything loose was scattered across the floor, paper, lamps, broken china. Black burn marks were on every surface in lines and patches. Overall the lobby was thoroughly wrecked.


    She bit her lip as she noticed the bloodstains. There were an awful lot of them, even on the walls. She wondered if any of them were from Rain. It wasn¡¯t hard to see where they had gone next, the main door out of the lobby was just gone. She carefully crept toward it, cursing how loud her hooves made her as they clacked against the floorboards.


    She released a held in breath as she poked her head around the frame and found no one there.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± came a voice from behind.


    Lyra yelped and pinged into the air, somehow twisting mid-leap at the same time as materialising the black knife in her hands. She thudded back down on the floorboards, knife held in front, breathing hard, eyes wide.


    Opal gave her an amused look.


    ¡°D-don¡¯t do that! You almost scared the fluff off of me!¡±


    ¡°Did I? Hmm too bad. Rain wants you, come on, follow me.¡±


    The Goblin pushed past her, although she paused for a moment to admire Lyra¡¯s knife.


    ¡°I¡¯ll trade you for the knife,¡± she said as she passed.


    Lyra blinked before hurrying to catch up. ¡°Uh, I¡¯d have thrown it away a long time ago if I could, it¡¯s cursed, I can¡¯t get rid of it or trade it, I¡¯m not even sure what it¡¯s cursed with¡­ It¡¯s a bit concerning.¡±


    ¡°But it can teleport into your hand any time! Sounds pretty useful to me, I know I wouldn''t mind having instant access to a pointy at any moment.¡±


    Lyra eyed the multitude of blades strung around the Goblin girl¡¯s shorts. She somehow doubted that she had issues with access to ¡®pointys¡¯.


    ¡°Erm yes, I suppose. Where is Rain?¡±


    ¡°I left him eating.¡±


    Lyra shivered at that, she wasn''t sure she wanted to know the details, in fact she was very sure she did not want to know them, however she was sure she was about to find out.


    They passed through hallways where the lights hadn''t fully recovered, only giving dim and shadowy illumination. She paused as she passed by a doorway, the room catching her eye. Metal glinted in the gloom, lots of metal, lots of metal in various contraptions covered in alarming spikes and engraved in a strange jagged scripture that glowed a faint orange-red. As she looked she realised that various parts of the things were meant for various parts of a person¡¯s body, some even specialised for different species, beaks, tails, claws, different variations, all contraptions designed for maximum effectiveness at their job...


    This was a torture chamber, and a well fitted and well used looking one at that. She suddenly felt a heck of a lot less sorry for the occupants of the mansion and what Rain might have done to them.


    Opal grabbed her hand and tugged her along. She slowly followed, having to shake her head slightly to stop imagining just what some of those horrible contraptions were used for.


    They soon found what they were looking for in a different room deeper in the mansion.


    The room was dark and a shadowy mass could be seen in one corner, it took Lyra a moment to realise it was Rain. He was crouched over something, his paws moving. The sound of eating filled the air. Lyra nearly lost control of her bladder as she realised what was happening, she stumbled as her legs went weak and fell against the door frame. He was eating levelers. She shuddered, this was one thing she was sure she couldn''t get used to, monsters fine, but levelers, no, it wasn¡¯t right, levelers were different from monsters! Completely different¡­ right?


    As the last of a limb disappeared behind his massive jaws he eased himself back onto a nearby couch, lazily slumping on top of it, his legs spread. The couch groaned desperately under his weight.


    Opal happily skipped forward and pounced on the wolf, her fingers rolling through his fur as she prostrated herself on his torso. As she lay atop him one hand slipped down her own body and below the hem of her shorts, her fingers finding her sopping wetness and exploring her folds, pushing and teasing herself as she felt Rain begin to change beneath her.


    Rain growled and a paw wrapped around her hip causing her to coo and gasp aloud. Rain himself was straining against the crouch, his feet slipping against the floor. Lyra watched with fascination as she saw his body shift and grow, his mass swelling larger, his clawed feet scoring the floorboards as his paw slid along the back of the couch, he gruffed and groaned and thrust his hips into the air even as Opal wiggled and squirmed herself against his body.


    Lyra bit her lip, she had to admit there was something about seeing the dominating mass of Rain grow larger and even more dominating that was tugging at her buttons. The sheer size difference, that huge overwhelming masculine physical presence next to the tiny Goblin who was desperately humping herself against him like her life depended on it, whining and mewling.


    She chided herself, that feeling wasn''t normal, clearly this was her Elf part being Elf like. Elves had infamously broad taste, herself being evidence of that.


    The poor couch that had barely been holding itself together suddenly gave up the ghost as Rain reached the peak of his growth. With a crash it fully collapsed leaving Rain in a crater of broken furniture. Opal let out a long desperate lush moan and her eyes rolled up before she collapsed on top of Rain burying her face in his chest.


    Lyra swallowed, her throat a little dry. They certainly knew how to put on a show.


    After a moment of awkwardly standing in the doorway she made a polite cough into her fist.


    ¡°Uhm, I¡¯m back now.¡±


    Rain lifted his head.


    ¡°Good. Were there any problems? Anything dangerous?¡±


    ¡°Er, no, it went perfectly fine, although I couldn''t do much but eavesdrop in a couple of inns and ask a few casual questions.¡±


    Rain lifted his paw and peeled the limp Goblin of himself. She mumbled in protest as he leaned forward and then climbed to his feet.


    Lyra gulped, he was definitely over an inch taller, which due to square cube law also meant he was significantly larger and heavier in every other way. The floorboards did not sound happy with this new weight as he stepped toward her and she was sure most of them had been permanently cracked or splintered under his broad pads. She looked up at him fearfully, unsure what this unpredictable monster intended to do next.


    He loomed over her as he neared, his intense yellow eyes the eyes of a predator, was he coming for her? To eat her like the other levelers? Her trembling hand reached for her mouth as unprompted wild imagery of being eaten by this beast slipped into her mind. Was she prey? Maybe she was prey! Her instincts were taking over, she needed to flee!


    ¡°Move.¡± said Rain.


    She blinked. Oh, right, she was standing in the doorway. She backed away hurriedly and Rain ducked down through it and moved past her determinedly. She watched as he passed down the hall filling most of it with his body. Opal appeared by her side, her cheeks still a little rosy.


    ¡°Wh-where is he going?¡±


    ¡°Dunno, wanna follow?¡±


    ¡°...Yes?¡±


    The pair followed Rain as he made his way down the hallway, turning left then right. Light returned and filled the corridor although mostly blocked off by Rain¡¯s size.


    He pushed open a door and ducked down inside. Opal and Lyra glanced at each other and then Opal approached the brightly lit door. Her jaw dropped, a look of open dismay on her face.


    ¡°How is it indoors!¡±


    ¡°What! What is it!¡±


    Opal put her head in her hands and groaned. ¡°I just can''t escape, everywhere I go, it¡¯s always there, I¡¯m being changed against my will!¡±


    Lyra approached the door wondering just what she was going to see, another torture chamber? Worse? The well-lit room revealed itself, a¡­ bathhouse. To be fair it was a very large bathhouse, with multiple large pools steaming in the air. Red was excitedly running around one of the pools, his claws clacking on the tile. He came to a raised circular pool and tipped the two bottles he was holding into it, a syrupy purple ooze poured out. He shook the bottles to get the last drips free then carefully placed them to the side. Then he jumped in the pool and began swishing it around with his claws, bubbles and foam began to pile up around him and Lyra realised he had discovered the wonders of bubble bath.


    Rain ignored the Kobold and waded into the largest pool, ducking down below the waterline for a moment and sending a small wave of displaced water over the tile that washed up to the doorway and out into the hall. Lyra lifted her hooves as the water touched up against the bottom of them.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going in there!¡± said Opal.


    ¡°Come here,¡± growled Rain, commanding.


    Opal looked flustered, fighting a desperate inner battle between her desire to avoid water and her desire to be with Rain. She cried out and ran forward, shedding her clothes. Rain caught her as she jumped into the water and pulled her into his lap. She glared at the water angrily but after a moment she paused.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ warm?¡±


    ¡°These are heated baths, magically heated, and probably self-cleaning, the water isn''t getting murky. I think that¡¯s a filter at that end of the pool. This is the Ranker¡¯s mansion so it would have something absurd like this.¡±


    Opal swished her hands in the water experimentally.


    ¡°This, this is kinda nice¡­¡±


    As the pair began to wash Lyra made a decision. She had lived in the city her whole life, public baths were a thing and she had regularly used them, especially after dungeon diving. Dungeons were not clean places and right now she was filthy with dungeon dirt. She wanted, no she needed to be clean, and this mansion¡¯s bathhouse had all that she could ask for.


    She carefully and slowly stepped inside and made her way toward one of the pools, glancing awkwardly at Rain and Opal who were busily splashing and ineptly washing themselves. She passed by Red too, or rather the pool where Red was, it was currently a six foot tall dome of white bubble bath foam. A red scaled muzzle poking out at the bottom of one side was all that was visible of the Kobold.


    Lyra reached her chosen pool and then wiggled her hips and slipped out of her shorts, hooking them over her hooves and folding them to one side. Next was her black panties, she couldn''t help a little colour coming to her cheeks as she glanced back over to double check the others weren''t watching. She slid the panties over her wide hips too and then passed them down over her fluff. Now she was semi naked, she almost left her jacket on, but then decided that would be silly. She reluctantly pulled off her jacket and then her shirt leaving her bra which she unbuttoned and let fall, in doing so her soft expansive breasts were left to spill out, bouncing up and down slightly in the air. They were quite nice breasts in her opinion.


    She snuck another look at Rain to see if he was watching. He was not. Good. She chose to ignore the little disappointed feeling in her gut.


    She slipped into the warm water with a sigh. She was pleased to find that there were a number of shampoos and soaps and conditioners and oils to the side of the pool, which made sense, there were likely a variety of species who lived- who had lived here and they would of course each need their own personal care, oils for scales, shampoos for fur, and so on.


    She ran an expert hand over the glass bottles until she found the ones she wanted and began busily washing. It didn''t take her long, she had a ton of experience dealing with problematic and difficult to keep clean white fluff that had made her quite skilled. As she was finishing up she glanced over at Rain and Opal and paused. They had moved to the shelved area of the pool designed for sitting and Rain had his back against the pool edge with Opal in his lap, Rain was large enough that the tops of his thighs were above the waterline. That wasn¡¯t the problem, the problem was that they quite clearly had no clue what they were doing, Rain was just using his paws and water for gods sake! And not even doing that right! That wasn¡¯t going to get him properly clean!


    She looked between the various soaps and shampoos and back to the hopelessly incompetent cleaning the pair of monsters were attempting. As she watched she slowly became more and more annoyed, her inner stylist screaming at their amateurishness. Without even realising it she stood up and grabbed an armload of the bottles and began marching purposefully toward Rain.


    The pair turned and looked at her in surprise. She froze up as she abruptly came back to reality.


    ¡°Uh-Uhm, d-do you w-want some help w-w-washing?¡± she squeaked.


    She suddenly realised that Rain was looking over her exposed and completely naked body. She blushed deep red and tried to keep in mind that this was a public bathing situation, mixed bathing was an accepted thing, especially in the cities, this was fine. Her nipples were getting a little cold against the glass she held. Completely normal situation she firmly repeated to herself.


    Rain seemed non-plussed but raised a paw in a gesture to carry on.


    Lyra let out a breath and stepped closer, praying that her legs wouldn''t give out while she was carrying so much glass, she would rather not get shattered glass all over herself thank you.


    She came up to Rain¡¯s broad back and kneeled, taking in the size of him, still alarmingly large, and all that fur! She realised that this might actually take a while. Well, no point stalling. She picked out a promising shampoo and poured it out on Rain¡¯s back. And then she placed her hands on him, well she tried to, her hands didn''t seem to want to obey, instead staying where they were by her sides. With difficulty, she raised the trembling shaking things and brought them toward Rain¡¯s black fur. She knew he used to be a leveler, as long as she kept that in mind and kept repeating that fact then this was easy and not scary at all.


    She let out a little whimper as she succeeded in touching him, running her fingers through his fur, feeling the heat of his body. Her hands were very very small next to his back. She began massaging the shampoo in.


    A Goblin head peaked over Rain¡¯s shoulder and peered down at what she was doing.


    ¡°What is that? What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s, uhm, shampoo it makes your hair or fur especially clean and nice.¡±


    ¡°What? You mean it¡¯s worse than water?!¡± Opal drew back slightly, suddenly wary of this new frightening development.


    ¡°It does a much better job than just water, yes.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean why?¡±


    ¡°Why clean extra?¡±


    ¡°Because it looks nice, look see how much glossier this spot I just cleaned is compared to this spot?¡±


    Opal narrowed her eyes.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, tell her Rain, you used to be a leveler.¡±


    Rain paused and seemed to think for a moment. ¡°...I¡¯ve never had shampoo before¡­ Just soap.¡±


    ¡°You were a leveler, of course you have!¡±


    ¡°I was a low leveler, a very low one, they don''t let low levelers into the good public bathhouses, we were lucky to get soap.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    She continued rubbing at his fur for a moment until Opal made a noise to get her attention.


    ¡°I wanna try.¡±


    ¡°On yourself?¡±


    Hell no!... On Rain.¡±


    Lyra raised an eyebrow but passed up one of the shampoo bottles. Opal grabbed it and poured a thick mess of the stuff over Rain¡¯s chest. She began smearing it around his pecs as she tossed the bottle aside, quickly building up a lather.


    ¡°Hmm this is kinda fun.¡±


    ¡°Being clean and stylish is something considered really important in my home city, you would get laughed at if you came back from the dungeon and didn''t tidy yourself up.¡±


    ¡°Being clean is dumb¡­ but it doesn''t look bad, I guess.¡±


    ¡°Of course! You know I could teach you a thing or two about making yourself presentable, for a monster anyway.¡±


    Opal didn''t reply, only the sound of the two girls working shampoo into the wolf filled the air.


    Lyra worked her way to the side of Rain¡¯s back and decided to take a look to check if Opal was actually doing anything useful. She carefully leaned to the side and peeked around Rain and found the Goblin with her hands massaging Rain¡¯s massively thick sheath, her foam covered fingers squeezing and pushing at it excitedly.


    Lyra froze up, what the hell was the Goblin doing?! She blushed as she continued to lather Rain¡¯s arm and shoulder. She should look away, she really should look away.


    She continued to peek.


    Stratothrax


    Lyra just can''t look away ?


    Rain current height: 8 Feet, 3.5 Inches = 252.73 Centimeters


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 Chapter 51 (R-18)

    The crazy Goblin was still doing it!


    Lyra¡¯s hands moved over Rain¡¯s broad bicep, lathering shampoo into his body by rote. Her eyes weren¡¯t focused on that however, instead they were being dragged magnetically to the side by what Opal was busily doing to Rain¡¯s sheath. A lewd smile on the Goblin¡¯s face as she squeezed and massaged at it, tugging and pulling at the thickness until Lyra spotted a flash of pink amongst the black.


    This could not be about to happen, shared public bathing was one thing, this was entirely another thing! Lyra opened her mouth to timidly speak up but then the pink bulged outward and a huge tip slipped free from the sheath and into Opal¡¯s foam covered hands. The Goblin cooed as the heavy thing slipped between her slick fingers, pushing them apart with its width. Lyra slowly shut her mouth, her train of thought completely derailed by just how widely spread Opal¡¯s fingers were by the thing¡¯s still growing girth.


    She continued to shampoo Rain¡¯s arm, her fingers working on their own as she became more and more distracted by the huge mass currently spilling out of Rain, it just kept going and going and when Lyra thought there couldn''t be more it just kept on. H-holy shit how is it so big? She swallowed noisily as Opal ran her small hands over the intimidating mass, her fingers dancing up his shaft, tracing his vascular veins until they reached the sheath where her finger tips tucked underneath and began tugging it backwards. With a lurch, the length surged forward once more and an uninflated knot slipped free. Lyra had to bite her lip to stop from gasping aloud in surprise, how was there bloody more?!


    Opal didn''t sit on ceremony and dived on the rising hardening length eagerly setting a line of sloppy kisses and practically smearing her lips across it in her adoration. She steadily worked her way up the length from the head until she was tending to the uninflated knot, by this point openly tongue bathing it. As she did so the length stiffened and rose against her, pushing her breasts apart and pressing up against the Goblin girl¡¯s torso, the length long enough that the head was bucking up against the smooth skin of Opal¡¯s trim stomach.


    Lyra shivered. The size of that thing! It way outsized the Goblin girl, talk about a size queen, no Opal was arguably a size empress at this point. The dominating brutal mass of it throbbed up against her flesh, gods it must be atleast thirteen inches! Without prompt images of Lyra herself pressed up against that monster snuck into her mind, comparing her forearm to it and finding herself smaller, the heavy weight of it resting on her tummy. Wait what the hell was she thinking about? She needed to get away from this, this was a private interaction she was intruding on. She readied herself to stand up and leave... any minute now.


    She remained where she was, fixated.


    As she watched Opal curled her arms around the length hugging it to her body, a happy blissful smile crossing her face as she became extremely intimate with the length, hugging it like a lover, her cheek pressing up against the knot. Rain seemed to appreciate Opal¡¯s enjoyment and his length throbbed and bucked upwards hard. The Goblin girl¡¯s whole body shifted up as she was momentarily lifted by the shaft alone, her legs which hung down in the pool kicking at the water as she exclaimed in surprise.


    Lyra would be lying if she said that sight of the massive powerful length flexing and lifting an entire girl up didn''t make her feel incredibly turned on. In fact the sheep girl could acually feel her loins heating, and her breathing started to accelerate. She felt like a voyeur, a pervert, yet somehow accepted, as though the monsters had done this in front of people before. She licked her lip and one of her hands left Rain''s bicep and touched at her front. Slowly, not sure what the hell she was doing, her fingers traced down her chest between her indecently round breasts and onto her stomach, her fingers slid lower and lower, past her navel and down to her mons, then past that to her puffy lower lips and her clitoral hood. It was warm to the touch, no, hot to the touch, as she felt around she had to bite her tongue to stop a squeak from escaping her lips. Gods I am so sensitive right now. She carefully traced around the peak of her hood and down to the engorged nub below it. Like a feather tracing an outline she quietly touched her finger tips to it, her body tensing as she made contact.


    She snatched a glance up at Rain to make sure he hadn''t noticed, good he hadn¡¯t.


    She definitely didn''t want him noticing her freaking masturbating while she shampooed his fur! That would be unbelievably shameful. Her cheeks burned red just imagining it. She would endeavour to be as quiet and as subtle as possible. Stealthy. Like a plant in the background.


    She startled as Rain suddenly moved his arm opposite her, his massive paw coming down on top of Opal. She let out a whine as his digits curled around her head forcefully lifting her to look him in the eye. She looked up at him adoringly "I''m, I''m s-starting to come around on bathing," she murmured.


    "That¡¯s good. I don''t want a dirty Goblin. You need to be clean for when I fuck you into the ground, fuck you until you can''t move your legs and your belly is taut and heavy with my seed."


    Opal¡¯s eyelids fluttered and her eyes rolled up as he spoke. A little drool ran from her lip as her whole body trembled.


    "Y-yes, g-gods, just f-fucking use me, rut me until I¡¯m ruined, I don''t care! Debase me, break me until i can think of nothing but your fat throbbing dick pistoning into-! Let me pl-"


    The end of Opal''s breathy gasping tirade was cut off by Rain¡¯s huge thumb pad moving over mouth. The insatiable Goblin girl bit desperately at it, and when that didn''t work she slurped noisily at its surface, her hips humping at the air behind her.


    Lyra had the distinct impression that the monsters had forgotten she was there. Strangely she felt a little detached from this incredibly heated display, or maybe more like a herbivore in the grass that had stumbled upon a pair of predators playing and was terrified of drawing their attention.


    She was momentarily distracted from this worry by her hidden hand moving down to her lower lips. To her surprise she found herself dripping wet, thick strands of gel like fluid dangling from her labia that snapped and spattered on the tile below as her fingers passed across her folds. Fuck, how was she this fucking turned on? This was ridiculous! She felt like she was on fire down there! While her other hand was still vaguely lathering at Rain¡¯s fur she began to push at herself down below, darting fingertips in then slipping them free to glide and stroke across the swollen glistening exterior of her muff.


    As she was distractedly doing this Rain¡¯s other arm shifted and Opal gasped as both paws came down on her waist, encircling her completely. She looked down at the sheer size of the paws, completely holding her in their grasp. Rain squeezed the Goblin playfully causing her to squirm. Then he lifted her and in one smooth motion flipped her over sending her legs kicking into the air. The removal of the Goblin allowed his length to spring up and it slapped up against his abdomen, the noise indicating the heavy weight of the thing.


    Opal struggled in his grasp, her legs kicking in frustration, her hands grabbing at the air below, desperately trying to snatch at the head of Rain¡¯s cock and pull it toward herself. Rain teased her, keeping her just out of range. Her fingers glancing at the surface of his length but unable to get any closer. Opal abruptly huffed and glared at Rain, crossing her arms, which looked somewhat absurd upside down as she was.


    "Not funny!"


    Rain grinned wolfishly, flashing his predator¡¯s teeth and eliciting a shudder of fear from Lyra who kneeled meekly beside him.


    "It''s a little funny. You''re cute when you pout."


    A conflicted expression crossed Opal¡¯s face, happy at being called cute, mad because "cute" wasn''t very Gobliny.


    "Just give it!"


    Rain raised an eyebrow.


    "Fuck! Please give it!"


    He snorted and pulled her near. The Goblin eagerly grabbed at his length, gasping in delight and rubbing her face all over the head. As Opal made herself intimate with the broad tip Rain leaned down and forced apart her thighs with his head, roughly shoving her legs aside to make space for himself as his muzzle found her puss. A long line of fem fluid was slowly rolling down the upside down Goblin¡¯s stomach having leaked from her folds. Rain eyed the Goblin, judging by how hard and swollen her clit was Opal was on a hair trigger. He gruffed and blew hot air over her groin, which coming from Rain was a lot of air. She squealed as her sensitive folds were tickled by the gale passing by and her legs jerked.


    Not wanting to be outdone she frantically pulled the tip of Rain¡¯s dick to her mouth, slobbering over the tip until lines of her drool were running down him. She desperately pressed her lips over it and tried to force her head down, but the girth of it was just too much for her and she was left whimpering and desperately suckling at it, trying to milk at the head as best she could.


    A large tongue slapped up against her belly and then agonisingly slowly rolled up and over her mons pubis, tugging at her skin until it slid over her muff dragging her softness along with it from front to back and leaving Opal jerking and twitching. It was on the way back from this that Opal tipped over the edge and came, her toes curling up and her knees clenching against the side of Rain¡¯s head as a flood of her juices rolled from her upside down pussy and poured down her torso to spill across the underside of her breasts.


    Rain slathered his tongue all over her crotch licking up her emissions even as she came.


    ¡°So easy, you¡¯re just that desperate for me to be inside of you?¡±


    Opal shook her head, unable to speak with her lips glued to Rain¡¯s cock.


    ¡°Did you think I would allow that without me being inside you first?¡±


    The Goblin only had a moment for shock to widen her eyes before Rain pushed the Goblin down. She shook her head frantically making desperate muffled noises as a heavy pressure built up on her hips, forcing the head of Rain¡¯s dick into her wide open mouth, making her feel like her jaw was going to crack, splitting her open. She scrabbled her hands desperately at the length trying to hold herself back but to no avail, Rain was overpowering and with a loud pop! Her lips slipped over the head of Rain¡¯s dick completely filling and stretching out her mouth from back to front, stretching her more than she thought possible. She whined long and low, unable to do anything but look down the overwhelming thickness she was speared on, hopelessly trapped and vulnerable.


    Then Rain pressed down again and she felt the head of his cock brutally press up against the back of her throat, no it was too much! But even as she thought it she could feel her throat giving, making way for the massive intruder. Her brow shot up as she felt herself slip inches down the shaft and her hands grabbed at her neck. It did not feel normal, in fact, as she carefully touched at it she could literally feel Rain¡¯s length through her skin, her throat bulging out massively as Rain¡¯s dick distended it. The realisation made her shudder and groan, she was being forcibly used as a cock sleeve and she had no choice in the matter, the thought alone set off a little micro orgasm that caused her body to tingle. Rain, ignorant of all this, eagerly pushed his muzzle up against her muff, his front teeth pressing into and dimpling her flesh.


    Lyra looked on stunned, she had zero belief that Opal could have managed Rain¡¯s size, but somehow the Goblin girl had done it. She apparently had a very unique talent.


    Rain lapped eagerly at Opal¡¯s folds as a reward for taking him, digging his tongue deeper and deeper into her until he was spreading her wide with each long lick. He paused as muffled yelping came from below, apparently Opal was appreciative, he could feel her small squashed down tongue desperately licking up against him in turn. He responded by rolling his hips pulling a couple of inches from her mouth before roughly shoving back in bulging out her throat once more, then again and again until Opal¡¯s stretched lips were starting to redden as they were dragged back and forth by his mass.


    Well, he wasn''t going to stop there. He opened his jaws wide, saliva momentarily connecting his teeth before snapping, and placed his mouth wholly over Opal¡¯s crotch, his lower teeth dimpling against her tummy while his top teeth squashed her round rear as though he was about to bite a chunk out of the helpless Goblin. The reason why he was doing this became clear when he pushed his tongue down against her puss and easily penetrated deep deep into her body, able to use the full length of his tongue to hit spots he wouldn''t otherwise be able to and attain the leverage to use more of his outsized strength in the muscle. His massive tongue spread her wide and scraaaaped up her inner walls causing Opal to shriek and her knees to lock around his head desperately clamping down on him as lightning shot down her body.


    Lyra looked wide eyed at Rain, Opal was practically in his mouth! It was like he was eating her! Like- like prey! Just on the cusp of being this predator¡¯s snack! She shuddered at the dangerous thought and her fingers plunged into her sopping folds all the faster, droplets of herself raining down on the tile below as she inserted two fingers, then three, then four. Would she feel this stretched out and full if she took rain? Oh gods what was she thinking about! The hopelessly lost and bewildered sheep girl continued to masturbate herself as the chorus of muffled squealing and shrieking from Opal grew ever higher.


    Rain was sawing his tongue in and out of Opal¡¯s pussy by this point, roughly plunge fucking her depths with the thick muscle, tasting her deepest sacred places and running roughshod over her nerves, coiling and pressuring with his tongue over and over and over. He could feel Opal was building toward a heavy climax, her body twitching and tensing with each pussy stretching lurch of his tongue. He could also feel her mouth loosening up a little as she screamed and wailed around him and he shoved his hips up, openly throat fucking her, harder and faster and rougher until he could feel himself swiftly building.


    Rain¡¯s motions sped up and became arrhythmic and rough, until with a deep bone shaking growl he thrust up deep into Opal shoving her down inches until her chin slammed into his knot unable to go further, her throat bulging outward obscenely with his thickness, and then even more as his cock swelled and cum exploded up his length, spraying thick hosing ropes of white deep into the Goblin.


    In the same moment his vibrating growl sent Opal hurtling over the edge and she squirted HARD, spraying fluids up into the roof of Rain¡¯s mouth in a solid stream, instantly flooding his mouth and waterfalling outward. Rain didn''t hesitate, he clamped his lips down on her skin trapping the fluid and began sucking, slurping up everything she had to give and noisily drinking it down.


    As that happened Lyra finally managed to fit her entire hand in herself. She collapsed against Rain, her body twitching and jerking, her free hand desperately clutching at him as fluid spurted from her puss, spraying down the tile below in a spattering drumbeat. She let out a low keening whine, fighting a desperate battle to stop from screaming aloud.


    Opal shuddered and quaked atop Rain, her hips bucking into him as her legs wrapped around his head like a vice squeezing down as hard as she could as the tremendous sucking motion was applied over her entire puss. Even as her eyes rolled up thick ropes of cum were blasting into her stomach, more and more and more, Rain¡¯s output was truly incredible and Opal started to feel uncomfortably full and tight as he continued to ejaculate into her without end, each surge bulging out her tummy a little more until it was rounded in an arc over her abdomen, pushing out Rain¡¯s paws where he held her.


    As rain sucked up the last of Opal¡¯s juices he seemed to realise quite how full he was making the little goblin and out of sudden concern he heaved her up, pulling her roughly from the entirety of his length with an airy schlucking quelching sound, her lips dragging over every vascular vein as she was swiftly ripped upward and pulled over the head with a sloppy SCHLPOP! A gush of gum poured from her abused swollen lips, pouring down in a thick stream for a second or so as her throat emptied.


    Opal drew in a heaving breath as she was freed, even as Rain¡¯s cock continued to buck and furiously spray ropes of thick glue like cum over her body, frosting her green skin and then past her sending long lines of white over the water, reaching across the entire pool.


    Rain groaned as he rode it out and slumped back against the pool edge. As he did so his throbbing length bounced upward momentarily sending one particularly large rope of cum skyward.


    Lyra, startled from her orgasmic afterglow, looked up at the worst possible moment.


    The thumb thick line of white landed across her face, stretching from her hair down onto her brow, across her nose and down over the top of her mouth.


    The sheep girl panicked and opened her mouth to scream.


    Unfortunately, the strand of cum over her mouth stretched and then snapped into a thumb-sized blob which fell directly into the sheep girl¡¯s mouth and straight onto her tongue.


    Lyra upgraded from panic to sheer blind hysteria, her eyes darting wildly as the horror of what had just happened hit her mind like a gold brick. Making choked squeaks and screams while desperately trying not to taste Rain she lurched into a skittery run, darting across the tile like a fleeing prey animal.


    Hooves, of course, did not do very well on wet tile. Her desperate flight turned into a desperate fight to stay upright and she went staggering across the bathhouse with a wail before finally losing her fight against gravity and falling into the now ten foot wide bubble bath mountain. She sailed straight through it and landed in the pool underneath with a splash.


    Rain and Opal turned in confusion to see a Lyra shaped hole in the white foam.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 52

    Lyra woke in a bed and for the first couple of moments she felt well rested and okay.


    Then the memory of what had happened hit her and her stomach dropped. She put her hands over her beet red blushing cheeks and groaned, curling up into the fetal position.


    Memories stuck around to a varying degree, visual memory somewhat, auditory and scent memories with more clarity, but most of all the memory of taste was unforgettable, and Lyra was remembering a taste she really did not want to remember right now.


    ¡°Oh gods why me¡­¡±


    She recalled after accidentally taking some of Rain¡¯s¡­ stuff, into her mouth, that she had fallen into a pool and gotten lost in a vast blinding morass of bubble bath foam. That hadn''t helped her hyperventilating level of hysteria and she¡¯d thrashed around in the water bleating for help.


    Help had come, but from the one she really wished it hadn''t. The bubbles had been swept aside and Rain¡¯s huge paw had pulled her from the water and up into his arms. His stuff hadn''t come off and she still had a little of it over her face, as well as in her mouth, and she was just there, in the arms of the one responsible for it. She¡¯d slapped her hands over her eyes and frozen up, refusing to speak or move, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole. Then again, that was reminiscent of Rain, never mind that metaphor, she just wished she was away! Away from his massive overwhelming masculinity and not butt naked in his arms with his taste in her mouth!


    Rain had asked her something and she hadn''t replied, then he had started moving, and then she found her skin touching down on soft cotton, a bed? And then the door had closed and she had been left in the dark alone. She made herself go to sleep as quickly as possible so as to escape thinking about the whole unmitigated disaster, escaping from the shame into unconsciousness.


    Now it was morning and the events were back at the forefront of her thoughts. Horrible embarrassing thoughts. What the hell had she been thinking? Clearly she had been letting her Elven side take the lead too much. Elves were naturally horny people and that had apparently been included with her Elven half. She promised herself she would primarily listen to her nice sensible Woollie half in future.


    Giving up on pretending not to exist she rolled from bed and set her hooves down on the floorboards with a click clack. To her surprise her clothes were there, neatly folded to one side. She couldn''t imagine Rain or Opal doing such a thing, so, Red¡­ did it?


    She slipped into the clothes as she pondered the cowardly Kobold. He was pretty much a slave, just like at home. Kobolds weren''t that popular as slaves but she had seen a few. She wondered if her new perspective on Goblins applied to Kobolds too. She considered investigating, maybe all monsters were as sapient as levelers? Hmm, food for thought.


    As she was adjusting her shorts to be comfortable the door swung open. It took a second to realise that the wall of black filling it was not a shadow but Rain¡¯s body. He ducked down beneath the frame and stared at her. She unconsciously took a step back and swallowed. That of course reminded her of his taste, and the shame. Her cheeks burned and she found she couldn''t look him in the eye.


    ¡°I want you. Come with me.¡±


    He turned and disappeared from view.


    Wh-what did that mean? What did he mean by want?! Unsure quite what she should be expecting she nervously followed after him as he made his way through the mansion. They came out in what appeared to be the Ranker¡¯s personal quarters. A huge common room with an open plan bedroom off to one side, even what appeared to be a sort of small kitchenette mostly filled with alcohol. The mixed purpose room was significantly more luxurious than the other rooms she had seen, with furs draped everywhere and excessive use of gold filigree and plush rugs.


    There was seating in the middle which Rain quickly found. He slumped down atop a couch, stretching out his legs. Surprisingly the furniture seemed to be holding up well under his weight, although she supposed that made sense considering the size of the Ranker, he would need strong furniture.


    Red and Opal were there too. Red was excitedly sorting through a pile of coins, the mansion obviously held a lot of treasure, she wondered if Red alone would be enough to carry it all now. There was also what appeared to be various random objects he had looted from around the mansion, including several jewellery boxes, a clock, a goblet, and an ornate sewing box.


    She eyed the sewing box, that would be an additional cog to one of her ideas.


    Opal was lazing on a large cushioned footstool on her front, her legs dangling over the sides and her feet waving in the air above her rear.


    ¡°I want you to tell me everything you found out when you went into town. Did you get any names?¡± Said Rain, his arm across the back of the couch


    Lyra blinked. ¡°Oh- uh, you wanted me for that, right. Uhm, W-well I don¡¯t know about the others but I did manage to find out something. The levelers Lira and Adlen are in town. They didn''t leave with the levelers who went into the dungeon with the Inquisitor.¡±


    As she spoke Rain¡¯s paw slowly curled and the couch gained several claw shaped holes. Lyra eyed his paw warily.


    ¡°Uh, it seemed that the Inquisitor swept through town in a rush and gathered up everyone she could on the spot, not even telling them what was happening before going back to the dungeon. A lot of people just missed joining up.¡±


    ¡°And the others? Brax, Myra, Eliza?¡±


    Lyra shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I- I wasn''t there for long.¡±


    Rain¡¯s paw eased and he nodded slowly. ¡°Fine. Then I just need to get into town somehow and I can kill the both of them, that¡¯s two of the five who tortured and murdered me. It¡¯s a start.¡±


    Opal rolled her head to the side and peered at Rain as Lyra shifted her hooves nervously, not liking this talk.


    ¡°Uhm, about getting into town, I¡¯m not sure invisibility will work, they are surprisingly careful about that kind of thing at the main gatehouses. I suppose it makes sense since we know for a fact that there were levelers who could turn invisible around here, that Dwarf, I uhm, well, yes. Additionally the walls are enchanted with something, either a monster alarm, or a barrier, or both, making climbing them a no go. But I had an idea while I was there, something that might make things much much simpler.¡±


    ¡°Tell me.¡±


    ¡°You pretend to be my monster slave and-¡±


    "No."


    "Uh- Really? B-but it could work, with some uh, bribes.¡±


    Rain remained silent.


    "Well I had another idea, that might actually work better for what you want."


    Rain tilted his head at her, waiting.


    ¡°Not a slave, but you pretend to be a leveler.¡±


    Opal snorted out a laugh from where she lazed. ¡°Have you seen him? He looks like he eats levelers for breakfast! Which he does, actually.¡±


    ¡°Right, but, what happened with the old man in the woods gave me the idea for it. It seems like if you throw enough money at a problem it just kind of goes away, and since Rain is a unique monster with nothing else like him to use as a reference it makes it a lot easier for people to intentionally overlook things.¡±


    ¡°You really think that would work? I could pretend to be a leveler while looking like this?¡±


    Lyra eyed him, true his fur was clean and glossy now, but that didn''t take away from the wildly feral and dangerous atmosphere he seemed to exude, like he would rip you apart at the drop of a hat. His eyes were especially problematic, they looked hungry, predatory, just looking at them made something ancient and primitive wake in her hindbrain, something small and scared that wanted to flee from the thing that came from the dark.


    Her gaze paused momentarily on his sheath and she suddenly recalled his taste yet again. She screwed up her face and shook her head trying to get the memory to go away with little success.


    ¡°No, well not as you are right now, levelers do not go around naked, all levelers wear clothes, most monsters do not.¡±


    Rain sat up. ¡°You want me to wear clothing? Where are we going to get that? Have you not noticed my size right now? Nothing will fit me.¡±


    Lyra was very very aware of his size, she moved her hips a little, uncomfortably conscious of his gaze.


    ¡°The Ranker-¡±


    The couch groaned alarmingly under Rain as his body tensed up. Lyra looked at it worriedly before continuing.


    ¡°The Ranker is very large too, maybe seven foot tall."


    "Not as big as rain¡­" murmured opal.


    "She''s right."


    "I know that, not that it matters with levelers, but he''s close enough that I think I can do something with his clothes."


    "You can?"


    "Yes, as you can tell from my extremely refined and high class taste in clothing I know something about the subject of fashion. Some cut seams here and there and I can maybe probably possibly get something to fit."


    Rain looked at her sceptically and Opal lifted her head.


    "Okay, I''ve changed my mind, I want to see him trying to fit in some too small clothing, tight clothing that can barely contain him.¡±


    ¡°Er¡­yes?¡± said Lyra, eyeing the Goblin, not quite sure what she was getting at.


    "Fine." said Rain reluctantly. "If you think you can make me look like a leveler then go ahead."


    Lyra held up a finger. "Look more like a leveler, I don''t think I could make you look like one, but that''s where the copious amounts of bribery steps in to fill the gap."


    Red gave her an offended look and shifted his body over the stacks of coins protectively, like a mother hen protecting her eggs from predators.


    Lyra turned to face the wardrobe. It was a large wardrobe and like the rest of the room it was gratuitously gilded around the edges. She stepped up to it and pulled at the doorknobs. After a moment of effort they swung open revealing what was inside. The Ranker¡¯s clothing.


    "Hmm, this seems promising."


    "Does it?" said Opal, appearing at her side. "Looks weird. Why would you even wear that? The dangly bits would get everywhere."


    "Those are tassels, and that is formal wear," said Lyra as Opal hauled on a sleeve.


    The sheep girl pursed her lips and batted her hand away. "Look, you clearly have no idea what any of- hey stop that!"


    Opal pulled down a large fur-trimmed coat. It was so large that it covered her like a blanket, that is until she wiggled around putting it on. Her face appeared, tiny at the center of a huge donut of fur. She lifted her arms, the sleeves hanging down off her hands nearly to the floor.


    Lyra gave her an exasperated look. ¡°Opal, look, just trust me to do this and go... go and make us some tea while I do my thing. This isn''t a monster thing, this is a leveler thing, you¡¯ll just get in the way, okay?¡±


    ¡°Wow, rude. I don''t need snotty leveler clothes anyway.¡±


    Opal waved her arms at the sheep girl, her dangling sleeves flapping. Then she stalked away, the bottom of the coat dragging along the floor behind her in a long tail.


    Lyra put aside the annoying Goblin from her mind and refocused back on the wardrobe. She pulled out each article of clothing and looked it over, practically ransacking the Ranker¡¯s belongings. Black and purple coats, billowing white shirts, there was a lot, unfortunately she couldn''t do a lot with most of it due to Rain¡¯s size. Still, in the end, she found some things she thought she could potentially work with.


    She dragged the stack of cloth to a chair, a Ranker sized chair, which is to say a large chair. She looked at it meaningfully while glancing at Rain.


    ¡°Uhm, could you come sit p-please? I can''t do this with you on the couch.¡±


    Rain eyed the cloth she had brought but after a moment he rolled to his feet and strode over to her. He looked down at the sheep girl, cloth clutched nervously in her hands. She was still quite clearly terrified of him. Well, not much he could do there, she would just have to get used to being around him over time. He turned and casually sank down on the chair with his back to Lyra.


    ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡°R-right. Red? Can you bring that sewing box over?¡±


    Red looked at her suspiciously. ¡°What are you planning to do with it? Is this one of these giving away the shiny things you like to do? Are you going to ¡®bribe¡¯ someone with it?¡±


    ¡°No I¡¯m not going to bribe someone with a sewing box Red,¡± said Lyra, rolling her eyes.


    ¡°But you might-¡±


    ¡°Give her the box,¡± growled Rain, running out of patience.


    The Kobold whimpered in fear and dived on the box snatching it up and running over to Lyra, he then grabbed a stool and pushed and shoved it near her before backing away bowing over and over. He then turned and dashed back toward the coins and hid behind one of the packs.


    Lyra pulled the stool close and placed the sewing box atop it, opening it up and expertly darting her hands over the contents ensuring she had everything she needed. Then she held up a black cloak against Rains back. Eyeing it she pursed her lips. There was no way in hell this was going to fit. She began rifling through the clothes, and then she got down to work.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 53

    Lyra¡¯s needle flashed and the sound of cloth shifting across cloth filled the air as she worked.


    ¡°Just to keep my thoughts busy... why do you have a problem with the Ranker? it seems a bit, ah ,personal that you would come to the mansion and do¡­ what you did,¡± said Lyra as she continued to pick apart clothes and measure them against Rain.


    Rain¡¯s back tensed for a moment and Lyra flinched in surprise.


    After a moment he began to speak.


    ¡°When I was a human, a leveler, I never leveled up. I stayed at level one my entire life.¡±


    Lyra blinked. What did he just say? That, that couldn''t be right. Everyone leveled, even if just a little.


    ¡°You couldn''t level? What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°I could level, but I wasn''t allowed to, the Ranker commanded I be made a pariah of Lynthia. If I tried to hitch a ride away on an inter-city caravan I would be beaten and tossed out. The town was my prison and everyone in it my guards out of fear of what the Ranker would do to them if I wasn¡¯t kept like that. I was made Lynthia¡¯s runt, I was made that way because that was what the Ranker wanted. Making me small and despairing was the point, a Black Mark, to put a barrier between what my life could have been that I can look toward but not reach, like an animal in a zoo looking at the wide open wild.¡±


    ¡°What a sadistic thing to do to someone¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen him do things to people that you wouldn''t believe. He rules Lynthia with an iron fist, If someone annoys him he either disappears them and they are never seen or heard from again or he makes a public example out of them in the most brutal way possible.¡±


    ¡°I saw some scary devices in this mansion. Someone who would keep things like that in his own home, it¡¯s very concerning, he seems like a cruel man. ¡±


    ¡°You don''t know, you just don''t know. He... One of the few people who tried to help me... He dragged by her hair to the town square and¡­ I found what was left of her the next day. I was eight years old and she was¡­¡±


    Rain¡¯s voice was becoming snarled, growling slipping into his words, his breath getting heavy and ragged. A splintering sound rent the air and the arm of the chair ripped away in his paw. He stared at it, and then curled his digits. The wood crunched to splinters beneath his pads and he let it rain down on the floor with a sigh.


    ¡°I did try, I snuck into the town¡¯s library and taught myself basic things. It never really mattered though, and as I got older I became more sickly, a Human needs to level, I think, if you don''t your body doesn''t ever grow properly. I was so incredibly weak and malnourished and stunted that a Goblin could have broken me over its knee, I couldn''t kill a regular animal let alone a monster. I stuck to the low leveler¡¯s part of town and tried to get by and escape notice, to survive as best I could. I worked on live trapping, but the monsters around Lynthia aren¡¯t really trappable, too strong for anything I could make in my state anyway, in the end it had to be the dungeon, but alone the dungeon was a death sentence.¡±


    ¡°Why did the Ranker do that to you?


    ¡°When I was young the Ranker took a liking to my Mother and tried to take her for himself. My Father took issue with that and attacked him. He lost.¡±


    Lyrah paused. That wasn''t an uncommon story in her home city. Being so many levels above another meant it was very easy to get away with doing bad things to low levelers. The larger the gap in levels the more easily the abuse happened. It was a complicated dynamic of pressures and interests and potential that broadly kept people from going too far but in the end a high leveler could do whatever they wanted to a low leveler if they really wanted to, especially to those who lacked social ties and had stagnated in their leveling potential. Giving the appearance of being an up and comer was a protection in itself.


    ¡°The Ranker did things to my Father that my Father never spoke of, at the very least crippling him, but in the end the Ranker let him go. I think he wanted him to live with what had happened and what he did to my Mother in front of him, to live with the memory. He¡¯s done that kind of thing before. I¡­ understand why he does that now, traumatic memories don''t go away, they are always there, in your mind, like little demons. It broke him, it broke my father. He was¡­ it was like he was disappearing in front of my eyes, becoming a hollow shell. He drank himself to death. He barely acknowledged I existed toward the end.¡±


    Lyra felt her heart go out to him as emotion welled up in her chest, what Rain had been through in his past life hurt to hear, to lose a parent like that, well she knew what that felt like, his words cut deep. She could almost picture the vulnerable wounded person Rain had been, she suddenly felt protective of him, becoming a little teary-eyed at her own imagining. It took her a moment to recall that he was now the massive beast in front of her. Rain the monster didn''t need protecting, he was too strong for that.


    ¡°And because he was my father I was given the status of pariah too, a Black Mark upon our family, what little was left of it.


    ¡°You need to kill him,¡± said Opal. She had returned to the room and had begun boiling water over the stove. ¡°Gobbos don¡¯t like revenge against big monsters, but this¡­ you need to kill him.¡±


    ¡°My hate for him is a different kind of hate than toward the ones who murdered me, that pain is fresh and sharp, what the Ranker did I have lived with for most my life, it became normalised, deeper, like a dull aching burn. I can¡¯t just kill him, not anymore, I need to make him suffer, to make him feel some small sliver of what I felt. That¡¯s why I killed and ate his harem, I want to see that moment when he realises what I did, to see it in his eyes. I want to¡­¡± His nose wrinkled in a snarl, his upper lip quivering flashing his teeth, his paws clenched. ¡°I want to ruin him, I-¡±


    Rain cut himself off and bowed his head, going silent.


    Lyra continued to work around him quietly, measuring and cutting and sewing. Rain for his part regretted speaking, he hadn''t wanted to pick over old memories, memories of being trapped and helpless, victim to the whims of those stronger than him, that was physically repulsive to his current more aggressive monster self. Memories of countless times he had been beaten for trying to steal food to eat, often receiving broken bones in his fragile state that had healed badly, trying to change his situation but being stymied at every turn by those stronger than him, boxing him in, cutting away his future until he was nothing at all.


    He blinked as he realised where his gaze had wandered. Red was sitting with his back to him. Counting coins and picking through various valuables. A little uncomfortable thought wormed its way into Rain¡¯s mind. It wasn''t a perfect parallel but Red was trapped like he had been, victim to Rain, and he was quite strong now. He did not like that thought, it was the worst kind of thought, a thought with an element of truth.


    Could he do something to change that dynamic? Should he? He could just eat the Kobold, but unexpectedly, he found he didn''t want to. The Kobold had saved Opal¡¯s life, even if it was for the wrong reasons, and he had grown comfortable around the little red lizard person due to all they had been through.


    He eyed the gold the Kobold was obsessing over. Maybe he should just pay him to be a kind of treasurer? He wasn''t sure if the Kobold would go for that, it might be simpler to just free him, although he would likely die in the outside world alone far from any Kobold tribe and surrounded by levelers. Might as well skip to just eating him.


    He mulled the problem for a time but then decided to put it on the backburner as he couldn''t decide how he wanted to deal with it, or even if he wanted to.


    Lyra ran cloth down his arm and synched it across with deft motions of her needle. Not fully sewing it, but crossing enough thread that the cloth was held in place temporarily, so that she could go back to it and fix it in permanently once she had checked the fit.


    Cloth was shifting rapidly now as the sheep girl covered over Rain¡¯s black fur. Her hands darting across Rain¡¯s body, reaching far due to his size. She was so focused on what she was doing that she genuinely forgot to be afraid and buried herself in her craft, quickly completing the task at hand.


    Lyra had done well, a white billowing shirt unbuttoned at the top so his chest fur spilled out, a pair of close fitted brown shorts reaching just above his knee and belted at top and cuffs with a hole cut for his tail, and over the top of this a black hooded coat that cut off a bit below the knee, its fabric patterned with black on a slightly darker black. She had also gone to the trouble of braiding some of the longer fur around his neck in a couple of spots. He looked¡­ Like a dangerous monster wearing clothes, albeit stylish clothes. Lyra realised that her bribes were likely going to be very large bribes.


    Rain lifted his arm looking over how well the coat fit his arm with interest. Lyra really had some talent, although he couldn''t say he favoured the feeling of cloth on fur.


    ¡°Hey careful now, I need to properly sew it in, this was just to check it fits.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, you should have made it tighter. S¡¯not bad though, looks pretty good,¡± said Opal appearing beside Lyra, still wearing the fur lined coat.


    ¡°Well I do know what I am doing, I did tell you.¡±


    Opal squinted at her and handed the sheep girl a cup of tea.


    ¡°You are a monster, after all, fashion and style is something you can''t even conceptualise. Don¡¯t worry though, I¡¯m sure a little bit of my talent will rub off on you if you stick around.¡±


    She smirked and winked jauntily at Opal before taking a sip of her tea.


    A horrified look crossed her face and she spat out the tea in a misted cone, spitting and gagging and wiping at her tongue with her hand.


    ¡°Oh my god this is awful! What kind of tea is this?!¡±


    Opal shrugged, ¡°Just some random leaves and dirt I found on the ground.¡±


    Lyra stared at the Goblin.


    ¡°Some... what?! Wait, you don¡¯t know what tea is?¡±


    ¡°Yeah I do, it¡¯s leaves and dirt. That''s what all the levelers put in their drinks in their camps.¡±


    ¡°That, that''s, it doesn''t work like that!¡±


    ¡°Mmm, pretty sure it does.¡±


    ¡°Tea is not leaves and dirt!¡±


    ¡°Prove it!¡±


    Lyra, flustered, turned and marched toward the kitchen area as Opal followed in her wake. She flipped open cupboards until she found what she was looking for, various boxes and jars. She pulled them out and stacked them on the counter.


    ¡°Look see, this is tea.¡±


    Opal squinted at one of the jars. It contained leaves. She moved her eyes to the next jar. It contained dirt.


    ¡°It¡¯s di-¡±


    ¡°No! It¡¯s dried and ground tea leaves! Not dirt!¡±


    Opal looked at her suspiciously, unsure if this was a trick.


    Lyra put her head in her hand and sighed.


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not my fault if levelers do weird dumb stuff!¡±


    ¡°Oh my god, it¡¯s just tea, I can¡¯t- look, just watch me.¡±


    Lyra snatched up the kettle Opal had boiled and filled a teapot then dumped tea inside of it. She put the lid back on the and the two girls stared at it.


    ¡°Is something supposed to be happening?¡±


    ¡°It uhm takes time to steep¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    Opal, now bored, glanced back over to the jars and boxes.


    ¡°What do these other teas do?¡±


    ¡°They are all different flavours and strengths and types. Look this one is a green tea, this one is a black tea, this one herbal, this one¡­.¡± Lyra trailed off as she looked at the box in her hand.


    ¡°What? What is it?¡±


    ¡°This one is a, uhm, aphrodisiac,¡± said Lyra, her cheeks turning slightly pink.


    ¡°Afrodiziack?¡±


    ¡°Aphrodisiac, it does uh, stuff.¡±


    ¡°What kind of stuff?¡± said Opal drawing closer to the box and peering at what was written on it, which was, of course, unreadable to her.


    ¡°It makes the person who drinks it, erm, more h-horny and sensitive, s-sexually.¡±


    Opal¡¯s eyes lit up like twin suns with sudden serious interest.


    ¡°Okay, you need to show me how to make tea, lots and lots of tea. Go, now, show me. Tea, go!¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­¡±


    Before Lyra could formulate a reply to the eager Goblin, who was looking up at her with gleaming eyes from within her fur donut hood, a yell came from behind them. The two girls turned to see Red scuttling on his back away from one of the open packs. The pack was shifting and green light was glowing from within as electricity crackled across its surface. The pack suddenly tipped forward onto the floor and something boney and round rolled onto the carpet.


    Rain, Red, Lyra, and Opal stood and stared. It was a skull. A skull with two horns and a pair of small green flames in its eye sockets.


    ¡°It¡¯s Boney Bitch Boy! He¡¯s alive!¡± exclaimed Opal.


    ¡°Wha- where the hell am I?¡± muttered the skull groggily, its flames drunkenly darting around.


    Rain stalked toward the skull, every motion of his body screaming killing intent.


    ¡°Oh no no no! not you again!¡± said the skull catching sight of Rain.


    ¡°Why are you in my pack? Answer me or die.¡±


    ¡°I don''t know do I! Wait, this isn''t the dungeon! You took me out of the dungeon! Why, oh god why?! This wasn''t supposed to happen!¡±


    ¡°Ah, that was me,¡± said Opal scratching the side of her nose.


    ¡°Why did you pick up the skull Opal?¡±


    ¡°I thought it was dead and gone, and well, those horns are quite pointy and it seemed kinda like a rare weapon¡­¡±


    Everyone stared at the Goblin.


    ¡°What?¡±


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


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    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 54

    ¡°See! It¡¯s not my fault I¡¯m here! Clearly it would be immoral to do me harm, not when I had no say in the matter,¡± said the skull, its eyes dancing nervously from Opal to Rain.


    ¡°Would you die permanently if I crushed you into powder I wonder?¡± said Rain taking a threatening step forward, his claws twitching and his body tensing in anticipation.


    The flames in the skull¡¯s eye sockets seem to shrink down warily as it looked up at Rain.


    ¡°Wait, wait, stop moving Rain!¡± said Lyra.


    Rain paused and turned to her. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Your clothing, it¡¯s about to tear, I only did temporary stitches.¡±


    ¡°No no, I think he should keep moving, straining, bursting out of his clothes, with his sheer si-¡±


    ¡°Please don¡¯t! I¡¯ll have to get everything lined up again! Just, hold on, let me stitch things properly before we get into this.¡±


    The sheep girl dashed forward and grabbed up her sewing box and then bounced over to where Rain was awkwardly stuck mid-stride.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to do it you know. I¡¯m basically powerless now¡­¡± grumbled the skull, its words sulky and a little upset. ¡°When you took me away from my collection you took everything from me.¡±


    ¡°You knew you would survive what happened?¡±


    ¡°Well, yes, I am an undead and undead are nothing if not tenacious. Had I been left as I was I would have been able to collect together the corpses of my minions and eventually bring them back to undeath and rebuild my collection, damage from your brutish behaviour notwithstanding.¡±


    ¡°I recall you had a fracture from when I threw you. I don''t see it now, meaning you must have the ability to heal your bone core and then return to life, or undeath.¡± Rain snorted. ¡°Seems simple enough, I¡¯ll just break you into pieces and bury them in separate locations, or, alternatively, I could just eat you.¡±


    ¡°I can heal, I will admit that much, and It worked perfectly fine whenever some overpowered leveler came along thankyou, and it would have worked again if not for that grubby Goblin kidnapping me from my home.¡±


    ¡°Hey screw you, you don''t even know how many baths I¡¯ve been put through lately. Nobody gets to call me grubby. Bitch boy.¡±


    ¡°That- Why are you calling me that?¡±


    ¡°Seems pretty fitting considering we kicked your butt for being a jerk. We won.¡±


    ¡°How disgustingly mortal of you.¡±


    ¡°Yeah? Well, what''s your actual name?¡±


    ¡°I have had not need of one. The undead do not require something as ephemeral and shallow as a name.¡±


    ¡°So you''re fine being called boney bitch boy then?¡±


    ¡°The skull seemed to pause at this and quickly reconsidered its position.¡±


    ¡°If you need to pick a name then just use your name from when you were alive, when you were a leveler,¡± said Rain. ¡°You did not lose that in death.¡±


    ¡°I suppose since you are mortal you require mortal follies as pathetic as they are. Fine.¡±


    ¡°Mm too slow. I''ve thought of a new name for you,¡± said Opal tapping a finger to her lip in deep thought.


    ¡°I''m not letting a bottom grade monster such as you name me. No. I was the greatest Necromancer of my century, a scourge upon the lands feared by all for my undead armies, conqueror of unending walled cities, an unparalleled master of graves, my name such as it was when I was alive was Va-¡±


    ¡°Your name is Boner!¡±


    ¡°My name is not Boner!!¡±


    ¡°Too late, I said it first, it''s just your name now.¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry,¡± said Red dully, ¡°You get used to it.¡±


    ¡°You will not name me, the most powerful necromancer of an entire century, Boner!¡± said Boner.


    ¡°You lost, remember Boner? The winner takes the spoils and you are the spoils.¡±


    ¡°Naming is not spoils! I-


    ¡°You responded to the name! That makes it official!¡±


    The green flames in the skull¡¯s eyes were starting to sputter and spark with fury by this point.


    ¡°You have a very unique talent for being incredibly infuriating Goblin.¡±


    ¡°What was your name when you were alive?¡± Said Rain as Lyra continued to dart around his body furiously working her needle.


    ¡°My name was Vash the Reaper. I would appreciate not being called the insane Goblin¡¯s suggestion.¡±


    ¡°Watch your words with her Vash, you live for the moment only by my whim.¡±


    ¡°Er¡­ right.¡±


    Opal bounded forward and scooped the skull up with her sleeve covered hands. Genuine concern appeared in Vash¡¯s flame eyes at this development.


    ¡°Hey, maybe I can still use Boner as a weapon! All I need is a stick to put him on and I can hit things with him!¡±


    ¡°D-don¡¯t you dare! You dam d-¡± his eyes shifted to Rain, Rain¡¯s eyes were narrowed. ¡°I would take it kindly if you did not do that,¡± Vash amended.


    ¡°Good¡± growled Rain. ¡°Keep in mind that I can also find an open public cesspit and throw you inside of it. You can then live out the centuries trapped in a perpetual storm of shit.¡±


    The skull actually appeared to shudder in Opal¡¯s hands at that suggestion. ¡°Eurgh, what a terrible fate. I think I would prefer being powdered. In any case you have nothing to fear from me, I sincerely promise.¡±


    Opal turned the skull over and looked it in the eyes. She smiled mischievously. Vash started to wonder if the shit pit option was really so bad.


    Half an hour later Lyra was done and Rain was freed from her hyper-focused sewing. He stretched his limbs, checking the clothing wouldn''t tear, and then nodded at the sheep girl.


    ¡°It¡¯s good.¡±


    Lyra blushed a little pink but looked pleased.


    ¡°We¡¯re going down to the town. Red and Opal, you will stay here, Lyra will come with me.¡±


    ¡°What? No way in hell am I being left behind. Screw that.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s dangerous and you aren¡¯t needed for this. Goblins are in constant danger around levelers.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t care still coming. If it¡¯s levelers that are the problem then I can be your slave!¡±


    Rain¡¯s eye twitched a little hearing that. ¡°I really don¡¯t like that idea Opal, you nearly became a slave for real, I had to rescue you, remember?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d just be a fake slave obviously, but more importantly you could be my master.¡± The Goblin girl wiggled her hips and flicked her sleeves. ¡°Just complete control and power over me and then you roughly pin me down and-¡±


    ¡°A slave could work, if she is willing, Goblin slaves are really common, she won¡¯t attract a second glance,¡± said Lyra.


    ¡°See, it¡¯s fine!¡±


    ¡°Alright you can come. Red will stay however.¡±


    Rain approached Red and grabbed up his chain then pushed at the massive wardrobe, tipping it up and then dropping and kicking the end of the chain underneath before setting it back down.


    ¡°Uhm. What if you guys don''t come back?¡± said Red worriedly.


    ¡°Then you starve and die.¡± said Rain.


    ¡°...oh.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there''s food in the cupboards, look,¡± said Lyra, opening one of the cupboards. The interior walls were covered in runes, preservation runes, as was made obvious by the fresh contents which included fruits and meats.


    Lyra picked up a whole cooked chicken and put in Red¡¯s claws who had wandered over to see.


    He looked at the chicken and then scented it with interest. Then he lifted it to his mouth and took a bite.


    ¡°S¡¯good,¡± he mumbled from around a mouthful before burying his face back in it.


    ¡°I won¡¯t be able to use my real name while in Lynthia. Someone may recognise it,¡± said Rain


    ¡°That is true, uhm, I did think that you would need some kind of cover. I was thinking that maybe you could pretend to be a wealthy merchant travelling between towns with valuables to trade and are staying at the Ranker¡¯s mansion as his guest. We uh, have access to quite a lot of things to sell.¡± Lyra gestured around her broadly.


    ¡°Fine. Gather what you think we will need¡­ and bring the skull too.¡±


    Opal and Lyra busied themselves. They managed to find a new pack from somewhere, which was fortunate as the crude Goblin pack and the ragged ancient levelers pack were not suitable as something a rich merchant might use for their precious goods. They quickly stuffed it with things Lyra thought that a merchant might have, mostly gold and treasure, and then dropped the pack on Opal¡¯s back. Opal, of course, being Rain¡¯s ¡®slave¡¯ was now the designated carrier of valuables. The Goblin had a moment where she almost changed her mind in coming when Rain made her take off her weapons and discard the warm fur-lined coat, much to her annoyance. In the end though she decided being left behind was the inferior option. She dumped the blades and coat in Red¡¯s greasy with chicken claws and ordered him to protect them with his life.


    They had to hurry to catch up to Rain who had left the Ranker¡¯s quarters and had made his way back to the lobby. They found him kicking aside broken furniture from view of the windows and covering over blood stains with the remaining whole furniture. He had also replaced the doors with doors he had torn out from elsewhere in the mansion.


    Lyra gave him a questioning look.


    ¡°If there happens to be anyone who comes to check on this place I don''t want to make it too easy for them to tell something is wrong.¡±


    It didn''t take long to finish and they were soon outside and headed toward the main gates, or rather what was left of them. They had taken quite a lot of damage with Rain''s passage.


    ¡°Hey, hey, why don''t you use your dumb leveler magic to fix it,¡± said Opal, repeatedly elbowing Lyra in the side.


    ¡°Stop that! And no, I can''t, it needs to be within my range when it happens and something as violent as what Rain did would have broken the Skill anyway.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± said Rain as he brought a massive paw down on the iron. The metal shrieked as he curled his digits and squeezed and bent it back into position. Then he tweaked it, adjusting the metal using the sheer strength he could exert to straighten every slim iron bar. He then lifted each gate and put it back on the hinges. Surprisingly, by the time he was done someone would have to look a lot closer than they otherwise would to notice that the gates had been recently smashed open.


    It wouldn''t hold up to serious inspection, but Rain wasn¡¯t too worried. The Ranker¡¯s infamous reputation tended to keep people away from the mansion as much they could possibly manage.


    The three of them set off down the trail leading into the woods and toward town, the morning light dappling through the trees patterning the path with leafy shadow and a comfortable warmth.


    As they walked a muffled voice spoke up.


    ¡°Would someone mind filling me in on what precisely is happening here. I do not care for mortal affairs but I sense that waking up in a bloodstained mansion may have some relevance to my future safety.¡±


    Rain turned his head to look at Opal¡¯s pack from where the voice had come.


    ¡°Why did we take the creepy skull with us?¡± said Lyra.


    ¡°Because I don¡¯t trust him alone with Red.¡±


    Opal nodded her head wisely. ¡°Boner could whisper evil things in Red''s ear and then Red might throw away my stuff. It¡¯s better Red is left dumb and innocent. Huh, I wonder if I could trade Boner in for a new sword...¡±


    ¡°Stop calling me that! And please don''t trade me, levelers do not take kindly to the undead¡­ Really, where are we going?¡±


    ¡°Uhm, we¡¯re going to the local dungeon town, Rain¡¯s going to pretend to be a leveler to find some people he is after.¡±


    ¡°... you are joking right? Literally nobody is going to believe that. Have you even seen that brute of a monster?¡±


    Rain growled. ¡°Speaking of seeing, how did you see bloodstains in the mansion when you were inside of my pack?¡±


    ¡°Hmmph. Simple enough, I do not rely on miserable mortal eyeballs, I can see well enough from where I am.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡±


    The group soon made their way through the woods and joined the main road to the town gates. As they approached Lyra decided it best if she approached first so as to not immediately scare the guard. Rain and Opal dropped off the side of the road and disappeared into the trees.


    Lyra drew in a steadying breath and marched toward the front gate, a large heavy stone thing with crenelations and an open portcullis. An Elven guard with curly hair stood nearby, casually leaning against the wall. Lyra considered the bored look of the Elf a promising sign, that and the entrance gate appeared to be deserted apart from him. It did look vulnerable to attack although that was likely misleading. She didn''t doubt the guard had some manner of magical backup plan, if he had expensive truth lenses, such as the spectacles hanging from a chain around his neck, then he likely had other things too.


    As she neared the guard looked up and then slowly came to attention, pushing from the wall and stepping out into the road.


    ¡°Business in town?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m here with my friend, he¡¯s a merchant looking to trade and buy things in Lynthia.¡±


    The Elf squinted at her then looked to either side of her. There was no one else there.


    ¡°Are you pulling my leg or is your friend invisible? I don''t sense any magic around you but are you really going to make me put these spectacles on? They give me a headache.¡±


    ¡°Ah, not quite. My friend is mm, on the large side, he¡¯s of a race not often seen around here, I didn''t want to spook you right away.¡±


    The guard rolled his eyes. ¡°What is he? A Minotaur? Come on, stop wasting my time.¡±


    Lyra bit her lip but made a waving motion at the nearby woods. The trees shook as Rain pushed aside a large branch in passing and emerged out. Opal popped up beside him.


    ¡°What the FUCK is that!¡± The guard frantically grabbed at his spear and pointed it toward Rain.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 55

    ¡°Hey! Hold on! Calm down! He¡¯s a leveler!¡±


    The Elf gave her a look of disbelief. ¡°Girl that¡¯s a monster, a fucking dangerous looking one. Get behind me, quick.¡±


    This was not going quite how Lyra had planned.


    Rain approached and positively loomed at the guard who for his part unconsciously started moving backwards toward the gate, the spear trembling in his hands.


    ¡°I¡­ Am not a monster.¡± said Rain, trying to be unmonster like. He was not very good at it.


    The guard just stared up at him, jaw hanging.


    ¡°It¡¯s true! He¡¯s not a monster. He¡¯s a, uhm, leveler from up north, you just aren¡¯t familiar with the race, that¡¯s all.¡±


    ¡°He looks like he¡¯s about to eat me!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not about to eat you,¡± said Rain. The Elf looked like he didn''t believe him in the slightest.


    Opal piped up ¡°Well, not ye-¡± a large paw slapped across her mouth, which being Rain¡¯s size covered her head entirely. A muffled unintelligible voice continued to speak from behind the paw.


    ¡°Er, ignore her, she¡¯s just a misbehaving slave, you know how it is, ahahaha-ha,¡± said Lyra, attempting a casual laugh which sounded incredibly awkward in the standoff.


    ¡°Listen girl, I don''t know why you thought it was a good idea to dress a monster in clothes but you aren''t fooling anyone. That''s a monster clear as day. If this is just a convoluted way to get around the restrictions on large monster slaves being allowed in¡­¡±


    ¡°Have you ever seen or heard of a species of monster like him before?¡±


    ¡°...Well, no-¡±


    ¡°Then how do you know for sure! He could just be a particularly aggressive looking leveler!¡±


    ¡°That''s-¡±


    ¡°And frankly it is incredibly racist of you to assume that he is a monster, didn''t your Mother teach you any manners? Is this the kind of welcome that Lynthia¡¯s best put out for an extremely incredibly disgustingly wealthy merchant looking to flood the town with gold and riches?¡±


    ¡°Now wait a moment, I¡¯m no-¡±


    ¡°Is Lynthia full of racists? Because first impressions are important and your impression is of an uncouth guard judging others by appearance. What next? Are you going to call me a slut for being part Elf? Huh?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m a bloody Elf!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, that just makes it twice as bad!¡±


    Lyra stepped forward as she spoke, berating the Elf with her words, practically beating him over the head with her commentary. She finished with staring him down with her hands on her hips.


    The guard ran a hand over his sweaty brow.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯m not going to let you in, period. This is not a normal situation. If half the guard hadn¡¯t gone off with the Inquisitor leaving us undermanned and understaffed I¡¯d be looking to arrest you for trying this, as it is, just¡­ go away with that giant feral looking thing following you around.¡±


    Lyra set her lips in a line. ¡°Fine. You want to play it the hard way, I see how it is.¡±


    She beckoned at Rain and he removed his paw from Opal. The Goblin smiled as she saw Lyra motioning to her and skipped over. The guard looked at the Goblin suspiciously and gripped his spear.


    Lyra snorted contemptuously and dove her hands into the pack. And then she began throwing gold at the guard.


    ¡°Wha- what are you doing!?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m bribing you! What does it look like! Take this! And this! And this!¡±


    Gold and gems showered around the guard, bouncing and pinging off his armour. A few gem-encrusted necklaces landed on his spear and dangled comically from the tip. It was when Lyra stepped up and placed a tiara on his head that the guard started to crack under the onslaught. His fingers trembled with the rings Lyra was placing upon them as the spear fell from his hands to clatter on the ground.


    ¡°This is, you can''t just do this!¡±


    ¡°Well, I am doing it guard guy, so you better deal with it!¡±


    ¡°This is so much money!¡±


    ¡°I know! And all for the small small price of overlooking my leveler friend over here¡¯s outward appearance!¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    Lyra was standing at his shoulder now, whispering in his ear.


    ¡°You know you want to, just look how that gold glitters, just think of all you could buy, yes, just think, imagine all the whores and booze you can get your little guard guy mitts on, you could do anything with this, hell you could buy happiness with this.¡±


    Lyra broke the guard¡¯s will with a whimper.


    He began scrabbling on the ground snatching up all the gold and gems into a bag.


    The sheep girl gave him a smug smile as he stood back up, his face flustered, the tiara on his head askew.


    ¡°Fine. You can bring it in¡­ As a leveler.¡±


    ¡°Great!¡±


    ¡°I will still need to check your level however.¡±


    Lyra rolled her eyes. ¡°Really? We¡¯re still doing that?¡±


    The guard looked slightly offended. ¡°I do have some professional courtesy you know. If the town Ranker commands to check for high levelers coming into town then it is the guard¡¯s job to enforce it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah yeah I know. Rankers are always so paranoid.¡±


    ¡°Well, it keeps things safe for the town, if a Ranker is going to be challenged for his rule its best it''s done out in the open to reduce collateral damage. Personally, I think anyone willing to challenge Bane is clinically insane, even those with levels above him are scared to challenge him, but hey, I¡¯d rather not take the risk.¡±


    The guard fiddled around with a velvet pouch on his belt until he produced what appeared to be a black glass sphere about two inches across. Inside the sphere he held in his gloved hands was a white number, the number 1.


    ¡°Simply let this level orb touch your skin and it will display your true level.¡±


    The guard made to hand it over to Lyra when Opal snatched it from his hand.


    ¡°Do me!¡± she said holding it up and staring at the number.


    The sphere remained inert and unchanging.


    ¡°It doesn''t work on monsters, obviously. Please take control of your Goblin slave. If you can''t control it I will be forced to confiscate it and potentially put it down.¡±


    ¡°Hey screw you, you manual breather!¡±


    ¡°Opal give it here, just let me show him my level and we can go.¡±


    ¡°Boo.¡±


    Lyra took the orb from the Goblin girl. As she did the number in the sphere began to change, ticking up from one to two and so on. It began to warm in her bare hand as the orb worked and she handed it back to the guard. After a second or two of the number ticking up it came to a stop on the number fifteen, fifteen for Lyra¡¯s fifteen levels.


    ¡°Hmm. Fine. You didn''t look like you were a threat anyway.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡±


    ¡°Very well, you can pass.¡±


    He stepped aside and gestured at the open gate.


    Rain paused as he stepped by the guard. He looked down at the orb in the guard¡¯s hand. He knew what it was, it was a brand in his past life, definitive proof of his humiliating level one.


    Not sure what he was thinking he held out a paw, his digits spread.


    The guard looked at him warily. ¡°What do you want monster?¡±


    ¡°Leveler.¡± Growled Rain like distant thunder.


    ¡°Y-you want¡­ what a joke. Fine, your master paid enough, we can play pretend. Tch, what a waste of time.¡±


    The guard hesitated and then reached out the orb and momentarily touched it up against one of Rain¡¯s paw pads.


    Nothing happened.


    ¡°See. Now get lo-¡±


    The number ticked up to two.


    The guard stared at it, eyes bugging out of his head at the changed number.


    ¡°Wha- why did you bribe me?!¡±


    The number ticked up to three.


    ¡°B-because he is a m-monster, what is this?¡±


    Four, then five, faster now.


    ¡°He lied? But why?¡±


    Six, seven, eight.


    Rain shook his head. ¡°No.¡±


    Nine, ten, eleven, faster and faster and faster, accelerating.


    ¡°What¡¯s happening? What is this?¡± said the guard as the orb started to rapidly heat.


    Twelve, fourteen, sixteen, the numbers were starting to blur by this point.


    ¡°I don''t know! I don''t know! I don''t know!¡±


    Twenty, twenty four, twenty eight.


    Smoke started to wisp off the black orb¡¯s surface and the numbers spun by ever faster.


    ¡°It¡¯s broken! Dumb leveler stuff, Rain isn''t a leveler, I know, I just know he¡¯s a monster,¡± said Opal eyeing the orb.


    Thirty, thirty six-, the numbers became unreadable just a solid spinning blur as the orb began to glow red with raw heat. A faint whine filled the air, growing louder as the orb began to vibrate and the blur span even faster. The guard stared at the thing in his hand in frozen horror, frozen like a hare caught in the lamplight not knowing what to do.


    As they watched the spinning white changed, becoming more like teeth, and then the shape of an open mouth outlined in jagged flickering and flashing.


    The high pitched whining changed tone and shifted into a nauseating scream. The orb was now screaming, the mouth inside of it twitching and shaking. Smoke began to pour from the guard¡¯s glove and it suddenly burst into flame. The guard yelped and dropped the orb on the ground, patting out the glove fire on his armour.


    The orb continued to scream, the glass vibrating so much it was visible to the naked eye, the ground around the screaming orb began to smoke and redden and melt, blackening and cracking, spots of magma appearing as an ungodly amount of heat poured from the orb. The orb was now lying in a small foot wide pool of half-melted earth, boiling droplets of lava and stone being spat outward in fits and starts.


    As they watched in stunned silence the orb began to disappear, melting its way downward, disappearing down a two inch wide hole amongst the magma. The screaming did not stop, only becoming more muffled and quiet as the orb descended deeper and deeper and deeper into the earth until they could hear it no more.


    They were left staring at the hole of unknown depth, maybe it went on forever?


    ¡°Wha- what in the actual fuck just happened¡­¡± whispered Lyra.


    ¡°It¡¯s because he¡¯s too much of a monster, it got scared, it has to be,¡± said Opal, a little uncertainty in her voice.


    ¡°I¡­ I don''t know what I just witnessed¡­ My gods, that was....¡± The guard wiped at his brow, sweat running down his face, and not just from the heat the orb had created.


    ¡°M-must be a flaw with the magic on the orb, it j-just happened to break when a m-monster touched it. You should talk to whoever you get those f-from. They¡¯re cheaping out on you, y-yeah?¡± said Lyra, her voice shaky. She eyed Rain nervously, suddenly unsure of what he really was.


    ¡°...R-right, that must be it. Gods whoever the hell made that thing they put some strange stuff in it.¡±


    Lyra swallowed. ¡°Okay, I-I¡¯ll leave you to get on that! Can¡¯t have faulty level orbs around! D-dangerous!¡±


    She began backing into the town and then suddenly turned and swiftly strode away, her hooves clacking on the cobble as she went. Rain and Opal followed after. They immediately headed toward the nearest alley and then down a few turns until they''d put some distance between themselves and the gate. A few people noticed them, it was hard not to with the size of Rain, but apart from the colour draining from their faces, and immediately turning on their heels and walking away, they did nothing.


    Lyra paused, leaning against a wall, a little panicyness in her legs.


    ¡°I don''t know what that was,¡± said Rain. ¡°The monster species that I am hasn''t been around for a long time. Maybe that has something to do with it.¡±


    Lyra let out a long breath and closed her eyes. Whatever Rain said that was¡­ unsettling. She had been level checked countless times throughout her life, she was very familiar with it. Never ever had she seen anything like that ever. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Perhaps he was right and it just wasn''t compatible with an ancient monster, as though that made as much sense as anything. That screaming mouth¡­


    ¡°What a curiosity,¡± said Vash¡¯s slightly muffled voice. ¡°I have never seen nor heard of such a thing before. There is nothing in a level orb that might cause such a reaction, at least there was not back in my day.¡±


    ¡°So what made that, whatever that was, happen?¡± said Lyra glaring at Opal¡¯s pack.


    ¡°I can only surmise. It does remind me of the backlash that can happen from causing impossibilities with fringe magic. Using fringe magic you can create things that do not fit in our world: A square circle, something that both exists and does not exist at once, solid nothingness. I knew of a number of mages at the top of their field who tried to push the envelope in that way. They all ended up institutionalised, raving about impossibilities, or dead.¡±


    ¡°And this?¡±


    ¡°... measurement of something that cannot be measured, a monster¡¯s level, would be an impossibility.¡±


    ¡°What are you suggesting?¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°I am not suggesting anything. A clumsy stumble upon an impossibility that caused a random magical backlash. A curiosity, no more. Best you move on.¡±


    Lyra wasn¡¯t particularly pleased with that answer but the more she considered it the more it made sense. An accidental measurement of a monster with no levels, made possible because of Rain¡¯s ancient species being outside what the creators of the orb had expected. That, that fitted... sort of. She calmed her breathing.


    Opal had gotten bored while Vash spoke and had started poking around the alley. In particular investigating the dumpsters. She made a face at the smell as she opened one.


    ¡°I came here often,¡± said Rain softly. ¡°There were few chances for food. It was this or starve.¡±


    Opal dropped the lid back down with a bang.


    ¡°Well now everyone is food. This whole town can be eaten!¡± said the Goblin happily.


    ¡°Uhm, p-please don''t eat everyone in Lynthia.¡±


    Rain looked around the alley and then began walking away.


    ¡°Hey, that wasn''t an answer! You didn''t answer meeee!¡±


    Lyra hurried after him, suddenly very concerned.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 56

    Rain strode forward, ignoring the fretting sheep girl. It was strange being back in Lynthia. Everything looked so incredibly¡­ small. What had been a vast building that loomed over Rain in his past life was now¡­ kind of tiny looking. He knew exactly where he was and exactly where he was going of course, he knew Lynthia like the back of his hand, well the parts where low levelers were allowed to go anyway. Gated areas and high leveler reserved areas were still unknown to him.


    A Human woman carrying a pile of scrolls and books in her arms appeared around a corner as he passed. She screamed and fell back against the wall, dropping everything, looking up in open terror at Rain as scrolls bounced and rolled across the cobble around her feet. He snorted a laugh. He wasn''t even doing anything yet they feared him this much? He considered how he felt about that. The contrast between how it had been when he was last in Lynthia and now was almost painfully jarring, going from something people felt contempt for to something that made them fear for their lives. They were afraid of him now, he could almost relish that change.


    He took them down alley after alley, avoiding the main streets, deeper into the low leveler¡¯s quarter of town. The buildings rapidly became more run down and decrepit, trash and horseshit were scattered across the unpaved roads and sketchy vagrants huddled in quiet corners doing gods knows what. The occasional waft of sewage and the rank smell of trash left out too long in the sun drifted past, all competing with the more isolated aromas, the ashy scent of a tobacconist, the distant stench of a tannery, the burnt tang of a blacksmith, even further away, the chemical stink of a leatherworker and the fragrance of a flower-seller, all blending together to create a unique miasma that took a sledgehammer to the nostrils.


    Rain did not remember the lower leveler quarters smelling quite this terrible and he wrinkled his nose in distaste. Apparently his sense of smell was a step up from when he had been Human. He wouldn¡¯t call it anywhere near as good or as useful as an actual wolf, or even a dog, but it was good enough to be distracting while walking through town. He almost wished he had his Human sense of smell back and could ignore it more easily. He hoped that his new nose would get used to it after some time and naturally filter it out.


    Well, despite the strange change in building size, and the more intense smell, it still felt like one thing, It felt like home, as rough and as dangerous as a home it was.


    Thinking about it it was a minor miracle he had survived as long as he did when he was Human. He supposed it was a matter of luck and knowledge, easy to avoid getting into trouble if you simply avoided being around trouble altogether. Avoid this alley between noon and evening, only go to that street late at night, never ever go near that building. Rain had found late night and very early morning the least risky and the best time to scavenge. Survival meant figuring out the gaps in society and slinking between them. It wasn''t a good way to live but it was a way to live, and that was what mattered, he¡¯d never given up despite hanging on only by his fingertips most days, despite most people he met either being dismissive of him or wary of helping him for fear of the Ranker.


    A wild eyed man with an unkempt red beard suddenly burst from an alley. He held a rusted sword in his hands, the wobbling point aimed at Rain.


    ¡°The gods sent you, didn¡¯t they! They knew I was stagnating with my leveling, they sent you for me to kill! To level me up! To make me strong!¡±


    Rain stared the man down and he practically wilted under his gaze, his shoulders slumping and his legs trembling.


    ¡°Sorry sir but you are mistaken, this is a leveler, not a monster, an easy mix up, it happens,¡± said Lyra coming up behind. ¡°Have you seen or heard of a monster species that looks like him before? Why would the town guard let a free monster into town? Come on, think about it,¡± she scoffed.


    The man looked at her sceptically. As he did so Rain reached forward and ripped his sword from his hands sending the man stumbling. Rain then turned and threw the sword into the sky, literally, the sword went up and it just didn''t come back down, becoming a dot and then vanishing from sight in the blue above. The bearded man was left gaping, his arms limp at his sides as Rain strode by.


    ¡°Clean your act up,¡± growled Rain in passing.


    The man blinked, taking a moment to realise the monster had spoken to him. He stared in confusion at the monster''s back as it turned a corner and disappeared from view.


    ¡°Someone you knew Rain?¡±


    Rain stopped and turned on the sheep girl, she took a step back instinctively.


    ¡°I forgot to come up with a name for you to call me while I¡¯m here. I shouldn''t have spoken to that man, It¡¯s better to avoid any connection to my old life if possible. What should I call myself?¡±


    ¡°Let the Goblin name him,¡± came a muffled voice, a sense of amusement in it.


    ¡°Yeah, Boner¡¯s right, I should come up with your leveler disguise name, I¡¯m good at names.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure both of you are absolutely terrible at names¡­¡± muttered Lyra.


    Opal tapped a finger on her chin, thinking deeply. ¡°How about Nightfang?¡±


    A cackle could be heard from with the pack.


    ¡°I think he needs a really boring name to fit in amongst levelers¡­ Barry?¡±


    The cackling went up a notch.


    Rain stared at Lyra.


    ¡°M-maybe not?¡±


    ¡°My Father¡¯s middle name was Fitz. I guess that will do for now.¡±


    ¡°Fitz¡­ That¡¯s a nice name.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a common name so it won¡¯t be noticed, it¡¯s good enough. There¡¯s somewhere I want to check before we go to the mid leveler areas of town, it won¡¯t take long, it''s right here.¡±


    Rain turned and passed from the alley and into the street. He took a few steps forward and turned toward a larger four-storey building. The larger building was run down and poor like the other buildings but it clearly saw a fair amount of use and someone had put some care into basic maintenance. Which was surprising considering it was quite clearly a whorehouse.


    A scantily clad woman who was standing outside smoking went pale as a sheet seeing Rain and ran inside.


    ¡°Why are we here?¡± said Opal. ¡°Is that building special somehow? Why are you looking at it that way?¡±


    ¡°I used to live here, or rather, I used to live in the old shed out back. I found refuge here when I Couldn''t elsewhere.¡±


    Opal turned to Lyra who was looking at the building a little uncomfortably.


    ¡°You know something don¡¯t you, tell me why he¡¯s acting weird.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s ah where he used to live, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s more than that, but this is a place where people go for, uhm, sex, to pay for sex from, ah, professionals.¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± said Opal, looking at the building with new eyes. ¡°Well that explains some things. I did wonder how he knew so much about that stuff.¡±


    Opal gave the entrance one last glance before she wandered after Rain who had disappeared around the back of the building. There she found him looking over a dilapidated shed cloistered at the back of a weed filled dirt yard. It was fortunate the shed wasn''t a small one as Rain would not have been able to fit inside, even so he had difficulty getting through the front door and part of the wooden door frame collapsed around him. He dug around inside until he found what he was looking for underneath the floorboards. Then he withdrew, a very raggedy stuffed teddy bear with half its fur and a button eye missing held in his paw. He flipped it over and began picking at it with his claws, not very successfully as his claws were simply too big.


    He was getting frustrated until Opal put a hand on his arm and gently took the bear from him. She turned it over in her hands with curiosity, examining the worn away fluff and loose stitches. Whatever it was it was obviously very old.


    ¡°What is this?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a stuffed bear.¡±


    ¡°...what do you use it for?¡±


    Rain scratched his jaw and looked away.


    Opal squinted at him, clearly wondering why he wouldn''t answer.


    ¡°It¡¯s a momento, most likely, Opal. Young children use stuffed toys to hug, for comfort and a feeling of safety, it¡¯s a commonly done thing,¡± said Lyra.


    ¡°Oh... Nobody gave me something like that when I was young...¡± Opal actually looked a little bothered by the discovery.


    She fiddled with the back of the bear as Rain had been doing and after a moment managed to open it. She gently pulled out a paper rectangle and unfolded it. Inside were two lockes of dried hair pinned to the paper, black and brown.


    ¡°What... is this?¡± said Opal furrowing her brow in confusion.


    ¡°Lockes of my parent¡¯s hair, it¡¯s all I have left of them... You can put it back now.¡±


    Opal stared at the hair in silence, touching a small finger to the dried out lockes, gently running her fingertip along the hairs. She swallowed, trying to clear her suddenly tight throat. Rain¡¯s parent¡¯s hair, she was touching something held dearly, something that was deeply important to him, she could practically feel the reverence that Rain held for them, to be so cared for- to hold onto for so long despite everything...


    ¡°That¡¯s-¡­ A Gobbo¡­ would not do this.¡± Opal looked away from Rain as she very carefully put the refolded paper back in the bear.  ¡°You really loved each other, as a family, there was never¡­ there was never anything like that in my old tribe, not even once.¡± She hunched her shoulders and made herself small. ¡°G-gobbos don¡¯t c-care, they don¡¯t c-care¡­ I wanted, I just wanted¡­ to have that t-trust, b-but they wouldn¡¯t, they, they-.¡± Her small shoulders shook and she brought a hand to her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks, she trembled, she couldn''t believe how strongly seeing the love of Rain¡¯s family had hit her, it was just so so far from the backstabbing bitterness that her old tribe had been filled with, the physical manifestation of why she had wanted out. Dungeon Gobbos didn''t do family, that was just the unfortunate mistrusting nature a dungeon bred, it was just how it was.


    She rubbed her hand over her face repeatedly, trying to get the flood of tears to clear, but along with the falling feeling in her gut and the horrible tightness in her throat it just didn''t stop. She trembled as she held out the stuffed bear for Rain to take, her eyes firmly glued to the ground, she didn''t want Rain to see her like this, this was embarrassing, it was just hair, this reaction was ridiculous.


    A paw reached out, and then passed the bear and wrapped around her, She sobbed as Rain knelt and pulled her close to his chest, squeezing her tight, surrounding her with himself.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to feel that way anymore Opal. We are a family, I would do anything for you, I¡¯d do anything for you. I¡¯ll never abandon you, I¡¯ll find you no matter where you are, I¡¯ll always find you and hold you close. Do you trust me?¡±


    Opal was no longer capable of speech as she bawled her eyes out into his chest fur but she nodded her head as her small hands desperately clutched at him.


    Rain held her tight, letting her work through it.


    Behind them Lyra stood. She was having a hard time keeping it together herself, her hands were over her mouth and tears were gently rolling from her eyes. She felt like she¡¯d just been attacked with how un-monster like Opal was compared to what she had been taught. It hurt to see the monster girl like this, so emotionally vulnerable and defenceless, as much as any leveler could be. Lyra felt physically ill that she had ever thought of Opal as a sub-sapient and lesser developed being.


    Rain held Opal for a few minutes letting the Goblin have it out until he started to feel her body relax against him, her breath slowly calming, becoming more even as she recovered.


    ¡°Get away from it! Run!¡±


    Lyra blinked and turned to see that the back of the whorehouse had gotten busy.


    A man stood in one of the doorways, he held a crossbow up and pointed at Rain, the scantily clad woman who had originally seen them out front hung off his shoulder, an accusing finger pointed at Rain where he knelt. Above the door the various windows of the building were filled with people, dozens of them, going all the way up to the fourth floor, most of them had bows or rocks in hand, all were looking at them fearfully.


    ¡°H-hey, hold on, you can¡¯t! They¡¯re like us! Please don¡¯t! Please!¡± begged Lyra.


    ¡°Get out of the way you stupid bint! Move!¡±


    Lyra shook her head, not even sure what she was doing anymore.


    ¡°You don''t understand! There- they¡¯re- don''t hurt them!¡±


    Lyra bit her lip and then stepped in front of Rain and Opal, spreading her arms wide, daring them to shoot.


    ¡°What''s that crazy Half-Elf doing? That thing is going to rip her apart!¡±


    ¡°Fuck her, fire around the silly bitch.¡±


    ¡°Wait, you can''t, we¡¯ll hit her-!¡±


    The scantily clad woman in the door grabbed for the trigger on the man''s crossbow and the twang of a bow string filled the air. Lyra felt her heart jump into her mouth as the ground by her sprayed dust into the air and a bolt embedded itself in the earth. Everyone seemed to take this as the starting signal, pushing their frayed nerves over the edge into action. The air was filled with the snapping of strings and the throwing of stones.


    Lyra only had a fraction of a moment to realise she had thrown her life away.


    Then everything went black in a rushing blur of motion.


    It took her a few seconds to understand that the black wasn¡¯t her loss of consciousness but that she was now wrapped in black fur, pressed up close to her face. She turned her head to see Opal blinking at her in confusion. What¡­


    Everything was quiet, surrounded by fur.


    Then the spat spatter sound of blood dripping broke the silence. Lyra pushed her hands against Rain¡¯s chest and he let her go from his embrace. She took a step back and walked around the wolf, dismay already in her eyes. His back was a pincushion of arrows.


    ¡°But¡­ I said not to,¡° she murmured, horrified.¡±


    Rain suddenly stood up fully and turned. He put a paw on Lyra¡¯s shoulder and gently pulled her behind him with Opal. He glared at the people in the building and they pulled back from the windows in fright, as though his gaze was physically pushing at them. The woman in the door actually ran away, disappearing into the building.


    ¡°I¡¯m not here for you, but press me and you¡¯ll be put on my list. You don''t want to be on my list,¡± growled Rain.


    ¡°G-go away monster!¡±


    ¡°If you didn''t want to harm us why come here?!¡±


    ¡°Someone find me more bolts! Quickly now!¡±


    Opal ran her arm over her face, drying the last of her tears. ¡°Fuck them. Kill them all, they don''t deserve to live.¡±


    Rain gently shook his head. ¡°I... know all of them. They¡¯re kind people. They¡¯re just¡­ I can¡¯t tell them who I am, even if they believed me it would just end badly for them.¡±


    ¡°We should go,¡± said Lyra, ¡°This isn''t something that can have a good outcome, we should just go.¡±


    ¡°...You¡¯re right... this isn¡¯t constructive.¡±


    Rain rolled his shoulders and most of the quarrels felt from his back and clattered to the ground. That quieted the onlookers down by a lot, all of them made suddenly awkwardly aware of just how ineffective their attack had been.


    Rain gave them one last intimidating glance, snorted, and then turned and left. The girls hurried after him as he disappeared down the nearest alley.


    Stratothrax


    Oh no Opal ?


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 57

    The three of them made their way through dingy back alleys, quickly leaving the low levelers quarter behind and headed toward the mid levelers part of town.


    Lyra hesitantly touched at Rain¡¯s elbow causing him to stop.


    ¡°Uhm, I should take out those arrow shafts. They kinda stand out a bit and they don''t make you look very leveler like.¡±


    ¡°I don''t think anything makes me look very leveler like,¡± gravelled Rain, but he sat down on the ground crossing his legs so that she could reach the arrows.


    ¡°I feel¡­ guilty,¡± muttered Lyra as she gently touched one of the arrows in Rain¡¯s back. ¡°Levelers are supposed to be good, we kill monsters¡­ but monsters aren''t like I was told, or how I understood¡­¡±


    Opal spat to the side. ¡°Levelers were never good sheepy. You trap monsters in dungeons in a never ending cycle of death and killing all for your own greed. You make us suffer and hate and struggle for nothing.¡±


    ¡°That''s because of what happens sometimes with monsters! If we didn''t the world would, there would- You don¡¯t know about it, you don''t understand!¡±


    ¡°BULLSHIT! You do it for levels! For power!¡±


    ¡°Stop.¡± growled Rain, firmly putting an end to it.


    They fell silent as Lyra slowly worked the remaining arrows from Rain¡¯s back. Fortunately, they were only shallow wounds and despite Rain¡¯s body occasionally tensing up with pain they came out easily. Lyra was glad she had chosen black for his coat, it hid the bloodstains well.


    ¡°Maybe it was a bad idea to come here like this, pretending to be a leveler,¡± she murmured, ¡°I didn''t expect the reaction to be quite so- I guess I really am getting used to being around you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. There wasn''t an easy way into town, your idea worked, we are inside and so far the town hasn''t entirely gone to war with me.¡±


    ¡°I guess at least some people are assuming you¡¯re my slave, It would have saved so much hassle if we could have just bypassed the walls though.¡±


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t we?¡± said Opal.


    ¡°Because they are enchanted everywhere but at the gatehouses.


    Opal twirled her black hair, looking between Lyra and Rain.


    ¡°Hmm, So do you want to keep going like this? These levelers don¡¯t seem to like us very much.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not leaving until I¡¯ve found at least Lira and Adlen, we¡¯ve come this far I¡¯m not backing down now.¡±


    ¡°We could use my invisibility?¡± said Lyra, ¡°Now we¡¯re inside we don¡¯t need to remain out in the open like this, we could do this from the shadows.¡±


    Rain hesitated then shook his head. ¡°No, if we can do this a certain way we can come back freely over and over, just randomly killing them could draw attention. Do you know what I have in mind?¡±


    ¡°I think so,¡± said Lyra, ¡°But let''s see what happens first. Come on let''s go to some busier areas, I¡¯ll try and be a bit louder about you being a ¡®leveler¡¯ this time.¡±


    They moved deeper into the mid leveler quarter and toward the market districts. It was busier here, much busier, and the number of people who practically jumped out of their skin and fled when they saw Rain increased. A couple of people tried to draw swords and attack him but this time Lyra was ready with a heavy duty word barrage that involved a lot of accusations of racism and rudeness and why in the gods sweet name would the guards let a giant scary monster into town? Don''t be ridiculous that would never happen, be rational, gosh. In short she gaslit the ever loving shit out of them, in fact this went past gaslighting, she was solidifying the gas into a brick and hitting people in the face with it.


    Rain for his part found he was, strangely enough, starting to enjoy the reactions. It was somehow gratifying to see people draw back from him after his past life where they would intentionally ignore him or casually knock him aside with a look of disgust.


    The air was filled with the scent of food as stalls and shops lining the edges of the cobble tried to flog cheap grub to passers-by. Rain felt not a little discomfort from this, the rich spiced scent of meat roasting over open braziers getting his hunger up, filling his mouth with saliva, causing his stomach to growl, he could just reach out and ta-. He was glad for the reprieve when they moved away although the hunger never quite disappeared, instead becoming a slow background burn grating on his nerves.


    They caused a huge commotion as they emerged into the market proper, hawkers at stalls going bugeyed and choking on their own spit as Rain¡¯s shadow loomed over them. The crowd had a difficult time keeping back from him with so many people and it was only Lyra walking in front of him with her arms spread and announcing him that stopped a full blown panic.


    ¡°The mighty merchant king, Fitz of the north has arrived in Lynthia! No he is not a monster, yes he has lots of gold! You think he¡¯s a monster? Well I guess you must hate gold then cause you aren''t getting any!¡±


    As Lyra spoke Rain turned his head, his gaze following Opal. Like a piece of steel being drawn toward a magnet the Goblin was making a beeline to the nearest stall selling weapons, a fascinated look in her eyes.


    The rotund and bald merchant running the stall gave the Goblin a sceptical look.


    ¡°Did your master send you out on an errand Goblin?


    ¡°...Yes? My master says to give me your best weapon, the shiniest, pointiest, sharpiest pointy you have.¡±


    The merchant blinked down at her, then his gaze moved to her pack which did look like the sort of thing someone wealthy might perhaps own. An ingratiating smile appeared on the merchant''s face. He had stumbled upon an easy mark, what a wonderful day!


    Immediately he brushed aside the blades laid out on his counter and from underneath produced a box, a long black lacquered box. He ran his hand along it reverently.


    ¡°This is a rarity in this part of the world, this came from far far to the east, created over the course of a decade by celibate monks of the skyspine mountain range. They rarely if ever interact with the outside world, this had to be smuggled out and even then ten people died in the process, the monks guard their masterpieces carefully.


    A fire was burning in Opal, the fire of hype. She found she could not look away from the merchant¡¯s emotive performance.


    The merchant flourished his chubby hands, ¡°May I present, with the greatest sanctity, the Crimson Katana of Kalirn!¡±


    He ran a finger along the rim and then carefully, slowly, opened the box as though revealing his favourite child. Opal¡¯s mouth dropped open seeing the glossy red curved blade within. Her hand came out, shaking slightly as she hesitantly reached for this magnificent weapon. The merchant drew the box back to her dismay.


    ¡°I want this.¡± said Opal, her throat dry.


    ¡°I can''t just give it away, I just can¡¯t, the man who gave it to me, he stumbled into my home bleeding from a gut wound, with his dying breath he bequeathed me it, I must protect it for all my life.¡±


    ¡°B-but you showed me it after I asked!¡±


    ¡°Yes, but the mental pain I would have to endure to trade it away, I no longer know if I can endure it, although... perhaps¡­ perhaps large quantities of coinage could soothe the agony.¡±


    Opal set her lips in a line and determinedly slammed her pack down on the ground. She flipped open the top and grabbed fistfuls of gold and began throwing them on the counter.


    The merchant''s eyes seemed to become luminous with glee. That is until Opal dumped a skull on the counter. A skull with two green flames for eyes which remained in place and unmoving. What was this? A tacky magical lantern?


    He leaned in, puzzlement creasing his brow. Since it was thrown in with the gold surely it must be worth some significant amount, but why?  He squinted at the two flames, carefully looking between them.


    ¡°BOO.¡± spoke the skull.


    The merchant let out an unfortunately girlish squeak and lurched backwards, his fat wobbling alarmingly.


    ¡°Hey don''t scare him Boner, this idiot is giving away amazing swords for practically nothing! What a complete fool hahaha!¡±


    Vash sighed and rolled his eyes. Then he glanced over to Rain who was watching this unfold some distance away from the stall. He sighed again, this time resignedly.


    ¡°That sword is just resin coated wood. I can see inside of it. He¡¯s trying to scam you.¡±


    The merchant blinked. What the hell was this? A magical skull that saw truths?


    ¡°Not true! Whatever that skull is, it¡¯s not telling the truth!¡±


    ¡°Even for a mortal you are truly a pathetic specimen. I wouldn''t even consider you for my collection. You should dig a grave and put yourself in it, it would be skipping to the only relevant point of your life. To think you and I tread the same ground. Ugh, such a wretched creature.


    You disgust me.¡±


    ¡°Wow Boner, that was kind of a jerk thing to say.¡±


    ¡°Your opinion does not matter to me at all Goblin, I only advise because your master is a brute who holds my existence in his paws.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, my opinion says it would be interesting to see what would happen if I painted you with lard and tossed you to some piggys.¡±


    ¡°...I amend my statement. Nevermind what I said about your opinion. Take back the gold.¡±


    ¡°H-hey hang on now,¡± said the merchant suddenly very aware of the pile of gold sitting on his counter. ¡°You¡¯ve already paid, I don¡¯t do refunds!¡±


    He overcame his wariness of the skull and grabbed at the gold, sweeping it toward himself. It was as he was doing this that a shadow covered him and blocked the light. He blinked and looked up to see a wall of black. A paw came up and gripped the front flap of the canvas roof of his stall and ripped it upwards. The merchant screamed and fell backwards as a monstrous wolf head looked down at him. He scrambled back on his butt, unable to look away from those feral yellow eyes until he slammed up against the wall at the back.


    ¡°What is happening here,¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°Hmm. I just saved your Goblin from losing you lots of gold for nothing.¡±


    ¡°Why.¡±


    ¡°She was trying to buy the sword. It''s made of wood, it''s fake, I can see.¡±


    Rain glanced at the skull then to the sword box. He then put one massive paw on it and curled his digits around it, applying pressure until the box exploded into splinters. The splintered remains of the sword, clearly wood beneath the enamel, were revealed.


    Opal gasped and rounded on the merchant. ¡°I trusted you! How could you betray the sword!¡±


    The quivering merchant shook his head violently.


    ¡°P-please don''t kill me! I have two wives and fourteen children!¡±


    ¡°Oh good! Rain can eat them too!¡± said Opal with an evil grin.


    The merchant whimpered at that and a slowly growing wet patch appeared on his trousers.


    ¡°Opal take the money. Don''t take the skull out again, levelers don''t like und- they don''t like talking skulls.¡±


    The Goblin grumbled but began sweeping the gold back into her pack along with the skull which ¡°Hmphhed¡± as it was put back inside.


    Rain turned away from the stall. Lyra was nowhere in sight, she¡¯d wandered off. Not good. He could already see people around him were starting to lose it. An unattended giant monster tended to have that effect.


    Well, no point wasting time. He raised his voice. ¡°Lyra.¡± The whole crowd flinched away from him and conversation died over the entire market. Everyone was looking at him now. That might have been a mistake.


    ¡°Yes?¡± came a voice. ¡°Why are you pronouncing my name like that?¡±


    Rain blinked and turned to see a small person. A Halfling. It was her, Lira. One of his killers.


    His breathing accelerated and his fur raised, traumatic memories like nails on a chalkboard and scalding fury along with it thrusting to the forefront of his mind. He prepared to leap on her, to literally rip her apart in front of everyone.


    A hand touched at his thigh and he looked down to see Lyra had appeared beside him, she had a worried look in her eye as though she knew what he intended. She shook her head slightly. Rain, with great difficulty, forced his body to relax.


    ¡°I saw you earlier, you''re that fancy rich merchant people have been speaking about?¡± said the Halfling. ¡°Hmm, you know you must be awfully high level to have a body like that, would you say what your level is if it isn''t too much trouble? I would just love to hear what a big strong one like you has built up.¡± The Halfling bit her lip and gave Rain a coy look.


    Rain blinked. ¡°You don''t think I¡¯m a monster?¡±


    ¡°No? That sheepy half-Elf said you weren''t and I haven''t seen a monster like you before so you must be a leveler right!¡± said the Halfling with a genuinely charming and friendly smile.


    The irony that the only person in the entire town who was welcoming of him was the person he had come to kill was not lost on Rain.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 58

    ?


    I''m-" Rain glanced at Lyra who was desperately making little cutting motions with her hand. "I have levels enough. In my culture we keep the specifics private, this open sharing of a person''s numbers is strange to me."


    The Halfling tilted her head. "Huh, well I suppose that''s fair. I guess I''ll just have to imagine how strong you are." She ran her eyes over his body. "That won''t be very hard."


    Rain squinted at Lira. She was just so- she just didn¡¯t seem to care at all¡­ It was¡­ strange. He couldn''t help but feel that there was something wrong with this situation, a subtle animal instinct warning him to be wary. But then perhaps he was just so used to people reacting poorly to him that coming across someone who seemed entirely unafraid was setting him off balance.


    A gasp drew his attention away from the Halfling. Someone other than himself was causing unrest amongst the market crowd, someone pushing others out of the way.


    A man with his rear to Rain appeared, walking backwards, pulling something across the ground. The crowd shifted and it came into a view, a Human woman, a woman wearing a corset and a torn blouse. She was being dragged, struggling to keep herself up on all fours but more often than not falling down as the man hauled on her long black hair roughly held in fist. Judging by the state of her clothing she was most likely a low leveler, in fact Rain thought he vaguely recognised her from his past life, although it was difficult to tell with how swollen and bruised her face was.


    The man snorted in disgust as she slipped and twisted her wrist on the cobble, whimpering in pain. He pulled back on her hair, tilting her head up and grasped her chin with a gloved hand.


    ¡°Do you want to go back to the low leveler¡¯s quarter?¡±


    The woman looked up at him with tears in her eyes.


    ¡°N-no.. I, want to be with you, you''re so¡­ high leveled! One of the highest!¡±


    ¡°I am. And I¡¯m growing stronger, you should want to be with me, I¡¯m an up and comer, a prodigy. Don¡¯t be like the others, don''t be like Myra, you¡¯ll stay with me no matter if someone comes along with more levels than me, you will, I know you will.¡±


    He stared at the woman¡¯s wide and terrified eyes for a moment longer and then released her. She fell back with a sob.


    ¡°What are you doing Adlen?¡± said Lira. The blonde haired Halfling had her hands on her hips, a dangerous tone to her voice.


    Rain¡¯s eye twitched as the man turned and he saw his face for the first time. Tall, curly black hair, a body like a sculpted idealization, a metal spear with a patterned blade on his back. It was Adlen, another one of his murderers.


    Rain planned his path of attack. Lira was turned away from him, he would lunge forward, teeth taking her in the back of the neck, bite down hard and fast, end her quickly, then keeping his momentum he would leap, tackle Adlen, taking him to ground before he knew what was happening and then ripping and tearing until there was nothing left.


    He stared unblinking, every monstrous and predatory instinct in him screaming at him to do it, kill them, kill them now!


    The problem was what came after. He glanced around. There were a lot of people in this market, many of them around mid level and likely a few higher leveled. Nothing would unify them into one deadly combative force like seeing an out of control monster killing their own. Rain knew he was strong, but he also knew he wasn¡¯t that strong. Killing Adlen and Lira right here right now would be a death sentence, he glanced at Lyra and Opal, and most likely not just for him. He clamped down on his fury, boxing it away as best he could for the moment. The box was already starting to show signs of breaking apart under the pressure.


    ¡°Lira what the hell is that with you? Did you get a new slave? How did you even swing getting a giant thing like that into town?¡±


    ¡°Leveler, Adlen, this one here is a leveler. Why are you being so rude? And more importantly what are you doing with that woman?¡±


    Adlen stared at her then stared at the hulking wolf monster, then back at Lira.


    ¡°What are you blathering about you silly Halfling, that is not a leveler, there¡¯s no fucking way. No, just no.¡±


    Rain had been waiting for this. He took a step forward. Both of them looked at him in surprise.


    ¡°Are you calling me a monster?¡± he growled.


    Adlen looked at Rain warily, not liking that this stranger was taking the aggressive stance.


    ¡°I¡¯m not calling you a monster, you are a monster, obviously, and a pretty stupid one if you can¡¯t even understand that. Piss off back to your master and stop bothering us.¡±


    ¡°In my culture calling someone a monster is a grave insult. If you¡¯re so sure of your word then duel me, if I win then you will swallow your pride, grovel, and apologise for what you said. Of course a leveler like yourself isn¡¯t afraid to fight an apparent monster like me right?¡± Rain pulled back his lips, flashing his canines in a wolfish grin.


    ¡°What?¡± said Adlen, clearly baffled that the monster hadn¡¯t shut up and gone away yet. Slaves just didn¡¯t talk back like this. ¡°I¡¯m not duelling a monster, don¡¯t be ridiculous. Why am I even talking to you? I doubt you even understand what you¡¯re suggesting!¡±


    ¡°Then are you walking back what you said?¡±


    Adlen scowled in irritation. ¡°No-


    ¡°Master, why is this leveler so afraid of you? Did his spine fall out his butthole like you said can happen sometimes?¡± said Opal with big innocent eyes.


    Adlen¡¯s fists clenched as Opal spoke and his face started to redden. ¡°First you, now some Goblin filth dares-¡±


    ¡°Should we look around and see if we can find it master? Maybe we can put it back up his butt, then maybe he won¡¯t be such a floppy spineless dildo!¡± Opal began looking around, as though hunting for Adlen¡¯s missing spine, this drew a few sniggers from the crowd which flushed Adlen¡¯s cheeks with white hot fury. He looked like he was about to attack the Goblin so Rain interjected.


    ¡°Duel me.¡± he growled, putting it simply.


    ¡°You should do it Adlen,¡± said Lira, ¡°It¡¯s the right thing to do, maybe you¡¯ll learn a lesson about running your mouth.¡±


    Rain glanced down at the Halfling¡­Why was she helping him? Did she truly believe he was a leveler? He wasn¡¯t sure that was the case but having her help for the moment was useful.


    ¡°Lira, I¡¯m not being dragged into this nonsense when literally everyone can clearly see that thing is a monster!¡±


    ¡°So how was he let into town? The guards check everyone who comes by with a level orb. How do you explain that?¡±


    Adlen glared at the Halfling, infuriated by her point. ¡°He obviously was allowed in as a slave.¡±


    ¡°The Ranker doesn''t allow large monster slaves into town, as a rule, you know that, you said it yourself.¡±


    ¡°Just- just shut up! I don''t know how it got in but it did, go and find a guard with a level orb, we can end this right now!¡±


    This was not going in a direction Rain had intended, he suspected a public repeat of what happened to the last level orb he touched would do him no favours and he would be lucky if he was just imprisoned if not lynched.


    Adlen¡¯s lack of interest in fighting him was the problem, Rain had hoped baiting him would have been enough to get him to agree to a duel but the leveler just didn''t want to commit. He was about to raise the stakes, try a different angle, increasing the pressure on Adlen further, when Lyra stepped forward and did it for him.


    ¡°Slave, for three months.¡±


    Adlen blinked. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°You beat Fitz here and he will be your slave for three months. He¡¯s a monster right? A powerful leveler will sometimes keep a powerful monster as an aesthetic slave in the cities, it¡¯s a sign of prestige, symbolic of their strength, a display of prowess.¡±


    He squinted at Lyra then turned his eyes to Rain. He glanced over him, an analytical look in his eye, judging. A large, unique, and extremely intimidating monster like this at his beck and call?... That would be¡­ Impressive. He would stand out, draw attention, it would be as though he¡¯d increased his level without actually doing so.


    ¡°That is¡­ Wait, you¡¯re its master?¡±


    ¡°If you wish to believe that then feel free.¡±


    ¡°Of course If I beat you then you will be my slave for three months in turn,¡± gravelled Rain, ¡°Being my slave would be an acceptable apology, better than grovelling even.¡±


    ¡°Hell no! Levelers aren''t slaves!¡±


    ¡°What is it that you think you are doing to that woman you are dragging around?¡±


    Adlen gawped at him and then curled his lip in anger, anger because Rain¡¯s comment had an edge of truth.


    ¡°So are you going to do it? You aren''t afraid of my little friend here are you?¡± said Lyra, giving Adlen a wink.


    Rain wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about being described as little.


    ¡°No chance, jerkface over here is way too much of a coward!¡± scoffed Opal.


    ¡°You¡¯re literally just a shitty Goblin! Why are you even talking?!¡±


    That knocked the smug look of Opal¡¯s face, but fortunately she was wearing another, smaller, smug look underneath.


    ¡°I¡¯d totally fight tall and wolfy over here, I¡¯m not afraid like you, you fat sack of expired cheese with a cavernous asshole! R-Fitz, fight me! one on one!¡±


    Rain wasn¡¯t sure if Opal was being serious or simply trying to aggravate Adlen, still, he held up a paw warning her back.


    ¡°She is correct that you are being a coward. Perhaps we really should form a search party for your spine?¡±


    That, at last, was enough to push Adlen¡¯s vexation over the brink.


    ¡°I¡¯ve really heard enough of this,¡± said the leveler, he flipped the spear from his back and spun it in hand. ¡°We¡¯ll duel, and then your idiot Half-elf master will give you to me and I¡¯ll make you my dog. That will be oh so wonderfully fitting. I¡¯ll command you to sit and fetch and crawl on your belly like a pet, until you''re ashamed to even lift your head.¡±


    The crowd had already been keeping a distance as best they could from Rain, they drew back further as Adlen flourished his spear. This time however there was a sense of interest coming from the Humans and Elves and various other races that made up the crowd. If there was anything a town liked it was entertainment. Entertainment was a genuinely highly valued commodity away from the cities, and seeing a plucky leveler crushing an uncomfortably intimidating monster like Rain was just fine by them.


    Space was quickly made for the fight, volunteers pushing back stalls, leaving an open square surrounded by the crowd.


    Lyra raised her hands, activating full business sheep mode.


    ¡°We¡¯re taking bets, taking bets! Anyone wishing to lay down gold hand it to the Goblin! This is the duel of the year, no, the decade folks! Have you ever seen the like! Fitz of the North accused of monsterhood, versus this¡­ Adlen guy, Prodigy of Lynthia! He has a spear! It is very pointy!¡±


    The attention of the crowd switched from Rain to Lyra. The sheep girl was quickly getting into the swing of things, stoking the crowd, building interest. The crowd¡¯s eyes followed her waving arms as she built the hype ever higher, Opal especially couldn''t look away, fascinated by this new phenomenon.


    One of the crowd caught Lyra¡¯s attention.


    ¡°You, yes you! You look very assured of the way this is going to go! What say you?¡±


    A muscular man, clearly a blacksmith judging by the size of his crossed arms and his leather apron, glared at Lyra, annoyed about being singled out. He shifted his shoulders and shook his head.


    ¡°Well obviously young Adlen is going to win. That''s a big monster, a real feral lookin¡¯ fucker, but levelers fight increasingly large monsters as they level higher, Adlen included, in fact I know he was part of a group who took on a Panthara, far more dangerous than that wolf thing. He knows what best practice is, this will be a slow painful dismantling of your slave, girl. I hope you don''t regret it.¡±


    ¡°A Panthara? Wow! Care to put your money where your mouth is?¡± said Lyra, practically bouncing on the spot.


    Opal appeared in front of the blacksmith, an open bag in her hands held up high. The blacksmith snorted a laugh, hesitated, then reached for his purse.


    ¡°Sure, why not, but only with two to one odds. Still want to do this?


    ¡°Mhmm!¡±


    There was a moment of silence, then the market crowd shifted into full commerce mode as the sound of a dozen clinking coins falling from the blacksmith¡¯s hand pierced the air. There was money to be made and that moved people with a magic all of its own.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take odds on the overgrown monster winning! Anyone?¡± cried a voice in the back, and then someone else, ¡°Get your meat! Can''t watchah fight without meat! Come buy mi¡¯ meat!¡±


    Opal drifted from person to person willing to take a bet against Rain, which turned out to be a lot, levelers always beat monsters in the end, no matter how intimidating a monster was, that was just how things were. Lyra followed behind the Goblin girl, she¡¯d procured a notepad from somewhere and was busily noting down every name and face that stepped up with money in hand to put in Opal¡¯s bag. The sheep girl doubted she would need it, but she had standards, she was a business sheep after all.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 59

    ?


    As Lyra and Opal worked the crowd one particularly enthusiastic male Elf tried to push papers into Opal¡¯s bag. Opal snatched the bag away, scowling at him.


    ¡°What is that? Stop trying to put your nasty leveler trash in my bag!¡±


    Lyra plucked one of the papers from the Elf and looked it over. It was a PLH contract, Power Leveling Hours, the alternative currency to coinage.


    Annoyed, she thrust the paper back into his hands.


    ¡°How are you going to bet PLH? That doesn''t make any sense!¡±


    The Elf gave her a charming smile, his red hair perfectly coiffed. ¡°Well if it goes my way you would be helping me level, in the dungeon, just us together. Or hey, if I lose I would, of course, help you, if only for half the time since you are claiming two to one odds. Alas, it would be less time, but anytime with you would have... great value to me.¡±


    Lyra¡¯s hand edged toward her face in an instinctive facepalm, with difficulty she restrained herself. Godsdamned amorous Elves, she was embarrassed to count herself as half of one at times.


    ¡°According to that contract I¡¯m lower level than you, and I¡¯m not even a real combat Class, sorry but no, you can¡¯t power level someone stronger than you, and I¡¯m not taking these anyway! Bet real gold if you want to bet. Opal, next!¡±


    ¡°W-wait, hold on now, we don¡¯t have to level, we could-¡±


    ¡°She said no Elfy!¡± said Opal. She kicked him in the shin and turned away.


    The Elf looked down at his shin more in surprise that a Goblin slave had the audacity to touch him than pain. By the time he looked up again Lyra and Opal had moved on and were surrounded by people trying to throw money at them.


    Meanwhile, in the center of the square surrounded by the crowd, Adlen was cracking his knuckles and rolling his neck. He put a hand on a knee and leaned to the side, then the other, stretching out and easing his muscles, loosening up, shaking out his limbs and then going through various martial motions with his spear.


    Rain watched the tip of the spear as it swung. Not so long ago it had been used to cut him apart, painted red with the last of his life. Adlen continued to move, performing stretches, practising smooth languid strikes. The more this continued, and the more Adlen ignored him, the angrier Rain got, it was like he was being mocked. The box in his mind splintered and came apart. He could no longer hold himself back.


    ¡°Get on with it,¡± snarled Rain causing the crowd nearest him to step back in alarm. He tensed and untensed his paws, rolling his claws, eager to lay into this HUMAN, he could practically feel the wounds of his death, missing arms, spilled guts, ghostly apparitions that marred his body, prickling at his nerves, like little clawed demon hands picking and pulling at his mind. This one had done this to him, ended him, disfigured him, mutilated him. Adlen had-. He could feel his memories crawling up his back, trying to drag him down, down into the suffocating darkness.


    ¡°Warrior¡¯s value preparation, maybe you could learn something,¡± said Adlen with a sneer, spinning his spear as he warmed up.


    ¡°I¡¯m not a warrior,¡± said Rain, his voice dark. ¡°I am a killer. A predator.¡±


    Adlen paused at that and really gave Rain his attention. He didn''t seem to like what he saw. A little doubt seeped into his expression. He shook his head, this was just another fight with yet another monster, if a particularly threatening looking one with eyes that- well, it didn¡¯t matter. He settled himself and then turned to his side where the woman he had brought with him sat. He raised an eyebrow and tapped the butt of his spear against her until she was forced to move, scuttling on all fours to the edge of the crowd. He caught her attention and wagged a finger at her.


    ¡°Wish me luck.¡±


    ¡°G-good luck!¡± whimpered the woman.


    ¡°Really Adlen?¡± said Lira, folding her arms and giving him a disappointed glare.


    ¡°Oh fuck off Lira, it¡¯s not like you haven¡¯t been dropped like a sack of shit before. Where¡¯s Brax hmm? Yeah, I thought so. I¡¯m just ensuring long term loyalty, you should do the same with some low leveler guy.¡±


    ¡°I have some self respect. If you care so much then why don''t you spend more time trying to level up?¡±


    Adlen glared at her but didn''t reply, instead he dropped into position, spear held at the ready by his side and faced Rain. ¡°Maybe that''s how this will end,¡± he muttered.


    Lyra appeared to one side, arms raised in the air again, drawing attention.


    ¡°We¡¯ll have a nice clean fight!¡±


    Rain gave her a look.


    ¡°Er, well a moderately dirty fight! Ready! Set! Go!¡± she finished the last bit in a rush and leapt back into the crowd.


    Rain dropped his center of balance forward, angling his legs, the claws on his feet tearing up the cobble. He powered forward hard, leaping into the air, his entire huge mass going airborne, claws outstretched reaching for Adlen, maw ready to snap down.


    The problem was that Adlen was already in motion, activating a Skill that released a store of momentum built up from his warm up he accelerated at an incredible speed. The butt of his all-metal spear struck the cobble in a flash of sparks and he violently shoved himself to the side, out of Rain¡¯s path, then pivoting on his heel as smoothly as a dancer he twisted and sent the deadly blade of his spear whipping toward Rain.


    Rain had only a moment to understand by just how much he had underestimated Adlen before the razor sharp metal tore into his shoulder. It was only the instinctive jerk of his arm that stopped it from going further, knocking aside the shaft with his forearm.


    He spun and crashed down, cobble shattering under his feet from the impact. Turning in the same motion he twisted and lunged for Adlen aiming to catch him unawares with his lack of reaction to being wounded, but Adlen was ready and danced backwards skipping just out of range of Rain¡¯s claws, blood flicking off his spear.


    Fast. Adlen was unbelievably fast and slippery.


    Rain snarled and tried grabbing for the spear, lunging forward with each stride, if he could just wrap his paws around the shaft he could rip it from Adlen¡¯s grasp leaving the leveler unable to harm him and completely defenceless.


    Swipe, swipe, grab. Miss, miss, miss. With growing frustration Rain found his attacks thwarted again and again and again, his paws avoided or batted aside by the twirling twisting spear.


    The crowd moved with them as Adlen retreated under Rain¡¯s ferocity, backing up through the market. Lyra watched with concern, suddenly a lot more worried about how this was going to go. It didn''t matter how strong Rain was if he couldn''t touch the damned leveler. She caught the blacksmith out of the corner of her eye, he was looking at her with a raised eyebrow, ¡®I told you so¡¯ practically radiating off of him in physical waves.


    He was right of course, to Lyra¡¯s irritation. Most levelers who took on larger monsters had specially prepared tactics, it made sense, no point being caught under a large monster''s weight advantage, far better to avoid and poke and use Skills. She just hadn''t expected it to work quite this well against Rain, Adlen¡¯s Class was clearly built for speed and it was paying off.


    ¡°Fitz! Don¡¯t let him wear you down!¡± she cried out.


    Adlen smirked as he dodged Rain¡¯s lunging claws once more, his feet deftly moving across the ground keeping him just out of reach.


    ¡°Your moron master just lost herself a slave it seems. I am curious how she controls you, she looks like a low leveler, maybe tens at a stretch. Let me guess, she has some spawn of yours locked up somewhere, or wait, perhaps it¡¯s an enchanted implant designed to pierce your heart? I¡¯ve heard they save that for the most feral ones.¡±


    Rain snarled and lunged for his throat, paw grabbing. Adlen turned to the side, evading, and brought the spear up to slice open Rain¡¯s stomach, Rain threw his weight at an angle, diving out the away, just dodging the blade. He rolled on the cobble, his back to Adlen and Adlen took the chance, charging in with his spear lancing forward, ready to skewer Rain.


    Exactly as Rain had planned. Rain spun as he came up, holding himself up with his paws and kicking out his leg. His foot hooked around a burning brazier and he flung it around and straight toward the charging leveler. Hot coals and a spitted chicken fell from it as it tumbled through the air and Adlen had to abort his charge and back up, holding up his spear to fend off the flying hunk of metal. The crowd behind cried out as they were showered with sparks and fire and burning coals and an entire roasted chicken.


    Not even pausing Rain slammed his paws down onto the cobble, spreading his digits and digging his claws in, then using his outsized strength he powered his arms forward, ripping his paws through the chunks of stone and earth and shovelling them up in an under arm swing. Adlen had barely fended off the brazier before dozens of fist sized cobble stones were hurtling toward him. In an instant he set his feet and spun his weapon. Flashes of light left after images in Rain¡¯s eyes as light sparked at both ends of the spear and the spear vanished, no, not vanished, just spinning in Adlen¡¯s hand so fast it was a soft blur audibly fanning the air.


    Stone cracked and ricocheted again and again against the spinning metal as Adlen fended off the projectiles, less fortunate were the crowd behind who howled as heavy cobblestones thudded against exposed flesh. Rain recognised a Skill when he saw one and wasn''t about to let Adlen press him with it. He was already lunging forward and scooping up the fallen brazier, the squat cast iron rods still hot to the touch as he drove the thing into the spinning blur of the spear.


    CLANG! The brazier did its job, the spear was stopped with an ear splitting noise, the metal crashing together violently causing the spear to visibly wobble along its length and for Rain¡¯s paws to sting from the vibration that shook the brazier. Adlen flinched and nearly dropped his weapon, leaping backwards out of surprise. He continued to retreat until he found himself by a large round fountain over a dozen feet wide, ringed by a thick knee high wall. In the middle of the pool was a statue of the original founding Ranker of Lynthia, worn and mossy with age, water burbling down its surface.


    The fountain was near the top of the market, the fight having moved them there. The crowd had been following along, although having just been caught by Rain''s impromptu projectiles they were a lot more cautious of coming close and the space around the two had increased greatly.


    Adlen jumped up on the pool wall of the fountain and gave Rain a wary look before examining his spear for damage, seeing it was fine he checked over his hand, rolling his knuckles and squeezing his fist tight. He was clearly discomfited, though he tried to hide it.


    ¡°You know something about Skills monster?¡±


    Rain remained silent, his eyes carefully watching the leveler. This seemed to bother Adlen more than a reply.


    Adlen stepped backwards around the rim of the fountain, his feet perfectly placed to keep his balance. Rain stalked around it in turn, following the wall and Adlen. The leveler kept him at a distance until Rain suddenly rushed forward, reaching out to grab at him. This time Adlen was not content to let Rain have it all his way and he stabbed at his paws, slicing at him, cutting at his paw pads, using the fountain to his advantage, sending flicking lines of blood into the air to patter down on the water with each strike. Rain¡¯s increasingly desperate attempts to grab the spear thwarted and countered in blood.


    Rain slowed, clearly getting frustrated. He watched as Adlen danced backwards around the fountain twirling his spear.


    He sneered, ¡°Stupid monster, know your betters. You are nothing, just fuel for my leveling or a trophy for me to parade around, a dog I will put to heel.¡±


    Fuck this. Rain turned, stepped up on the pool wall, and booted the statue in the middle of the fountain as hard he could. He expected the statue to break halfway up, instead the entire fountain ripped from the water and exploded through the side of the pool''s outer wall straight where Adlen was standing. Adlen was blown off his feet as half a ton of stone crashed into him, sending him rolling across the cobble as broken chunks of statue showered and clattered down around him.


    Rain blinked. That... had worked a little better than expected.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 60

    Not willing to let an opportunity pass him by Rain leapt across the pool and bounded toward the groggily sitting up Adlen. His paw slapped down and clamped on to the leveler¡¯s foot.


    Adlen jerked, seeing what had caught hold of him.


    ¡°Wha- s-stop!- Nononono!!¡±


    Rain¡¯s paw swept up and around as he skidded past, Adlen went from lying down to being ripped into the air and meteorically spun around Rain at arm¡¯s length until Rain let go and he was flung toward the nearest building at frightening speeds. Adlen screamed as he flew until his voice was cut off with a crunch and an explosion of masonry. Rain bounded after him and leapt at the jagged hole in the building¡¯s wall Adlen¡¯s passage had created. He barely fit, shoving and ripping his way through, but that wasn¡¯t about to stop him. Inside, Adlen was crawling away on his hands and knees one hand clutched at his side. By some miracle his spear was still with him, held in one bloodied hand.


    Masonry crumbled around Rain¡¯s shoulders as he hauled himself inside, the floorboards groaning desperately under his weight.


    ¡°G-get away from you monster freak!¡±


    Rain strode toward him, the top of his head brushing the ceiling, looming over everything in the room, a dominating presence.


    Before he could get much closer however Adlen rolled over and held his spear up, grasping it in the center. Rain paused as the spear seemed to vibrate and then the ends flashed. Now Rain was looking for it his sharp eyes were able to pick out what was happening. The last foot at either end of the spear was not uniform metal but covered in small holes laid out in a diamond pattern. Incredibly powerful jets of air were being forced through the holes on one side of the spear accompanied by a bloom of white light. In effect Adlen gripped the spear parallel to the ground and the spear rocketed up into the air, roaring jets at either end lifting it, dragging him up off the ground to standing.


    Rain eyed the spear, that weapon... was extremely powerful. If the blade was driven into him with the additional boost the air jets provided he doubted even his unusually tough body would hold up.


    The spear flipped around in Adlen¡¯s palm, microbursts of the jets giving Adlen incredible speed and control. The spear spun and flipped to his other hand, nearly scraping the walls and floor as it moved but expertly adjusted to just avoid them.


    Rain realised it might have been a mistake to chase him in here, an enclosed space where it would be hard to evade. He readied himself, if this was going to be where things ended then he would likely need to take a wound if he wanted to get to Adlen before that spear took him apart, he could only hope it wouldn''t be deadly.


    His foot shifted across the floorboards, settling his weight, his foot pads brushing aside masonry dust as his claws dug down into the wood.


    He would go for it and end it right now, on one, two-


    Adlen turned around and ran away.


    Rain was left flat footed, it took him a moment to realise that the leveler had thrown his advantage away, and then another moment to realise his prey was getting away.


    His prey was getting away.


    Predatory hunting instincts flash burned across his mind and he exploded forward, the floorboards shredding beneath his feet. He smashed into the door frame with a roar, wood and walls disintegrating around his shoulders as he brute forced his way into the hall, smashing up against the wall before rolling down the hall after Adlen like a wave of black furred death.


    Adlen¡¯s back disappeared around a door frame and the door slammed shut and remained that way for all of one second before it was blown apart, the door becoming so much splinters as Rain ripped through, the frame coming with him as he burst free roaring his fury.


    They¡¯d appeared out on a street outside the market, seemingly used by caravaneers judging by the number of crate stacked carts parked around. Dozens of workers who had been unloading and reloading stock were frozen in place and staring at Rain.


    ¡°M-monster! There¡¯s a loose monster!¡±


    ¡°Someone get the guard!¡±


    ¡°On me! We can take it! All of us together!¡±


    Rain did not like where this was going, even less so seeing Adlen darting around a cart out of sight. This was not going to happen, not again, not like Eliza. He snarled and bounded into a sprint, thrusts of his legs powering him through the air and shattering cobble under foot. He was fast, very fast. It occurred to him that he¡¯d never actually tried to see how fast he could run in this body, there just hadn''t been enough room in the dungeon most of the time, and he had never thought to test it once in the outside world.


    His outsized strength plus his large stride together were a deadly combination and the workers barely knew what was happening before he was blasting past them, one sweep of his arm knocking over a cart, one bound into the air taking him over the top of another, down the street and far past the workers.


    Adlen turned his head, glancing behind as he ran, a pale and sweaty face that became paler and sweatier seeing Rain gaining ground. Rain''s huge bounds were enough that even with Adlen using a Skill to boost his running speed he couldn¡¯t outpace him. Out of desperation he thrust his spear into the air and hissing jets burst from each end, his feet stepped, hopped, and then he was lifted into the air, floating upward, carried on his jet-propelled spear.


    Unfortunately for him the act of doing so slowed his pace significantly and he could do nothing but look down in terror as Rain¡¯s giant paw wrapped around his foot.


    Rain skidded, twisted his upper body and torqued down hard. Adlen full throatedly screamed as Rain whipped him downward like a wet rag. The cobble shattered and cratered as he struck like a sack of meat, chunks of stone spraying up around his bloody body. Somehow he survived the impact, his body enhancing Skills preventing most of his bones from breaking, mostly. He was barely able to get out a gasp of protest as he felt his foot rocketing back up and he along with it. He went flying over Rain''s head in an arc before he came meteoring back down once more creating a second depression in the cobble, as he was pulled back up yet again he left behind a bloody smear on the stone, then another as he smashed back down to earth.


    Again and again and again, Rain used the leveler as a hammer to pulverise the ground. Then he spun on his heel and threw Adlen as hard as he could. Adlen had lost consciousness by this point but that didn''t stop him from hitting the wall with a grizzly crunch, his body folding as he punched through stonework. A long low wheeze unconsciously escaped Adlen¡¯s lips where he rested partly inside the wall.


    The wall. Rain paused as he realised the wall he had just thrown Adlen into was the outer wall of Lynthia. Massive crenellated stonework, a vast building height rune carved into the wall on the inner side, one of many runes that had been set along the wall in fact, one after the other.


    Adlen was cratered into the lower part of that rune, disrupting it. As rain watched a sectional magic field above the wall flickered to life, a barely visible misty blue even to his sharp eyesight. It flickered with soft light, desperately holding itself together.


    Rain narrowed his eyes. He knew a little of Lynthia¡¯s defences of course, none of the full details as the guard liked to keep quiet about it, but he did know it was old, old and outdated, created when Lynthia had been founded centuries ago and never re-built with more modern enchanting practices. The town had simply never gotten a Ranker willing to spend the money.


    Looking over his shoulder he spotted a crowd coming down the street toward him. A mix of people from the market, led mainly by those who had put down bets.


    He had a moment so he reached out a paw and pushed it into the smashed up masonry around Adlen. Curling his digits then tensing his muscles he ripped out feet of stonework, stone pouring down onto the street as fractures ran out along the wall from where he worked.


    Rain looked upward as the carved rune was totally disrupted. The section of nearly invisible shield above the wall flickered once, twice, and then misted away into nothing leaving the part of the wall above the rune completely unshielded, just bare simple stone with no magic or enchantments. A small, street wide, section of Lynthia was now magically defenceless.


    Perfect. He pulled Adlen from the crater and tossed him on the cobble. Now, now to kill and eat the leveler, his prey. He loomed over Adlen¡¯s form, still breathing deeply from the run. His claws tensing and twitching, drool spattered on the cobble below from his slavering jaw. He could smell Adlen¡¯s blood plucking at his nose, his hunger was roaring in his ears and adding to his urgent need to kill the leveler, do it, end it, sate the fire, purge the torment.


    He curled over Adlen¡¯s body, his teeth lowering toward him, ready to bite down and start feasting, ripping him apart, devouring.


    ¡°S-stop!¡±


    He paused. His hunger did not agree that he should stop. His maw continued to move toward Adlen¡¯s neck.


    Then a hand touched at his side and he snarled, whipping around to see who had dared interrupt him, ready to rip them limb from limb.


    Lyra stumbled back with a squeak. Surprised, he blinked several times, managing to push aside the hunger.


    He glanced from Lyra who was looking at him fearfully, her legs visibly trembling, to the crowd of people. They were all looking at him, many of them had drawn weapons and looked ready to attack.


    ¡°N-not here¡± whisper hissed Lyra. ¡°You can''t do this here!¡±


    Oh, right. Openly eating a leveler in front of everyone might cause some small minor issues. Levelers generally did not eat other levelers, as a rule.


    He drew back from Adlen with a sigh.


    Lyra looked so relieved she practically melted. Gathering herself she turned to the crowd.


    ¡°W-We h-have a winner! Fitz of the north!¡±


    Part of the crowd cheered, whatever happened they had gotten what town dwellers so valued: entertainment, and they had gotten it in spades. However, the part of the crowd who had made bets against Rain did not look quite so happy.


    ¡°Tch, what a joke, like hell I¡¯m standing for this,¡± said one. He scowled and lifted his sword, stepping forward, preparing to attack.


    A large hairy arm came up in front of him, preventing him from going further. The blacksmith gave the man the side eye.


    ¡°You chose of your own free will to bet against the monster. You will have the grace to accept you were wrong. Do not make me disarm you.¡±


    The sword wielder glared at the blacksmith, but then he backed down, a lower leveler in the face of a higher.


    Lyra gave the blacksmith a grateful look, she didn''t want to think about how poorly things would go for everyone involved if it became Rain versus the crowd.


    Rain leaned down and hooked a paw around the unconscious Adlen then flipped him over his shoulder. He turned and strode down the street, the crowd parting to let him through, angry or awe filled eyes following his every step.


    He¡¯d got what he wanted, not everything, Lira still lived, but he was satisfied for the moment. Lyra followed him in his wake, snatching nervous glances at the crowd, Opal was¡­ less nervous.


    ¡°Hahahaha! Monsters win! I have all your gold!¡± She clumsily swung Adlen¡¯s spear in the air, which of course had found its way into her hands.


    Lyra turned around and quickly grabbed the Goblin, marching her after Rain.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 61

    They were about to leave behind the crowd when the red headed Elf who had tried to force a power leveling contract on Lyra pushed and shoved his way free from the throng. He stepped in front of the sheep girl spreading his arms, forcing her to a stop.


    ¡°Hey!¡± he exclaimed, before lowering his voice to a whisper and getting closer. ¡°You know I can help get you out of this. That monster, I figured it out, it¡¯s threatening you right? Forcing you to stay by its side, it''s the only thing that makes sense, there''s no way you could control it when you are even lower level than me. Just say the word and I can whisk you away, no more scary wolf monster or nasty little Goblins, I promise.¡±


    ¡°Uhm, I want to be here, I- I think? I think I do? Would you mind moving? I¡¯m uh, trying to get by.¡±


    ¡°You need to listen to me. You have less levels than I do, you know, and I know that you need to do what''s best for you. It¡¯s best for your safety that you don¡¯t stay with that thing. You should come to my home where you¡¯ll be safe.¡±


    Lyra was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable especially with the way he was looking at her.


    ¡°I- I need to stay with Fitz, for my safety. You don''t want to get involved with my problems, it won¡¯t turn out well for you.¡±


    The Elf gave her an assuring smile and put his hand on her shoulder.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I am wealthy and strong enough that I can protect you from anything. Just say the word.¡±


    Lyra looked at the hand holding her and furrowed her brow.


    ¡°I¡¯m not looking to- no, I said no, get your hand off of me.¡±


    ¡°But-¡±


    The Elf was cut off however by a massive paw wrapping around his hip. He blinked down at it, not quite understanding what had just happened. To his shock the paw suddenly shifted, gripping onto him and hauling him up, quickly accelerating away from the ground and full body flinging him into the air. The Elf cried out as he was physically launched skyward, and then grunted as he came crashing down on the nearest rooftop, three stories off the ground. He scrambled around on the angled top on all fours, desperately scrabbling at the tile to stop from falling and slipping off the edge of the roof.


    A crowd of faces looked up at him but the one who had thrown him wasn¡¯t even looking in his direction, just walking away with the unconscious leveler slung over his shoulder.


    ¡°H-hey! You can''t just put me up here and leave me!¡± screamed the Elf, shaking his fist. Rain ignored him, that a full adult Elf had just been picked up and chucked on a roof seemingly a complete non-concern to him. The crowd didn¡¯t think it was such a small matter however and were staring bug eyed between wolf monster and suddenly vertically positioned Elf.


    Lyra hurried to catch up to Rain.


    ¡°Y-you didn''t need to do that!¡±


    ¡°You would rather I killed him?¡±


    ¡°No! I- I could have handled it¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not waiting. I got what I wanted, and maybe a little more.¡± He glanced back at the damaged rune on the outer wall. No one seemed to have realised the enchantment had been destroyed, although he supposed someone would come along who understood what the damaged rune meant at some point. ¡°And now we are leaving. Come.¡±


    Lyra hurried behind as Rain turned down an alley and the crowd disappeared from view. He wasn¡¯t reducing his stride for the girls and they had to practically jog to keep up with Rain, an obnoxious metallic racket coming from Opal¡¯s pack as they made haste.


    It didn''t take long with Rain¡¯s detailed knowledge of the town¡¯s back alleys and soon they were approaching the gate they had entered through. The traffic was far greater this time and Rain¡¯s sudden emergence onto the street caused abrupt chaos. A number of people fled seeing him and more dramatically several horses pulling carts went into a full blind panic, rearing up and braying in fear, backing up the carts they were pulling until they either collided with other carts or ran into buildings. Furious red faced merchants shouted and fought desperately to keep things under control as Rain passed. They did not have a lot of success. Horses did not like giant wolf monsters.


    Rain avoided them as best he could. He really just wanted to get outside, kill Adlen, and eat. He was sure he was going to start eating horses if he waited much longer, as it was he made a beeline to the gate. Fortunately the same guard as last time was there, although he looked significantly less happy with the situation if that were possible.


    ¡°What the hell do you think you¡¯re doing?! Wait, what are you doing with that man? You, you can''t just come in here and kidnap someone! Are you insane!?"


    Lyra paused by him. ¡°We acquired this man by law of dueling, all above board and quite reasonable I assure you. Nothing to worry about.¡±


    ¡°A monster is walking away with a wounded leveler on his shoulder in broad daylight, of course there''s something to be bloody worried about!¡±


    ¡°For you perhaps, you did after all explicitly endorse this business endeavour, albeit a particularly aggressive endeavour. I wonder how your boss will feel about your responsibility in this? Taking bribes that caused such an issue, tsk tsk.¡±


    The guard¡¯s face dropped. ¡°N-no! You wouldn''t dare!¡±


    ¡°Wouldn''t I? This is just business after all mister guard guy, and we paid you handsomely for your cooperation,¡± said ruthless business sheep Lyra.


    ¡°B-business?¡±


    ¡°Business!¡± Said Opal, giving the guard a double thumbs up as she passed.


    A number of extremely angry merchants were fast approaching the guard, clearly on a warpath, and before the guard could interfere further he was swamped by yelling and shouting people.


    Rain carried Adlen a ways into the woods, far away from prying eyes, privacy to eat and find some kind of closure for his deep seated trauma at long last. He flipped Adlen off his shoulder and dropped him by a tree. The leveler was clearly heavily injured; his wounds harsh, broken bones all over his body. He wasn''t waking up anytime soon.


    Lyra looks between Rain and the leveler, not a little dismay sinking in. Was she really about to let him kill this man right in front of her? He was a leveler just like her of course, that mattered, but then he had done a terrible thing to Rain, killing him and turning him into a monster, a fate that most levelers would consider far far far worse than death.


    And what of her hand in this? She had been instrumental in getting this leveler into Rain¡¯s claws. She was culpable as anything for what was about to happen.


    She breathed out, steadying herself. This, this wasn''t that unusual, in her city levelers killed each other often enough, whether out of greed or from a wrong. This Adlen person deserved it more than most, what he was doing to that woman in the market, well, for at least one person Adlen''s sudden disappearance would mean nothing but good.


    Still, she didn''t like it, Rain was a monster, and that made him killing Adlen rather than a leveler ten times worse. She wasn''t sure how or why, it just felt that way, it just did. A lifetime of ingrained social constructs would not be so easily changed despite her new experience with monsters.


    With all that had happened¡­ She felt lost and alone and deeply confused.


    Lyra tried to imagine herself years from now. Would she still be a fugitive to a powerful and vindictive lord with vast connections and unlimited funds? Forever looking over her shoulder for opportunistic bounty hunters? Would she forever be reliant on this monster to keep her safe from the wrath of the noble? It was so far away, it was almost impossible to imagine.


    Would she be alone or would there be a special person next to her?


    She glanced at Rain. Him? Was she stuck with him forever? A monster? What a terrible fate! Always together, keeping her safe with his massive dominating bod- With his powerful embr- and his large-


    Lyra paused, she needed to get her mind out of the gutter. She was as bad as that red headed Elf!


    As she was busy navel gazing, Rain had set Adlen down and Opal had begun pulling his clothing from his body as Rain sat cross legged and waited patiently.


    Things continued like this for a time, in tense silence, until abruptly Opal¡¯s pack spoke up.


    "I want to make a deal."


    Opal paused. ¡°Did you say something Boner?¡±


    ¡°Stop calling me that! And yes, I have something to say to your brute of a master. It''s important.¡±


    Rain who had been watching narrowed his eyes but then nodded his head.


    Opal pulled off her pack, setting it on the ground then fussed with it until she pulled Vash free, a spill of coins coming with him.


    She turned the skull toward Rain, its flame eyes dancing as he was moved.


    ¡°I want to make a deal. I have important information relevant to your endeavours, of that I am absolutely certain. I wish to trade telling you this information for your word that you will not destroy me.¡±


    Rain furrowed his brow at the skull. ¡°How would I know this information is worth it before giving you my word?¡±


    ¡°I realise it is a difficult deal to make but I have no other leverage. You may negotiate down.¡±


    ¡°Give me the information or I will eat you right now.¡±


    ¡°No. And you won''t get it like that, I hold the high ground here when it comes to possession of this information,¡± said the skull, its flame eyes looking at Rain cooly.


    ¡°Erm, perhaps a promise not to destroy you as long you don''t go against our interests in any way shape or form?¡± said Lyra.


    Vash seemed to consider this. ¡°Hmm. Fine. I suppose that is acceptable. Do you agree on this wolf?¡±


    Rain stared down the skull but eventually he relented. ¡°...Yes.¡±


    ¡°Very well. The information. Lira, that Halfling you take issue with, it is not a Halfling.¡±


    ¡°...What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°I am saying that it is a creature wearing the skin of a Halfling to deceive the people of that town. I do not know what creature it is, you will have to divine that for yourself, but just know that it is not as it appears, it is something else, it is acting and it is successfully fooling all of you. Only I am able to see the truth of it, as I saw the truth of that sword, below the surface Lira is not a leveler but something else.¡±


    Rain stared at Vash. That couldn''t possibly be true could it? Something was wearing Lira''s skin as clothing? Pretending to be her? Or, wait, had Lira ever even existed? Had she always been a fake person? Had the thing wearing her been the one to help kill him?


    There was no way... But then his instincts had quite clearly been telling him something was wrong with the Halfling, very wrong. Could the reason that she had chosen to go along with his pretence of being a leveler in fact be because Lira herself was a monster pretending to be a leveler?


    He wasn''t sure, this was a problem in a lot of ways. Lira was suddenly a completely unknown threat instead of just being a below average leveler.


    ¡°I believe that information is more than enough for your word,¡± said the skull, eyeing him carefully.


    Rain reluctantly agreed with that statement. ¡°...fine you have it.¡±


    He gnawed on a claw distractedly. His plans were suddenly made a little more complicated..


    ¡°M-maybe you sh-should question him!¡±


    He paused and turned to Lyra.


    ¡°You don''t know anything right? Maybe this guy will be able to tell you, uhm, and about the others you are after too?


    Rain did not like hearing that, mostly because she had a good point. His stomach growling painfully didn''t help either, he was ravenous.


    He hesitated, reason doing furious battle with his desires.


    Reason eventually won and he grabbed hold of the half naked man by the wrist and began dragging him through the woods to the mansion.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 62

    Heavy pads pushed back the leveler¡¯s head and a splash of water hit him across the face.


    ¡°Is that enough? You¡¯d think he¡¯d have woken up by now.¡±


    ¡°I did throw him around pretty hard. I¡¯m surprised he isn''t more injured. Must be his Skills.¡±


    ¡°Tch, levelers¡­ Oh look, I think he¡¯s coming around.¡±


    Opal lowered the cup of water she was preparing to throw at the leveler and stepped back.


    A bleary Adlen slowly opened his eyes, he didn''t seem to understand where he was or what was happening. A low groan escaped his lips and he squeezed his lids back shut as the light of the Ranker¡¯s quarters hit his eyes.


    ¡°It huuurts. Gods, why do I feel like someone dropped a galloping centaur on me? What- what¡¯s happening? I¡¯m tied? What the f-¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re our captive!¡± said Opal cheerily, ¡°You belong to us monsters now!¡±


    Adlen cracked one eye and peered at the Goblin. ¡°I¡­ remember you, you were with that horrible thing that- that¡­¡± his eye slowly wandered over to a black furred leg and then up and then up some more, until both eyes were open and he was leaning back in his chair as Rain loomed at him, menacingly.


    ¡°Tell me about Lira, what is she? A monster? Is she like me?¡± he growled.


    ¡°I- I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about! Let me out of this at once! I-                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             I¡¯m not your slave! Levelers can¡¯t be slaves, only monsters!¡±


    Opal scoffed. ¡°You really think that? All that is needed is a collar¡­¡± Her eyes drifted to the leveler¡¯s neck where Red¡¯s collar had been placed, a tight snug fit.


    Adlen¡¯s throat bobbed and he tried to look down as he realised what was wrapped around his throat, his face paling.


    ¡°You can''t do this to me! You can¡¯t!¡± Adlen began struggling against his binds, already hyperventilating, but he didn''t make any headway in escaping, unsurprising considering how layered in chain he was. Rain hadn¡¯t wanted to take any chances and the leveler was practically swaddled in metal, his forearms from elbow to wrist just a bundle of chains wound around and around inches thick pinning his arms to the chair¡¯s armrests.


    ¡°I have done this to you, you agreed to the terms and now your life is mine. Now tell me about Lira! What is she?¡± snarled Rain, his already worn thin patience wearing further.


    ¡°She- She¡¯s just Lira! I don¡¯t know! I¡¯ve known her for years, she likes to sleep around with higher levelers, not that I¡¯m not guilty of the same, she finagled a place with some high leveler recently. She¡¯s nobody! Now I''ve told you let me go!¡±


    Rain squinted at the leveler, unsure if he was telling the truth.


    ¡°She¡­ You never noticed anything strange from her? Anything¡­ un-leveler like?¡±


    ¡°No! I don¡¯t even know what you mean!¡±


    ¡°Well, He¡¯s not very useful. Time to kill him?¡± said Opal, unsheathing her cutlass.


    Rain worried the problem, Lira must be way past anything that someone in town could detect as being a monster, maybe even past what truth lenses could see if she was regularly coming and going. He supposed that she might have remained undetected forever had not Vash come along.


    ¡°Get that Goblin away from me!¡± cried Adlen as Opal stepped toward him, flourishing her blade.


    Rain held up a paw in front of her.


    ¡°Wait. Adlen, tell me about Brax and Myra and Eliza. Where are they?¡±


    Adlen stared at him. ¡°Is- is this all a setup? Wait, wait, did Brax have you do this? Oh gods that evil fuck, I knew he had it out for me!¡±


    Rain made a cutting motion, getting frustrated, ¡°No. I want to kill Brax, tell me what you know and maybe Opal here won''t stick that sword in you.¡±


    Adlen eyed the cutlass which waved excitedly in front of him.


    ¡°Brax and Myra left town, they dropped everything and went back to their family in the city, in Florens.¡±


    A gasp came from behind Adlen and Rain looked up to see Lyra with her hand over her mouth. He raised a brow questioningly.


    ¡°F-Florens is my home city¡­ they went¡­ and that means you¡¯re going to¡­ oh, oh no, I feel faint...¡±


    ¡°Calm down sheepy, it¡¯s just us.¡±


    ¡°Just you and-! I have family there, and he, he could¡­¡±


    ¡°Do you really think I¡¯m going to harm your family?¡± said Rain.


    ¡°No, yes, maybe, I don''t know!¡±


    Rain stared at her for a moment more before turning back to Adlen.


    ¡°Why did they leave?¡±


    ¡°They never told me, they just left suddenly, something Eliza said, I think. Brax¡¯s family is well off, strong, Lynthia is really just a summer get away for him, the wealthy families of Florens send their young out to smaller dungeons because Florens¡¯ dungeon is so dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Name of his family.¡±


    ¡°The Fenhorns.¡±


    Rain turned back to Lyra, it took her a moment to compose herself.


    ¡°Y-yes, I¡¯ve heard of them, they''re known for their charity, part of a collective that try to help low levelers become stronger. They¡¯re good people, my- well it¡¯s not important, they are some of the kinder levelers I¡¯ve known.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ does not sound like Brax. Brax and ¡®kind¡¯ do not belong together in the same sentence.¡±


    Lyra shrugged helplessly, ¡°All families have their wild child.¡±


    He turned back to Adlen. ¡°Not enough. Tell me more.¡±


    ¡°I- I don¡¯t know more, I don''t even know what you want with them!¡±


    ¡°I want to kill them. Tell me more.¡±


    ¡°Myra, that vindictive bitch, there¡¯s something wrong with her she¡¯s wrong in the head- I-¡±


    ¡°I already know that, it was you who jumped into her arms. Tell me something else.¡±


    ¡°Eliza lucked into a water mage type Class, a good one she¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°Something else.¡±


    ¡°I don''t know! Brax! He¡¯s got more than one Class!¡±


    Rain paused at that, unsure if he had heard right.


    ¡°...What did you just say?¡±


    ¡°Why do you think he¡¯s the special one they pour so much into? He¡¯s the big hope of his family, the one to break them into the higher ranks of the city, he¡¯s never been serious while he was here in Lynthia, it was all just a silly game to him!¡±


    Rain glanced from the tied down leveler to Lyra. ¡°Is¡­ Is that possible?¡±


    Lyra hesitated. ¡°Sometimes, but it¡¯s rare, really rare, you¡¯d only come across it in the cities where there are so many people. It¡¯s kind of a big deal as it generally a guarantee someone will become a high leveler. The Fenhorns probably have some secret way to increase their chances of managing it if I had to guess, the family dynasties know things we never get to hear about.¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­¡± said Adlen slowly, ¡°how did you know I was with Myra?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not important. Tell me more of Brax.¡±


    ¡°No, I don''t think I will, you¡¯re clearly working for someone who knows me.¡±


    ¡°Tell me more or I will kill you.¡±


    Adlen suddenly eased his struggling against his binds and glared up at Rain. ¡°No. You won¡¯t.¡±


    Rain¡¯s eyes widened and his head snapped to the side as gale-force wind came from the end of the room. Adlen¡¯s spear which had been tossed aside was roaring to life and lifting up into the air. Then it began spinning, faster and faster, becoming a blurry cutting disc. Somehow the leveler didn''t need to touch the thing to make it work.


    Fortunately, they had a backup plan.


    ¡°Do it now Red, aim for the butthole, as hard as you can!¡± shouted Opal.


    Red, now collarless, was crouched beneath the chair the leveler was tied to. He squeezed his eyes shut and cried out, driving his claws upward as hard as he possibly could. Opal¡¯s rapier, which his claws were wrapped around, was angled up through the chair¡¯s cushion and the cushion provided no resistance at all to the razor sharp needle of a sword as he slammed it home to the hilt in less than a split moment.


    Sweat poured down Adlen¡¯s face as he stared in horror down at the metal spike protruding between his legs having just missed his most important bits.


    ¡°No you stupid Kobold! You didn''t aim right!¡±


    ¡°I- I can''t see to aim, I can''t work under these conditions!¡± cried out Red.


    Just as this happened Rain lurched backwards, a blurring disc buzzing past, cutting through the air, swooping around him until it was coming back. The disc was practically luminous with light such was the amount of magic pouring through it. Rain set his feet, ready to dodge in any direction as the spear came on. It was spinning at such a high velocity that the air pressure ruffled his fur and it became difficult to hear anyone speak over the wind.


    The disc zipped forward and Rain dodged, but the spear wasn''t coming for him. Instead it swooped down horizontally toward the chair Adlen was bound to and sheared through the legs, sending wooden shrapnel bouncing and spinning, along with Red who let out an unfortunately high pitched scream and flung himself away, just avoiding being decapitated by the weapon as it cut through a wall and into another room, not even slowing down as plaster and wood were torn apart around it.


    Adlen fell groundward, the chair breaking apart as he impacted, its arms detaching from the seat. He was still tied to the separate parts of the chair but the chair had come apart enough that he was able to struggle to his feet.


    He turned, awkwardly shuffling his chained legs, eager to get away and escape this nightmare, but then a half-sheep materialised in front of him, a black knife held in her upraised hand, already swinging down toward his chest. Not even having to think about it he activated one of his Skills and his hand flashed up grabbing at the sheep girl¡¯s wrist. He bent her arm back, a sneer twisting his sweaty face, pushing the blade toward her neck.


    ¡°It¡¯s you isn''t it, it¡¯s all you, your slave, your plan, tell me, fucking tell me what you want!¡±


    ¡°I- He¡¯s not my slave, he¡¯s a free monster, I don¡¯t control anything, it¡¯s all him!¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about? What do you mean!?¡±


    ¡°No leveler told him to do this, he¡¯s a monster acting alone!¡±


    Adlen blinked at her, the realisation that she spoke the truth, the monster was truly acting on its own without command, finally dawning on him.


    ¡°It did this¡­ all?¡±


    A massive paw came down on Adlen¡¯s chain wrapped arm and he turned frightened eyes upward to the looming wolf.


    ¡°Stop. Your. Spear.¡± snarled Rain.


    Adlen shook his head and then panicking he tried to fire off a Skill, he jerked away before he lurched to a stop as he ran out Rain¡¯s grip, like a marionette having its strings momentarily cut. He cried out, firing off as many Skills as he could, his body becoming a blur as he shifted and moved but to no avail, Rain¡¯s grip was utterly immovable and he simply wrenched himself around in Rain¡¯s paw, twisting like a rag in the wind.


    Rain snarled and curled his digits. Adlen screamed as blood exploded from the chain around his arm, the soft crunch of forearm bones splintering apart coming from within.


    ¡°Stop your weapon now or die!¡±


    ¡°F-fuck you!¡±


    The spear exploded up through the floor, slowing its spin as it came, Adlen reached out his free hand to grab it and swing it toward Rain.


    At that exact moment Lyra made the knife vanish from her held hand and had it appear in her free hand below as it moved toward his thigh, the knife materialised as her hand impacted and the blade sunk deep. Adlen bellowed and his arm went wide.


    The spear Vrsshhhh¡¯d by in a blurred disc of motion-


    -And went straight through the ceiling, a dark line marking its passage amidst a rain of plaster and wood.


    A meaty thud hit the floor and Adlen stared at his stumped wrist, then down at his limp hand on the floor below, not understanding what had just happened. He still hadn''t quite processed how he¡¯d cut off his own hand when a set of vicious teeth engulfed his neck and ripped out his throat.


    He slumped to the ground dead.


    Rain paused, watching the ceiling warily, he could hear the spear still, moving through the mansion, it was coming back in their direction. As he had feared Adlen¡¯s death had not slowed the damn thing down at all, in fact it seemed like it was getting even faster. He grabbed hold of Lyra and Opal and prepared to haul them out of the way.


    The spinning spear sheared out of the far wall, clearly out of control, its enchantment going haywire. Blades of light were flickering and splitting off it as the disc wobbled and waved, the screaming whistling hiss of the air it emitted becoming so loud that nothing else could be heard. The disc blew past them in less than a second and struck the wall on the other side of the room, cleaving the wall down the middle in a storm of wind and light.


    The wall tore apart as the spear passed through, cutting through into a sheet of metal on the other side in a cascade of sparks and the sound of shrieking twisting steel before with a roar the spear exploded, throwing chunks of shredded metal across the room. Rain turned his back protecting the girls from the flying debris, pieces of steel thudding against his fur before clattering to the ground.


    As the dust settled, and the air became calm, a gleam of reflected metallic yellow could be seen through the gap in the wall the spear had created, a great pile of coins just visible. Lyra peaked from around Rain, her eyes round with apprehension.


    ¡°...is... is that gold?¡±


    Red was already running toward the newly revealed room, his claws up in the air, a joyful look on his face. Lyra and Opal quickly joined him, the draw of discovery capturing their attention.


    Rain for his part had had enough. No more waiting, no more distractions. Just no more.


    He turned and dove on Adlen¡¯s body, quickly ripping him apart and devouring him.


    It was done.


    The first of his tormentors was dead, dead and gone.


    Rain stumbled to his feet.


    He wandered across the room, almost mindless, in a near trance.


    Everything felt strange.


    Then Rain became viscerally aware of it, the cold blade of trauma inserted deep in his hindbrain. He pulled it out, tossed it away, and the difference was obvious. The world seemed lighter, more colourful, more saturated and alive. He let out a long breath and his shoulders slumped in relief, the metaphorical knife dropped from his paw and he fell back on the Ranker¡¯s bed. A bone-deep sense of peace rolled over him and soon he was asleep. He slept better than he ever had as a monster, cleansed of that most pestilent and vile disease: unrelenting memory.


    Stratothrax


    I made another banner . This is the way.


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 63

    Red lay in the vault and decided he quite liked gold.


    Okay, that was a lie. Red didn''t like gold, he LOVED gold.


    He shivered and squirmed as he rolled about in the pile of the stuff, the heavy metal titter tattering against his scales like raindrops drumming against a canvas. It was an immensely satisfying feeling, like relaxing around an open campfire, the scent of a fresh rat roasting spiced with shaved Goblin toenails, his Kobold comrades around him, comfortable and safe.


    Kobolds and gold went together like wine and cheese, like socks and shoes, like Kobolds... and more gold. If there was one thing that Kobolds had inherited from their distant dragony cousins it was an appreciation for that lustrous precious thing that seemed to have an inner warmth all of its own.


    The Kobold lifted his claws and watched blissfully as coins clinked and slipped between them to fall to the mound below.


    Despite everything that had happened, being kidnapped and enslaved by levelers, then being rescued and enslaved again by some terror of a monster and repeatedly used as bait and terrified out of his scales and forced *cough* to watch that terror do lewd things with that Goblin, despite all of that he was glad he was there at that moment. Only a Kobold at the very tip top of a tribe could even begin to imagine rolling around in a literal pile of gold, if the tribe could even muster that much of the stuff, this was truly a luxurious ecstasy beyond ecstasies.


    He watched lazily as the Goblin girl explored the room, or rather, vault. The spear had sheared through the wall revealing the sheet metal clad interior. From what he could tell it had no door on the inside so he had no idea how the original owner of the mansion had accessed it. Some dirty leveler trick no doubt. He shuddered to think that he had been so close yet with absolutely no idea that all this wonderful gold lay beyond a simple wall, that was the stuff of Kobold nightmares.


    The room contained a number of chests. Most of them had been stoved in by metal shrapnel from the spear, wooden planks shattered allowing the contents of each chest to spill forth, coins, metal, jewelry, uncut gems, cut gems. Less interesting were the metallic devices marked with occult runes and even less interesting than that was the paper and scrolls, bundles of the things. Red had already looked at the paper, according to the sheep girl they were something to do with power leveling. He did not like the sound of that and had kicked the paper into a corner, shunning the suspicious stuff before subsuming himself into the largest pile of gold he could make.


    Opal was picking at a small chest. This one appeared different than the others, while the other chests were at ground level and unremarkable this one was on a pedestal and set with iron filigree, its wood a plaster white. One of the metal shards had struck the lock, fracturing the metal, and Opal was digging at it with her gladius, working it up and down until with a crackle and a flash of blue the lock broke apart, and so did half the rest of the chest as the enchantment holding it together collapsed.


    Opal fell back with a yelp as the box broke and a spill of vanta black rubies streamed out, clattering from the pedestal in a shower of gemstones.


    ¡°What¡­ is this?¡±


    Lyra stepped by the confused Goblin and picked up one of the gems. It didn''t reflect the light in the slightest, instead appearing as a pitch black hole in the air, as though Lyra was holding a shard of pure darkness. The only reason she could tell it was a gem at all was because rotating it revealed its silhouette to be gem-like in shape.


    ¡°I¡­ I have no idea, these things are so dark, it¡¯s like they¡¯re eating the light. I guess they must be pretty valuable if they were kept above where the gold is in a special box.¡±


    Opal huffed and picked up a fistful of the things and let them pour between her fingers.


    ¡°This nice secret protected room and there¡¯s not even any swords in it! And my new spear got broken¡­¡±


    She let the gems fall and then as her eyes passed by the chest she noticed something was still inside of it. It was a bag, a drawstring leather bag with intricate leatherwork carefully crafted and patterned all over. She reached out a hand for it hesitantly, perhaps a small conveniently sized dagger was hidden inside of it?


    She plucked it free and pulled open the drawstring then seeing what was inside stumbled back and fell on her rump in surprise.


    ¡°What? What is it!¡± said Lyra alarmed by her reaction.


    ¡°It¡¯s- it¡¯s stone! b-but-¡±


    Frustrated at Opal¡¯s non-explanation, Lyra grabbed the bag from her and peered inside.


    ¡°O-oh, oh my.¡±


    Red who was getting annoyed that his gold bathing was being interrupted sent a questioning snort in the sheep girls direction. ¡°Is it more gold? It better be more gold...¡±


    Lyra shook her head.


    ¡°I think we just found something more valuable than anything else in this vault...¡±


    Red¡¯s head lifted, suddenly interested, what could be more valuable than all this gold?


    He watched as the sheep girl put her hand inside the bag and then her arm up to the elbow, then up to her shoulder, yet the bag barely changed shape, the sheep girl appeared to have made her entire arm just vanish into nothing. His brow rose in confusion and he sat up, coins sheeting off his body.


    ¡°How are you doing that? Tell me! If this is some tricksy leveler thing...¡±


    Lyra let out a small laugh as she removed her arm. She held out the bag to him and Red took it and peered inside. There was stone inside, literally, stone blockwork walls, perfectly cut so as to be near seamless, walls in the interior shape of a sphere, a sphere somewhere around four foot across.


    Red moved his head to the side, the space inside the bag disappeared from view. Just the small leather bag, nothing like the large spherical space, was on the outside, no stone no anything. He hefted the bag, it weighed practically nothing, nothing at all like the amount of stone inside of it suggested it should weigh.


    He moved his head back to the hole and looked more closely. There was a second drawstring visible on the interior side of the bag, but now he was examining it he could see that the threads it was made from were glowing faintly. He moved the opening about and the inner drawstring came with it, it was like the edge of some kind of moldable portal, a portal to a different space somewhere else.


    Carefully he picked up a coin and let it fall from his claws into the bag. It fell quite a ways and clinked against the stone below.


    He looked up to see Lyra looking at him, a strangely familiar look in her eye. A greedy Kobold look.


    ¡°You know what this means right? We can take all of the gold in here with us!¡±


    Red¡¯s eyes went round, Yes, yes! This was fantastic! A portable hoard!


    ¡°I can bribe so many people with this!¡±


    ¡°NO! NO BRIBE!¡± shouted Red, spreading his body and curling his tail over the gold pile protectively.


    ---


    A bone shifted then rolled across the ground, a small bone, what had been part of a roasted chicken, the remains of a certain Kobold¡¯s meal.


    The bone joined with another bone, touching up against it, then connected with another and another. The gristle that hung from the bones causing them to slip and slowly glide across each other until the bones had formed a small construction that continued to pile upward, bone after bone shifting and moving, albeit slowly.


    Soon the bones began to take shape, a slightly disjointed chicken skeleton without a head, its missing bony structures replaced haphazardly by spare ribs.


    Vash looked at his hopelessly awful creation and felt sick. If it were possible for a skull to vomit he was sure he would have. Being forced to go from his beautiful carefully constructed and cared for symmetrical collection to the tossed aside discardings of a pathetic little Kobold was too much. It was revolting. Disgusting. Beneath his dignity, beneath the respect he deserved.


    But unfortunately necessary. The problem with being a skull and nothing else was that he lacked legs with which to move around. He wanted to escape from beneath the paw of that unpredictable brute of a wolf, that strange beast that grew ever larger and stronger, that had effected that level orb in such a way due to- Well, that did pique his interest, but Vash wasn¡¯t one to dwell in danger which he suspected would increasingly be the case the longer he was around the beast. He just wanted somewhere dark and private to while away the years, some ruined castle somewhere with a convenient supply of levelers from a nearby town perhaps


    He mused on this as the gangly undead chicken skeleton wobbled toward him on slap-dash legs, barely keeping its balance.


    ¡°Yes, my creation, come and lift me, take your master away from these foolish monsters.¡±


    The chicken skeleton seemed to become resolute and it lurched over to the skull which was perched atop a chair alongside Opal¡¯s pack.


    This was it, the perfect opportunity to escape. He glanced to the side, the beast remained asleep, passed out on the town Ranker¡¯s bed, a black mass of fur that filled the frame from end to end.


    The beast¡¯s irritating Goblin, and the clearly mentally warped sheep girl, as well as the Kobold slave were elsewhere, having found some kind of vault belonging to the Ranker.


    He didn''t care, the important part was that all eyes were off of him. His chance had come, this was it.


    The chicken reached up with a pair of boney rib wings and clumsily touched at the sides of Vash¡¯s skull, then with surprising strength managed to shakily lift him into the air and place him atop where the chicken¡¯s head might have been, having to keep its wings up to hold the skull in place.


    Vash looked down and physically cringed at the sight of his temporary body.


    ¡°I may have to find some way to delete this memory, oh gods how far I have fallen, what a wretched creation.¡±


    The chicken body slumped slightly hearing that, as though it were a little hurt by the words.


    ¡°Come my undead... chicken. Take me away from this place, back to the darkest shadows of the world!¡±


    The undead chicken turned, took an unsteady step forward, and then promptly collapsed, sending a wash of loose bones across the floor along with a tumbling bouncing swearing skull.


    Vash rolled up against a table leg and came to a stop.


    He continued to swear and rage, his flame eyes flaring with fury until a voice interrupted him.


    He looked up to find the sheep girl looking down at him, Lyra, he vaguely recalled. Clearly she was suffering from some kind of monster derangement syndrome, no normal leveler would take orders from a monster. Simply put: she was an insane person. Not ideal company, being surrounded by monsters and crazy people rarely was.


    ¡°What are you doing? Why are these chicken bones everywhere? Red? What is this?¡±


    The decapitated head of Red appeared at the sheep girl¡¯s hip and Vash¡¯s flame eyes shrunk down in surprise. What was this? Had they killed the little Kobold monster? Was he next?


    Then the head moved and looked around. It looked between the pile of chicken bones then to Vash.


    ¡°The skull did it.¡±


    The Kobold¡¯s head disappeared back inside the leather bag on the sheep girl¡¯s hip with a grump, as though annoyed it had been disturbed.


    Lyra stared at Vash.


    ¡°Uhm.¡± said Vash.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 64

    Rain woke slowly, drifting back to consciousness on a fluffy white cloud of bliss. He felt good, no, he felt amazing, incredible even. He felt stronger, sharper, and more aware, like he could think more clearly, with more clarity, a haze of fuzz seemingly lifted from his mind.


    He hadn¡¯t realised how much his torment had been weighing on him, just this small relief was stunning. He almost thought it felt a little too good- Should his revenge have caused him to feel like this not just mentally but physically too? Really? ...Well, maybe, but he found himself struggling to care at that particular moment, he was simply too content that it was in small part over.


    He could feel a slight pressure on his stomach and his eyes drifted down to see Opal curled up on his abdomen, her knees tucked up and her black hair fanned across his fur. He could see her face, eyes closed, her lips slightly parted. As he watched a tiny soft snore came from the Goblin.


    After a moment of wondering what to do about the adorable Goblin girl he slumped back with a sigh and stared at the ceiling. He couldn''t move her, obviously. Too cute.


    Instead he closed his eyes and brought to mind something that he had been putting off.


    Literally brought it to mind.


    When he had touched that level orb in Lynthia something had happened that he hadn''t spoken of. Something new had appeared, as though the touch had allowed a crack for that something to slip through, using the part of him that was still Human to get inside his head where that something really really shouldn''t have been.


    He had seen how disturbed and unsettled Lyra and Opal had been by what had happened and decided to keep it a secret. Opal thought of him as a monster, he didn''t want to risk changing that. Lyra feared him, and the unknown, he didn''t want to make that worse.


    The thing that he brought to mind flickered and shifted, only visible in his mind''s eye, its many colours shimmering and changing as they moved across the broken shards.


    There were numbers there, and letters. Broken, chaotic, trying to form but failing.


    He knew what it was.


    When he was a Human he could call something like this to mind, the version that he had when he was Human however was just a plain sheet of paper, a soft bland display of information that he could call up that stated his species, his non-existent Class, and his level. All levelers could do this to varying degrees, it was how a Class imparted more specific information to its user.


    Some when they called to mind that information would see an open book displaying their details- Skills, and various other relevant numbers, others would be shown a scroll or engraving, some just saw floating lettering on a plain paper background, Rain¡¯s used to be like that, simple. He had heard high level mages had particularly detailed versions that could even quantify the amount of mana they possessed, or how certain spells interacted, or more.


    He had no idea what the fuck he was looking at right now was supposed to be however.


    Broken shards of chaos, a fragment of a leveler¡¯s power inserted into a monster, twisted and deformed. An intruder in a violently hostile environment, continually burning away in a vat of acidic fire, but still somehow existing.


    Rain tried to focus on it, pushing and pulling at the fragments with his mind, trying to make something of it, but it was no good, it was simply broken, a ruin masquerading as something of use. He could see his name written amongst the flickering colours, and where it might normally display a class, or N/A if there was no class, instead was a shifting morass that tried to sometimes name him monster, which wasn¡¯t a Class atall, or sometimes just errored out. His species was¡­ it seemed like the fragment of a leveling system was incompatible as it just threw up more errors and told him nothing.


    He ceased his prodding and studied the colourful shards more closely...


    ¡­ The colours. The shifting drifting overlapping oil slick rainbows that mesmerised the eye, a chromatic opal magnet that demanded to be seen, to be acknowledged by its owner.


    He knew those colours. He had seen them for the entirety of his Human life, not in a menu or book or a scroll in his mind¡¯s eye or anything like that, no, he knew them from the vast night sky, the Many Coloured Moon. Those same shifting colours that lit up the sky at night now also existed inside him, inside his head in a little fragment of a leveler¡¯s power.


    The question was, why? Why was the thing inside his mind like the moon in appearance? Why not a book, or a scroll, or a simple stone tablet like every other leveler he had ever heard of?


    A tired memory dredged itself free from the murky depths of his past. He recalled ever so long ago hearing from his Father a children¡¯s story. Lying in bed at night with the covers up to his chin and his father sitting by him in the dim candle light he heard a tale that told of the benevolence of the gods in giving a gift to the sapient when the sapient were falling and dying to monsters, when all hope was lost and the last light of civilization was faltering. That gift was the gift of levels. Power. And the thing that the gods used to administer that system of levels was the moon they saw in the sky each night, the Many Coloured Moon, a machine of the gods that kept balance in the world, the system¡¯s ¡®mind¡¯. It was just a children¡¯s story though... right?


    If there really was something that watched over levelers and made things work smoothly¡­ then perhaps it didn''t understand what he was and was trying to treat him as just another leveler, using that part of him that was Human to get inside of him. He didn''t like that thought. Some unknowable device out there trying to force a leveler¡¯s system of power on him.


    Except he wasn''t a leveler, he was a monster, he just was, and he was sure he wasn''t meant for this. This was unnatural. Wrong. That was made clear due to how much the thing in his mind was burning away, every atom of his monster body an anathema to its very existence, with every second dissolving it into nothing, oblivion.


    Yet it was still there somehow, and he could call it to his mind¡¯s eye whenever he wished, just as when he was a Human. He wasn''t sure what to do about it, it was just sort of there now, a thing in his head that he could call up and see the pretty colours. Hopefully there would be no side effects. He really hoped there would be no side effects. Putting something that was designed to mature from killing monsters inside of a monster struck him as a really bad idea. Maybe it would eventually stabi-


    Opal suddenly shifted on top of him and he was pulled from his thoughts.


    ¡°You woke up!¡±


    Rain cracked an eye and peered down at her. She was sitting up and looking at him. She seemed concerned somehow, had something happened while he slept?


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°I was getting kind of worried you know, you slept a while, I''ve never seen you sleep so long before.¡±


    ¡°I did? How long was I asleep for?¡± Rain stretched his limbs and cracked his paws, beginning to properly wake up. If he had slept a while it had probably been worth it to feel this good.


    ¡°Well you went to bed after eating that spineless leveler guy and when we found the gold vault, that was at night, then you slept all through the next morning, then the day, the afternoon and then evening, and now it''s night time again. So you were asleep for an entire day pretty much.¡±


    Rain blinked down at her. That was a lot of sleep, he didn''t think he was that exhausted at all. ...A side effect from killing Adlen?


    He slowly sat up. The bed groaned under his shifting weight and Opal rolled into his lap from his stomach.


    Strangely, the feeling of weight on his abdomen didn''t go away as Opal moved off, in fact it seemed to increase. He put a paw across his stomach. He felt¡­ hungry¡­ and growing hungrier by the second.


    ¡°So I slept for a full day, but that means I also didn''t eat for a full day, and I barely ate anything the day before, only Adlen. I went to bed hungry. So¡­ so this is the longest I''ve ever gone without food¡­ without really eating...¡±


    He grimaced as a spasm of pain suddenly ripped across his front, like a rope snapping taut before releasing. His stomach snarled with hunger. It hurt¡­ his stomach hurt and it was getting worse. This hunger was far worse than when he had originally crawled out of the lake at the bottom of the dungeon.


    Opal waved a hand in front of him getting his attention.


    ¡°Oh I knew you would be hungry so I found all the food I could, it seemed like a good idea.¡±


    She gestured behind her and Rain followed her pointing finger to the kitchen area of the Ranker¡¯s quarters. The counters had been piled high with food stuffs, it seemed the Goblin had ransacked the entire mansion and brought everything edible into this room. It was a lot.


    A desperate feeling of gratitude washed over him as his mouth filled with saliva and his hunger roared in his ears. Food, he needed to eat, to feed.


    He turned his head back to the happily smiling Goblin in his lap, she was just so good and nice, and her thighs were so delicious looking and he could just lean down and-


    He shook his head violently. This, this was bad. Really bad. His hunger was ripping through him like a forest fire now and he was struggling to keep on top of it.


    He reached out a shaky paw and pushed the Goblin off of himself, fighting his own body not to grab for her, then rolled off the side of the bed and began stepping toward the food, those steps quickly turned into a run and then a dive toward the kitchen.


    Dozens of pheasants and plucked poultry were lined up besides whole roasted pigs and glazed goats and huge grilled flat fishes and more, table after table and counter after counter filled with meat and cheese and bread and anything else that the Goblin could get her hands on. Everything and anything you could dream of, the Ranker¡¯s private luxury, everything that mansion had, all thrown together in one excessively large feast.


    Opal had truly outdone herself and Rain was very appreciative of her particular style of ¡®let''s eat everything!¡¯ food preparation. He threw himself at it, devouring entire chickens within the first few seconds, then ripping through goats and hams and anything he could reach for, just shovelling it into his maw as quickly as possible.


    His gut was working at such a prodigious rate that everything he ate just disappeared inside of him with no outward effect, being instantly digested as soon as he swallowed, and then burning for more and more and more.


    He ripped through a trio of pigs, a half dozen goats, ten turkeys, and then downed a barrel of milk, ripping the spigot out and literally pouring it down his throat, he tossed it aside and dove into a pile of cheeses, stilton, cheddar, it didn''t matter, he didn''t even pause to taste it, he just needed to consume as much as possible as fast as possible, to try and fight back against the terrible monstrous hunger that was tearing him apart from the inside out.


    This hunger was worse than anything he had ever felt, a literal mountain range of lumber, felled trees stacked miles high, and he was running around with a barrel of water trying to put out the innumerable fires that were eating away at the mountain¡¯s roots, growing ever hotter and fiercer, accelerating into a hurricane of a conflagration, the boiling winds battering him as hill sized fire storms burned away his sanity.


    hE nEeDed MORE.


    He tore into the last of the food and kept going, it took him a few moments to realise that he had started eating the counter, great chunks torn out of the wood exposing the empty cupboards below.


    His eyes were now rabid with starvation, saliva openly falling from his mouth in long strands, he needed to eat, it possessed him, but there was no food left, he had eaten everything Opal had brought, there was nothing left!


    He turned, searching desperately, and found Opal and Lyra behind him, they were watching him with concern. He unconsciously took a step toward them, his fur raising, his maw opening. They were there, they were just¡­ there. The two girls took a step back and there was a flash of real fear there.


    No.


    With monumental iron forged will he wrestled back control over himself, desperately hanging onto some sliver of sanity in the carnal visceral maelstrom. He couldn''t eat Lyra and Opal.


    But he needed to eat, to sate the fire. The mountain range of screaming raging flames inside him demanded it.


    ¡°WhEre. Is. rEd.¡± he managed to snarl out between heaving breaths, his claws twitching.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 65

    ¡°Wha-what do you want Red for?¡±


    Rain didn''t answer, his luminous eyes dancing about the room, looking for the little Kobold. He couldn''t eat Lyra or Opal, Lyra because he promised to protect her, and Opal because it was Opal, but Red? He was desperate and irrational enough that the little lizard person was in an extreme amount of danger.


    A flash of red caught his eye and he looked back to Lyra. A scaly red muzzle was at her hip and it vanished into a bag at her side as he turned. What in the hell was that? Was he now so hungry that he was hallucinating things? This was bad, really bad, he needed to find something or he was actually going to go fucking insane from hunger.


    ¡°D-do you want to e-eat him!?¡± Squeaked Lyra. Her knees were trembling like leaves and she kept glancing nervously at the bag on her hip.


    Rain narrowed his eyes and took another step toward her, the sheep girl nearly fell over as the colour drained from her face.


    ¡°Wait! Wait! Th-there has to be another way!¡±


    Rain shook his head and advanced on her. ¡°tEll me where,¡± he snarled.


    ¡°Y-you need food right! Well, what about the forest! There has to be some animals out there! Something to hunt!¡±


    Rain raised a shaking paw and curled it into a fist, his claws digging so hard into his paw pads that it drew blood, running down his arm in streams. He stared at it, wondering if he was going to start eating himself at this rate. The forest wouldn''t work, they¡¯d walked through it for a day and seen nothing that would sate him, he couldn''t wander around the woods hoping to find something, he needed something now.


    ¡°There¡¯s NoThing in forest. THERE¡¯S NOTHING!¡± he roared.


    Lyra flinched back in fear.


    ¡°What about the town?¡± piped up Opal, ¡°There''s loads of people to eat in town!¡± She noticed Lyra turning to look at her with a horrified expression. ¡°Fiiine, or pigs and sheep and horses, I saw lots of those in the leveler market thingy, pens full of them!¡±


    Rain turned on the Goblin who looked up at him boldly, practically daring him to eat her.


    After a moment he managed to jerkily nod his head. That was true, the town was filled with food, so much food, enough to put out the fire.


    ¡°B-but we can''t get in, the barrier Opal, he can''t get inside!¡±


    Rain shook his head. ¡°I broke it.¡±


    Lyra blinked, then had a sudden flash of understanding. ¡°The rune on the wall? You broke it on purpose! You knew! Yes, this can work, and with my ability it might not even be a complete disaster, just a quick run inside, grab some cattle from the market to fill you up and then we jump back outside and everything will be fine! Completely and totally fine!¡± said Lyra, her voice becoming a touch hysterical.


    The sheep girl seized on the plan, a plan was reliable, safe, a way out, much better than being trapped in a room with a giant hungry wolf monster looking at you like you were dinner. Things would go smoothly and it would be like they had never been there, just some random market cattle disappearing in the night, the town would assume it was regular normal cattle thieves right? right?


    Rain turned and looked toward the town and took a step toward the door. Lyra realised that he was about to leave without them.


    ¡°W-wait! You need to use my invisibility or you''ll be seen!¡±


    Rain took another step, ignoring her, he was too far gone to care about being seen. Not good.


    Lyra not knowing what else to do grabbed hold of Opal and leapt toward Rain''s back, activating her climbing Skill in the same moment, the one for saving people from ravines and cliffs. Her hands reached out knowingly and perfectly grabbed hold of his fur for maximum leverage, adrenaline overriding her fear of him, or perhaps she had just gotten more used to him, it didn''t matter, she quickly scaled the wolf monster with Opal and wrapped her arm around his neck, holding on tight, her free arm holding Opal at her side, both girls atop his back.


    ¡°Okay, we''re readeeeeeeeiiiEEEEE!!¡±


    Rain moved.


    The floor cratered beneath his feet and his explosive acceleration took him across the room in an instant. Lyra cried out as they headed toward the too small door, they were never going to fit! Of course, she needn¡¯t have worried, Rain went straight through the wall.


    She coughed and sputtered as a cloud of plaster dust enveloped her head and bits of wood smacked off her head. It was a good thing she could lean on her Skill to remain attached to Rain¡¯s back, she doubted she would have stayed atop him otherwise. The room they had emerged into flashed by and Rain threw his paw wide smashing through another wall, not even slowing his pace.


    That was one way to get out of the maze-like mansion quickly, make a straight line through it.


    Five rooms, six rooms, then a hallway which Rain bounded down, then through another wall, and then they were in the lobby and headed toward the front doors. Rain was half running half loping by this point, it made it easier for Lyra and Opal to hang on, but it also allowed Rain to run even faster.


    He barreled through the front doors of the mansion, blasting the doors off their hinges and sending them tumbling across the front carriage drive as he ran across the lawns and forested gardens toward the front gate. Rain didn''t hesitate, powering down his legs as one he leapt into the air, sending his entire huge mass sailing upward as Lyra let out a scream of terror on his back, along with a cry of excitement from Opal. He thudded back down on the other side, his feet just missing the top of the gate, and slipped back into a bounding sprint.


    The forest rushed past in a dark shadowy blur, the night sky above providing scarce illumination through the treetops. Lyra had a difficult time of it, small branches kept whipping against her head and she had to duck down with Opal to avoid getting swept off by the larger ones. She spat out a leaf that had somehow found its way into her mouth as they burst free from the tree line, Lynthia¡¯s huge heavy stone outer walls shining under the many coloured moon above.


    ¡°Not the front gate?¡± said Opal looking around. It was true, the gate they had entered the town through previously was nowhere to be seen, only the long curving wall.


    ¡°Uhm, I think this is where he fought Adlen,¡± said Lyra, squinting into the distance and trying to judge their position.


    Rain remained silent, running up toward the towering stone wall and then slapping his paw up against it.


    This was the spot, a life spent in Lynthia meant he just knew.


    He curled his paw and his claws dug into the stone causing fissures and cracks to run along the block. His other paw came up and he heaved his weight and then his feet lifted and scrabbled at the wall and soon he was making quick progress swiftly climbing upward, claws digging in and dragging down faster and faster.


    Lyra suddenly realised that this was the moment she was supposed to be doing her part and cast her invisibility over them. Rain, Opal, and herself dematerialised from view.


    She tensed up as they drew near the top, expecting some bloom of magic, perhaps to be thrown from the wall, an alarm going up, or maybe even being incinerated by a fireball trap.


    Instead, nothing happened, and Rain slipped over the top of the crenelations and dropped down several stories to the street below, his feet leaving two spots of crushed cobble beneath where he landed.


    Lyra¡¯s invisibility instantly fizzled and died.


    Y-you moved too fast, I can''t hide it n-now, they''ll see where you, uhm, landed.¡±


    ¡°It doesn''t matter sheepy, look.¡±


    Lyra turned to where Opal was pointing and realised they were standing exactly where Rain had fought Adlen, the bottom of the wall had been heavily damaged, masonry torn free and scattered across the already heavily damaged cobble. Rain had taken them across the wall at the exact spot where he had fought the leveler.


    ¡°Er, right, well just let me, h-hangon!¡±


    It was too late however, Rain was already moving and Lyra¡¯s desperate attempts to turn them invisible were not going well. One moment Rain was invisible, then Lyra¡¯s skill overloaded with the speed he was moving at and he appeared once more. Luckily, despite Lyra¡¯s misfiring attempts to hide Rain, they were not seen. The market at night was deserted and Rain was able to slip through town out of sight, a massive shadow that flowed from street to street until it suddenly stopped outside a warehouse.


    The sound of pigs came from inside, grunting, squealing, gruffing. Rain placed a massive paw on the double doors and pushed. With the sound of metal snapping the chains on the door pulled apart and the doors swung wide.


    The pigs inside froze up, dozens of them. A single unified thought wending through their piggy minds: Why was the door to their pens open, and what was that very large dark thing standing in the doorway? It took a step forward, looming, and some ancient primaeval warning sounded in their heads. This was a thing that piggys were supposed to be scared off. That warning would prove to be a wise one as Rain fell on them, his jaws swiftly biting down, tearing into the pigs as they wailed in fear.


    Lyra desperately tried to keep her Skill going, every time it flickered off Rain appeared ripping through another pig before she managed to bring it back making them invisible once more. Rain became as a reaper, blinking between the pigs, a shadowy creature of piggy death.


    ¡°This isn''t ideal,¡± groaned Lyra as she managed to bring the skill back online for the umpeenth time, exhaustion from overusing it starting to catch up to her.


    ¡°Then why keep doing it?¡± said Opal beside her.


    ¡°It- it dampens the sound of the pigs, and hides most- some of the blood.¡±


    Opal gave her a sceptical look as the last of the pigs disappeared down Rain¡¯s maw


    ¡°Is- is it enough?¡±


    ¡°More. MORE!¡± he snarled.


    ¡°Yes, more!¡± shouted Opal happily


    The pen full of goats in the building next door stood no chance at all, then the next pen of boars, another four full of pigs, two herds of sheep (to Lyra¡¯s especial disturbance), more goats, a donkey, and seven full size ox, Rain just didn''t stop and Lyra was being strained to her limit trying her best to hide the wolf monster¡¯s rampaging feasting.


    The problem was that it just wasn''t enough, each time Rain ate another animal he just came away hungrier, the burning fire stoked ever higher.


    Rain tore through the last of a pig pen and looked around desperately, blood still pouring from his jaws. There needed to be more, more more more!


    ¡°I th-think you ate everything in the market, I don''t know where else they would keep more!¡±


    Rain froze up, no that couldn''t be could it? But he was still so so hungry, it hurt, it hurt so bad and he needed to eat.


    ¡°So he''s just gotta eat the levelers now, makes sense,¡± said Opal, nodding her head wisely, she was always the most rational one, of course.


    ¡°No! W-wait! Uhm, the- the horses!¡±


    Rain turned his head and looked up at the sheep girl out of the corner of his eye.


    ¡°The town horses! I saw lots going past in the street, surely there must be somewhere they are kept at night!¡±


    Rain considered this. She was right of course. Lynthia not only had horses but it kept them all together in one huge and extensive stable owned by one of the higher levelers.


    He was already moving as he finished the thought, bounding eagerly toward the town¡¯s stable.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


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 Chapter 66

    The wolf monster bounded down the cobble street with a panicking sheep girl on his back. He flickered in and out of visibility, more visible than not as time went on, a terrifying shadow, a deeper dark on the dark canvas of night.


    Lyra increasingly struggled to maintain her invisibility Skill and by the time they reached their destination she was nearly falling from Rain¡¯s back as her climbing Skill started to falter too.


    The building he stopped outside of was vast, more a complex than a building, a huge stable that housed all the horses in Lynthia. Every leveler who came to town for the dungeon rented space and kept their horse in the stable, it was cheap and reliable.


    Rain gruffed and scented the air, he could smell meat nearby, lots of it. This, this might do it, this might slake his agonising hunger.


    He pushed his paws up against the double doors then with a snarl shoved at them. The drop bar on the other side held for a moment before splintering and coming apart, snapping down the center. The doors slammed open and the cavernous dark interior revealed itself, the scent of hay and horses washing out into the night air along with the sound of nervous whinnies.


    Rain stalked forward, fearful noises coming from each stable partition as he passed.


    Lyra looked around in dismay. There were a lot of horses in here, a hell of a lot, way more than she could ever keep up with. She let out a small sigh. This was hopeless, there was no way she was going to be able to hide this even a little bit with her Skill. After a moment of hesitation she let her climbing Skill go and slipped from Rain¡¯s back to the floor below, Opal coming with her.


    ¡°You''re not gonna try hide it sheepy?¡±


    Lyra gestured at Rain as he disappeared into one of the stalls. A horse shriek followed and a spray of blood from the stall creating a long red line across the ground outside.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to pass out if I try and hide all this, I can''t do it, I just can''t okay, I- I don''t know what we''re going to do now, we might have to leave Lynthia after this.¡±


    Opal looked at her then tilted her head to the side. ¡°Why? There won''t be anyone to make a fuss if Rain just eats the town.¡±


    Lyra stared at the Goblin girl, she couldn''t be serious, right? Maybe Opal was the one she should actually be worried about¡­ She seemed more determined than even Rain to see the worst come to pass. Lyra had her own problems with monsters, but she wasn¡¯t starting to realize that Opal might have her own issues with levelers, not that she could blame the Goblin with how the world worked.


    Thinking about it, was she really the only thing between the people of Lynthia and Rain? She needed to do something, to point his monstrous side away from them, to stop him from going too far, to guide Rain and be his good side.


    But could she even do that? He seemed more monstrous than she had ever seen before, a ravenous nearly mindless beast, a danger to herself that she really shouldn''t be around.


    Yet she didn''t really have a choice, she needed to help him get past this, he was her only real protection against Lord Wranvyre, someone outside of leveler¡¯s social hierarchy. No one else would help her, she had no connections to the powerful and so many would eagerly leap at that ridiculous reward and the chance to gain favour with a noble family as soon as they knew a bounty was on her head.


    As she watched Opal followed Rain into the gloom. He went from stall to stall leaving a trail of blood in his wake, his fur and clothing becoming ever more soaked in dark dark red.


    She shook her head slightly, she needed room to think.


    She stepped outside into the cool night air. Space, just a moment away from the ravenous wolf to gather her thoughts. leaving Rain and Opal within she wandered away in a daze until the sounds of panicking horses was out of ear range, further and further down the dark street, the starry sky above casting little light.


    She steadied her breathing, calming herself. Breath in count six, breath out count to six. Breath in count six, breath out count to six. She managed her mental state like this for a while, slowly picking apart the nervous knotted ball she¡¯d become. She could deal with this, she could, she must.


    It was as she was slowly calming down that a voice spoke up.


    ¡°H-hey, Half-elf girl, you¡¯re not from this town right? Can you let me out?¡±


    Lyra turned in surprise, a person had seen her? That- that was very much not a good thing! This was supposed to be a secret mission to help Rain and she¡¯d completely forgotten to make herself invisible after leaving the stable!


    Looking around she found no one in view, then a noise made her look up. A cage was hanging from a nearby building, hanging from a wooden frame attached to the wall. Inside the cage was a Satyr, her goat-like legs dangling from the cage¡¯s edge.


    It was a prisoner.


    Lyra stared at the Satyr, unsure what to do, her whole plan to come into Lynthia unseen and to leave without anyone ever knowing they had been there was starting to come apart at the seams. What was she supposed to do about this now? Leaving behind some mysterious blood stains was one thing, having a witness to her being there was entirely another.


    Not sure what else to do she spoke. ¡°...hi?¡±


    ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Belle, and you need to listen to me, the Inquisitor in this town is crazy, and the Ranker even worse! I don''t know what they¡¯re going to do to me, I really super need you to get me out of here.¡±


    ¡°...well what did you do to get put in a cage like that?¡±


    ¡°Nothing! I¡¯m completely innocent! It¡¯s that raging asshole over there who did it!¡±


    Lyra turned to see a second cage identical to the first. A male Elf slowly lifted his head, his legs and arms were limply hanging from between the gridded bars. He looked like he hadn''t slept in days, huge bags under his eyes, his long hair hanging lank and greasy from his head.


    ¡°Does it matter anymore you stupid Satyr? It happened, she died, and we¡¯re likely to be given to the Ranker for some awful fate or other, you heard what goes on in this town. Honestly It would be a blessing at this point if It means I no longer have to listen to your incessant whining.¡±


    The Satyr scowled at him. ¡°I¡¯m not going to die for something that I didn''t do, I refuse!¡± she turned back to Lyra. ¡°Please, can you set me free? You¡¯d be saving an innocent life, I¡¯ll- I¡¯ll do anything, just get me the heck out of here!¡±


    ¡°Uhm, I- I don''t know¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh? did you find some snacks?¡± said Opal, appearing beside Lyra with her hands on her hips.


    Lyra looked down at her in surprise, she had expected her to stay with Rain until the end.


    ¡°What are you doing here? I thought you''d want to stay while he uh, gets bigger.¡±


    Opal shrugged, ¡°It''s not like that. He''s finishing up and he''s still really hungry, we need to know where we¡¯re going next.¡±


    Lyra stared at her. ¡°How is he still hungry!? He''s eaten so much, is- is this never going to end?!¡±


    Opal smirked, ¡°I hope it never ends, but whatever happens we should get more lined up just in case.¡±


    ¡°But there''s nothing left! There''s no animals left anywhere!¡±


    Opal gave her a nonplussed look. ¡°So that leaves the town, duh, what did you think was going to happen? It was always going to be this way.¡±


    Lyra groaned and put her head in her hands. She could feel the walls closing in, she hadn''t expected Rain to still need more after all this, it was too much!


    A flash of inspiration suddenly hit and she turned back to the two levelers trapped in cages.


    ¡°I¡¯ll let you out, that is if you agree to help us.¡±


    Belle blinked at her. ¡°Really? You''ll really set me free?¡±


    ¡°Yes! But I need you to take us to where the nastiest most evilest levelers in Lynthia are, the sort of people who do bad things and that the world wouldn''t miss if they suddenly disappeared!¡±


    ¡°¡­you want me to do what now?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± said the Elf suddenly sitting up. ¡°I¡¯ll take you to whatever you need. Bad people, sure.¡±


    ¡°Hey, I can do that too!¡± said the Satyr, desperate not to let her chance to escape go. ¡°In fact I can point you to one right now, Orden over here is a cold blooded murderer.¡±


    ¡°Gods Belle, It was me or her, I didn''t have a choice! You would have done the same thing!¡±


    ¡°Like hell I would! You''re just a coward and a murderous little weasel, if we had held the line we would have been fine against those mushroom things, this is all your fault!¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± said Opal, looking between them with fresh eyes. ¡°I know these two.¡±


    Lyra blinked at her, ¡°You do?¡±


    I''ve never seen this Goblin in my life before,¡± said Orden with a scowl. ¡°But then they do look all the same to me, perhaps I have and just didn''t realise it, garbage does look alike.¡±


    Opal frowned at the Elf, then a mildly sadistic smile lit up her face.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go fetch wolfy, he can get them out of the cages they are in right? I''m sure he would just love to meat them.¡±


    The Goblin scuttled away back to the stables.


    ¡°...sure?¡± said Lyra, watching her go, really not sure at all.


    An awkward silence followed, just the three of them, the night quiet and empty.


    Lyra scuffed her hooves against the cobble and cleared her throat. She was about to make awkward small talk with the Satyr when something sharp pressed against her back.


    ¡°Give me everything you have sheep girl or get cut, it¡¯s a simple choice.¡±


    Lyra flinched in surprise and turned her head to see a dishevelled and unshaven man behind her, an old scar under his eye.


    ¡°A-are you robbing me?!¡± said Lyra after a moment, the shock of what was happening taking a moment to dawn on her.


    The man sniffed and spat to the side. ¡°Was the demand not obvious enough? Damn you¡¯re a dense one, yes I''m fucking robbing you, give me your valuables or I¡¯ll put this knife in you and wiggle it around until you stop moving.¡±


    ¡°Nonono! This can''t be happening, get us out of here and we¡¯ll take care of him!¡± said the Satyr rattling the bars of her cage.


    ¡°I can''t! I¡¯m not a combat Class or anything! Listen, thief guy- whatever your name is- you, you can''t do this, you¡¯re in so much danger right now! Please run! Please, I¡¯m begging! It¡¯s not going to end well for you!¡±


    The man paused. This was not the reaction that an attempted robbery usually got. What was wrong with this person?


    ¡°If this is your idea of a way out you¡¯re sadly mistaken.¡± He prodded the knife against her. ¡°I¡¯m not alone so if you think some Skill is going to save you, think again.¡±


    ¡°Do something! Get rid of them!¡± cried Belle.


    A bald Halfling emerged from the gloom and pulled up a heavy crossbow. He pointed it at the Satyr.


    ¡°Don¡¯t push it, It¡¯s not like anyone will miss you two, if there were, they would have paid for your freedom long ago. In fact, perhaps we should end you right now, wouldn''t want you using your witnessing us to wiggle ¡®n bargain yourselves free of your current predicament eh?¡±


    ¡°W-wait, m-maybe we- we can make a deal? It doesn''t have to be this way- we-....we-¡± the Satyr¡¯s words petered off into silence as something caught her attention.


    A black shape emerged from the shadows above the Halfling as he waved the crossbow at the Satyr. He paused as he noticed the sudden change in expression of those he was threatening. Everyone was looking in his direction now.


    ¡°...What?¡±


    A maw came down and engulfed his entire head and neck and before the Halfling could make a sound the two jaws came together with an impossible strength, incising through his ribcage like a guillotine. The maw ripped away leaving behind a body with a horrifying chasm in the upper chest where a partial pair of lungs could be seen exposed to open air, still twitching and gurgling and trying to draw in breath. The body took a step forward, then another, and then toppled over, a flood of steaming red blood and gore pooling over the cobble as it fell flat.


    Several sets of eyes stared in a kind of frozen horror at what they''d just witnessed. Then Belle began screaming as a massive blood drenched thing stepped from the shadows.


    The thief who had held a knife to Lyra began gabbling, sheer blind panic taking away any sense or reason, unfortunate for him as a paw wrapped around his head and pulled him forward into its teeth. The wolf monster held the man in his paws and ripped out his entire neck, sending a spray of blood over the Satyr¡¯s cage.


    The Satyr, who had been quite reasonably losing her mind, held up her blood spattered trembling hands.


    ¡°It- It¡¯s like that monster from back then! The same kind! Oh gods we¡¯re all gonna die! HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP US!¡±


    ¡°They should have listened, why does nobody ever listen to me...¡± muttered Lyra as she stared down in dismay at the two dead thieves.


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


    ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    I''ve also started a community discord server which is now fully armed and fully operational.


    Hungry Wolf Discord


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 67

    Rain finished eating the pair of thieves. It didn''t take long. Then he turned toward the Satyr in the cage and advanced on her. He was still ravenous and these two were practically being served up on a platter for him.


    Belle backed as far away as she could to the other side of her cage, her eyes round with fear.


    Lyra mustered her courage. ¡°Wait!¡±


    Rain paused and turned his head toward her.


    ¡°I made a deal with them! Freedom in exchange for them finding you more to eat! You want more right? Those two alone for sure won''t be enough!¡±


    Lyra wasn''t sure she was getting through to Rain, he just stared at her blankly. Then he turned back to the cage and reached out, slipping his digits between the metal. With an ease telling of his strength he ripped open the front, the metal shrieking and groaning as it bent and crumpled under his paw pads.


    Belle flattened herself against the back of the cage, her face deathly pale, her breath coming in gasping fits, shaking her head in denial of what was about to happen.


    ¡°N-no! No!¡±


    Rain reached out a paw for her, to drag her into his teeth. Then he hesitated, fighting with himself. After a second or so he pulled back, leaving the Satyr to slump in relief, and moved to the cage the Elf was in. He tore it apart, dumping the Elf on the ground.


    Orden jumped to his feet and made to flee, turning on his heel.


    ¡°Wait! Don''t run! He¡¯ll kill you!¡±


    He froze up and looked over his shoulder, then up, a clawed paw was just above his head about to drop down atop him, to rip him apart. He started sweating bullets as he realised just how close he was to dying. He had no weapon and he had just seen this monster tear apart a metal cage with its bare paws. He stood no chance at all.


    ¡°J-just don''t make any sudden movements. You said you could find us bad people right?¡±


    Orden swallowed noisily and nodded his head. ¡°Bad people? Sure, I can find you that¡­I know lots of bad people.¡±


    Rain¡¯s paw eased back and the Elf openly shuddered in relief.


    ¡°Great! Now you just lead the way okay and I¡¯ll make sure the great big wolf monster doesn''t bite you into two pieces okay?¡±


    Orden stared at the sheep girl, was she the things owner? He suddenly had the distinct impression that it might have been better to take his chances in the cage. Gathering what little courage he had he turned and began walking down the street.


    He could feel those yellow eyes weighing on his back with every step.


    The others followed and he led them away from the stable, away from the market and mid leveler¡¯s quarter and toward the area the higher leveler¡¯s inhabited and the monster slaver¡¯s market, or more accurately to a building that lay between the two. The building was one of the largest in Lynthia, a dark foreboding thing at night with pointed arched windows and doors recessed deep into the walls.


    ¡°This should have what you want, the ¡®bad people¡¯ you are looking for, now I''ve held up my end of the deal let me go, you can keep the Satyr, she didn''t do anything useful.¡±


    ¡°You make scumbags look clean and laundered Orden, go fuck youself. Oh, and you''re lying anyway, monster slavers aren''t bad people, I know lots of perfectly nice monster slavers.¡±


    ¡°Hey, I''m just stating the truth, I found what the Half-elf wanted, you did not. And I didn''t take them here for monster slavers by the way, I took them here because of something else, some cult or other Kaleb was looking into, that was always his thing, the goody two shoes that he was. The way he told it there¡¯s been some strange stuff going on, people being taken in here and never coming out. The Ranker never cared and nobody strong has tried to stop them so it just¡­ kept happening.¡±


    ¡°Oh great, so first you stabbed Kaleb in the back and then you desecrate his memory to save your own shitty hide once again. I swear to the gods Orden, I¡¯m-¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not going anywhere until we''re done, just to be clear,¡± said Lyra interrupting. ¡°You could be lying about there being bad people in there, I literally found you in a cage, you don''t get put in a cage for being good.¡±


    The Satyr put her hand up, ¡°Well actually in my case that''s totally what happened. I¡¯m just an innocent Satyr who loves wine, nothing more.¡±


    Lyra squinted at her, ¡°Doesn''t matter. Neither of you are leaving yet, you might warn the town or something!¡±


    As they were speaking Rain had found an entrance. He was having difficulty grasping the door handle as his paws were too large and he was rapidly becoming frustrated until with a snarl he kicked the door. It exploded off its hinges and went careening down the corridor inside.


    Rain ducked below the doorway and the group followed, with Lyra¡¯s hurried encouragement¡­ and implied threats.


    They followed the dark mass of Rain deeper into the building, an occasional muffled cry of surprise could be heard ahead of him and then a pause as he ate, the uncomfortable sounds emanating from in front of him making Belle shiver in fear. She noted that the sheep girl also seemed frightened, wasn''t she supposed to be the one in control of this situation?! Was this monster completely free to do as it wished?!


    Each time Rain moved on after eating a sticky red patch was left on the ground along with a heavy brown cloak that the Satyr grimaced as she stepped over.


    ¡°What is this place Orden? Where the hell did you take us?¡±


    Orden was staring at the blood on the ground with a mixed expression.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ she wanted bad people, so I thought this cult might be fitting, they were causing enough of a mess to get people talking, I- I really don''t know more than that¡­¡±


    Ahead of them Rain paused as he came to a door, instead of fiddling with the too-small door handle he thrust out a paw and the door slapped down flat on the ground as it was ripped off its hinges.


    ¡°Erm, I think that one was already open actua-¡±


    Lyra put a hand over her mouth as Rain shot her an irritated glare. He stepped over the fallen door.


    Inside was a long room, on the tables of the room were lain out bodies, small green bodies.


    ¡°Oh, they¡¯re Gobbos,¡± said Opal. ¡°Guess your cult couldn''t miss out on a chance to kill monsters too huh? Had to include Gobbos in your mess as well?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not my cult, and who cares anyway, this is nothing.¡± The Elf glanced Lyra¡¯s way. ¡°I mean, uh, what evil people did this? Gosh.¡±


    As they passed Rain laid into the bodies and quickly devoured them, it didn''t take long due to his size. As Lyra passed by the bodies she spotted marks carved into their flesh, strange jagged runes roughly cut into their torsos and limbs. Strangely, she thought she recognised them, from the mansion? There were some vague similarities but she couldn''t be certain without comparing them more directly.


    ¡°...What were they doing here exactly?¡±


    ¡°No idea.¡±


    ¡°Levelers being levelers,¡± muttered Opal under her breath.


    As Rain ate, a cloaked figure suddenly burst through a door, an Elf, and clearly a member of the cult.


    ¡°What? Who are you? How did you get in here?¡± Then the cultist seemed to notice Rain against the darkness but by then it was too late, a paw whipped out and engulfed her face, dragging her into Rain¡¯s hungry maw with a muffled scream.


    Belle paled.


    He discarded the bloodied rag that was the cultist robe and peered through the door from where she had come, something catching his attention. He glanced back at Lyra and Opal and then went through, ducking down to get inside.


    ¡°What''s wrong? What do you see?¡± said Opal, following after him.


    Lyra was about to follow them through when out of nowhere Belle suddenly grabbed an unnoticed knife from one of the tabletops and with a cry of rage lunged at Orden. The Elf yelped and dodged out of the way, scrambling backwards to avoid Belle¡¯s wild slashing attacks.


    ¡°You piece of shit! You never should have made it out of the dungeon alive! You don¡¯t deserve to draw another breath for what you did!¡± she cried, her lunges becoming ever more frenzied.


    Orden remained silent as he moved, focusing on the blade and carefully dodging out of its way, his brow furrowed in concentration.


    ¡°S-stop it you two!¡± shouted Lyra as the pair stumbled past.


    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine let them kill each other, we don''t need them anymore anyway,¡± said Opal eyeing the two, unimpressed.


    Orden not seeing any allies against the vengeful Belle shoved past Lyra and dived through into the room Rain had entered.


    They rushed after him.


    Lyra crashed into Belle as the Satyr abruptly came to a halt. She peeked around her to see what had made her stop.


    It was a man, a naked Human man, held up from the ground face down in some sort of steel frame. His body was a desiccated shrivelled thing, more skeleton than anything, wasted away to nothing. His eyes were blind and unseeing, staring sightlessly at the ground as if he was in a trance state.


    Beneath him, on his private parts, a glass milking nozzle engraved with occult runes had been attached to his¡­ Lyra looked away, what the hell had happened here? Some kind of weird sex cult gone wrong?


    ¡°So many¡­¡± whispered Belle


    Lyra looked past the Satyr again to see she was right, there were rows and rows of people going on and on into the darkness until they disappeared into the gloom. All levelers, all set out in metal frames, Elves, Humans, Halflings, male, female, even a Minotaur, each of them had some kind of milking machine attached to their privates and chest, each of their bodies withered as though they had had all the fluid drained out of them.


    Rain was ahead, he had a shrivelled arm in paw and was hesitantly sniffing at it, he took a bite before making a face of disgust and spitting it out.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t edible. Where is the rest of this cult?¡± Rain narrowed his eyes at the hidden depths of the darkness.


    Opal was crouching and examining one of the milking devices on one of the Elves. She looked up, ¡°Oh you''re back in control?¡±


    Rain glanced her way. ¡°A little. What is this?¡±


    Opal shrugged, ¡°Dunno. It¡¯s a leveler thing right? Wouldn''t you know more than me?¡±


    ¡°I have no idea, I¡¯ve never seen or heard of anything like this¡­¡±


    ¡°Hello Rain, mmm it¡¯s really good to see you.¡± Came a voice from the darkness.


    Rain turned back to the dark. ¡°I know that voice¡­ It¡¯s you, isn''t it?¡±


    ¡°Sharp ears. Figures.¡± A person stepped from behind one of the steel frames, a short figure. She had her hands in her pockets as she turned and smiled at Rain.


    It was Lira.


    ¡°I do wonder how you knew to find me, perhaps I underestimated that nose of yours. ¡°


    Rain shook his head. ¡°I had no idea you were here¡­ how did you know that it was me when I¡¯m not even Human anymore? Did you always know?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I can still see you in there Rain, that little soul mixed with the soul of¡­ well, that is what piques my curiosity the most. I have seen so many many souls but never anything like this, something so...¡±


    ¡°Tell me before I end you, are you really Lira? Were you always a monster wearing a leveler¡¯s skin?


    Lira raised an eyebrow. ¡°You know I¡¯m not her? I wonder how? Seems we both have our ways. In any case you were only half right, I am not a monster.¡±


    ¡°Did you do what you did to me as you are now? Whatever you are?¡±


    ¡°Oh yes, of course, I replaced Lira months ago, I have to say it was amusing seeing you squirm when Myra was playing with you in the dungeon, you fell apart so easily. I would have taken you and drained you myself some time ago, it''s not like anyone would have cared, but you had so little worth that you just weren''t worth the effort. As you are now though¡­ now there''s something I can properly suckle on, hnff, you look delicious Rain.¡±


    Rain stared at the Halfling who was looking him up and down hungrily, which was far more unsettling than when she had done it at the market, this time he was drenched in blood.


    Orden suddenly dashed by, a furious Belle behind him. Before Rain could even blink Lira leapt at him and dragged him down, holding his face in his hands as he knelt before her. A look of shock crossed the Elf¡¯s eyes as he realised that the Halfling¡¯s hands were completely immovable no matter how hard he pushed against them, it was like his head was braced in a pair of rigid steel clamps.


    Lira smiled sweetly at him. Then she kissed him.


    Orden¡¯s eyes rolled up and his body convulsed and shuddered, his knees knocking against the stone ground as his hands pawed half-heartedly at the Halfling¡¯s clothing.


    Belle without warning appeared behind him and brought down the knife, aiming for the back of Orden¡¯s neck.


    This got a reaction out of Lira, she scowled and tossed Orden aside, sending him rolling and tumbling across the ground until he crashed up against one of the steel frames.


    ¡°Not yet, nor for you, now come here.¡±


    The Halfling leapt at the Satyr and realising the danger the Satyr backed up, putting a metal frame between herself and the Halfling. They stared at each other from across the frame. The both of them were distracted from their standoff however by a blood-curdling scream that came from Orden.


    The Elf was kneeling, staring at his hands, his body was¡­ skinnier, drawn.


    ¡°Nonononono, this can''t be happening, this can''t be fucking happening! NONONONO! FUCKING NO!¡±


    ¡°W-what¡¯s wrong? W-what is it?¡± Asked Lyra standing nervously beside Rain.


    Orden looked up, a fear in his eyes that was unlike anything Lyra had seen before. She realised she was looking at something that had rocked the Elf to his core.


    ¡°M-my levels, sh-she took my levels, I¡¯m a low leveler now, a l-level e-ight.¡± The last of his words came out as a bare whisper, every syllable an utterance of unfettered horror.


    Belle swiftly took a dozen steps back, putting several more metal frames between herself and the Halfling. Lyra heard what Orden said and without a second of hesitation vanished into thin air, disappearing from sight.


    ¡°Wh-what is this? What are you?¡± said Belle, extreme wariness in every motion of her body, backing up further even as she spoke.


    Lira smiled charmingly.


    ¡°A monster that steals levels? I¡¯ve never heard of such a thing,¡± growled Rain.


    Lira turned on him. ¡°Oh, that''s because like I said, I¡¯m not a monster, Lira isn¡¯t my real name either.¡±


    She snapped her fingers and her form seemed to shift and blur as a black flame washed across her body.


    A red skinned girl appeared in her place, with smooth red horns protruding from her long black hair. She shifted her hips, an amused expression on her lips, and her spaded tail flicked behind her.


    She was still fairly short, so that when she stretched her arms and made a little satisfied sound she didn''t reach far. The wings protruding from her back were also petite, and became smaller still as they folded up behind her.


    ¡°Hi. You can call me Erin.¡±

 Chapter 68

    ¡°You''re a... demon?¡± gravelled Rain, facing the red skinned girl who had named herself Erin.


    Erin blew him a kiss. ¡°Only the best kind.¡±


    Belle was staring bug eyed at Rain, her body tense in a flighty animal panic, her knife clutched in both hands in a white knuckle death grip.


    ¡°You- you can speak!? No- it doesn''t matter, that¡¯s not just a d-demon, it¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s what?¡±


    Belle swallowed, a shiver running up her body.


    ¡°It''s a-...a S-S-Succubus.¡± Her voice was barely a whisper, every syllable a testament to her fear.


    Rain blinked at her non-plussed. He had of course heard of demons. It just wasn¡¯t something people tended to speak about in public, only ever in hushed tones and in private so he had never really gotten to hear the details. He knew demons were bad news, and nobody wanted to attract the attention of one. But this Succubus?


    ¡°I¡¯m not familiar with that kind of demon.¡±


    Belle¡¯s eyes danced between Erin, a dangerous demon, and Rain, a hulking wolf monster, desperate mortal calculus happening in those snatched glances as she tried to figure a way out of her predicament.


    ¡°It- she- sh-she isn¡¯t like other demons.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate the compliment,¡± said Erin with a wink.


    ¡°She- she gets stronger, by taking from levelers, by leeching the thing a leveler holds dearest and most sacred, she takes our levels! Becomes unstoppable! A demon like her gets a foothold and she can drain a town dry!¡±


    Erin tilted her head, a lock of black hair falling across her face with the motion.


    ¡°Fairly accurate but it''s not just levels, there''s all kinds of delicious goodies inside you that you have no clue about.¡± She gestured broadly at the rows and rows of metal frames from which levelers were suspended. ¡°Some things are easier to extract than others, of course I had a lot of help in putting this all together, those who summoned me felt that they should get the worth of what they accomplished. It didn''t work out in their favour in the end though, past a certain point they simply broke to my will.¡±


    Rain stared at her. This thing had been Lira the entire time? Working behind the scenes to leech of the underbelly of the town of Lynthia? Why had no one stopped her?


    ¡°Why didn''t the town Ranker stop you? Surely he must have been aware something was happening?¡±


    Erin put a finger to her lip and cupped her elbow, it was almost cute. ¡°Hmm that is the question, isn''t it? It does make one think, but then the ones who summoned me did have rather an easy time of it, making all these milking machines to feed and grow me, all that and they were left alone. Huh.¡±


    Rain had surmised as much already, and the answer to that was simple. ¡°The Ranker made this cult, he was the one who ordered you summoned.¡±


    ¡°You don''t seem surprised?¡±


    ¡°Not in the slightest, if he saw value in it he would do anything.¡± Rain shook his head. ¡°It doesn''t matter, in fact if it hurts his ambitions that''s just another reason for-¡±


    ¡°For?¡±


    Rain rolled his claws, and found his lips drawing back in a snarl. ¡°For me to destroy you.¡±


    ¡°Hah! Good one, but I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s far too late for that, it¡¯s as I said, past a certain point it doesn''t matter, I''ve drained so many people of all their juicy bits, I¡¯m not just any old demon anymore, I¡¯m more than that.¡±


    She suddenly flicked her petite wings and Rain flinched back in surprise as the Succubus lunged toward him in a flicker of motion. Her hand whipped out and grabbed him by the shirt and hauled back. To his shock he was yanked down onto his knees, the power of her arm as unstoppable as a falling oak.


    Instinctively he snapped at her, his teeth flashing forward to rip her face off, but before he could get within an inch she moved her free hand up and slapped it on his snout stopping his head in place, her arm and body swaying as she halted him in his tracks.


    ¡°No, silly,¡± she smiled that charming smile, ¡°I¡¯m the one who ¡®eats¡¯ you, not the other way around.¡±


    An animalistic warning of danger sounded in Rain¡¯s head. This thing in front of him was different than anything he had come across before, he needed to end this before things got out of control, if they hadn''t already.


    Without hesitation, he wrapped his paws around her head. Due to the size of them her face disappeared behind his fur. Then he began to squeeze.


    A muffled voice came from within. ¡°Really now? It''s not going to work. You¡¯re so silly Rain.¡±


    Rain snarled and actually put his strength behind it. He could hear a groaning sound and he realised after a moment it was the sound of the plates of Erin¡¯s skull grinding together. Incredibly, the Succubus was holding up despite what he felt was force enough to crush stone. She was correct in that she was very very strong, he wondered just how many people the demon had drained.


    There was a moment''s pause and this time Erin¡¯s voice sounded discomforted.


    ¡°That''s¡­ quite some strength you have there.¡±


    ¡°No, this is.¡± said Rain, massively increasing the pressure, his biceps bulging. Something made a cracking sound and he could feel the Succubus¡¯s skull starting to slowly buckle despite her ridiculous toughness. The dome of her skull pressing inward, about to pop like a melon.


    Before he could finish the job however the Succubus seemed to realise her arrogant blunder in allowing Rain to have his way and decided to correct her mistake.


    Her hands moved in a blur.


    Rain was launched backwards through the air, the breath knocked out of him. The astonishing power with which he had just been struck causing his rib cage to groan as he was sent tumbling over and over until he crashed into one of the milking frames, then through it and straight into the next and then the next, the metal crumpling under the impact of his weight, bending and breaking as he rolled. He came to a rest in a tangle of twisted metal and dry skeletal husks that had once been people.


    Erin touched at her head carefully. A drop of blood rolled down her forehead between her horns and she caught it between index finger and thumb. She glared in Rain''s direction.


    ¡°I do wonder now. A multi-evolver? Strange. Your soul and, hmm. You aren¡¯t like other monsters Rain. I underestimated you. After all that I have absorbed and consumed and taken I didn''t think it likely you could really harm me.¡±


    The Succubus flapped her small wings and smoothly lifted up into the air, then as though alighting on a breeze she drifted over to the pile of black fur amongst broken metal spars that was Rain. She dropped down near him, her bare feet patting down on the stone.


    She paused before she advanced on him and turned her head to the side.


    ¡°Your invisibility is really pretty bad by the way, did you think it couldn''t be seen through by anyone with a little itty bit of talent?¡±


    A blur stumbled against a frame in the dark of the room and then as her invisibility faltered Lyra appeared, one hand holding onto the metal to keep herself steady as her knees trembled out of control.


    ¡°If-If I wasn''t so t-tired, yes, maybe, I- I d-don''t know.¡± She spoke in a near whisper, her throat too tight from fear to speak aloud.


    Erin flicked her finger at her and Lyra let out a shriek and stumbled backwards.


    ¡°Oh that wasn''t anything,¡± she giggled, ¡°Your reaction is pretty fun though. You have an interesting Class by the way, so don¡¯t go anywhere, I''ll be taking all of you in a little bit.¡±


    ¡°Y-you c-c-can tell wh-what Class I h-have?¡± said Lyra clutching at the frame for dear life.


    ¡°Clear as day!¡±


    ¡°Ooh! Do me! What am I like!¡±


    She glanced over at Opal.


    ¡°Just a regular crappy Goblin.¡±


    ¡°Hey fuck you!¡±


    Erin¡¯s gaze dipped down to Opal¡¯s hips.


    ¡°With three-¡±


    ¡°Sheepy! Now!¡±


    The Succubus blinked and looked back at Lyra and found the sheep girl with her arm pulled back, a leather bag in her hand. Erin raised an eyebrow as Lyra cried out and heaved forward, whipping her arm around and throwing the bag as hard as she could at the Succubus.


    ¡°Money attack!¡±


    Erin rolled her eyes and casually lifted her hand to catch the leather bag. Then her eyes widened slightly as the bag tumbled, the drawstring slipped open and a red scaled screaming face was visible for a fraction of a millisecond through the hole before the bag spun once more, the drawstring opened fully, and a solid geyser of gold exploded forth.


    She froze up as the unexpected wall of money hit her and everything in sight was abruptly shiny reflective golden coins surrounding her on every side.


    Then it passed and she was left blinking in confusion, coins clinking and rolling around her feet in a layer inches thick. One last particularly airborne coin bounced off her head before joining its brethren on the floor with a clatter.


    ¡°Did...Did you just throw money at me¡­?¡±


    Her gaze moved down to the carpet of coin, her expression one of disbelief. There was gold everywhere, but there was also a column of black fur leading from the mangled wreckage of the milking machines and ending in a massive paw wrapped around her ankle.


    She followed it to the source, the edge of the metal, and found a pair of yellow eyes looking up at her.


    ¡°Got you.¡±


    Rain heaved and the Succubus was ripped off her feet with a yelp and dragged through the gold and into the wreckage against her will, kicking wildly. She grabbed at the metal trying to hold herself back, but the metal simply bent under the force of what was pulling her in, pulling her in toward a pair of jaws opening wide to bite down and rip and tear.


    An expression that suggested a simple piece of math was quickly being worked through flashed across her face. If Rain was able to exert that much pressure with just his paws then how many times stronger would his jaws be? A predator¡¯s jaws being able to exert the most force of any part of its body was an almost universal law, from canines to felines to reptiles. This, this was a problem.


    She grabbed at his arm, clawing wildly, her fingers transforming from nails to thick black claws with a flicker of black flame, ripping at Rain¡¯s flesh, digging chunks of fur free, but to no avail, Rain snarled savagely, an unstoppable inevitable force, and lunged for her.


    The Succubus now hyper aware of just how dangerous Rain¡¯s teeth were likely to be flapped her wings furiously. The room became a miniature hurricane as she put the full power of her demonic wings to use and Lyra and Opal were bowled over backwards by the wind alone. The Succubus twisted in Rain¡¯s grip and just about managed to avoid his teeth which snapped together like a spring steel trap by her ribs. She swung for his head and with a crack of bone hitting fist her knuckles met the side of his muzzle, violently jerking his head.


    ¡°Get off of me!¡±


    Rain glared at her then spat blood to the side.


    ¡°No.¡±


    He lunged for her again, maw opening wide, but this time she was ready and kicked away, her wings flapping far harder, becoming a blur of motion. She lurched back from Rain under her own power until she ran out the length of his arm and momentarily jerked to a halt. This didn''t slow her frantic flapping however, and Rain was forcibly dragged from the metal wreckage and up into the air, his entire huge mass dangling impossibly from the diminutive Succubus girl¡¯s leg, somehow hanging suspended in the air with the sheer lift she could apply. Clearly her wings were far more than they appeared.


    Rain¡¯s feet dragged and scraped across the floor as the hurricane of air moved through the room, metal frames rocking and shifting across the ground in the gale force wind that sent ripples across his fur.


    Not willing to let her escape Rain lunged for her other leg and to the Succubus''s dismay managed to latch onto it leaving her unable to kick or even attack Rain in any way at all. Her legs were simply bound in his grip and he was too far down for her to reach with her claws.


    She scowled, frustration clear in her expression. She was trapped by her own flight, not wanting to drop down to the ground and thereby allowing Rain to use his best weapon, his teeth, but unable to escape from his grip either.


    She flapped harder than ever before and they began to ascend, quickly accelerating, she flew upward, each explosive beat of her wings thrusting her higher and higher into the air until with a cry of anger she smashed up against the angled tiled roof and then past as she ripped a hole with a swipe of her clawed hands. The cool night air washed down through the gap as the Succubus flapped through and rose ever higher.


    She shouted down at Rain through the howling wind. ¡°You want to play it this way? Fine! Let''s see if you splash when you hit the cold hard ground!¡±


    Rain climbed the Succubus as she rapidly flew skyward in a raging torrent of air, his paws wrapping around her knees and then her thighs, pulling himself higher, his claws indenting her flesh.


    Erin snarled down at him, her face twisted in irritation, then genuine pain as Rain''s teeth bit down on her shin, the pressure rapidly increasing until his teeth punctured her flesh and dug down, cutting deep into the bone. She was incredibly tough, tougher than anything Rain had ever bitten down on before, but his jaws were enormously strong, able to exert multiple times more pressure than his grip, and her flesh slowly split apart under his teeth.


    The Succubus cried out, and then with a look of resolved determination, she stopped flapping her wings altogether. The howling wind dropped to dead silence.


    Rain looked up in surprise, his teeth still around her leg, then he glanced down. Lynthia was just a few dots of light amongst the dark black expanse of the forest. They were very very far above the ground.


    Then they began to fall.


    Like a lead brick.


    A sense of panic filling him Rain ripped entirely through the Succubus¡¯s leg dismembering her at the shin, her leg spun away into the darkness, vanishing from sight.


    Erin¡¯s bubbling laughter could be heard over the now redoubled howl of the wind as they fell like a tumbling red and black meteor toward the ground, a trail of blood left in their wake from her fresh stump.


    Rain now realised the Succubus was suicidal, they were both going to die if they hit like this, resilient bodies or not.


    Adrenaline taking over he clambered up her, grabbing at her hips and pulling himself up to face her. She smiled at him, the same charming smile as at the market, as though they weren''t falling out of the sky to their deaths at all. This was the hellish madness of a demon, he could see it in her eyes now, the light of insanity. Rain couldn''t die here, not like this, he couldn''t, he had too many people to kill.


    He grabbed hold of the Succubus¡¯s arms and flipped her around putting her below himself and facing the ground below. Just in time as the tiled roofs of Lynthia were coming toward him at a terrifying rate, he could see all of the town, and then a fraction of a moment later the town filled his vision, and then all he could see was a fraction.


    Rain held the Succubus out in front of him like a shield and they smashed into a sloped rooftop like a bomb. A geyser of shattered roof tiles going up around them as they glanced off the high angle and came down on the cobbled street below in a storm of broken ceramic.


    Rain hit hard, Erin held out in front, and the ground cratered beneath them, the combined impact of the ground and Rain landing atop her crushed Erin.


    She Broke.


    The Succubus¡¯s body became so much pulverised flesh and hundreds of crushed and shattered boney parts as Rain landed atop her. He rolled desperately, doing his utmost to mitigate the fall and absorb the momentum. It did not go well. He felt his ribs cave inwards, breaking like brittle spars as he hit. Both his shoulders dislocated, both humeruses ripping from his shoulder sockets as he tumbled like a rag doll across the ground, limbs flailing helplessly until he slammed up against a wall in a heap.


    He blinked groggily and coughed up a wash of blood across his front and let out a long low groan of agony. He felt¡­ brutalised, as was to be expected after quite literally falling out of the sky. Every breath was white hot pain, ever motion of his lungs grinding his shattered ribs together. His arms lay limp at his sides, any attempt at moving them sending lightning shooting up his shoulders.


    This was going to take time to heal, and it was going to be a miserable experience. But at least he had survived. He had won, even.


    His gaze slowly drifted up and he caught sight of the small crater his landing had caused. A flash of red caught his eye, the arm of the Succubus lying partially outside, snapped in so many places it was a disturbing zig zag of crimson.


    What in gods name had been her intent? Were demon¡¯s all this vindictive? Why do this?


    Of course, a moment later, he knew. The sound of splintered bones crackling across each other came from the crater and the hand that was just visible slipped inside, the arm snaking amongst the rubble.


    It only took a minute and Rain could do nothing but watch helplessly. The Succubus slowly, ever so slowly, rose. Her limbs straightened from obscene broken things, her bones pushing out against her flesh in tents of red, to then being merely fractured, and then appearing as normal. With a flash of black fire her stumped leg bulged out then surged down to form a fresh new leg, the sole of her new foot smoothly meeting the ground.


    The Succubus¡¯s head was hanging from her shoulders, literally resting on her chest, her spinal column clearly disconnected and her head hanging by a tube of flesh alone, but even as he watched her head slipped and pulled up, moving around of its own accord cleanly settling back into place.


    Then Erin opened her eyes.


    ¡°Ow. You''re a heavy one Rain, you need to think about going on a diet you know.¡±


    Rain stared at the Succubus. She was as she was before, already fully healed, completely normal.


    ¡°Oh don''t give me that look, is it really that hard to understand, with the numbers I¡¯ve taken into me I can afford to burn a few.¡± She looked at him in a way that suggested she was seeing through him to somewhere else inside. ¡°Especially for such a prize as you.¡±


    She stepped up over the rim of the crater and casually skipped toward where Rain lay. He tried to move, he really did, but his mangled body refused to cooperate and he could only slump against the wall, helpless to do anything as she approached.


    She stood between his legs, her hands on her hips as she smiled at his face, blood steadily falling from his muzzle in long stringy lines of red.


    ¡°All that fuss and you just became a little meal for little old me. Sorry Rain, it''s better this way.¡±


    Rain could only look at her. Her words echoed back to his death, she had said the same back then, a cruel mirror. The darkness in him festered, suffocating. It was happening again and there was nothing he could do to stop it. She had outplayed him completely, using her vastly superior healing to leave him crippled and herself able. It had been a simple yet extremely effective plan. Ruthless in its brilliance.


    Her fingers touched up against his chin, she leaned in, closed her eyes, and then she kissed him.


    Rain froze, he couldn''t even blink, it was like fireworks were going off in his brain, making him lose control of his faculties. He trembled as she drew from him, took everything, drained him dry, his very soul pulling from his body, lifting away from his bones and subsuming into the Succubus until he was a withered husk, the thing that made monsters monsters taken and absorbed, sucked away and made a part of Erin, making her stronger, more powerful, Dominant.


    Or that was what was supposed to happen.


    The blissful expression on the Succubus¡¯s face suddenly stilled and her eyes snapped open the moment Rain¡¯s monstrous soul touched her, that hungry darkness just touching up against the demon¡¯s core.


    Then her skin began to boil.


    Erin stumbled backwards with a scream, her skin sloughing from her body as though trying to pull away, ripples washing across her as her flesh seemed to physically revolt, quite literally trying to tear from her bones, as though every single last cell was screaming to get away from the spot Rain¡¯s soul had touched. And indeed as Rain watched the Succubus began to pull apart. Her bicep ripped from her arm with a flap of skin and went flailing into the air wriggling like some horrifying slug, she staggered, nearly falling, as the muscles in her legs tried to rip from her bones and flee, her skin splitting apart across her torso as her insides broke free, her organs and intestines poking out, evacuating.


    ¡°What, what¡¯s happening to meeee?!¡±


    She slapped her hand on her thigh and a black fire washed out from her palm forcing her thigh to return to its original shape, her muscle resisting as it was forced back into place. She desperately fought against her own anatomy, her hands dancing and black fire washing across her, beating her form back into place, imprisoning her own body.


    He could only describe it as though every part of her was trying to individually escape of its own accord, like a fight or flight response taken to the extreme. She snatched a glance his way as she fought, and this time, for the first time, there was fear there, real unchecked fear, as though everything she knew to be true had just fallen apart in much the same way her body was attempting.


    Still frantically slapping black flame, trying to keep herself whole, she turned and flapped her wings, once, twice, and then she was gone, disappearing into the night sky.


    She was gone.


    Rain gently laid his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.


    Stratothrax


    Stratothrax


    If you like this story I''ve officially launched a Patreon where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes.


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 Chapter 69

    Lyra watched in dismay as Rain stumbled into the mansion, his paw pressed up against his side in clear and obvious pain.


    They had found him near delirious in a side street, a small lake of blood around him. He had come down amongst the warehouses away from any house and out of sight so by some fluke had avoided attention. It had taken a long time to get him standing, luckily having eaten such an absurd amount his healing was already starting to slowly push and pull his bones and flesh back into place. Still, it had been a gruelling trip back through Lynthia with Rain limping from corner to corner, one where Lyra had fainted twice from holding her invisibility up. Then there had been the struggle of climbing the wall. Rain had needed to push his shoulder up against the stone until his dislocated arm popped back into its socket, then once again for the other side. He had nearly passed out from the pain more than once.


    It had taken half a dozen attempts but eventually he had crawled over the wall and then together they had slowly trekked back through the forest as the sun peeked over the horizon.


    Rain stumbled into the Ranker¡¯s bedroom and collapsed without preamble onto the bed. Opal hopped up on top with him leaving Lyra standing awkwardly beside them.


    He turned his head and eyed Lyra out of the corner of one eye.


    ¡°...What happened to the two prisoners we let free?¡±


    Lyra bit her lip. ¡°Uhm. W-well, after you disappeared with the S-Succubus the Satyr snapped a Goblin slave collar around the Elf¡¯s neck. I tried to stop her from leaving with him, I really did! But the Satyr was too strong, I¡¯m not a combat Class... I- I couldn''t do anything. ¡°


    Rain closed his eyes. ¡°You think she will say something to the town?¡± said Rain, his voice was quickly fading as exhaustion crept up.


    She hesitated. ¡°I¡­ don''t think so, she¡¯s an escaped prisoner, she won¡¯t want to be caught again, but more importantly, well, that was a Succubus, a Succubus! She¡¯s likely already as far away from Lynthia as she can possibly get! ¡­It¡¯s a Succubus! You don''t seem to get it!¡±


    ¡°A demon or something, demons are bad, I know that¡­¡± murmured Rain sleepily.


    Lyra ran her fingers through her fluff in frustration, as much as Rain used to be a leveler and had more of an understanding of levelers than any other monster he was still quite unknowing. That was just the nature of having been trapped in a small town and forced to remain at the absolute bottom of society, more concerned with day to day survival than vanishingly rare existential threats.


    But Lyra knew. She had grown up with endless stories of the dangers of the world from people who had experienced them first hand, from the darkest monster to the grimmest demon, she knew all too well that this was something special. A Succubus meant something to levelers in a way that monsters or other demons did not. It was simple really, a Succubus could Take Your Levels. The very thought of such a concept made Lyra¡¯s skin crawl and an involuntary shiver ran up her spine. She hunched over subconsciously as though to somehow protect her own levels from some unseen threat.


    She needed to do something. As much as she couldn''t let Rain in a mindless state of hunger be loosed on the town she could not let the town go completely unwarned about a Succubus, she just couldn¡¯t. Just as she had been taught to put aside differences when it came to greater monster threats she had been taught the same when it came to succubi.


    ¡°Rain?¡±


    Rain didn''t answer, he was already asleep.


    Opal was lying spread eagled atop him and cracked an eye.


    ¡°Stop fussing sheepy. ¡°


    ¡°I- I¡¯m going back to Lynthia¡­¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°W-well, shouldn''t we know if we managed to get away with it?¡±


    ¡°Get away with what?¡±


    ¡°Got away with eating all the livestock and horses in the entire town! Rain¡¯s not going to be moving again anytime soon, it might be important!¡±


    ¡°Oh. Right.¡±


    ¡°Well?¡±


    Opal waved her hand noncommittally and yawned.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to stop you, do as you like sheepy. If some levelers want to come bother us then Rain can eat them. Simple.¡±


    Lyra curled her hands into fists and fumed at the Goblin girl. She was just so, so, well, she had different priorities, clearly mostly consisting of finding ways to make Rain larger. She really needed to sit down with the Goblin girl and try to change her entrenched views someday, just as she had inadvertently done to her own.


    As Opal got comfortable and closed her eyes Lyra gathered her things and prepared to return to town. That consisted of washing little bits of blood from her nice wool and securing her bribery bag, er, Dimensional Bag with Rain¡¯s hoard in it. She had collected the gold from the floor of the cultist¡¯s building after the Satyr had fled not knowing what else to do. Putting a stop to Red¡¯s very loud and very indignant complaining about using gold incorrectly had been a bonus.


    By the time she got back to town it was midday and the sun was high in the sky. She approached carefully, and having somewhat rested was able to use her invisibility to hide herself as she peeked from the forest edge. The town seemed¡­ fine? No, wait, where was the guard? The front gate was wide open and completely unguarded!


    She waited ten full minutes wondering if someone would turn up to replace the missing guard but no such thing happened and hesitantly she stepped from the treeline. When nothing continued to happen she relaxed slightly and headed toward the gate, then tensed up as she entered below the portcullis, just waiting for the penny to drop.


    Again, nothing happened, and she was free to enter the town completely unimpeded.


    As she went deeper into town the reason why there was no guard soon became clear, the entire population of Lynthia had descended on the market and were throwing a full pitched many sided screaming match. Several dozen fights had broken out, magic and Skills being thrown freely and the already undermanned guard were on the verge of being overwhelmed by the furious levelers, none more furious than the merchants who looked ready to physically explode they were so red in the face with anger.


    Lyra kept back and kept invisible and watched and listened carefully. There were a lot of accusations going around, a lot of incoherent confusion too as the logic of such a vast quantity of livestock and horses vanishing into thin air while leaving blood violently and liberally painted across their pens didn''t quite square with any one idea that was being suggested. There was talk of some kind of monsters getting in, but the sheer numbers needed to eat so many in one night defied belief. There was talk of thieves too, but the violence with which the animals had died didn''t fit, and why kill the horses when they were so much more valuable alive?


    A man with large muscular arms and a leather apron suddenly clambered up on one of the market stalls and waved for attention. Lyra recognised him, It was the blacksmith from when Rain had fought Adlen.


    ¡°Calm yourselves! If you refuse to calm down then I will calm you into the paving with the back of my hand.¡± The blacksmith¡¯s voice boomed out, as solid as planed oak, and the near riotous crowd turned to stare at him.


    He scowled, not enjoying the attention, then caught himself and schooled his expression.


    ¡°Understandably some of you have questions-¡±


    ¡°No fucking shit! My horse, my best goddam horse is gone with just a big bloody red patch in the stall he was kept in!¡±


    The blacksmith held up a hand. ¡°You aren''t the only one to have lost a horse, many-¡±


    ¡°All the horses! How?! How are all the horses gone!¡±


    ¡°And all my sheep! Do you know how hard it is to get good needlewool sheep out here?¡±


    Lyra let out a little shudder at that particular memory, seeing her brethren in wool disappear into Rain¡¯s jaws had been decidedly not good for her prey complex.


    ¡°Listen folks, there''s more going on here than you know, there was, well, a number of things that happened last night, and we¡¯re not sure if it¡¯s all connected or simply a coincidence.¡±


    The crowd did not look in any way satisfied by the blacksmith''s waffling lack of clarity and he was starting to lose their attention. That is until a red headed Elf sprung up onto the stall beside him.


    Lyra to her dismay found she knew this one too. It was the Elf that Rain had casually punted on top of a building.


    ¡°I found a cult!¡±


    That brought back the crowd.


    ¡°Or rather, I found the remains of one. There was a cult in Lynthia, one doing things to people, I found people, so many damned people, like husks, all dried up and nothing left of them! And the cultists! All dead!¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is as Zack so... dramatically put, and more, two prisoners were, potentially, set free, their cages were torn apart and their whereabouts are currently unknown.¡±


    The crowd was murmuring now, and Lyra noticed a few people giving strange looks. If she had to guess there was a certain amount of awareness of that cult amongst a select few, it would be hard not to be the case with the number of people she had seen taken by them. Not every disappearance could be explained away as just yet another foolish outsider dying in the town¡¯s dungeon. She doubted they really knew what was being done however, if they did then they would have left town a long time ago, a free Succubus was simply intolerable.


    ¡°The town council needs to answer for this,¡± said Zack, waving his arms in the air, ¡°There¡¯s no way that cult went unnoticed, and now their incompetence has cost us!¡±


    The words left unsaid hung in the air above the crowd: ¡®It seems unlikely the Ranker didn''t know.¡¯ But uttering such a thing out loud wasn¡¯t something anyone was willing to do, fear of the Ranker kept that particular statement unspoken.


    The crowd stared at him, waiting for his point. He opened his mouth to speak-


    ¡°Hey, aren''t you that Elf who got stuck on a roof and couldn''t get down for half a day?¡±


    Zack wobbled on the stall and flushed red, a match to his hair. The blacksmith reached out a hand and stabilised him.


    ¡°That was- I- I- was inspecting the roof! For storm damage!¡±


    The crowd gave him a flat look and he coughed awkwardly into his fist.


    ¡°Th-that''s not important right now, there¡¯s been more than livestock and horses slaughtered, it¡¯s people too caught up in this! We need to go after the one who did all of this! B-before they do worse!¡±


    Lyra waited with bated breath, this would be where the Elf named Rain as the culprit, she was sure of it. She could see it in his eyes. The scary monster, the out of towner, the unknown factor new to Lynthia, it was the emotional answer to an illogical injury. The mob would instantly latch on to the idea and then everything would quickly unravel. Zack had apparently held a grudge.


    Not knowing quite what she was doing she loosed her invisibility and stepped forward.


    ¡°Were the dried up husks of these people in metal frames, with milking thingies attached to them?¡± she shouted.


    Zack paused, set off balance. ¡°It- it¡¯s y-you-¡±


    The blacksmith caught Lyra¡¯s eye at the back of the crowd and furrowed his brow. ¡°Why yes, they were, how did you know?¡±


    Lyra steadied herself then spoke as loudly and as clearly as she could. Fully aware she was about to drop a lake of chilling water on the crowd.


    ¡°I know. I know because that¡¯s what a Succubus uses on their victims, all of this, from the cult to the livestock, the horses and your prisoners, all of it was a Succubus¡¯s doing!¡±


    There was a moment of absolute pin-drop silence. Then everyone lost their minds.


    Lyra darted away in the same motion as she activated her invisibility, dodging people as they shouted and bellowed and ran into each other trying to flee. Merchants scrabbled for what little of their merchandise they could carry in their arms and then full on sprinted from the market without a second''s hesitation. The blacksmith tried to call order but someone fell against the stall he was standing upon causing it to collapse and the sheep girl induced chaos ran on unimpeded.


    It seemed that Rain might just have gotten away with it. If there was one thing that was going to completely push levelers onto the wrong track to follow it was a Succubus. The overriding fear levelers held of them removed basic rational simple questions like ¡®Do succubi normally disappear hundreds of animals?¡¯ Blaming everything on the existential terror came naturally. Not that she could blame them for doing so, the Succubus was just so- well, it was a real danger to people, and this way she got to both warn the innocent and prevent the town from forming a pitchfork mob and hunting after Rain while he slept and healed. She smiled happily, this had been a perfect success, skillfully threading the eye of a needle to achieve her goals. Now to return and-


    She suddenly jerked to a halt as something snapped around her wrist.


    She turned in confusion and was greeted by a charming Elven smile, perfectly coifed red hair, and a pair of violet spectacles.


    ¡°Hello sheepy. I would like to have a word with you.¡±


    Lyra looked at him, then down at the steel manacle chained to her wrist, and then back up.


    ¡°Uhm, would you like a nice bribe by any chance?¡±


    Stratothrax


    I would just like to say, sincerely, thank you for sticking with me and reading my story. It makes me happy that you are interested in reading my crazy crazy tale and what is for me a small light in my life in a dark time.


    I really wanted to post this chapter last week with this key art, but the painting process doesnt always go smoothly, and then irl things happened, and, well things didn''t go as I had planned. But at last I managed to finish it, I''m very sorry for the delay. This will be a three chapter release this week as it includes the previous weeks delayed chapter. ?


    Read ahead:


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 Chapter 70 (R-18)

    Rain stood tall and tried to judge how much he had grown by. He towered above the ground, of course, but furrowing his brow and trying to measure how much he had changed, well, he didn''t think he had changed by as much as he would have expected. Eight foot five inches, and a little bit perhaps?


    It wasn''t the kind of growth that eating hundreds of animals would have caused him to expect. He thought about that, rubbing his paw pad against his chin. If levelers caused more growth than monsters, and plants caused very little growth, then that suggested there was maybe some kind of hierarchy with how much he could gain from eating. A hierarchy that put levelers at the top as being worth the most, below that monsters with slightly less, further below that animals, and finally right at the bottom, plant mass, which was worth very little.


    It made a certain amount of sense he supposed, monsters were different from animals, there was a clear line drawn between the two, everyone knew that, so why not here too?


    It also explained why he had needed to eat so much to sate his hunger. He had been running around trying to put out a fire with a cupful of water, a fruitless endeavour, it was only when he had started to eat the cultists that the tide had turned and he had managed to regain control of himself. The cultists were just that much more filling than animals.


    He had questions. Was he going to enter a comatose state every time he killed one of his killers? Would he wake up as a starved near mindless beast then too? That could be a problem. Finding a lot of livestock to eat was one thing, but if that wasn''t enough what was he to do? Have a number of levelers or monsters prepared to eat for when he woke? He didn''t want to be a danger to Lyra or Opal or¡­ Red¡­ He had almost eaten Red, the hunger had made him mad, irrational.


    He didn''t particularly want to go on a mindless rampage killing indiscriminately every time he got his revenge, in fact he very much did not. He had earned his control in the dungeon, overcoming the wild nature of what he had become in allowing a few of the prisoners of the Half-Goblin tribe to go. He wanted the choice, the ability to choose what he did at the very least. Being at the mercy of his own hunger did not allow that. ...Perhaps somehow filling a warehouse with food as a just in case emergency measure would be the simplest answer, some way to keep the raw predator in him at bay.


    He held up his paw and rolled his digits, flexing his claws. The claws of a predator. There wasn¡¯t any getting away from what he was, although one thing was missing since he had left Lynthia that reflected on his nature, and that was the copious amounts of blood he had been covered in. As soon as he had woken he had gone to do one of his most favourite things in the world, and one of Opal¡¯s absolute least favourite things: a nice relaxing warm bath. He had even added bubble bath this time. It had been nice. He made a mental notice to ransack the mansion for the stuff before they left.


    Relaxing baths and eating, two things he had been starved for in his past life. He was now enthusiastically making up for that as much as he was able. If he was to be what he was, a monster, a predator, he intended to at least have regular baths. He didn''t want to completely lose his sense of civilization.


    His eyes moved to his wrist where the hem of his shirt and coat began. The clothing had seen better days. There were many small tears in the fabric, not to mention the puncture holes the arrows and bolts had left dotted across his back, but it still didn''t look bad on him due to how close it fit, especially now it had been cleaned of blood. He had tossed what he wore aside when he entered the bath and the cloth had floated off toward one end of the pool unnoticed. That is until Opal had asked him to retrieve it. He had done so and found that the same magical filter that cleansed the pool water of dirt had also thoroughly cleansed the clothing.


    When the clothing dried he had reluctantly put it on at Opal¡¯s insistence, reluctant because he still couldn''t say he particularly liked the feeling of fabric against fur. The clothing had held up despite his growth, just, although he doubted it would be able to hold together if he grew any further. He knew he would soon outgrow it, maybe he could ask Lyra-


    ¡°It''s ready!¡± called out Opal behind him. He turned to find her standing there, her hands on her hips.


    She looked¡­ different.


    The Goblin girl was wearing a clean white blouse, a well fitted one at that. She had clearly found the clothing of one of the mansion''s previous occupants, a Halfling if Rain had to guess, and had gone about making herself look, well, like a leveler, a wealthy one. She wore a frilly light white skirt that hung down to her ankles and had carefully tied ribbons into her hair. She had also found a wide brimmed hat from somewhere and had delicately perched it on her head.


    ¡°...What are you wearing?¡±


    ¡°Do you like it? I wanted to dress up like a snotty leveler! It was hard finding something that fit me though, you would not believe how much stuff I threw out.¡±


    ¡°And you dressed up like a leveler¡­ why? What for?¡±


    Opal tilted her head and smiled sweetly, holding her hands behind her back as she rocked on her heels. ¡°Well, if we¡¯re going to have a tea party like a bunch of levelers then I thought I had better go all out.¡±


    He looked at the smiling Goblin, then he looked behind her at what she had been doing. A part of the Ranker¡¯s quarters had been set out with a pair of sofas and a coffee table in the middle. The coffee table had a tea set on it along with a gently steaming teapot.


    ¡°We¡¯re monsters Opal, doesn''t this seem, I don''t know, strange?¡±


    ¡°And who said monsters weren''t allowed to have tea parties? We can steal anything from levelers and make it our own! If I want a tea party then I have a tea party, nobody can stop me, and if they try I¡¯ll kick them in the knee.¡±


    Rain opened his mouth to say that it made no sense, but then seeing a certain look in Opal¡¯s he slowly closed it. For some reason the Goblin girl was set on having tea and if that made Opal happy he wasn''t going to stop it from happening.


    After a moment of hesitation he moved toward the coffee table and the sofas, shuffling by the table. He then gingerly lowered himself down, his massive size taking up most of the sofa and causing it to creak desperately under his weight.


    He watched carefully as Opal hopped around the table and patted her dress down then carefully perched herself on the edge of the opposite sofa. She seemed excited to be having tea, more than Rain would have expected... strange.


    ¡°...How are you finding it, outside the dungeon? You can tell me honestly.¡±


    Opal paused. ¡°Hmm. I had some idea of what it would be like, there¡¯s always been talk amongst monsters, memories of tales of the outside, but it¡¯s different than how I imagined, for one that horrible endless sky.¡±


    Rain nodded at that, Opal hadn¡¯t had an easy time adjusting, the dungeon was a cramped mousehole compared to the vastness of the sky.


    ¡°But I guess what really pisses me off is seeing levelers just¡­ living.¡±


    ¡°Living?¡±


    She played with a lock of her hair. ¡°Yes. In the dungeon it feels like you are in constant danger, you never know when some idiot overpowered leveler is going to stumble upon you and kill you to grow their stupid numbers, or some other monster trapped in there with you decides to turn you into lunch.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­¡± Rain thought about telling her the other reason, the one that Lyra had nearly spoken aloud. But he caught her looking down at the ground her brow furrowed, there was hurt there, real hurt. He¡­ couldn''t tell her, not right now anyway.


    She glanced back up at him. ¡°I see them living Rain, living in that town, just living, they aren¡¯t hunted, they aren''t in constant danger, they are safe there. Safe, just safe¡­ I¡­well seeing it I don¡¯t know if I can forgive it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry you feel that way¡­ I know it¡¯s hard to see from the outside looking in, I think you taught me just how-... I didn''t really grasp it before but seeing it as a monster changed things. When you are a leveler it¡¯s just how things are and monsters are just monsters, free power waiting for the taking.¡±


    She shrugged lightly. ¡°The world is a hard place, kill or be killed, but it would be nice if there was something else someday for monsters, like how levelers have a safe place in that walled town where they won''t be attacked, somewhere without that constant threat.¡±


    ¡°A safe place for monsters? How would that even happen?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, killing all the levelers in the entire world would be a good step I bet though.¡±


    Rain blinked. She said it so casually. He stared at her as she lifted the teapot and carefully poured out two cups of tea.


    ¡°Even Lyra? She¡¯s a leveler too, and a good person.¡±


    ¡°Well maybe not all levelers, she¡¯s okay for a leveler, I guess. That fluffbutt is starting to get it. I''ve watched her, seen what she¡¯s thinking, how she acts, she¡­ she cares.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think more levelers could be swayed like that?¡±


    She remained silent and pushed one of the cups across the table.


    ¡°You know how important levels are to levelers, if given the option they would always choose to increase them, the life of a smol Goblin like me wouldn''t be even an afterthought. ¡±


    Rain mused on that, he knew well how important levels were, they were Everything to levelers. For each their life''s obsession for they defined the life you lived, he knew that harsh truth, it was ingrained in him, the system gave levelers power to save themselves, but it also made a hierarchy, a ruthless absolute hierarchy, one he had been trapped at the bottom of.


    He gingerly reached out for the teacup and carefully, slowly, squeezed the handle between his paw pads, lifting it, trying very hard not to accidentally break or crush it. It took a surprising amount of concentration. He imagined he must look fairly absurd, a hulking wolf monster dwarfing a sofa and concentrating furiously on a tiny bone china teacup delicately held between index and thumb.


    He eyed the liquid swirling inside and then lightly sipped it. Being his size a sip meant the entire cup was gone in one sip, but he did intend to sip it, and that was what counted.


    He felt the hot liquid go down and warm him, it tasted pretty good, almost tangy. He glanced up at Opal, she was gulping at the cup, holding it in both hands, tipping it back and swallowing again and again as she drank the whole thing. He raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°I don''t think that''s how you are meant to drink tea Opal.¡±


    She let out a sigh as she finished and wiped a few remaining drips from her mouth with the back of her hand. ¡°It¡¯s how a Gobbo drinks it, s¡¯better than some levelers way.¡±


    She swiftly grabbed the cups and poured more from the teapot.


    Rain watched then tugged at his shirt uncomfortably. ¡°Is it getting a little warm in here or is it just me?¡± He wondered if wearing clothing over fur was finally catching up with him,


    He caught a mischievous smirk on the Goblin¡¯s face before she quickly smothered it. he narrowed his eyes.


    ¡°N-no, it feels just fine in here! Totally normal!¡±


    She pushed a freshly poured cup of tea across the table.


    ¡°Hmmm.¡±


    Maybe the warmth was his imagination. He carefully took the teacup and lifted it to his lips and sipped it in one go again. This time he sensed something was definitely wrong. He felt warm and tense, his body tingling like his blood was up, his fur started to raise as the heat descended, down past his core and centering on his groin, rapidly blooming and spreading. He blinked and glanced down to see a defined bulge creeping along the inner thigh of his shorts, his length pouring from his sheath unprompted.


    ¡°What was in that tea that you¡­you ...¡± he stumbled on his words as he glanced up to find Opal wiggling in her seat, her breath coming in huffs, her face flushed, a line of drool was running down her chin from her lip. She gave him a starved look and swallowed, then her eyes alight with something akin to madness she stood and grabbed the teapot, lifted it up, and began chugging.


    Rain stared, one paw half lifted to stop her, already too late. The Goblin gulped and the last of the tea was gone.


    She slammed the teapot back down on the table with a bang, her hand trembling. Then she nearly fell over, having to brace herself against the table as her wide brimmed hat fell from her head.


    ¡°HNyyyaaaahhh, gawwwwddddsss!¡±


    Her knees turned inward and her legs shook violently.


    Rain''s ears twitched as he heard the sound of fluids noisily splattering against the ground and his eyes were drawn to the front of her long white skirt where splotches of wetness were slowly spreading across the cloth. Her hands clutched at the fabric desperately as her mouth opened and her eyes rolled up, a long lush moan slipping from her lips as she trembled.


    She turned desperate eyes on Rain as her climax came to an end.


    ¡°R-Rain! It¡¯s so-! So-! P-please without you I¡¯m gonna die, I¡¯m- I¡¯m- I need you in meeee!¡±


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 71 (R-18)

    Opal stumbled forward, half falling half climbing on top of the coffee table, knocking aside teacups and teapots as she did so. Her breath was coming in hurried gasps and her whole body shook like a leaf as she crawled toward Rain.


    She reached out a hand for him, a heated lust in her eyes and grabbed hold of his still outstretched paw, clutching at him.


    "H-aah... I- I think I overdid, it w-with the tea, j-just a little.¡±


    She pulled his paw close and pressed it up against her face, her small hands not large enough to cover a single paw pad, her breath ruffling his fur. Then glancing up at him with half lidded eyes she pushed down, making him bring his paw down to her crotch where she ground herself into him, the fabric of the dress pressing up between her legs. Rain could feel her, her softness, and more importantly her burning heat and sloppy wetness. She gasped as her clit dragged against the fabric of the dress stretched over his pads.


    ¡°Th-this is s-so m-much stronger th-than I e-expected!¡± she mewled as she curled over him, her hand grabbing at his forearm to support herself even as she ground herself harder and harder into his digits, frantically humping.


    Rain glanced down as he felt himself grow harder, the stitches of his shorts looking near ready to burst, stressed to the point that could see flashes of pink in a few pinhole seams of the strained fabric.


    ¡°You put something in the tea without telling me.¡±


    ¡°N-not in, th-the t-tea itself was an afro-dee-ziak, Fuuu- hnnnnaahhhh!¡±


    Opal shuddered and a fresh wash of fluid sprayed from her puss, drenching the dress pressed up against her and sending rivulets of herself rolling down Rain¡¯s paws soaking his fur and pitter-pattering onto the table below. She fell forward, clutching at his arm, allowing herself to be supported by him, her face pressed into his bicep.


    Rain narrowed his eyes. This would not do.


    Fast as lightning he ripped his paw from her crotch, caught her around the neck, and slammed her down against the table. Bringing his face close, his head massively outsizing her, he opened his mouth and snarled. She looked up at him with big round eyes.


    ¡°You tried to drug me? You? What made you think I would let you get away with this without an answer? Without rough, savage, punishment?¡±


    Opal let out a long low whine and squirmed in his unrelenting grip, her hips wiggling around beneath him.


    ¡°P-p-punishment?¡±


    Rain remained silent, he didn''t say a word, and she felt that all the more. He ran his paw down from her neck, onto her blouse which was rising up and down rapidly as she hyperventilated, over her chest where the fabric tented in lines between her stiff nipples, then down onto her abdomen, shifting as she arched her back up into him, then lower still to the hem of her dress, his thumb pad pressing at her stomach just above her mons.


    He glanced up at her and found her staring intently at what he was doing, biting her lip hard enough to near draw blood.


    He snorted and suddenly grabbed hold of her legs, one in each paw. He roughly pulled them up in the air, then grabbing at her dress he dragged it down, down past her knees then thighs and then bunching it up over her hips and waist.


    Her legs kicked at the air as he moved down to inspect her. She was wearing slim panties, although they were clearly much darker than they had been when she had first put them on, thoroughly soaked through with her wetness. He could see her clit poking out against the fabric a small bump above where the wetted cloth clung tightly to her quivering swollen folds.


    ¡°Wh-what are you-¡±


    He gripped her thighs and pushed them up and to the side, giving room for his head and silencing her with a squeak. He lowered himself and then peeked his tongue free and gently ever so carefully, as carefully as he had lifted the teacup, he touched the tip up against the sopping cloth.


    ¡°Oh! oHHH!¡±


    He could feel her contracting beneath his touch, her insides crying out to be filled. Not yet. He ran his tongue up, feeling all the contours of her puss that the soaked fabric described, tasting her, up and up until the small bud of her clit was rolling past against the granular friction of his rough tongue.


    ¡°HNNYAAA!!!!!¡±


    Her legs crashed up against the sides of his head, clutching him as she thrust her hips into the air, shoving her groin into him, grinding herself up against his tongue, once, twice, and then with a full body shudder, fluid burbled through the fabric, coming in sputters. Rain put his lips to her muff and slurped her emissions, his teeth glancing against her clit, then pushing into it as the Goblin rolled into her second sloppy squirting orgasm and she positively sprayed into his mouth, her hands darting between her thighs to grab at Rain''s ears.


    ¡°Yes! YES! Fffffuuuu-¡±


    Rain snarled and twisted his head, ripping free from her desperately clenching thighs, knocking her legs aside, dashing her hands away. He grabbed both her wrists in one paw and slammed them down on the coffee table above her head.


    Opal¡¯s eyes rolled up as he loomed over her.


    ¡°I didn''t say you could cum. You¡¯ve just made things ten times worse for yourself.¡±


    ¡°N-Nuu!¡±


    He flicked a claw down to the hem of his shorts and after a few deft plucks of his claws tugged open a button. Opal stared down at the massive bulge, easily over a foot in length, then up at the fat knot pushing apart the buttons as he pushed down his the fabric down, slowly revealing more and more of his length, it just didn''t stop, and the longer it went on the higher Opal¡¯s breathing rose. She swallowed and gasped noisily as the hem descended further, and then, at last, his rigid length swung free. It was daunting in its size and larger than she had ever seen, over fourteen inches of dick throbbing heavy thanks to her special tea. Her breath caught as he moved it over her and pressed down, lying the massive thing over her belly, the burning heat of his length touching up against her trembling abdomen, reaching from her crotch a frightening distance up her torso.


    She couldn''t help herself, just it being this near, touching, she arched her back and cried out as the sound of fluid filled the air once more, Rain''s shorts darkening with wet.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m S-sorry! Th-the tea! I- I can''t h-help eeet!


    ¡°I think this is all you actually, you just can¡¯t help yourself, you love my size.¡±


    Rain wrapped his claws around her bunched up dress, then he ripped his paw to the side, then again, and again, the dress was swiftly shredded apart leaving a rag of white cloth around her hips and fully exposing her legs and hips.


    He drew back, his heavy length sliding down her blouse leaving a long trail of precum in its wake until it thudded down against the table just in front of her muff which was now only defended by her thin soaked panties.


    A claw moved and carefully hooked at the edge until he caught at the fabric, then, agonisingly slowly, he pulled and her soaked through panties peeled away from her pussy, stickily lifting away from her skin and exposing her steaming muff to the air, her cute pink clit peeking in and out from its hood as her puss trembled naked out in the open.


    He pulled and her panties strained and then they tore and Opal was left entirely defenceless and vulnerable.


    ¡°I''m going to claim you, Opal. You know that right? There¡¯s going to be nothing left of you, just a limp sleeve, ruined and mindless.¡±


    She squeaked hearing that and squirmed in his grip.


    He leaned in, adjusting his hips and brought himself toward her until he was pushing up against her entrance, he could feel the hungry heat of her just from that, the way she strained and clenched, desperate to have him inside of her, filling her, stretching her. He paused and watched as she tried to push herself down upon him, but was only left frustrated as he held her.


    ¡°P-please! P-please fuck me! FUcking fuck me Rain, I¡¯ll do anything! J-just p-put it inside me! Break me! Rut meeeee!¡±


    Rain gravelled a laugh like distant thunder, then, he pushed in.


    Her muff squashed down under his immensity, then began to gradually give until with a lurch and lurid wet sound he slipped inside of her. Easier than expected. He blinked and looked down at the Goblin writhing in his grasp. A side effect of the tea? He sawed his hips in and her labia engulfed more and more of his massive length, inches and inches until he watched with satisfaction as her blouse began to slightly push out, her stomach pressing outward as he bulged her insides out, the cloth parting between the buttons in diamond shapes revealing her taut stretched stomach skin beneath. He sank himself deep, bulging her tiny frame out with his monstrous girth.


    ¡°M-MOre!¡±


    Rain agreed, but he needed more room between her legs. He grabbed hold of her ankle and pressed it up moving it above her hip. She was surprisingly flexible. Then he moved his hips back slightly, her twitching convulsing puss clinging to him, before he slid back in, pushing more and more of his massiveness into her.


    He began to saw his length back and forth in long lunging strokes, stretching her wide around himself over and over, her puss so tight around his length that each removal produced the sloppiest wet sucking sounds. He sawed back into her, eagerly watching as more and more of her blouse stretched out, rising up her tummy, as more and more of him entered her, filling her.


    Faster and faster he sawed into her, plunging his hips up and down into a wailing shrieking Opal, hair flying across her face as she screamed and howled, each motion pushing her to new heights as the tea made her impossibly sensitive.


    With each plunge she was creaming herself now, each hump forward producing a spray of her juices, splashing over Rain''s length and wetting his knot. Squirt slurked from her lower lips every time he thrust, high pressure fluid shooting off in thin sprays to sprinkle over his clothing and fur, she was just so sloppy wet that it was unavoidable. He didn''t mind, in fact he just went harder, slam fucking her messy puss until his bulbous knot was crashing up against her folds, threatening to pop inside over and over. He even made it part way at one point, her cunt yawning wide to take the massive thing before he pulled back, letting her overtaxed lips slap back onto his length as he continued to fuck her in long powerful rhythmic strokes that maximised the scraping of her nerve clusters. Opal was helpless to it, falling deeper into mindless depravity as the combination of the tea and Rain¡¯s treatment of her kept her in a state of ever-increasing chain orgasm.


    He didn''t stop, only accelerating, roughly using the Goblin, fucking her harder and harder until with a splintering crunch the table gave way beneath them, crashing to the ground.


    His knot fully slammed up against her puss with the drop, squashing her clit into its hood, part pushing inside before popping back out. Opal¡¯s pussy went mad, convulsing along his length, clenching down desperately as she gushed over his knot, squirting so hard that wet sprayed up in a line from her puss over his shirt.


    ¡°HNYYAAAAAAAA!!!!¡±


    He snapped his teeth at the air beside her head as she wailed, her eyes wide, pupils dancing.


    ¡°You''re going to take all of me now.¡±


    Without hesitation he lifted her and rammed her onto the sofa, still inside her, slamming her hands roughly up against the back and then he continued to fuck her, bucking his hips into the Goblin girl over and over and over, stretching her blouse to breaking point, her legs kicking at the air as he pistoned, his fat knot slamming brutally up against her swollen reddened muff.


    ¡°YES! B-breeeed meee!¡±


    And he did.


    A lot.


    He snarled and forced himself forward, his hips pressing into her, his knot squeezing up against her puss, until with a loud sloppy wet SCHL-POP! He finally fully slipped inside of her.


    The sofa immediately collapsed as he slammed home, and they crashed down to the ground once more as Rain Exploded into Opal, great hosing ropes of cum spraying down her insides as her voice rose higher and higher in pitch into a wailing stilted scream, her head thrown back in ecstasy.


    ¡°YesSss¡­ YesSSsShhh! AIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!¡±


    Her belly swelled outward with each rope, her tummy growing as she was filled, pressing up against her blouse, staining the buttons, puckering diamonds between them until with a snap! The first button broke, pinging off into the air to bounce of Rain''s chest as more and more buttons followed, losing the battle against the Goblin¡¯s cum tummy which wobbled dangerously as she burst from her blouse, expanding, a sleek arcing curve going from her breasts down to her mons marking her massive filling.


    ¡°G-Guh¡­ Godss!¡± Opal mewled, still clamping down on Rain like a sopping vice, more and more being pumping into her, ¡°It¡¯s¡­ too much!¡±


    Rain came and came, filling her to the brim and then some, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth surge, it seemed like it would never end until at last he let out a shivering snarl and came his last.


    He finished, and then he slumped atop her, still firmly inside of her.


    They remained as they were for a moment, just breathing, basking in the afterglow, unbelievably satisfied.


    ¡°You really like pushing things don¡¯t you? Taking things that much further, that tea...was...¡± breathed Rain between heavy breaths.


    ¡°And you dislike it?¡±


    ¡°...No. No I do not. You?¡±


    ¡°You have your baths, I like this.¡± she wiggled her hips up against his, the two still firmly locked together as one, hearts beating in time.


    They stayed like that for what felt like forever but was perhaps only five minutes, just resting in the afterglow, their excited breath slowly calming.


    -----


    ...And then a voice spoke up.


    ¡°Hello? We have your master.¡±


    Rain jerked, his head snapping to the side, left, right, searching, but there was no one there. They were alone.


    ¡°Where are they?¡± he whispered, his hackles rising. Opal blinked up at him in confusion.


    ¡°Is this thing working?¡± came the voice again.


    ¡°Look I told you you have to hold the button let m-¡±


    Rain paused and furrowed his brow, what was this? He spoke aloud, ¡°Who is there? Where are you?¡±


    There was a moment of silence then the voice returned.


    ¡°It doesn''t understand, of course it doesn''t.¡±


    ¡°Well explain things then!¡±


    ¡°I am, give me a damned moment.¡±


    The voice cleared its throat.


    ¡°We¡¯re standing out the front of the manse, the Ranker has a magical device that allows for visitors to speak within without entering, quite good magic too, if limited.¡±


    Rain blinked. This wasn''t good. Wait, what was it they had said about master?


    ¡°What do you mean by master?¡±


    ¡°Well it is as I said, we have your master, the erstwhile half-elf half-woollie. Suffice to say we will be executing her unless you come with us right now to see the council, this is a serious matter. Your master has verbally ordered you to come, by the way, so know that whatever power she has over you is still in effect.¡±


    Rain¡¯s eyes widened. They had Lyra, this was bad, very very bad. He glanced down at Opal. He was still inside of her, and hopelessly trapped. He shifted his hips and the Goblin was dragged back with them, his knot deeply embedded inside of her and it wouldn''t be deflating for at least half an hour, probably significantly longer considering the tea.


    They were stuck.


    He caught Opal looking up at him, her hair a sweaty mess. She bit her lip, understanding clear in her expression.


    ¡°You¡¯re just gonna have to take me with you like this.¡±


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 72

    ¡°Absolutely no way, not happening.¡±


    Opal wiggled her hips, still hopelessly stuck on him. ¡°You don¡¯t have much of a choice wolfy. You gonna let Lyra be executed? You promised to protect her, remember?¡±


    Rain growled causing Opal to let out a squeak.


    ¡°H-hey vibrations! I¡¯m s-sensitive after all that!¡±


    He settled himself, it wasn''t easy due to how awkward their position was, Rain was on his side atop the collapsed sofa, Opal facing him, her arms embracing his chest, her head tilted back looking up at him with one eyebrow raised.


    ¡°How can I possibly go into town to save her like- like this!¡±


    ¡°Monsters feel no shame?¡±


    ¡°Monsters absolutely feel shame, walking around in public right in the open with you, with me inside-¡± Rain sighed and put his paw over his eyes. What even was this situation? He hadn''t even considered that this could be an issue, apparently he hadn''t quite adjusted to everything that his monster body entailed. He was coming to regret letting Opal have her way with the tea.


    ¡°Aww is wolfy scared of a few pervs looking at us?¡±


    ¡°Red peeking at us is one thing, walking through town with hundreds of people looking at us like this entirely another. I¡¯m not interested in being an- an exhibitionist even if you are.¡±


    Opal pouted in an annoyingly cute way. ¡°Top Gobbos fuck in public sometimes, to show their dominance, nobody cares.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s different okay, I- It just is!¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯re a monster now, you walk around naked most of the time!¡± She ran her hands over his chest and gripped a handful of his fur in her fists. ¡°Lyra has seen you more naked than she has seen you clothed.¡±


    ¡°Fur. Fur is like clothes.¡±


    ¡°Mmmm is it though? You still aren¡¯t actually wearing anything.¡±


    ¡°I-¡±


    Rain was interrupted from their argument by the return of the voices.


    ¡°Monster, if you do not come out immediately we will take that as a refusal of our demands. We¡¯re not waiting around!¡±


    ¡°C¡¯mon, screw this, let¡¯s go back, my girls will have finished packing by now.¡±


    Now Rain was listening more carefully he was able to locate the direction the sound was coming from. A small statue of what appeared to be the original Ranker of Lynthia was set atop a side cupboard. Rain recognised the figure from a number of similar ones in town, including one he had destroyed in the process of hunting- fighting Adlen.


    He raised his voice to be heard. ¡°I will come with you.¡±


    ¡°It said it''s coming right?¡±


    ¡°Shit. Alright, fine.¡±


    Came the reply from the statue.


    Rain glanced back down at Opal who was happily rubbing her face into his chest and scowled. He couldn''t let Lyra be killed, he had made a promise, so he needed to think of something to avoid being stared at, walking through town with a half-naked Goblin on his- well it didn''t bear thinking about. He might be a monster now but that was not something his Human side would put up with.


    His gaze slid from Opal¡¯s black hair to the coat he was still wearing. Maybe¡­


    With difficulty he shifted, awkwardly shuffling free from the collapsed sofa on his knees and then climbing to his feet, his paws wrapped around Opal¡¯s rear to keep her steady. She let out soft little moans as he moved and shifted inside of her. Then he slowly removed his paws one after the other letting Opal rest entirely on his length. She grabbed at him as she started to move, wrapping her arms around his chest and her legs around his hips, pressing her cum filled belly against his front, it radiated so much heat he could feel it through his fur.


    He was now standing with a Goblin girl attached to his front.


    In his opinion, he looked absolutely ridiculous.


    ¡°It¡¯s like I¡¯m clothes,¡± muttered Opal. It was difficult to hear her with so much fur in her face.


    ¡°You¡¯re not clothes, and don''t get any weird ideas from this.¡±


    He set his jaw and grabbed for the edges of his coat, bringing them together to hide the Goblin. He paused as he realised he had another obstacle. Buttons. He fiddled desperately with them, his too big claws trying to hold one side steady while he nudged the button in. After several failed attempts, and his increasing frustration, a small hand reached out and helped him aim. This time things went quickly and he soon had the coat buttoned up.


    He looked down. The result wasn¡¯t... awful. The size of the coat helped hide Opal¡¯s shape and as he tried hunching forward slightly he found that it helped hide her even better.


    ¡°This could work. It¡¯s not too noticeable and if anyone does spot anything I doubt they will realise just what is happening.¡±


    ¡°Boo.¡± said Opal, her voice muffled behind the coat.


    ¡°You¡¯re just going to have to deal with not getting to expose yourself.¡±


    ¡°At least you can walk fuck me,¡± murmured the goblin so quietly that Rain missed it.


    He turned and glanced toward the statue, it hadn''t replied again, he hoped the pair were still outside or he would have to run after them to catch up. He didn''t think that would end well for Opal.


    He made his way through the mansion, it didn''t take long as there was more or less a direct path through it to the front door that he had made in his hunger induced madness. The mansion wasn¡¯t exactly doing well, the original battle combined with his smashing of walls and Adlen¡¯s enchanted spear had made it so every single room in the place had seen at least some damage, scattered rubble across the floor, fallen plaster, shattered timber and furniture. He imagined the Ranker would be exceptionally upset with what had been done. The thought almost made him smile.


    The front door was as it was, mostly. He had replaced the doors and while they did look quite ragged they were still functional. He placed a paw on the handle and pushed through into the open. Outside in the warm sunlight were two human men, clearly guards. They were hunched over a small statue that was recessed in an alcove of the wall to the side of the door. One was prodding it with a gauntletted finger.


    ¡°See, I told you it wasn¡¯t any good, you shouldn''t have moved it, you disconnected it from the mansion¡¯s enchantments, now it¡¯s bloody useless.¡±


    ¡°Wha- what do you mean useless? You told me to fix it! Oh gods the Ranker is going  kill us for this!¡±


    ¡°How¡¯s he going to know who did it?¡± The guard who spoke had a toothpick in his mouth and shifted it to his other cheek as though formulating his thoughts. ¡°He¡¯s stuck in the dungeon with ole¡¯ Inquisi-bitch. By the time he comes out we¡¯ll be long gone and anyways even if we were still ¡®ere hows he gonna know it was us?¡±


    ¡°Shh! Don¡¯t say that!¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°The Inquisitor, don''t say her name like that!¡±


    The guard with a pick rolled his eyes.


    ¡°Ah, you''re one of those.¡±


    ¡°You haven¡¯t heard what I¡¯ve heard, if you did you¡¯d be scared too.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah? Like what?¡±


    ¡°Some fool was caught peeking at her in her private baths and then she ripped it off and made him eat it! She made him chew!¡±


    ¡°Ripped what off? What are you saying?¡±


    ¡°His d-


    Rain coughed politely into his paw which of course came out very loud due to his size. The pair of men nearly leapt out of their skin, flipping around like scared hares and in the same motion drawing swords.


    ¡°Blood and thunder what the hell is that?!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s- the- the wolf monster, b-but they didn''t say-


    ¡°How fucking huge¡­ G-gods.¡±


    Rain looked between the two, they were pressed up against the wall with blades held out in front, staring in terror.


    ¡°Hello.¡± said Rain. The two flinched as though he had just threatened them with their lives.


    ¡°H-hi?¡± said the one who had been fixing the statue. He had long brown hair that kept getting in his eyes.


    ¡°Take me to Lyra. If you have hurt her you will regret it.¡±


    The long haired one swallowed, his throat bobbing violently. ¡°W-we can d-do that, b-but i¡¯m just doing as ordered! N-nothing to do with anything that may or may not have happened to the sheep!¡±


    ¡°Are you saying something happened?¡± said Rain, taking a threatening step forward. The guard near wet himself and shrank back down against the wall, his sword wobbling wildly in his hands.


    ¡°Ah, n-no, monster. She is fine as far as we know,¡± said the one with the pick.


    Rain grumbled in reply then looked at them expectantly. After a moment they realised he was waiting for them to move and hesitantly they began to step away from the mansion, albeit while constantly looking over their shoulders at him, and still keeping their swords firmly in hand.


    They left through the front gates and emerged out into the forest. Instead of leading them along the path he usually took to get to town the two guards diverged onto a smaller one. The reason why soon became clear, they emerged out onto the main road going into Lynthia. It was packed with traffic, hundreds of caravans and carts and wagons, anything on wheels really. It seemed as though most of Lynthia was on the move.


    He glanced down at the two guards. Why they had come here as soon as possible wasn¡¯t hard to figure out. He doubted the two guards wanted to be alone in the woods with a giant wolf monster, being seen by so many on the road at least provided some semblance of protection, what he couldn''t figure out was why there was so much traffic in the first place, it made no sense.


    ¡°What is this?¡± he growled.


    The two guards looked up at him warily. They had become ever so slightly more comfortable around him as they had walked, discovering that the wolf monster wasn¡¯t going to immediately attack them.


    The one with long hair cleared his throat. ¡°It¡¯s the succubus. Anyone with any common sense is getting out of town as soon as possible. It¡¯s not worth the risk of staying in a town with an active succubus in it, it¡¯s just too risky.¡±


    Rain blinked. Erin? This was all for fear of Erin? He wondered if the succubus was even still in Lynthia, or hell, even alive. What he had somehow done to her he had a feeling would be long lasting, if not permanent, she would certainly have gone somewhere to hide and lick her wounds. She was a threat, one to him especially, but apparently she was just as much of a threat to the entire town. Lyra was right, levelers did seem to have an especial reaction to Succubi.


    ¡°Why? Why are they so afraid of Eri- this succubus that they have to leave town entirely?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡±


    Rain glared at him and he quailed.


    ¡°R-right. Succubuses who have drained a certain number of people are incredibly difficult to kill. They have been known to overcome and defeat even the highest of levelers, and that''s the scary part, once they beat a strong leveler they often drain them dry and become even more powerful.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard stories-


    ¡°You and your stories,¡± muttered the one with the toothpick, shuffling it around in his mouth but still clearly listening carefully.


    ¡°It¡¯s true okay, you, you don''t know, it happens sometimes, if rarely. There are towns up in the mountains that don''t see much contact with the outside world so no one realises what¡¯s happening. Some intercity caravan comes around eventually and they find the place a husk, all the people drained into mindless soulless levelless things with greyed skin and unseeing eyes and sitting atop it all a satisfied succubus greedy for her next meal, ready to descend on the next town and drain it dry, everyone gone until she is unstoppable.¡±


    ¡°Why don''t they put a stop to it before it becomes unstoppable then?¡± said Rain furrowing his brow. This was more than he had ever learned about succubi in his previous life.


    ¡°Because they are so hard to kill! They have regeneration like you wouldn''t believe, the more they drain the stronger their regeneration! You don''t stop them by throwing lots of weaker levelers at them, that''s just feeding them, you need to bring in the big guys, the strongest levelers to crush them before they grow too powerful.¡±


    Rain was painfully familiar with the regeneration he spoke of.


    The one with a pick pulled it from his lip and spoke. ¡°That¡¯s why the council isn''t too fussed about people leaving. If all the small fry are gone then it reduces the speed with which she can grow in power. Gives time for some cocky over leveled city dweller to come by and put a stop to it... Or for the Inquisitor to be done with the dungeon.¡±


    Rain mused. ¡°What if one does become too powerful? So powerful that they can''t be killed?¡±


    ¡°Well that¡¯s one of the reasons we are ruled by the Queen, isn¡¯t it? Worst comes to worst she can put a stop to it personally.¡±


    He couldn''t argue with that.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 73

    They walked in silence for a time. Rain was forced to walk on the side of the road as the number of people on the road increased, not because there wasn¡¯t enough room, but because his looming presence was causing a commotion, especially amongst the small number of horses and livestock pulling wagons. Apparently he hadn¡¯t quite emptied Lynthia of animals, there were a few that had avoided his attention through luck or location, although it was clear they were still lacking as many carts had people pulling them rather than animals.


    He felt Opal shift, she was holding up surprisingly well, although the occasional happy little moan suggested she might be holding up a little more than just well.


    They headed against the flow of traffic, many eyes following them, mostly on Rain, watching warily, jittery. The succubus had clearly set the town on edge and seeing Rain wasn¡¯t helping matters in the slightest.


    The two guards with him were able to get him by the gates without too much trouble, despite being ram-packed with people, they called out and the other guards helped clear a spot for Rain to get through. Inside was just as busy, but with every step he took it became less so, the focus of everyone inside town was just to get out the gate as quickly as possible so it was obviously going to be crowded, but the rest of the town had been cleared out, people leaving as soon as they could and the streets he padded down felt uncomfortably abandoned. It wasn¡¯t the emptiness, it was the discarded items people had dropped in their panicked flight. A hat here, a doll there, someone¡¯s luggage broken open, clothing strewn across the ground, a cart on its side. It felt desolate and Rain found he did not like it, Lynthia had been his home however awful a home it had been and it was weird seeing it like this.


    He soon realised their destination judging by the direction and his knowledge of the streets and waited patiently for it to come into view.


    A large building with a huge front designed to impress marked with tall pillars and pointed arches. It was the town hall, the home of the town¡¯s council, the authority below the Ranker. The Ranker ruled all, but the town council saw more to the day to day management of the town that the Ranker had no interest in.


    This place was just as empty as the rest of town, a breeze blowing a lonely scrap of cloth across the paving the only movement, that is apart from the two people standing on the steps. He recognised one of them and he raised an eyebrow in question. Before he could get an answer however the two guards came to a halt.


    ¡°You¡¯ll, uh, find your master in there monster. Just remember we had nuffin to do with whatevers been done to her.¡±


    ¡°I thought you said nothing has been done to her.¡±


    ¡°Y-yes, to the best of our knowledge, just don''t come after us or anything okay? I¡¯ve got nothing to do with this, and soon nothing to do with Lynthia, I¡¯m leaving with everybody else.¡±


    The one with a pick nodded. ¡°A succubus and a giant wolf? Naw you''re right it''s too much. I¡¯m off too. Hope you cause trouble for them council fucks, they no doubt had something to do with this succubus in the first place.¡±


    He flicked the pick from his mouth sending it bouncing along the cobble then without a second glance turned on his heel and strode off, younger guard in tow. Rain watched them go then turned to the town hall.


    That red haired Elf was there, the one who had been bothering Lyra. He felt he understood why and how Lyra had been captured a bit better. That Elf had had intentions for Lyra from the very start.


    He strode up the steps, the Elf watching him with contempt. That expression becoming a little less contemptuous and a little more alarmed as he drew near and their height difference became more obvious.


    He looked down at the elf.


    ¡°Where is she.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re looking for your master. A mindless dog scenting its owner I suppose, you¡¯ll find we have her in our possession.¡± He attempted to look down his nose at Rain, he didn''t have much success, Rain¡¯s height meant he had to lean so far back that he looked slightly ridiculous. ¡°No doubt you will suffer if she dies as you are clearly thralled to her so don''t get any ideas.¡±


    The rotund woman beside him gently fanned her face, comfortable in the sun despite the dress she wore. Rain had to take what she was wearing in twice because it was remarkably similar to what Opal was wearing. He supposed it must be some kind of high leveler fashion. He did think Opal wore the dress better than the Human woman, though he doubted she would appreciate hearing that.


    ¡°You can think what you like. Show me where she is.¡±


    ¡°Now, now, you great brute. Our parties must first become acquainted before we can come to some amicable agreement.¡±


    Rain blinked, so did the Elf. The Elf opened his mouth, then something akin to understanding crossed his gaze and he slowly closed it.


    ¡°What is this? I¡¯m not here to make friends, I am here to take back Lyra.


    She fluttered her fan in Rain¡¯s direction ruffling his fur and nodded.


    ¡°You¡¯ll do. Come.¡±


    She turned on her heel and walked away, her heels clicking against the stone as she went.


    Rain and the Elf stared at her back then hurried to follow. They appeared inside the lobby of the townhall and then from there down a corridor. She didn''t pause but pushed through a double door, the Elf hurrying in along beside her. Rain came more slowly, wary of a trap. This was a group of the town¡¯s high levelers, no doubt reduced in number due to recent events but still a massive threat. He had to be extremely careful if he was to save Lyra¡¯s life and make it out himself.


    He pushed at the door and peered inside, not sure what to expect. It was the main hall of the town hall, a meeting room of sorts. A large banquet table was in the center, various foodstuffs scattered along it. More important were the people seated around it. At the head of the table sat the head of the town council, a large fat man with a bald head around which a laurel of wispy white hair held on for dear life. Beside him was a butler who was pouring a drink, rather sloppily judging by the wine stains.


    In the middle of the table a person was wearing full plate armour, his heavy metal boots up on the table as he leaned his chair back on the back two legs, a wide brim feathered hat partially covering his face.


    Opposite them was a priestess, her clothes neatly pressed and folded, not an out of place crease in sight as though she had been carved from marble by an artist who detested naturalism, this carried over to her severe face too which seemed to be set in a permanent frown, although her red eyes and spikey half-inch long eyelashes offset that into something more like anger. In fact Rain was pretty sure the priestess was furious and only holding herself back by a thread of pure will.


    The rotund lady beckoned him over as she paced by the table and he followed, unsure what else to do. He was already a wolf in the lion¡¯s den, there was no point in having second thoughts now.


    He was directed to a long bench by the table and reluctantly took it. The bench lasted all of three seconds before his weight caused it crack and he dropped a few inches. He felt more than heard a muffled scream into his furred chest as Opal came down with him.


    He scowled as the rotund lady put her fan to her mouth and giggled. He adjusted his rear but the bench seemed like it wasn¡¯t going to break further despite the new downward slope toward its middle he had created.


    The sound of the bench breaking seemed to jolt the head councillor awake from his musing. He blinked and then looked over at Rain.


    ¡°Ah, this is the monster you have such a problem with Zack? Big. Probably worth a nice spot of experience if I took it out. You sure of this idea of yours Lixiss?


    The rotund woman hemmed and hawed then nodded. ¡°Yes, you heard the reports, and what we suspect. I want to have this monster help fight the succubus. It hasn''t been done before, and we are short on options, almost all of our strongest are in the dungeon. Desperate times call for-¡±


    ¡°No.¡± said Rain. ¡°I am not fighting the succubus.¡±


    ¡°Why ever not darling? We have your master you know, whatever she holds over you we also now lay claim to.¡±


    ¡°Because I have already fought the succubus and won.¡±


    There was a pregnant pause as the levelers took this shocking claim in, the head councillor choked on his drink and spluttered repeatedly into a napkin that the butler handed him.


    ¡°This is all Bullshit!¡± screamed Zack lurching from his seat.


    ¡°It¡¯s true. We fought and I severely injured her. She fled, I don''t know where.¡±


    The fan drooped in the rotund ladies hand, a swift calculus crossing her gaze, Rain claimed to have defeated the succubus and she had just let this apparently far more powerful than understood monster into the town hall.


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    Zacks¡¯s gaze danced from Rain to Lixiss to the head councillor. ¡°You lied to me, this was no trap! You genuinely intended to try and make this- this barbaric monster thing fight for you! You IDIOTS! You don''t understand, the succubus, that was all a lie! There is no succubus, it¡¯s all this thing¡¯s doing, all of it! It killed all the animals, it killed the cultists, the metal frames in the cultist¡¯s place were for their own purposes, nothing to do with a succubus but you all went along with that slut sheep¡¯s claims without a seconds thought!¡±


    Lixiss rolled her eyes. ¡°Did you really think we learned of the succubus through this Lyra girl? We¡¯ve always known Zack, the Ranker created the cult and had them summon the damned thing, he wanted that demonic creature in town.¡±


    Zack stared at her, a slow fear dawning on him. ¡°You- no, that can''t be, but then¡­ why am I still here? I- we¡¯re in s-so much danger...m-my levels...¡±


    Rain had stopped paying attention to the conversation. His eyes locked onto the wine stains around the head councillor¡¯s cup. Those were not wine stains, and now he was looking he could see a number of red scales scattered amongst the blood.


    Red Kobold Scales.


    A section of the table crunched to splinters under his paw sending a jagged fracture up its length.


    He knew, he just knew they were Red¡¯s. Strangely, he felt a sense of anger, not protective, but possessive. How dare someone harm what was his, take his Kobold. Red was his to keep or to eat, no one else¡¯s, he belonged to him.


    Things were beginning to spiral.


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 Chapter 74

    ?


    Rain¡¯s gaze slowly shifted from the bloodstains to the fat balding head councillor, his eyes luminous yellow with intensity.


    ¡°Why are there Kobold scales on your table? You have until the count of three to answer me.¡±


    ¡°Curious, this sub-sapient monster actually has expectations of us, I have never come across such an impudent beast before. To think it seems to believe it holds sway in any other matter than its death.¡±


    ¡°Er, that¡¯s ah, it might not be such a bad idea to answer the monster this, ah, one time,¡± said Lixiss. She had surreptitiously moved herself away from the table and more importantly further away from Rain. Her hand was holding her fan in a white knuckle grip.


    ¡°One.¡± said Rain, his voice like dark iron. ¡°Tell me what happened. Tell me where Lyra is.¡±


    He felt Opal snuggling up against his chest. ¡°I love it when you¡¯re so commanding,¡± she murmured softly.


    Rain carefully ignored that and continued to stare at the head councillor.


    ¡°Your master is out of your reach monster, there is nothing you can do but submit, lay your head upon the table and wait for our instruction.¡±


    Rain tilted his head to the side.


    ¡°Two.¡±


    The armoured leveler with a wide brim feathered hat abruptly hauled his feet off the table and sat up.


    ¡°Seems to me your plans have crumbled about yonder ears dear leader and I for one would rather be done with this farce sooner rather than later. If you want to sit around talkin¡¯ all day that¡¯s fine by me, but I¡¯ll be taking dibs on all the experience and levels this here monster gives.¡±


    ¡°For once you say something of reason Haldir, to try and use a monster to avoid our current Ranker inflicted situation was folly from the very beginning, the gods would never bless such an endeavour, even against such a creature of raw hellish sin as a succubus. Monsters exist to make us stronger so we may do battle, not to fight our battles for us. You look upon your food and ask it to protect you from demons when one should eat said food and quickly grow strong, anything else is cowardly vice.¡± The priestess seemed like she was letting off a pressure valve as she spoke, as though she had wished to speak on the matter from the start but had been commanded or threatened to hold her tongue.


    The head councillor rubbed some greasy grit from his eye with his index and then rolled it between finger and thumb.


    ¡°It¡¯s not particularly complicated. Would you rather be in front of a succubus, naked and vulnerable to her draining of your precious invaluable levels and life¡¯s work, or would you rather have a sub-sapient meat wall in front of you, actively protecting you from her touch, her kiss.¡±


    This seemed to get a reaction out of the others despite themselves, the priestess shifted uncomfortably before an expression of fury crossed her face.


    ¡°That- That doesn''t matter! The inheritors of the gods gifts should fight for the gods, fight against hell¡¯s demons as the antithesis of the gods, we have a responsibility!¡±


    ¡°Even if that means losing your levels, the gods gift?¡±


    She scowled.


    ¡°If that what must come to be, then so be it,¡± she managed to grit out, although she still visibly paled at the thought.


    As they spoke Zack was becoming more and more agitated, practically vibrating on the spot, his breath accelerating, his eyes dancing between the councillors.


    ¡°Y-you¡¯re all just sitting here so c-calmly, when a succu- when a-!¡± he shook his head as though trying to clear it, his normally perfect hair becoming ruffled, a strand hanging limp across his sweaty face. ¡°She can come and take our fucking levels at any fucking moment! Sucking them away, stealing them, taking them all for herself! My levels!¡±


    His maddened gaze darted to Rain. ¡°She can''t take them all, she can''t, not if I have more, if I have more levels then she can¡¯t take all of them, there would be too many, too many.¡±


    He licked his lip and thrust his hand out to the side. A spray of sparks spat from his palm along with a few dripping globules of something molten. Glowing red material oozed from his skin and then extended into the air, swiftly growing in opposite directions in a long thin sinuous shape until one end capped and the other swelled into a growing magma bulb before bloating out to the side, thinning, arcing, becoming a vicious looking black and orange-red blade, a molten scythe. Zack flipped the scythe around in his palm, lava hissing as it dripped from the edge and splattered across the ground.


    ¡°Now this is more like it,¡± said Haldir with a wide toothy grin. He set his feet and kicked back his chair away from the table, one hand grabbed at something below and he hauled out a large rectangular chest. He rapped his knuckles against it and with a clockwork click the box pulled apart, wooden panels smoothly sliding away.


    As that was happening Zack lunged for Rain, the scythe swinging around in a great arc.


    Rain was quite aware he was in a difficult situation, being surrounded by enemies, and worse, being made especially vulnerable due to having a half naked Goblin girl wrapped around his hips. He needed to cut down on threats swiftly if he was to have any hope of getting out alive and saving Lyra.


    He slammed both paws up against the underside of the table, his biceps bulging, and with a bass roar sent the entire massive hall spanning oaken thing spinning skyward. The vast spread immediately flew in every direction and the air was filled with hundreds of falling objects.


    Zack flinched back as plates and cutlery and food crashed over him and Rain took his chance, launching himself forward, his long arm reaching. Zack tried to move, to shift out of the way, but it was far too late. A massive paw wrapped around his hand and he was dragged right off his feet, his scythe useless up close. Rain¡¯s jaws came down on his shoulder as though it wasn¡¯t even there, instantly snapping together like a steel bear trap. It all happened in only a fraction of a moment and Zack was left stumbling away not quite sure what had just happened.


    He turned his head and looked down, he seemed fine. Then his gaze shifted right and he found his shoulder was just¡­ gone, his boney clavicle sticking from the crater of gore that exposed part of his lung, his pectoral muscle twitching and trying to pull at an arm bone that was no longer there.


    His lip trembled and he fell to his knees, his wide eyed uncomprehending gaze moving to Rain just in time to watch his arm disappear down the wolf monster¡¯s throat.


    ¡°But... my levels?¡±


    Then the table landed on him.


    BOOM. The weight of the thing sent the recently landed plates, cutlery, and food flying into the air once again with the impact.


    Rain was already moving, but Haldir hadn¡¯t been idle. A ballista bolt a yard long ripped through the air with a blast of wind straight on target, the black steel razor head punched through the side of Rain¡¯s coat and went straight out the other side.


    A moment of pure horror crashed over Rain as he looked down. He hadn''t been hit, he would have felt it, but¡­


    Time felt like it slowed to a crawl and his heartbeat became sluggish, almost painful, he raised a paw hesitantly, no, it couldn''t be?


    ¡°...Opal?¡±


    But then his coat shifted and a small head poked out of the hole the bolt had torn and blinked up at him.


    ¡°Hey, that was a close one!¡±


    Time returned to its normal flow and he let out a desperate breath of relief.


    ¡°Oih, look aht thaaat, that wolfs got a Goblin on ¡®im!¡±


    Rain turned his head, his heartbeat racing, this time with white hot fury, his lip lifting in a bone shaking snarl that shimmered the air and sent plates and cutlery vibrating across the flagstones while Opal let out progressively louder and louder squeaks at the sensation.


    Haldir was there, one foot up cockily on a chair, a massively oversized crossbow hanging from straps harnessed around his shoulders, the weapon more like a siege ballista than anything. The tip of the ballista was cast metal, an ornate silver lion, another bolt poking from its open mouth.


    Rain leapt for him, bounding forward.


    Haldir clicked his tongue and the magically empowered winch doubled its speed, pulling back the bow¡¯s metal arms. ¡°Hey, priesty, little help here?!¡±


    A flash of light and a rectangular golden barrier barred Rain¡¯s way. He crashed into it hard, barely having enough time to twist to the side, making it a painful shoulder check rather than a head-on collision and just protecting Opal from being crushed. The impact was jarring and set his teeth on edge, the barrier making a ringing sound like a pure church bell as it was struck. He stumbled backwards, taking a moment to find his balance. As he did so a second barrier flickered to life beside him, then another behind, separate, floating in the air.


    A blindfolded cherub was sitting on the priestesses shoulder. All of the cherub including the blindfold was made out of the same transparent golden material as the barriers. Rain narrowed his eyes and watched as the cherub made shapes with its chubby hands then shrunk down by about an inch in height as another barrier flickered to life, then grew smaller once more as once again a barrier materialised, this time above him.


    Rain reached out for one of the barriers, a rectangle floating in front of him, and curled his paw pads around it, then he set his feet and heaved backwards, digging in and grunting as he leveraged all of his weight to haul on the thing.


    It didn''t move in the slightest. The barrier remained as it was as though nothing was even touching it, no matter how much Rain hauled on it the barrier remained static, immutable, solid.


    ¡°Fool of a monster, you cannot move my barriers.¡±


    Haldir pulled a lever on the side of his ballista with a Ker-chunk and locked the strained taut bow rope into place.


    ¡°Just hold it there while I line this up aye?¡±


    Rain quit trying to pull down the barrier and placed a paw up against it. The thing wasn''t going to be pulled down, and pressing his claws into it didn''t even scratch the surface. It seemed invincible, indestructible, unbreakable.


    He opened his slavering jaws.


    But it wasn''t unbiteable.


    The priestess made an outraged squawk as Rain put his maw around the top corner of the rectangle and brought his jaws together, his teeth pressing up against the transparent golden glow.


    ¡°Wha- what in the gods holy names is that thing doing to my barrier? Such blind stupidity, like a trapped dog gnawing at its binds, pointless, nothing can touch my god given-


    Crunch. Rain ate the barrier. Fractures were sent shooting across its surface, breaking it apart as the section he had just bitten into went down his throat.


    The priestess¡¯s eyes nearly popped out of her head.


    ¡°S-stop that! Stop eating my barrier!¡±


    The cherub on her shoulder let out a groan and clutched at its chest.


    Rain ignored her and continued to devour, the barrier rapidly failing, each fractured section becoming unanchored in space and drifting away. The priestess in a panic thrust out her palm and the cherub on her shoulder mimicked her. The undamaged barriers around Rain started to fade away and the cherub rapidly grew in size.


    That is until Rain ate one more chunk of barrier, swiftly digesting it. The cherub froze up, its growth grinding to a halt and its head snapping down, clearly staring through its blindfold at something inside its transparent body, a mote of darkness.


    Then the cherub began to scream, thrashing in pain, its skin rippling and bubbling.


    Rain¡¯s paw snapped down and wrapped around a long jagged shard of the shattered barrier as the other unbroken barriers around him started to fade into nothing. Without hesitation he leaned backwards and in the same motion twisted his hips, then with a savage snarl torqued his upper body, his paw whipping around, the jagged shard flashing forward. The shard left his pads and slipped through one of the gaps between the fading rectangular barriers, ripping through the air like a terrible golden dart.


    Haldir barely had a moment to draw breath before the shard embedded itself in his chest, cutting through his armour and harness and piercing straight through his heart. A ragged wet gurgle left his lips as he looked down in shock at the thing that had just appeared in him.


    ¡°...b-bloody hell.¡±


    He slumped back dead, his ballista falling against the chair with a crash.


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 Chapter 75

    ?


    Rain barely had a moment to breathe after Haldir collapsed before the entire hall suddenly became a hurricane windstorm, a tornado of deafening air that picked up everything not nailed down, the plates, cutlery, chairs, benches, and anything else becoming so much horizontal hail.


    Rain put his arm over his front protectively even as his fur rippled, whipped around by the howling wind. A small hand poked from his coat and pointed, his eyes followed the pointing finger and quickly found the source of the indoor storm. It was Lixiss, she was floating high above the head councillor, her fan glowing, a tall cylinder of static and unmoving air around them protecting them from the indoor storm. Rain tried to take a step toward her but the wind redoubled and he found himself slowed, having to lean into the wind just to keep from being pushed back, his massive body working against him by giving so much more surface area for the wind to act against.


    Lixiss flicked her fan and a bolt of lightning struck from the ceiling to the ground, blowing apart a metal serving dish hurtling by and sending molten metal splashing. Rain tried to cry out as it landed up his leg, burning into him, but just opening his mouth snatched his breath away. He could barely keep his eyes open having to squint into the painful gale as flying objects continued to hammer against his body.


    A flicker caught his eye and his brow rose as someone danced by, a person wearing a  sharp black suit. It was the butler. The butler danced and leapt through the wind as though it wasn¡¯t even there, every languid motion redirecting the wind across his body allowing him to slip and shift and move in the hurricane, easily dodging any flying debris, really the complete opposite to Rain. The butler darted out of view and Rain gasped silently as a jagged line of agony was cut up his back. He twisted trying to catch the butler in the maelstrom but he slipped away like a leaf in the breeze.


    A second bolt of lightning landed, barely missing him and only by chance being redirected into a cluster of steel cutlery sending a flurry of molten metal hail into the air.


    This was bad, Lixiss had him cornered, the wind making it difficult to move and the butler slowly cutting him apart. The wound he had taken burned in a way he had never felt before and as he blinked a slow fuzziness crept over his body, a feeling of unnatural numbness. What was this? Poison?


    The butler darted forward once more and Rain fell back, trying to use the wind to his advantage, but it was no use, the butler was simply faster, more nimble, more dextrous, and Rain found his reactions sluggish and slow, too slow. The knife slipped by and sliced a path up his arm. He roared in frustration, his paws moving far too unresponsively to catch the nimble butler.


    He couldn''t see a way out, he needed something, anything.


    Then he saw a head pop out of the side of his coat. Opal glanced up at him, that one look communicating all over her intent. He instantly understood, her thoughts clear to him.


    The butler came in for a third cut as brain fog started to descend. This time Rain was not reacting to the butler however so his reaction speed was not a concern. He dove and rolled, his paw snatching at Opal¡¯s waiting hand. Then with a grunt he hauled on the Goblin and with a shriek and a POP! she was ejected from his coat and launched into the air, the wind carrying her, making her go long, her naked legs kicking before she came down with a cry.


    Her bare feet landed, landed on the base of Haldir¡¯s ballista and she rode the entire thing as it skid-pivoted around on the chair, the giga crossbow leaning so hard into the chair it went up on two legs as it spun.


    Opal didn''t hesitate. She slapped a hand down on the trigger with a grin that stretched cheek to cheek, the light of weaponised madness in her eyes.


    The ballista Fired. The entire thing lurching back so hard it knocked Opal into the air once more as the overtaxed arms snapped flat and the titanic bolt exploded forward, the wind and air around it momentarily blasting back in the opposite direction as it carved a line up, up, up.


    The bolt struck Lixiss in the throat, ripping her out of the air and slamming her against one of the halls cross beams as the bolt embedded itself deep. Her hands grasped at the bolt momentarily before the light died in her eyes and she fell limp, her body hanging like some macabre butchers slab from where she was pinned.


    The wind instantly stopped. Hundreds of objects falling out of the air in a racket of falling metal, rattling against the priestess who had created a layered box around herself made out of her barriers. She glared through the transparency, her eyes furious.


    Opal grunted as she landed atop the corpse of Haldir, the jagged shard embedded in his chest sticking up beside her. She wrapped her hands around it and with a heave pulled the long thing free, sending it flipping into the air trailing blood.


    ¡°Rain!¡± she cried out.


    Rain stumbled, everything was becoming a poisoned haze, his thoughts slowed. He could see the butler casually dodging around the falling detritus unbothered by the sheer quantity, then Opal¡¯s voice hit his mind like a bell of clarity and he lifted his paw catching the shard. The butler saw this and suddenly wary of what he was about to do ran behind the layered barrier box the Priestess was hiding in, she watched him as he passed her by then returned her gaze to Rain.


    Rain lifted his arm, ready to throw, no, wait. He blinked, his mind still fuzzy, but not quite fuzzy enough to consider that he would have very little chance of piercing the priestesses barriers just by throwing the thing.


    His gaze drifted over to Opal, she was miming something, lifting her hands to her mouth and ¡­ biting?


    Oh. Rain brought the shard to his mouth and tore into it, quickly biting it apart and swallowing it down.


    The cherub let out a blood-curdling scream as Rain began to digest and motes of darkness spread across its body, then its outer surface began to bubble and swell.


    The priestess grabbed at the cherub and tried to pull it from her shoulder but found it as affixed to her in relative position as the barriers were in the air. The cherub Bulged outward its face distorting into a horrific visage. The priestess screamed, slamming herself against the barriers in a panic, desperate to get away. She could not get away of course. The cherub ballooned, and then it exploded.


    Rain stumbled back as the shockwave hit him, raising his paw to protect from the debris once more sent flying. He rubbed at his ringing ears and blinked to clear his sight.


    The priestess was there, just standing there, swaying slightly, seemingly unharmed.


    ¡°Monster, you will never know peace in this world, for as long as you are a source of levels you will always be ours to take.¡±


    She turned her head revealing what remained of the other side, the cherub had blown off a large section of her face exposing her jaw bone and teeth, her eye socket just gone.


    ¡°The priesthood will come, you are a cause all of your own to make unrelenting war, your continued existence is against what our gods will... I will-...I...¡±


    She suddenly collapsed like a marionette with her strings cut, the horrific injury overcoming her sheer will to stay conscious.


    The hall was devastated, destruction an understatement, the corpses of the levelers strewn throughout, Rain stood at its center, the eye of this storm of ruin.


    He breathed, in and then out, steady, and slowly turned to face the head councillor, still sitting at the end of the room. The butler was there, holding his arm as though injured. The butler was looking the head councillor in the eye.


    ¡°I¡¯m revoking my contract under the best effort clause.¡±


    ¡°Wh-what?!¡± said the councillor, flabbergasted, ¡°B-but we have the damned thing, you¡¯ve already cut it! It¡¯s over!¡±


    ¡°I did, didn''t I? Too bad it doesn''t matter. I can already sense my poisons absorbing into its body, being weakened by some mechanism or other. Continuing down this avenue of attack is folly, I have no real way I can deal with such a monster. Thus I¡¯m afraid that I will be taking my leave. Terribly sorry about all this, that''s just the way things go sometimes.¡±


    ¡°Wait, wait! We can do this together! We can! You just need to overwhelm it with more poison!¡±


    The butler shook his head. ¡°No sir, I do not. If you survive this you may submit a letter of complaint, but for now I must bid you goodbye.¡±


    The butler smartly about-faced and delicately picked his way amongst the debris scattered flagstones, careful not to dirty his shoes. He glanced up at Rain as he passed, Rain himself was in too foggy a state to quite comprehend what was happening although already that was starting to lift.


    ¡°Something tells me that you are worth more than most in levels, so I suspect you won''t be long for this world as a walking treasure ripe to be taken. But if you do last perhaps I will see you again, maybe it is I who will end you, I will certainly be looking into acquiring more... effective poisons.¡±


    Rain slow blinked as the butler calmly passed him by. He wondered if he should do something, he didn''t think he was in any state to catch the nimble butler, he felt far too lead-footed. As it was he watched the butler open the door and simply leave.


    There was, however, something he could do. He turned back to the head councillor to find him shakily climbing from his chair.


    Rain took a step forward. The head councillor paled, his gaze darting from Rain to the many corpses Rain had created. He swallowed nervously.


    ¡°Three.¡± said Rain.


    The head councillor shrieked and dashed away, his fat wobbling dangerously as he sprinted.


    The surge of predatory instinct cut into Rain¡¯s brain fog like a knife, the razor focus of a fleeing prey animal easily sharpening that part of his mind that demanded he move. He bounded forward. He still felt physically numb, and very clumsy, but that certainly wasn''t going to keep him from the hunt.


    The head councillor slammed through the door at the end of the hall and dashed inside. Rain roared and raced after him. He meant to push through the door but ended up shoulder slamming the thing open and breaking it off its hinges as he slumped against the wall. His legs didn''t stop moving and he pushed himself down the corridor grasping at the wall trying to keep his balance. It didn''t matter, he simply powered through, using his strength to brute force any need for balance. His head slammed off the wall and he winced as his foot collided with a side table turning it into kindling. Didn''t matter. The prey was all.


    He reached out, his paw wavering side to side in the air as he struggled to keep himself steady, the head councillor was there, right in front of his claws, he only had to-. The councillor dived into a side room and Rain stumbled to a halt and then had to backtrack a step or so to the door. He hunched down and squeezed through the relatively small doorway.


    He found the room he came out into well lit, a study of sorts with a desk. More importantly, was the large free-standing cage that had been brought in. Its occupants: One red scaled Kobold and one fluffy wooled sheep girl. On the desk was a skull with green flaming eyes. All of them stared at him as he came in.


    Then all of them began yelling and screaming at him. He blinked in confusion, struggling to understand what was happening.


    His gaze landed on the head councillor. He was hunched over the desk, a book out in front of him, frantically scrabbling at an inkpot, desperately trying to unscrew its cap. At last he managed it, the cap sent bouncing, and he snatched up a quill and with wildly shaking hands dipped it. The inkpot was knocked and spilt of course but that didn''t stop him from inking the nib, his hand came down on the paper and it was then that Rain processed the other¡¯s words.


    ¡°STOP HIM! The BOOK!¡±


    ¡°Brute, it¡¯s an Inkerchange! You must prevent this fool-


    ¡°K-kill that scalerotted egg snatcher! He stole all my goooold!¡±


    He didn''t understand why they wanted the councillor stopped but his muddled mind could still feel the urgency. He shot his paws forward enclosing the unaware councillor¡¯s head and in the same motion ripped his arms to the side, muscles bulging, twisting with all the savage explosive force he could apply, instantly snapping the councillor¡¯s neck and every other sinew holding his head in place, shredding everything inside and turning his neck skin into a twisted mince wrapper.


    The head councilor dropped.


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 Chapter 76

    ? Chapter 76:


    Opal set her legs and slowly, very slowly, began to rise. Her thighs were wobbly, her knees and feet turned inward, she trembled as she rose, panting, a rivulet of cum rolling down her inner thigh, leaking from her reddened folds.


    A pleased prideful look crossed her face as she managed to stand.


    That lasted for all of three seconds before her legs gave out and she landed on her rump with a gasp. The impact caused a spurt of boiling hot seed to be squeezed from her puffy muff, splattering noisily across the ground. She groaned, the feeling of being so utterly full of Rain¡¯s masculinity, his incredible output, was a delicious one, she loved it so damned much, the heat alone of what he had left in her after rutting her so - leaving her so -


    Well, it was worth it, even if her present predicament left her legs like jelly. She ran a small hand over the gently arcing curve of her belly, warm to the touch. That was Rain, he had done that to her, leaving her flushed and rosy cheeked, an incredibly satisfied glowing feeling in her core.


    And she did not like letting him out of her sight, she was almost annoyed he had gone bounding off after the last nasty leveler leaving her in the now silent and devastated main hall. Gods knows what trouble he would get himself into without a Gobbo genius like herself to help him, he needed her!


    Thus, she once more set her feet and began to rise, filled with determination, her willpower implacable. This was a war against her own body, a battle against her treacherous legs, one that she was most certainly going to win. They were her legs! How dare they turn into floppy wet rope just because of a little ravishing! ...Okay, admittedly a lot of ravishing, but that wasn¡¯t the point!


    She curled her fists and set her lips in a line, rising higher, higher still, legs desperately trying to fly in every direction as she kept them constrained with an iron will. Gravity was no chain that would bind this Gobbo!


    She fist pumped as she once more made it to standing. She looked around, hoping to find someone, anyone, watching her, an incredibly impressed look on their face at what she had just achieved.


    There was no one there of course, the hall was dead, the ground a sea of smashed plates and cutlery and furniture amongst a slurry of food that had been minced by repeated impact from falls and wind. The occasional island corpse lay amongst the debris, the levelers Rain had crushed and broken with his overwhelmingness, in Opal¡¯s opinion one of his best traits.


    ¡°Damn wolfy,¡± she grumbled, ¡°Where are you? You''re supposed to come pick me up and carry me!¡±


    Finding that her situation was unchanging she made an executive decision. It was time to walk.


    She shuffled a foot forward and found that she didn''t immediately fall over, a promising sign. She shuffled the other and then out a soft little noise as she leaked, a fresh rivulet of white rolling down her inner thigh. She shivered at the feeling, her legs turning further inward as she once more nearly fell.


    No! She bit down on her lip hard and shuffle marched onward, each motion causing more and more cum to slip from her folds until her inner thighs were awash with a tide of white that slopped down to her shins and oozed over her feet and filled between her toes, so much was coming out by this point that a thick string of the stuff was dangling from her lower lips, stickily connecting to her thighs before breaking and forming anew again and again as she shuffled.


    Her eyelids fluttered as a particularly large motion caused several large blobs of the stuff to fall from within her, plap plapping on the floor below, adding to the trail of white she left in her wake. As a scout Gobbo she was a little upset that she was leaving such an easily followable trail, but she was far more upset that she was losing Rain¡¯s wonderful essence.


    At last she made it to the end of the hall and with a sigh of relief slumped against the wall, breathing hard. The journey had been a long one and she was a weary traveller, but she had a road to walk and she would not be deterred.


    At least she now had the wall to help.


    She held herself up by bracing against said wall and stepped into the hallway. Slowly,  leaning heavily, she managed to move forward, even managing to fully lift her feet from the ground with each step, each flick of her toes sending droplets of white across the floor, but she didn''t care, she just wanted to find Rain. This epic journey needed a destination, it needed an end, hopefully one where she fell into his broad arms and maybe she could even find some tea later and then she could get carried in that way again. She had liked that experience, being surrounded by levelers with no idea that she was there, it felt very different from being out in the open with their judging anti-monster eyes on her. Rain being inside her made it all the better, they had no idea what was happening, she could ride him right in front of them and they wouldn''t have a clue! The fools! It was enough to make a small pleased smile cross her face.


    She came to a halt as a doorway broke the line of the wall, an open doorway. Raised voices were coming from within so she carefully peeked around.


    It was Rain and the others. The annoying fluffbutt sheep girl was there, inside some kind of standing cage along with Red, her¡¯s and Rain¡¯s slave. Outrageous that the leveler idiots thought they could take what was theirs without repercussions! Well they certainly received those repercussions and then some, the baldy councillor was quite clearly dead, his neck gruesomely twisted. Not a nice way to die but dying was rarely nice in a dungeon, that''s just how things were in her experience.


    Boner was on the table, his flame eyes sputtering with agitation as they all yelled at Rain. Rain himself looked a little lost, and he rubbed at his eyes as though trying to clear his thoughts of some murkiness or other. It was that slippery black clothed fish of a leveler with a knife that had done that to her wolfy, poisoned him. She set a little note aside in her heart that promised terrible wrathful vengeance for even daring to touch him. If she ever came across that one again she would make him rue the day he set eyes on them, mostly by using lots of sharp metal implements upon his rear end.


    She shivered as the last of Rain¡¯s essence left her leaving her belly flat and smooth once more. Then she shuffled over to a chair and carefully sat herself on it, with appropriate care of course, she was still very sensitive down there. Once that was done she settled in to listen and to try and figure out what everyone was so excited about.


    ¡°Brute, check the Inkerchange, you must understand, this could be putting in me quite a lot of peril.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s right! Quickly read the book! Read it!¡±


    Rain sighed and leaned over the table, trying to focus on the squiggles written across the paper in still wet ink. It was no good, they seemed to shift and move under his gaze, doubling over each other and layering, impossible to grasp, even shaking his head did nothing to clear it. The poison was doing a number on his mind. He strongly suspected the poison would have been deadly in the extreme to anyone else, it was only his unique body that was letting him slowly deal with its effects.


    Instead of continuing to try and work out the squiggly inky mess he turned and took a step toward the cage. Reaching out he wrapped his paws around the bars and then simply ripped the cage in two, the two sides clanging to the ground, broken and bent. A startled sheep girl and Kobold looked up at him.


    ¡°I- I forget sometimes that you are so¡­¡± She bit her lip, but then her eyes darted to the desk and urgency overrode her surprise. She stepped from the cage and quickly scampered over to the book, then she read frantically, eyes dancing, left right left right left right. After a moment she let out a breath of relief, her shoulders slumping. She took a step back and yelped as she ran into the wall that was Rain who had been leaning over her to watch.


    ¡°What is it? What is so important about this book?¡± he gravelled.


    ¡°It¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°Is it the priesthood? Tell me immediately.¡±


    Lyra paused and scowled at Vash. ¡°No it is not, nothing like that, from what I can tell it¡¯s an Inkerchange between the head councillor and the Ranker.¡±


    Rain¡¯s claws twitched and he moved forward abruptly shoving Lyra down in front of him as he leaned over the desk. The sheep girl realised she was currently bent over a desk with a very large male on top of her and went pink, her body language becoming flustered, not sure where to put her hands.


    ¡°Move.¡± said Rain, finding he couldn¡¯t see the book with Lyra blocking the way.


    ¡°H-hey, h-hold, Y-you¡¯re presing m-me up- to th-the- I c-can¡¯t m-move-!¡± not knowing what else to do she grabbed hold of the book and pushed it away from herself then moved her head to the side so Rain could see. Rain leaned in closer, pressing her up against the desk edge, squashing up against her as his thighs pressed her cheeks flat.


    Lyra went brighter pink still, her eyes very round.


    Rain flatly ignored her, concentrating furiously on the handwriting. To his frustration he found he still couldn''t read it, the lettering slipping over the page and making him feel dizzy.


    ¡°Read it to me- tell me what it says Lyra, quickly,¡± he snarled.


    ¡°Y-yes!¡± she managed to squeak out before her hands came down on the book trying to find some semblance of an anchor for her present predicament.


    ¡°It says they¡¯re under attack, that he needs help, then there is an ink splot before he could finish, the moment you killed him I, uh, assume.¡±


    ¡°...Why would writing in this book warn the Ranker?¡±


    ¡°Erm, it¡¯s c-called an Inkerchange, an extremely rare and valuable Artefact that is very difficult to make, I¡¯m shocked to see one outside of a city, even in Florens I have only seen one in my whole life.¡±


    ¡°It is a pair of books that are twinned, intrinsically connected, when one writes in one the handwriting appears in the other and vice versa no matter the distance that separates them. If they are as rare as you say sheep girl then it seems the difficulty in creating them hasn''t changed in the centuries I have been away from the surface world. Back in my day they were a treasure that took exquisite skill to craft.¡±


    ¡°R-right, and the twin to this book is in the possession of the town¡¯s Ranker, he must use it to keep tabs on the head councillor¡­ What a waste...¡±


    ¡°And the priesthood?¡± asked Rain glancing at the skull.


    ¡°Ah, yes. I had concerns that the priesthood might have left such a book in the council¡¯s possession for their own purposes, the priestess-¡±


    ¡°Is dead.¡±


    ¡°-ah, I see that there are upsides to being acquaintances with a brute such as yourself. In any case my concern was with her, she did not react well to my discoverance, it is good to hear that she is now deceased. Levelers, as a rule, do not like the undead, the priesthood takes that to an extreme, if they come after me I would ask that you destroy me, it would be a better fate than to fall into their hands.¡±


    Rain mused on that. ¡°What did the Ranker and the councillor previously speak about using this¡­ Inkerchange?¡±


    Lyra flipped back a page. ¡°There''s mention of an Orc clan moving into the area which the Ranker says to keep an eye on, there are concerns of an attack. Then they talk about the succubus, h-here''s an update on her growth and something about rubies, then the head councillor says that the succubus has been discovered and the town is panicking, the Ranker he, uh, doesn''t seem to care, but the head councillor thinks there might be problems because of the new Inquisitor.¡±


    As they spoke Red had been hauling out draw after draw from the desk, roughly spilling their contents on the floor and rifling through them. He had already found the Dimensional Bag but seemed to be hunting for something else. Frustrated he darted over to the dead councillor and began searching through his clothes. He found what he was looking for and eagerly pulled a key from around the councillor''s neck.


    Lyra flipped through a few more pages, it appeared to be mostly about the succubus with a few notes about the town¡¯s status peppered throughout which the Ranker rarely bothered to reply to.


    She turned back to the page the councillor had been writing on and froze up. A line of ink was appearing on the page in real time. It moved, the ink shifting across the paper. It was handwriting. The Ranker¡¯s handwriting.


    Rain stared at it. The desk groaned as his claws created great gouges across its surface, his hackles rising.


    ¡°Is that who I think it is?¡± he snarled out.


    ¡°Y-y-yes!¡± squeaked out Lyra suddenly terrified. ¡°I-it¡¯s him! He wants to know what¡¯s happening!¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s stuck though,¡± said Opal, her legs casually swinging back and forth below the chair. ¡°He¡¯s trapped in the dungeon like we were with that weird seal on the front door.¡±


    ¡°Uh, that- that¡¯s actually true,¡± muttered Lyra. ¡°So why did the councilor come here?¡±


    Opal shook her head. ¡°Oh that''s easy, baldy here shit his pants in a panic and ran to the only one he thought could stop you, maybe he thought there was a chance the seal would have come down by now.¡±


    ¡°I don''t think it would have,¡± said Lyra, ¡°It¡¯s still too soon.¡±


    ¡°How does any of this help me?¡± said Rain.


    ¡°It doesn''t, it just means that we are safe from h-him.¡±


    Opal tilted her head to the side. ¡°We don''t have to be safe you know.¡±


    Stratothrax


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    hey, two thousand followers! Love you guys  ??

 Chapter 77

    ? Chapter 77:


    ¡°We don''t have to be safe you know.¡±


    Rain narrowed his eyes at the Goblin, ¡°What are you suggesting?¡±


    She grinned almost predatorily. ¡°This is a real chance to kill him, to kill the big bad leveler. To get what you want Rain.¡±


    Lyra yelped as she was thrust forward on the table, the entire desk moving as Rain shifted in agitation.


    ¡°I- I don''t know what you mean Opal, he¡¯s inside the dungeon and we¡¯re out here! It¡¯s better that way! He¡¯s too s-strong!¡±


    ¡°A dungeon with a secret exit that only we know of. Oh and Rain here just destroyed this leveler council thing fighting against him all together, some of their best. I think he can take this Ranker as long as he is alone, especially with my plan for a trap.¡±


    Rain¡¯s eyes glittered with desire. Opal was right, there was a unique opportunity of timing here. His bloodlust for Bane, the Ranker, was roaring in his ears.


    He reached for the spilt inkpot and the quill and dragged them toward the book with his claws, then he lowered his head to be close to Lyra¡¯s, his breath tugging at her hair.


    ¡°Write in the book, copy the handwriting of the councillor.¡±


    Lyra shivered. She felt very small beneath him.


    Hesitantly she picked up the quill. It was still wet with ink.


    ¡°Wh-what do I say? He¡¯s asking about the attack!¡±


    Rain paused, his thoughts were still too much of a poisoned mess to quite articulate what he wanted.


    ¡°Duh,¡± said Opal, rolling her eyes. ¡°Baldy already gave you the answer.¡±


    ¡°He did?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the Orc clan. Tell the Ranker that his mansion is under attack from the Orc clan and that his girls are dying or dead and they are looting his stuff. That¡¯ll make him come running.¡±


    Lyra blinked and then turned to the page. She carefully checked over the councillor¡¯s remarkably sloppy handwriting then lowered the quill and hesitantly began to write.


    After a minute she finished, her breath held, waiting for a reply.


    They waited, tense, quiet, and then fresh ink appeared out of nowhere on the paper, creating letters, tersely worded.


    ¡°He wants to know how we¡¯ll deal with it.¡±


    ¡°Tell him we can¡¯t, we need help from him.¡±


    Lyra bit her lip and began writing once more.


    ¡°How will this ensure he comes alone?¡± gravelled Rain, his gaze locked onto the dancing quill in Lyra¡¯s hand.


    ¡°Hmm, that''s the next part.¡±


    The reply came.


    ¡°H-he seems angry, he demands we deal with it ourselves as he cannot leave the dungeon because of the Inquisitor.¡±


    ¡°Tell him that it¡¯s worse than just Orcs, the succubus is involved and there are some troublesome people about to make moves. The priestess has turned against him, she was never happy with what he was doing¡­¡± She played with a lock of hair, ¡°Even I could tell that.¡± She continued: ¡°Tell him he should come with no one as he doesn''t know who else has come under the priestess¡¯s influence or who is involved.¡±


    Lyra finished writing, the reply didn''t take long and it was angrier still.


    Opal smiled and tapped her chin with her finger. ¡°And now you give him the rope to hang himself with.¡±


    ¡°The secret exit.¡±


    ¡°Exactly.¡±


    ¡°Uh, how do I direct him to that?¡±


    ¡°Draw- nevermind, just pass me the book.¡±


    Lyra seemed quite grateful to be handing the book over to the Goblin girl and eagerly shoved it along the desk where Opal hopped her chair over and reached out for it, settling it in front of her. She grabbed up the quill and began furiously scribbling, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth in concentration. Rain watched carefully as a crude map of the dungeon slowly appeared.


    As Opal was scribbling Red was struggling with a metal door behind Rain. He had his stolen key in claw and was twisting it in a keyhole, clockwise, counterclockwise, clockwise, clockwise once more, just as he had observed the councillor do it. There was a clicking sound and to the Kobold¡¯s delight the door swung open. His eyes lit up at what was inside. Gold, lots and lots of gold, more gold than he had possessed before even as it included both his own and the councillor¡¯s. The hoard Swelled.


    Above the pile of gold was a robe, one that looked suspiciously like the cultist¡¯s robes, except this one was fringed in red and black, clearly something someone important would wear. Red did not care even in the slightest, he was too busy scooping armfuls of wonderful gold into the Dimensional bag.


    Opal finished her map with a flourish and pushed the book back over to Rain and Lyra.


    The reply didn''t take long.


    ¡°He wants to know what the hell this is.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a map.¡±


    ¡°I, ah, think he knows that, I think he means the secret exit.¡±


    ¡°Tell him it¡¯s a recent discovery, something to do with the succubus, keep that part cryptic, but be clear on how to find the switch that opens the door amongst the fungi,¡± said Rain.


    Lyra wrote quickly.


    ¡°He¡¯s coming, he¡¯s really coming, oh gods what have I done!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine sheepy, especially with my trap plan.¡±


    ¡°What is this plan? what do we need to make it happen?¡±


    Opal nodded. ¡°Okay first of all we need a town cave, preferably one close to the surface.¡±


    Lyra and Rain stared at her.


    ¡°... A what now?¡±


    ¡°You know, a town cave, caves in a town, town caves,¡± she gestured with her hand like it was obvious.


    ¡°Oh my gods there are no caves in a town Opal! That¡¯s dungeon thinking!¡±


    Opal looked at her non-plussed.


    ¡°Why wouldn''t there be?¡±


    ¡°Because it¡¯s a town! Town¡¯s don''t have caves! Oh no no no, we¡¯re all gonna die!¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I know this town,¡± said Rain. ¡°There are no caves but there are basements, some quite large and sprawling, that should be near enough for any plan.¡±


    ¡°Okay, come pick me up and show me,¡± she lifted her arms and made grabbing motions for Rain.


    Rain rolled his eyes and at last moved from the desk. Lyra nearly fell over. Her bum almost felt sore from Rain¡¯s carelessness! Being bent over a desk, his vast mass pressing against her, shredding her clothing with his intimidating claws, then holding his prey down, slooowly squeezing his massive throbbing maleness into her-


    She coughed and spluttered into her fist, her cheeks graduating from pink to strawberry red.


    As she struggled to deal with her increasingly dangerous intrusive thoughts Rain grabbed up the goblin girl, pausing as he found her floppy legs coated in a layer of white stuff. Displeased with the state of her he held her wrists in one paw and ripped the remainder of her skirt from her hips then wiped her down as she squirmed and blushed, unable to do anything as he cleaned her, roughly thrusting the rag up between her thighs.


    ¡°This will have to do before we can find a bath.¡±


    She glared daggers at him, but couldn''t stop little noises escaping from her lips as he worked.


    Rain gathered her fully into his arms then turned and was about to head toward the door when he caught sight of Red opening a strange little bag on the floor and then¡­ jumping inside of it.


    Rain nearly fell over in surprise, his feet collided with a chair and the chair was crushed to splinters. He stared round eyed, wondering what the hell had just happened. The Kobold had just vanished into thin air!


    ¡°...What?¡±


    ¡°Oh haha, you uh, didn''t actually know about this I guess¡­¡± said Lyra scratching her cheek. She leant down and scooped up the bag tossing Vash inside in the same motion. The skull did not look particularly pleased about this treatment. ¡°It¡¯s a Dimensional Bag, it can hold more than it looks like on the outside, lots more!¡±


    ¡°Something of the Ranker¡¯s?¡± said Rain, taking a guess. This discovery was making other vaguely recalled things make a lot more sense.


    ¡°Mmhmm! And it¡¯s filled with all his gold too!¡±


    Rain couldn''t complain about that, in fact he was pleased, pleased he was taking once again from the Ranker. This was just a taster to his real vengeance of course and he found he was eager for more, much more, and soon he would have it. He grabbed the head councillor¡¯s body in passing and dragged him behind him as he walked.


    Rain squeezed through the doorway back out into the hallway. As he stepped down it Lyra let out a yelp behind him. He turned to find her sitting on her rump on the ground, a pool of white stuff around her. She blinked and moved her hooves, they slid around in the stuff, slippery beneath her. She brought up her hand to her face in confusion, parting her fingers dozens of strings of the stuff stretched between her fingers.


    ¡°What is this stuff?¡±


    ¡°Oh it¡¯s paint,¡± said Opal. ¡°Just some paint that someone dropped. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    Lyra brought it closer to her face, sniffing, her nostrils flaring, drawing in a long breath. ¡°Why does it smell so¡­ It seems strangely familiar.¡±


    Opal snorted out a laugh before hurriedly choking it off.


    Lyra¡¯s eyes snapped up and she stared at the suspicious Goblin. Then her gaze slid down her body.


    ¡°...Why are you half naked?¡±


    ¡°One of the levelers attacked my shorts, they couldn''t be saved. Tragic really.¡±


    ¡°We need to be going,¡± said Rain, ¡°He is coming, and I want to be prepared.¡±


    Lyra with difficulty managed to get her hooves under her, dozens of strings of the substance connected her rear to the ground as she rose before snapping one by one. She got to her feet and nearly fell over once more as her hooves slipped around underneath her. Rain ran out of patience and walked on ahead, ignoring the mad dance of the sheep girl trying to keep her balance.


    ¡°H-hey! Wait up!¡±


    Rain continued to ignore her pleas and they stepped back out into the main hall where he dropped the head councillor. Something had changed in the hall and it took a moment for Rain to realise what that was. The long table that had been overturned now had a small burned section in the middle. Puzzled he stepped towards it. The burn went through the table and out the other side, a hole straight through. More concerning was the insane amounts of blood, it was inches thick, a small lake of the stuff that wound its way amongst the mountains and valleys that was the pulverised foodstuffs.


    His gaze narrowed as he found a number of empty glass bottles in the pool of blood, nearly a dozen of them. He instantly recognised them of course, they were the same glass bottle, the same as the healing potion that the Dwarf had tried to use in the ruined city of the dungeon, the small scrap of which had saved him.


    ¡°Zack lives,¡± he murmured, although he somehow doubted the Elf was doing particularly well, he had eaten his entire arm and his shoulder after all, potion or not he was not growing that back.


    Lyra looked up at him as she arrived nearby, her hooves still occasionally slipping, a worried look on her face.


    ¡°He does? Ugh! He¡¯s awful! He was still trying to seduce me even as they interrogated us!¡±


    ¡°I honestly didn''t think it was possible to survive having a fifth of your chest bitten off and then having a banquet table fall on you. If he really did survive he¡¯ll have fled like the others. Once he realised the succubus was actually real his motivations shifted to an overwhelming fear of her.¡±


    Opal had been staring at the bottles, her brow furrowed. ¡°Hey, those are healing potions right? Does that mean there''s a place you can get those in this town?¡±


    Rain tilted his head, ¡°Yes, there¡¯s an alchemist''s shop in the high leveler¡¯s quarter I believe.¡±


    ¡°Oh we¡¯re definitely making a stop there.¡±


    As Opal mused on her growing plans Rain gently placed her on the overturned table. Then he ate the head councillor and the Priestess, and then Haldir and Lixiss.


    -


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 78

    ? Chapter 78:


    The man who inspired fear amongst Leveler and Monster alike strode down the road to his town.


    He narrowed his one eye as he approached, he could already sense something was amiss. The town gates were open, no guards, no people, discarded personal effects lying on the road as though the owners had fled in a hurry.


    His suspicions were reflected in the hound trotting at his side, an enormous Hellhound, a brutal looking thing similar in appearance to a doberman but more violent, more savage, its teeth larger, serrated, its eyes red, its fur red. The Hellhound radiated an abyssal hellishness, a sulfuric cruelty that made it clear it was not of this world. It scented the air, watching their surroundings carefully, waiting for an attack.


    But none came, they were alone.


    ¡°Erin.¡± he gravelled, rolling the last of a black cigar between his teeth. ¡°What has my little pet been doing?¡±


    He drew in and then blew out a rolling plume of black smoke. An outside observer looking at that smoke carefully might have noticed the subtle suggestion of shapes in it. Unsettling demonic shapes.


    After a moment he finished the cigar and flicked it aside. He continued forward and passed beneath the gates and into the town proper. Above the rooftops something caught his attention, a thin column of smoke coming from the direction of the town hall. Curious. Very curious.


    --


    Lyra scrunched up her nose and tried not to breathe. The place she was standing in was dark and damp and muddy and smelled awful, in fact it smelled so bad that she was starting to feel woozy. Her hooves shifted and she nearly slipped off the chair she was standing upon. She desperately wobbled before regaining her balance, the skinny rickety thing squeaking under her weight.


    This was decidedly not an ideal position to find herself in. She looked down at the sloppy wet brown stuff below. And she especially did not want to fall in that, she¡¯d never get it out of her wool!


    As she watched a spot on the mud began to shift, the surface bubbling before bulging upwards. She stared at it in alarm as the bulge grew higher, taking on a cubic shape then lengthening, the mud seemingly drawing up into it to create new solid form. A mud coloured post was slowly rising out of the mud.


    ¡°Oh gods, please stop!¡±


    Not knowing what else to do she kicked out at it, desperately balancing on one hoof as the chair rocked side to side. Once, twice, she managed to catch it on the third attempt and her hoof struck it up the side. The post wasn¡¯t weak, but it still was hit at such an angle that it broke, the top half falling to the mud below with a splat followed by the toppling bottom half.


    Lyra let out a sigh of relief.


    Then a dozen more posts began to rise.


    --


    Bane the Ranker, in effect town dictator, strode through his streets, his empty lifeless streets,


    Not that he cared. If the levelers under his thumb were afraid of Erin then that was their own personal failing.


    As he paced his one eye roamed from building to building watching for an attack. Orcs, a Succubus, levelers furious with him for summoning said succubus, it didn¡¯t matter, he was prepared to crush them all and force them to bow to his will. He was the Ranker by dint of power, all else was lesser for strength was the first truth, all other truths were flawed, meaningless in the face of unyielding might.


    But then he paused as something unusual came into view, something unexpected, something that wouldn''t have fit in even if the town been as he had left it.


    It was a monster, a monster sitting on a chair in the middle of the street. Some kind of large wolf monster, just sitting there, its intense yellow eyes staring straight at him, unmoving.


    Bane studied this new oddity. Beside him the Hellhound let out a low growl, its hackles rising.


    The monster shifted, its arms folded across the back of the chair where it straddled it.


    ¡°There never was any Orc clan, they never came here, to my town,¡± said Bane. ¡°You are the one the Inquisitor is after, the one who took her arm, I recognise you from her description. And more, you left the dungeon through the same improbable exit I did, trapping your enemy inside and allowing you to do as you willed.¡±


    It continued to stare at him silently.


    ¡°Interesting, very interesting. A ¡®sub-sapient¡¯ monster doing all this. Of course, I know better about your kind because I have been more closely involved with monsters than most. I know what is said about monster sub-sapience is a lie, you are capable of higher thought. Outsmarting an Inquisitor is indicative enough of that. Hmm, but why call me from the dungeon in the guise of my councillor? Surely you know what will come of this.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you wonder what that column of smoke behind me is Ranker?¡±


    Bane¡¯s gaze drifted upward to the smoke. If he was in the least bit surprised the monster was capable of speech he didn''t show it. He narrowed his eyes, was the smoke coming from out of town and not the town hall as he had suspected?


    ¡°I''ll tell you. I found where you lived. I killed and ate your harem. I burned your home and possessions. And I took all your gold. Oh, and you should know, I''m just getting started.¡±


    The Ranker¡¯s gaze dropped back down to the monster, ¡°You. Did. What?¡±


    The Hellhound snapped and snarled at the air, jittering forward on the edge of charging this monster, reflecting its owner''s fury.


    ¡°I am the result of every life and everything of value you stole from this world Ranker. I am your death, and a hateful miserable death it will be.¡±


    Bane stared at him and then furrowed his heavy brow. ¡°Strange intent for a monster, and I have met many. You seem¡­ different somehow.¡±


    --


    Lyra was getting desperate, she was fighting a losing battle against the rising posts which insisted on growing out of the mud no matter how many she kicked down. For each one her wobbly dancing destroyed another took its place, sometimes even two. Frantically swaying around on the chair and making it go up on two legs she managed to take out another with a hoof strike sending the solidified mud substance splatting back into the mud below before it could grow up to the ceiling.


    ¡°Is he even there yet? I can''t keep this up much longer you know! I¡¯m getting really tired!¡±


    Above her a sheet of entirely unsupported cobblestone began to ever so slightly vibrate and shiver, each individual stone resisting the force upon them that made them remain in place, desperately trying to fall as gravity intended but being stopped by some strange phenomenon.


    --


    ¡°You took advantage of this situation with my Succubus, you pretended to be my councillor, you took my Inkerchange and then you weaved a lie to not just call me from the dungeon but to make me come alone, alone to this place, an empty town devoid of other levelers.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The monster tilted its wolf-like head to the side, ¡°I want you alone so that no one can save you.¡±


    Bane paused at that.


    ¡°Ah, a mistake. You see, had I brought others with me it would have been in your favour, not every leveler likes to show all their cards, but since it is just you and I, and you are soon to die, it is not a concern.¡±


    He reached over his shoulder and unhooked his greatsword from his back, an evil looking thing, more a rough slab of dark brutal iron than any sword, its surface pitted and scarred, dried blood filling the cavities. It had the look of a tool that had been used daily to a heavy degree, this rough thing had a bloodier purpose than any tool however.


    ¡°Your death is utterly worthless to my leveling you should know, it won''t change my level in the slightest. To be clear, my reasons for what I am about to do to you are entirely my own, keep that in mind as you scream yourself bloody.¡±


    The Hellhound¡¯s growling suddenly died off and it looked down at the ground in confusion. It lifted a heavy paw then put it back down, then did the same with the other, as though testing something.


    ¡°Shut up.¡± said the wolf monster, studying the Ranker.


    Bane blinked at that response and then glanced down at his hound, then his gaze moved to the cobblestones they were standing on. The stone was shifting, unstable, the surface dipping in waves.


    ¡°What-¡±


    The ground collapsed.


    --


    A small red Kobold waved his claws madly in Lyra¡¯s direction.


    ¡°She says go!¡±


    ¡°Okayokayokay, I can do this, I can totally do this!¡± said Lyra her voice frantic, her hands fretting.


    She drew in a steadying breath and then she jumped off the chair, leaping fully into the air, and in the same moment, ended her Invisibility Skill.


    From Red¡¯s point of view a sheep girl had just appeared out of thin air falling toward the mud, or more specifically, a leather bag placed on top of the mud which had its opening held wide with some string and twigs.


    She held her arms to her body and her legs straight and flew straight through the opening and into the bag vanishing from view.


    Red didn''t waste even a split second and hauled on the rope in his claws before she was even fully inside. His gold was in danger, he wasn''t about to let the masses of stone above bury his precious gold! The bag leapt from the mud, dragged into the air by the rope tied to it even as Red turned and fled as fast as his legs could carry him, fleeing up the stairs in the adjacent room, bag in tow.


    Behind him, the ceiling of the no longer suspended cobble fell to earth like a sheet of water breaking apart. With it came a yelping hellhound and the Ranker who roared with a terrible fury.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 79

    ? Chapter 79:


    Opal heard the crash of falling stone and the cry of anger below and smiled. Yes, everything was going exactly as planned, she could even hear Red scrambling up the stairs two floors below.


    Now came her part in the plan, she hauled on the rope by her side and the counterweight she had roped to the shutters fell free, the rock dropping, well, like a rock, the rope it was attached to hauling the shutters wide with a bang and then snapping taut on the super-sized crossbow ballista that Opal was currently straddling. She nearly fell over as the whole thing lurched forward, the arms of the bow slamming up against the window frame, the back tipping up as more counterweights fell in sequence.


    Opal found herself staring down into the street below, or more specifically, the street spanning pit, a huge square hole where the cobble road had fallen into the basement below. It had been a frantic piece of work to get everything prepared, Rain had needed to apply all his great strength to rip out basically everything that wasn¡¯t earth from the basement.


    Removing everything hadn''t been part of the plan originally, but they had quickly found that any remaining wooden beams or chunks of stone Lyra¡¯s Skill instantly latched onto and tried to use to replace the ceiling Rain had ripped out, structural supports literally growing tree-like from beam to beam. Which was a problem as her, in her opinion, genius plan called for the ceiling to collapse as soon as Lyra¡¯s ability was turned off.


    She grinned fiercely as she looked down at her prey, the big nasty leveler who had hurt her Rain. He was climbing to his feet along with his weird red dog, their clothes dirtied with the soaking mud, the dog circling, agitated and looking for enemies.


    She hauled on a rope to her side and the ballista shifted perfectly into position, the black metal bolt aimed straight at the Ranker¡¯s chest.


    Then she slammed her fist down on the trigger with a cry of exhilaration.


    The metal arms of the bow snapped forward so violently that the stone window frame shattered beneath them, blowing out in a stream of stone. But that was as nothing compared to the force of the ballista bolt itself that ripped the air asunder as it exploded forward directly on target with the Ranker.


    The bolt screamed through the air like a bolt of straightened lightening, down into the pit, and straight into the Ranker¡¯s ches-


    Bane¡¯s hand snapped up and his fingers locked around the shaft instantly stopping it in place, the black metal tip an inch from his chest. He swayed backwards as he absorbed the enormous force behind the bolt, but he took it, his feet sliding slightly in the mud.


    The bolt was stopped, the Ranker somehow unharmed, the plan was ruin-


    Opal slammed the shutters closed and scrambled back into the building.


    The Ranker blinked up at the sudden motion, then his eyes were drawn down to the rag tied around the base of the bolt, the rag that was currently igniting, blooming to life with fire.


    --


    Rain stood from his chair, yes, this was perfect. Their mad scramble to throw all of their plans together was paying off, the trap had snapped shut over Bane and he hadn''t been able to stop it.


    The ballista bolt hadn¡¯t pierced the Ranker¡¯s body, but that wasn¡¯t a concern, it had never been the main point of the plan. Opal had asked for FIRE, and Rain had instantly agreed to it. He had very vivid horrible memories of the sheer blinding agony that fire could cause, very few things come close to that feeling of having your flesh burned away. Because of that it was perfect for the Ranker, it was the least of what that evil creature deserved.


    The problem had been, where were they to get said fire? In the end he had found the solution to both Opal¡¯s town cave problem and the fire problem in the same place, a place he had been aware of in his past life, a huge distillery in the center of town. The distillery was a complex made up of several buildings, including basements that connected the buildings beneath the street.


    They¡¯d ransacked the distillery and emptied every single barrel of liquid they could find into the basement, completely flooding the place. This was after testing the stuff was flammable of course. It had been very flammable to Opal¡¯s delight, more than perfect for what they had in mind.


    Now the Ranker was trapped in a pit that was about to be filled with a raging firestorm, burning him and his shitty dog alive.


    Rain¡¯s claws twitched with anticipation, waiting to hear the screams, hungry to see terrible pain on the Ranker¡¯s face, to see him suffer.


    Then his nose caught a scent. A very concentrated scent that almost made him feel woozy, a smell that smelled exactly like a ten thousand times stronger version of the liquid they had earlier poured from the barrels.


    His eyes widened in shock, but it was already far far too late to do anything.


    Unknowingly, Lyra¡¯s ability had gasified, trapped, and concentrated much of the liquid they had poured out in its attempt to hide it.


    They had accidentally created a large bomb.


    BOOOM!!


    The street exploded, the surrounding buildings instantly disintegrating into the air as the cobble ripped up in a wave that roared toward Rain, sending the road skyward in a fraction of a moment.


    All Rain had time for was to throw his arms up protectively before the world became a howling maelstrom of earth and stone, cobble pelting his body with a fury as he was fully lifted into the air and thrown bodily down the street, the chair he had been sat on instantly shredded to kindling as it was blown away.


    He came down hard, digging a furrow in the cobble before coming to a painful halt curled up in a ball. He was then instantly buried under feet of stone and earth falling from the sky, cutting off his air, suffocating him. He choked and struggled, trying to draw in breath but only getting a mouthful of dirt. Flailing, he dug at the earth, whipping it aside with his arms, struggling to sit up as debris fell from him. At last, he broke free, drawing in great lungfuls of air and spitting grit.


    He looked around in dismay. Half the buildings in the street had been destroyed and the spot where the basement pit had been was now a gently sloping crater. The street was devastated.


    He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his thoughts, the high pitched ringing in his ears slowly fading.


    Opal¡­ Opal had been in that building, that building that was now¡­ gone.


    Panicking he struggled free, climbing atop the rubble and earth as specks of dirt and dust continued to fall from the sky. He took a step, wobbled, found his balance, then headed toward the building Opal had been in.


    There wasn''t much left of it, just broke tooth sections of wall sticking up amongst the earth and stone, rubble washed up against masonry, the building¡¯s debris spilling out into the street over.


    He fell to his knees, he didn''t even know where to begin, this was- this wasn''t supposed to happen!


    They had all been in the building, small and vulnerable, and now- now he was alone¡­ Opal¡­ He couldn''t-


    ¡°Let me out dammit! I can''t breathe with your fluff in my face!¡±


    Rain¡¯s head snapped up, his ears twitching, his eyes latching onto the source. There was a leather bag lying in the street over. As he watched a small green arm poked out the opening and grabbed at the drawstring, pulling it wide. A moment later a head poked free, a small goblin girl shaking her long black hair and coughing. With a scowl she plucked some white woolly fluff from her tongue and flicked it aside.


    ¡°Y-you¡¯re still half naked! Get your bum away from meee!¡± came a cry of distress from within the bag.


    Opal struggled free, lifting herself out of the bag before flopping down on the ground.


    ¡°That¡­ that was a little more fire than I expected¡­¡±


    She looked up as Rain loomed over her.


    ¡°Uh, sorry wolfy but I think there''s not going to be a lot left of that leveler for you to take your anger out on. He¡¯s probably lots of little bits of dust in the air currently.¡±


    Rain didn''t answer, he was still dealing with the falling and spiking emotion of almost losing her. He dropped a paw on her stomach to reassure himself she was really there and not just some hallucination from being driven mad. Opal gave him a funny look and squirmed underneath his paw which covered most of her abdomen.


    Behind Opal Lyra crawled out of the bag, her face bright red with embarrassment. The colour quickly drained from her cheeks however as she looked around and found the street just gone.


    ¡°Oh¡­ Oh shit. W-was this something I did?¡±


    Then behind her a red scaled snout poked from the bag. The snout took one look around and came to the swift conclusion the outside world was indeed a bad place. The snout disappeared back inside the bag and buried itself deep in a pile of gold.


    ¡°Yes! This is all your fault! My plan was perfect! This was totally your leveler-ness screwing things up!¡±


    ¡°Wha- No it wasn''t! I did nothing wrong, I was just doing what you told me to do!¡±


    ¡°I didn''t tell you to blow up the street!¡±


    ¡°This was your idea! You should have known!¡±


    ¡°I can''t predict levelers doing dumb stuff can I!¡±


    ¡°I didn''t do anything!¡±


    ¡°Yes you di-


    Their argument was suddenly interrupted by the sound of stone and earth rolling and shifting.


    Rain froze up at the sound, then his head slowly turned toward it. No, it couldn''t be, it couldn''t, it just couldn''t.


    A mound of earth was rising in the shallow crater that had been the pit, green fire flickering across its surface and pouring from crevices between stones, a green Fel Fire, twisting and curling into the air as more and more earth sloughed from the shape rising from within.


    Earth fell away and his head became visible, black smoke curling from his hair and beard as he freed himself, his one eye glowing with a sickly green light, a look of barely withheld fury on his face.


    He snarled like a dog and shook his shoulders, the last of the earth falling away revealing his upper body, the torn remains of his shirt hanging from his hips, ripped asunder by the explosion and revealing dozens of occult runes that had been carved deep into his muscular body, all of them glowing a foreboding orange red.


    ¡°That... is the first time someone has opened an attack on me by trying to fucking bomb me.¡± He brushed dust from his shoulder as green fire wisped over his body burning away any remaining dirt. ¡°Too bad it was never going to work.¡±


    He snapped his fingers and the Hellhound simply appeared beside him, stepping out of thin air, blinking into existence, its body completely untouched by the explosion.


    ¡°I was thinking of making a ruby out of you, but now, now I think I just want to kill you,¡± said the Ranker, stepping forward.


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 Chapter 80

    ? Chapter 80:


    The Hellhound bounded forward ahead of its master, fangs slavering, eager to tear into its foes. It stepped once, twice, and then it vanished into thin air, reappearing a dozen feet ahead before blinking forward once again, teleporting in short bursts, jumping from point to point.


    Rain shifted his feet and spread his arms ready to take on the hound, to rip it to pieces as soon as it got within his range.


    Instead, the hound suddenly changed trajectory, its blinking veering off to the side, away from Rain and toward Lyra and Opal.


    The Goblin girl was being helped up by Lyra, her arm slung around the sheep girl¡¯s shoulders, her legs like jelly beneath her, she looked up and her face dropped as the enormous dog charged right at them, they didn¡¯t stand a chance.


    ¡°Lyra! Invisible! NOW!¡± roared Rain.


    The sheep girl jerked her head up, caught one look at the bounding dog, and then instantly disappeared along with Opal.


    The Hellhound stumbled to a halt, its head moving side to side in confusion, searching for its vanished prey.


    ¡°You¡¯re protecting a leveler? Are you a slave? No, you seem to have a personal problem with me, but then, why do you want to protect her¡­?¡±


    Rain turned to find the Ranker striding toward him, his boots crunching against the rubble and earth.


    ¡°Save your concern for your own life.¡± said Rain, the bridge of his nose wrinkling in anger.


    He readied to leap on him, but then the Ranker grinned.


    ¡°You should take your own advice.¡±


    He let off an ear piercing whistle and the hound turned on the spot immediately looking toward its master. Bane thrust out a hand, a thick finger pointing at the air to the left of the hound.


    ¡°She¡¯s there dog.¡±


    Rain¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, he could see through Lyra¡¯s Skill unaided! The Hellhound blinked forward and crashed into something invisible. There was a cry of surprise and Lyra and Opal appeared, the Hellhound falling bodily upon them, shoulder checking the two girls.


    Rain tried to go to their aid but the Ranker suddenly leapt forward, a large fist meteoring up, catching him unawares. He twisted trying to evade, but the Ranker struck home, a brutal hammer blow that caught him in the gut. Rain choked as the wind was blown out of him in a rush, he stumbled backwards, set off balance, trying to raise his paws to defend against the follow up blow.


    Behind him Lyra let out a scream as the Hellhound¡¯s maw found her shoulder, biting deep, its serrated teeth scraping against collar bone. She punched and slapped at its head in a blind panic but she may as well have been petting it for all the Hellhound noticed. It snarled and then savaged her, thrashing her side to side, dragging and mauling her like a limp doll, her legs flailing, her hooves clattering uselessly on the stone as the dog tore into her, growling as its teeth inched deeper into her flesh.


    ¡°H-help! Help me!¡± screamed Lyra, fear and pain in her voice as the dog hauled her across the ground, blood washing down her skin and dying her fluff crimson.


    Metal flashed and a small knife swung down, digging deep between the Hellhound¡¯s shoulder blades. It yelped in surprise, its teeth coming loose from Lyra as a small green person leapt on its back with a cry of outrage. The hound snarled and snapped at the air, trying to twist its head to get at the Goblin on its back but unable to quite reach, its serrated teeth coming within an inch of her flesh.


    ¡°You owe me for this big time sheeepy!¡± wailed Opal as she was thrown around on top the hound, desperately holding onto the embedded knife as her legs flopped uselessly across its back.


    Lyra stumbled to her hooves, one hand held tight over her shoulder wound, ¡°G-get off it and come to me! Quick! I can make us invisible!¡±


    ¡°I can''t! The moment I-¡±


    Before she could finish however her hands slipped from the handle and she went flipping head over heels into the air. The hound¡¯s head snapped around and its teeth came down on her leg, biting deep. Opal screamed, cut off as her head cracked against the cobble when the dog yanked her out of the air. Lyra jumped forward, kicking at the dog, driving her hooves into its side. The Hellhound simply ignored her weak kicks, instead of giving her an annoyed look and then disappearing along with Opal, appearing six feet behind her. It shook its head and Opal was bounced across the ground screaming and swearing as blood rolled down her leg.


    ¡°Drop her! Drop her! You stupid dog!¡± cried Lyra desperately chasing after it.


    Rain¡¯s feet slid across the earth as the next blow rocked him, the bones of his arms creaking and hairline fracturing under the impact, driving his arms back into his chest. It was like being hit with a sledgehammer, the steady brutal blows of a blacksmith forging steel, each strike rattling his teeth, this beast of a leveler was strong, un-fucking-believably strong. He was being driven back across the ground from the flurry of his strikes alone, furrows in the earth marking his claws as he desperately held on. A confident grin still spread the Ranker¡¯s lips, each strike of the giant man''s tree trunk like arms felt like an unstoppable force of nature, immutable, undeniable.


    But then Rain caught sight of Opal being mauled by the Hellhound.


    He dropped his arms.


    The next strike crashed into his chest, a rib instantly snapped, but this time instead of leaning into the blow he leapt back with it, catching the Ranker¡¯s fist with his paws and, using the Rankers own strike to launch himself away. He fell backwards, twisting, and managed to turn his leap into a mad dash, half on all fours he scrambled across the loose earth and rubble and lunged toward the Hellhound. His curled paw lashed out ahead of him and he struck it in the head. The hound yelped, its teeth coming loose from Opal¡¯s leg, then a large paw wrapped around its own back leg. Rain, still in full motion, dove into his lunge and spun, torquing as hard as he could, the hound was torn off its feet and whipped around like a sack of meat, moving so fast its joints groaned. Then Rain let go, flinging the Hellhound away from him at a ridiculous speed.


    The hound was launched through the air spinning in a blur, flying across the street. It was on a direct line of impact for the base of a solid stone building, its body about to be pulverised to mulch by the impact, when it simply vanished. The Hellhound appeared a dozen feet to the side, its paws, tap tapping down on the cobble as it came to a gentle stop entirely unharmed.


    It turned eyes on Rain, and there was a look of real anger there, strange to see coming from a dog.


    ¡°Get behind me!¡± growled Rain, as Lyra scrambled toward Opal.


    ¡°HAH! You actually care for them. A monster caring for a leveler and a Goblin slave. Although I suppose I shouldn''t be surprised that it''s an Elf who would go in for this nonsense, race of whores.¡±


    The Ranker put his hands together, and then formed a seal, and then another, then more, his hands dancing as the occult runes carved into his body flared with orange-red light, his hands were a blur as balls of green Fel Fire appeared floating around him, each about a foot or so in diameter.


    Rain eyed the fire warily, moving to place his body between the fire and the girls.


    Was this some kind of magic fire attack? he reacted at the thought, a chill going up his spine. Magic fire made his skin crawl like little else. But then the fireballs seemed to shrink and forms and shapes appeared amongst the flames, small demonic shapes.


    The shapes began to move, limbs twitching and small heads turning. The fire wisped and flickered across their skin, their blood red skin, their slitted yellow eyes blinked as fresh air touched up against them, their triangle shark tooth maws opening and snake-like tongues flicking out to taste the air. They were all of them bald and rounded, their ears long and knife-like, their tails whip thin and spaded.


    Rain realised he had some vague notion of what he was looking at, demons, or more specifically, Imps.


    They struggled in the air and began to flap their small wings, alighting and then hovering, floating around the Ranker in a cloud.


    ¡°Tear them to pieces.¡± spoke the Ranker and the dozen Imps made a raucous eager cry and swooped toward Rain, or more specifically toward those behind him.


    Rain grabbed for the nearest Imp, intending to crush it to paste beneath his paw pads, but the Imp simply flapped its wings furiously and jerked out of the way of his claws, just missing being caught. The Imp cackled and danced around him, sticking out its tongue, flitting by his arm, and zooming past. Rain turned as Lyra cried out, an Imp crashing into her, its mouth opening up and biting down on her arm, its triangular teeth sinking deep into her flesh just as another landed on her, then another, biting all over, her legs, her stomach, her breasts, she screamed as Opal desperately punched and struck at the Imp straddling her chest.


    This was bad, and instantly became much worse as the Hellhound blinked toward them. They were going to be picked apart unless the situation changed.


    ¡°Save your concern for your own life!¡± taunted Bane, using Rain¡¯s own words against him.


    Except Rain couldn¡¯t, he just couldn''t, the screams were driving him mad. He turned to go after them, to save them from the Imps, but then a fist caught him across the muzzle snapping his head to the side, blood spraying from his lip, he stumbled under the force of the blow, near losing his footing.


    ¡°Did you think you could do what you did and not suffer consequences from those stronger than you? What world do you think we live in?¡±


    Another blow took him across the side of the head setting his ears ringing.


    ¡°H-help!¡± Screamed Opal as the Imps tore into her body with tooth and claw, overwhelming her with numbers. The Hellhound blinked on top of her, its forelegs over her head, its open mouth lowering toward her terrified face.


    Rain roared, desperately trying to get to them, but this time the Ranker prevented him from escaping at every turn, beating him into submission, moving and blocking his way.


    The Hellhound¡¯s teeth descended.


    And then a red scaled Kobold slowly arose from a discarded bag lying on the ground. He was holding a skull with green flame eyes in his claws, he held it up and pointed it and-


    ¡°How do I aim?!¡± he shrieked.


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 Chapter 81

    ? Chapter 81:


    ¡°How do I aim?!¡± he shrieked.


    ¡°No need, leave it to me!¡± There was the sound of bone snapping against bone and one of the skull¡¯s teeth pinged free from its jaws, a small shaped-bone crossbow contraption built into the skull''s mouth snapping flat, a canine firing forward through the air in a straight line. The small fragment of bone struck true and the Hellhound yelped as the tooth smacked it directly in the eyeball. It teleported away out of instinctive surprise and Opal rolled up, viciously headbutting the Imp straddling her with a crack, blood spraying up between them as Opal let out a cry of anger of her own.


    Red grabbed up the bag as he leapt free from it, hauling ass across the cobble as he raced toward the girls, skull held firmly underarm. The tiny crossbow contraption in the skull¡¯s mouth swivelled and turned, peppering the Imps with extremely accurate stinging boney projectiles eliciting yelps and cries of Impish outrage. The Kobold jumped into the air, bag held high, opening stretched wide and scooped the stumbling sheep girl into it in one go, top to bottom. The Imps did not like this in the least and immediately swarmed him. Unfortunately for them, his scales weren''t flesh and their teeth and claws slid off the smooth surface struggling to find a grip. He fought his way through the horrible biting clawing swarm, repeatedly screaming his mantra of determination ¡°Just think of the goooooold! Think of the gooold!¡± all the while the miniature crossbow kept firing over and over keeping the worst of the Imps at bay.


    A furious Goblin girl currently trying to beat to death an Imp on the cobble was ahead of him. Dashing forward he flipped the bag and expertly scooped her up without even breaking stride. Then, his little legs still pumping furiously, he ducked down and then shoved his own head inside the bag, followed by his shoulders, then chest. He couldn''t see where he was going now of course and crashed blindly through the crowd of Imps, now just a pair of Kobold legs ending in a bag at the hips. The pair of kobold legs ran with a fury born of pure unbridled terror, pumping like a pair of pistons, the kobold legs bounced, jumped, and then leapt into the air, the legs fully disappearing inside the bag. The pair of kobold legs had become just a bag spinning through the air, a bag that fell into a giant outstretched paw.


    Rain¡¯s foot slid out as he spun, his entire body torsioning, then torquing back as hard as he could manage, with a roar his paw whipped around and the bag slipped free, rocketing from his claws and launching up over the rooftops, and far up into the sky. The bag was gone in an instant. The ones he cared for were out of this evil Ranker¡¯s reach he could at last fight him on his own terms without having to worr-


    He turned to find the Ranker crouched down, his hands deep in a mound of earth.


    ¡°Found it.¡±


    The Ranker twisted in a mirror to Rain, except what the Ranker held wasn''t a bag, but a blade, his blade, that barbaric near seven foot slab of pitted Iron. The mound exploded as he ripped it free, his upper body twisting as his legs slid out for optimal leverage


    Rain snapped his arms tight, holding them up to his chest, there wasn''t anything else he could do as time seemed to slow to a crawl, the oncoming chunk of metal an inevitability. His eyes traced it, the metal had truly seen better days, its edge heavily blunted and worn and chipped, dirt and dried blood scarred deep across its surface. The thing was, it didn''t need to be sharp, the amount of force behind it meant it was more important that the blade could hold up under the extreme forces that were being exerted on it. The Ranker didn''t change weapon because there was no other weapon, he didn''t change because everything else snapped like a twig under his raw strength.


    The edge smashed into Rain¡¯s held up arms like a meteor from the stratosphere, fractures shooting up his arm bones and into the ribs behind as they were slammed up against him. Then his feet were ripped from the ground as he was folded around the blade, the blade not slowing in the slightest as it swung, his body tearing apart under the forces moving him until it swung fully around and he was launched up from the edge.


    He tore through the air entirely out of control and smashed into a nearby building, through the wall, then the room, then another wall, another room, through the exterior wall, across the street, into the exterior wall of a second building, through it, destroying the rooms inside, then lastly crashing up against the exterior wall, his body embedding in the stonework, the wall, disintegrating around him. He fell from the second floor, half the building collapsing atop him, an avalanche of masonry. He came down in the garden below, half-buried in rubble.


    A long pained wheeze escaped his lips, and then a gurgled wash of blood that spilt down his chin. He slowly, agonisingly, lifted his brutalised shaking arms from his chest, it felt like someone had spent the entire day pounding rocks over every inch of them, making them numb and dead. He looked at his paws and willed them to move. They jerked and twitched then slowly curled, barely responding to him. The sword had done more than just damage his flesh. He was thankful his body was so tough, had that hit a normal person he suspected they would have been spit in half, blunted blade or not.


    He couldn''t wait for the time needed to heal this injury, He was coming. Desperately struggling he managed to half sit up. Looking around he found the backside of a building, or what remained of it, the entire exterior wall seemed to have fallen out exposing the interior rooms to the open air.


    As he watched an Imp came into view, peering down at him from where it crouched on the edge of the second storey''s exposed floorboards. It grinned at him, its eyes alight with a hellish malevolence. It wouldn''t be long before others came, he needed to go, Now!


    He moved his shaking arms downward and lifted himself, elbow walking back, shifting his legs and dragging himself free of the rubble, stones falling around him on the grass as he struggled. The Imp above let out a battle cry and jumped down, flapping its wings, ten more followed after him, flying down onto him. The little things seemed mindless with fury and they put it all into their assault, their teeth and claws painfully digging into his flesh.


    Fortunately, they weren''t strong enough to do real damage, only surface, but he still found himself struggling under their barrage. The Imps quickly discovered they weren''t having much of an effect, unfortunately, they seemed to have learned from Vash¡¯s attack: There was always a weak spot in the eyes. The Imps swarmed toward his head, their little claws reaching. Rain snarled and swept them away with a clumsy paw, still struggling back from the rubble.


    The back door on the building next door was suddenly booted off its hinges, the wooden rectangle sent spinning through the air until it thumped down on the grass. The Ranker stepped through, his Hellhound at his side, his terrifying blade held over one shoulder. He looked around and spotted Rain, then grinned flashing a set of perfect white teeth.


    ¡°You survived! Amazing! Most disintegrate and fall to bits when I hit them hard you know. More and more I wonder what kind of monster you are, I¡¯ve seen so many, but none quite like you.¡±


    The Hellhound eagerly blinked forward, teleporting across the garden as Rain scrambled to his feet shedding Imps with every motion.


    He wasn¡¯t going to let the Ranker have things all his way no matter how many demons he threw at him. Ignoring the Imps as best he could he watched the Hellhound oncoming, carefully counting the timing and measuring the distance it teleported, then he stepped once, and his foot came up as hard as he could. The Hellhound blinked into place at the height of his kick and his foot smashed into its face. The Hellhound choked out a yelp as its head snapped back, its neck making a grisly crunch as bones of its neck ground together. The Hellhound flipped end over end through the air before crashing to the ground in a heap.


    Rain didn''t even wait for the Hellhound to land, he turned and fled. His feet sending up showers of turf behind him as he bounded away, putting to use his speed. He smashed through the fence at the back of the garden shedding imps and came out on a street he knew from his past life. A front of shops met his eyes on the other side and he picked out the one he was looking for. He charged toward it and slammed open the door, squeezing down through the small door frame and disappearing inside. He pushed past the wooden shelves, knocking them aside as he went, merchandise and stock spilling across the aisles as he rushed to the back.


    Behind him a bell tingled as the door was opened once again. The Ranker squeezed through the door much like Rain, his own mass creating problems. He pulled his sword through with him then narrowed his eyes as he looked around the dingy room.


    Rain hadn''t taken Opal¡¯s original plan as a guarantee of success, in fact it had inspired him.


    A dozen heavy rope nets abruptly fell from the ceiling as he bit through the strings holding them up. The Ranker was buried in a hill of tangling rope, the ropes so many that he was lost from sight.


    Rain took in long steadying breaths, staring at the shifting mound as the Ranker struggled. His paw came to rest on a wooden handle.


    Most of his traps had been simpler than hers, and unfortunately most had been in the street they had accidentally bombed, gone now. But some had been further out, in places he suspected their fight might move to based on his deep knowledge of the town¡¯s layout. This had been one of his favoured spots, although he hadn''t expected to arrive at it by being thrown through several buildings.


    He grit his teeth and with a snarl willed his numb digits to wrap around the wooden handle.


    The problem had been, how to grievously harm the Ranker once he was momentarily caught? It wasn''t like a high leveler could be easily harmed, and he couldn''t use his strongest weapon, his teeth, like this.


    They had found the answer in an abandoned stall in the market, a stall full of mining equipment, more specifically in a sharpened pickaxe, a sharpened pickaxe designed for two men, a tool designed to split boulders.


    He held the enormous pickaxe with a six foot span in both paws and advanced on the nets. Then bounding forward he raised it above his head, and then with a roar brought it down on the mound with all the strength he could muster. He would end this here and now.


    The pickaxe combined all the swung velocity of an axe blow with the piercing properties of a spear, it was the absolute perfect weapon for the trap he had laid.


    The sharpened tip swung down-


    And met an Imp. The Imp was immediately stabbed through, impaled on the pick, then as the tip of the metal tore through the Imp¡¯s back a second Imp launched itself up into it, the pick taking it through its screaming face, ripping down through it and out its asshole where a third Imp slammed up into the pick, stabbed through its guts, then a fourth, but by then the pick had slowed, the furious flapping and friction of their bodies having a small effect.


    The combined impact of the Imps somehow taking pickaxe¡¯s descent from meteoric to merely extremely fast.


    It was enough, a hand at last found its way through the nets and snapped up, fingers curling around the metal. The axe¡¯s descent slowed massively, then ground to a halt despite Rain straining his muscles to the brink to keep it going.


    The pickaxe remained as it was despite his efforts. The Ranker¡¯s overwhelming strength holding it in place. Rain stared, just how strong was this man?


    He caught sight of a flickering dancing hand finishing making seals beneath the net and green fel fire suddenly bloomed to life. He stumbled back as fire washed up the pickaxe, greedily latching onto the thick wooden handle, quickly burning it away, the wood becoming blackened and then falling to ash.


    The nets too, fire washed out from the Ranker and the nets fell apart around him, then the floorboards and the shelves, the room quickly becoming awash with fire. Rain¡¯s stomach dropped and he backed up to the far wall, his eyes dancing as everything in view became green fire. There wasn''t even anyone for him to attack, the Ranker was lost in the sea of flames.


    He couldn''t be here, he could feel the heat of the fire on him, horrible memories crawling unwanted into his mind. He turned and smashed apart the rear door, struggling through and fighting through the back of the shop, and then out the back. He turned the exit to splinters as he crashed out of the building just as the entire thing went up in flames.


    He turned and stared up at it, green flames, fire everywhere, magical fire, he found he couldn''t look away, locked in his own mind. There were shapes in those flames, people, screaming people, Bane didn''t just use any old magical fire, this stuff was far worse. Something that belonged not of this world, something hellish in nature.


    He shivered involuntarily. This was madness.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 82

    ? Chapter 82:


    Rain stared at the hypnotising Fel Fire for a moment longer, then he turned to leave, he needed to set his next tra-


    The Hellhound was there, somehow uninjured after he had brutally kicked it. It was already in the air, leaping for his neck, already on him. Its serrated teeth clamped down and he found himself fully in its grip, its jaws around his throat. Then the Hellhound blinked and he found himself nearer the fire, then it blinked again and he tried to scream as the heat scorched his flesh, he grabbed at the hound, frantic, it blinked once more and the fire was everywhere.


    But the Ranker wasn''t content to leave him alone. He heard a bellowed roar and the burning wall exploded, the Ranker smashing through with his shoulder, his massive blade already spinning around him. The slab of savage iron took Rain in the side and he felt internal organs burst as it ripped him off his feet and sent him through the exterior wall in a conflagration of flame.


    He tumbled through the air, burning, flailing, then slammed down on the wide town square, bouncing across the stone, like a ragdoll, until he smashed into the solid stone base of the belltower set at the top of the square with a grisly crunch.


    He howled and slapped desperately at the green fire eating away at him, burning his paws, making his injuries worse. It felt like it took an eternity of horrifying agony, his flesh turning to ash under the flame, but at last the last of it died out and he slumped on the ground, drawing in ragged painful breaths.


    The sound of heavy boots neared and he closed his eyes. He couldn''t fight this. This man had soaked himself in the world of demons, he wasn''t Just a leveler anymore, he was something else.


    The sound of cobblestone shattering caused his ear to twitch and he cracked an eye to find the Ranker had stabbed his sword in the ground. He stared down at him and Rain knew that he was just another monster for this man.


    The Ranker cracked the thick fingers on his one hand then the other. The Hellhound sat and waited patiently by his side, waiting to see its master''s intent.


    Rain¡¯s paws came up, pathetically weak, wobbling, a vague attempt to keep the beast away. The Ranker knocked them aside with a laugh then struck him around the face. Blood sprayed from his muzzle, splashing across the cobble. He raised his paws once more, digits spread. The Ranker seemed slightly less pleased with his resistance this time and grabbed at his paws, fingers interlocking, crushing strength holding his digits, the Ranker pushed down, forcing Rain¡¯s arms down with his overwhelming strength, holding him down.


    ¡°Who are you? Tell me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m nobody.¡±


    ¡°No, you are not, you know me. How.¡±


    ¡°I knew you in another life.¡±


    ¡°Meaning you changed, tell me what you did.¡±


    ¡°I died. I died and then I came back Ranker. I was given a second chance and I used it.¡±


    ¡°A wasted chance.¡±


    ¡°Was it?¡±


    Rain¡¯s paws which were pretending weakness suddenly surged to life and he clamped down on the Ranker¡¯s hands, crushing his hands back, locking him in place, locking him in place close, very, very, close.


    The Ranker glanced between his trapped hands, brow furrowing. He tried to pull himself free but to no avail, Rain had a death grip. As he was hauled forward by the Ranker Rain threw his head back, drawing in a deep deep breath, calling up a rolling rip snarl roar from his very soul. He drew in rooms worth of air, his maw stretching wide, and then he swung his head forward letting it loose directly into the Ranker¡¯s face. A shockwave blew out from his maw, rippling and shimmering the air, a sound like distant thunder in extreme close proximity, deep bone shaking bass that generated violent growing vibration. Strings of blood and spit strung between his open jaws stretched and broke as the sound hit, flecking off into the air as the sound built and built and built, booming ever louder.


    Dust ripped from the cobble in every direction as the sound billowed outward, then the cobble began to shift too. The ground was shaking, trembling, the cobble rippling, above them the bell tower visibly shifted back and forth, the great bronze bell inside clanging solemnly with each long sway. Buildings around the square were starting to fall, their roofs breaking apart, tiles sheeting down to crash to the ground stories below.


    The Ranker was desperately trying to get away, trying rip his hands free, viciously kicking at Rain even as blood poured from his ears and mouth and nose, veins of red shooting across his white sclera and then bursting, making his iris a spot of colour in a field of blood red. He was screaming now, roaring his fury at what Rain was doing to him, his body shredding apart under the onslaught of sound, his internal organs rupturing and popping, arteries bursting.


    At last, the terrible ripsnarl roar came to an end. Rain''s ears were filled with a very loud ringing and he could hear nothing else. It took him a few moments of rapid blinking to clear his mind and his blurred vision. The Ranker was still in front of him, held up in his paws.


    He looked fucking awful.


    A wide band of blood ran down from his blood filled eye, meeting up with the rivers of red pouring from his nose and mouth and ears, sheeting down his neck and across his beard then down his torso painting him in streaks of gore. His long black hair hung limp with wet over his face.


    Was... he dead...?


    Rain angled him in his paws and the Ranker¡¯s hair shifted aside. A terrible green eye amongst a wash of red stared up at him.


    Rain was too addled by his own roar to quite grasp what had happened. The Ranker bared his teeth, teeth dyed all glossy blood red, then he screamed his fury up at Rain. Of course Rain didn''t hear it at all, only the ringing in his ears, spittle and blood flying from the Rankers silent mouth as he ripped his hands free from Rain¡¯s limp paws.


    A heavy hand snapped forward and grabbed him by the throat and then Rain could only watch as a fist came slamming into his head.


    Smack!


    His head snapped to the side as the fist struck home, his lips splitting in two as bone struck flesh. The Ranker screamed his fury again, just breaking through the ringing now.


    Smack!


    Rain¡¯s nose was crushed, becoming a pulp as the Ranker smashed him apart.


    Smack! SMACK! SMACK!


    And then


    Crunch!


    His face fractured, nose bone splitting, each progressively brutal punch pulverising more and more, teeth were coming loose now, and then teeth were flying free as the mad with rage Ranker punched and punched and punched, flesh was just gone, torn away, exposing one side of his face to white bone, then the bone broke, his lower jaw splitting in two, his eye socket crushed.


    The Ranker paused to breathe having overexerted himself.


    Rain blinked slowly up at him. He felt like he was going into shock. As they had fought the sky had become overcast, and then rain had started to fall, a light drizzle, drops pitter pattering on the stones, across his fur. He wasn''t sure why he noticed that, perhaps because he was so out of it, then he saw the Ranker¡¯s lips move, speaking, and at last the sound pierced the ringing in his ears.


    ¡°-I wasn''t going to bother, but after that I¡¯m going to hunt down those two girls you tossed and use them in place of the harem you kille-


    Rains head snapped forward without thought and his forehead struck the Rankers with an explosive crack that echoed throughout the square.


    The Ranker stumbled backwards, a hand going to his head.


    Rain gruellingly climbed to his feet, swaying as he went, blood dribbling in stringy lines from his ruined face as frequently as the rain around him. He stumbled forward, struggling to keep his balance. He raised a paw, curling his digits, and then he swung for the Ranker. His knuckles struck him in the head splattering blood in a line across the rain strewn cobble. The Ranker swayed and stepped back.


    He grit his teeth.


    ¡°I want to know who you are so this has meaning monster.¡±


    He stepped forward and slugged Rain in the gut.


    Rain grunted and brought his elbow down on the Rankers head forcing him back.


    ¡°You killed her, and then you kept me in squalor. That''s all the meaning you need.¡± Rain gritted out, the words ragged coming from his broken mouth.


    He stepped in and belted the Ranker across the face.


    ¡°Kept you in squalor? What is this nonsense.¡± The Ranker spat blood to the side. ¡°You are deranged, delusional.¡±


    Rain smiled. It looked horrific with part of his skull exposed.


    ¡°I can make this easy for you. Who do you think took your eye?¡±


    The Ranker froze up, a mix of emotions quickly washing across his face, his eye shifting in quick thought, shuffling through memory, coming to a conclusion.


    ¡°You¡¯re...his boy?¡±


    Rain lunged at him as his guard was down. Grabbing him by the throat he swung him around and slammed him against the base of the belltower.


    ¡°yEs hIs bOy.¡± he snarled, the remains of his lip drawing back in a gruesome visage.


    The rain continued to fall.


    The Ranker stared at him for a long moment. Then his lip twitched, then a laugh burbled free from his bloody mouth.


    ¡°Oh no, oh no I can''t believe, that is why, and-¡±


    The Ranker shook with mirth.


    Rain shook him, brutally slamming his head against the wall behind until it cracked and blood was running down the stone.


    ¡°You laugh after what you did to me?¡±


    The Ranker looked him in the eye.


    ¡°You don''t know do you? You never knew.¡±


    Rain paused at that, the way the Ranker was looking him over was bothering him¡­ this wasn''t a taunt.


    The Ranker turned his head to the side, his eye moving from Rain to something else. Not sure what he was doing Rain followed the direction the Ranker was looking.


    He was looking at the Hellhound, the dog just standing there, watching them.


    ¡°A Hellhound is different from other demons,¡± he began. ¡°Because you don''t summon a Hellhound, that would be easy, if that were the case they wouldn''t be so rare. No, instead you make a Hellhound.¡±


    ¡°What are you blathering about, I don''t care about this shit.¡±


    ¡°You start with a core, difficult to craft but feasible. That''s not the hard part.¡±


    ¡°Shut up.¡±


    ¡°You take a scalpel and you cut away a little slice of soul and then you graft it onto the core. Then over a few days you let the core slowly convert the little slice into its own matter, like feeding and watering a little plant. You do this over and over and over and over, one little bit at a time growing the Hellhound out of the core.¡± He bowed his head looking up at Rain through his limp bloodied hair. ¡°The caveat that makes this process so difficult is that the little slices all need to come from the exact same source, the exact same soul, and it is vanishingly rare that a soul has the will power to survive being slowly shaved away over and over and over for years and years and years. You see the mind starts to dissolve, personality disintegrate, reasons to exist fade, madness grows. A will like pure adamantium is the bare minimum.


    ¡°N-no s-stop-¡± said Rain his voice cracking with grief, unbridled horror in his eyes


    ¡°That was the deal Rain. As long as he willed his soul to survive what I did to it I would let you live. He did it for you. He lasted so long and for so many many years I honestly forgot you existed, he was more than successful in achieving his goal, had you left my town I likely wouldn''t have thought of you ever again, but then one day, when I was walking through my streets I saw a beggar, a pathetic starved wretch. I remembered, and of course I had no reason to need you dead, but then you were such a weak disgusting thing. I handed off dealing with you to a servant and then once more forgot you existed. And now... you are here.¡±


    Rain was barely aware of what Bane was saying anymore, stumbling back, his mind felt like it was on fire, flashing lights dancing across his vision. He cried out and brought his claws to his face, cutting into flesh as painful memories burned to the surface.

 Chapter 83

    ? Chapter 83:


    Rain was eight years old and pushing open the door to his Father¡¯s bedroom. His Father was there, sitting at his mother¡¯s dresser. The dresser was awash with blood, he slugged from a bottle of amber and then his Father raised his hand once more and stabbed the dagger straight through his arm, gasping through gritted teeth, his eyes alight with something akin to fervour.


    "It''s my fault. It''s my fault. It''s my fault. Remember. Remember. Remember."


    Eight year old Rain looked on, petrified at what his Father was doing, too afraid to speak up, only able to watch as the blade came down, over and over, his Father repeating that mantra, like he had spoken and thought it millions of times before. He was torturing himself for getting Rain¡¯s mother killed, blaming himself for what he did, a self destructive guilt, why else do it at Mother¡¯s dresser?


    But then, after what Bane had said, he knew those words promising to remember weren''t referring to his mother, no, they were referring to Rain, and that wasn''t the self harm of guilt or depression, but a man desperately trying to will his shredded soul to hold together as it was slowly taken apart piece by piece. He had succeeded, but the cost¡­


    Another flash of light and Rain was in an alley, older. His Father was there slumped in the shit and mud, delirious, mumbling nonsense, clearly drunk out of his mind.


    He had pushed him up against the wall. He found his  Father¡¯s eyes rolling unseeing, but then they had managed to focus on Rain, and then he had spoken those words that had hurt him the most, words that he would hear many many times in the years following that point:


    ¡°...Who are you?¡±


    He had lost his memory of him, the memories of Rain having fallen through the gaps in his soul. Rain had thought it the madness of drink, some illness caused by his grief, he had heard that could happen. Now he knew better, his Father had lost the battle in keeping his memory so he had let it go, in exchange he held on like nothing else, his will power was like cold forged steel, nigh unbreakable, despite everything he had remained, clinging to existence with his fingernails. He wasn''t a human being anymore, he was a shell with a fraction of a soul with a threaded instruction of pure determination which was: eat, sleep, walk to the Ranker, lose more soul, return, eat, sleep, repeat.


    He¡¯d kept himself going by keeping only what he needed to hold together, all for Rain.


    Rain¡¯s claws dug into his face, to the bone, and then dragged down, gouging ragged bloody furrows through his flesh, it didn''t matter, the pain was nothing to his grief, his emotional agony.


    His¡­ hate.


    His growing, boiling, hate.


    Rain had felt hate before, but this, this was different. His insides burned with poisonous, searing, hatred. He felt like he was going to physically explode as his veins pumped more and more poison throughout him, into his brain, the pressure building, intolerable.


    His claws dropped from his face and then he threw back his head and let loose a primal roar, all his burning emotion venting into it, it exploded from him in a wave of power.


    Above the belltower was ripped apart as though hit by an invisible force, falling into the street across, the great bronze bell breaking free sent careening down the road, gonging as it bounced and crashed. The buildings around the square tore apart next as the shockwave hit. The Ranker leaned into it, holding his arm up his hair billowing around his head.


    Rain¡¯s jaws juderred wider, spittle flecking, as it built louder, deeper, as that gate to the dark hungry place in him at last swung fully wide.


    The ground shook, not just rippling, but full on shook, an earthquake, slight at first then growing.


    Above the rain clouds quickly darkened and swelled, becoming vast towering cumulonimbus that red lightning crackled between, the rain sheeting down.


    His arms spread at his sides as it felt like everything poured out of him.


    Around him the town began to disintegrate, the buildings falling apart, collapsing under the earthquake as the ground tried to tear itself apart. Out from the town square, more and more buildings folding under the trembling and shaking, streets and streets collapsing all the way to the outer walls, splits appeared in the ground, canyons forming in the earth as the earth broke, the outer walls falling, then the forest, tens of thousands of trees falling en masse.


    Bane looked around in alarm as his town fell, blood red lighting falling from the sky over and over, crashing down in searing flashed like an arrhythmic drum.


    Then Rain¡¯s fur started lengthening around his neck, forming a dark mane that billowed and flowed. His fur darkened along with it, no, not darkened, became shadowed, the silhouette of his body fringed with chromatic aberration caused by the light itself veering away from him, trying to avoid touching him, the ground around him crawled, the very stones seemingly trying to get away from him.


    Rain had been a creature of fear before, but now he radiated raw terror in physical pulsing waves.


    Darkness was misting from his body, venting into the air. His eyes had changed too, becoming a corner to corner filling glowing yellow. As the roar came to an end and his head shifted back down his eyes came to rest on the Ranker. His body moved and all of him was pure hungry predator.


    The Hellhound had been backing away but the moment Rain¡¯s eyes crossed it the dog put its tail between its legs and fled, yelping and crying, disappearing as it quickly blinked away, an animal before its hunter.


    Bane stared at this new monster in shock.


    Then he looked down at his hand. His hand was trembling, shaking.


    ¡°Fear? Me? An aura of¡­ Terror?¡±


    He dug his nails hard into his palm, forcing the shaking to stop. Then he snorted a breath. Then he tipped his head back and a laugh slipped from his lips, then full-on laughter, rain falling on his face, pouring down his lank hair.


    ¡°I understand now, at last, it all makes sense. I know why this is happening, why you are here, why you turned into this monstrous thing.¡± He let out a breath, the confidence of madness in his eye. ¡°It¡¯s my Class you see, it all comes back to my Class. Years ago I found my Class was one of those few that had a level cap, I had reached my leveling limit, and no matter many monsters I killed those lovely little numbers never ticked up again. I killed so many, I massacred entire dungeons. I took the monsters and I bred them in farms, and then I killed them all, until all the miles of dungeon corridor were oozing rivers of gore up to my knees.¡±


    He curled his hand into a tightly clenched fist.


    ¡°I killed thousands, I killed millions, they called me the butcher, even the strongest levelers reviled what I did.¡±


    ¡°In the end, none of it mattered, It was all for nothing. Instead I found myself turning to finding a workaround. If the system would not give me what I desired, then I would find other means and simply bypass it. Power comes in many forms, and I found mine in the occult... in hell.¡±


    ¡°But now, now you have appeared before me. A monster I have not seen before, a very different kind of monster. I know exactly what this is. The gods sent you to me, to break my level cap, to smash through my ceiling.¡±


    ¡°you are what will at long last change my N U M B E R S.¡±


    Rain listened silently, unreacting. Instead, he lifted a paw. Misty chromatic fringed darkness danced across his claws, or more accurately, pure terror in physical form. He narrowed his eyes and instinctively willed it to move, to act upon his feral urges. The misty darkness rose up from the top side of his paw, forming a shape, solidifying. The darkness acted on his predatory instinct and formed a larger paw above his own, much much larger, and instead of regular short claws, this thing had claws like long lethal scythes, feet in length.


    He rolled his claws and the dark paw mirrored his movement, the scythes making the exact same motion but on a far larger scale. Interesting.


    He lifted his other paw and willed into existence the same, he now had two dark paws, each floating above his own.


    ¡°You¡¯ve given me a genuine reason to expend everything it seems, I cannot miss this opportunity,¡± said the Ranker.


    Rain lifted his head and his eyes came to rest on Bane. Then, he spoke.


    ¡°The howling dark. Can you hear it Bane? It''s screaming your sins."


    Bane¡¯s eyes opened fractionally but it was already too late, Rain set his feet and Exploded forward, the ground cratering behind him as he shot forward like a bolt, dark paws raised, sets of lethal scythes swinging.


    The Ranker darted backwards, his fingers whipping out complex seals as he moved. Imps poured out of the rubble behind him and shot toward Rain even as more formed in the air around. The scythes came down and cut through, a half dozen Imps sliced in twain or narrowly nicked by the blades.


    Of course, cutting wasn¡¯t really the point.


    The flesh around where the blades touched immediately began to rip itself apart as everything up from bones and muscles down to the cellular level became awash with a terror that caused one single overriding reaction: FLEE.


    The Imps boiled, their muscles tearing through their skin and wiggling away, their organs evacuating out their assholes as their bones ripped themselves from sockets and their skin sloughed off. One unlucky Imp with a slight cut on its face found its eyeballs slithering free as its brains pushed out of its nostrils. It dropped dead out of the air almost immediately.


    Bane waggled his fingers and the Imps came on with a fury as yet more appeared in balls of green fire around him. Rain snarled and swiped, each pass of his claws taking out a good half dozen, but there was always more, and then more, nearing a hundred, and then they were throwing themselves at him.


    He curled his half lip in annoyance and flicked his claws at the air. Darkness shed from his mane and poured into the air forming into floating balls of his own. The balls of darkness formed inward, condensing, becoming angular shapes, then teeth, sets of wolf teeth floating in the air, a good dozen of them. He willed them forward and the teeth snapped at the air like a pack of hungry wolves and then they dove on the swarm of Imps.


    The Imps didn''t stand a chance. The sets of teeth cut through them like a scalding blade through butter leaving a swathe of disintegrating bodies in their path, the Imps¡¯ frantic screams were a thing to behold as they could do nothing, they were naked and had no weapons or armour so even attacking the teeth only resulted in the fist they struck with disintegrating as their muscles and bones splayed and then fled from their skin.


    It didn''t take long. Less than a minute. And then the swarm of Imps was nothing but a layer of shifting squirming Imp pieces on the ground sticking out a lake of blood. The pack of wolf teeth rejoined his mane.


    Bane glanced up at Rain from what he was doing, and he had been doing something, Rain was fully aware of that and had been making his way forward even as he clawed the Imps apart around him. Unfortunately the Imps had bought the time the Ranker needed and his furious seal making finished, a wash of green fire spilling over his body, condensing, hardening, becoming a lustrous green metal plate armour that covered his body from neck to toe, the craftsmanship beautiful, ornate, swirls and curlicues moulded into ever rim and edge, the faces of demonic lions cleverly worked into each joint. The reflections in the metal were slightly less beautiful however, for there were horrible shapes visible in those reflections, cruel shapes not of this world.

 Chapter 84

    ? Chapter 84:


    The Ranker seemed to hesitate, then he muttered, ¡°Worth the cost.¡±


    A gauntleted fist came up and his index and thumb moved toward his face, or more specifically the black and silver eyepatch. He touched at it, then drawing in a breath, he lifted it away.


    Teeth, sharp needle-like teeth, reddened flesh, a disturbing mouth, that was what was behind the patch, a demonic mouth in his eye socket which contained a hellish swirling green Fel Fire. A very very dense Fel Fire.


    Rain furrowed his brow, his animal instinct was warning him to be wary, this wasn¡¯t normal, the Ranker had done something to himself even the Ranker himself was hesitant to touch.


    He wasn''t about to let him use it. He darted forward, the lake of Imp bits tearing up around his feet as he lunged for the Ranker, scythes reaching.


    Fel Fire spilt from the Rankers eye socket in a waterfall, the fire poured and built as the Ranker stumbled back, fire running out faster and faster as though a great lake was draining.


    A large demonic hand lurched from the fire, the rest of its body not even fully formed, and grabbed for Rain¡¯s dark paws. A mistake. The demon didn''t know what it was facing. Rain made his punishment swift and terrible, slashing out with his scythes, pieces of half-formed red demon disintegrating even as the rest formed. One demon formed missing a head and immediately collapsed, another with its arms falling to bits. Rain came on with a fury, shredding through the half formed battalion of demons as he chased after the Ranker.


    He broke through and found the ground awash with Fel Fire. Ahead the Ranker was bent over, hands on knees, fire waterfalling from his eye socket so quickly that it splashed against the growing pool of fire below. He couldn''t reach the Ranker as it was. He didn''t have to wait long for the situation to change however, demons were rising, their red faces and yellow slitted eyes forming from the fire, the many heads already looking in Rain¡¯s direction. These creatures were different from those that came before, broader, more muscular, and were wearing at least some amount of armour as well as wielding solid silver spears. Their teeth were larger too not fitting in their mouths, almost orc like.


    Rain didn''t give a shit. He launched into them, shredding through their ranks in a hurricane of gore even as they rose. While this ability of the Ranker¡¯s was strong it had one fatal flaw, it was slow. If he had to guess the Ranker had used it only rarely and wasn¡¯t used to pulling it out this quickly. He shot through the rising army, tearing it to pieces, his scything claws cutting a bloody harvest, dozens of demons falling with every passing moment. He leapt into the air, claws rising, and his scythes came down on the Ranker¡¯s held up vambraces ringing like a church bell as they struck the eerie green metal in a flash of light.


    The metal rippled and Rain snarled, the bridge of his nose wrinkling as his half lip lifted. He forced his paw down, his muscles bulging as with a shriek of metal the armour began to give. The Ranker¡¯s one green eye danced between the scythes bearing down on him, unable to pull his arms away as the blades would instantly fall upon his exposed head.


    He let out a cry of pain as a blade pierced through and nicked his skin, and then he didn''t have a choice as he lost control of his arm. His arms fell-


    But then the thing that had been forming behind Rain moved.


    A mammoth hand curled around Rain¡¯s leg and Rain found himself being flipped upside down and dragged up into the air, his scythe claws slipping free from the green armour as the Ranker fell back clutching his arm.


    The huge demon dangled Rain upside down, Imps crawling over its vast and broad muscular body, yellow tusk like teeth sticking up through its mouth, long black hair hanging lank from its head, silver baubles woven throughout. Its body was clothed in sheets of metal plate, cruel spikes set along the surface, a match to the many imps that crawled across the giant, each Imp bedecked in their own plate just like the giant. Rain blinked up at it from where he dangled.


    ¡°Big.¡±


    He had gotten used to being the largest person in the room, it was a little jarring to be picked up by the eighteen-plus foot demon. Its yellow slitted eyes examined him, then its other arm rose, a cleaver held in its fist. The cleaver was surprisingly well made, a giant chunk of silvery steel clearly well cared for, and sharp, very sharp.


    The cleaver moved toward his chest as Rain came to the conclusion that he didn''t like that this demon was larger than him. Time to cut some demon away.


    His scythes swept up in a blur and sliced deep into the thick hand holding him. The demon jerked back with a roar as its fist began to disintegrate.


    Rain fell away with the rain of flesh and bone and skin that poured down from the rapidly shrinking mass. He flipped through the air and came down with a crash amongst an army of angry demons. They instantly swarmed him, burying him in a mound of raging stabbing bodies, savagely fighting without thought for their comrades. The attack was barbaric, a brutal dogpile designed to crush and overwhelm with numbers and weight.


    Then the screaming began.


    The demons waiting to pile on looked down in horror as a pair of flying black wolf teeth burst from the mound before diving back in, turning the mound into a horrifying pile of wriggling gore. It took no time at all for the pile to go from desperately moving bodies, to desperately moving bits. The demons closely packed around it looked at the moving morass of gore and took a hesitant step back.


    Rain stood, bones and flesh and muscles sheeting off him. He was drenched from head to toe in blood which made his partially exposed to bone face all the more disturbing.


    He turned glowing yellow eyes on the demons and the demons began to fight each other to get away. Too late. A dozen pairs of wolf maws exploded out of the mound and launched into the panicking crowd.


    These demons at least had a little success keeping the teeth away, the teeth could be deflected with a spear strike, or bashed aside with a gauntlet. But this didn''t destroy the jaws, merely knocking them off course into the demon next to them. It wasn''t until the giant demon brought its cleaver down that things changed, the wall of metal sliced through a dozen demons without slowing and with them caught two of the wolf jaws. This, at last, had an effect and the jaws gasified, becoming a shroud of darkness that slowly drifted back to Rain¡¯s mane.


    He turned his eyes up to the giant demon. Most of its free hand was gone, the exposed flesh that remained a grotesque ragged thing, the last of the affected meat dropping away as he watched. The giant was more wary of him now, he could see it in its eyes. He lifted a paw and rolled his digits, the scythes rolling along with them. The remaining ten wolf jaws burst from the panicking army they were shredding and rushed toward the giant along with two more he recreated as they passed by. The giant bellowed a guttural command seeing this and the Imps crawling all over its body reacted, turning to face the oncoming jaws, drawing weapons and taking to the air. The seemingly fearless things flew out with a warcry. They slammed into the oncoming jaws, throwing themselves into them suicidally, tangling their plate armour covered bodies in the teeth, steel filling the maws until they were unable to close until each set of teeth was a ball of twisted Imp and plate armour and they were forced out of the sky, the army below reaching up and helping to drag them down.


    Even as that was happening the giant moved, its arm sweeping across, the cleaver like a sideways guillotine as it whipped by. Rain crouched then leapt up into the air, blood flinging from his drenched fur as he rose, rose high enough that the cleaver passed beneath him. He came back down, legs already pistoning and darted toward the giant. The giant seeing him coming backpedalled. It was a strange thing to see such a large thing shuffling backwards in fear, but it clearly didn''t want Rain to get near after what he had done to its hand. A wise decision in his opinion. In the same motion the cleaver came back, swinging in a long loping line that the army of demons had to fight to get out of the way of. Rain changed direction, but the cleaver followed, the giant¡¯s long arms giving it a frustrating amount of control.


    The giant spoke once more, a guttural gurgle that might have been language, and the demons around him thrust their weapons into the air with a roar and charged. Rain blinked as the demons pressed in on him, except this time with some measure of organization. They held their spears out, a porcupine of spikes surrounding him on all sides. He snarled and scythed at the all metal spears, his blades knocking them aside, but they were soon dragged back into place, and he found himself once more frustrated, trapped. He turned, searching for an opportunity, but instead only found more spears, more demons. Then a shadow passed over top and he found the cleaver falling upon him with nowhere to go, nowhere to escape.


    There was only one way to avoid the cleaver. He threw himself into the spears.


    They cut into him, slicing at his limbs as the cleaver came down with a ground shaking thump inches behind. The demons took their opportunity and charged. He found himself pinned up against the flat of the cleaver, one of his arms skewered, a sea of demons around him all throwing themselves forward in one desperate attempt to end him, to kill him now.


    He once more disappeared below a mountain of raging demons. He scythed wildly at them with his free paw but they had caught on that the key was armour and he found his scythes more and more blocked by metal, more and more blades puncturing his flesh, digging into him. He bit and snapped at those closeby, biting and tearing with the teeth he had remaining, growing more and more angry more and more enraged, fury building up, then a spear took him in the gut and he went over the edge.


    Prey did not oppress the predator.


    He snarled then roared and the gates once more swung wide, a billowing thrashing terror surging up his throat and then ripping past his shuddering maw, fringing and flaring with bright eye searing chromatic aberration, a plume, from which darkness lanced through the crowd, punching out the other side, across the ruined square, across the town, street after street, through the outer wall and into the forest, a solid beam of pulsing terror that sliced through everything, trees, buildings, demons, all were cut, and then around the cut the effect of pure terror given form, flee, run, hide.


    He turned his head as his jaws juddered wider, cutting a great scythe like swathe through the army, Lynthia, utter destruction, the terrible rumbling of hundreds of buildings crumbling and miles of forest falling filled the air.


    The demons surrounding him melted away as he turned, becoming pieces that washed down like grains of sand, unable to do a thing. The beam cut and killed and then it met the legs of the giant. It sliced right through them at the shin. It didn''t stand a chance.


    Rain felt the gates slam shut and the beam ended with the last of his rip snarl roar.


    He was surrounded by a sea of demon bits. Thousands gone in an instant.

 Chapter 85

    ? Chapter 85:


    He slumped against the cleaver, breathing ragged, blood flowing from his mouth without end. He raised a shaking paw to his neck, that hadn''t come without a cost, it felt like someone had taken razor blades to his throat, slashing up his insides. He felt he wouldn''t be opening the gates again anytime soon. As his paw fell away from his neck several shrouds of shadow seeped from the gore surrounding him and steadily made their way up to his mane, rejoining the darkness there, the remains of his floating wolf teeth returned. He pulled the spear that had been pinning his arm free and tossed it aside.


    Turning, he found the giant still standing, looking down in dismay at its shins which were currently bubbling and disintegrating.


    Rain stepped away from the cleaver and rolled his claws, scythes following along smoothly. He strode up the dune of gore that had piled up around him. He raised his claws as the giant fell, its head aligned with the peak of dune.


    The giant screamed and its face fell atop him, Rain¡¯s paws moved in a blur, cutting and dicing and digging. The Demon¡¯s head liquified around him, sloughing away into grains of butchery and adding to the dune, building it higher.


    Then it was done. The giant was dead, and Rain remained, a blood soaked thing atop a mound of gore in a lake of blood that flooded the square and the many ruined streets around.


    He stood and stared at his conquest.


    Blood, so much blood. Rivers of blood, lakes of blood. Yes, this felt right, this was how things were supposed to be, how they had been in ages past. The Apex predator hunted the world, for all were equal in that they were all equally below him, the wolf saw no difference between the rabbit and the fawn, they were all the same, all prey, all food.


    Something shifted in his paw and he looked down to find a piece of the giant''s flesh wiggling and quivering between his paw pads, trying to get away.


    He put it in his mouth and chewed, then he swallowed.


    ¡°......Wow that tastes awful.¡±


    Rain blinked. Wait, what had he just been thinking about? Apex predator? How things had been in ages past? He furrowed his brow in confusion. Those thoughts weren''t something that were naturally his, he was sure.


    He was disturbed from his pondering by a noise behind him, a flash of motion out of the corner of his eye. He jerked aside. Too late. A slab of rough iron took him across the back and he was smashed down the dune, sent rolling, his shoulder blade splitting under the impact. He crashed to the ground below in a great splash of blood, rolling until he came to a stop.


    With a groan he flopped onto his back and then after a moment of struggling lifted his head.


    ¡°I¡¯m not even sure you are a monster anymore, you''re not a mutant, or a multi-evolver, I know. You¡¯re something else entirely. Perhaps that is why I sense that killing you will break my level cap. You are outside the system¡¯s rules, unaccounted for.¡±


    The Ranker stood at the top of the red dune. He looked¡­ different. His once Fel Fire filled eye socket was now a black void, empty. More disturbing though were the pair of cut off horns that had part grown from his forehead, two fat curving tubes that ended in flat cut discs, green, the same color of the fire. The cost apparent of what he had done.


    His left arm hung limp at his side, blood seeping from the gaps in the plate. Rain had little doubt the inside was a blended mess, the bones and flesh shredding themselves as they had tried to flee but being kept inside by the armour. The Ranker had his giant sword resting on his shoulder, his right arm raised holding it up. He shrugged his shoulders and then spat to the side. Then he stepped forward and casually slid down the side of the dune, sabatons creating long furrows in the gore. As he did so Fel Fire washed up from his neck, a great helm forming over his face, fitting over his horns and adding a crown of spikes to each, entirely covering him from head to toe in green metal armour. A green knight.


    Rain climbed to his feet, cracking his neck. Then he held his scythe claws out and charged, bounding then leaping through the air, darkness pouring from his mane, forming sets of rabid snapping wolf teeth flying in a pack around him as he moved, hungry to hunt.


    The Ranker bellowed and swung, Rain twisted to the side, going for his wounded arm. The ranker grunted and hauled back on his sword, twisting it to block. CLANG! the scythes crashed against the blade in a spray of sparks, the blades running down the blunt edge. Rain aimed to rip into the Ranker¡¯s armour, sliding his scythes toward his arm, the Ranker pulled back on his sword then booted Rain in the gut sending him stumbling back, as he did so the dozen sets of wolf teeth slammed into him, crashing into the armour, biting into it, arms, legs, shrieking metal and fountaining sparks filling the air as the teeth bit down. The Ranker snarled and just straight up ignored them, barely slowing, he was too strong, his armour too thick.


    The ranker lurched forward, still covered in dark teeth, swinging his blade up forcing Rain to defend, the sword striking across the scythes. Rain flinched back as they were pushed toward him, near being impaled on his own weapon. He grit his teeth and pushed back. To his surprise he made headway, the Ranker not quite so overwhelming, the teeth limiting the Ranker¡¯s insane strength to some degree. Still, he found his attacks thwarted, the Ranker expertly shifting his center of balance into the optimal positions to leverage against Rain despite the restriction, deflecting his swipes, knocking aside his paws, head butting if he closed the distance, the green helm crashing against exposed bone.


    Rain''s frustration was growing. The Ranker didn''t even need an advantage of strength, he was an expert swordsman and Rain was beginning to wear down, his heavily injured body starting to falter, each motion widening his wounds. Rain had never used a sword or had any training in any weapons of any kind in his previous life and as much as the scythes were an extension of his natural predator they were also weapons, and when it came to weapons he was vastly out experienced.


    His problem was the sword, it was frustrating his every move, keeping him blocked in, controlling him. Well, if weapons weren''t the answer then it was time to return to basics.


    He lunged into the Ranker¡¯s attack, paws reaching out, and he took hold of the blade, both real paws and dark paws grabbing hold of it, wrapping around it, holding it in place. The Ranker tried to rip his weapon free but Rain held on tight. Then he opened his maw wide, lines of blood stretching between the remains of his teeth and bit down on the blade.


    Hard, unimaginably hard. He now knew viscerally why the Ranker used this weapon. It was ridiculously strong, not iron but something else, indestructible.


    No matter. He snarled and bit down harder, his remaining teeth grinding against the metal, sparks spilling around his mouth as the Ranker jerked and hauled on the sword, then unable to pull free, started kicking at him. Rain ignored his attacks as best he could, pushing on.


    He increased the pressure, then doubled it, then doubled it again until it felt like his jaw muscles were screaming. Until his teeth were starting to hairline fracture, about to shatter.


    It wasn''t going to be enough, too strong.


    He lifted what remained of his lip and a wisp of darkness surged up from his mane and leapt into his mouth, darkness coating his remaining teeth and then solidifying to create new teeth, a mouth full of dark teeth.


    He doubled the pressure again, then tripled it, then quadrupled it until his jaw muscles were starting to shred apart. A long terrible screech came from the metal and then with an ear-splitting crack and a crunch, the metal started to give, fractures shooting up and down its length, as an orange-red light spilt through.


    ¡°What have you done!¡± cried the Ranker.


    Rain blinked and then the world went white as the sword exploded.

 Chapter 86

    ? Chapter 86:


    Rain gradually opened his eyes. The world was a blur, a mess of indiscernible colours and shapes. He squinted trying to make sense of it, or trying to make something come into focus. A green blob moved closer to him and waved an appendage blob in front of his face.


    ¡°Hey, are you okay?¡±


    Rain put a paw to his face and rubbed across his eyes. He flinched as his paw pads touched bone. Pain. So much horrible Pain. His entire body felt like one big injury. Rubbing his eyelids seemed to help a bit and when he opened his eyes again he was able to see the blurry green shape was a blurry green Goblin.


    ¡°What happened?¡± he managed to get out. He noticed his voice sounded ragged, guttural, the combined destruction of his throat and lip.


    ¡°Goddam you sound like shit.¡±


    ¡°...Thanks Opal.¡±


    With a struggle, he sat up, but still couldn''t see much. He blinked rapidly to try and clear his sight. To his surprise, it worked, and things came into focus.


    He was still in the square but¡­ the demon bits were¡­


    ¡°Where did all the demons go?¡±


    ¡°Huh? Oh, you mean all that nasty bloody stuff? It started turning into green fire and disappearing after a while. Took a long time, there was a lot of it.¡±


    He looked around in dismay, the square was just empty, as though no great battle had been fought, well, that is if you didn''t count the flattening of Lynthia. He had been hoping to eat some of the demons if only to heal, even if they tasted vile.


    Speaking of healing, he looked over his body. It was in a sorry state, he could even see his intestine poking through his stomach wall where a spear had cut into him. Pain was an understatement, but he almost felt as if all the pains together were working against each other. Hard to have a point of reference of what wasn¡¯t pain if everything everywhere was pain. He noted that his mane had changed and wasn''t so dark and shedding of the light anymore, although it was definitely still longer than it had been. He was fairly sure his eyes were back to normal too since that was the case.


    ¡°The others?¡±


    ¡°Uh, they saw the streets filled with blood and were too scared to come closer.¡±


    Rain nodded. At least they lived.


    His eyes shifted across the ruined town square, rain still drizzling, until they came to rest on the body of a man. Rain¡¯s eyes narrowed. He could see him moving, shifting, gradually awakening.


    ¡°I have potions for healing, you ah, look like you need them rather a lot¡­¡± said Opal, gesturing at her hip where a number of vials had been strung around a pair of shorts she had apparently acquired somewhere. He noted that she was standing too, and was mostly balanced, only the occasional wobbled leg or sway.


    ¡°No.¡±


    With a gruelling effort Rain managed to slowly, laboriously get his feet under him, then even more slowly he rose until he was standing. He nearly fell there and then, staggering to keep his balance. Setting what remained of his lip he made his way toward the Ranker.


    The man saw him coming and began to struggle, trying to move, to escape, but to no avail. Rain advanced and then fell on him, falling to all fours and slamming his paw down on his neck. He snarled into the Ranker¡¯s face.


    ¡°I promised you a hateful miserable death Ranker. Did you think I lied?¡±


    The Ranker who was now armourless looked up at him warily. His body seemingly had taken the brunt of the explosion and his occult scars had been torn up by metal shrapnel, disfiguring his body, the orange-red glow that normally suffused the scars was simply gone. He was noticeably weaker too, very very weak in fact.


    ¡°Y-you won¡¯t do it. You won¡¯t,¡± he managed to croak out.


    Rain stared at him with luminous yellow eyes. Then he moved his head over to his arm, and then he began to eat.


    The Ranker screamed as Rain¡¯s teeth bit into his bicep, his remaining teeth incising into his skin, then his muscle, eating away at his flesh, swallowing, then biting down on his humerus until with a wet crunch the bone split apart. Rain ate, steadily making his way down his arm until the Ranker¡¯s fingers were going into his maw.


    He turned back to the Ranker to find a pale sweaty face, staring at his arm which was simply gone.


    Rain understood that look. Magic and healing and potions couldn''t bring back entire limbs, nor eyes, if something was gone it was just gone. The Ranker knew that first hand with the loss of his eye. The Ranker¡¯s dread was a dread born of experience.


    ¡°He¡¯s gonna bleed out with a wound like that,¡± said Opal.


    He turned to find the Goblin girl watching him.


    ¡°No, he¡¯s not. Give me the potions.¡±


    Opal blinked at him. ¡°Oh. I see, so that''s why...¡±


    She reached for her side where a small vial was strung and pulled it free. Crouching down she unstoppered it and began pouring it over the Ranker¡¯s stump.


    ¡°You don''t have to do this, this is something I need to do, but you don''t have to be here, to be involved with what I¡¯m about to do. It¡¯s wrong, I know that, but I can''t stop myself.¡±


    She glanced up at him out of the corner of her eye as she worked.


    ¡°I wasn''t joking when I said I¡¯d like to see all the levelers die. Levelers would never ever let a surface town like this for the few peaceful monsters exist, they¡¯d hunt it down and destroy it. They want us all trapped together tight in spiralling hateful little dungeons where death and violence is around every corner and they can come in and do what they like. And this leveler, well, he¡¯s part of what keeps monsters in the dungeons right? He¡¯s killed a lot of monsters right?¡±


    ¡°Millions he says.¡±


    Opal scowled, her hands lifting as the Ranker¡¯s stump healed over, becoming fresh smooth skin


    ¡°Do it.¡±


    Rain nodded and moved to his other arm, still holding him in place. He leaned down and began to eat, quickly biting away the Ranker¡¯s flesh and bone. The Ranker screamed again, thrashing beneath Rain¡¯s paw, unable to do anything but take it in his weakened state. Soon it was done and the Ranker was left armless. Opal moved and began pouring potion over the ragged stump even as Rain moved down to his legs.


    By this point the Ranker had started babbling, ¡°S-stop, you need to stop. I- I command you to stop. M-my arms, no, I deny this is happening. This isn''t- this- this can''t be happening to me!¡±


    ¡°Be quiet.¡± commanded Rain.


    The Ranker¡¯s iris danced madly between them, eye as wide as it would go.


    ¡°You can''t do this, you¡¯re just a monster! Monsters don''t win against me! They don''t!¡±


    Opal spat to the side and produced a knife from her clothing.


    ¡°You¡¯re wrong. Monsters can win against anything, no matter how many goddam levels and no matter how much power you leeched and stole from killing us it doesn''t matter. We¡¯ll find a way.¡±


    ¡°Mutants? What? No, that doesn''t count, those aren''t-


    Opal stabbed him in the mouth.


    She rested one small green hand on his forehead and thrust the knife between his teeth, sawing back and forth, cutting bit by bit as he shook his head side to side. It didn''t matter, with one last grunted thrust she cut through and the Ranker¡¯s tongue fell from his mouth.


    Face a mask of seriousness she took the last of the potion she had used on his stump and poured it between his lips. Then she tossed the bottle aside pulling a pair of fresh ones as she moved to the Ranker¡¯s legs. Rain had eaten them both leaving a quickly widening puddle of blood around the stumps. She quickly poured out the potions and his stumps healed over.


    The Ranker was now just a helpless torso and a head on the ground, making strangled hissing noises as he tried to speak.


    Rain leaned down and grabbed his long back hair and then hauled on it, striding unsteadily across the destroyed square as he dragged him to the remains of the bell tower, its fragmented walls sticking up like broken teeth. With a snarl he slammed him up against the stonel. Then he took a step back.


    Opal looked between Rain and the Ranker. ¡°What now?¡±


    ¡°...I- I need him to feel what I felt, at least in some small part.¡±


    The Goblin girl tilted her head to the side in question.


    ¡°Just watch.¡±


    Rain lifted a paw and then after a moment of focus darkness started to ooze from his fur and then form into a shape, a dark mirror of his paw, larger, with scythes for claws. He rolled his digits experimentally, watching carefully as the dark paw moved in tandem. Opal stared at it with wide eyes.


    ¡°What''s that?¡±


    ¡°I... don''t know. It¡¯s just something I feel I can do now, it... comes naturally, instinctively.¡±


    He looked at the stone above the ranker, then stepped forward, curling his other digits and leaving his index straight he began to carve words into the wall with the outstretched scythe, slowly at first and then more confidently as he got used to it. Five minutes later he was done, an angular message written above the Ranker.


    HELP THIS MAN AND I WILL KILL AND EAT YOU.


    -- THE ONE WHO DESTROYED THIS TOWN.


    ¡°I don''t get it.¡±


    With a wave of his paw a dozen powerful wolf teeth poured from his mane and slipped into the shadows around the Ranker, hidden from sight, instructed to watch and kill.


    Rain sighed, he was suddenly feeling very weary, sick even. Maybe it hadn''t been such a good idea to bring out the dark so soon, his injuries seemed so much heavier now.


    ¡°It¡¯s what he did to me,¡± Rain dropped down to one knee, voice low, ¡°Everyone was terrified of helping me, I want him to know what that is like,¡± He found himself moving closer to the ground, his words a whisper, ¡°To see someone come towards you then stop as they recognise the danger, leaving you to suffer.¡± His head came to rest on the cobble. ¡°It hurts so much, I just wished and wished, all my life, for him to know, what it was like, even for a moment.¡± He found his eyes drifting shut, but only for a second, of course.


    ¡°Rain? R-Rain?! Are you okay? J-just w-wait I have more potions! Hold on!¡±


    He didn''t reply.

 Chapter 87

    ? Chapter 87:


    Consciousness returned slowly.


    Rain blinked the crust from his eyes and gradually drifted from a murky half-remembered dream of his mother and father. Unfortunately, as he awoke the memory of the dream slipped through his claws like so much intangible sand and he soon found he couldn''t recall any of it. Feeling a little annoyed he managed to focus and found himself in a room, a shadowy room with the curtains closed. He was laid out on a fluffy carpet in front of a low flickering fire in a fireplace. Strange, this was hardly what he expected to wake up to. He shifted and found Opal atop him, asleep. Then, more surprising, he found Lyra was slumped against him, also asleep. A long thin line of drool hung from the sheep girl¡¯s lip and she was rather loudly snoring. Rain squinted at that, those noises did not belong on such a small girl, he could feel her rumbling snore through his body for gods sake!


    After a few failed attempts he managed to struggle up, Opal rolled off him and fell on the carpet with a thump and a grunt followed up by a long noise of complaint. She wiped hair from her eyes and let out a long yawn.


    ¡°Hey, I was wondering if you were ever gonna wake. I think you kinda overdid it after- you know.¡±


    ¡°The-- Wait,¡± said Rain, suddenly panicked, ¡°What happened? What happened to the Ranker?¡±


    Opal scratched her neck and yawned again. ¡°Oh he¡¯s still there, hasn''t moved or done shit, how could he, he¡¯s near dead and he hasn''t got any legs.¡±


    ¡°...Oh. But how do you know?¡±


    ¡°Red¡¯s watching him, we¡¯ve been taking it in shifts.¡±


    Lyra snorted suddenly and the line of drool snapped before splatting on the carpet below.


    Groggily she turned eyes on Rain. ¡°Whassah?¡± she mumbled.


    Rain¡¯s eyes moved to her shoulder, it was healed, smooth blemish free skin where once had been a fairly savage injury. Potion healed he assumed. He recalled very vividly the Hellhound mauling her, he had failed her in that moment, again, so soon after being taken by the council. He couldn''t say he liked that feeling.


    He put a paw to his face and touched at his muzzle, he almost expected to find exposed bone, but no, there was only normal flesh and regrown teeth, it was like the damage had never happened, everything as it should be, it appeared he had been healed. That said, he didn''t feel particularly great, a lot of low harsh aches seemed to fill his body.


    ¡°Mmm, I dug up a bunch more potions, fixed up everyone but I ran out when healing you. You''re just too big and had too many holes in you.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I can feel it, I¡¯m still sore all over.¡± He stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles letting out a deep yawn of his own. ¡°I need to see the Ranker, I really shouldn''t have fallen asleep like that.¡±


    ¡°Asleep? You passed out and nearly died! Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass it was to drag you in here?¡±


    ¡°Uh-¡±


    ¡°Do you even know how much you weigh! It took all four of us to move you and that was with putting your leg in the weird bag to make you weigh less! I felt like my arms were going to fall off by the time we got you inside!¡±


    Rain scratched his cheek with a claw, slightly abashed. ¡°I didn''t expect to fall unconscious like that, I... went too far, I was only moving by riding the rush of¡­ whatever happened to me. You saw some of it, the paw.¡±


    Opal let out a breath, ¡°Yeah, that was something.¡± she suddenly squinted at him. ¡°Did you¡­ evolve? Is this an evolution thing?¡±


    ¡°No, at least, I don''t think so, I feel like this was something being freed within me rather than an evolution, it was always there, growing, it just couldn''t get out until I changed.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡±


    Rain clambered to his feet, letting out a groan as his muscles twinged. He needed more time to recover really but he had to see the Ranker, he hated that his eyes were off him for even a moment, he didn''t trust that creature in the slightest, god knows what he could get up to! He lumbered toward the door but then paused, his brow furrowing. He looked back at Opal.


    ¡°Wait, all four of you moved me? How does that work when Vash is just a skull?¡±


    A cry of fright came from behind him and Opal raised an eyebrow.


    Rain turned back to the door and found a human woman standing outside staring up at him, a woman with long black hair and a corset. It took him a moment to realise he recognised the woman, it was the person that Adlen had been dragging through the market, the low leveler he¡¯d taken from the low leveler quarter and tried to make his own by dint of being far more powerful than her. She looked significantly better than when he had last seen her, her face no longer quite as swollen and bruised.


    ¡°You helped move me?¡±


    The woman trembled and then made a wobbly attempt at a curtsey.


    ¡°Y-yes- I saw the others- a-and I knew them from the market, I thought it was the least I could do after what happened!¡±


    Rain blinked, Processing what she was saying. She wanted to pay them back for removing Adlen from her life? She was grateful to him? Now that was a strange feeling. He couldn''t recall ever being in a position to help strangers in any serious way in his previous life, it had just never been part of his survival, or something he could afford to do, yet now he had seemingly changed the course of this person''s life. He couldn''t say he hated the feeling, it wasn''t bad.


    A flash of red caught his eye and he looked past the extremely nervous woman into the room beyond, or what remained of it. Most of the walls had fallen down leaving it exposed to the air. It was light out and he quickly recognised where he was. It was one of the buildings that rimmed the square, or at least part of the building; it had had a second floor at one point but that was gone now. He found the red that had caught his eye, it was Red, sitting upon a piece of wall, his tail waving gently back and forth below him.


    He passed by the wide eyed woman and stepped up behind the Kobold. The cowardly Kobold? The slave Kobold? Food?


    Somehow none of that seemed to fit anymore. It hadn''t really fit for a while, but now, after what the Kobold did, he couldn''t make it fit in his head at all. Red put his life on the line for them, saving Opal and Lyra and allowing him to fight and eventually beat the Ranker.


    He paused to organize his thoughts. ¡°You¡­ don¡¯t have to stay if you wish Red. I won¡¯t go after you or anything if you leave. You don''t wear a collar or chain anymore and I won''t put you in one¡­ Thank you for what you did.¡±


    The Kobold remained silent, his tail swaying. Then he turned and gave Rain a sour look.


    ¡°How am I supposed to leave and just leave behind all the gold? That¡¯s so not worth it.¡±


    Rain felt a little bemused by that reaction. The Kobold had wanted to escape for a long time but now it seemed his greedy avarice was acting like his own personal golden ball and chain. He wasn¡¯t against working with that, he could think of a compromise.


    ¡°Then become my treasurer, Red the Kobold Treasurer. You look after all the gold, count it, keep it, care for it.¡±


    The Kobold¡¯s tail wagged a little faster.


    ¡°What does that mean? Can I sleep in the gold?¡±


    ¡°As much as you want, and any more gold we get goes to your care. We seem to stumble upon the stuff everywhere we go so I imagine the pile will increase significantly over time.¡±


    The tail wagged even faster.


    ¡°Filling the hoard bag? To the brim?!?¡±


    ¡°Uuhh, Yes?¡±


    Rain suspected the Kobold¡¯s tail was going to detach and go flying off into the air if it wagged much faster.


    ¡°Fine, you drive a hard bargain, but I can see a reasonable deal when it is offered. I reluctantly accept. Very reluctantly.¡±


    It was difficult to take the Kobold¡¯s words seriously as every other word was punctuated with the happy fwapping of his tail against stone.


    ¡°Good, now tell me what the Ranker has been doing.¡±


    The tail paused and he glanced outside, Rain turned. Lynthia, the town, was truly a ruin, every building taking at least some damage, mostly a lot of damage, the taller ones especially. The streets were shattered, cobble torn up, and oftentimes great pits where the earth had split apart.


    Rain followed Red¡¯s gaze over the square to the remaining stubbed base of the belltower. They were close by.


    The Ranker was there, exactly as Rain had left him, slumped against the wall, his message carved into the wall above. In retrospect the message might have been a little overdramatic, but he had been in a terrible place mentally.


    To his surprise people were in the square, just a few, picking their way amongst the rubble.


    ¡°He¡¯s done nothing,¡± said Red. ¡°Just made noises and be levelerish.¡±


    Rain wasn''t exactly sure what being ¡®levelerish¡¯ meant but he didn''t bother to ask for clarification. Instead he watched, his eyes laser focused as a woman in a dirty dress carefully passed by, making her way around the debris and holes in the ground. She glanced up as the Ranker suddenly moved his head, gabbling at her, trying to make words and failing due to his lack of tongue. She blinked and looked over his injuries, a little pity entering her eyes, clearly not recognizing him due to his greatly changed state and assuming he was just a victim. She reached for a wicker basket hanging from her arm and pulled half a loaf of bread free. She lifted it, but then she caught sight of the writing above the Ranker¡¯s head. Her lips moved as she slowly read through it, her jaw going slack, the blood draining from her face. She quickly stuffed the loaf back in the basket and fled as fast as her legs would carry her.


    The Ranker slumped back against the wall, complete and utter defeat in his body language, reduced to being a beggar, no, below a beggar, even a beggar had better prospects.


    Rain¡¯s paw curled as a sense of satisfaction rose in him. Somewhere deep inside a young Human version of himself was cheering, fisting the air.


    It was everything he had ever wanted.


    He ignored Red who was giving him a peculiar look. He didn''t care, this moment was-


    The Hellhound blinked into existence near the Ranker. Rain froze up, his eyes going wide, the Ranker¡¯s dog, his loyal companion, his obedient Hellhound. He stepped forward, about to charge from the building and attack, his dark sets of wolf teeth instantly moving from the shadows around the Ranker, even shifting behind the Ranker¡¯s back where they had been hiding. Myriad deathly fangs stealthily hovering up against the man¡¯s flesh, the back of his neck, his spine, one tiny fractional motion and the Ranker would instantly die.


    The Hellhound approached its master and the dark teeth began biting down, killing the Ranker as Rain had previously instructed. It took a moment for the Ranker to notice the Hellhound was there¡­ The reaction caused Rain to come to a grinding halt and signal his wolf teeth to pause.


    The Ranker was scared, no, not just scared, terrified out of his mind. The Ranker made a hissing desperate scream and flopped onto the ground desperately trying to get away from the hound, wiggling himself, making bare progress.


    The Hellhound trotted up to him, sniffing curiously, inspecting the Ranker¡¯s body.


    Then, like a pet dog trapped in the home of its dead owner, it began to eat its master''s face.


    The screams were horrific, serrated teeth biting down, ripping, tearing. The Ranker¡¯s nose disappeared down the dog¡¯s throat, then the Ranker¡¯s eyeball burst leaving him entirely blind. The Hellhound didn''t even pause, hungrily eating its way through its owner''s face, the Ranker¡¯s torso convulsing as he died. Then the Hellhound was eating into its master¡¯s brain, and then the Ranker was simply dead.


    Rain slowly unfroze. He took a step forward, unsure what to do, or if he should do anything. But the Hellhound didn''t give him the option, the Hellhound was there, and then it was gone, blinking away, impossible to follow.


    Shocked, dismayed, he felt a twisted mix of emotion. But then, maybe this was the karma that the Ranker had for so long evaded, killed by his own creation. His shoulders slowly eased. The Ranker was dead, he was fucking dead!


    ¡°It¡¯s... over¡­¡± he murmured, struggling to comprehend it.


    A comforting hand patted his leg and he looked down to see Opal.


    ¡°Turns out I was totally one hundred percent completely correct to get him to come from the dungeon. Yup.¡±


    Behind them Lyra made a strangled cry of very strong disagreement.


    Rain sighed and turned. He needed- He wasn''t sure what he needed, some time to decompress and to untangle the knotted mess of his thoughts and emotions. He needed to be somewhere safe, not in a destroyed town that the Inquisitor would be coming back to.


    His gaze fell on the woman once more and he furrowed his brow. Where did he know her from?


    ¡°Who are you?¡±


    ¡°R-really I-I¡¯m nobody!¡±


    ¡°No, you are not. Be specific.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just- I just worked in the lower levelers district, I¡¯ve never done anything! I¡¯m just a low leveler!¡±


    ¡°And what was it exactly that you worked as?... What is your name?¡±


    ¡°I- I was known as Neia, th-that is, while I was a l-lady of the n-night¡­¡± she went a little pink.


    ¡°In the¡­¡± Rain at last realised where he knew her from, she was one of the ones who had been at the whorehouse he had lived behind, he had seen her in his previous life at times. She had been kind to him, sometimes sneaking him food at night, if very very scared to be seen near him. He furrowed his brow, that didn''t explain why she was here. ¡°Aren''t you afraid of the succubus? Why didn''t you leave with the rest?¡±


    She bit her lip. ¡°It¡¯s not something everyone can do, it takes savings to just get up and go stay in the city, we- we knew of a cave in the woods and decided to hide there, to try and wait it out. But then yesterday there was an earthquake and we were forced to flee, and then we found the town like this, everything is just- gone! Our home is, it¡¯s¡­ rubble now, there''s nothing left...¡±


    Rain felt a little bad, but then he did have a solution, and why not? They had been one of the very very few willing to help, if only by mostly forgetting he lived there.


    He turned to Red.


    ¡°Treasurer, we have some expenses to pay.¡±


    Red blinked up at him. ¡°Expense-what-now?¡±


    The next few minutes played out like a tragedy, with much Kobold wailing and gnashing of teeth, and floods of tears and frantic pleas for mercy, as some of the gold was removed from the Dimensional Bag and dumped into a sack the woman held. She wasn''t faring much better and seemed to be on the verge of having a heart attack, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed. Rain wasn¡¯t surprised, he¡¯d just given her more gold than a low leveler could normally imagine.


    ¡°Take this and use it to help the others, move somewhere else. Lynthia is done for.¡±


    ¡°It won''t be forever,¡± butted in Lyra, ¡°The Queen isn''t very likely to let a dungeon remain without a standing town for long.¡±


    Rain waved a paw. ¡°Sure, just get out of town, find some place else to go. Make sure to share,¡± He lifted his lip baring his teeth and leaned down, the woman cowered, ¡°Don''t make me regret this.¡±


    Neia nodded furiously, quickly backing away. Rain watched her go. If he knew the low levelers of Lynthia, which he did, he thought they would do well, he hadn''t been the only one to be a survivor.


    He sighed and then turned to the others.


    ¡°Our goal is simple now: Find me a damned bath.¡±


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 88

    ? Chapter 88:


    Deep deep in the forest, far away from any town or sign of civilization, Rain sat on a grassy hill overlooking an ocean of trees.


    He watched carefully as a black dot flew across the distant treetops, a swooping gliding thing that dipped down amongst the leaves.


    On one occasion, when it dipped below, a flurry of surprised birds took to the air. Squawking and flapping madly the flock rose up into the sky.


    The black dot followed beneath, gliding across the treetops like a shark showing its fin above the waterline. The birds did not like this one bit and cawed angrily down at it for encroaching on their territory, one of them even going in for a swooping attack run, to bite and claw at the intruder.


    That was a mistake. The bird came down, razor claws outstretched, and then the black dot rose up and the bird disappeared in an explosion of feathers.


    More infuriated than ever the flock dove, a furious rush of feathers determined to crush this strange thing. The black dot suddenly changed direction and sprang up into the air shivering as it charged into the flock. The birds cawed with glee, the fool thing had just ended its own life! They fell on it with a fury.


    That lasted all of thirty seconds as the black thing shredded through them, a shower of feathers and other bits falling to the forest below. The survivors of the flock realising it was hopeless turned and fled, their squawks of anger turning to ones of panic as the thing followed after, hot on their tails, coming in Rain¡¯s direction.


    The cluster of birds raced across the treetops and the black dot became clearer, it was one of the sets of wolf teeth, snapping hungrily at the air as it flew, like some kind of strange flying bear trap.


    It bit and the stragglers dropped one by one, falling to pieces underneath the teeth, leaving a trail of falling gore in its wake. Then it was tearing through the middle of the pack and then it was almost upon the fastest, the last remaining. With an almost eager glee the teeth bit into it and the bird fell apart in a flurry of feathers, a trail of bloody bits splattering up the hill until the fang filled beak of the bird fell at Rain¡¯s feet.


    The wolf teeth swooped down and danced around Rain, giving the strange impression that the teeth were pleased with what they had done.


    Rain glanced from the teeth to the spread out mess it had made.


    ¡°Well I¡¯m not sure how I¡¯m supposed to eat that, but I suppose it¡¯s effective.¡±


    Opal stood with a hand over her eyes, shading from the sun, peering out over the distance.


    ¡°Far. Real far. If you ask me that seems like a pretty big advantage don''t you think? You don''t even need to get near an enemy like this, you could just stand on a hill and send a pair of wolfy teeth down to bite them to bits.¡±


    Rain nodded his agreement as the teeth pounced playfully against his leg. With a gesture the teeth returned to his mane, the form of it gasifying as it went before slipping into his fur out of sight.


    ¡°True, although I still need a view of what''s happening, and these teeth aren''t any good against armour.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. Well, what about anything else? Some other shadowy thing? You can make anything out of that stuff right?¡±


    ¡°Not¡­ exactly.¡±


    Rain concentrated and a billow of darkness rose from the back of his paw before drifting down onto the grass. After a moment it started to form up, curling in on itself, becoming sleek and smooth, forming a body, head, legs, and a tail.


    The shadow house cat shook its head and blinked up at them, its eyes like pinpricks of starlight. Then it turned and began washing its paw, licking the paw pad and then rubbing it over its ear exactly as a real cat would. It was remarkable how alike to the real thing it was, even its tail twitched as the breeze ruffled its shadow body.


    Opal tilted her head to the side.


    ¡°So you can make a full shadow kitty? That''s something right? If you can do that you should be able to make anything.¡±


    Rain shook his head.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not like that. Watch.¡±


    Once more darkness slipped from his paw and curled down onto the grass before circling in on itself next to the cat. The darkness rose, forming, becoming solid. A miniature cow¡¯s head began to appear, along with a miniature cow¡¯s body. The shadows started to shudder as the cow took shape, and then, after a moment, the shadows collapsed in on themselves, the form disintegrating into a blob of misty shadow on the ground, already gasifying.


    Opal frowned at it. ¡°What was wrong with that? Why did you stop making it?¡±


    ¡°I didn''t, it fell apart without me doing anything, I just can''t make a cow, or any herbivore at all really. I can only create things that I understand as predators, or things that are tied to being a predator, teeth, claws. It¡¯s like I can command something to happen, but only with my natural instinct as a predator, and my instinct understands¡­ well this kind of thing.¡±


    The cat wandered over to him and rubbed its face against his leg affectionately. A low purr came from its body.


    ¡°That¡¯s not very predatory.¡±


    Rain shrugged. ¡°Growing up in Lynthia I saw what stray cats were capable of, they ate better than me most days as they could hunt and kill any rat or bird they came across, they rarely let prey escape. It''s not really the size of the predator, just that they are predators.¡±


    ¡°Do a Gobbo.¡±


    ¡°Goblins¡­ aren''t predators, at least not really.¡±


    ¡°Not true, we hunt stuff!¡±


    ¡°Sure, but you also gather mushrooms and build things, that''s not very predatory.¡±


    He petted the house cat and then noticed Opal glaring. He sighed.


    ¡°Fine, I can try.¡±


    Rain lifted his other paw and once more darkness poured forth, pooling on the grass and then building up and up. A Goblin nearly the same height as Opal started to take shape, its limbs solidifying from shadow then detailing, fingers splitting from nubs, knife ears growing out from a blob head. The Goblin took shape, long hair spilling from the now clearly female Goblin''s scalp as she shook her head and seemed to look around with curiosity, her star filled eyes luminous.


    ¡°Uh, why does it look like me?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don''t know.¡±


    The shadow Opal shifted her feet, rolling her toes in the grass, rocking her hips side to side.


    The real Opal reached out a hand, but a giant paw wrapped around her arm stopping her.


    ¡°Careful, I don''t know if it would hurt or not to simply touch this stuff¡­ so just in case, use something else.¡±


    The real opal pulled her arm free and rolled her eyes. Then she snatched up a stick from the grass and approached. Hesitantly, her eyes narrowed with suspicion, she slowly moved the stick toward the shadow Opal. The shadow Opal didn''t respond, seemingly more interested in the world around her than the stick about to touch down. Then the stick did touch down and¡­ for a moment nothing happened. Then the shadow Opal looked down at the stick poking her in the side. The shadow Opal opened her mouth as though to speak, and then she disintegrated, falling to mist.


    ¡°What? I¡¯m not that weak!¡± said real Opal, clearly disappointed in her shadow self¡¯s performance.


    ¡°It seems like the less pure a predator something is the weaker it is at holding a form.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not weak damn it!¡± said Opal blowing a strand of hair that had fallen across her face.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that, it¡¯s Goblin-


    ¡°Gobbos aren''t weak either!¡±


    Rain shrugged, ¡°It¡¯s not like that. It¡¯s not about being weak it¡¯s about being a purer predator.¡±


    Opal set her lips in a line. ¡°If you''re so sure then do a Panthara. That¡¯s the purest predator I¡¯ve ever known.¡±


    Rain froze up hearing that. A Panthara? But they were so, so¡­ But then why not? Those things were certainly predatory.


    Hesitantly he reached out a paw and the shadowy substance began to take shape once more, building, larger, larger than anything he had so far created, drawing more from him, taking all of the shadowy terror, the creature becoming taller, as tall as Rain, It¡¯s lashing scaled tail and cruel taloned legs and feline upper body taking shape, long scaled barbells whipping out behind its head as a mouth full of fangs grew. And then came its eyes. The eyes weren''t starry like the cat and goblin, no, they were a solid glowing foreboding red.


    Opal looked up at the thing, suddenly very nervous, this particular monster was one she had learned to fear.


    The Panthara finished forming and lifted the talons on its hands up, holding them in front of its face, flexing them, examining the razors blades that were its digits.


    ¡°Uh, so should I just poke it with a stick or?¡±


    Rain looked up at the Panthara from where he sat. Something seemed... wrong. He gestured in the direction of a stump poking from the grassy hill, pushing his will into the Panthara¡¯s darkness, instructing it to pull up the stump.


    The Panthara looked at the stump, then back at Rain. It paused, and then it lunged at him. The Panthara¡¯s mouth opened wide in a look of glee, its talons reaching, falling upon him. Rain jerked back in surprise, falling back on the grass. The talons whipped down, about to rip and tear into him, its eyes glowing bright, mouth overfilled with long fangs about to bite down.


    Rain willed the shadow to gasify but it was a little too late and the talons dug into his side. He looked down in shocked surprise, expecting to see his flesh start to break apart as the terror effect spread


    Instead, the talons dissipated as they pierced his flesh, and then so did the Panthara, becoming a shadowy shape that sunk back into his fur. He touched at his side, finding a touch of blood but no more. He brought his paw up and rolled the drop of blood between thumb and index paw pad, his brow furrowed.


    ¡°That,¡± said Opal letting out a long breath of relief. ¡°Was not supposed to happen I assume, what went wrong?¡±


    ¡°I couldn''t control it at all, it completely ignored my will. That is- The form takes on something of what I¡¯m trying to recreate, like the cat right?¡± he glanced down at the house cat which was attempting to curl up in his lap, paddy pawing his leg. ¡°The Panthara was just like how a real Panthara is.¡±


    ¡°Really really cruel and nasty and horrible?¡±


    ¡°...Yes. That thing wanted nothing more than to kill whatever was nearest in the most painful way possible, and that insane desire somehow came through with it and overrode my will and any control I had over it.¡± Rain ran a paw over his head, flattening his ears. ¡°I didn''t realise that could happen, but maybe, maybe we just got lucky.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡±


    ¡°I was thinking of recreating myself, the species that I am. But what if something like that happened, except far more dangerous? What if I couldn''t stop it? What if the shadow version of me could do what I do and control this stuff? I can¡¯t risk that when I know next to nothing about what I am, what drives my species.¡± Rain scritched the house cat which was smaller than his paw, its head bounced up and down with the motion but it still seemed content. ¡°It¡¯s a risk.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn''t mind two of you. But yeah, I get it I suppose, a mad version of you would probably be bad.¡±


    Opal leaned forward to pet the house cat which was purring contentedly, but Rain blocked her hand. She scowled.


    ¡°I don''t know what happens if someone who isn''t me just touches this stuff, it might be the same as when it cuts. Do you really want your skin to be frightened off your body?¡±


    ¡°I bet that wouldn''t happen.¡±


    ¡°It might. If you want to touch it you¡¯ll have to find some gloves first.¡±


    Rain pulled the shadow cat further into his lap which just seemed to make Opal all the more annoyed.


    ¡°I don''t have any gloves, we''re in the middle of nowhere!¡±


    ¡°Tough.¡±


    Opal made an exasperated sound and stalked away just as Red and Lyra pushed their way out from the treeline at the bottom of the hill.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 89

    ? Chapter 89:


    Rain watched the red-scaled Kobold and the fluffy wooled sheep girl as they pushed branches and leaves aside and emerged from the forest.


    Red was definitely still angry with him, giving away some of the gold had not gone down well, and he kept giving him suspicious looks just like those he had been giving Lyra after her, according to him, misuse of gold.


    Lyra waved as she made her way up the rise and Rain let the shadow cat sink into his fur.


    ¡°I found what we¡¯ve been looking for. You know, I really think this was a little unnecessary.¡±


    Rain promptly climbed to his feet and set off down the hill, ignoring the sheep girl who had to make a surprised about-face and hurry to catch up, going back the way she had just come.


    ¡°It¡¯s important, I can¡¯t go on like this, you have no idea,¡± said Rain.


    ¡°Wha- It¡¯s not that important! I should know I have fluff!¡±


    Rain turned back to her.


    ¡°You¡¯re not the one who is filthy right now, and besides you don''t have fur all over. Now show me where the hotspring is or I¡¯ll put you in a tree and leave you there.¡±


    ¡°You wouldn''t dare! Wait- h-hangon!¡±


    ¡°Red. Show me.¡± said Rain, switching to the Kobold as Lyra was being far too slow for his liking. The Kobold jumped in surprise, then seeing Rain¡¯s serious steady gaze scuttled off into the woods.


    Rain followed, pushing tree branches aside and kicking through the undergrowth. Being so large made going through forests a touch more inconvenient than being human sized. Still, he kept the flashing red scales of Red¡¯s back in sight and after a ten minute walk, with Lyra frantically trying to keep up behind, they came out into a gap in the trees.


    It was a small glade filled with steaming turquoise water, the warm summer sun streaming down onto the pristine pool surrounded by lush long grass a vibrant emerald in colour, bright blue butterflies fluttering through the warm air.


    Rain felt a little emotion well up in him as he eyed the water, it was good for tired eyes to see such a thing.


    He approached and carefully dipped his toe. It was the perfect temperature, easily as good as the baths in the Ranker¡¯s mansion. Without preamble he slipped into the water, or at least, that was what he had intended, being so large it was more like a kersploosh! Sending a wave of turquoise to slop over the edge of the pool and wash up through the grass.


    To his surprise he found the pool deeper than he expected, much much deeper, and he was soon well below the water line. He blinked and looked up, the shimmering dance of the summer sun on the rippling water above was almost hypnotising and he found himself after a time becoming calm, truly at peace, the warmth of the water soothing the aches and pains of his body in a way that left him a little unravelled, and then, as he slowly relaxed, his thoughts turning inward, introspective..


    He could sense and direct the dark hungry thing in himself now, whereas before it was just out of view, uncontrollable. And after the Demons he had also gained a better sense of what that hunger wanted. It didn''t just want to feed, it wanted¡­ everything, to consume the world, it was the purest form of predator, a predator without limit.


    He moved his claws in the water and a small shadowy catfish shimmered free from his fur before circling around his paw in curiosity. He¡¯d seen catfish growing up in his past life, like their counterpart-in-name on land they were ruthless and successful hunters who ruled the streams and ponds they inhabited. He watched it for a moment then let out a mental sigh, a few bubbles escaping his lips with the motion.


    He wasn''t sure how to feel about any of this, especially what had happened after he had slaughtered the demons, he had thought of things he was sure he wouldn''t normally and it had raised an uncomfortable thought: If he could manipulate the hungry darkness that was a part of him, who was to say that its hunger could not influence him back?


    Nibbling his lip he let the catfish disintegrate and become a nebulous cloud of shadow. He made it move around, drifting, then he had it split becoming two smaller clouds that spun around each other, then split again. It didn''t seem very useful in this form but he did have excellent control over it. He let the clouds of darkness slip back into his mane. He could sense them there, rejoining the darkness inside, filling him, a mass of terrible shadows, overwhelming everythi-


    He paused. That... wasn¡¯t true. Even now as he extended his senses inward he could sense the leveling system still there, trying to survive, being continually shredded apart by the monstrous darkness he now knew it was buried in, building as fast as it was torn down, unable to co-exist.


    Curious, and not sure exactly what he was doing, Rain pushed his will into the darkness inside himself, commanding it to move. The darkness resisted, unwilling to change in such a way. He furrowed his brow and forced the matter and after a moment a dot appeared, a dot inside himself that was clean and clear. He worked at it and after a difficult struggle the dot expanded, becoming a sphere, a bubble of nothing in the suffocating dark.


    A bubble that surrounded the leveling system and isolated it.


    A place where the leveling system could function.


    The colourful chromatic menu blinked fully into existence in his mind¡¯s eye completely of its own accord and so suddenly and abruptly that Rain flinched back, losing his breath, a stream of fat bubbles rising to the surface. He choked and realising he could either rise to the surface, or stay and drink the hot spring dry, he struck out, his feet striking the water bed and shooting him up like a cork, much like when he had originally left the lake at the bottom of the dungeon.


    He broke the surface with a gasp and drew in air, padding water as he floated, the turquoise waters rolling around him.


    Still not quite believing it was true he took in the menu in his mind''s eye.


    It was¡­ well a functional leveler system, one that seemed to be better than the one of his human life. His name, his spe- well it didn''t give his species, that part was still a mess of artefacting. But it did give his Mana, a grand total of two out of two mana, which was not a heck of a lot, but he hadn''t even had that metric in his past life, in fact he knew it was something usually reserved for those that acquired a mage type Class. For his Class it had N/A much as it had been in his human life as he had never attained a Class. For Level he was Level 2.


    He was Level 2.


    He was Level 2.


    He froze up in incomprehension and dipped below the water again getting a swift mouth full of hotspring. Choking and spluttering he flailed and managed to regain the surface, blinking water from his eyes.


    The dream of his previous life, what he¡¯d struggled for so long, he had it!


    But how??


    It took him a moment to understand. The Leveling system had only managed to penetrate his monstrousness when he had touched the level orb allowing the system a way in through his human part. He hadn''t actually killed a single monster after that point, that is¡­ that is until he had sent his dark wolf teeth to hunt those birds. He hadn''t even registered them as monsters in the moment, just weird regular birds with¡­ teeth. Okay in retrospect they were quite monster like, if veering closer to the animal side of monsters. In any case that had been enough to take him from a level 1 to a level 2, he just hadn''t noticed under the chaos of the system continually disintegrating and reforming.


    He returned his attention to the menu with a fury, quickly scanning for more, which he quickly found. Under the Skills section he had a Skill, a very very basic Skill, which was about all he would have expected outside of having a Class, but a Skill none the less, his first ever Skill! A wood chopping Skill! He could use a Skill to chop wood! He almost wanted to weep, to finally have a Skill, it was almost too much.


    He needed to use it, as soon as possible, he couldn''t wait.


    He lunged for the shore and climbed free, water sheeting off his fur. He ignored the peculiar looks of the others and approached an enormous oak tree. Now, how to use it?


    Focusing on the Skill in his mind''s eye it shifted and imparted more information


    Chop Wood: A Skill used to ease the chopping of wood.


    That¡­ wasn''t particularly helpful. Still, he could sense it was a consciously used Skill and so he summoned a dark paw.


    ¡°Hmm. Not very axe like,¡± he muttered looking over the paw. Well, there wasn''t much he could do there, trying to form an axe shape out of the darkness was fruitless as an axe simply didn''t embody the concept of a predator. He couldn''t make an axe, and they hadn''t brought one with them. Frustrated, he settled on making the scythe like claws on the dark paw larger, significantly larger, until they were unwieldy and at least felt a little axe like with their weight. He clacked the over five foot long blades together by waggling his digits then he pulled back and activated the Skill.


    Power, pure power rushed through him, and his paw swept down with an incredible force, much much more than he could normally apply, red lines streaking out behind the scythes as they swept forward whip-like in speed. They touched the oak tree and the base of the oak tree Exploded turning into a solid spray of shredded wood that blew out in a cone from the tree leaving the tree momentarily suspended half a dozen feet in thin air, entirely unattached to the ground. Then it began to fall.


    Rain tottered on his feet, trying to keep himself upright as his swing unbalanced him. He almost fell again as the enormous oak tree fell to earth with an earth shaking boom! The hot spring splashing up behind him as the ground trembled. Then the tree groaned and began to fall. He stepped back in surprise expecting it to fall in his direction. But fortunately, it fell the other way. Onto the nearest other tree. Which promptly collapsed under the weight.


    By the time the almost painfully loud creaking and splintering sounds of breaking stressing wood came to a stop a dozen trees had fallen or had partially collapsed making a small hill of leafy canopy.


    Rain blinked at the suddenly slightly expanded clearing around the hot spring.


    ¡°...¡±


    That was not how he had expected things to go. What in the hell?! When he thought ¡®Level 2 Wood Chopping¡¯ Skill he tended to think of a poor low leveler swinging his or her axe into a log and every so often using the Skill managing to get five swings deep in one blow making their lives a little easier¡­ not cut a tree in half, or explode it!


    It occurred to him that there was no Leveler in existence who had his current strength at Level 1 or 2, not even slightly close.


    If this was the effect of his body using a basic Skill then what else could he do? He had thought it would be quite some time until he got a Skill of any actual use to himself as it took a long time to Level up to the more useful Skills, but with his body like this? His monstrousness was synergising with the low level Skills!


    He suddenly wanted to level up, to find out more, to unlock more Skills, find a Class, become stronger, more powerful, gain magic, discover more abilities, how many monsters would he need to kill? Where could he find them? He could feel himself practically salivating at the opportunities, seeing his numbers change, more levels, more Skills, more mana, more power!


    He paused.


    To see his numbers change? He had heard those words recently, they had come from Bane¡¯s mouth¡­ That thought made his skin crawl and he snapped back to reality.


    The Ranker had clearly, very clearly, been hopelessly addicted to Leveling and seeing his stats go up, and then when he had suddenly hit an unexpected Level cap specific to his Class he had been instantly deprived of what was essentially his ¡®Opium¡¯, his fix, and had gone half mad with the search for an alternative. Rain was elated just at the prospect of leveling, he could well imagine an entire life chasing that leveling high would change a person''s priorities, change and warp them. He furrowed his brow. Did he only recognise that because he had spent his previous life essentially outside that structure? He wondered now.


    He turned to ask Lyra and found her with her hands on her head and Opal alongside with her arms up in the air.


    ¡°What hell are you doing!?¡±


    Rain glanced back at the destruction.


    Ah.

 Chapter 90

    ? Chapter 90:


    Layers of lathered soap rolled across the top of Rain¡¯s black fur, white on black, until it was wiped away with a splash of water. Clean, so satisfyingly clean.


    He sighed blissfully as the last of the dirt left him. The warm hot spring was wonderful, and made all the better by Opal sitting in his lap vaguely washing at his thighs with her hands, although admittedly seeming far more interested in grinding her rear up against him. He lazed back against the pool edge basking in the summer sun that warmed the tranquil glade.


    ¡°D-do you want some h-help?¡±


    He lazily turned his head to find Lyra standing by the pool. She was naked, completely stark naked... for public bathing reasons obviously. Rain eyed the sheep girl''s entirely exposed body, moving from her bare muff topped by a square of fluff on her mons which moved side to side due to her nervously shifting hips, then up to her heavy breasts that rose up and down as she breathed deeply, near hyperventilating, then finally to her blushing face.


    She held out a bottle in two shaky hands and Rain tilted his head questioningly.


    ¡°It-It¡¯s shampoo! F-for fur! Like last time, I thought I c-could help maybe, that is if you want m-me¡­to.¡±


    ¡°...Sure. But I want to ask you some things about leveling, and about levelers.¡±


    Lyra blinked. ¡°Uhm, okay?¡±


    After a moment of no reply from Rain she stepped forward, slipping down into the hot spring beside him with a splash. She fiddled with the cap on the bottle, having trouble opening it as the cap was now slick with water.


    ¡°...Are there leveling addicts where you come from?¡± began Rain, lazing a paw over Opal¡¯s thigh and eyeing the sheep girl out of the corner of his eye.


    She paused. ¡°Leveling addicts? As in they can''t stop leveling? I mean, isn''t that everyone? Nobody willingly wants to stop leveling, if you have the means you go find monsters and you uh-¡± her eyes drifted to Opal but the Goblin wasn¡¯t paying attention, instead furiously wiggling her hips against Rain.


    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s true, but did anyone you know ever go further, seem willing to do things that others would never? Like an opium addict might go to extremes to pay for their addiction?¡±


    Lyra¡¯s hand came to a slow stop on the unopened cap. She looked up at Rain. ¡°Yes, my father, he¡­ he cared more about leveling than anything,¡± her voice dropped, ¡°He cared more about leveling than he cared about me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that. Do you think it was all his fault?¡±


    Lyra narrowed her eyes at him.


    ¡°That came across in the wrong way. I mean do you think he was fully in control of himself? An opium addict is a kind of victim of what opium does to them, they struggle to break free of its grasp, they¡¯ve lost some amount of control. Could leveling do something similar?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve lived as a leveler for my whole life and I have never ever felt that way, there are urges but it¡¯s not- it¡¯s not like that.¡±


    ¡°But there are urges?¡±


    ¡°Yes! Why wouldn''t there be? You must know what it''s like, surrounded by it, that anxiety to keep up, to keep up and keep leveling or get crushed by your peers. I didn''t go into a dungeon when I was barely more than a child for nothing, I was terrified of being left behind, that everyone would overtake me, that I would get stepped on.¡±


    Rain shook his head, ¡°Not like that, that¡¯s fear, I understand that. I mean an addiction to how it feels to gain levels¡­ to see your numbers change. Do you feel anything like that when you level up?¡±


    Lyra¡¯s eyes drifted back to Opal, thinking, after a moment she spoke softly. ¡°Yes, it does feel good, it¡¯s satisfying to see your numbers go up, to feel more powerful, more free to do as you wish. I¡¯ve even fantasized about it, dreamed of becoming a high leveler.¡± She looked down and fiddled with the shampoo cap. ¡°I¡¯ve even bought books.¡±


    ¡°Books on how to level faster?¡±


    ¡°N-not quite, books about people leveling and becoming strong¡­¡±


    ¡°To learn from?¡±


    She bit her lip. ¡°No, more like, erm, to live vicariously through. Most of them aren''t real stories, but reading about a leveler¡¯s numbers growing, it¡­ feels good, to see, uh, read of them growing, it¡¯s hard to explain¡­ I like that the numbers grow larger, and m-more powerful.¡±


    ¡°I didn''t know that was a- wait, Is this just a you thing?¡±


    ¡°No! It¡¯s not just a me thing at all! In Florens they are really popular- Everyone- Hey it¡¯s not my fault you don¡¯t know about it out here in the backward ass sticks!¡±


    ¡°Alright I believe you. But do you think that''s the same thing as seeing your numbers go up?¡±


    Lyra hesitated. ¡°...Not exactly, the giddy rush from seeing your own numbers go up is different, it¡¯s euphoric¡­ addictive in a way I suppose, yes.¡±


    ¡°So your father might not have been entirely to blame for how he acted?¡±


    A flash of real anger crossed Lyra¡¯s face, the first time Rain had seen such an expression on her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t say that. Even if it were true it¡¯s not like everyone else doesn''t deal with the same thing, it¡¯s a universal feeling, everyone has it, if someone can¡¯t stop themselves from becoming obsessed with it then that is their own fault.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know if it is universal... I¡¯ve known opium addicts in the low leveler slums before. A man I knew of was strong willed, a will like iron, never backed down from anything and was always upbeat. The other low levelers thought he was going to escape, level up enough to get out and that he would one day be one of those looking down on us. But then he fell in with a gang, and then, later, he found opium. He became a husk of a person in less than a year, a beggar on the street. I knew to always keep away from the stuff after seeing that, but then, then I found out one of the women who worked at the building I lived behind did opium, many times, then just... stopped, because she felt like it, she was so- I wouldn¡¯t have predicted that happening.¡±


    ¡°What are you trying to say?¡±


    Rain sighed and ran his claws through Opal¡¯s already clean hair.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I think some people are more susceptible to addiction than others.¡±


    Lyra made an unhappy scowl and tugged the cap off the shampoo then shook the gooey blue contents over her hands. She buried her hands in Rain¡¯s fur, barely hesitating to touch him she was so distracted by his words.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know that, leveling is different, it¡¯s not the same, they are just numbers, even if they make you feel good that''s not addictive, it¡¯s not real.¡±


    He nodded slowly. ¡°Yes, not enough to do what he did, it¡¯s not a real reason, no addiction no matter how ruinous is enough to do what he did, he did it all through his own choice. I can¡¯t believe otherwise, I just can¡¯t, I don''t want to feel that way about him, even slightly.¡±


    ¡°Yes, my father was a real bastard¡­¡± muttered Lyra.


    ¡°No, not him, the Ran-k-!¡± he faltered as Opal shoved her hands down below her rear and began feeling at him, exploring, and not gently.


    In response he wrapped his paw around her chest and then squeezed his digits together, mauling at her breasts and pinching her nipples until she let out a gasp. She escalated her desperate fondling in response, pushing back on his sheath, dragging it backward until the tip of his massive length was pushing free, stretching his sheath wide as it swelled in her small hands, pushing up at her rear.


    ¡°Dammit Opal, what¡¯s gotten into you?¡± he growled, although it was said with a fond edge.


    Opal leaned her head back and looked up at him, hair falling across his body, a wide grin appearing on her face.


    ¡°You need to learn how to relax wolfy. You just took out a sworn enemy, you''re free to kick back and not worry so much, wallow in feeling good for a while.¡±


    She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at him and he couldn''t help but snort a laugh.


    ¡°You really can''t get enough can you? Fine, you do kind of have a point. Bath time is for comfort.¡±


    ¡°All kinds of comfort,¡± smirked the Goblin girl as his length grew between her thighs rising up and pressing between her cheeks. She put her hands between her legs and cupped the head of it in her palms, trying to keep it in place but finding no matter how she tried she couldn''t prevent it from parting her hands as it grew and pushing them out from between her legs.


    Soon she was straddling his length, legs hanging down either side as her muff kissed the top. She ran her hands down to where it stuck out from beneath her, circling her hands, or rather trying to and failing, her fingers unable to meet around his girth.


    ¡°Sheesh, you¡¯ve gotten so big, it¡¯s like I have my own dick,¡± she muttered, caressing the inches that protruded from beneath her, her thighs squeezing around it.


    Rain leaned his head forward, his head beside hers. ¡°Don¡¯t say that. Besides you haven''t even got my knot out yet.¡±


    Opal shivered, feeling the rumble of his words through her body, the heat of his length pressing up bare and raw against her leaking cunny.


    Beside them Lyra felt like her head was about to explode. The damned monsters were doing it again! While she was right there next to them! They were completely and utterly shameless and had zero sense of proprietary. This just wasn¡¯t dignified, she had offered to shampoo Rain¡¯s unreasonable quantities of fur to help out, not to get an eye full of that massive throbbing vascular member that filled between the Goblin girl¡¯s trembling thighs, pressing up into her, lifting her up in the water as it tensed, making her squeak and giggle.


    No, Lyra was just a respectable sheep who cared about good fluff care, and absolutely not because she had been hoping that the same thing would happen agai- NO, she shook her head and tried to focus on lathering Rain¡¯s fur, feeling his broad heavy muscles beneath, more than strong enough for the now nearly nine foot tall male to lift her into the air and use her, or pin her down and-


    Gritting her teeth she began scrubbing furiously, trying not to look down at what the wriggling Goblin was doing.


    Of course, she was only scrubbing with the one hand, the other hand having long dipped below the water line, down her stomach, over her mons, where her fingers were making circles around her love bean which was periodically peeking from beneath its hood, more so as she applied increasing pressure, dancing her fingertips up and down, smearing her softness, her breath rising higher.


    She couldn''t help it, her eyes moved down, magnetically latching onto that fat fucking length now mostly above the water. Opal was enthusiastically masturbating him, her hands running up and down, squeezing, fingertips tracing veins, faster, until little surges of clear precum were spraying from the tip, spattering across the water¡¯s surface.


    Why couldn¡¯t she keep her eyes off it?


    Something was wrong with her heart, it wouldn''t stop beating like a blacksmith¡¯s hammer, heavy and swift. In fact the thing was beating so hard that she could practically feel it against her ribs, her mind faltering as she stared, blood rushing in her ears.


    Lyra could feel herself becoming more and more heated, her muff swollen, dripping, a deep burning itch below her gut that was driving her to distraction, her breath becoming ragged, her large breasts capped with stiff pink nipples wobbling back and forth as her chest rose and fell.


    She licked her lip and her hand moved down, pushing fingers up into her snatch, one, then two, then three, then all of them, until she was plunging knuckle deep into herself, stretching herself, just like he c-could, like he-


    She had to slap her free hand over her mouth as a moan tried to escape her lips, eyelids fluttered, flashes dancing lights crossing her vision as she peaked, her back arching, shivering as her thighs clenched together, knees touching, fingers being crushed as she squeezed down.


    Her shoulders slumped as she found relief, her breathing ragged. She could never ever admit it to herself, but she had never been so turned on in her life, sneakily intruding on the monster pair, like a dastardly voyeur, taking advantage, they had absolutely no idea that she was-


    She turned her head back to find a massive wolf like head leaning down and peering at her, luminous yellow eyes staring directly into hers, noses touching.

 Chapter 91

    ? Chapter 91:


    Lyra screamed in surprise, her hooves slipped, and with a splash she fell over, sinking into the pool with a glug. Water rushed into her open mouth as her legs kicked out, floundering like a beached fish.


    Then a pair of huge paws wrapped around her hips and she was lifted bodily from the hot spring, water sheeting from her fluff. She looked down to find herself hanging half above Rain. Opal was below her, having moved from Rain¡¯s legs to his chest.


    ¡°You know I can hear everything right?¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°H-hear w-what?¡±


    ¡°I can hear your fingers going in and out over and over, my hearing is a little better than most.¡±


    Lyra gaped at him, her face graduating from pink to a radiant beet red, her eyebrows rising as the absolute horror of the situation dawned on her.


    ¡°A-and at th-the m-mansion!? In the baths?!¡± she managed to choke-squeak out.


    ¡°I heard every moment and was completely aware of what you were doing behind me.¡±


    ¡°N-NUUUU!¡± she wailed, shaking her head. ¡°This is, you can¡¯t- this can¡¯t be happening!¡± She kicked her legs in the air in distress and the combination of her motions combined with her now wet skin caused her to suddenly slip free from Rain¡¯s grip.


    With a gasp of sheer disbelief she fell on top of him, landing on his torso, straddling his waist, her bare nakedness crashing up against him as Opal darted out of the way. Lyra found her face buried in Rain''s strong chest, his soft fur pressing against her, his heady masculine scent overwhelming her nose, it was all too much!


    Confused and disoriented she placed her hands on Rain¡¯s pecs and slowly lifted herself away from him.


    There was a weight on her rear.


    A hot.


    Slippery.


    Weight.


    Turning her head jerkily, not wanting to understand, her eyes came to rest on over fourteen inches of heavy dick currently resting over her rotund ass cheeks, the tip touching up against her lower back, a few dribbles of precum leaking and pooling on her bare skin.


    ¡°Wha-what?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just a bit of dick sheepy,¡± said Opal leaning over and open palm slapping her ass sending it rippling and causing her to gasp.


    ¡°Oh g-gods, I- I need to go, I c-can¡¯t be h-here! I have to go!¡±


    Rain and Opal watched and waited for her to get up and go.


    She remained where she was.


    ¡°Hah!¡± crowed Opal, ¡°You don¡¯t want to go, you can¡¯t make yourself.¡±


    ¡°I- I can!¡±


    She couldn''t, she couldn''t do it, and she wished she could crawl away and die from shame as she realised that.


    Opal leaned over the sheep girl currently splayed over Rain and grasped Rain¡¯s enormity with both hands, with a little effort she dragged it to the side then pushed it back, dragging the heavy thing across her ass, smearing her cheeks side to side as snail trail of precum was drawn over her back.


    ¡°What are you doing?!¡± shrieked Lyra, but her body betrayed her, her rear pushing back up into Rain, spreading her thighs, her swollen sopping wet muff catching touches of the incredible boiling heat that radiated from Rain¡¯s length, each brushed contact eliciting a tingling shiver that ran up her spine. Her motions sped up until she was practically humping herself up against Rain¡¯s increasingly turgid length and little sprays of precum were spattering across her arching back, spots of scalding heat on her skin.


    ¡°Wow, she¡¯s wetter down there than the pool,¡± said Opal leaning down further.


    ¡°N-no I¡¯m not!¡± cried the agitated sheep girl. ¡°It¡¯s just water from the h-hotspriiiiEEE!¡±


    Her words were cut off as a small hand darted down behind Rain¡¯s length and cupped her swollen muff, a number of small fingers slipping between her folds before dragging back up, reaching the back, and then pushing into her, dipping down deep then swiftly pulling out, many long sticky strings connecting them before breaking apart as they parted.


    Lyra squealed and threw her face down into Rain¡¯s chest, screaming into his fur, her legs kicking spastically at the air behind her.


    ¡°Damn you!¡± she managed to grit out when she finally turned her head to the side, glaring up at the Goblin girl.


    Opal had her hand held up to her face up and was watching the strings of stickiness currently strung between her fingers with an amused expression.


    ¡°Just water huh? You know Rain is a monster right? You¡¯re a leveler getting off to a monster.¡±


    ¡°Th-that is- H-he- it doesn''t count!¡±


    Rain shifted beneath her and she found his head moving toward her, his teeth bared, so close! Her pupils shrank in fear and her throat tightened up.


    ¡°I think deep down you like it that I am a monster¡­ a predator.¡± gravelled Rain, his voice sending vibrations through her body.


    ¡°D-don¡¯t be ridiculous!¡±


    Rain snorted in derision, and then his paws wrapped around her hips. Lyra looked down in alarm as he squeezed and then lifted her up into the air as though she weighed nothing at all. Panicked, she scrabbled at his forearms as he turned and placed her on the hotspring¡¯s edge, her back coming to rest on the grass with a thump. Water sloshed from Rain¡¯s body as he rose, rose until his paws were pressed down either side of her shoulders and he was looming over her, his legs still partly in the water.


    Rain was big, big enough that Lyra felt incredibly small, exposed, and feminine under him. But there was also something that felt so incredibly right to be covered by such a large masculine beast, his massiveness overwhelming her, dominating her, everywhere she looked was just more of him, her eyes darting, her nose flaring, drawing in more of his scent, her mind swimming with a twisted mix of fear and burning sexual desire.


    She flinched as something hot and very very heavy touched up against her bare stomach, something twitching and alive, bucking and lifting before coming back down with a thump. Her eyes moved from the broad chest hanging over her to the fat dick lying from her mons up her abdomen and past her belly button, thicker than her arm, brutish masculinity, pressing down against her stomach with its unreasonable weight, indenting her belly.


    Rain eased his hips forward and his length slowly, agonisingly slowly, moved further up her body. Wide eyed, and not knowing what the heck she was doing, Lyra grabbed for it, trying to prevent it getting closer, her dainty fingers wrapping around its rough head, instantly heating her skin, frantically trying to keep the monster back. Of course, she didn''t stand a chance, and her hands were pushed up by the unstoppable thing, precum rolling from between her fingers and down onto her wrists.


    Rain growled out a laugh.


    ¡°Hnn! It¡¯s- t-too much!¡±


    ¡°No, but it will be,¡± said Rain as he began to pull back, the heavy weight of his length draaaggging down her belly, leaving a trail of precum in its wake, spilling and pooling into her belly button. It moved down past her mons and then dropped down between her thighs, the tip sliding over her cute little clit, pressing it down into its hood before gliding down her swollen lower lips.


    The shifting feeling across her pussy sent her body quivering, a little gasp escaping her mouth, a string of saliva connecting her lips as her hips squirmed and her back arched.


    And then Rain started to push up into her.


    The broad tip pressed up against her muff, his enormity dwarfing her puss, pushing againt her lips, trying to get inside. Instead, his motion came to a halt as he found he didn''t fit, his length bending slightly as the pressure steadily increased but was unable to penetrate. With a low growl he used his real strength and Lyra¡¯s breath caught in her throat as the massive thing trying to enter her slowly started to part her lower lips. However, her excessive amounts of slippery lubricant proved a problem, and Rain suddenly lurched forward as his tip slipped upwards roughly rubbing against her erect bean and thrusting up over her belly once more, a spray of precum surging from the tip and splattering across the globular underside of her breasts, the sticky clear fluid coating her skin, sprinkling across her stiff hard nipples and up over her neck.


    She shrieked as his hips slammed up against her rear sending her buttocks wobbling, her thighs thrust apart. Her hands grasped at the length resting on top of her belly, trying to hold it in place, stopping it from once more trying to penetrate her, but to no avail. The hot slippery thing pulled from between her desperately grasping fingers and once more fell down between her thighs.


    ¡°Tight.¡± growled Rain.


    Lyra looked down at the over fourteen inches of maleness, thicker than her arm, far far bigger than any male she¡¯d seen in her life. The guys she¡¯d seen public bathing were like little twigs compared to this, not even an Orc could compare, and he expected to put that beast inside of her? He was kidding right? He had to be kidding.


    ¡°It¡¯s j-just you¡¯re just too fucking big! I can''t fit you!¡±


    Rain showed her a wolfish grin, flashing his white fangs. ¡°Or you''re just too small. Don''t worry, I¡¯ll ease it in slower.¡±


    Rain¡¯s rigidness tensed and he pressed up against her folds, squashing her muff, edging apart her lips as this time he ever so slowly slid into her, parting her body, her sensitive insides starting to touch up against his tip.


    Lyra let out a cute little mewl as she was spread, her labia stretching wider and wider as his enormity entered her, her back arching, her hands scrabbling at the grass as she was stretched out, the broad head forcing her swollen muff into a thin O shape, her inner lips strained tight against his vein riddled thickness.


    ¡°F-fuuuuccckkk!¡± she groaned, her eyelids fluttering as she was stretched like nothing else she had experienced in her life. Shockingly, it felt beyond natural, like her femininity had always desired to be filled like this, other males were simply feeble frail little things compared to this more primal masculinity, they were like her little pinky compared to all her fingers, unsatisfying.


    With a lurch the head *popped!* inside of her, filling her up, her walls fluttering around the massive intruder, desperately trying to contain it. Lyra¡¯s fingers spread amongst the blades of grass and then clenched into fistfuls of green, her whole body stiffening up, her legs going straight and rising.


    ¡°HnGGfffnnnnn!! It¡¯s S-so m-muuuuch!!¡±


    Hyperventilating, her eyes slid down her body to where Rain¡¯s hips were, where his length extended from his straining sheath that enclosed his uninflated knot, then she traced up the vascular pink-red length, to the end which disappeared inside of her, her stiff little clit standing proud above his girth. He was actually inside- she could feel the roughness of him scraping at her tightly stretched walls, and gods it felt, it felt really really really fucking good.


    She was being filled but¡­


    She wanted more.


    More!


    MORE!


    Rain groaned and leaned into her, pushing his hips forward, sliding deeper and deeper, fraction of an inch by fraction of an inch, accelerating, her insides parting to take his length into her most sacred place. Round eyed she watched as inches disappeared inside of her, her breath coming in short sharp gasps, keening as his boiling hot length suddenly throbbed and jerked, a spray of sticky precum splattering against her depths, but none leaking around her inner lips as they were stretched so tightly around him.


    She bit her lip as he passed five inches, then seven, then nine. Her eyebrows rose higher as her stomach began to tent outward, a bulge appearing in her trim belly as the massive thing inside was silhouetted beneath her skin, the pushed out softened cylinder slowly creeping up her belly as more and more of Rain entered her, her belly button rising as it was stretched over the top.


    ¡°H-Holy shit,¡± she breathed, ¡°Holy shit, holy shit, you¡¯re so fucking deep! G-gods I can feel-¡±


    She swallowed noisily and moved a hand to her abdomen, shaky fingers tracing the outline of the fat dick beneath, dancing across her pale flesh, she could practically feel the heat of him through her body, her fingers moving as he hilted himself in her, such an intense feeling, like they were becoming one, a joining of two beings.


    She whimpered as she felt his hips begin to move, pulling back, the sensation of her insides being dragged on as they had formed a vacuum, clinging tight, desperately trying to stop him from leaving. Against Rain¡¯s strength she didn''t stand a chance and bit by bit he left her, exposing his steaming length to the air, now dripping wet with her pussy juices.


    She couldn¡¯t help it, the sucking feeling against her inside along with every bump and vein of his dick was driving her wild, she slapped her hands to her cheeks and let out a sloppy moan.


    ¡°G-gawddds, HNNNNN! R-Raiiin!¡±


    Rain replied by thrusting back into her, actually using his strength, and she could tell, he could do anything to her, he was overwhelming, able to control her every move, dominating his prey. She could never escape, she was his plaything, able to do nothing but watch as the softened cylinder of his enormity rolled back up her stomach.


    Without her consent her pussy reacted to him, contracting and rippling, hungry to have him back inside of her, changing to fit him, moulding to his size that she knew no other could match, no other could scratch that burning itch deep inside.


    ¡°AHn! Ahn! Ah!¡± she gasped, her eyes locked between her breasts on the obscene bulge of her tummy.


    Rain¡¯s stretched sheath crashed up against her pink little bud of a clit standing proud of its hood and she went over the edge, she threw her head back and let loose a scream, her legs slamming up and locking tight around Rain¡¯s hips, thighs clenching hard, angled so tight it nearly hurt as her ankles dug into his back.


    She squirted like a burst barrel and fem cum exploded around Rain¡¯s dick, spraying in every direction as it broke free of their tight fit, sticky clear fluid covering Rain¡¯s abdomen and back-spattering down on her tummy bulge, rolling down her smooth skin in rivulets.


    ¡°AIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!¡±


    Rain barely paused before forcefully dragging himself free even as her walls convulsed around him, brutally dragging himself out, pulling her insides with him, before shoving himself back in, filling her right back up, a thrumming beating pressure flowing from him into that place below her gut, building, intolerable.


    ¡°Fucking shiiiiitt!!¡± she wailed as he began a steady back and forth sawing motion, pistoning into her little body, each crashing hilt ruining her more and more, stretching her out, tearing at her nerves until sparks and flashes of light were dancing across her eyes.


    She clutched desperately at his chest above, her fingers winding into his fur, shoved back and forth as he moved, grind after grind, plunging her depths in a way she had never imagined.


    ¡°Y-yes! I¡¯m your prey! Your hunted! Breeeeed me! Make me yooouuuurrrrs!!¡±


    And then the motion slowed, and then it stopped.


    She opened her eyes and blinked.


    ¡°Wha- why did you stop!¡± she demanded in a near panic, desperately bucking her hips into him, trying to get more of him inside, her pussy clutching at him needily, practically slurping on his length.


    Rain gazed down at her silently.


    Then he grabbed her and in one motion rolled onto his back on the grass, his back resting partially against a boulder, Lyra coming with him so that she lay atop him, still part inside her, her heavy breasts resting on his chest, the softness of them shaping to his muscles.


    She looked up into his yellow eyes, her mouth hanging slack in surprise.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to have to do it yourself,¡± said Rain.


    ¡°Wh-what?! What do you mean?! You''re my predator! You''re supposed to do me!¡±


    ¡°Why Lyra?  Because you like how that makes you feel? I never chose to be in the position you are putting me in, you never asked, you put me here because it turns you on. If you truly want me then do as you will, leave, or stay and work for it.¡±


    The sheep girl looked absolutely flabbergasted, her mouth opening and closing at a loss for words, this was not supposed to happen!


    ¡°Haha! Your mistake was expecting him to fit your fantasy sheepy. You should have seen this coming.¡±


    Rain lazed his head over to see Opal, she was lying against a rock, naked, one leg splayed out the other up, her fingers buried in her snatch, openly masturbating as she watched the two.


    ¡°But that¡¯s not fair! We¡¯re in the middle of- I can''t just, it¡¯s-!¡± the flustered sheep girl looked between Rain and her tented stomach marking the part of Rain¡¯s length still inside of her.


    ¡°I can growl at you if it makes you feel more motivated,¡± said Rain with a lazy yawn.


    Lyra¡¯s lip trembled. She should leave, how could he do this to her! But then that terrible itchy pressure was burning in her core, screaming to be fucked, crying out to be rutted with a fat fucking dick.


    Letting out a groan of resignation she began to lift herself. Her legs weren''t much good after the frankly incredible orgasms she had just been subjected to, but with a fierce determination she forced them to obey, her thighs shaking wildly as she lifted herself up, up, up, then let her legs go, allowing gravity to slam her down, down onto Rain, her pussy being once more so deliciously filled. She cried out in ecstasy.


    Rain side eyed Opal, she was looking with avid interest as Lyra wailed and dragged herself back up, Opal¡¯s fingers flicking free droplets of her juices as she pushed them in and out of her cunt.


    ¡°You knew as well as I did, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Psh, oh yeah, I don''t need wolf ears to tell she was as horny as a bitch in heat for you.¡±


    ¡°H-Hey! Hnnniieee!¡± Lyra managed to protest, nearly biting off her tongue as she once more plunged down Rain¡¯s length, her thighs crashing into his hips.


    ¡°You don''t mind that?¡± said Rain, ignoring Lyra¡¯s protests.


    Opal rolled her eyes. ¡°Do you even realise how big you are now? You¡¯re more than any one girl can handle on her own, no matter how greedy.¡±


    ¡°You are pretty greedy.¡±


    ¡°Yeah I know,¡± she grinned, ¡°But you are a lot, like a lot a lot, no really, you''re fucking huge.¡±


    In reply Rain gave her a pleased fanged smile. Then his paw suddenly whipped out and grabbed her by the ankle, with a shriek of surprise the Goblin girl was dragged across the grass towards him, into his claws. She kicked and struggled as she was lifted, two massive paws wrapping around her rear, a pair of thumbs hooking onto her hips, like a gripping seat that moved her until Rain¡¯s head was aligned with her crotch.


    Flailing, she grabbed onto his ears as she was brought close, his tongue already slipping free, slapping up against her sopping quim and licking up its entire length, rolling over her bean and part way up her stomach.


    Lyra and Opal let out a dual gasp, coincidentally timed.


    The sheep girl continued to rise up and down, doing her best to bounce and bounce on Rain¡¯s dick, her belly tenting out with each rise and fall, her voice reaching higher and higher, she couldn''t help herself, with each drop she just wanted more, more of him inside her, until she was crashing as hard as she could against his still uninflated knot trapped behind his straining sheath.


    Opal¡¯s legs wrapped around Rain¡¯s neck as his huge tongue wiggled its way past her folds, pushing deep inside of her, the rough surface scraping against every nerve cluster, causing her to shriek. More and more of the powerful thick muscle entered her until Opal looked down wide eyed to see a slight bulge in her tummy, moving and shifting as he licked up a storm inside her cunt, twisting and coiling, over stimulating her buttons.


    ¡°Shitting fuuuuck,¡± groaned out Opal, as he pushed deeper still. She fell over his head as the first orgasm crashed into her, wrapping her arms and legs around him until he had a view full of her breasts, her body resting atop.


    ¡°Ee! Ee! Eee!¡± squeaked Lyra as her hips rose and fell, her legs becoming progressively more wobbly each time she slammed herself down, her breasts rolling and slapping across her chest with each uncontrolled drop. She was beginning to falter, her desperate attempts to get more of Rain indie of herself going nowhere.


    ¡°I- I need you, I need more of you!¡± she keened, drool running down her chin, her body trembling, her legs failing to lift her at all now.


    Rain rolled his eyes beneath the Goblin girl on his face. He shifted his paws and after a moment of testing he pulled them away, leaving Opal wrapped around his head, humping herself into his mouth.


    Then he lunged for Lyra, grabbing at her legs. With a grunt he forced her legs up against her torso, bending them back until he could get his paws around both her thighs and part of her waist, her knees hooked over his paws, feet dangling, tummy bulge poking between her thighs.


    The surprised sheep girl looked down in stupefaction between her knees which were now pressed up against her breasts, then at Rain¡¯s paws as he lifted her, pulling her up into the air, his length sliding from her now very exposed pussy, pulling her up and then, after a pause slamming her back down.


    ¡°OH!¡± gasped Lyra as she came down hard and fast, much harder than gravity alone. She realised that Rain was using her as a living cock sleeve, casually utilising her body like it was nothing, his powerful arms lifting her once more and then jerking her back down, her belly bulge pushing up, pressing at his thumbs,


    ¡°OH! GODS!¡± she cried as the speed rapidly increased, roughly slamming her up and down, drilling her clit into his sheath over and over and over, harder and harder until her pussy was conulsing at the extreme stimulation, every other drop causing a sloppy spray of her juices, one orgasm barely finishing before she rolled screaming and flailing into the next, her body making the most lurid slurking noises as her tight pussy lost vacuum with each rise.


    *PLAP* *SCHPLAP* *PLAP* *SCHLORK* *SCHPLAP!*


    "Mmmnnnnhhh-aaAAAIIEEEEEE!!!¡±


    As that happened Rain¡¯s knot was slowly swelling in size, the fist of flesh stretching his sheath wider, barely able to contain him until it was too much and with a lurch his sheath slipped back, the fat ball of red-pink popping free in a rush, already sopping wet with Lyra¡¯s juices and steaming in the air.


    As that happened Rain opened his mouth wide and Opal fell into his jaws, her thighs spread around his mouth. This of course allowed him to get much, much, deeper inside of her and he took full advantage sending Opal into a spiralling screaming fit.


    Rain slammed Lyra¡¯s folded up body down and her reddened pussy collided with the enormous knot, dwarfed by it, her lower lips stretched wider going from an o shape to an O shape as the howling thrashing sheep girl was forced to take the knot bit by bit, slowing until it met the horizon, and then slopping down the other side, her pussy engulfing the knot, locking them together, her belly tented out obscenely with the massive dick inside of her.


    Both Lyra¡¯s and Opal¡¯s voices rose in pitch, harmonizing as they threw back their heads and screamed, their eyes rolling up as they squirted and creamed themselves silly, their legs splaying out in brain melting ecstasy as their pussies milked and suckled at their respective penetrations.


    ¡°AIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!¡±


    The two girls wailed their joy together.


    Opal was first to come down, her sweat soaked body going completely limp and slipping from Rain¡¯s head, falling backwards and landing across his torso, the top of her head coming up against Lyra¡¯s clit where she was sheathed on Rain¡¯s length.


    Opal looked up open mouthed as Rain¡¯s dick swelled, his balls hiking up hard as his hips thrust up into the air, shoving up further into the still spasming Lyra as he came.


    And he really really came.


    Rain exploded into her, surging deep into the sheep girls womb, a heavy spray of thick sticky white semen.


    And it just didn''t stop.


    Spray after spray, driving into her deepest place until it filled her, becoming a slurry that rolled violently around, filling and then expanding her womb as she was filled to capacity and then past it, her belly quickly growing outward, swelling as more and more cum hosed into her, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth surge, Rain groaned as each ejaculation only lasted longer spraying more and more, harder and harder.


    Lyra¡¯s voice peaked and then broke into an ear shattering scream as her head whipped back, her eyes gone from sight as they rolled up under her eyelids, her tongue lolling from her mouth as her whole body became stiff and rigid, straining to her limit.


    That heated itchy feeling was just gone, washed away in a tide of soothing cooling relief, replaced with a bone deep mind melting ecstasy.


    She went limp in Rain¡¯s paws as her eyelids fluttered and little trembles rolled up and down her body even as her belly grew, becoming a bulging arc from her ribs to her mons, like she was four months pregnant, swelling out until it was resting atop Opal¡¯s face to her distress.


    Rain shivered as the last drop left him and he fell back gasping, releasing Lyra who slumped like wet rope, her legs flopping down either side of him.


    The three of them lay there, desperately gasping for air, the glade filled with nothing but the sound of heavy panted breathing.


    After a while, a butterfly fluttered down and alighted on top of the smooth dome of Lyra¡¯s cum belly. It waved its wings, warming them in the sun.


    Opal groaned and after a monumental struggle managed to sit up. She wiped a hand over her sweaty face.


    ¡°It¡¯s not fair how you are so good at that, if I could do half-,¡± she muttered.


    ¡°You don''t like it?¡± said Rain, sticking his tongue out at her.


    ¡°No, I just don''t know how to do it as good back to you, it¡¯s one sided.¡± She peeked her tongue out back at him.


    ¡°Oh gods,¡± groaned Lyra, ¡°What have you done to me?!¡±


    She kicked her legs and after a struggle managed to sit up, the butterfly flapping away in a fright as she moved. She came up and her belly sunk down with the weight of what was inside of her.


    Hesitantly she touched at it, then with increasing disbelief ran her palm over the smooth hot surface down to her belly button which had popped from an innie to an outie from the sheer pressure behind it.


    ¡°You have got to be kidding me...! This is all you!?¡±


    Opal gave her a mischievous grin. ¡°Yeah, all Rain, but don''t worry, you¡¯ll get used to it, in fact you won¡¯t have a choice.¡±


    ¡°Wh-what do you mean?¡±


    Opal waggled her eyebrows then looked meaningfully downward. ¡°Try and get off him.¡±


    Lyra gave her a puzzled look then tried to roll off Rain. She of course failed, his enormously engorged knot firmly jammed inside of her. Her eyes went very round.


    ¡°H-hold on now, how long does this last?!¡±


    Opal put a finger to her lip and tilted her head in thought. ¡°Oh, just a week.¡±


    ¡°A WEEK?!¡±


    ¡°Maybe two.¡±


    ¡°B-b-but h-how am I supposed to live like this?!¡±


    ¡°You get used to it, come on, let''s get food or whatever.¡±


    Opal jumped off Rain and immediately face planted in the grass as her legs gave out. She wobbled back to her feet, desperately trying to pretend that hadn¡¯t happened, and then grabbed one of Rain¡¯s paw pads in one hand. She gave him a meaningful look and hauled on him, of course failing to move him at all.


    Rain gave her a look that clearly communicated ¡®Really?¡¯ which Opal replied to with a furious nod.


    Rain slumped his shoulders but after a moment sat up and then started climbing to his feet. Lyra let out a shriek as she found herself dangling upside down, hanging from his dick, her legs desperately locked around his hips trying to support herself.


    ¡°NUU! I can¡¯t do this for two weeks! S-Stop!! H-hey!¡±


    Rain stepped toward the small camp they had made earlier near the edge of the hot spring. He walked with a still stark naked sheep girl hanging from his hips, breasts and cum belly swaying as he moved. He passed by the Dimensional Bag which had been laid on its side out beside the tents as though it was its own separate tent. A red scaled snout poked from the opening, clearly pointed directly at the area they had just been, in full view of events. The Kobold snout suddenly jerked as it realised he was nearing and pulled inside.


    ¡°Wow what a pervert, gosh,¡± said Opal eyeing the bag.


    ¡°I don''t think that holds much weight coming from you,¡± replied Rain.


    ¡°Eh, probably, but I can still call them as I see them.¡±


    ¡°Let me doooown!¡± wailed Lyra.

 Chapter 92

    ? Chapter 92:


    The crackle of the fire was comforting and doing at least a little to ease her nerves, or at least it would have if her nerves had not been completely shot and passed somewhere beyond into the nerve afterlife. As it was Lyra was in a strange state of glassy-eyed calm, incapable of dealing with her current situation and so skipping over what would have been a state of blind panic to something else.


    Her back and head were resting up against an enormous furred chest, her crossed legs resting on a pair of much larger crossed legs. She was ensconced in Rain, using him as a seat and very very close to him.


    In fact this went beyond close, this was a level of intimacy that she hadn''t even imagined possible, Rain¡¯s length was still stuck deep inside of her, her lower lips locked firmly around the base of his knot, completely and utterly and hopelessly trapped.


    She could feel the heat of his flesh against her lips, but more than that she could feel the mind boggling amount of boiling hot seed inside herself, her belly a smooth arc from her chest to her mons, so so so full and tight, stretched with the sheer quantity. She moved a wobbly hand over her straining belly, not even the warmth of the fire against her taut naked skin could match the raw heat emanating from within, her flesh almost feverish to the touch.


    And now she was stuck like this for two weeks?!?! A helpless dangling feminine cocksleeve for this nearing nine foot tall masculine monster?


    She bit her lip, trying to make the little intrusive thought at the back of head go away that was gleefully celebrating this disaster. No, this was bad, terrible even, to be stuck tight and full and- Wh-what was she supposed to do?!


    Opal poked at the meat roasting over the fire, completely oblivious to the existential crisis currently happening in Rain¡¯s lap. The fire crackled and a log fell with a flurry of spiralling sparks. She tutted. There was a lot of meat roasting, a full deer, several rabbits, a dozen rats, all hunted down by the flying wolfy teeth that were too pointy to be petted. Normally she wouldn''t be doing this, Rain preferred his meat raw, but when he had leaned over to rip into the deer carcass it had caused Lyra, who was still firmly attached to his crotch and had a front-row view, to scream and promptly faint. She then immediately jerked awake as Rain¡¯s knot yanked at her muff, then screamed and fainted again as she saw the dead deer in front of her once more.


    Rain had decided that maybe it would be better for the sheep girl¡¯s continued sanity if the meat was cooked first, and thus they had built up the fire and Opal had gotten to work.


    She stepped back satisfied it was cooking evenly and slumped down on a log, then lazily picked up what she had been fiddling with prior. It was a book. More specifically it was the Ranker¡¯s Inkerchange. She had the one the Ranker had been using. It was smaller than the one the head councillor had possessed, small enough to fit in the Ranker¡¯s back pocket, although to her size it was more like a regular-sized book. Rain had found it in the Ranker¡¯s possession when he had finished eating the last of him.


    She squinted down at the strange squiggly writing, the messy uneven lines of the head councillor and the exact and severe lines of the Ranker. Of course she had no idea whatsoever what either of them said, she had never learned to read Common. She knew sometimes Gobbos were born with that ability, some distant ancestor having somehow figured out how to make the chicken scratches mean something, but it was hardly a useful skill to have in a tribe of illiterate Gobbos and was considered a waste of what could have been some other more useful ancestral memory.


    She would have agreed with that thinking in the past, but then this Inkerchange? How useful would it be to be for a scout Gobbo to instantly communicate long distances? Obviously it would be insanely useful, extremely insanely useful. Even better she could talk to Rain wherever they went. She needed to learn to read.


    She turned back to the page she had been working on and watched carefully as a clumsy line of ink appeared, the nib being held by the apparent other user being pressed down far too hard.


    The word ¡°M E A T¡± appeared, and then a crude picture of some meat on a bone.


    She scowled at it, this one wasn''t hard to understand. She glanced up to the other user of the Inkerchange.


    Rain had the larger of the two books held in one of his paws while his other paw delicately pinched a quill between index and thumb, a look of furious concentration on his face as he tried to avoid accidentally stabbing the quill through the book.


    ¡°The food will be ready soon, it won¡¯t be long now,¡± she said, catching his attention.


    Rain made a face and his stomach growled causing Lyra to flinch in his lap.


    ¡°One advantage of a town or city that I didn''t really think about is how concentrated the food is. In these woods everything is so spread out. I¡¯m not getting enough to eat¡­ I need more.¡±


    ¡°Well go hunting tomorrow or something, you¡¯ll last for now, the cooking smells are just teasing you, you aren''t used to that cause you eat everything raw.¡±


    ¡°Hrmm. It¡¯s still important,¡± he moved his paw back to the paper.


    ¡°F I S H,¡± read out Opal as he finished scrawling.


    ¡°Using an Inkerchange to teach a Goblin of all things to read is perhaps one of the most crude and barbaric things I have ever seen,¡± sniffed Vash.


    Opal had left the skull out on a stump on one side of the fire like he was just another person warming themselves. Vash did not seem to particularly appreciate it.


    ¡°The ink can be removed, correct?¡± gravelled Rain glancing over at the skull.


    ¡°Well, yes, but that''s not the point! You are using what is considered parchment gold to scrawl graffiti nonsense! What¡¯s more it is hardly a cheap process to remove the ink, very few mages-¡±


    Rain held up the paw with the quill silencing him.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m going to have this Inkerchange thing cleansed anyway, it has the Ranker¡¯s hand handwriting in it, his personal handwriting. I want it gone. the more I can erase him from existence the better.¡±


    ¡°Ah yes, I¡¯m sure that the Inkists guild will be quite happy to take the Inkerchange of the giant nine foot tall wolf monster without question,¡± grumped Vash, although his exasperated words lacked any impact.


    Rain grunted and returned the quill to the book.


    V A U S H he wrote, and carefully marked a skull symbol next to it with flame eyes, creating only a few inky blotches in the process.


    ¡°Huh, Boner has a really weird spelling.¡±


    ¡°Uhh...¡± said Rain


    He was about to try and correct the Goblin girl when the Dimensional Bag which had been left by the fire suddenly shot open with a shrill cry and Red came tumbling out head over heels, his tail flopping over his head as he came to a stop in a ball. His eyes were very very wide and fearful.


    The Kobold looked around realising where he was and then scuttled toward Rain to Rain¡¯s surprise, crouching down beside him as though he wanted Rain¡¯s protection.


    ¡°Is something wrong?¡± he said looking down at the hunched over Kobold. Red looked up at him warily, then his eyes darted back to the Dimensional Bag.


    ¡°Th-there¡¯s something wrong with that bag, something terribly wrong.¡±


    Rain furrowed his brow in confusion.


    ¡°The magic of it is bad? Is it breaking down?¡±


    ¡°No! It¡¯s, it''s something else, it¡¯s it¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°It was a dream,¡± said Vash, ¡°Describe this dream to me Kobold monster, tell me what it is that you saw.¡±


    Red ran claws over his sweaty face, breathing in and out hard, trying to gather himself. After a moment he managed a little calm.


    ¡°I- I woke up in a place that wasn''t here. It was dark and difficult to see, and the air was hard to breathe it was so rancid and stuffy. I was floating weightless in the air like I was being held up by invisible not-strings. I tried to move but there were¡­ things pressing against me everywhere, naked people, but they were, they were-


    ¡°Sickly?¡±


    ¡°Yes! Pale skinned things, like they had never seen light of any kind, and starved for food, ravenous, with two long sharp fangs, there was no end to them, the tightly packed together bodies went on forever in all directions as we were floating weightless, countless endless numbers, and the cries and groans, the suffering, so much suffering, so much unimaginable suffering, I can''t- I- I don''t feel well...¡±


    ¡°That is an accurate description, yes.¡±


    Opal gave the skull a puzzled look. ¡°You know about this creepy weirdo dream?¡±


    ¡°It has been studied in ages past. What? Did you assume a Dimensional Bag extended into an empty void? There are other things in there, every Dimensional Bag¡¯s extended space for one, but also more that mages have never been able to perceive. The reason that your dimensional bag is solid stone on the interior is for defensive purposes, out of a sense of paranoid precaution, fear of the unknown, fear that whatever is out there might break through and get inside. We cannot see into that realm so we do not know what those things are, we only know that sleeping inside of a Dimensional Bag can cause dreams of that other place across the dimensional realm. Something terrible is happening in there and has been for centuries, such pain that it reaches out across that space and affects dreams.¡±


    Red paused. ¡°This is bullshit! You mean I can''t sleep on my gold without nasty scary dreams?!¡±


    Rain eyed the Kobold, not liking his use of ¡®my¡¯, but the Kobold was too incensed to even notice his steady gaze. Red stormed back over to the Dimensional Bag and grabbed it up then tipped it down. After a moment a huge amount of gold waterfalled free, a great mound that piled up on the grass. Gold coins and gems and several of Opal¡¯s weapons, and jewellery, and a collection of vanta black gems of some kind which clattered over the gold.


    Red huffed then paddy pawed the gold pile before circling around on top of it like a cat then flopping down and curling up in a ball. His tail curled up around his snout, one eye slightly cracked so he could glare at the others, more specifically Rain.


    ¡°You¡¯d better protect me. I¡¯m the treasurer now, treasurers need to be protected so they can protect the gold.¡±


    Rain snorted a laugh. ¡°Sure, I-¡±


    He paused as he felt something shift in the lower part of his body. He glanced down, it seemed like he had become soft enough to pull free. Lyra hadn''t seemed to notice, although he wasn¡¯t sure she was noticing much of anything, she seemed a little dazed. Well, time to change that.


    He slipped his paws beneath her armpits wrapping his digits around her chest, squeezing down on her breasts. Then he began to lift.


    ¡°Wh-what?! What are you doing?!¡± shrieked Lyra as she was slowly pulled into the air, her legs kicking out as an immense pressure began to tug down on her insides. She was of course still completely stark naked and the sight of her straining puss was visible to all.


    Across the fire Vash let out a groan of distress, his green fire eyes darting side to side, trying to look away from the sight, but since he was immobile he found he could not look away and was forced to watch everything. Everything.


    ¡°Good gods brute, do this away from civilized eyes.¡±


    Rain flatly ignored him and continued to drag the squeaking whimpering sheep girl up, her thighs wobbling wildly as her legs thrashed at the air.


    ¡°N-NUUUUUU!! It-it¡¯s too soon! You c-can''t it¡¯s supposed to be weeks!!¡±


    Her breath caught in her throat as her lower lips stretched back around the fist of flesh that was his knot, her hands grasping at his forearms, fingers digging into his fur, her back arcing as the intense feeling stetched her. Like a weird constipation, a building pressure in her core, pulling at her most sensitive parts.


    She let out a long groan as her lower lips slowly, gradually, slid up the knot, stretching wider and wider and wider.


    ¡°Stop showing me thissss!¡± hissed Vash increasingly agitated, his flame eyes shrinking back.


    Lyra howled and Vash seemed to make a decision. A row of small chicken bones pushed out below his jaw, like little legs, and after a moment of exceptional effort they began to raise him into the air. The legs shuffled and he began to turn, moving Rain and the flailing sheep girl out of view¡­ and into view of a crouching Goblin girl who had snuck behind him and had been watching him closely, a big shit eating grin appearing on her face.


    Vash paused.


    ¡°...I see. You positioned me here to watch them on purpose¡­¡±


    Opal¡¯s grin spread wider.


    ¡°I figured if you could make a tiny bow out of bones then there was no reason at all that you could not also make boner legs.¡±


    ¡°That- that''s not what they are called!¡±


    ¡°Hmm, whatever. What matters is that we know you can move around on your own now, you no longer have that secret. Remember the deal Boner, do anything that goes against us and I¡¯ll do things to you that will make your soul shrivel up in horror.¡±


    ¡°Tch. I am in no hurry to annoy the brute, I saw what he did to the town of Lynthia. If anything I am more inclined to be on your side, being with one of the few beings that isn''t an undead hating leveler, but is also rational and strong is in my self interest.¡±


    Opal tilted her head to the side. ¡°We¡¯ll see.¡±


    Behind them Lyra¡¯s voice was rising higher and higher in pitch as the pressure increased, her legs going stiff and rigid, her clit forced free from its hood and standing erect against the bulb sloooowly pulling free from her puss.


    Rain grunted, using his true strength, and then with a lurch and a feminine scream from Lyra he schl-popped! free, Lyra¡¯s puss slopping over the top of his knot then desperately gripping at his softening length as it poured from her folds, inches and inches and inches until the head slipped free with a steaming splatter of cum.


    Lyra shrieked once more and fell from his grip, falling to the ground in front of him, a steady hose of cum pouring from her reddened puffy gaped folds, pooling on the grass behind her.


    She whimpered and desperately shoved her hands between her thighs, pressing them up against herself and closing off the flow, keeping the delicious heat inside.


    ¡°N-nuu, it''s m-mine,¡± she keened as she slumped on the ground, her voice soft as she tried to keep Rain inside even as thick white slowly oozed from between her fingers.

 Chapter 93

    ? Chapter 93:


    Rain eased his paw down, shadow slipping from his fur, extending, black scythe claws sliding out of nothingness, the leaves of the bush curling away as they brushed up against the ruinous surface of the scythes.


    He was a hunter, a thing that stalked the night, a monster that inspired fear like no other. All were like terrified bunny rabbits before his monstrous yellow gaze, a thing that slid from moonlit shadow to moonlit shadow, hounding its prey.


    At least, that might have been the case, if it wasn¡¯t broad bloody daylight.


    Instead of being a nigh invisible creature of the night he was a spot of easily visible darkness on the bright sunny canvas of the day, showing up in clear sight amongst the leafery of the forest. The horned boar monster stared right at Rain as he crept through the foliage, its little piggy mind wondering why the hell this creature thought it was being stealthy, if it did think that, well it was doing a terrible job and fooling nobody. Still, those black claw scythes radiated danger, and even though the boar was enormous this black furred monster was still very very large. Deciding that wisdom was the better part of valour it took a step back, then another, yes, better to not risk this strange wolf thing that seemed to think it was being stealthy.


    It was then that Opal who had been waiting hidden behind it thrust out her rapier and stabbed deep into its ass.


    ¡°SQUEEEEEEE!!¡±


    Shrieked the boar as its ass was violated by the needle of metal, a laughing Goblin girl swinging of the hilt and pushing it deeper.


    Out of its mind with panic and pain the boar charged, charged straight into the foliage, unfortunately for the boar right at the spot where Rain was ¡®hidden¡¯. The black fur Moved, a predator in motion, exploding forward, leaves and branches flying up around it. The black scythes swept up and took the boar under the head, four blades punching up through its jaw and straight into its brain with a satisfying schthunk sound.


    The boar dropped like a rock, its head ripping free of the blades and in doing so the blades went out the front, canyons of flesh writ across its face and already starting to writhe. The boar hit the ground with an earth shaking thud, its brains and flesh wriggling away across the grass.


    ¡°Those weird blades are a little unsettling you know... Give me one.¡±


    Rain blinked at her. ¡°You want- ? No, I can¡¯t do that, it¡¯s too dangerous for you, and besides these are claws not blades, I can''t make blades, totally different thing.¡±


    Opal scowled at him. ¡°Fine, giant claws, whatever, give me some of them, I want to add them to my collection of pointies.¡±


    ¡°We don''t have any healing potions left Opal, if you accidentally cut yourself with this stuff it won''t just be a cut, it will be a wound liable to make you bleed out. Find something else to obsess over.¡±


    Rain turned on the fuming Goblin girl allowing the dark claws to syphon back into his fur as he reached out and eagerly grabbed hold of the boar. His jaws came down and he bit into its side, ribs failing and breaking apart as his teeth inevitably cut through its flesh, scooping out a great mouthful and then gulping it down.


    ¡° ¡®s good,¡± he muttered between bloody mouthfuls. Hunting hadn''t been hard in the forest, the floating pairs of wolf teeth ensured that, but they hadn''t come across anything large, no, mostly small animals, which was a problem as his endless burning hunger needed a lot of food. He¡¯d been forced to make do over the last few days by having the teeth hunt down everything that breathed or moved, stripping the forest bare of animals, deers, foxes, rabbits, birds, anything, all chased down and killed by the wolf teeth then gathered together and eaten, hundreds and hundreds of animals. It wasn¡¯t as though he had a choice, he could feel his hunger nipping at his heels, edging into that state of extreme mindless hunger like that after he had eaten Adlen. He couldn''t risk going back to that, he couldn''t put Opal or Lyra in danger from himself again. Not happening.


    It was starting to be a real cause for concern that the hundreds of animals wouldn''t be enough, but then they had stumbled on top of this giant horned boar monster. Nearly directly stumbled upon it, not seeing its green camouflaging mossy fur until they were practically on top of it and only spotting it by the great curving horn sticking from its forehead, a yellowed cracked ivory.


    Of course, he had hesitated.


    The boar was a monster and that meant killing the thing was going to add to his levels. There was a real feeling of uncomfortable apprehension about that, which would have been an alien and unthinkable thing to feel in his past life. Being wary of leveling? The one true key to having a good life in this world? Madness.


    What was more he hadn''t told either Opal or Lyra that he was now in part a leveler. He didn''t even know how to begin to approach that problem, he somehow doubted Opal would react well.


    But those were things for future Rain to worry about, at that point he was absolutely ravenous and just the sight of the boar made his mouth water. He had barely needed to glance at Opal to communicate what he wanted, although that was hardly difficult to understand. Opal had grinned and snuck off around the boar, circling, while he pushed ahead, drawing the boar¡¯s attention, and then they had sprung their trap.


    And now Rain gorged himself on the dead boar, damping down that burning hunger within, the satisfying squish of its heart as he tore into it pushing him on. He would have continued on happily like that but then, out of nowhere, something struck him in the side, something pointed, something that dug painfully into his flesh.


    He lurched back with a roar, stringy lines of red dripping and flecking from his blood drenched muzzle. He turned his head, left, right, searching from whence the attack had come, then seeing nothing glanced down to find a black arrow poking out just below his ribs. He snarled and grabbed it, ripping it out and tossing it aside.


    It was a moment of distraction, enough for a huge longsword to sweep toward him, powering through the air with Skill empowered weight.


    Rain hadn''t been idle however, as soon as he had felt the arrow pierce his side he had started shedding darkness, black mist seeping from his fur and coalescing, taking form. The blade came down on the half formed shape of a scythe clawed paw, crashing into it and lodging halfway inside, darkness misting around it.


    He turned his head to find the owner of said blade, a large Orc with oversized tusks parting his lips each capped with copper. He seemed startled that his attack had been stopped.


    Rain punched his half formed other dark paw into the Orc¡¯s stomach and the Orc¡¯s guts spilt free, fleeing from his body, falling around the scythes as Rain sunk the claws deeper until they were pushing out from his back and scraping against his spine.


    ¡°F-foul thing,¡± gritted out the Orc in immense pain, his eyes pin points of agony, he lifted a shaking hand and slapped hold of Rains arm, his thick Orcish fingers curling into his fur.


    ¡°Burn.¡±


    Sparking flashing electricity exploded from his hand, an instantaneous agony that made Rain lock up, his body going so tense that he couldn''t move a muscle, his vision going white, flashing strobes, a roaring in his ears, he couldn''t breathe! He felt more than heard the Thunk of an arrow slamming into his back, then more Thunk Thunk Thunk Thunk. He wanted to cry out in pain but he couldn''t even do that, only stand and take it as his body burned, smoke rolling off his burning fur in waves. This was too much.


    With a savagery that caused muscles to tear and split apart he forced his arm to move through sheer bloody will. The scythes in the Orc rose slowly, agonisingly slowly, cutting up through his stomach, into his rib cage, slicing through rib after rib, cutting into the now screaming Orc¡¯s lungs, then with a snarl and a lurch he cut through the Orc¡¯s heart.


    The burning sensation ended instantly and he stumbled forward as he regained control over his shaky limbs, breath ragged.


    Thunk.


    He roared and ripped his paw up, cutting through the top of the Orc and shredding his head. He spun around, paw whipping forward, darkness billowing from his fur, a half dozen wolf jaws being flung into the air.


    Opal yelped and flattened herself against the ground with her hands over her head as the teeth shot by over her, snapping and slavering. The teeth blasted into the foliage, cutting down a small sapling and revealing the Orc hidden there, her yew bow half raised, eyes wide in surprise. The teeth attacked gleefully, her bow coming up defensively more out of instinct than anything. Lucky for her as the teeth bounced off of it, arcing around. She turned, nocking an arrow and letting loose, the arrow struck home, guided by some unseen Skill, cracking against one of the pairs of teeth and sending it tumbling out of the air and crashing to the ground where it began to disintegrate where the arrow had struck. She quickly nocked another, desperate calculus in her eyes.


    Then one of the jaws that she had failed to see bit into her thigh. She screamed as her flesh parted, a U shaped bite into muscle and bone, her flesh rippling in reaction, skin tearing away, muscle flopping free. She collapsed, landing with a thump on the grass, desperately trying to beat the teeth of her thigh with the bow. Another pair bit into her foot, then her arm, then one got by her thrashing limbs and buried itself in her guts, eating up into her body.


    The Orc threw her head back and screamed her agony. Which gave her a clear view of the pair of teeth latching on her face for the all of three more seconds she was alive.


    The sound of flesh being savaged and torn apart filled the air, and then the teeth collapsed in on themselves, becoming a black mist that slowly drifted back toward its master.


    Rain raised his upper lip in pain as his paw pads wrapped around the next bolt in his side, flesh being dragged out and split apart as the arrow head broke free. He lifted it up and examined it. The steel head of the arrow was serrated and had many long back curled barbs designed to hook into flesh and stay there.


    ¡°Any deeper and I¡¯m not sure I would have been able to get these out, gods¡­¡±


    The arrows were¡­ cruel, if he had to describe them, designed to stay in even if a quarry escaped, it was only his inherently tougher body that had prevented them from being more permanent additions.


    Opal picked one up that he had discarded, peering at the arrow head, a sour look on her face.


    ¡°Levelers like to use these on us. It doesn''t matter if a Gobbo runs away, hides in a tunnel, or dives underwater, if they have one of these in the wrong spot they are a dead Gobbo walking. You can''t take them out without ripping your body apart, and you can''t heal with them in, you just die over days, becoming a curled up thing, paralysed with pain until you get so weak and sickly that you can''t eat or drink. It¡¯s a nasty way to go.¡±


    Rain paused as he pulled on the last arrow.


    ¡°Why use them? That seems so... what¡¯s the point?¡±


    ¡°Isn''t it obvious?¡± she gave him a dark smile, a smile that hadn''t the least bit of mirth to it, ¡°levelers still level when the Gobbo dies, doesn''t matter if it¡¯s days later, they still get it. If you can tag a monster with one of these that''s an easier way to level, to get stronger, you don''t need to hunt a monster to the death where it can get dangerous.¡±


    ¡°...That''s incredibly fucked up.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s looked down on, in the city,¡± said Lyra, appearing out of thin air, the Dimensional Bag at her hip, her belly once more trim and flat. ¡°Those who do it are seen as fools, the thinking is that a leveler who does such a thing is setting themselves up for trouble when they later have to fight to the death for real and lack the full expertise, they will end up getting themselves killed by making a novice mistake.¡±


    Opal glared at her and spat to the side. ¡°I¡¯m sure that would be really comforting to the Gobbo dying on her own with an arrow in her gut, ¡®oh the leveler isn''t going to learn how to kill monsters properly and might get in trouble later, oh that makes me feel much better about dying¡¯.¡±


    Lyra blushed with embarrassment.


    ¡°It¡¯s not- Hey you¡¯re one to talk, Rain here eats people alive!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s different.¡±


    ¡°Really, how¡¯s that?¡± said Lyra crossing her arms.


    ¡°It¡¯s natural, like a wolf hunting and eating in nature. plus it¡¯s fast¡­ sort of fast¡­ okay medium speed. It doesn''t take days like one of these shitty leveler arrows.¡±


    Lyra opened her mouth to reply but Rain held up a paw, tossing aside the last removed arrow with his other.


    ¡°Quiet.¡±


    He eyed the wood line, then he curled the digits of his held up paw minus the index, he pointed then twirled his claw. The sound of snapping wood and rustling leaves came from the bushes and then a red haired Orc burst free, his legs pumping like pistons as he charged past, a terrified look on his face. Behind him came a pair of wolf jaws that snapped at his rear, trying to get a grip but failing as the Orc was covered neck to toe in a kind of hardened leather armour marked with crude runes.


    ¡°Uhhm, Orcs t-tend to move in clans, it m-might be quite bad if-¡±


    Rain was already moving. His feet sending up sprays of earth and grass over the unfortunately positioned Lyra as he powered forward leaving Lyra¡¯s cries of distress in his wake. He bounded forward, leaning into his run and maximising the sheer strength he could exert to accelerate massively, chasing as the Orc managed to make it to the treeline, fleeing between the heavy timbers.


    Rain followed, a terrible shadow hot on his heels.


    His size proved problematic as the branches and trunks blocked his way slowing him down and forcing him to swipe them aside. He roughed through, trying to keep the fleeing Orc in sight, all of his instinct screaming at him to catch the quarry, hunt the running prey. Despite all his need to catch the Orc it wasn¡¯t quite enough and the gap between them was steadily increasing.


    Desperate now, Rain flung out a paw, darkness flinging from his claws, sailing into the air in an arc, forming as it dropped to the ground, a sleek black house cat except thrice its normal size. The house cat bounded ahead of him, far faster, snaking between the trees with ease.


    The cat caught up. Of course, the cat was even less likely to be able to pierce the Orc¡¯s enchanted armour than the wolf jaws. But that wasn¡¯t what Rain had willed it to do.


    The feline shot forward, darting in front of the Orc¡¯s feet, an unexpected obstacle. The Orc¡¯s foot collided and the cat was launched into the air with a yowl, but at the same time the Orc stumbled and slowed. Taking their chance the wolf teeth darted in and slipped around the Orc¡¯s ankle. The Orc let out a yell of surprise as his ankle twisted and he went down, crashing to the ground and rolling, bursting free from the trees in a shower of leaves.


    He kicked wildly at the teeth wrapped around his foot, trying to dig into his sabatons. His heel came down once, twice, three times, and the edges of the black teeth started to disintegrate, fringing away in flickers of chromatic aberration. But then a yowling house cat landed on his face and he could see nothing but furious spitting cat face.


    ¡°G-get the fuck off of me!¡±


    He reached up and ripped the cat off, flinging it away, clearing his view.


    He did not like what he saw. A pair of terrible yellow eyes stared directly into his. Pure fear flooded his body, his mouth going dry, a weight dropping in his gut. The monster had caught him.


    A paw wrapped around his throat, so enormous that its digits could reach fully around his neck. The paw drew together and pressure was applied. He could barely breathe but the Orc had the distinct impression that the wolf monster was doing its utmost to hold back, as though using only a fraction of its true strength for fear of pulping his neck.


    The monster¡¯s other paw drew up and black teeth started to emerge from its fur and pads, half a hundred fangs and canines, overlapping crisscrossing rows, a terrifying sight.


    ¡°Are you the last or are there more of you? Tell me or I will remove your face while keeping you alive.¡±


    The Orc raised a shaky hand, fingers trembling, pointing past Rain.


    Rain blinked and then turned his head, following the direction he pointed.


    They were on a rise and had a view over a sparsely treed valley.


    At the center of the valley was a vast camp, an Orc camp.

 Chapter 94

    ? Chapter 94:


    ¡°Huh. Well that explains why we haven''t seen many monsters around, the Orcs killed them all.¡±


    Opal was standing with her hands on her hips looking down at the enormous Orc camp at the bottom of the valley. Rows and rows of tents and ramshackle constructions and warsmithies and stalls and sties and stables and canopies and carts and latrines and flattened ground where Orcs sparred and brawled in the open cheered on by eager Orcish crowds.


    Rain could scent the camp from up on the rise thanks to the breeze and it caused him to wrinkle the bridge of his nose in disgust. Orcs on the move apparently didn''t go in for hygiene¡­ or baths. It gave the lower leveler slums a run for its money in stench.


    ¡°We should leave. It¡¯s a bad idea for monsters like us to be anywhere near that camp, we¡¯re too much of a target.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ want to go in.¡±


    He blinked and turned to find Lyra. She was looking at the red-headed Orc who was desperately trying to draw in what little air he could to remain conscious as Rain held him up in one paw.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because first of all you¡¯re obviously still hungry and I think I can see some cattle down there. We need that cattle because what if there is nothing to eat when we go further? What if the Orcs have stripped the woods bare for miles around? I don¡¯t particularly want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with a hungry you Rain, er, no offence.¡±


    Rain had to admit that was true, he had been getting increasingly concerned with just how starved he was. He needed food, and a lot of it, the sooner the better.


    ¡°And second because, well, we¡¯re bloody lost! I¡¯m a city sheep! I don''t know my way around backwoods and endless forests!¡± she jabbed a finger at Rain ¡°And you! You rarely if ever left Lynthia, you know literally one town and one dungeon, that''s it!¡± The accusing finger swung to the side pointing at an annoyed looking Opal ¡°And somehow you''re even worse! You hadn''t even seen the sky until recently!¡±


    ¡°Hey screw you! I don''t need to see some dumb sky to scout!¡±


    ¡°So what direction is Florens in huh?¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I thought. We don''t know where we¡¯re going, so we need¡­ we need a map. I think I can probably purchase that down in that camp. Maybe. So- So I¡¯m going down there!¡±


    Rain eyed the sheep girl. Five foot six. Cute. Fluffy. Then he turned and looked down at the camp. Hordes of huge seven foot Orcs. Muscular. Violent. Currently happily beating the shit out of each other in a massive brawl.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been in Orc camps before you know. They are still levelers despite their incompetent public image department. They will welcome me fine and they won''t even challenge me to a casual brawl first because I¡¯m not very intimidating. It¡¯s when you look like you can put up a fight that you really need to look out around Orcs.¡±


    ¡°...I will come too, as Fitz.¡±


    ¡°And get immediately attacked on sight? Have you seen yourself? It¡¯s not like I can make you invisible without being invisible myself either, and Opal can hardly go in on her own as she isn''t a leveler.¡±


    Rain set his lips in a line. She was¡­ annoyingly right. If she could do as she said it would be quite good, maybe even very good, they were in need of both a map and food.


    He clenched his paw and the Orc made a strangled cry of alarm as he was squeezed. But then he let his shoulders slump and sighed.


    ¡°Alright, it makes some amount of sense,-¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡±


    ¡°-but I¡¯m not letting you go down there with nothing.¡±


    ¡°Yeah she¡¯ll have me with her,¡± said Opal.


    Rain¡¯s eye twitched. ¡°Not what I meant .¡±


    He dropped the red headed Orc and he went sprawling on the grass on all fours, drawing in great raggedy breaths, his chest rising and falling like a pair of blacksmith¡¯s bellows, drool dangling from his lips.


    The Orc was on the younger side, about six and a half foot in height, similar to the other orcs that had attacked him in that way, his peers Rain supposed. Unusual for an Orc he had red hair, beaded and shorn and cut with crude runes. His canines which protruded up from his lip were tipped with crafted copper. Having seen just how much the species enjoyed brawling it seemed likely they were capped that way for fighting reasons.


    He looked over the Orc¡¯s armour. Hardened leather from a mix of sources, some of it even looked suspiciously like Kobold scales. More important than the material however was the crude Orcish runes carved and marked along its surface, clearly some kind of enchantment to make it stronger, which was fortunate for the Orc as the shadowy wolf teeth wouldn''t have had much problem piercing the leather otherwise.


    After some time the Orc flopped over onto his back, still breathing hard, and looked up at Rain. There was genuine fear in his eyes, which in Rain¡¯s experience with Orc¡¯s, mostly the anvil wielding maniac Ola, was unusual. The Orc swallowed.


    ¡°D-don¡¯t kill me. I¡¯m not- I didn''t do anything to you, I never attacked you like the others, it wouldn''t be f-fair.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a leveler, you expect me to believe that you didn''t intend to kill me? A monster? No. The only reason you didn''t try to kill me is because you saw your friends get cut down first.¡±


    The Orc paled.


    Rain held up a paw and darkness misted from his fur, fringing chromatic. A small cloud formed, condensing and creating a starscape-eyed shadow rat sitting in his palm. The rat blinked and sniffed at the air curiously, its whiskers twitching.


    ¡°You know what this stuff does to a living person?¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°I s-saw... but I wish I hadn''t...¡± The Orc began to slowly crawl away on his elbows, stealthily trying to put some distance between himself and Rain. Rain didn''t even glance down at him, half a dozen pairs of wolf teeth poured from his mane and spilled down on to the grass, circling the Orc and preventing him from going further.


    Rain eyed the rat in his paw. Rats were a constant presence in his previous life, happy to make their home amongst the low leveler slums, they were extraordinary survivors and could eat anything¡­ which was a problem as it meant they weren''t particularly pure predators.


    He lifted his other paw and extended his index, then he gently prodded the rat with the tip of his claw. The rat promptly disintegrated into a cloud of darkness.


    Hmm.


    He looked down at the Orc who was currently trying his best to shrivel into a corncob in his efforts to avoid the teeth eagerly snapping at the air around him.


    The rat being fragile was one problem, the other problem was it wouldn''t really be stealthy anywhere on the Orc, it wasn''t like the Orc had convenient pockets on his armour. He tried to recall something appropriate, something that would work for what he wanted, something that would be strong and stealthy.


    A childhood memory of sitting on the dusty dirt as the summer sun beat down overhead came to him. Memories of being entertained by the smallest of things that darted and fought in the grass and forgotten corners.


    The cloud began to reform. Ligaments. Lots and lots and lots of ligaments spun from the dark. Then a segmented body. A flat and long segmented body. The little ligaments wriggled as it formed, a successive wave, rhythmic, dozens and dozens of little legs, then joined by the formation of a pair of large pincers already reaching for life.


    The Orc¡¯s face froze up in a kind of stark horror as the thing formed, a crawling dark insectoid centipede that writhed and coiled, an incredibly unsettling air around it.


    ¡°Wha- What are you going to do with that?! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THAT!?- N-NO! NO! NO!¡±


    Rain advanced on the now hyperventilating Orc, the Three foot long black centipede¡¯s antenna waving at the air with animated interest.


    The Orc shook his head frantically, raising his arms, begging and pleading, but nothing could stop it, Rain held out his paw and the centipede poured from between his digits, slipping down, its legs scrabbling at the air until it found the Orc¡¯s kicking feet. The centipede got a grip and its many powerful legs clutched hold, sticking to the armour and flowing onto its surface, wrapping around his leg, spiralling up. The Orc tried to beat at it, his hands flailing, but the floating teeth took hold of his arms and held him down and the giant centipede was free to crawl up his body until it found a gap in his armour below his cuirass.


    The Orc¡¯s deep voice rose into a surprisingly feminine shriek as the centipede crawled into his armour, its flat body allowing it to squeeze beneath the leather and his clothing beneath. With a squiggle of the last of its legs it fully slipped under and vanished from sight.


    ¡°OhgodOhgodOhgod!¡±


    The wolf teeth let him go and the Orc thrashed in the grass rolling over and over. The back of his head became visible and at the nape opening of the cuirass a pair of black pincers poked free. The pincers brushed against the hairs on the back of his neck and the Orc froze up.


    ¡°You saw what happened to the others when cut or bitten by this stuff Orc. You know those pincers only have to squeeze down a little bit and it¡¯s over for you.¡±


    The Orc didn''t reply, clearly too scared to move. As it was he could do nothing but tremble as two more centipedes formed around Rain¡¯s claws and then slithered into his armour, coiling around his body beneath.


    Content that the three giant shadow crawlies were now impossible to see he commanded the one brushing its pincers against his neck to pull back. The pincers dipped below the armour but were still held ready to bite down on his spine, ready to sever it on command.


    ¡°Stand up.¡±


    The Orc whimpered, but then Rain made the centipedes wiggle their many legs and he squealed in fear and rushed to his feet, standing tense and awkward, freezing up each time he felt chitin move against his body.


    ¡°You understand that going against me in any way will result in your death? That your life is now entirely in my paws?¡±


    ¡°Wha- wha- what the fucking hell kind of monster are you!? This- this isn''t normal, this isn''t supposed to happen! M-monsters can¡¯t do this! You were just supposed to die and- and help me level!¡± shouted the Orc, his voice cracking.


    Opal prodded him in the side with a finger and the Orc yelped and near jumped out of his skin, awkwardly trying to move so that the centipedes didn''t puncture his clothing as he landed.


    She grinned.


    ¡°You¡¯re pretty wimpy for an Orc. First you hid in a bush pooping your panties and now you''re as jumpy as a cricket just because of a few cute centipedes.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re three feet long and in my clottthess!!¡± replied the Orc with tears in the corners of his eyes.


    Opal laughed. ¡°They¡¯re just bugs.¡±


    Lyra was looking at the twitching Orc with a slightly less gleeful expression, more of a mildly horrified expression.


    ¡°I think I preferred the floating teeth,¡± she whispered faintly, an involuntary shudder running up her back.


    ¡°With this you have something to fall back on if there are any problems.¡± gravelled Rain, ¡°The Orc can guide you or make excuses when necessary, or even fight for you if he wishes to live.¡±


    ¡°And what if he tries to betray us?¡±


    ¡°Snip.¡± said Rain, making a pincer shape with his index and thumb and closing it. ¡°If anyone asks, say he is having a heart attack or something like that and sneak away in the crowd. The centipedes will mist to nothing before anyone knows to look.¡±


    ¡°You hear that Orc boy? You do anything bad and you¡¯ll get the snip!¡±


    ¡°P-please don¡¯t put it like that¡­¡±


    Opal patted his thigh like a pet and smiled innocently. She then turned and waved back at him over her shoulder. ¡°Come on, we''ve got food to buy to make wolfy bigger.¡±


    After a moment the Orc attempted to follow, his motions stiff and terrified but easing as he realised that the centipedes weren''t going to tear into him just for moving around.


    The three of them made their way down the rise with Rain remaining behind.


    --


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 95

    ? Chapter 95:


    Rain slunk into the trees and bushes as Lyra and Opal and the Orc descended down the rise into the valley. He watched them carefully from between the leaves, following their every step with his sharp eyesight, the centipedes ready to kill the skittish Orc dead at the slightest hint of betrayal, or tear into any who chose to attack them, giving time for Lyra to make her escape with Opal.


    Nothing happened. The trio were left completely alone as they made their way toward the camp. They weren''t even stopped or questioned as they entered, the other Orcs flat out ignored them minus the occasional glance at the red headed Orc. They had no problem at all filtering amongst the tents and crowds.


    Orcs apparently felt very safe out in the open like this without walls. That made some amount of sense for a battle loving species, the openness might as well have been a welcome invitation to attack. The human part of him thought that insanity. He¡¯d grown up with walls keeping monsters and attackers out, how could a low leveler possibly survive without them? He supposed they probably didn''t. A low leveler either leveled up in an Orcish clan... or they died.


    It seemed it was as Lyra had said, they weren''t interested in fighting her or Opal so they weren''t something they paid attention to. He watched as the trio found stalls that were part of some kind of merchant section of the camp and struck up a conversation with one of the owners.


    He tensed, waiting for the penny to drop. But they simply continued to chat. They were fine. It seemed this really would be as simple as Lyra had promised.


    The relief in knowing that they would be safe made him ease back, the leaves rustling over his fur.


    He wasn''t even concerned the red headed Orc would betray them. The Orc had been well and truly put to heel, the centipedes working more effectively than he had even dared to hope. He felt like he was starting to learn something of how this terrifying power worked yet at the same time he felt like a child before an ancient primordial ocean, uncomprehending, unable to grasp the vast size of it, the miles deep darkest depths invisible to him.


    Keeping an eye on the girls talking in the camp he lifted a paw. Darkness misted up from his pads and formed a rat once more. The rat blinked up at him. It really was shockingly life-like, a strange shadow rat with star filled eyes, its nose wobbling as it sniffed the air, almost cute, but still, not very helpful. Rats simply weren''t undiluted killers. He closed his paw slightly and the Rat fell apart becoming a misty cloud of darkness.


    He needed to get better with this ability, more accustomed to it.


    He reached out a paw and cleared aside the bushes and greenery, making a clear space in the foliage in front of where he sat cross legged.


    Then he let darkness spill from his fur, his legs, flowing into a shape in front of him, a curled shape. He ran out of the stuff as the shape started to settle, a leg and then bird like claws appearing, a pair of curled wings flecked with constellations. After a moment it finished, then it sat up and yawned, brushing the corner of a wing over its mouth, her star shatter eyes blinking in the leaf patterned light.


    A stark naked Harpy girl sat in front of him. She shifted her legs, her wings getting caught in the catching twigs and branches around her. With an annoyed expression she pulled her wings free and folded them close. Then seeing Rain staring at her she drew her knees up, tucking them under her chin and wrapping the corner of her wings around her shins.


    Making a humanoid felt¡­ weird. At least weirder than making an animal. How much of the Harpy¡¯s awareness carried over? Was this ability creating a mind when he created predators? Or was it simply his own instinct unthinkingly commanding them to act in such a natural way?


    The Harpy had found a bug on the ground and was watching it with interest, her eyes glittering as she watched it move in that way that cats did when they caught sight of movement. After a moment she darted a clawed bird foot forward and a razor sharp talon schunked down through the bug, impaling it. They both watched in fascination as the bug disintegrated and its pieces began wiggling across the ground trying to flee the darkness.


    He had chosen a Harpy because they were one of the purest humanoid predators he could think of. Harpies were only two steps away from being like birds of prey, they only ate meat and they didn''t farm or use tools and they didn''t build homes, at least like a leveler knew homes anyway.


    He willed her to lift her talon from the ground and she did so, blinking up at him innocently. Was she wondering why she had done such a thing or did she understand his intent and comply?


    He shifted uncomfortably. He couldn''t hold himself back any longer. He needed to know.


    ¡°...Can you¡­ speak?¡±


    The Harpy tilted her head to the side in question and remained silent. After a moment she ruffled a wing and began inspecting her feathers for dirt.


    His shoulders fell and he let out a breath he hadn''t realised he¡¯d been holding. Of course she couldn''t speak, she was just a thing of shadow, some sort of golem that mimicked motions, nothing els-


    ¡°Yes?¡± said the Harpy looking straight into his eyes.


    Rain flinched back in shock, forcing the Harpy to instantly mist to darkness, dissipating to nothing.


    ¡°Fuck.¡± he breathed, trying to still his pounding heart. That voice had been an ice dagger in his gut, not the least because he had instantly recognised it as being very like one of the Harpy-goblin girls he had killed in the dungeon.


    He had been wrong. If the darkness was capable of copying the shape and muscle and skin and flesh and bone and motions and everything else down to the absolute most perfect detail then there was no reason at all that it could not perfectly replicate a mind.


    The icy feeling in his gut only sank lower as he realised he may have unknowingly created and then killed an exact living replica of Opal.


    He did not like that feeling.


    Desperately trying to put what had just happened out of mind he managed to call the cloud of darkness suffusing the bush back in. This time he would not be creating something that could speak. He wasn''t sure he wanted to make something that could speak ever again, or at least for some time. There was just something extremely unsettling about making what seemed to be a sapient living being so easily.


    ...Best to put that to one side for the moment.


    This time he tested something simpler. He called forth many smaller shapes from the mist, fish, or more specifically flat headed catfish, each about a foot long. They eased from the shadow one by one, wiggling free before flopping down onto the ground until he reached ten of them. Then slowing, eleven, then slowing much further, twelve. His head started to hurt as he tried to draw the next from the mist and then failed, the fish collapsing into mist the same as the cow he had previously tried to create. No good. There seemed to be a limit to how many ¡®independent¡¯ minds he could create at one time, fifteen if he was pushing himself apparently, including the centipedes.


    That was important to know, and maybe suggested that these¡­ things needed him to think¡­ maybe, and maybe he could increase the number with practice.


    With a wave of his paw the fish dissipated and became shadow once more, drawing back into his fur.


    There was something else that needed his attention, demanded it even. Killing the boar monster had caused him to level up again. He was now a mind boggling and grandiose level 3. Okay, that was admittedly scraping the bottom of the barrel for low levelers, but to someone who had never leveled up it felt like a fortune of levels... Not that he was completely certain he wanted that fortune, it was just difficult to turn away when it was thrust into your paws.


    He called the chromatic menu to his mind''s eye and checked over his name and species and lack of Class. Of course, they were the same as they had been. More interestingly his mana had ticked up to 3/3. He didn''t have a magic type Class of course so he had no way to use it, it was just a curiosity. It did suggest that every non-mage had some minuscule amount of mana but it just wasn¡¯t usually exposed in the system for them to see.


    Moving on he came to the important part. He had learned a new Skill. Another basic one, but it being basic wasn¡¯t going to stop him from being very excited. The leaves behind him rustled as his tail waved back and forth.


    [Flame]


    Magic? No, that wasn''t possible outside of a Class. Curious, he focused on it and the system supplied him with the information.


    Flame: A Skill to ease the starting of fires.


    ¡°I¡­ know this Skill?¡± At least he thought he did, he had heard of people occasionally getting a Skill like this. It was a faster and more convenient method of starting a fire than flint and steel.


    Eager now, he flipped his paw over and willed the Skill to function, triggering it. A candle flame flickered to life above the tip of his index, a small flame floating in the air. He stared at it. This sure felt like magic... He suddenly felt a lot less certain about whether it was or not, he didn''t know the deeper principles of Classes and how they worked to say for sure. Something to ask Lyra about later.


    In any case he could create a flame at will and he could¡­


    ¡°Shit.¡±


    It suddenly occurred to him that this wasn''t a strength based Skill, his inherent ability as a monster could not synergise with it. He had a new Skill but all it was good for was what it said on the tin: easing the starting of fires. Which in the grand scheme of things wasn''t particularly helpful.


    He stared glumly at the flame and moved his paw. The flame hovered over it, drifting from claw to claw, pad to pad. He used the Skill again and a second flame appeared on a different digit. Interesting. He supposed this would make starting fires faster. Perhaps he could become an arsonist and burn down forests?


    He played with the flame, finding that it was locked to his body. It could only be created on himself; he could not create an independent candle flame on any nearby leaves or branches or dirt or stones. However useless the Skill was he was still happy to have it, it was still an exhilarating feeling to use it, to be able to do things as a leveler. At one point he had half a dozen flames dancing over his paw, although he had to slow down a bit as he could feel the strain of Skill abuse starting to weigh on his mind. He even raised a shadow rat on his paw, the flame wobbling over the top of it, a candle flame hovering between the rat¡¯s ears. This was-


    His thoughts abruptly ground to a halt. The rat turned and blinked up at him with star filled eyes, the flame swaying on its head but remaining stable, glued in position.


    The¡­ Skill treated the dark as part of his body? Well, that certainly changed things.


    He lowered his paw and allowed the rat to hop onto the ground. It scampered forward and sniffed at the air. Concentrating on the rat, Rain triggered the Flame Skill and a second candle flame flickered to life on the Rat¡¯s back. Interesting. He had been mistaken, there was a synergy. Now he could set fire to a whole lot of forest at the same time, he was now an advanced arsonist.


    His pondering was interrupted by the acrid smell of smoke and he looked down to find the nearby dead grass igniting as an oblivious shadow rat wandered through it.


    ¡°Uhh¡­¡± he slapped his broad paw down, smothering the fire and gasifying the unfortunate rat at the same time.


    --


    ¡°So,¡± said Opal, ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°A worthless slave Goblin doesn''t need to know,¡± sniffed the stiffly walking Orc, desperately trying to avoid bending his limbs.


    Opal smiled as though he had just fallen into her trap.


    ¡°Okay, that means I get to name you. Hmm. How about panty shitter? It works because you¡¯re walking like you¡¯ve shit your pants.¡±


    The Orc¡¯s cheeks coloured with anger. ¡°That¡¯s not-! The centipe-¡± he drew in a calming breath, closing his eyes for a moment. ¡°My name is Kel.¡± Kel tried to relax his gait but only partially succeeded, still extremely uncomfortable with the centipedes lurking under his armour, coiled around his torso and limbs.


    Lyra glanced up at him as they neared the camp. ¡°Would there be someplace we could buy a map here?¡±


    Kel remained silent, refusing to answer.


    ¡°Snip,¡± whispered Opal under her breath.


    The Orc flinched, a shudder running up his body. ¡°What is wrong with you people?! Fine, yes, we have maps. What? did you think Orcs are all fight and no brains? You can''t find a fight unless you know where you are going, obviously. Why do you think we¡¯re even out here?¡±


    ¡°You want to attack Lynthia,¡± said Lyra.


    ¡°Yes- wait, how did you know that?¡±


    ¡°Because there aren''t any other towns around here and this clan is on a war footing. I¡¯ve been to Orc camps before, I know what less aggressive clans look like, this isn''t that. Well, it¡¯s not like it matters with what happened, Lynthia is gone.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Hold on, what do you mean gone?¡±


    ¡°It doesn''t exist anymore.¡±


    ¡°I don''t understand, how can it not exist? We came here for Lynthia, it¡¯s our prize, our grand fight, we¡¯ve been planning for weeks and weeks.¡±


    ¡°Wolfy flattened it,¡± said Opal, ¡°It¡¯s all gone now, just a pile of rubble with nobody there.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe this nonsense, that monster? That¡¯s bullshit, bullshit.¡±


    ¡°Hm, well suit yourself, whatever helps you sleep at night.¡±


    Kel stared at Opal, opened his mouth to reply, then slowly closed it. The Goblin¡¯s disinterest in fighting the point suddenly making him feel a little uneasy. What if the insane lie was true? It couldn''t be true, right?


    The trio soon made it to the camp, the edge marked by the tramped earth of many Orcish feet and a horrible increase in bad smells. An Orc sitting on a camp stool trimming his nails with a rough knife barely glanced at them as they passed by, his eyes drifting lazily from Goblin slave to unthreatening sheep girl to the familiar face of Kel.


    ¡°Just as uncaring as I remembered,¡± murmured Lyra as they stepped between the tents, tall and muscular Orcs passing them by.


    Opal paused and looked around in dismay. ¡°Oh no.¡±


    ¡°What? What is it?¡±


    ¡°It smells terrible!¡±


    ¡°That is how Orcish clans on the move are going to smell Opal.¡±


    ¡°You don''t understand, Gobbo tribes don''t wash either! I¡¯ve- oh gods, the baths, they¡¯ve changed me, I notice it now.¡±


    Lyra stared at the distressed Goblin girl wondering if she was serious.


    ¡°I¡¯m, uh, sure you¡¯ll get used to it?¡±


    ¡°This is the worst,¡± she groaned.


    They made their way through the camp, threading through the tents and campfires and crowds. Lyra found one thing did feel significantly different than how she remembered, she didn''t feel quite as small around the seven foot Orcs as she once had. She supposed that was mostly because she had been around someone significantly larger as of late. Hard to feel smaller when you had a perspective on something even bigger.


    They emerged into an area where carts and supplies had been stored, and amongst them the camp followers had made a home. The clan was after all more like a small mobile town than a straight forward military and that meant commerce.


    She turned on Kel.


    ¡°Okay, so where do we go? Who do we need to speak to?¡±


    The Orc gave her a resentful look but after a moment he jabbed a finger. ¡°There, you can find what you are looking for there.¡±


    They turned to see a particularly large stall, or rather stalls. The Orc running it had connected many of them together, seemingly because of the sheer over the top quantity of things they had for sale.


    Lyra approached cautiously, wondering if the wonky stacks of merchandise were liable to fall on her if she breathed in their direction.


    Opal was slightly less cautious, she bounded forward with round eyes, bee-lining toward a number of ornate swords that had been put on display in pride of place. They were quite high up but she managed to leap into the air, grabbing a gold hilted broadsword and pulling it down, its blade patterned and marked with runes far far less crude than the common Orcish runes. The stack wobbled dangerously as she pulled it free.


    ¡°It¡¯s so pretty, and the balance!¡±


    ¡°Oih! Get your grubby Goblin hands off of that!¡±


    She turned expecting to see a tall Orc looming over her, instead she found the air empty where she was expecting to find a head and had to lower her view significantly to find the owner of the voice. A very short Orc with a large brown braided beard stared back at her.


    ¡°Why are you a tiny Orc?¡±


    The expression on the Orc¡¯s face descended down through several more shades of irritation. He turned on Lyra.


    ¡°Is this your slave? I¡¯ll hold you responsible if it does anything to my merchandise.¡±


    ¡°No she¡¯s-... Look I promise she will be fine, don¡¯t worry about it. We¡¯re here to purchase a map.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s your thing sheepy. I¡¯m here to purchase a sword. How much?¡±


    The Orc gave her a distasteful look. ¡°Lots of gold. You can¡¯t afford it.¡±


    Opal held out her hand. ¡°Give me lots of gold.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t ask the shopkeep for money! You idio-¡±


    A long miserable groan interrupted the shopkeep¡¯s tirade and then after a moment a red scaled arm holding a fistful of gold emerged from the bag on Lyra¡¯s hip and dumped it in Opal¡¯s waiting palm.


    The shopkeep stared at the arm as it pulled back into the bag, his jaw hanging slack.


    --


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 96

    ? Chapter 96:


    The small bearded Orc stared at the bag on Lyra¡¯s hip and then at the fistful of gold clutched in Opal¡¯s fingers. He shifted his center of balance, his body language morphing in real time, becoming more open, relaxed, inviting, swift merchant math changing the calculus of the situation.


    ¡°You have an eye for the more exquisite pieces of craftsmanship young Goblin. This sword, Rockheart, spite of the soul, blade of masters, you won''t find anything quite like this from an Orcish warsmith, no, this came from outside our clan, from the Dwarves and their mountain Mega City riddled throughout the skysplitter mountain range. Those misty halls and ancient castles are of course all ruins now sadly, but the survivors still live on within, the great half-mile forges still light the night, the mountain faces bathed in orange-red. It is quite the stirring sight I mu-.¡±


    ¡°If this is going to be more bullshit stories with fake swords and lies like last time then I¡¯m going to have to get my Boner out,¡± said Opal crossing her arms.


    The merchant blinked at her wondering if he had misheard what she had just said.


    ¡°Your¡­ what?¡±


    ¡°My Boner. It¡¯s magic.¡±


    ¡°The whorehouse is over there if you have need???¡±


    ¡°She, ah, is referring to a counterfeit detector, not an, ahem, actual pe- something.¡±


    ¡°...I see. Well there is no need for that, this is all above board and legitimate, see it even comes with a Dwarven certificate of authenticity, you can''t fake these.¡±


    Opal took the produced paper from the Orc and studied it furiously, eyes darting left right left right, suspicion clear in her expression. After a moment she finished and nodded her head in confirmation, satisfied. Then she looked up.


    ¡°Yep. I still don''t know how to read. Boner!¡±


    The Orc spluttered and snatched back the certificate.


    ¡°Gods! I simply cannot deal with dimwitted slave Goblins, why on earth people insist on sending them shopping¡­¡± He cleared his throat and turned to Lyra who raised a brow in question.


    ¡°This sword would obviously be at a reasonable price-¡±


    ¡°More!?¡± said Opal behind him


    ¡°Yes, only a few times more, but one such as yourself would sure-


    ¡°I¡¯m here for a map not a sword, remember?¡± interrupted Lyra.


    ¡°And remember I am? Red! More gold!¡±


    Lyra ignored Opal and placed her hand over the strings of the dimensional bag preventing it from being opened.


    ¡°Map please.¡±


    The merchant eyed the sheep girl, analysing her as a potential customer. Not seeing what he hoped for he changed tact.


    ¡°Hmm. Yes, we do have maps, excellent ones if I do say so myself. Very well.¡±


    The merchant returned the elegant broadsword to the stack and moved past it leaving an angry Opal with her arms spread in outrage. She was of course ignored, and the merchant began sorting through a pile of papers and sheets, many appearing aged and worn.


    Lyra peered at them, then at the Orc.


    ¡°You seem¡­ different for an Orc, if you don''t mind me saying, uhm, a little vertically challenged?¡±


    The Orc continued to rummage ¡°Well, my Father is a Dwarf. How do you think I have an in with the Dwarven traders? Ain''t no one else around here that can get gear like I can. It¡¯s made it easy to become the biggest purveyor of the clan, as much as it pisses off certain pure bloods.¡±


    ¡°And your Mother?¡±


    ¡°Yes, she is an Orc, a big ¡®un, as you can imagine that makes my father a brave and courageous Dwarf, fearless even, heart like a lion, balls the size of mountains, and much like mountains he¡¯d have needed to hike up my Mothe-¡±


    ¡°Yes! yes! I understand! please god stop talking!¡±


    ¡°Ah, apologies for that, I forget us Orcish folk care little for ideas of the city, best to keep things out and naked in the open we say. Ah, here we go.¡±


    He pulled a browned with age map from the bottom of the stack, its edges curled and torn, spots of ink speckled across its surface.


    Lyra examined the held map, not even bothering to reach out.


    ¡°This map looks terrible, is this really the best you have? Look, it barely shows anything!¡±


    ¡°Terrible! Terrible, she says. Oh no no no. Sheepy you have no idea what this is, do you?¡±


    Lyra frowned, unsure what he was getting at. Then her brow rose in understanding.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ enchanted?¡±


    A broad smile broke over the Half-Orc¡¯s face, flashing her a set of perfect sturdy white teeth.


    ¡°Watch.¡± He lifted a finger to the map''s surface and gently dragged it across the paper. As his finger moved the map moved with it, the intricately illustrated roads and forests and mountains and hills moving with his finger, more and more land appearing on one side of the map as more disappeared on the other, like a moving birds eye view.


    ¡°That seems like it might be quite useful.¡± said Lyra, viciously clamping down on her excitement and schooling her expression flat.


    ¡°Oh you have no idea, look you can even use two fingers and¡­¡± the Half-orc placed his stubby index and thumb on the surface and pulled them together. The map pulled out, showing more, the more intricate details fading, showing a broader but less detailed map.


    Lyra twitched.


    ¡°H-how much?¡±


    The Half-Orc gave her a smug look. ¡°Oh, just a measly three hundred gold. I do recognise what that particular item is on your hip sheepy, not just anyone has one of those.¡±


    ¡°You think I¡¯m- oh no, you don''t understand¡­ it¡¯s, oh god, I-¡±


    It was now the Half-Orc¡¯s turn to frown in confusion. ¡°What are you saying girl?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s my Mother¡¯s, I had to run away from home, they beat and abused me every day for what I am, for who I am, for not being a pure blood! I¡¯m just a worthless half! The unwanted spawn of a drunken fling of my Mother with some evil seducer of an Elf! You know what Elves are like! The Woolie clan hated me from the day I was born, they kept me in the basement. Then they used me as bait when they went into the dungeons! I was never allowed to level up until I ran away... I¡¯m- I¡¯m sorry but I¡¯m not what you think I am, I¡¯m just an escaped half breed!¡± Lyra raised her hand to her eyes and wiped away the tears that had fallen across her cheek.


    She subtly lifted her hoof out of sight of the merchant and kicked Kel who had been standing behind her in the knee. Kel yelped and the Half-orc¡¯s gaze snapped to him, his eyes narrowing as Kel desperately tried not to move too much for fear of the centipedes.


    ¡°Ah, uhm, y-yes! The Half-woolie speaks the truth Braur, I can vouch for that, a friend of mine helped her escape and I¡¯m, well, looking after her for the moment¡­ the situation is, ah, not good,¡±


    Lyra put her hand behind her back and brought her index and thumb together in a pincer motion.


    ¡°It¡¯s tragic? Yes, tragic! SO SAD!¡± yelped Kel, his voice rising several octaves in pitch.


    ¡°So you see, like you, I have suffered because of all the bigotry against us, we are the same you and I, allies, and really what ally would make an ally in need pay a whole three hundred gold, that would be remarkably cruel, callus, merciless- I- I¡¯m not sure if I can go on, there''s times when the future has been s-so d-dark-¡± Lyra buried her face in her hands and sobbed.


    The Half-orc raised a hand in protest as other nearby Orcs started to look over, wondering why there was a girl loudly crying her eyes out in his shop.


    ¡°Wait hold on a sec now sheepy-¡±


    ¡°Sheepy! That''s what my mother called me because I wasn''t a real Woolie!¡± bawled Lyra in hopeless misery.


    ¡°But didn''t the Gob-¡± Lyra wailed, ¡°-Gods, godsdammit, this isn''t-¡± he sighed, ¡°Fine, half, one fifty, discounted for a half in need.¡±


    ¡°One hundred!¡± sobbed Lyra.


    The Half-orc¡¯s eye twitched. ¡°One hundred,¡± he ground out. ¡°And don''t let anyone ever say I don''t care, cause I do.¡±


    The bag on lyra¡¯s hip opened and gold coins started being shoveled out onto the ground. Lyra snatched the map as the Half-orc bent down to gather them, a pleased expression on her face quickly hidden. The Half-orc returned to his feet, the gold clutched in his arms. He gave Kel a careful look.


    ¡°You make sure she¡¯s okay, yeah? If she isn''t, I''ll ban you from my shop. Look after this one.¡±


    A very specific kind of internal screaming momentarily crossed Kel¡¯s face.


    ¡°Y-yes. I shall do that.¡± He managed to croak out after a moment.


    ¡°I also have a tragic story!¡± said a voice.


    The Half-orc turned to find Opal.


    ¡°I¡¯m sad too, so give me a discount!¡±


    The Half-Orc looked over the Goblin in disgust.


    ¡°No. You¡¯re lucky enough I don''t just bash your brains out for my levels. No discounts for Goblin slaves. It¡¯s a rule.¡±


    ¡°Tch.¡± Opal set her lips in a line and thrust out her hands.


    In one hand was the gold, in the other an unusual looking thorny rapier dangling from her fingers with a pair of gloves balanced on top. The gloves were a little oversized but still suitable, an Orc child¡¯s gloves armoured with a few plates of metal on the top side. The merchant gave her a sour look but plucked several coins from her hand.


    As that was happening Lyra quickly furled the map and held it by the dimensional bag. After a moment a red scaled set of claws took hold of it and carefully pulled it inside. ¡°Better sheepy, but gold is still way better than dumb magic maps¡­¡± came a dark mutter as it disappeared.


    ¡°Having that will let us find more gold otherwise we¡¯ll be stuck in the middle of nowhere forever with no gold anywhere. It¡¯s called an investment Red, you need to spend money to make money,¡± Lyra whispered down at the bag. ¡°If you had ever learned some basic business savvy you¡¯d have had gold to sleep on a long time ago you know.¡±


    The reply was an unintelligible grumble that disappeared as the bag closed.


    Opal skipped ahead as they left the shop, Braur already moving on to his next customers the moment they were gone. However she paused once they were out of view and gave Lyra the side eye.


    ¡°So, uh, was any of that true?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, what do you think?¡±


    ¡°I do like you a lot sometimes sheepy,¡± grinned back Opal.


    Kel looked between the pair, ¡°Lies, lies and more lies! just like you lied about Lynthia, you¡¯re like a pair of evil trickster snakes trying to lead Orcs along by the nose.¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t lying about Lynthia, it really is gone. I suppose you¡¯ll find out when you see it eventually, or what''s left of it.¡±


    ¡°Stop lying, we know it''s fine, we wouldn''t have come here if we didn''t know that!¡±


    ¡°Well maybe your source is wrong.¡±


    ¡°They literally called us to come as it was a town ripe to be taken, no Orc would call on their clan for a ruin!¡±


    Opal suddenly paused and glanced up at Kel.


    ¡°Like with a giant hammer?¡±


    ¡°What? What was that?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, I didn''t say anything.¡±


    Kel¡¯s voice became slightly strained, ¡°You said hammer, a giant hammer, why would you say that? Tell me!¡±


    ¡°Oh it was just this Orc, female, very fighty, no big deal.¡±


    Kel¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°You- you know, but that is-¡± he drew in a calming breath, ¡°How do you know her?¡±


    ¡°Mm, she enslaved me for a bit, but then she changed her ways and came with us.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s¡­ with you?¡± said Kel, increasingly puzzled.


    ¡°Yup. She changed her ways from being a whole Orc into lots of bite sized pieces of Orc. You were so close to her when you were being held in the air.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ n-not sure I understand what you are s-suggesting¡­¡± but Kel¡¯s face became a little paler and more fearful as he stared at the innocently smiling Goblin.


    As they had walked they had gone from the merchant area of the camp to a spot where catering had thrown down stakes. They passed by roasting pits and braziers and great yard wide frying pans, everything from rats to foxes to entire cows being made into food for hungry Orcs. It wasn''t hard to see why they had had trouble finding prey for Rain, the Orcs had been hunting. Unfortunately whatever it was the Orcs were doing to the meat it smelled absolutely terrible, adding its own particular flavour to the miasma of bad smells.


    Opal¡¯s stomach grumbled as they passed by.


    ¡°Are you hungry?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ but this smells really weird¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not weird, that¡¯s Orcish cooking, and it¡¯s great,¡± muttered Kel.


    ¡°I¡¯ll have to side with Kel on this one, despite the, ah, interesting smell, it is quite good¡­ if you drink lots of beer while eating it. And drink lots of beer afterward so you forget what you just put in your mouth. It¡¯s¡­ an experience. I recommend it!¡±


    Opal gave Lyra a dubious look as the sheep girl moved up to one of the many cooking stalls, one with a brawny female Orc tending a fire. Opal noted that there was a large greatsword by the fire, looking around she realised that all of the Orcs, even those preparing food had weapons nearby or on them. She scratched her chin and then elbowed Kel.


    ¡°Hey, hey, why do even the Orc cooks have swords and things?¡±


    ¡°S-stop elbowing me!¡± said Kel desperately trying to avoid having a centipede squished in his armour. After a flustered moment he scowled back at her. ¡°Yes, everyone has a weapon on them at all times, that¡¯s how it is without cowardly walls, it''s why Orcs are superior, we face the wild like the gods intended.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not unique to Orcs you know,¡± murmured Lyra as she paid the Orc cook.


    ¡°Hmm.¡±


    Opal raised her now engloved hands and flexed the fingers, the leather wrinkling as she formed fists, plated on the topside. The gloves were oversized, the glove holes baggy around her wrists, but that didn''t stop her from grabbing the rapier. The rapier was significantly more dangerous and threatening looking than her previous one with needle thin thorns speckled up its length and punch spikes on the basket. Everything about it was exceptionally razor sharp and barbed and looked liable to cut the wielder if they slipped.


    Opal examined it down length, checking it wasn¡¯t bent. Pleased with what she found she nodded her head. ¡°Hey this is a pretty good sword, maybe that dumb seller leveler didn''t know what he had.¡±


    ¡°He was part Dwarf Opal, he would know what¡¯s good and what isn''t when it comes to weapons. I¡¯m sure he has weapons from everywhere too, that hardly looks like something an Orc might wield.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, maybe,¡± said Opal, waving the thorn rapier experimentally. ¡°That¡¯s the second time I¡¯ve seen someone name their weapon you know. Rockheart, spite of the soul. That¡¯s the kind of name to make my enemies shit themselves.¡±


    She held up the rapier and waggled it in the air.


    ¡°I shall call this The Spiker. Because It is spikey.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not a very scary name Opal.¡±


    ¡°Eh, I guess. It just needs a name to make a shiver go up my enemies¡¯ spines, something that''s really really scary.¡±


    ¡°Call it The Sounder.¡± said Lyra.


    Kel made a strangled sound and nearly tripped over his own feet. Behind them an Orc choked on his food and fell off his chair with a crash. An Orc who had been walking nearby drew in sharp breath and placed his hands over his crotch protectively, taking a defensive step back, many more Orcs flinched and stared in their direction.


    Opal looked around in surprise at the reaction. ¡°What? What does that word mean?¡±


    She experimentally held the razor sharp thorny rapier out and jabbed it toward the Orc covering his groin. Unfortunately due to their height difference the rapier was being pointed directly at the Orc¡¯s privates. The Orc let out a very un-orcish sound and stumbled backwards, his face terrified, swiftly putting a stall between himself and Opal.


    She narrowed her eyes at the fleeing Orc. ¡°Why are they so scared?¡±


    Kel managed to find his balance and carefully checked over his body to make sure the centipedes hadn''t bitten him anywhere. Then he turned on Lyra, a mixed expression of outrage and horror on his face.


    ¡°It was a joke!¡± said Lyra.


    ¡°How do you even know about something like that?!¡±


    ¡°I- I¡¯m from a city! Why are you all staring at me like that! S-stop it!¡±


    ¡°Tell me what it means!¡± demanded Opal.


    ¡°Go on, tell her.¡± said Kel, crossing his arms.


    ¡°I- I can¡¯t! We-we¡¯re in p-public!¡± whisper hissed Lyra, blushing.


    ¡°Fine. Sounder it is.¡± said Opal. An involuntary shudder went through the male Orcs around them and they eyed the very sharp and thin and thorny rapier very uncomfortably.


    Opal squinted at them suspiciously.


    The female Orc who had been serving them pushed what appeared to be a pile of green chicken legs across the counter and Lyra grabbed them up and hurried away, eager to get away from the horrified male gaze.


    Once they¡¯d made it some distance away she handed a leg to Opal. Then, hesitantly, handed one to Kel.


    ¡°I¡¯m not eating that.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because I¡¯m a prisoner, that''s prison food.¡±


    ¡°Prison food from your own clan?¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    Lyra rolled her eyes and thrust the leg into his hands.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to have to get used to your current situation, it''s not like you can do anything about it.¡±


    She pushed the Orc¡¯s hand up, getting him to reluctantly eat and then she turned to explain to Opal why it was a bad idea and really not civilised to call her spiky rapier The Sounder.


    The Goblin wasn''t there however.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


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 Chapter 97

    ? Chapter 97:


    Lyra blinked in surprise and searched for her. No Opal. Concerned now, she stepped from between the tents and into a main thoroughfare. This time she found the Goblin girl. She hadn''t gone far, she was outside some kind of large crudely constructed wooden building, one of the largest she had seen in the camp. There were sounds coming from within, rather... lewd sounds. With a blush she realised she was looking at the whore house that Braur had mentioned¡­ only, she hadn''t realised he meant it because she was a Goblin.


    There was a stockade outside with a female Goblin in it. Behind the stockade a large seven foot tall Orc was thrusting up into her. Each powerful grunted hump causing the wood to creak and groan and for the goblin girl¡¯s head to rock forward, her long curly black hair bouncing, her mouth hanging open, gasping with each thrust.


    Opal was staring at her, her rapier hung loose at her side.


    As she watched the Orc finished with a snarl and pulled out. The sound of semen spattering on the wood below as it fell from the Goblin¡¯s cunny filled the air. The stockade Goblin twitched and let out a groan. As she recovered she blew air up and her hair moved away revealing her face. She noted Opal and raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°Hey, if you''re gonna watch stick your master¡¯s coin in the pot, don''t be a leech.¡± She nodded down at what was in fact a metal pot left upside down on the corner of the stockade.


    Opal tilted her head but remained silent.


    The stockade goblin rolled her eyes. ¡°Hurry the fuck up and let me out of this thing will yah?¡±


    An Orc appeared from the building, no not an Orc, far too small, smaller than Braur even. It took a moment for Lyra to realise that the muscular girl she was looking at was in fact a Half-Goblin Half-Orc. The Half-Orc produced a key and unlocked the stockade. The Goblin girl after a moment of struggle managed to pull free, her legs trembling for a moment before she found her balance.


    She was about to step off the stockade when the Half-orc put a hand on her shoulder stopping her.


    ¡°You got your ten?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, easy, now get your hand off of me,¡± she swiped the Half-orc''s fingers aside and jumped down. She landed harder than she had clearly expected and a flood of white splooshed from her reddened cunt splattering on the ground. She made a displeased face and wobbled over to one of the many chairs set outside the front of the building. With a sigh she flopped onto it, her legs spread wide as though her crotch was too sensitive for her to close them. She grabbed up a hand fan from the table and began waving it over her loins. Another sigh of relief slipped from her lips as white continued to drip drip drip from her swollen folds onto the ground.


    ¡°You¡¯re a slave?¡±


    The Goblin lazily angled her head and eyed Opal. Then she brought her free hand up and tapped the steel collar around her neck.


    ¡°I¡¯m a Gobbo. What do you think?¡±


    Opal squeezed the grip of her rapier in thought.


    ¡°From a dungeon?¡±


    The collared Goblin raised an eyebrow. ¡°Barely. The half Gobs brought me up on the outside. They''re the ones who run this place.¡±


    Opal nodded as though her suspicions were confirmed. ¡°So you don''t really know what dungeon thinking is like?¡±


    ¡°What? What''s that? I dunno what you¡¯re on about now.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s where everything is kill or be- where everything is just about¡­¡± Opal sighed. ¡°Where life is very very short and very very ruthless and very very nasty and you have to think like that or you die.¡±


    ¡°Mm, Okay, I get that.¡±


    ¡°You do?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. You¡¯ve got to do what you¡¯ve got to do to get by, it¡¯s tough out there, surviving.¡± She gestured over her shoulder as the Half-orc lead another Goblin from out of the building. The Goblin jumped up into the stockade and the Half-orc locked her in, she spread her legs and perked her naked rear up in the air as another huge male Orc stepped over and climbed up onto the stockade, unbuckling his belt. ¡°Of course it helps if you don''t mind the work like me, male Gobbo¡¯s got needles compared to a nice fat Orc dick and I¡¯d much rather be doing this than be a regular slave like you, I¡¯ve got, yah know, job security, I¡¯m special.¡±


    Opal blinked at her.


    The Goblin rolled her eyes. ¡°I can¡¯t get preggers, I¡¯m barren. The Halves don''t like the hassle of having to kill the baby Halves that are constantly getting popped out so they take special care of me. You annoy your owner and they¡¯ll squish you and buy another, can''t do that with me though, barren Gobbos are rare as hen¡¯s teeth.¡±


    ¡°That sounds¡­ very shit. And I¡¯m not a slave.¡±


    ¡°Sure you aren¡¯t. Guessing you''re fresh out a dungeon huh?¡± She plucked a beer from the table some Orc had left behind and drained the dregs of it then let out a belch.


    Opal fingered the pommel of her rapier. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to be free?¡±


    ¡°And go where?¡±


    ¡°S-somewhere safe, we could make¡­ something.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like an easy way to die if you ask me.¡±


    A Half-orc suddenly loomed over Opal blocking out the sun.


    ¡°Unless your owner is looking to sell you aren''t wanted here. Fuck off before I steal you and sell you myself.¡±


    Opal scowled but stepped out of the way.


    ¡°Come Grace, you¡¯re wanted. Threesome.¡±


    ¡°Ack, I¡¯m still a cummy mess down below though.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that''s why they want you, sloppy seconds.¡±


    Grace snorted a laugh. ¡°Fuckin¡¯ Orcs.¡±


    As they moved toward the building Opal lifted her thorny rapier and pointed it at the Half-orc¡¯s back.


    ¡°Opal,¡± murmured Lyra quietly coming up behind her. ¡°This isn''t a good idea, we should go.¡±


    ¡°But-¡±


    ¡°Do you want to get her killed?¡±


    Her shoulders dropped. ¡°No... it''s just she¡¯s not like, you know, the rest. She¡¯s like me, different, not all dungeonified.¡±


    ¡°We can talk about this later, look she''s gone now.¡±


    It was true, Grace had disappeared inside. After a moment of staring at the door Opal turned away.


    She plodded sadly after Lyra and Kel away from the whorehouse.


    ¡°Ridiculous. You treat your slave like a leveler,¡± muttered Kel, glancing back at Opal.


    ¡°Do you see a collar on her? She isn''t a slave.¡±


    Kel scoffed. ¡°What? And you just keep a wild Goblin around? I highly doubt that. More than likely you have one of those heart needle enchantment things to keep her in line. The rest is just you treating the thing like a pet, like some kind of weirdo.¡±


    Lyra gave him an annoyed look. ¡°What if you''re wrong? What if you''re wrong about Goblin¡¯s altogether? What if they¡¯re just as sapient and alive as we are?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re monsters.¡± stated Kel, as if that was an absolute argument ending point.


    She sighed. She knew from how she used to be that she was talking to a brick wall. This was pointless and she had things to do.


    ¡°Where can I find animals, erm, cattle to buy, and things like that.¡±


    Kel seemed happy to change the subject, clearly thinking he had won, and pointed ahead. They soon arrived at a part of the camp that had been set aside for livestock, a lot of livestock. An army marched on its stomach and apparently a moving clan was no different.


    It wasn''t hard to see who was in charge. A tall and grossly overweight Orc was shouting at an Orc child mucking out a sty.


    He snorted up a ball of greasy snot and spat it on the young Orc¡¯s back as they neared. Turning, he gave them suspicious looks, perhaps the most distrust they¡¯d drawn since coming to the camp.


    ¡°Kel.¡± he nodded. ¡°This ¡®ad better be important. I can always do with more fer¡¯ workin¡¯ and I won¡¯t hesitate to use my higher level than youse to make you do it if you test me.¡±


    ¡°She wants to buy your animals Rugnor. You should be giving me a commission for finding you a, uh, customer, or something.¡± Kel glanced at Lyra raising his brow in question.


    ¡°Y-yes, I would like to purchase, uhm, everything.¡±


    Kel and Rugnor stared at her.


    ¡°Uh, is that okay?¡±


    ¡°Is this a joke? I¡¯m gonna beat the living daylights out of yer¡¯ Kel if this is youse pulling my leg.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m quite serious, I need to procure meat, lots and lots of meat, like, all of it. All the cows, all the pigs, all things that can walk and follow really.¡±


    ¡°She¡­ does seem to have the wealth. Look, the bag.¡±


    Rugnor¡¯s small eyes crinkled and he squinted down at the dimensional bag on Lyra¡¯s hip. Understanding of just what Kel was implying caused him to straighten his back, suddenly far more interested in Lyra.


    ¡°Well I¡¯m never one to turn down an offer. Can¡¯t say there''s much point in ¡®oldin on considerin¡¯ where were ¡®edded, food won¡¯t be a problem when we arrive at- hmm, well it won¡¯t be a problem, I¡¯ll leave it at that. I can see about a bit ah trade in the meantime.¡±


    Lyra peeked at the pig pens behind the tall Orc and counted twenty pigs, then at the set out areas around them which she judged to contain nearly a hundred cows.


    ¡°So, can I have all of these? All the cows and all the pigs?¡±


    Rugnor still seemed a little off balance by her request for just everything.


    ¡°I¡­ suppose, yes. Usually folk are a bit more¡­ picky. But this is fine enough.


    Lyra gave him a winning smile and they began to barter, the Orc asking for a lot and then Lyra cutting him off at the legs until he was forced down to something more reasonable. After a time of that with the Orc starting to get a little flustered under Lyra¡¯s relentless manoeuvring they managed to agree on a number that wasn''t that far off half what they¡¯d paid for the map, a good price for the sheer number of animals. Lyra had Red shovel out gold into a sack that Rugnor held out.


    In return Lyra was handed a sack full of incredibly smelly grain that looked like it had gone bright green with mould. The gates to the pens were opened and cows and pigs began to filter out snuffling the air with interest. Lyra took a step back as the crowd approached and then approached faster as they caught the scent of the bag of grain, becoming extremely interested, mooing and squealing filling the air as they pushed each other aside trying to get at her.


    ¡°Youse best watch your step lass, you trip and fall and these buggers will squish you to death.¡±


    ¡°K-Kel, I have something for you to hold!¡±


    ¡°You cannot be serious?¡± said Kel, his face dropping.


    ¡°Hey I¡¯m only a city sheep, I don''t know how to operate these animals!¡±


    Lyra thrust the bag of grain into the unfortunate Orc¡¯s hands and the swarm of animals turned their attention toward him.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go!¡±


    They made their way from the camp, quick walking furiously as the farm animals enthusiastically chased after them, the scent of the mouldy grain driving them on. This time they weren''t quite as ignored and they drew curious stares from Orc after Orc as would be expected leading nearly one hundred and twenty animals out of camp. Fortunately they were left alone and were able to leave freely and without question, Kel¡¯s presence clearly enough to assure any Orc who saw them that there was nothing to be concerned about.


    Lyra led the unhappy Kel up out of the shallow valley and back into the forest, a cacophony of mooing following in their wake. Of course, Rain wasn''t where he had been, and they had to go deep into the woods, to where the monster boar and the Orcs that had attacked Rain had been killed. There was nothing left of them, just a few patches of blood, clearly devoured. They had to go much further beyond that before a shadow moved from the foliage.


    The cattle started making nervous sounds and backed away as leaves and branches were pushed aside and he emerged, which was understandable, a nearing nine foot tall wolf monster wasn''t the most calming thing to see coming out of the trees. The sound of panicked animals filled the forest air.


    ¡°Uh, b-back up a bit Kel, make sure they don''t run off into the woods!¡±


    The Orc edged toward the trees, the cattle happy to be coming with him so they could keep a large distance between themselves and Rain.


    ¡°Were you safe? Did you get everything?¡± Gravelled Rain.


    ¡°Oh better than that, I got a magic map!¡±


    She held out a hand and the map was placed into it by a scaled claw. Then she held it up.


    Rain squinted at it. ¡°This is what was needed? We can go wherever I want now?¡±


    ¡°Mhm! With this there will be no problems!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid that you won¡¯t be needing that map,¡± came a female voice filled with contempt.


    Dark teeth poured from Rain¡¯s mane and surged through the air, ready to shred apart the owner of the voice.


    ¡°Attack me monster and I¡¯ll put an arrow through the eye socket of the Half-woolie. You will not be able to prevent her death.¡±


    An extremely muscular and crimson tattooed female Orc with heavily braided hair took a step from the foliage, an enormous longbow nocked and held ready.


    The shadowy wolf teeth froze in place as Rain curled his paw. He eyed the newcomer carefully. This one appeared older than the other Orcs he had come across, more experienced, which was a problem as that likely meant more levels. In fact he could see transparent blue flames licking across the surface of the arrow head pointed directly at Lyra. The flames indicated a Skill of some kind, one that gave off a deathly air. Lyra would not survive or avoid being hit by that he was certain, her ability only made her invisible, it did not reposition her out of an arrow¡¯s path.


    ¡°I was right, you really do value them. A strange monster caring for a leveler and a Goblin. Unheard of, but it really is as it seems.¡±


    ¡°What do you want?¡±


    ¡°You, I want you. I want to kill you so that I can level up. Are you really that surprised as a monster? But more than that you''re¡­ different than most monsters, a rare monster, I can tell. If I killed you I feel I would level up several fold. I want that. I want that a great deal.¡± She grinned, her copper capped tusks flashing in the sunlight.


    Rain spread his arms. ¡°Then why don''t you? Attack me. Kill me.¡±


    The Orc twitched, barely preventing herself from pointing the arrow at Rain.


    ¡°Because there is a problem. One or a few killing a monster is worth it¡­ but dozens?¡±


    Orcs stepped from the woods, more and more until there were over thirty of them, Hunters all, clearly having used some camouflage Skill or other to disguise themselves in the forest. Each and every one of them held a long bow nocked and pointed at Lyra and Opal.


    ¡°Because of your little cattle parade you drew the attention of every bored Orc hunter for miles around... Fortunate enough for you I suppose, no one here wants to kill you like this with so many, it wouldn''t be worth it, it would dilute what we get out of it to nothing, such a proud unique beast such as yourself is too valuable for that, it would be a complete waste.¡±


    ¡°What are you suggesting?¡±


    ¡°Well for starters you''re coming back to the camp as our prisoner. Then we will fight amongst ourselves with you as the prize¡±


    She smiled.


    ¡°We will fight to be the one to kill you.¡±

 Chapter 98

    ? Chapter 98:


    ¡°We will fight to be the one to kill you.¡±


    Rain considered his options. One option was the shadowy centipede stealthily crawling through the long grass headed toward the older Orc¡¯s ankle. Another was the number of wolf teeth hanging frozen in the air, ready to charge forward and tear into her. Third was Kel standing in the tree line, apparently being ignored by the other Orcs for the moment. Could he communicate he wished for the Orc to fight for him by making the centipedes wrapped around his body move around? It didn''t seem likely, or that Kel would even be able to do anything particularly helpful as the Orc had dropped his weapon in the woods in his panic fleeing Rain.


    His options were... disappointing, he considered them again, hoping he¡¯d missed something the first time around. No such luck. His options just did not seem like particularly good options for the thirty odd Orcs surrounding the clearing, each of them holding a bow of some kind nocked and aimed straight at Lyra and Opal, in fact they seemed like pretty bad options in summary.


    The offer then?


    ¡°You want to fight me alone? With no other leveler¡¯s help?¡± he spoke.


    ¡°If I win the fight to fight you, yes.¡± A broad grin spread across the older Orc¡¯s face, a fire in her eyes. ¡°Of course, I will win.¡±


    A derisive snort came from one of the other Orc¡¯s and she snapped her head to the side just in time to miss who it had come from.


    She narrowed her eyes.


    ¡°Okay.¡± said Rain. ¡°I accept.¡±


    ¡°You aren''t accepting anything, you''re only doing as I will. Monsters have no say.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    She gave him a displeased look but lowered her bow and moved to the side. Her foot passed by the centipede in the long grass and she only avoided stepping on it because Rain had it scuttle aside. He tasked it to follow her before turning and striding toward the tree line, the wolf teeth misting behind him and rejoining his mane.


    ¡°H-hey! Stop! What do you think you are doing?¡±


    Rain glanced back at the older Orc.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to your camp, isn''t that what you wanted?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ yes¡­ You trade your life for these two rather¡­ easily,¡± she said as she caught up and kept pace at a wary distance, her bow now trained on Rain.


    ¡°I don''t think you will think that when¡­ if we fight.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I hope I don''t, a good fight is what makes life worth living.¡±


    The rest of the Orcs had begun moving too, keeping Opal and Lyra at the center of a firing ring as they followed after Rain.


    He passed by a startled Kel still holding the grain bag in two hands as a number of cows were nuzzling at it. Rain spread his claws out of sight and the centipedes wrapped around the Kel¡¯s body shifted, their legs wriggling causing Kel to twitch and nearly drop the bag of grain, having to clamp down on a cry of fright. He gave Rain a stricken look but got nothing but a pair of threatening yellow eyes staring him down in return.


    ¡°Kel,¡± said the older Orc, ¡° I would like to know why you were helping this monster. A good reason mind, don''t make me beat you into the dirt again.¡±


    Kel¡¯s throat bobbed as he swallowed, a cow softly nipping at his fingers going completely unnoticed.


    ¡°T-Tamriel, I- uh, uhm I uhm uh th-that is-¡± His eyes darted frantically between Rain and the older Orc named Tamriel, beads of sweat rolling down his face. ¡°I- intended to k-kill it?¡± He froze up, just waiting for the pincer resting on his spine to close, instantly ending his life. After a moment however, nothing happened, and continued to not happen. He let out a breath of extreme relief. ¡°I c-came across them in the camp, I was paid to help the half-woolie find cattle, I don''t know why she wanted them, then we left camp and I saw the, uhm, very large monster and I was going to k-kill it, f-for levels, that is.¡±


    ¡°With what weapon?¡±


    ¡°What weapon???¡± whimpered Kel, ¡°I h-had a knife but I appear to have lost it?!¡± he pushed away the cow now innocently slobbering on his hand and patted at his armour very gently, ¡°No p-pockets see! It was so unexpected that I didn''t think to come prepared? Yes, that!¡±


    ¡°Hmm. You forget your weapon? No, I think you never had a weapon with you in the first place. Your mind is just too lamb like for an Orc Kel. You are bad for our clan no matter your level.¡± She loomed over him threateningly, a finger under his chin forcing his head up so that she looked him straight in the eyes. ¡°Perhaps leading cattle is about all you are good for.¡±


    Her hand moved to his shoulder and she shoved him aside, sending him stumbling as she moved by.


    Kel looked more relieved that he remained alive than anything, barely glancing in the Tamriel¡¯s direction as he checked himself over to make sure he hadn''t been bitten.


    A low growled ¡°Good.¡± from above made him look up however. Rain met his eyes momentarily before moving past. The centipedes shivered and he hurried to catch up, clearly understanding the unsaid command.


    The cattle fled from Rain as he passed by, their moos and squeals filtering between the trees as they moved around him like a shoal of fish around a shark.


    Behind him came the circle of hunter Orcs with a very unhappy Lyra and Opal at the core, helpless to do anything but walk for fear of being turned into living, or rather dead, pincushions.


    They made for a much more tense and uncomfortable parade back to the camp, each time Rain paused or spoke some of the Orc¡¯s pointing arrows at Lyra and Opal would twitch and stir, their arrows shifting in his direction momentarily. It wasn¡¯t hard to tell that they very much wanted to kill him.


    It didn''t take overly long for them to arrive back at the camp and this time they did more than just attract glances, in fact it seemed like most of the clan swarmed around them, a near nine foot tall wolf monster apparently drawing more than a little interest. The Hunter Orc¡¯s had to shove a number of particularly eager levelers back who were pulling blades and eyeing Rain.


    Once they¡¯d made a fair way in Tamriel led Rain to a large cage made of criss crossing heavy iron bars, solid and incredibly heavy.


    ¡°We put our strong leveler captives in here, wild monsters rarely, not often that this situation comes up.¡±


    She produced a key and Rain carefully ducked inside the cramped space, sitting uncomfortably cross-legged on the ground.


    The Orcs were already starting to push and shove at each other in their eagerness to get at Rain and several fist fights had broken out. One Orc was bashed over the head with a club and the fighting spread further. It took Tamriel wading in to stop things from completely unravelling.


    ¡°Calm your shit you miserable fucks! Listen to me! Listen! This monster-¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a slave you got Tammy?¡±


    ¡°-No, or at least not technically. It¡­ cares for the Goblin and the Half-woolie, yes, I know, seems unlikely, but it is what¡¯s keeping it in place and doing what we want, doing what we want meaning we don''t need to kill it as soon as it tries something. Now, you want the levels? You want to kill this monster?¡±


    The crowd roared their bloodlust, a deafening sound that rattled the iron of Rain¡¯s cage.


    ¡°Then WIN.¡±


    She turned and slugged the nearest Orc in the face, breaking her nose and sending her crashing to the ground unconscious.


    Chaos exploded on every side of Rain¡¯s cage, a wild brawl, furious gleeful fighting, the sound of fists striking flesh and cries of alarm as Orc¡¯s went flying through the air. One unfortunate Orc had their face repeatedly smashed against Rain¡¯s cage and he watched blankly as the Orc¡¯s tusk snapped off and landed in his lap.


    He picked it up and flicked it into the crowd unnoticed. No one was even looking in his direction, too busy kicking the snot out of the nearest Orc within arms reach. He was left alone to observe, which was why he noticed that not all of the Orc¡¯s were fighting, in fact many of the Orc¡¯s seemed more interested in watching than fighting, and many more were elsewhere in the camp.


    ¡°Hmm.¡±


    He spied Kel gingerly stepping between two fist fights, desperately trying to avoid being struck across his centipede infested armour.


    ¡°Kel.¡± he growled.


    The Orc failed to notice he was so focused on surviving.


    Displeased Rain twitched his claws and the Orc let out a shriek as the centipedes spiralled around his limbs. Kel¡¯s eyes darted to Rain¡¯s cage, clearly pleading for him to stop.


    Rain lifted his paw and beckoned the Orc over.


    Kel didn''t dawdle, he quick-walked through the brawl as best he could, swiftly reaching Rain¡¯s cage he paused beside it, pretending to look on at the brawl while being near enough to overhear.


    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you fighting too? Why aren¡¯t all the Orc¡¯s fighting?¡± Rain gravelled.


    ¡°Isn''t it obvious? Low levelers don''t stand a chance so they sit big things like this out until they¡¯ve leveled up. It¡¯s too easy to die, a high leveler¡¯s backswing can snap a low leveler¡¯s neck without them even noticing.¡±


    ¡°And you?¡±


    Kel looked uncomfortable. ¡°I will fight. I¡¯m just... preparing¡­ and- and you put these things in my armour so I c-can¡¯t really!¡±


    Rain gazed at him then moved his head to Opal and Lyra. The two girls were standing at the edge of the fight, only a few of the thirty who had been guarding them remaining close and clearly unhappy about it judging by the way they watched the others fight, unhappy but apparently lacking the confidence to join. Weak, they were weak. That meant they could still escape this yet. He narrowed his eyes. Most important was that the Orc¡¯s didn''t yet know about Lyra¡¯s abilities, it would only take a moment where Lyra did not have an arrow aimed directly at her chest and¡­


    He turned back to the unhappy Kel.


    ¡°Get them out, distract the guards.¡±


    ¡°I- I can''t¡­¡±


    ¡°Get them out or you will die right here right now. No one will notice or care in this chaos.¡±


    The Orc looked miserable but found that he couldn''t stop himself from turning, walking toward the three guards, the promise of centipede induced death heavy on his back, guiding him forward.


    He approached, the three archers clearly distracted by the brawl. It only took a moment. He pretended to pass by then tripped, stumbling forward, arms flailing. He full body crashed into the first hunter with a cry, they hadn''t seen him coming and they toppled like a felled tree straight into the Orc to their side. This gave an opening for Kel¡¯s armoured hand to chop down on the remaining Orc¡¯s bow, striking the arrow from their fingers and sending it tumbling to the ground.


    Lyra¡¯s hand darted out and grabbed hold of a confused Opal and they both instantly vanished into thin air. They were free, it was done.


    Rain grinned fiercely and reached out above, roughly shoving his digits between the criss crossing bars. With a snarl he flexed, arms straining, biceps bulging, and with a screech of tearing iron he ripped the cage entirely in two. Rivets spat and fired across the crowd as the crash of creased and mangled iron falling to either side filled the air.


    He rose, black mist pouring from his fur, a pack of wolf fangs forming, eager to kill.


    He measured the distance needed to escape as he leaned forward about to tear away. Kill that Orc in front, dive between that fight, slash through that Orc, ignore that very fat Orc reaching for something invisible¡­ what?


    He froze mid step as the fat Orc¡¯s hand came down on something and then closed tight. A struggling Lyra and Opal appeared out of thin air. Where they had been holding hands an enormous meaty fist now wrapped around both their held hands, trapping them as good as any manacles.


    ¡°Cute trick. Too bad fer you I gots an itchy feeling in mih balls that lets me know when a tricky fuckers doing mischief. I knew youse two were trouble from the start, figures you¡¯d be doing summin¡¯ deviant with that wolf fing.¡±


    ¡°Uhm.¡± said Lyra looking in dismay at the green hand gripping her.


    Opal drew her rapier and promptly stabbed Rugnor in the groin. ¡°Get sounded asshole!¡±


    The expected scream of pain didn''t follow however, the rapier hitting some kind of armour beneath the Orc¡¯s clothing, the Orc only looking down at her with a wide snaggle toothed grin.


    ¡°I didn''t get ter be the best by taking chances, I-


    ¡°I win!¡±


    He blinked and then quickly twisted around, roughly dragging the girls with him.


    Tamriel stood tall upon a pile of groaning Orcs, her lip bloody but glee in her eyes. Around the pile were only collapsed Orcs or those crawling away.


    A look of outrage crossed Rugnor¡¯s face.


    ¡°You ain¡¯t won shit you daft bitch, I aven¡¯t even fought yer yet!¡±


    Tamriel looked down at Rugnor, taking in the girls and then the Orc.


    ¡°You left the brawl. When I looked around for someone to challenge me you were not there, no one was, I stood alone. I win the right to kill the monster.¡±


    Rugnor took a step forward, dragging the girls with him, seemingly having forgotten they were even there.


    ¡°We stop when we stop, if not these things would go on until we starve or die of old age. You stopped, I won. It¡¯s how we do things because you pushed for this way of things yourself Rugnor.¡±


    Rugnor¡¯s lip lifted in a disgusted sneer, but after a moment he let out a sigh of resignation.


    ¡°Youse a crooked bitch, but I can¡¯t blame it all on youse.¡± He glared down at Lyra and opal. ¡°Fine. Les¡¯ get this over with.¡±


    The Orc¡¯s gathered themselves from their mass beating, tending to their many many bruises and broken and fractured bones.


    Rain eyed Tamriel who gave him a satisfied smirk. She then turned, beckoning him to follow.


    After a moment he unhappily followed.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 99

    ? Chapter 99:


    They made their way through the camp until they came to what appeared to be for all the world an arena. That is, a wide circular sandy area with rising stands set out around it. Even as he watched more of the stands were being thrown together by those who hadn''t been part of the brawl. Planks were being grabbed and pulled from carts and quickly built up, a structure knocked together, Orc¡¯s climbing and finding seats as soon as they were made whole. Soon a sea of green lay in every direction as what seemed like the entire camp descended on the arena, this time including the lower levelers, the novel entertainment drawing them in.


    Rain placed a foot on the sand uncertainly, feeling the way the grains slid between his pads. A fight with Tamriel was one thing, but with every Orc in the clan watching from every side? A wall of Orcs with no real way out? The likelihood he could escape with Lyra and Opal felt like it was slipping away from him with every passing moment just as the grains of sand slipped between his claws.


    He looked up and scowled seeing Rugnor drag Opal and Lyra into the stands.


    The fat Orc reached out and grabbed a leg of spiced meat from a burning brazier some enterprising Orc had set out. A wash of grease rolled down his chin as he bit into it


    ¡°A fine pile of leveling like that just waitin¡¯ to be taken and that idiot Hunter gets it,¡± he grumbled glaring at Rain.


    ¡°She¡¯s going to die,¡± murmured Lyra.


    Rugnor frowned and turned to look down at the awkwardly sat Lyra, arm outstretched and held firmly in his free hand.


    ¡°As much as I wish it weren''t so I ain¡¯t seen or heard her come close to losing against any monster. This is already over, the fun is in the spectacle, not the risk, s¡¯why all the weak ¡®uns are here.¡±


    Opal glared up at him. ¡°She¡¯s right, that leveler is dead and so are you. You have no idea what you¡¯ve invited into your home.¡±


    Rugnor took a great bite of leg. ¡°You¡¯re a talker for a Goblin. You know we proberly don''t need both of youse to keep that thing from tryin¡¯ ter escape, and youse are a monster. I wonder how mad that thing will get if I killed you.¡±


    Despite herself Opal felt an uneasy feeling creeping up her spine. She was uncomfortably aware that the Orc holding her arm could crush it into paste and only did not because he was carefully restraining himself. She wasn''t capable of stopping him from doing what he wanted if he felt like it.


    Rugnor snorted. ¡°¡®Course that¡¯d be a distraction fer it ¡®killin Tam so I¡¯ll be ¡®holdin off fer now s¡¯much as I¡¯d enjoy the ehntertainment.¡±


    Tamriel had ducked off to one side as Rain padded warily around the sandy arena, leaving him with the raucous yells and insults coming from the crowd. What looked like a thrown lamb bone landed by his feet, the Orc who had lobbed it spitting venom, bile filled words; ¡°Monster scum¡± and ¡°Sub-sapient filth¡± along with promises of a painful death.


    He was almost taken aback by the sheer blind hatred some of the Orc¡¯s displayed¡­ but then, he had been a leveler in his past life, he knew for many that friends and family dying to monsters was a common reality, it wasn''t hard to see where the hate stemmed from.


    He was on the verge of having the shadowy centipede crawling through the stands bite Rugnor¡¯s ankle when Tamriel returned.


    The Orc¡¯s crimson tattoos were no longer visible, now covered up in a kind of toe to neck armour similar to that of Kel¡¯s, a mix of leathers and scales marked with Orcish runes, albeit of far higher quality. She also wore an open faced helm in the same kind of coppery metal that capped her tusks.


    She had replaced the longbow too, instead wielding what looked like a one handed repeater crossbow. A rectangular box sat atop the small frame rattling with fresh bolts. In her other hand she held a heavy set sword, a simple design, unadorned, a design made primarily for efficient and methodical killing. Rain realised this was most likely what she wore when dungeon diving.


    ¡°Like it monster? You shouldn''t. I¡¯ve killed more of you than I can count wearing this.¡±


    Rain shrugged lightly, black mist starting to roll from his mane.


    ¡°I don''t care.¡± or rather, he didn''t further than this fight went. He was painfully aware that the shadowy wolf teeth weren''t likely to pierce her enchanted leather on their own if the enchanted armour was as strong as Kel¡¯s. It meant that only her face was vulnerable, at least until he could get up close and use his actual strength on her.


    ¡°Give me a fight filth, don''t turn out like one of those worthless farmed monsters who¡¯ve never had a scrap in their lives. Do something! Live to die! Die to live!!¡±


    ¡°I-


    The crossbow whipped up as the first syllable of a reply left Rain''s mouth and with a snap-snap-snap a trio of bolts ripped through the air. Rain didn''t even have time to think the motion had been so fast, his paw raising bare inches before with a thud-thud-thud the bolts embedded themselves in his chest, only stopped from going deeper because they happened to hit bone.


    He roared in pain as he stumbled back, the sand rippling around him in waves under the sound, creating small sandy waves that broke against the stands.


    With a snarl of pained rage he flung out his paw and shadow sprayed from his fur, wolf fangs rushing into the air, eager to hunt. He was already moving, the sand fountaining up behind him as he tore forward, the dark teeth his vanguard.


    Tamriel cackled and her crossbow flickered side to side, a stream of bolts spewing forth, each aimed frighteningly accurately.


    Puffs of black mist filled the air as one by one a bolt struck each set of wolf teeth and broke them apart, impacting with such strength the powerful bolts tore through the material near instantaneously.


    Rain adjusted, twisting his upper body so that his right paw was obscured both by his own torso and the fresh clouds of mist rolling toward him trying to rejoin his fur. He reached range and twisted, his right paw whipping around.


    He knew that Tamriel was well aware of the shadowy wolf teeth, but he had intentionally only shown her that one ability. What leveler¡¯s considered the occasional ¡®monster magic¡¯ was one thing, something as flexible as the dark terror he controlled was entirely another.


    He torqued and a set of three-foot long scythe like claws twinned above his own claws came hurtling from the dark mist straight on target for Tamriel.


    Of course, it wouldn''t be a real surprise attack if he didn''t double down.


    He triggered his basic Chop Wood Skill and the claws massively accelerated in force, flashy streaks of red light left in their wake as they meteored forward like they would scar the world.


    Tamriel¡¯s expression went from a lazy yet accurate parry of an expected normal regular paw strike to a desperate panicked guard, grabbing hold of the grip with both hands, crossbow dropped, shock clear in her face as she set her feet.


    The scythes struck the blade like a bomb. The sword shattered in a flash of blue light, hidden strengthening runes catastrophically failing. The blastwave ripped Tamriel off her feet, the tips of the long scythes shredding the surface of her armour as she was blown backwards, cartwheeling through the air like a rag doll. She smashed into the crowd hard, three Orc¡¯s dying on the spot as they were crushed to death under the impact. Then a solid sheet of sand followed, lifted into the air by the spherical shock wave and slapped against the crowd.


    An audience of sand covered and frozen in surprise Orc¡¯s looked down at the wolf like monster in their arena.


    That lasted all of one moment as fists rose into the air in a roar of outrage and glee (As well as a smaller voice that cried Woop wolfy!). Now this was excitement and spectacle, danger and thrill in the Orcish way. The Orc¡¯s blood only rose higher and more frenetic as Tamriel clambered to her feet, a look of pure white hot fury on her face.


    The furious hunter grabbed at the hip of one of the Orc¡¯s she had crushed to death and ripped free a fresh sword. She then stormed down the stepped seats of the arena, boots thudding on wood as Orc¡¯s frantically shuffled out of her way.


    Rain watched her carefully. He had intended to kill her in that attack, taking advantage of her underestimation of his ability to end her. The only reason she had escaped was due to her sword, he had assumed it was just a plain steel sword as it clearly appeared. Apparently not.


    He doubted the one she had just picked up would be similar, but then how would he know for certain? Enchanted swords weren''t common from what he knew... but then maybe they were amongst Orcs? How a clan of Orcs did things was far outside his experience in his past life.


    His gaze fell to her chest. Four huge gashes were lain out across her cuirass, her clothing and the occasional slim flash of green skin below. He narrowed his eyes hoping to see her flesh start to disintegrate... But nothing changed, he¡¯d just brushed her, not even nicking her skin.


    He wrinkled his nose in frustration. He was now put in an awkward position. He had gained little knowledge of her capabilities outside of her exceptional accuracy while she knew more of his. Worse, he still had no easy way through her armour, the gashes were too fine.


    ¡°That,¡± breathed Tamriel, ¡°Hurt... You fuck.¡±


    She lifted a hand and the crossbow that had been buried by sands wiggled free and then leapt into her palm of its own volition.


    ¡°You asked.¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°I suppose I did ask you to put up a little fight, so... good, you did that.¡± She spun her fresh blade and raised the crossbow. ¡°Doesn''t mean I¡¯m going to enjoy making you suffer for that sneaky little trick any less.¡±


    Rain almost pointed out that she had attacked without warning first but the air was already filled with the snap-snap-snap sound of the repeater crossbow. He darted to the side, throwing his arm up, this time ready for her speed. Fortunate as a bolt that was destined for his neck instead embedded itself in the large shadow paw floating above his own, a billow of mist appearing around where it struck. Three more bolts thud-thudded into his real forearm below however and he snarled in pain as the tips scraped bone.


    Wolf teeth had been forming in his wake with his every movement and they sped away as soon as they had the ability, this time spreading out wide, circling around Tamriel in an arc as another dozen bolts peppered his body, only managing to keep his vitals safe from the deadly hail. Dozens more bolts came on, thirty, then forty, his fur bristled with the things and the sand behind became wet with bright red in his wake.


    The Orc¡¯s accuracy was such that it felt like she was picking and choosing the most painful areas to hit. It only stopped when she was forced to turn and fire on the teeth creeping up on her. Rain instantly took the opportunity, he dove down, his left paw forming a mirror to his right, two huge clawed paws that sunk into the ground and were then shovelled up, pounds of sand flung into the air, a broad plume of dusty sand sent flying toward the Orc.


    He darted around it, using the loss of line of sight to charge forward not needing to defend. A cry made him raise his paw, his ears turning to locate the Orc as the dust billowed.


    There.


    He struck at a blurry form in the dust storm, one quick swipe and-


    A sword lanced out of the dust high up and to the side, a sliver of silvery steel stabbing for his neck, his death a moment away.


    Teeth surged from his mane and thrust themselves into the blade¡¯s path, one, two, three, each successive puff off dark mist slowing the blade fractionally, just enough time to twist and raise his shoulder at the last possible second. The blade shivved straight through his deltoid and hit bone with a jarring impact that rattled his entire body, the sheer power behind the blade beginning to cut through his incredibly strong bone, hairline fractures running down his humerus like lightning, the bone about to shatter-


    *Snap!*


    The sword broke in two, unable to withstand the ridiculous forces it was being put under. This time the sword broke like a plain sword and the sheared bottom half slid by Rain¡¯s pecs as he slipped out of the way.


    A figure came tumbling from the sand cloud, a sand coloured figure. They rolled across the ground but before they could come to a stop a large paw foot booted them in the gut. The figure was sent rolling and bouncing across the ground until they slammed into the bottom of the stands near Lyra and Opal.


    As the last of the dust cloud dissipated and cleared the figure climbed to their feet, wobbly but standing. It was Tamriel, although her body had some kind of sandy coating hiding her green skin, already falling away. Camouflage. That and the way she had repositioned herself in the dust cloud at that impossible angle, striking like a scorpion with the sword, impossibly fast and deadly, all of it, he realised, had been her Skills, her trump card.


    She¡¯d been waiting for him to use the sand, goading him into it by pinning him down with the crossbow. It had been a trap.


    He snorted and swept a paw over his body ripping out dozens of bolts. A shower of red speckled the ground.


    ¡°Clever. You knew what I had in mind.¡±


    ¡°Any Orc who brawls knows to use sand to their advantage monster, it¡¯s the first fucking thing you go for in a dirty fight. Figures a particularly¡­ aware, monster like you would too.¡±


    She spat blood to the side. Clearly the gut kick had had an effect.


    Then she lifted her hand and the crossbow once more appeared in it, the rectangular box on top clacking with the sound of many more bolts and far from empty. It seemed it was enchanted like her first sword, Rain doubted she would run short of bolts any time soon.


    His eyes moved to the side. A furious Opal was currently trying to stab the Orc with a rapier and only Lyra was holding her back, one hand on her mouth stopping her from crying out and drawing Tamriel¡¯s attention.


    He hadn¡¯t wanted to kick the Orc so close to the girls but he hadn¡¯t had a choice. It was the spot where the shadowy centipede was hidden. Even as he watched it crawled out from below the stands and latched onto Tamriel¡¯s leg, swiftly crawling, its many feet rippling up and up..


    ¡°I tend to avoid using things like this. Causes me big problems later. But for one like you? Eh. Why not?¡± She gave him a fierce grin and lifted her free hand to the box on the crossbow. After a moment a red light started to spill from the wood. A feverish concentration in her eyes as she engaged some kind of Skill.


    She was completely oblivious to the large black centipede now on her back and crawling up into her long braided hair.


    There was no place for the centipede to go however, a leather gorget covering her neck and reaching up under the coppery helm, too small a gap. The centipede had no place to bite and going around the front to attack her face would only cause it to be destroyed by the Orc¡¯s lighting quick reactions before it could do anything.


    The centipede was useless.


    So Rain triggered his fire starting Skill.


    A lot.


    The Orc¡¯s concentration was interrupted by a gasp from the audience, and then a rancid burning hair smell. She blinked in surprise, her concentration wavering. No, the Skill needed to be completed. She doubled down, ignoring the distractions while keeping one wary eye on the wolf monster. It seemed content to wait and watch. Goo-


    The feeling of her scalp roasting hit her and Tamriel shrieked, the red glow of the crossbow Skill dissipating as she ripped her helm from her head, her hair now fully ablaze, an Orcish torch burning bright.


    As Rain well knew, fire hurt, fire hurt a fucking unbelievable amount. Even the strongest and bravest of levelers would lose all composure when set on fire. Tamriel screamed as the skin of her scalp sizzled, beating wildly at the flames she stumbled across the sand in a panic, then at last realising what she needed to do she threw herself down, sweeping sand over her head again and again until the flames were extinguished.


    She slumped in relief.


    Then a massive paw wrapped around her forearm and she found herself being lifted clean into the air, a huge wolf head made level with hers, her feet dangling above the ground despite her Orcish height, something she had never experienced before.


    Two yellow eyes bored into her own, two eyes that, now she was looking, held a hunger she could not comprehend, a deep bottomless hunger that knew no limit.


    Rain dangled the Orc in the air and turned to look at the audience, turning, taking in them all, each and every stunned Orcish face. A strange feeling over took him.


    ¡°This is what you thought could kill me? This is what you consider a strong Orc?¡±


    He shook her.


    ¡°F-fuck you you cheating shit!¡± gasped out Tamriel.


    Rain didn''t even glance at her, instead he moved his thumb digit which was placed on her wrist, moved it by pressing it down. The Orc¡¯s forearm snapped like a twig. She screamed. The top half of her forearm flopped from the top of his fist.


    ¡°None of you can take me because you aren¡¯t Orc¡¯s, you are prey, baby bunnies, fluffy little weak things that have no idea that you are prey.¡±


    The crowd was going insane by this point, eye popping rage causing spittle flecked screams, shaken fists, and thrown food.


    Rain grinned wolfishly.


    Then he opened his mouth wide and placed it around the screaming Tamriel¡¯s head.


    The crowd¡¯s rage stalled out as they looked on in utter dismay. Tamriel¡¯s cries became muffled as her entire head disappeared inside the monster¡¯s mouth and then the mouth closed, the screams still just heard as the things teeth bit through her neck, opened, snapped closed again, lifted up, her head disappearing down its throat in a series of gulps, still screaming, her vitality as a high leveler keeping her head somehow momentarily alive.


    Rain dropped the uncorked corpse of the Orc to the sand and spread his arms wide at the crowd, blood dribbling from his teeth, dripping.


    An overweight Orc shot to his feet.


    ¡°BOOOYYYY!! FETCH ME MY HAMMER!¡±


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 100

    ? Chapter 100:


    Rain had meant to antagonise the Orcs enough that another would step up and fight him, better that than simply being executed, helpless to prevent it while the girls were held under threat.


    But perhaps he had gone a tiny bit overboard.


    Something predatory and dominant stirring deep inside of him had caused him to do something he hadn''t quite intended, literally biting Tamriel¡¯s entire head off was... dramatic, to say the least, not to mention calling the clan of very proud and vain Orcish warriors fluffy little bunnies.


    The Orc¡¯s as a result looked like they were having a collective rage heart attack, an apoplectic wall of forehead-vein-bursting spleen-shattering wrath that was screaming down at him from the stands on every side.


    The only reason they weren''t charging the arena was because Rugnor had their attention. The huge Orc was stood on the sands, an authoritative look in his eye as he stared down the entire crowd, an aura of pure will radiating from his body in waves. He was a big, wide Orc with arms the size of legs and nobody wanted to go against him.


    Even the higher level Orc¡¯s in the crowd hesitated to approach the intimidating Rugnor. Rain wasn¡¯t surprised, he suspected this one was significantly stronger than Tamriel had been.


    From the edge of one of the stands several young Orcs were struggling and grunting with something, bent over as they dragged the mass across the ground with great difficulty. Rain caught sight of it as one shifted, a massive anvil, a wide gouge left in the sand as the enormous chunk of metal was moved.


    The young Orcs finally made it to where Rugnor stood and they as one flopped onto their backs gasping like beached fish, chests rising and falling, desperately trying to catch their breath.


    ¡°R-rugnor... s-sir¡­¡± said one raising a wobbly arm.


    ¡°Pathetic boy, you look like you¡¯ve shit out yer heart.¡±


    Rugnor reached down and his meaty fist wrapped around the shaft of the anvil hammer. He straightened, lifting the enormous thing with ease, the chunk of heavy metal weighing hundreds and hundreds of pounds held casually in one hand.


    Rain eyed the hunk of metal uneasily, bad memories rising of just how destructive such a barbaric weapon could be, and more importantly the utterly ludicrous strength of the leveler who wielded it. This anvil hammer was decidedly more deadly looking than the last one too, black iron scarred with use, steel rimmed around the corners, stubby spikes scattered across the flat top. It looked like a weapon that had seen decades of use, decades of killing.


    ¡°I¡¯s not one to take things personal like, but I takes exception to a monster calling me a little bunny wabbit. It would shame our clan to have a monster come into the heart of our camp all cocky like and call us such a thing without proper answer.¡±


    Rugnor glanced from his hammer to the teeth currently orbiting Rain.


    ¡°Cute little fings those are, like little flies buzzing around an horse¡¯s arsehole.¡±


    He brought his free hand down to his hip and loosed a heavy butcher¡¯s cleaver from his belt, the thing stained with crusted pig blood, blackened and browned with age.


    Without even looking his arm snapped out to the side, the cleaver whipping out and connecting with a pair of teeth that had been sneaking up on him, the shadowy shape dissipating to mist as the metal struck it.


    ¡°Not fast enough with the hammer?¡± questioned Rain.


    ¡°Hammers ain¡¯t fly swats, gotta use the right tool for the job.¡±


    He hefted the hammer and eyed Rain.


    ¡°Now this hammer is more or less good enuf fer the likes of you, it is what we¡¯s use ter squish monsters, what we¡¯ve always used.¡±


    ¡°We? You share the hammer?¡±


    Rugnor scowled. ¡°Nah yah bloody idjit, s¡¯was our family line uses, always ¡®ave, ¡®s tradition.¡±


    Rain paused. ¡°Oh... So that¡¯s why she used such a thing.¡±


    The Orc blinked at him then furrowed his brow.


    ¡°Wha did you jus¡¯ say?¡±


    ¡°You aren''t the first Orc I¡¯ve fought to use a hammer like that. There was an Orc called Ola who had one like it too.¡±


    The boisterous crowd quieted as Rain spoke, the cheering and jeering dropping off suddenly, awkwardly, the name drop having a chilling effect.


    ¡°Why do you know that name? WHY DO YOU KNOW THAT NAME?!¡± roared Rugnor taking a threatening step forward.


    ¡°She was in the dungeon, we met and she tried to kill me¡­ and she died trying to do so.¡±


    The aura of will that surrounded the Orc boiled, changing, a feeling of heated Wrath filling the air.


    ¡°My niece...you killed my¡­¡± He drew in a ragged calming breath but became no less agitated. ¡°I ser¡¯pose I should be grateful,¡± he managed to grit out. ¡°When a leveler dies in a dungeon and the monster that killed them escapes then that monster will almos¡¯ nevah be found and brought low for what they did. Vengeance is as rare as pickled hen¡¯s teeth. Too many monsters lookin¡¯ alike and too big ¡®a dungeons ter find ¡®em.¡±


    Rugnor lifted one heavy boot and slammed it down. The dark centipede that had been trying to stealthily crawl toward his ankle was crushed into a puff of shadow with a boom. The sand trembling under the impact.


    ¡°So know am not taking this opportunity for granted wolf when I make you a broken mangled thing that makes pig offal look purdey in comparison.¡±


    Rain shrugged lightly. ¡°She demanded I fight her then forced the issue, I would have left her alone if she had left me alone. Basically she made a mistake, like stubbing your toe, seems like a pretty petty thing to avenge to be honest. Who avenges a stubbed toe?¡±


    ¡°You killed her monster.¡±


    ¡°If a bunny rabbit walks into an open fire is it the fire you take vengeance on? I am a ¡®sub-sapient¡¯ monster, you¡¯re getting mad at nothing, just an unthinking thing like fire or water.¡±


    Rugnor did not seem to like this portrayal. He sneered and the fist around the shaft of the hammer became white knuckle.


    ¡°Trying to twist things all up with words like some slimy merchant fuck, try and squirm all youse want there¡¯s still gonna be nothin¡¯ left of youse by the time I¡¯m done.¡±


    ¡°...Like there was nothing left of Ola after I ate her alive?¡±


    Rugnor¡¯s face became stricken then a cold dark fury filled his eyes. He swung the hammer up in both hands, cleaver pressed to the shaft, and with a bellow of rage stormed forward, his heavy boots pounding the sand, heavy and swift, like a great war drum.


    Rain watched then stepped back a fearful look on his face, eyes wide, paws rising to protect against the oncoming threat. He backed up quickly now near stumbling, Rugnor came on sensing weakness.


    One thing Rain was grateful for having learned in his past life: In a fight for your existence there was no shame in cheating as flagrantly and as much as possible.


    The sand erupted around Rugnor¡¯s legs and the six bear trap teeth he had formed in the sand under his footpads lunged at the enormous Orc.


    Rugnor reacted slowly, his rash mistake in using both hands on the anvil hammer limiting what he could do, Rain¡¯s provocation causing him to fall fully into the trap.


    The nearest set of teeth was right next to his boot and it lunged upward, in a flash the teeth sunk into Rugnor¡¯s calf and inches of flesh were ripped free. The rest of his skin and muscle and fat went berserk as the urge to flee exploded through it on every biological level, here was a predator and it was prey, even cells understood that.


    Rugnor let out a frustrated scream of pain, spittle flying from his mouth, but in the same moment he swung the hammer down as hard as he could, myriad Skills triggering in a fraction of a moment.


    Rain had heard stories of meteors landing in the woods. Those long lines of light sometimes seen flashing across the night sky supposedly could come down to earth creating great craters and felling dozens of trees.


    This felt like how he imagined being near that would¡­ times ten.


    The ground went concave.


    Rain¡¯s feet lifted away from the sand, or rather the sand dropped below him, the ground sinking under the sheer impact. In the short moment he was airborne he had a full view of all the wolf teeth instantly gasifying as an invisible shockwave ripped them apart. Spreading outward it struck him and his vision momentarily went dark as consciousness flickered. His Body went flipping through the air, and then he was in the stands, the wood shattering beneath him as well as several unfortunate Orcs. The entire square wooden section of the stands he had come down on tilted back, rising up in the air, looking like it was going to flip over, but then it came back down with a boom, sand and dust billowing around it.


    Rain blinked, his eyes gritty with sand. He raised his paw and wiped at his eyes, clearing the irritating stuff away.


    As he removed his paw he found an Orc standing over him where there had been none before. The Orc had his hands over his head, a dagger already plunging toward Rain¡¯s heart, a look of terrible greed on his face, a need to kill and a need to level.


    Instinctively teeth and claws disgorged from Rain''s chest and the Orc who was only wearing a cuirass for armour could only watch in horror as his arms disappeared in a snapping snarling clawing whirl of physicalised terror. He tried to pull away but already the darkness had taken his arms and a moment later it consumed his head. A spray of red spewed from the dark and Rain was forced to kick what remained of the body away to avoid getting entirely covered in gore as the rest of the Orc fell to pieces.


    The darkness slunk back into his fur as he climbed to his feet.


    Standing didn''t help much with telling what was going on. It was like standing in the middle of a sandstorm the air was so full with sand and dust, as a result the Orcs struggling around him were only vague blurs.


    Realising that he needed to ensure Rugnor¡¯s death as a priority he rushed down the stands, vague forms of Orcs appearing through the dissipating sand storm as he went. Not pausing he leapt over any who got in the way and came down in the arena as the last of the sand in the air was starting to come back down to earth.


    The arena was less of a nice flat fighting arena and now more a long shallow slope toward a central point. A central point where Rugnor was crouched, half buried in sand, his weapons missing.


    Dark centipedes rolled from Rain''s legs and raced ahead toward the Orc, ready to end him. The Orc glanced over his shoulder as he struggled to rise, sand sheeting off his body.


    ¡°Youse look like a brute, but really you are conniving and sneaky as a street rat.¡± He spat sand to the side as the centipedes approached, his partially eaten away calf poured blood as it was pulled free, his leg shaking as he forced what remained of it to support himself. ¡°Ola never stood a chance againts youse, takes too much after me.¡±


    He produced the cleaver and flipped it in one hand, then flicked his arm out. The steel shot through the air and slammed home into the body of one of the centipedes. It shrivelled for a moment then gasified.


    Rugnor curled his thick fingers at the cleaver and the blade ripped from the sand and flew back into his hand just as Tamriel¡¯s crossbow had. His hand caught it as it was already in a throwing motion and the cleaver leapt forth once more, then again, centipedes falling to pieces under the swift and accurate onslaught.


    Rain bounded forward closer and closer with each stride. As the last centipede disappeared he leapt into the air, shadowy claws outstretched, preparing to rend the Orc apart.


    Rugnor snarled, his face twisting in hatred, and his hand reached out calling back the cleaver. Didn''t matter. It wouldn''t stop him. The calling force on the weapon was weak compared to when it was thrown, and it wouldn¡¯t be caught in time.


    The scythe like claws began to descend but then Rain caught the slightest twitch in the Orc¡¯s face, an expression instantly hidden.


    Glee.


    His mind went into overdrive in a fraction of a second, what the hell had the Orc done? The cleaver? But it didn''t move fast enough when being called, hell the Orc¡¯s outstretched hand wasn¡¯t even pointing in the direction it had lande-


    Rain¡¯s eyes widened and he twisted in mid-air.


    The sandy slope exploded and the anvil hammer roared forth straight on track for Rain, its frightening momentum from when it had originally struck the ground somehow partly preserved and reused.


    The enormous mass of metal smashed into Rain¡¯s side and the grizzly snapping of multiple ribs filled the air. Rain was sent spinning like a top as it glanced off his rib cage, his body a blur of motion as he crashed back down to the ground in a spray of sand.


    Disbelieving that he had just fallen for his own damned trick he struggled up and rolled over, gasping in pain as what felt like half his ribs on his left side had been snapped and splintered, ends grinding against each other. With difficulty, a line of drool hanging from his lip, he managed to make it onto all fours, drawing weak wheezing breaths.


    ¡°¡®Course, I was completely lying about her taking after me, I¡¯m much much more nasty.¡±


    The sound of air being disturbed by a great mass tearing through it caught Rain''s ear and he flung himself to the side rolling onto his back once more, the anvil whistling by his body mere inches away as it whipped around.


    He realised he had moments to do something, anything, as the Orc swung the hammer around himself and then up over his head in a great and terrible arc.


    Shadows boiled from his fur and his mane rippled, an unthinking twisting amalgamation of half formed teeth and claw and centipedal spines and legs and rat heads and talons all reaching for the Orcs body, a nightmarish abomination.


    Too late.


    The hammer came down and Rain could do nothing but raise his paws.


    The lump of metal struck as the mess of predatory darkness pierced the Orc¡¯s gut.


    The metal landed, although not on Rain''s real paws. At the last possible moment Rain had willed the shadow paws to move through his real paws and out the other side so that the larger shadow versions of his paws were floating in front of his real paws.


    The dark paws took the massive anvil on with a great boom of impact. One moment, two, then they burst under the insane strain, the strongest shadow form he could muster failing, the hammer slowing only slightly.


    Then the metal hit his real paws below and the breath was driven from his lungs as the pressure wave struck his body, his fur rippling wildly, the hammer slowed, slowing, his arms audibly creaking as bones began to shear apart under the impossible force, his raw strength all that was stopping that immense weight of metal from making his rib cage concave and instantly killing him.


    He grit his teeth and put his all into countering the impossible momentum of the hammer.


    The weight came down, down, it felt like trying to stop a building from crushing him to death, his muscles were failing now, ligaments tearing away bit by bit, breaking down and coming apart, catastrophic failure imminent.


    The metal inched toward his chest, about to slam down and make ruin, and then it¡­ stopped.


    Rain heaved the huge slab of metal to the side, desperately drawing in air, having to push to the surface of the sand as his body had sunken a good foot down into it.


    After a moment he looked up to find why the Orc had stopped.


    Rugnor had been bisected in two. His upper body lying on the sand. His intestines were flopping and moving away like snakes trying to escape, a horrifying sight, but despite all this, somehow, the Orc was still alive, his incredible vitality keeping him breathing. What was more he had managed to recover the cleaver and was struggling toward Rain, pure white hot hate in his eyes.


    Rain lifted one tired arm slow to defend, his body weak.


    The cleaver came down, a deathblow. It missed. The handle instead striking Rain''s arm, the blade over the top, inches from his face.


    The Orc screamed his fury, whipping the blade up and swinging it down.


    ¡°Pig shit monster filth, DIE DIE DIE!!¡±


    Rain darted his paw out claws and teeth reaching from his fur, between his real claws and pads.


    The dark claws slipped into the Orcs fat folded neck, and sliced across, the layers parting. Blood burbled up the Orc¡¯s throat and poured from his mouth, spilling down his chin, joining the waterfall of crimson rolling down his front.


    Rugnor gave Rain one last look of naked hatred and then he slumped dead on the sand and Rain was left breathing ragged, alone. Well, that is if you didn''t count Rugnor¡¯s corpse staring back at him with that curious flatness of the dead.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 101

    ? Chapter 101:


    After recovering for a moment Rain crawled to his feet, a paw moving to his broken ribs as the motion sent slivers of agony across his body.


    He looked around.


    The Orcs in the stands were still distracted, the blast wave from the first skill empowered hammer strike had caused chaos and many of the low levelers had been hit hard, dazed and confused.


    As it was the crowd¡¯s blood lust had momentarily abated.


    He couldn¡¯t ask for a better moment to escape. He quickly searched out Lyra and Opal but they were nowhere to be seen. It appeared they had already taken advantage of the chaos and vanished, or at least that''s what he very much hoped had happened.


    That only left himself. He turned, looking for where the least number of Orcs were, trying to see an easy avenue of escape


    Unfortunately, not every Orc had been stunned or sent reeling by the blast wave. Four lithe and muscular Orcs were descending into the arena, unslinging weapons and shields. They glanced between each other and an obvious agreement went unsaid: they would share this kill.


    ¡°Don''t suppose you¡¯d want to make this fair and let me heal first?¡± gravelled Rain eyeing the four.


    ¡°Take care, this is one is slippery and sneaky as a rat unlike his size suggests.¡± spoke one with a copper ring pierced nose.


    Rain couldn''t deny that. Especially when he¡¯d already pushed a shadowy centipede or two into the sand.


    The four spread out and neared. Weapons held out at sides, cutlasses and axes and broad swords, weapons well used in the professional killing of monsters.


    The nose ringed one suddenly dashed forward, putting on an impressive turn of speed, the sand showering behind him as he came down the slope. The larger shadow duplicates of Rain¡¯s paws reformed above Rain¡¯s own and he raised them to defend against the strike.


    The cutlass rang against the scythe claws, the dark holding strong against the blow, nothing compared to the anvil hammer. With a grunt Rain pushed forward and shoved the Orc back in the same motion wolf teeth billowed from his mane and flew snapping forward.


    The Orc danced backwards, surprisingly nimble, his boots finding firm footing on the sloping sand. With a slash hack slash of his cutlass the wolf teeth were gasified, a smirk on the Orc¡¯s face as though he had been well prepared for this attack.


    Rain stepped forward intending to end the Orc in that moment but then he cried out, his spine arcing in agony as a broadsword pierce his lower back. He twisted around, striking out, but the Orc who had snuck around and stabbed him was already gone, darting away as soon as he had hit home.


    The ring nosed one took the opportunity and his cutlass drew a bloody line up Rain¡¯s leg as he turned. He roared in frustration, twisting back and lashing out, nearly catching the swift Orc.


    ¡°Hah. Greedy of Tamriel and Rugnor to try such a beast alone, this is how things should have been done from the start. Oh well, their loss our gain.¡±


    One of the Orcs pulled a javelin from his back and threw it with a grunt, Rain lifted his paws and the thing shattered against his dark claws, splinters stabbing between the scythes. He flinched back and heard the sand move behind. This time he had set his own trap however.


    He willed the centipede to lunge and he heard a cry. Quickly turning he found the centipede disappointingly pinned, a sword point through its head. One of the Orcs gave him a shaky look, his face pale.


    ¡°Fucker almost got me!¡±


    ¡°I told yah, keep an eye on the sand, it¡¯s got that weird monster magic!¡±


    Rain stumbled forward with a cry as a second thrown javelin took him in the back, the metal tipped point sinking into his flesh. His paw shaking, he reached behind and managed to wrench it free. It had gone deep, not even his especially tough flesh protecting him. The sand was quickly becoming glossy red with blood.


    This situation was bad, very bad. As soon as he turned on one Orc another would attack him from his blind spot, and his injuries meant his speed and movement was badly limited, even lifting his arm was agony, he was just too slow. In the end it seemed that these four would be the ones to kill him, finishing off what Rugnor and Tamriel had started.


    It couldn''t end like this. Not after everything that had happened, to fall to these opportunistic Orcs ganging up on him when he was weak¡­ But then wasn¡¯t that the fate of every monster? To be cornered in some dungeon corridor and brutally stabbed and beaten to death by levelers, either outnumbered or outpowered.


    Four high levelers against one injured monster was a death sentence for the monster, that was obvious. Something needed to change.


    A longsword swung through the air, the Orc bellowing a war cry as he leapt, the blade striking down at Rain¡¯s back, the cruel tactic repeated yet again.


    But then, dark rippled from his back, a bulging form quickly taking shape, a long leg, a pair of bird-like talons on the tip. The talons caught the sword and ripped it from the Orc¡¯s hands leaving the Orc to collide with Rain and bounce off, sent rolling ass over ankle across the sand.


    Rain stumbled forward as more dark form spilled from his back, black feathers, a massive wing, another massive wing, a heavy pair of naked breasts, long flowing hair, an imperial face, a sneer already on her lips.


    The Harpy fell from Rain''s back and landed on the sands, her great talons forming long furrows.


    Rain turned and stared. He had had a half formed thought to resummon the Harpy he had experimented with to help¡­. but this... wasn¡¯t that Harpy.


    The imperious Harpy Queen, her eyes speckled with red stars turned and looked around at the Orcs.


    ¡°What is this? What manner of trickery has that devious witch bespelled upon me?¡±


    The four Orcs stared at the Harpy Queen with very round eyes, mouths hanging open.


    ¡°H-hey, is that what I think it is?¡±


    ¡°A Harpy,¡± said the one with the piercing, his voice a hiss. ¡°D-fon''t let that thing have its way with you, it¡¯ll make you wish you had never been born. Harpies can do things to an Orc that give nightmares their own nightmares.¡±


    ¡°Yes fool, I am a Harpy. A Harpy Queen, an¡­¡± The Harpy frowned and suddenly seemed to become aware that the low pit they were standing in wasn¡¯t part of a cave or cavern at all. Her head rose up and she took in the vast endless sky, miles tall galleon clouds drifting across the azure blue. She staggered backwards, struggling to take it in.


    ¡°Wh-what? Am I¡­ outside the dungeon? Have I been made a slave and stolen from my home?¡±


    The Queen touched the corner of her wing to her neck as though checking for a collar, of course, none was there.


    Rain was even more surprised than the Orcs, this shadowy thing somehow remembered the life of what it was recreating? He couldn''t even begin to comprehend what that implied right now.


    ¡°You aren''t a sla- well, I don''t exactly know what you are.¡± gravelled Rain.


    The Queen turned then blinked as she saw him. Then her face twisted in a snarl of outrage.


    ¡°YOU! You tried to kill me you foul wretched beast!¡±


    Rain paused. This¡­ disturbing thing didn''t realise its past self was dead?


    ¡°I¡­¡±


    The Harpy took a step toward him.


    ¡°You are larger than I remember, but those eyes, those eyes of yours are the same, an usurper, a royal killer, a regicidal bestial wolf that slaughtered my daughters. I will rip out your insides and hang them from my nest like ornamental curtains, I shall slice the tip of your manhood and sear the wound closed then repeat this process until your manhood is so much a collection of discs.¡±


    Rain made a face of disgust, the bridge of his nose wrinkling. ¡°Well, you are that Harpy Queen alright.¡±


    Pointing out to the Harpy that she was in fact dead and that this was some kind of¡­ well he wasn¡¯t exactly sure, copy of some kind maybe? Pointing that out now might cause some kind of existential mental breakdown when really he needed all the help he could get to deal with the orcs, as it was she didn''t even seem to realise she was made of shadow and not flesh and blood.


    So instead he pushed his will into her, trying to make her attack the Orcs. After a moment of staring at her nothing happened.


    ¡°Wolf, you dare to stare upon mine royal body like this? I will enjoy slicing your penis into discs.¡±


    ¡°Stop saying disturbing things like that.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Rain scowled.


    ¡°Attack the Orcs and kill them for me.¡±


    The Harpy¡¯s face twisted, and for a moment her body started turning to move toward them. But then she regained control and crossed the corners of her wings together, her expansive chest pushed up.


    ¡°Hell. No.¡±


    Rain looked unhappily at the now five instead of four enemies who wanted him dead.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 102

    ? Chapter 102:


    The ringing sound wasn''t going away no matter how many times Opal put her fingers in her ears and twisted them around, it just seemed to persist no matter what she did.


    Making a sour face she flicked the collection of ear wax on her index finger in Lyra¡¯s direction.


    ¡°Hey! Do you mind?¡±


    ¡°No? I wouldn''t do it if I didn''t mind.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not how you''re supposed to answer that!¡±


    ¡°I can answer how I like sheepy.¡±


    Lyra huffed then shook her head. ¡°Look, this really isn''t the time to get side tracked with this-¡±


    Opal paused and glanced over at Lyra. She was pale faced and had a hand over her right upper arm where blood had run down onto her snow white arm fluff staining it red.


    ¡°-because I am actually injured you know.¡±


    ¡°Rub some dirt on it, it¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not- I¡¯m not rubbing dirt on my wound!¡±


    Opal shrugged. ¡°It''s a good Gobbo trick. But suit yourself.¡±


    Clearly, their escape from the arena had not been a pretty one. What felt like a bomb had gone off when Rugnor¡¯s enormous anvil hammer had first come down to earth and it had taken precious moments for the two girls to recover from the shockwave, moments in which the hundreds of Orcs around them had started recovering too.


    Opal had been first to shake it off and had half dragged half led the dazed sheep girl on all fours, desperately trying to get away as Orcs around them drew blades.


    Lyra had barely recovered in time to make them invisible before the furious mob descended, at the last moment a scimitar raking across her arm, cutting a bloody line just under her deltoid. A fraction of a second later they were gone and the many Orcs were left looking around in confusion wondering if they¡¯d somehow lost them in the blinding sand cloud.


    It hadn''t been easy to escape through the chaos and without getting touched but they had somehow managed it, slipping out the back of the wooden stands and away from the press of people.


    Now they were free and alone.


    Opal sighed. Honestly, was she this sheep girl''s babysitter? ¡°Fiiine. You got stabbed a bit or whatever and you need a healing potion? Well that weird merchant will probably have one, he had everything else I¡¯ve ever seen in the world so I bet he has those too.¡±


    Lyra blinked and then visibly brightened up. ¡°Oh that''s right! Braur has so much useless stuff that he surely must have something as important as that!¡±


    ¡°Swords aren''t useless, but yeah, probably.¡±


    They moved away from the wooden stands which were still enveloped in a storm of dust and sand. The camp itself was chaotic, the few Orcs outside the arena running in every direction clearly unsure what was happening, shouting about the sand cloud and an earthquake, swearing they were under attack from some army or other, confusion and rumour were rife.


    Opal and Lyra slipped through it all unnoticed, not even needing invisibility.


    ¡°You think Rain will be okay?¡± murmured Lyra as they walked.


    ¡°You think the Orcs will be okay with Rain?¡±


    ¡°Well no, not at all, this is very bad for them. But still, he is¡­ alone, all by himself, maybe we should do something! R-rescue him? That is my Class you know, I am a Rescuer, I rescue¡­ Rain, m-me and h-him, t-together.¡±


    ¡°Hmphh. You say ¡®Rescue him¡¯ but really you just desperately want to bounce up and down on his dick again sheepy. I can tell, you¡¯re like an open book, if I could read.¡±


    ¡°Wha-?! No! It''s not like that!¡± said Lyra going red in the cheeks. ¡°He¡¯s the only one who can protect me from the bounty on my head!¡±


    ¡°Mhmm.¡±


    ¡°Can we please focus on me being injured, that''s the priority¡­¡±


    ¡°Just keep in mind that I''m the one sharing him with you. You owe me. Rain is mine.¡±


    Lyra opened her mouth but unable to come up with a reasonable reply to the unreasonable Goblin slowly closed it.


    As they walked they neared the merchant quarter of the camp and a familiar sight came into view, the half-Orc half-Dwarf merchant¡¯s multi-stall-spanning shop. The enormous  emporium was still stacked with an unorganised and vast mess of merchandise, valuables, and random tat. Although, that was starting to change.


    Braur was frantically throwing sack after sack, crate after crate of stuff into an enormous six wheeled wagon, and he was doing it quickly too, his body and hands moving with incredible efficiency and accuracy, clearly some Skill or other allowing for enhanced dexterity and strength and speed beyond what was natural.


    Lyra waved for his attention and he slowly came to a stop, turning to see her. His face was covered in a sheen of sweat, his clothing soaked with heavy stains under the armpits. A shattered monocle hung from around his neck that hadn''t been there before and the flesh around his right eye was burned and blistered, the sclera blackened, his iris massively constricted, only a pin of black compared to his other eye which was normal. Disturbing to look upon.


    ¡°Braur! I need help, do you have any healing potions?¡± said Lyra clutching the wound on her arm.


    ¡°You! Why are you here!? Gods don¡¯t tell me that fucking thing is free already?!¡± His eyes darted around as though expecting an attack.


    Lyra blinked at him. ¡°Thing?¡±


    ¡°That monster! It¡¯s- it¡¯s!¡±


    ¡°My wolfy?¡±


    He turned horrified eyes on Opal.


    ¡°What? NO!¡± Braur¡¯s shaking hand lifted and he held up the shattered monocle. ¡°I s-saw, I saw it!¡±


    ¡°Saw what?¡±


    ¡°What''s that?¡±


    His hand fluttered like a leaf in the wind and he shook his head as though trying to clear his thoughts.


    ¡°...Like the others I thought of joining the brawl and winning the opportunity to kill the monster. I could tell just by looking at it that the monster was worth far more than most in levels, some monsters are just special like that, stronger monsters- you get a sense for it.¡±


    His face paled as though recalling something.


    ¡°But then I caught sight of its eyes and I realised that something was off, we didn''t know, we didn''t know what we had. I rushed back and collected this, a lens of potentiality, it''s used by levelers to see unknown Skills and magics and whatnot that other levelers or monsters are keeping in reserve. By the time I returned the fight was already on in the arena, at first I just watched, entranced by the capabilities of our Tamriel, but then curiosity got the better of me, I lifted the lens and peered through it I- I-¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    He touched a hand to his burned eye. I saw-, It''s not a monster, it''s something else,  something worse. They wouldn''t listen, I told them, I told them we needed to flee, to get away. I told them we haven¡¯t trapped that thing in here, no, we''re trapped in here with it and it likes that, it wants it that way, it means more prey.¡±


    Opal squinted at him. ¡°Wow you¡¯re kind of a wimp. Never seen a really strong monster before huh?¡±


    ¡°I- I have, this was not that- I barely had a moment before the lens shattered, it was so dark, the teeth, but I- I felt like- like I was prey, hell, like how a little Goblin being hunted by levelers would feel, like there was something above me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m a Gobbo and I¡¯m not afraid, guess that makes you weaker than me.¡±


    ¡°I did try to warn them it was dangerous,¡± muttered Lyra. ¡°Orcs like to fight way too much.¡± She shifted uncomfortably as her injury twinged. ¡°Erm, about that potion?¡±


    ¡°Potion?¡± Said Braur, who seemed taken aback, his twitchy eyes alighting on Lyra¡¯s injury, noticing it at last, ¡°Oh yes, a potion, right.¡± He turned and grabbed a number of glass vials of various colours and dumped them in Lyra''s arms. ¡°The green one, probably. Now, I¡¯m getting out of here, I highly suggest you do too. None of you understand what that thing is, nor do I, but I¡¯m old and wise enough to recognise a very bad bet in staying.¡±


    He shoved the last crate onto the carriage and jogged around the side then hauled himself up and with a whistle and a cry whipped at the horses. With a creak the wagon began to move away.


    Lyra blankly watched him go. He had left only low value stock behind and they were surrounded by stacks of the stuff, blankets, furniture, equipment, tools, clothing, all abandoned now.


    ¡°Real cowardly that one,¡± said Opal, producing the rune covered broadsword named Rockheart that Braur had originally tried to sell her from behind her back. It was definitely not one of the low value pieces of stock. ¡°Good taste in swords though.¡±


    Lyra raised an eyebrow. ¡°When did you sneak that- you know what, nevermind.¡±


    With difficulty Lyra managed to put the random collection of potions the merchant had shoved into her arms into the dimensional bag, minus the healing one, with a bit of Red¡¯s help.


    ¡°He was¡­ scared.¡± Lyra fiddled with the green potion and after a moment managed to pop the cap. With a sigh of relief she poured it over the wound and it began to heal. ¡°He saw something, and really, I just- Well, I get why he doesn''t think Rain is a monster, that¡¯s obvious, Rain used to be Human, it messed up that lens thing, probably¡­ But don''t you think something has changed in Rain since the Ranker? Those new shadowy things?¡±


    Opal shrugged. ¡°Lots of monsters can do magic. Gobbo witches, Hydra Sorcerers, Ogre hags, it''s just the same thing as that.¡±


    ¡°Is it? I don''t know much about monster magic I admit, and it seems like the simple answer, but being able to create things like he does feels¡­ not normal, and the way it makes living things react when touched...¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s-


    A flash of green and a cry of fright came from behind one of the nearby stacks and Opal lifted the broadsword anticipating an attack. Instead a Goblin girl raced out, a large and furious Orc chasing after her.


    Opal¡¯s blade wavered and drooped. ¡°Grace?¡±


    Lyra furrowed her brow. The Goblin pros- er, lady of the night from earlier?¡±


    Opal didn''t answer, instead breaking into a sprint after the Goblin.


    ¡°W-wait! Hang on Opal!¡±


    Opal didn''t slow, tearing after the Goblin girl through the camp, chaos on every side, a panicking Lyra in tow. Soon they arrived at the whore house. Someone had lit a fire somewhere in the wooden structure and there was smoke billowing from the windows.


    Grace tripped as they neared and the Orc fell upon her with a cry of anger.


    ¡°Try to fucking collar me will you? The halves ain''t gonna protect you from this Grace, I-¡±


    Opal, furious, lifted her broadsword and brought it down on the Orc¡¯s back. His tough skin held up momentarily under the runic blade but then the edge pierced through and he screamed. Opal stumbled as he twisted around, fury in his eyes.


    In a flash he tried to backhand Opal but then a small fist struck him in the head, Grace, she scrambled back as two dozen Goblins poured from the whore house, male and female, various blunt instruments clutched in hand. The unfortunate Orc only had a moment to cry out before a hammer struck him around the head, then another, and another. Then a club caught him in the eye. The Goblins ruthlessly beat the Orc to death, long constrained fury in every blow, an overwhelming swarm.


    Opal wiped a strand of hair away that had fallen across her face and smiled at Grace.


    ¡°Didn''t expect to see you again so soon.¡±


    ¡°That-¡±


    Grace was interrupted by a shout as Kel leapt from behind the nearest tent, his body now completely mobile, the centipedes apparently having been disintegrated from his armour by the shockwave they had all been caught in. He¡¯d gotten a rock from somewhere and he brought it down, bashing at bodies, scrabbling amongst the crowd of Goblins for one Goblin in particular, and then he found her.


    I''ve got you, I¡¯ve got you, I have what controls that thing!¡± he crowed.


    Opal gurgled from around the hand wrapped around her throat, desperately trying to breathe. She lifted Rockheart to stab him but his free hand reached out and firmly grabbed hold of her wrist, keeping her in place.


    ¡°G-get off her Kel! She never did anything to you!¡±


    Kel turned savagely on Lyra. ¡°This Goblin is a monster! That giant fucking wolf thing is a monster! Why the fuck are you helping them!? Gods- It- It doesn''t matter now. After the shit I''ve been put through I will be the one to kill the beast and not through some stupid fight, I¡¯m going to execute it as it is powerless to do a thing with this Goblin in my hands, I-¡±


    Click.


    Kel blinked and then his gaze drifted down trying to see what had just snapped closed around his neck. In utter disbelief he dropped Opal and raised his hands, feeling at it. A bulky steel collar sat tight around his throat, a collar crafted with mechanical complexity, etched with enchantment runes.


    ¡°What- what is this...?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a slave collar. The kind of thing you put on us Gobbos all the time. Well, a special version anyway,¡± said Grace.


    Kel reached out, his hands instinctively going for Grace¡¯s neck.


    Grace gave him a displeased look and then pressed something in her hand. Kel let out a scream and fell to the ground thrashing in pain, eyes going round as steel needles ringing the inside of the collar punctured his neck and injected something.


    ¡°What the fuuuck,¡± he groaned as the agony eased off and he was left limp.


    ¡°It¡¯s a punishment collar.¡±


    After a few failed attempts Kel shakily managed to climb to his feet, dishevelled, a spot of drool hanging from his lip, breath heavy.


    ¡°Why does a whore house have something nasty like that?¡± said Opal, wheezing a little, her hand on her knee.


    Grace glanced at Kel already trying to reach for his previous improvised rock weapon and pressed a different button.


    The Orc froze up and blushed beat red. His knees slamming together as his hands slapped over his groin.


    ¡°Oh, g-gawwd, wh-what is this! Hnnnn!¡±


    ¡°Because it has two modes. Obviously.¡±


    ¡°I... see...¡± said Opal looking the trembling moaning Kel up and down. Her eyes moved to the other Goblins eyeing Kel angrily and she perked up as she realised something, ¡°Hey, you came around to my idea? You want to escape? And build a safe place for monsters?¡±


    Grace paused. A flash of irritation crossed her face that was quickly schooled away.


    ¡°An Orc clan is always at war so I thought things would end badly someday and I would need to leave this shithole, I just... didn¡¯t like my chances, that is until this collar idea was suggested by one of the girls when I mentioned your idea. Doesn''t matter any that we¡¯re not very strong if we can make them do everything for us I guess. The others liked the idea so much I turned around and we¡¯d already collared three and killed most the half-Gobbos. Things kinda spiralled from there.¡±


    Behind her a dozen Orcs marched from the whore house. Each of them had extra bulky slave collars on their necks just like Kel. The group of Orcs looked decidedly unhappy about this arrangement, especially when the Goblins started to climb them, using them as steeds.


    ¡°This is perfect! We can go make a special monster town and no one can stop us!¡± said Opal looking up at the Orcs excitedly.


    ¡°Yes, we can do that.¡±


    Grace put a hand on Opal¡¯s shoulder. Then she head-butted her in the face. Opal dropped like a felled tree, blood sprinkling into the air. Grace snatched Rockheart as it slipped from her fingers and held it up, testing the weight then nodding finding she approved of it.


    ¡°We can make that place. But we are doing it without you.¡±


    Opal sat up, a slim line of red running over her mouth from her nose.


    ¡°What?! Why the hell not?!¡±


    ¡°I got more freedom than most slave Gobbos, I can go wherever I like in this camp. I watched you and that wolf thing, what the Orcs did, I overheard you and this leveler talking, I heard everything.¡±


    ¡°Rain?¡±


    ¡°Yes. You¡­ are with it. You want it to come with us. That is what you want, isn''t it?¡±


    ¡°Well yeah, obviously.¡±


    ¡°Exactly as I thought. Terrible.¡±


    ¡°What are you saying, Rain¡¯s great!¡±


    ¡°No, that thing is not great Opal. Are you blind or are you just stupid? That monster, that beast is the kind of thing that stalks the pitch black corridors of a dungeon, it¡¯s a predator, a killer, just like a Panthara. I saw its eyes, that thing wants to kill and eat everything within a mile radius. That includes us. What do you think we are Opal? We¡¯re Gobbos, in a dungeon that kind of monster hunts us every single day. You think we could live alongside a Panthara? It¡¯s the same thing and it¡¯s never going to happen.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like that! Rain is kindhearted!¡±


    Grace made a face of disbelief. ¡°Yeah right. And that¡¯s not even mentioning the uncollared leveler you have with you. No. This will be a Gobbo only town, no other monsters, and one without you. Good luck Opal. You¡¯ll need it.¡±


    She gave Opal a dark look then grabbed hold of Kel¡¯s armour, quickly climbing up his body she slung her legs over his shoulders and rested her arms on his head.


    ¡°Forward steed.¡±


    Kel looked like he¡¯d just shit himself in horror as the reality of his enslavement truly dawned on him.


    ¡°N-NOOO! This can''t be happening! This c-can¡¯t be happening again!! Not after the centipeeedes!¡±


    Grace held up the collar¡¯s controller and waved it in front of his face,


    ¡°Move Orc boy or I''ll make you scream like your dick has exploded, in the good way and in the bad way, maybe even both at the same time if you really piss me off.¡±


    Kel gave Lyra a wide eyed look, one last desperate plea for help.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Kel, you''re kinda stuck for now, like I said you should uhm, probably get used to it?¡±


    After a moment, and after a few more threats from Grace, a very unhappy Kel turned and stumbled away, a collection of enslaved Orcs being ridden by ex-slave Goblins following in his wake.


    Opal sat cross legged on the ground and glowered after them.


    ¡°Is everything okay Opal?¡±


    ¡°No...¡±


    ¡°What do you want to do?¡±


    ¡°I was supposed to lead them, I was supposed to be the one to build the monster town¡­ but they don''t and won¡¯t trust Rain. They think he¡¯s all bad, like a Panthara. They don¡¯t want us.¡±


    ¡°He is kinda intimidating¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like that- It¡¯s not like that at all! That merchant, these Gobbos, none of them understands!¡±


    Opal looked up at Lyra, her expression serious.


    ¡°I¡¯m not leaving him no matter what those idiots think. I¡¯m never leaving him.¡± She struggled to her feet and pulled The Sounder from her belt.


    ¡°In fact, what the hell are we even doing out here? We should be in there fighting with him!¡±


    ¡°Erm, because I can¡¯t fight very well and I don''t particularly want to die extremely violently?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re such a scaredy sheep, come on, let''s go help!¡±


    ¡°W-wait I¡¯m not fighting an arena full of crazy Orcs! Opal! Opal!¡±


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 103

    ? Chapter 103:


    The Harpy Queen was a beautiful creature, that was undeniable.


    Even in this dark shadowy version of herself the clean swooping curves of her body showed through, her form as though designed by some salacious sculpture, hair spilling down her naked back, her overly large chest pushed up by her crossed wings, broad powerful legs spread wide as she stared Rain down.


    It wasn''t until her eyes met his that the unnatural nature of the shadowy thing really hit home. A constellation of malignant red stars shone from within those eyes, a terrible Queenly will, an Imperial authority.


    The Orcs shifted uncomfortably as they stood around the naked Harpy Queen, fists white-knuckled around weapons, unsure exactly what it was they were dealing with.


    ¡°It¡¯s an actual Harpy, obviously,¡± said one.


    ¡°A Harpy made of that evil dark shit? No way, it¡¯s a fake, has to be.¡±


    The Queen narrowed her eyes at the Orc that had spoken, clearly wondering what he was talking about.


    ¡°You are supposed to do as I say, you understand that right?¡± said Rain.


    The Queen turned back to him practically spitting acid. ¡°I will never do as some murderous brute such as you wishes, ripping out your eyes and laying eggs in the sockets would be less than you deserve.¡±


    Rain raised an eyebrow and shifted tact.


    ¡°You realise where we are? We are two monsters alone surrounded by levelers who want to kill us.¡±


    ¡°Hah! Not I, I can fly, and I shall fly away the moment I have dealt with you!¡±


    She flapped her wings a few times as though to demonstrate that she did in fact have wings and that she could in fact fly.


    ¡°You think they won''t shoot you down with bows? Look.¡±


    Rain pointed at the surrounding stands where the now mostly recovered Orcs were starting to step down onto the sand. Amongst them were the hunters who had originally found Rain in the forest, quivers slung across backs bows held in hand.


    The Harpy glanced in their direction and sneered.


    ¡°Bows and arrows¡­ Bows and arrows won''t stop me from ending you wolf.¡±


    She took a step, massive scalpel-sharp talons raking the sands, clear killing intent in every motion. she advanced on Rain, one step, two.


    But then Rain raised a paw. She stopped, struggling immensely, unable to come any closer, her legs trembling as she tried to force them forward.


    ¡°What is¡­ this? My body won¡¯t... move.¡±


    Rain tried to push his will further into the dark that made up her body but he could already sense his limits, it seemed like stopping her from moving was the best he could hope for. At least he didn''t need to worry about her flying away into the sky with his dark material and leaving him without now.


    He considered telling her what was really happening for a moment, but then decided against it, best to keep her in the dark so to speak.


    ¡°You¡¯re afraid of me. That¡¯s why you cannot approach.¡± he gravelled, deathly serious in his lie.


    ¡°BIRDSHIT! I am not- how dare you even suggest such a thing!¡± she took a step back and Rain allowed it. She eyed him more carefully now, despite her words she clearly seemed to be unsure of herself.


    ¡°Hey hey hey, how are we supposed to get anything out of this if all those other fuckers are attacking too? This is the same problem from before the brawl, everyone fighting over one monster benefits no one,¡± said one of the Orcs.


    ¡°So we just kill it first, easy.¡±


    ¡°And the Harpy?


    ¡°It¡¯s the same as the teeth and freaky centipedes, just hit it hard enough and it¡¯ll puff away.¡±


    ¡°You will all stop talking this utter nonsense about me at once you insidious little cave worms!¡± snapped the Harpy, losing her temper once again.


    The Orc to her side took the opportunity as she turned and darted in, lashing out in a quick chop. The sword slammed down on the Queen''s shoulder, the THUNK of metal cutting into dark dramatically loud, the edge sinking down a good half inch.


    The Queen froze up, her head very slowly turning to see the blade embedded in her shoulder, eyes slowly widening in outrage like ice creeping across a winter pond.


    Rain had to wonder if she didn''t see the dark that she was made out of then just what was she seeing? Did she see real flesh and blood being cut? Whatever the case this dark Harpy Queen was clearly significantly hardier than anything that he had summoned so far barring his dark paws.


    The Queen glared back at the Orc and then in a flash of motion she twisted, the blade ripping free. The Orc panicked and raised his heavy wooden shield in a desperate defence.


    Her leg whipped out in a vicious kick, a pair of huge razor talons collided with the wooden shield, the curved needle like points sinking into the wood with a shuuunk, the tips poking out the other side. A horrified Orc looked at the inches and inches of dark protruding free from his side of the wood.


    ¡°You tried to attack me? ME?!¡± she screamed.


    The talons began to close and with a groan the thick oak started to break and then in a rush it shattered, the wood becoming so much splinters as it tumbled to the sand. A very surprised looking Orc awkwardly holding a metal shield handle and no shield was left behind.


    Rain was vividly reminded that the Queen was a shockingly strong monster, he had very nearly been physically overpowered by her when she was alive, and that was when she was injured.


    The Orc barely had time to open his mouth in a surprised O shape before the Queen spun in a savage roundhouse kick, her talons ripping through the air, razor blades that slashed across the Orc¡¯s front in an instant.


    He cried out and his stomach flopped open, his insides pouring out like a waterfall. Organs, blood, flesh, all, his intestines slithered across the ground like someone had upended a basket of snakes.


    The Queen paused as she noticed that the Orc¡¯s guts were wiggling away, trying to flee her.


    Puzzled she poked at one with a talon. It flinched and jerked away from her touch.


    ¡°...What is wrong with this leveler¡¯s body?¡±


    There wasn¡¯t time to ponder however, the Orcs from the stands were sprinting toward them now, weapons raised high, roaring their frenzied desire to kill kill kill, a desperate mindless race to slaughter Rain before too many attacked him.


    Rain stepped out of the way of an oncoming arrow and then cried out as a blade flashed across the back of his neck, a line of pain dipping into his mane, paw clapping to the wound. He turned to find the nose ringed Orc, his blades dipped in red.


    He spat to the side.


    ¡°Dam thing, why won''t you just die.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t roll over for your levels leveler, you¡¯re going to have to earn your death.¡± he snarled back.


    The Orc gave him a look of scorn but then touched his sword to his copper nose ring and the metal of the blade changed in front of Rain¡¯s eyes, the point where the ring touched transmuting from steel to copper. After a moment the transition was complete and the Orc held a copper sword.


    ¡°A skill?¡±


    ¡°Oh, the monster wants to know?¡± sneered the Orc stepping forward.


    Rain looked at the sword, then glanced down at the Orc¡¯s foot, an expression of eager anticipation on his face. the Orc immediately noticed and leapt back, the copper blade morphing and extending as he stabbed the point into the sand.


    Nothing happened and the Orc narrowed his eyes at the spot he had stabbed.


    ¡°Thought you almost got me with one of those damned centi-


    The centipede that had been waiting for the Orc to position himself perfectly leapt from the sand, only a few inches needed for its enormous pincers to close around the tendon at the back of his foot. With a snip and a scream the Orc stumbled forward, directly into Rain¡¯s claws. Long black scythes dipped into his torso from his shoulders and with a grunt the Orc was ripped into a dozen different pieces, his arms and divided pieces of torso sent flopping on the ground, already trying to crawl away.


    Rain had no time to catch his breath however as the first of the Orcs who had been tearing across the sand crashed bodily into him in a flying tackle. He bellowed and slashed his claws across. Two Orcs died instantly, clearly just over confident low levellers, but they were replaced by more and these wore armour like Kel¡¯s and carried spears. His claws were far from as effective against these ones.


    A screech of fury that stung the ears sounded nearby and he turned expecting to find the Harpy trying to attack him again, instead half of an Orc rolled across the sands as the Harpy Queen crashed into the two spear Orcs and went tumbling, hissing and clawing and spitting, a terrifying tangle of flapping wings and ripping talons.


    Rain stumbled forward as he was clubbed over the head from behind and swung round in surprise, two dozen Orcs swarmed him before he had time to speak, bloody murder in their eyes. Daggers and swords slipped into his flesh as he fell under the crashing weight of enraged Orcish muscle and violence.


    The little darkness he had remaining surged from his fur and slid amongst the Orcs like carnivorous death along with his claws, their screams filled the air and Rain had scant moments to heave piles of wounded or dead Orcs aside before an executioner¡¯s axe fell where his head had been, the sizeable blade slamming deep into the sand.


    The muscular Orc who wielded it had gold capped teeth and gave him an evil grin before a fraction of a second later he was instantly decapitated by a screaming berserking Harpy Queen, her talons flashing as she rushed by. The Orcs head landed in the sand beside Rain, an expression of surprise frozen on its face as the headless body landed with a thump next to it.


    Angry screeching came from the direction of the Queen as the Orcs tried and failed to take her down even as parts of her dark body started to mist under the onslaught. Rain was glad he hadn''t undone her, her berserk rage was keeping half of the Orcs away from him all on her own.


    He couldn''t pause to observe however as half a hundred Orcs were running at him full tilt from every direction, and he barely had time to scramble to his feet before they crashed together, blades and spears stabbing into him, bodies on every side.


    He lifted back his head drawing in a deep breath and let loose a terrible air shuddering roar, the very nearest Orc¡¯s eardrums instantly burst and they wept blood as veins erupted and organs ruptured, a dozen Orc¡¯s collapsing in moments. But before he was even halfway done a spear lanced from the crowd and punctured his lung. His roar ended in a wet gurgle and a struggle to simply breathe.


    There was just so many Orcs and they were just so relentless, an ocean of ravenous greed, all desperate to level from killing him. Everywhere he looked there was more, hundreds of Orcs, a wall of moving heaving green muscle, the sand now crimson red as slash after slash of his claws ripped the Orcs apart in a maelstrom of gore, his feet slipping across the unsteady slippery ground.


    Orcs poured onto his back and he went down again, stabbed and cut, feet and fists pummeling him where weapons had been dropped, a mindless mob, a lynching. Rain curled up under the onslaught, then with a snarl kicked free, a half dozen Orcs sent flipping through the air. Everything was blood now and he had the dark paws separate from his own paws, using both in tandem, even as he ripped the head off one Orc the dark paws disembowelled another, he didn''t have a choice, he needed the efficiency.


    He was so lost in the fog of killing that when he tore out the throat of an Orc and shoved her aside he nearly killed the tiny Orc behind her on instinct.


    Not an Orc.


    Opal.


    ¡°You¡¯re alive!¡± said the Goblin happily stabbing an Orc in the kidney, almost getting squished to death between two more Orcs as she was shoved around in the crush of bodies.


    ¡°What are you doing?! Get out of here!¡± roared Rain in dismay, desperately killing the Orcs around her as quickly as he could.


    ¡°I came back for you! They didn''t want you, but I do want you, I-¡±


    The mace fell in an instant, an angular chunk of steel cracking against the back of the Goblin girl¡¯s head. Rain froze, unable to comprehend even as Opal¡¯s blood splashed across his muzzle.


    Opal disappeared amongst the crush, buried in the endless heaving mountain of Orc flesh.


    No, that didn¡¯t just hap- It couldn''t have- No! No! No!


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 104

    ? Chapter 104:


    Rain stared at the spot Opal had just been, his body unmoving, uncomprehending. It had only taken a moment, she was there and then she was just gone, struck down, vanished. It had happened so suddenly that he half wondered if he had hallucinated it.


    Then the reality of his situation made itself known, swarming blood crazed Orcs on every side burying him in bodies. A howling mob, a mindless ravening horde, hundreds made mad with greed for levels, taunted by Rain and his actions into a frenzied animalistic state. The crush only knew one thing; there was a monster to kill and power to take.


    Rain lost sight of the sun beneath the stabbing punching kicking Orcs, the bright blue of the sky replaced with a desperate struggle in the dark, each motion a vicious attempt to kill the monster beneath and claim the leveling for themselves.


    The problem was, the monster fought back.


    Rain¡¯s teeth enclosed an Orc¡¯s throat and with a savage motion he ripped her windpipe out. Even as that happened his shadow paws independently squirmed their way through the pile, stop starting as they were sometimes blocked by armour or weapons, other times slicing through exposed limbs, disembowelling, decapitating. A dark mirror to his real paws which reached out and crushed throats, grabbing, fighting, even as his body started to fail, the onslaught of weapons and Skills and fists causing flesh to break down and disintegrate. It didn''t matter how tough his body was, the sheer number of wounds he was taking on would cause anything to falter.


    A longsword found his belly and was forced through his flesh, piercing his guts, the Orc who wielded it literally foaming at the mouth with bloodlust, his eyes gone crimson with berserk rage, screaming his success, his glory.


    Rain hardly noticed, not because it didn''t hurt, but because it didn''t stand out amongst the agony of the dozen other blades already sticking from him.


    A massive flesh and blood paw flashed out and enclosed the Orc¡¯s head, and then with a terrible strength it crushed the Orc¡¯s head to pulp, bursting it like a watermelon. A wash of blood adding to the many streams of the stuff that wound their way through the struggling mountain of bodies.


    Rain snarled, a deep animalistic sound, a predator pushed to the limit, backed into a corner, surrounded by those that would kill it. He thrashed, struggling desperately just to survive, to escape the weight of thousands and thousands of pounds of Orc crushing down on him, intent on ending his life before he even had a chance to look for Opal.


    Opal could be dead or dying right now and there was nothing he could do about it trapped below these hundreds of levelers. The thought sent white hot flashes of searing emotion across his mind and he opened his jaws wide, wider, his teeth juddering, his punctured lungs refusing to cooperate, he forced them to work through sheer bloody will and a ragged mess of a roar slipped from his throat, weaker, far far weaker than his best, but with this many living beings this close by and on this many sides?


    The shockwave that was released instantly killed those touching him, their orifices gushing blood as their bodies ruptured. Those just behind lost their hearing and bled openly, dying still, just more slowly, the ruin of their insides a sea of internal bleeding.


    Rain pushed aside those dead and dying around him and squirmed forward amongst the crush. It seemed like he¡¯d made no difference at all, there was just always more, the sight of the sky no nearer as he was still buried beneath the hundreds and hundreds of Orcs.


    An Orc wearing an eyepatch bellowed directly into his face, spittle flying everywhere. His fist enclosed a brutal looking knife but his arm trapped between two other Orcs, unable to drag it nearer to stab Rain. But then the Orcs shifted and the eyepatch Orc found a gap, forcing the heavy knife nearer, not caring who he was cutting through on the way. Skills flashed to life around the metal in a blur of blue sparks.


    The Orc was determined to kill him.


    So Rain bit his face off.


    The Orcish mass in some small part faltered as the faceless dead Orc slipped back amongst the writhing bodies, a shudder running through the mountain, like a ripple from a pebble dropped into a pool of water.


    At first Rain thought he had killed some highly revered Orc, but then the seething berserk rage came on once more, as though the mob wasn¡¯t aware of what had just happened.


    Between furious frantic killing just to survive each moment a small worm of reason ensconced at the back of his mind began to work. He was a ball of instinct with no time to think, but still, the worm worked, and when he killed a second Orc wearing an eyepatch, just like the first, and the shudder happened again, the worm paid attention.


    He doubted a normal monster would have noticed or understood what was happening. But he had been a human being once, a leveler in his past life, and with that the worm recognised there was something here, levelers with the ability to buff other levelers. Uncommon, but not unheard of.


    The next blade that was stabbed into his flesh got stuck, failing to pierce his body, the one who wielded it no longer strong enough to injure him.


    He realised now, he had wildly overestimated this vast horde of Orcs. In truth most were likely less than level twenty, and most of those in the teens, upper low levelers and lower mid levelers. He had thought most of them in the twenties due to how strong they were, but he had been wrong, the insane berserker strength they possessed was due to the eyepatch wearing Orcs and was not their own.


    A motion caught his eye and he spotted another eyepatch amongst the press. With a snarl he lunged for them, claws digging into their face, the eyepatch shifting revealing a coppery metal eyeball beneath set with Orcish runes. He tore the Orc apart in moments. The other Orcs flinched and this time he felt it, their incredible power slipping slightly.


    The worm understood.


    When he¡¯d enraged the crowd of Orcs he had also angered those with Skills that affected other levelers, a small number of support Classes. They¡¯d used those Skills liberally and the Orcs had attacked. The mob effect had pushed their blood lust to greater heights and in turn caused the buffing Orcs to use their Skills again and again, a reinforcing feedback loop that he was only now breaking.


    Some of the very low leveled began to struggle, the sheer weight of the great mountain of Orc¡¯s pressing down from above beyond what they could handle with their unbuffed strength. They started to suffocate, unable to draw in breath, their lungs not strong enough to expand under the press.


    The trouble was, that made things worse. Orcs did not respond particularly well to being crushed alive.


    The ones struggling became significantly more violent, stabbing and cutting and kicking and punching at everything in reach in a blind panic. The Orcs who were hit lashed out on instinct, attacking back.


    Before long many of the Orcs around him were in their own private battles. What was chaos descended into utter mayhem as the crush of Orcs became a blood bath.


    Rain took advantage. Every spot where raging Orcs fought one another was a weak spot and he ruthlessly exploited it, working his way in and swiftly through them before they knew what was happening.


    One spot, two, three, another eye patch Orc, the strength of the Orcs lowering still.


    The mountain of Orcs descended into an even greater berserker state as the fighting spread, Orcs either getting themselves killed in their attempts to kill Rain as soon as possible or getting themselves killed fighting the Orcs freaking out around them.


    Rain¡¯s presence moved throughout it all and the mountain of Orc becoming flooded with rivers of gore that poured between bodies turning green skin to red.


    As he went he searched for Opal, with every moment becoming more frantic, more desperate, his motions becoming wild as frustration drove him over the edge.


    Every motion was a killing blow now, the weakened Orcs couldn''t contain him anymore and he tore through the mountain, unstoppable, like some force of nature, ripping and tearing, a berserk state of his own descending as frustration in failing to find Opal gave way to despair and then rage, pure white hot rage, a wild predator taking vengeance having been injured and made to suffer. He bit and tore, teeth flashing, claws rending, a wolf let loose upon a flock of sheep, a fluffle of bunnies, a crowd of conceited prey.


    Half an hour ticked by under the hundreds and hundred of Orcs, a claustrophobic hell of nothing but brutal fighting in the dark.


    But then his head popped free and the dark sea of gore he was trapped in was replaced by the bright blue of a beautiful summers day, fluffy white clouds drifting across the sky far above.


    He blinked, the light stinging his eyes... or perhaps that was the blood, it had gotten everywhere.


    Looking around he realised that he had found his way up above and his head was poking from between the corpses of two particularly large Orcs. He also realised that what had been a mountain of levelers was now more of a lake, the sloping pit that Rugnor had created with his hammer blow filling up with the remains of the Orcs as they had been massacred, spreading out and filling it. It wasn¡¯t so much that he had managed to climb to the surface but that the surface had dropped down to him.


    Dazed, he labourously pulled himself over one of the large Orcs, emerging fully out into the light. The pain of his many many injuries made themselves known as his fury faded and he was nearly overwhelmed then and there.


    Barely able to keep up on all fours, his arms shaking, he looked around trying to find something, some sign that Opal still lived.


    There was nothing but the twisted broken remains of the dead Orcs. He let out a low groan and closed his eyes. She was supposed to have escaped the arena, what had happened? Why had she thrown herself back into the fray like that?


    ¡°Opal¡­ Why, why did you do it...¡±


    ¡°PaThetic w-wolf, n-now thEse insufferable l-levers are deaLt with it is time, time yoU were made to sufffffeerr and suffferrrr and suffferrrrrr-¡±


    Rain turned his head to find the Harpy Queen approaching on unsteady legs.


    She was¡­ not doing well. Her body was shredded, huge gaping holes in the dark that continually spewed mist, one of her wings was just gone, a good third of her head and face cleaved away. If she were flesh and blood she would have been dead several times over.


    She continued to approach, footing unsteady on the corpses, like a drunk stumbling from clawed foot to clawed foot she came closer, closer. It was clear her presence was the reason why there were no living Orcs left on the surface, and likely the reason why none had escaped.


    ¡°-And I remeeeember thAt one, oPal, yOu cried her Name tHen too, I remember, that onE you had with you, the one who stabbed mE in the back, one of tHe little regular Gobbos, not a haLf, not anything, a dirty little Peasant dariNg to attack Royalty.¡± The remaining two thirds of her head tilted to the side in a disturbing manner, ¡°Don''t you woRry I¡¯ll have my ReveNge on her tOo, after I¡¯ve sliced you into riBboNs and diCed your organs, I¡¯ll Do the same, no, woRse, I¡¯ll keep Her aLive through it-


    Rain¡¯s paws shot forward and he snapped the Harpy Queen¡¯s neck with one violent twist of her head. The Queen collapsed on top of the Orc bodies like a puppet that had had its strings cut.


    He stared at the thing that was the Harpy Queen, his breath fast and heavy, hairs rising on the back of his neck.


    ¡°I LEaRned I canNot die noW wOlf, no maaaatter how tHe levElers cHopPed And staBbed and cut mE they coullld nooot stop meeee from rending them to pieecesss,¡± came a low twisted gurgle of a voice as the Queen began to rise, her head lying across her chest.


    He lurched back in disgust, then at last, gathering his senses, he willed the Queen to dissipate. The darkness misted and the still gurgling talking Queen vanished into a cloud of black that drifted back into his fur. He eyed where the dark entered back into his body, a disquiet and deep unease settling over him.

 Chapter 105

    ? Chapter 105:


    Rain shook his head, trying to clear his tired mind. He needed, he needed to get up and¡­ search for Opal.


    Placing one paw on the back of an Orc he helped lever himself up, a slow climb onto two feet where he swayed like a tree in the wind, barely managed to remain upright as his body screamed in protest.


    He gazed out over the lake of Orc bodies. Was Opal alive in here? Trapped amongst the dead or dying? Amongst hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bodies?


    He almost slumped down in despair, but then something caught his eye, a flash of white fluff, an arm waving for help amongst the dead, right at the edge of the lake.


    Rain slowly approached, carefully picking his way across the field of bodies, nearly slipping over a number of times as his body barely held together. He came to the arm, a hand and a limb ensconced in what had been snow white fluff now spattered red with Orc blood.


    ¡°...Lyra?¡±


    A muffled yell for help replied and he grabbed hold, his paw engulfing her entire forearm. With one motion he heaved her half way up and out, Orc bodies shoved aside as the bedraggled sheep girl rose. A teary eyed and perfectly miserable face appearing below hair drenched through and lank with blood.


    ¡°Why did I agree to this!¡± wailed the sheep girl.


    ¡°Lyra¡­¡±


    She looked up at him and blinked, taking in the innumerable bits of metal sticking from his ragged body, daggers and snapped swords, arrow shafts and broken spears, all speckled amongst grievous injuries. He looked ready to keel over dead under a light breeze.


    ¡°P-potions-, Red!¡±


    Her hand dove below and a moment later she was shoving potion after potions into Rain¡¯s paws of various differing colours.


    ¡°This... will help?¡±


    ¡°Er, maybe, they came from a box of potions marked for bodily health, so, yes? Drink!¡±


    Rain lifted his paw and put the entire collection of potions into his mouth, bottles and all. In moments his teeth had ground the glass to powder and he swallowed it along with the liquid contents of the bottles.


    ¡°Oh, well I suppose eating them works too¡­¡± said Lyra her hand drooping.


    The effects were swift, each bit of metal protruding from Rain¡¯s body was forcibly ejected, a shower of metal falling to the ground, his wounds clotting over, flesh sealing, his back straightening as dog tired exhaustion was washed away and fresh tireless energy replaced it.


    It wasn¡¯t a true healing, but already Rain could feel his body taking care of that, putting to use the burst of bright vigour the potions gave.


    He shook his head slightly as his head fog cleared, the chains of tiredness falling away. His gaze turned back to Lyra.


    ¡°...Why did you come back? You had escaped... And- and Opal, why Lyra? Why did you do it?¡±


    ¡°She wanted to come back, I couldn''t stop her, she was beside herself I¡¯m- I¡¯m sorry, it was a really bad idea, I should have stopped her¡­¡±


    Rain bowed his head.


    ¡°And now she¡¯s¡­. Gone,¡± he choked out, emotion straining his voice.


    Lyra blinked at him.


    ¡°Uhm, well no actually, I¡¯m holding her hand right now under all these Orcs- Wai- Waah!¡±


    Rain immediately hauled on the unfortunate sheep girl who let out a yelp of surprise as she was forcefully dragged fully free from the bodies and sent sprawling on the sand at the edge of the lake. Her other hand was latched tight around a small wrist and she dragged up a familiar black haired head, her shoulders popping free from between a pair of muscular Orcs, her lower half below.


    Opal came up gasping and swearing, she then turned to the side and spat out sand and Orc blood, gagging in disgust.


    ¡°Orcs¡­ are really¡­ fucking heavy¡­¡± she managed to get out between heaved breaths.


    ¡°You¡¯re unhurt?! You¡¯re okay?!¡± said Rain beside himself with relief.


    Opal gingerly touched at the back of her head, then finding herself whole and uninjured she patted more confidently.


    ¡°Seems that way, I feel fine, better than fine.¡±


    Her hand wiped across her face, clearing away the blood, then brushed by her forehead. She paused as her hand caught on something.


    ¡°Huh- Whassah?¡± she muttered.


    Rain blinked as he noticed what she was touching at. It appeared at first to be a lump of gore that had gotten tangled up in her hair and stuck to the right side of her forehead but as blood was wiped away a deeper black appeared, a stubby singular little horn, a horn made of deep black shadow.


    Opal touched at it with her fingers, exploring. Then with a frown she tried tugging on it, trying to pull it off. It remained affixed and all she succeeded in doing was awkwardly yanking her head forward.


    ¡°Hey, what the fuck? Did some dumb Orc glue a rock to my head? What the hell am I touching here?!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s- it¡¯s- it¡¯s a horn Opal,¡± whispered Lyra, staring at the thing in question.


    Rain hesitantly raised his paw, unsure why a small chunk of his darkness was currently attached to Opal¡¯s forehead. He pushed his will into it, but the dark didn''t respond in the slightest. Puzzled, he tried to mist it, and draw it back into his body, but again the stubby dark horn remained as it was, solid and unmoving, embedded in Opal¡¯s forehead.


    ¡°It¡¯s the same as my dark claws and centipedes, made from the same stuff, but...¡± he murmured.


    ¡°Huh,¡± said Opal, ¡°You sure about that? it¡¯s not exploding my fingers with fear even though I¡¯m practically jerking it off.¡±


    Rain blinked, that was true, she was touching the dark without any issue, her skin remaining whole and unafraid.


    ¡°What does it feel like? Does it hurt?¡±


    ¡°Nah, if I hadn''t touched it I wouldn''t have even realised it was there, it¡¯s- well now I¡¯ve noticed I can tell it¡¯s there, some weird dark thing, I can sense it like a spot I¡¯m conscious of.¡± Her brow furrowed as she fingered the horn. ¡°It¡¯s almost like I can control it, like an extra limb but not a limb¡­¡±


    The goblin girl twitched her hand and black mist suddenly seeped from the horn, drifting and rolling around her fingers like a misty snake. She held her hand up to her eyes, awe in her expression as she looked at the dark. ¡°Is this¡­ magic? Is this like your magic?¡±


    ¡°...If it¡¯s like mine you should be able to form it, create something.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Just will it to happen.¡±


    A small tongue poked from the corner of her mouth as her brow furrowed in concentration. After a moment the mist began to take a shape, solidifying. Opal concentrated and for a fraction of a moment the wobbly misty soft outline of a crude sword could be seen before the form collapsed back to nothing.


    ¡°Huh, you weren''t kidding about how hard this stuff is to control.¡±


    ¡°But it is the same?¡±


    ¡°Hold on.¡±


    Opal focused once more and the mist started to form again, this time taking a curved shape, a huge razor sharp talon, a copy of one of the Queen Harpy¡¯s talons. Opal¡¯s small hand grasped the base, holding it like she would a sickle.


    ¡°There. Just needed to be a predator right?¡±


    Rain nodded silently, a turmoil of emotion running through him seeing the talon in her hands so soon after the disturbing sight of the broken Queen. She must have seen the dark Queen use her talons when she came back and decided to copy them.


    ¡°I don''t like this, it¡¯s like you¡¯ve been infected¡­¡±


    ¡°What? No, it¡¯s not that.¡±


    ¡°Then what is it?¡± said Lyra. ¡°How do suddenly have Rain¡¯s ¡®magic¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Isn''t it obvious? I¡¯ve Evolved!¡±


    Rain and Lyra stared at the goblin girl who apart from the horn looked exactly as she had been, if a little bloodier.


    ¡°Are you sure? You kinda look the same to me.¡±


    ¡°Yes! I totally just had my triggering event! It was when I came to help Rain, or when I got bashed on the head... or when those other Gobbos were shitty and betrayed me¡­... or when I nearly got splatted by a bunch of fat ass Orcs¡­.. Or maybe altogether perfectly in that order without a single thing different. Hmm. You know I think I get why evolving is so rare now.¡±


    As she spoke she struggled up from between the two very large Orcs she had found herself trapped under and suddenly popped free, stumbling to her feet.


    She lifted the talon high victoriously. She had grown a little taller, maybe three inches in height reaching a grand total of four foot eight inches, she had gone from being a short Goblin, to a... slightly less short Goblin. Her hair had grown with the increase in height too becoming longer and fuller, her eyes brighter and more colourful, hips proportionally larger, slightly broader and heavier on her frame. Her chest too was larger, now straining her chest wrap to the limit and spilling over the sides, soft flesh bulging from between the strips of cloth.


    ¡°I¡¯m now a magic Gobbo, a Hob Gobbo? A¡­ witch?¡± She paused suddenly feeling unsure of what exactly it was that she had evolved into. That was when she caught sight of Lyra and Rain. They were both staring at her like they had seen a ghost, mouths hanging open, eyes very round.


    ¡°What? Why are you staring at me like that?!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s! It¡¯s!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m what!?¡±


    Lyra¡¯s wobbling shaking hand rose and pointed.


    Opal followed the finger, the finger pointed down at her rounded belly.


    ¡°Aw lame, am I gonna be one of those fat pot bellied Gobbos?¡±


    ¡°That''s not, that''s not-!¡± warbled Lyra.


    ¡°You¡¯re- You¡¯re-¡± Rain seemed to trapped in a mental loop, unable to accept what was happening.


    ¡°Wow, calm down, you''re acting like I¡¯m pre- pre-¡± The Goblin girl suddenly froze and her head rotated mechanically to look back down at herself. ¡°Pregnant!¡± she squeaked out, her eyebrows shooting up.


    Her hands slapped down on the dome of her belly. ¡°How can this be happening?! I didn¡¯t do anything and now I''m preggers?!¡±


    ¡°Is evolving into a pregnancy a thing?¡±


    ¡°No! That''s ridiculous! I- I don''t know what¡¯s happening¡­I Don''t know what¡¯s happening!!!¡±


    Lyra began to move around, looking the Goblin girl over.


    ¡°You are a little bit larger, so maybe... maybe you were pregnant before but it just wasn¡¯t showing through, some pregnancies don¡¯t, and- and your body growing made it visible? Or Uh, grew it out? Accelerated it? Expanded it? Something like that?¡±


    Opal stared wide eyed at her. ¡°I was already¡­? Even in the dungeon¡­?¡±


    Rain hesitantly reached out a paw and placed it on her belly, palming her pregnancy his paw was so large. He remained silent just feeling the warmth and naked heat of her taut domed skin. Had she really been pregnant for some time and they just hadn''t known? It was not a good thought, how could he have not known about something as important as this? He should have- somehow- This was his fault- But then when he had first mistakenly thought Opal was pregnant back down in the dungeon he had started dismissing it as a possibility after his suggestion was forcefully rejected by the Goblin girl. The thought had slipped from his mind, too many other things to worry about, too many things to do, It just wasn¡¯t something he had found time to revisit.


    And now he was staring at the result of that inattention, a pregnant Goblin girl carrying his spawn¡­


    What in gods fucking name was going to come out of her when a monster like himself was the seed? His species had supposedly been extinct for over a thousand years, a mysterious species of monster with many worrying and alarming questions hanging over it, and now, and now¡­


    Opal was pregnant with a half-goblin-half whatever the hell he was.


    Who was to say that whatever thing came out wouldn''t hurt her in the process? He just didn''t know and his concern for her spiked even higher, his heart missing a beat as his thoughts unravelled into all the worst possibilities.


    Opal squinted up at him as he remained silent and still.


    ¡°Hey, wait a minute, if I¡¯m bigger now¡­ doesn''t that mean that you¡¯re smaller?¡±


    ¡°It- it just means you are bigger Opal.¡± Rain managed to get out.


    ¡°No it doesn''t, it means you are smaller compared to me! If I¡¯m on top of you or standing next  to you then you will feel smaller to me, and that''s what matters!¡±


    ¡°I¡­ guess?¡±


    She crossed her arms under her enlarged chest, having to adjust slightly to her new proportions.


    ¡°It¡¯s bad wolfy, real bad, it''s like you¡¯ve gone backwards, like you¡¯ve been starved and are wasting away from my point of view.¡± She shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m not having it, you need to be big and strong and huge so¡­¡± her eyes moved to the lake of dead Orcs. ¡°Eat.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t, I need to care- I need to look out- You¡¯re at risk from everything now Opal, you need protecting at every single moment.¡±


    ¡°Okay, and the best way you can do that is by getting bigger, more bigger means more safer, now gobble up all those dumb levelers. Come on, go go go.¡±


    Rain glanced at Lyra who shrugged helplessly.


    The Goblin girl took a wobbly step, getting used to her new size and center of balance, and then she circled behind Rain. She raised her hands and placed them on his rear, then leaned into him, shoving him forward with all her might.


    Rain didn''t move in the slightest, barely feeling her weight for all her effort.


    ¡°C¡¯mon already, you gotta get bigger for me to make up for me evolving!¡±


    After a moment he stepped forward. It was true that he was ravenous, wandering through an ocean of trees with next to nothing filling to eat had not been a pleasant experience.


    Opal stumbled behind him, having to catch hold of his tail to steady herself.


    Rain reached down and picked up the chopped off arm of an Orc. Hesitantly he raised it to his teeth and bit into it.


    ¡°It¡¯s not bad,¡± he muttered taking another bite.


    ¡°There see, now that wasn¡¯t so hard was it?¡±


    Rain looked out over the lake of Orcs, a lake of seven foot tall and very muscular Orcs, which made for an unbelievable amount of mass. Hundreds and hundreds of the crazed levelers had tried to kill him, and they had all failed, all died in the attempt. He supposed he should at least have a little recompense for the pain and injury they had inflicted on him... they would just be left to rot otherwise.


    He finished the arm and reached out for more.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 106

    Rain was no stranger to eating a lot. He¡¯d certainly had more than his fair share in the dungeon, in Lynthia, and in the woods coming to the Orc camp. He¡¯d devoured countless numbers of animals, monsters, and levelers, consuming them and growing bigger, stronger, more powerful.


    But the Orc clan itself was another beast entirely. Not only were Orcs levelers, what he grew the most from, but they were also physically larger than most levelers, seven-foot tall, broad, and muscular beyond belief.


    And that wasn¡¯t even mentioning their numbers, hundreds and hundreds of them.


    The arena had started out as a wide sandy circle surrounded by crude wooden plank stadium stands. Then it had been cratered, the sandy surface dipping down into the earth in a huge sloping bowl shape under the impact of a Skill empowered anvil hammer. And now that bowl had been filled, filled in with the remains of the clan, the wide bowl a lake of bodies, a testament to the hubris of the levelers, the result of their greedy covetous desire to level up by killing Rain, to kill yet another monster.


    Rain scarfed an arm down and followed it up with a leg, his motions becoming a little weary. Not that he minded, it was good to finally sate that painful burning fire of a hunger that had been grating on him at every moment since they had left Lynthia. It was just¡­ eating the same thing over and over became just a little repetitive, okay, not just a little, very very repetitive.


    Still, that wasn¡¯t going to stop him from reaching the end of this monster of a feast in one go, and for one simple reason: He hadn''t taken a break, all the growth, all the strength and power gained was built up and waiting, waiting to flood his body in one immense surge.


    The metaphorical damn holding all that growth back was straining at the seams, what felt like an entire ocean sat behind the miles high damn walls, vast quantities of backed up growth just waiting to flood his body.


    Thinking of what was to come urged him on, pushing him, anticipation making his motions faster, more rushed, excited, reaching out and hauling Orc bodies toward his maw to rip and tear, practically drinking them down, his floating shadow paws pushing more toward him even as he ate.


    He sat at the centre of the sandy pit. What had once been a lake of Orc bodies was now a fraction of that, hundreds of Orcs swallowed and eaten, the great mass draining into a single point, a black hole, Rain¡¯s maw. Everything the Orcs were, their strength, their power, all going into him, being devoured, practically inhaled, the level of the lake lowering as the ravenous monster gorged on Orc after Orc, swallowing entire limbs in a single bite, more and more and more, hunger only rising as it was awoken to just how much there was to subsume.


    The monster was a predator without limit, taking everything that was the Orcs and making it his own, dominant and growing, unstoppable, their failing making him stronger, larger, more powerful.


    He tore through a dozen Orcs in minutes, powerful jaws snapping through flesh and bone as though it were jelly, cutting and gulping down Orc after Orc, what were they but Prey? More to be eaten, his to devour and grow bigger from.


    The bottom of the pit was starting to become sparse now, the ground once carpeted with ragged bodies now only scattered with them, the blood-soaked sand beneath revealed. A pair of shadowy paws pushed the remaining bodies nearer, shoving them closer to Rain who sat at the absolute centre of the pit shovelling every Orc he could reach into his mouth as quickly as he could manage, voracious, his eyes alight with ravenous hunger.


    He couldn''t say exactly how many he¡¯d eaten, not all the bodies had been in one piece, but if he had to guess, maybe as many as five hundred of the huge bodied Orcs had gone under his teeth. It was an unbelievable amount, an entire clan of Orcs eaten, but somehow, even this wasn¡¯t enough, and his furious devourment of the mob that had tried to murder him ended with a stutter as he opened his mouth to bite down on the next limb and found there was nothing there to bite down on.


    He blinked and looked around, searching frantically for another Orc to eat.


    There were none. The great sloping pit and the hundreds of Orcs had been eaten in their entirety, only a blood soaked empty bowl left behind. Truly a terrifying thing for a random wanderer to stumble upon, imagination running wild at what it was that could have created such a bloody pit and the mysteriously empty camp surrounding it.


    His shadow paws floated patiently nearby, waiting for instruction having run out of things to do. He lifted a paw about to call them back when he felt it.


    The damn was breaking.


    That immense amount of built up growth from eating perhaps five hundred Orcs in one sitting forcing its way through, forcing its way into his body. He didn''t have a choice, with nothing left to eat he had no way to hold it back. The damn held for a fraction of a millisecond more and then then it was instantly obliterated as the miles tall ocean of growth exploded into him.


    He collapsed to the ground and writhed, legs shooting out and digging furrows in the sand as his back arched, paws grasping as a desperately pained groan slipped free, eyes rolling up.


    The sounds of bones creaking and groaning filled the air, lengthening and thickening, grinding against each other, muscles tearing and reforming in a constant deluge of motion happening uncountable times a second as their mass swelled outward, becoming denser, stronger, his flesh stretching over his swelling form, organs massing, blood multiplying, his feet inching across the sand as he grew taller, claws lengthening, becoming sharp with fresh growth, paws becoming broader as paw pads enlarged, teeth becoming heavier, jaws becoming more powerful, his entire body shuddered as fresh waves of growth rolled over him.


    Safe to say Waiting this long might have been a mistake. He felt like he was being torn apart from the inside out, like a morning stretch that had gone too far and disastrously twisted into a cramp, all he could do was hold on for dear life and ride it out.


    He grew, putting on more and more mass and height and just when he thought he was going to pass out from the strain it ended and he slumped bonelessly, lying limp, just struggling to get out basic ragged panted breaths.


    ¡°That...¡± he whisper groaned. ¡°That was... a lot.¡±


    After a few minutes of gathering his scattered senses he started to move, placing one large paw beneath and bit by bit heaving himself up onto all fours, then shakily leveraging a foot beneath and rising, up and up. It wasn¡¯t hard to recognise he had grown far more than at any other time since he¡¯d passed eight foot, which was all the more impressive as he knew he needed to eat so much more to gain the height he had in the past


    Eating hundreds of Orcs would do that he supposed. He held up his paws and rolled his digits. His paws had grown significantly in size. Big. Big enough to easily enclose heads.


    His gaze moved to the ground and tried to make a rough estimate of how much he had grown. He had been eight foot eight and a bit. He judged his new current height at somewhere around nine foot five, a staggering increase of nine inches, which due to the square cube law was an insane amount of mass.


    His presence had been large in the arena space before, now he was a purely dominating presence, a great black wolf monster with a massive flowing mane, a barbaric beast, completely unavoidable, something that grabbed and held all eyes¡­ and fears.


    The sound of the last of a drink being slurped through a straw broke the silence and he turned to find Opal perched on a chair at the edge of the pit. A parasol had been crudely tied to its side to keep out the sun and she held some kind of fruit drink in one hand.


    She finished the dregs as she looked over Rain, studying, then nodded approvingly.


    ¡°Not bad, not bad, grew a lot. Mm, more than a lot.¡±


    Rain made his way up, climbing from the pit and looming over her. She bit her lip as the chair and parasol fell under his shadow.


    He narrowed his eyes at her, suspicious. The goblin girl looked decidedly less bloody than when he had last seen her.


    ¡°Did you¡­ wash? You look... clean...¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°There was some water okay! and I slipped, and then I fell out of my clothes, and landed on some soaps and then slid across the soaps and then landed in the nasty water. It happened in moments, there wasn¡¯t a single thing I could do to stop it, it was very traumatic for a preggers Gobbo like me.¡±


    Rain raised an eyebrow, ¡°So you evolved into a Goblin who likes baths?¡±


    Opal spluttered ¡°No! No! I was mercilessly dragged into it by that ruthless cackling dictator of a sheep! She held me down and drowned me clean!¡±


    ¡°I thought you fell in? Which one is it?¡±


    Opal glared up at him, clearly annoyed that Rain wasn¡¯t being distracted with her feeble explanations.


    ¡°I¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ cleaned, okay!¡± The goblin girl shuddered as though she had just spoken something utterly disturbing on every level.


    ¡°You cleaned, on your own, by your own decision?¡±


    The goblin girl looked stricken, as though not quite believing it herself.


    ¡°I¡¯m- I¡¯m-¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re learning. A lifetime of thinking one way doesn''t change easily. You can agree now that being clean and not completely covered in filth is probably a good thing right?¡±


    ¡°I....yeah, it¡¯s kinda nice... I guess.¡±


    ¡°Great.¡± Rain crouched down beside the goblin girl, suddenly dead serious, ¡°Now tell me where you got a fucking bath so I can have one too.¡± he gravelled, eyes flashing.


    ¡°Pshh, it was fluff butts idea, she stumbled across it in the big tent,¡± said Opal tossing her finished drink on the bloody sand and climbing from her chair.


    She paused as she stood next to Rain, looking up at his new greater height and size. A little shiver ran through her body as she took it in.


    ¡°Bath Opal? I neeeed a bath.¡±


    ¡°Uhh, r-right.¡±


    She ran ahead and Rain followed, his new longer legs eating up the ground with ease.


    They left the arena and made their way through the now deserted camp. The place was almost eerie, a toppled barrel or table here and there, someone¡¯s lunch left out half finished, hunks of monster meat left skewered over fires slowly turning to charcoal. It was like the entire clan of boisterous violent Orcs had just up and vanished, disappeared into thin air.


    Which wasn¡¯t far from the truth.


    As they passed through a red scaled Kobold rushed by, piles of gold held to his chest, necklaces hanging from his neck and wrists, a crown and two tiaras balanced on his head. In moments he was gone, disappeared between the tents.


    ¡°The place is completely deserted? No one has attacked Red?¡±


    ¡°There were a few dumb levelers outside the arena at the start, but they either ran away when they realised things were going badly, like the annoying merchant Orc, or they jumped into the arena too... didn''t work out so well for the ones who did that.¡±


    It did slightly bother Rain that he had just eaten pretty much an entire clan of Orcs, that sounded insane to his past human self, hell, it sounded insane to his monster self. But it bothered him more that there was still a small hungry part of himself that liked it and wanted more... More.


    It wasn¡¯t long before they arrived at their destination, a large tent amongst the others, bigger than any other tent around by some way, nearly two storeys tall it was more of a building in of itself than just a tent.


    ¡°Fluffbutt said it¡¯s that one hunter Orc¡¯s tent, Tamriel. I guess she was pretty important huh?¡±


    Opal pulled aside the main flap and slipped inside.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 107

    Hesitantly Rain took hold of the tent flap and pushed his head through.


    The interior was large, as was to be expected, less unexpected was that it was full of furniture, like a proper room. Clearly Tamriel had liked her comforts.


    One side held an enormous bed, a huge blocky thing built sturdy for an Orc. The sheets were ruffled, unset, and a number of suspicious leather straps and whips lay scattered across it. At first he thought he was seeing the tools of a torturer, but then he spotted a dildo, a green dildo. He blinked as he recognised the style, it was the same kind that Opal had stolen from Ola in the dungeon, albeit with some additional bumps and spikes.


    He turned away from that sight to see something that made his brow rise and a wolfish grin break across his face. A huge copper tub was set out at one end, an Orc sized tub, meaning that the thing was enormous. Lyra had the dimensional bag out and was awkwardly pouring water from it into the tub, steam rising into the air as the shallow ashy fire below and around the tub heated the water.


    The original contents that had been emptied from the dimensional bag weren''t hard to spot, a pile of treasure heaped on the ground, surrounded by¡­ a lot more treasure. As he watched Red tipped open a sack he had apparently found somewhere and added to one of the many other piles of glittering gold, trinkets and baubles, gems and jewellery, crystal encrusted daggers, fat rings stacked with rubies and sapphires, heavy crowns and dusty ornamental blades that looked as though they had been looted from some ancient kingdom¡¯s barrows. All of this was being looked down upon by an irritated Vash who had been placed on a table¡­ his irritation may partly have been because of his proximity to another set of green orcish dildos piled up next to him.


    Safe to say Red looked like he was about to die from a happiness heart attack. Rain felt obliged to check the Kobold wasn¡¯t being levitated on clouds such was the way he drifted from treasure to treasure with a blissful expression.


    It occurred to him that a clan of hundreds of Orcs might have¡­. A rather staggering amount of wealth if it was all collected together in one spot, an astronomical amount even. He wondered what they were going to do about it all, there was precisely zero chance that it was all going to fit inside the dimensional bag. They were suddenly rich beyond belief, an entire clans wealth made theirs alone in one singular stroke.


    He wasn¡¯t quite sure how to even begin to address that. But for the moment he had other more pressing priorities.


    He turned back to the bath and pushed into the tent.


    Lyra glanced up and then did a full on double take as she found the enormous wolf monster pushing inside, barely fitting through the flap.


    ¡°Wh-why are you s-so much bigger!?¡± she squeaked out, nearly dropping the dimensional bag and having to scramble to catch it as a bucket¡¯s worth of water spilt free.


    ¡°Orcs. Lots and lots of Orcs.¡±


    ¡°O-oh, well, erm I didn''t expect that mu- I mean I, uh, made a bath, t-to clean in, for us, we have, er, already b-bathed.¡±


    Rain approached and found the bath to be¡­ a lot smaller than he had first thought, even built for a seven foot tall Orc it was small for his size. Well, that wasn¡¯t going to stop him, he eagerly lifted a foot and stepped inside. Displaced water immediately sloshed over the rim and extinguished the shallow fire leaving the tent dimly lit by a single brazier at one end. Then twice as much water sloshed free as he put his other foot in, then multiple times that as he lowered himself in an awkward crouch, a tsunami of hot bath water washed across the floor of the tent from end to end causing Lyra to dance about on her hooves yelping and for Red to complain loudly as water splashed up and washed around his many islands of treasure.


    Rain peered down at his now honestly rather forlorn bath. The tub was more full of him squeezing into it now than it was full of bathwater, the copper sides bulging out with his mass, water only just filling the gaps, in fact, it was mostly empty.


    He made an unhappy face.


    ¡°Hey this is your fault! You got nearly a whole foot taller, and w-way w-w-way b-bigger-¡± the sheep girl had to pause and swallow as her eyes drifted down to the tub where his lower body was, imagination running wild.


    ¡°Lyra.¡±


    She snapped back up. ¡°Ah-ahaha-¡± she laughed awkwardly, mouth dry. ¡°Well th-the answer is simple! I just, uh, splash water at you? On you?¡± she lifted the dimensional bag and waved it vaguely at him.


    ¡°It¡¯s not really the same thing,¡± he said gloomily.


    ¡°No no, it¡¯ll be fine! Opal come here, look, just use some shampoo and-¡±


    She dragged a chair over and placed it behind Rain. Hopping up on top she tipped the dimensional bag and water started to spill out of the opening. Below Opal grabbed up a bottle full of a gooey blue liquid and poured it on his back, having to get up on tiptoes to reach high. Together they splashed water and shampoo and made an enthusiastic if completely ineffective effort to wash him.


    After a moment Opal ran out of shampoo.


    ¡°I¡¯m out of the shampoo goo sheepy, this is the last we got from the ranker¡¯s mansion! look what you¡¯ve done!¡±


    ¡°What do you mean what have I done? This isn''t my fault.¡±


    ¡°Mhmm, and you weren''t upending bottle after bottle of the shampoo over your fluff. I saw everything you know.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any idea how difficult it is to clean blood out of white fluff like mine?! I needed that shampoo, I didn''t have a choice as a half woolie!¡±


    ¡°Well I hope it was worth it, cause it¡¯s all gone now,¡± scowled Opal tossing the empty bottle aside with a tinkle of broken glass.


    ¡°Ah, but that''s where you¡¯re wrong! Where do you find shampoo in an Orcish camp? Nowhere because Orcs don''t seem to be aware the stuff exists, BUT! A certain half dwarf travelling merchant trader who goes places not full of clueless Orcs?¡±


    The sheep girl skittered over to a large crate and flipped open the lid. After a moment of rustling around in the hay inside she lifted out a round glass bottle of clear fluid with a long neck and held it up triumphantly.


    ¡°That''s a bottle of water sheepy. Water isn''t going to do anything for this mess.¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not water, see,¡± she jabbed a finger at the writing on the side of the crate and gave Opal a confident smile. After a moment of Opal staring at the writing blankly she recalled that the Goblin still couldn''t actually read and snatched her finger back irritably. ¡°It says luxury cleaning potions!¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°Look just give it a try, I¡¯m sure this stuff will work just like the shampoo.¡±


    She tossed Opal the bottle who struggled with the cork for a moment before popping it off. The liquid inside fizzled and burbled.


    ¡°Alright,¡± said Lyra climbing back atop her stool. ¡°On one, tw-¡±


    Opal ignored her and tossed the contents of the bottle over Rain¡¯s back.


    ¡°Hey! You should have¡­ should have¡­


    Lyra¡¯s voice petered off as with a fwoosh! The clear liquid bubbled and fizzed and rolled outward from where it had landed, a spreading wave of liquid that turned every bit of dirt and filth and gore it touched into a white mist that drifted up to the tent¡¯s ceiling, clean glossy black fur left behind in its wake.


    Rain lifted his paw and watched round eyed as the fluid rolled up to his claw tips leaving only sparkling clean Rain behind, as though he had just been through a dozen scrubs and shampoos, immaculate perfect cleanliness, not even a speck of dust.


    ¡°What in the gods is this? Is this really shampoo?¡±


    ¡°I, uh¡­¡±


    Opal stood up from where she had been examining the back of the crate.


    ¡°There¡¯s a picture of a sword and anvil on the back of this crate sheepy, you think they shampoo swords? Is that a thing?¡±


    Rain turned and stared at Lyra. ¡°Did you just have a blacksmith¡¯s industrial cleaning potion used on me thinking it was a magical shampoo?¡±


    ¡°uhhhh...¡±


    Opal helpfully handed Rain a fresh potion plucked from the crate. He held the thing, dwarfed in his massive paw, a liquid designed to tear through the encrusted difficult to remove burned on muck of a tough steel forge, used on his body... his especially tough body¡­ meaning, it just¡­ worked? A normal person would have obviously been hurt or burned by it, but with him?


    ¡°This is the best magic ever invented.¡± he decided.


    ¡°It is?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a bath in a bottle. I can get as covered in as much muck as I want and not have to live with it. This changes everything.¡± said Rain, eyes flashing with excitement, paw raising as he gazed at the potion. ¡°I can just open one of these and pour it on and all the filthiness will just go away, no more desperately searching for a way to bathe¡­!¡±


    Opal perked up hearing that. ¡°No more water? No more baths?¡±


    Rain paused. ¡°I don''t think it would be a good idea to use this on you, it¡¯s pretty strong, you might get burned, or melted, or both... So, still baths for you.¡±


    Opal crossed her arms and set her lips in a line. ¡°I¡¯ll go with the burning and the melting thanks.¡±


    ¡°There are levelers outside,¡± came a brooding dark voice, interrupting them.


    The three of them paused and turned to see Vash still perched on the table, brooding darkness slightly spoilt by the large pile of dildos right next to him. His flame eyes were set to one side, gazing through the canvas and outside the tent.


    ¡°Three of them.¡±


    ¡°Orcs?¡±


    The skull tried to nod calmly, but then realising that as a skull it was incapable of nodding simply stated ¡°Yes, with weapons, they¡¯re approaching.¡±


    ¡°What do we do!?¡± whisper hissed Lyra eyes dancing around the tent expecting Orcs to leap at her at any moment.


    ¡°They must have seen me,¡± said Red, frantic, ¡°They saw me gathering the gold and they followed me back to take it all! Quickly! You have to protect my gold! Protect me- eeeh!¡±


    The sound of tearing canvas interrupted him suddenly and Red fell over in his panic, scrambling over a pile of treasure and huddling down flat behind it.


    The heavy scimitar protruding from the canvas was removed and an Orcish hand ripped the fabric wide. A large muscular leg slipping inside, then a body and head, where they momentarily froze up, catching sight of Rain.


    ¡°Skill up. It¡¯s here.¡± growled the Orc and an oil slick of refractive rainbow colours slipped over his skin, his motions accelerating massively, becoming dextrous and efficient, repositioning into a half crouch, ready to spring. Two more Orcs slipped in behind, their skin the same oil slick Rainbow.


    Rain eyed the Orcs as they spread out around him, weapons readied, feet crunching across kicked aside gold, an unhappy Kobold squawking to one side, they ignored the others, all eyes for him, the kill, the levels.


    Being in the awkward position of sitting in a bathtub didn''t make for a particularly good defence so he barely had time to raise his paw before the first Orc darted toward him. Darted being an understatement, the Orc was standing ready, and then he was hurtling forward, blade whipping through the air so fast the air tore. It was as though he had skipped several steps required to move laterally and just arrived at his destination without needing to physically walk the distance.


    But Rain had been expecting some Skill empowered trick and was able to just catch the Orcs forearm in his broad paw and the sword stopped stone dead in its path. One flex and the Orc screamed as his forearm was crushed to slurried mulch under the insane pressure of Rain¡¯s pads, the dropped sword clanging off the copper tub before it splashed on the puddled ground.


    Unfortunately, the other Orcs hadn''t been idle and Rain flinched as a heavy sword landed on his back, a skill empowered blow that rocked him forward, a blow that should have cut deep, that would have cut him deep. He blinked as he realised the sword hadn''t even pierced his flesh. A rather surprised Orc was left holding a sword, the tip gently resting on his back, no wound, completely unharmed, his newer tougher body having held strong.


    In one furious motion Rain twisted, the copper bathtub ripping to scattered shrapnel around him, a fresh wave of water flooding out, and grabbed the astonished Orc by the neck, the Orc tried to react, his body flaring with an aura of coloured oil light, but it was already too late, in a moment he was dead, neck crushed.


    The first Orc he held in his paw seized the opportunity of distraction and Rain jerked his head aside as a spear that had been formed of colourful oil suddenly thrust up, the tip aiming for his eye socket, a desperate deathblow. It very nearly worked, the tip only missing fractionally, sent scraping over bone. Rain snarled in outrage and his head snapped forward. In a second the uncorked body of the Orc slumped to the ground, his head disappearing down Rain¡¯s throat.


    Two, two of the three. A cry from Lyra made him whip round. The third Orc hadn''t attacked recklessly, instead she had gone for Opal, a blade held to her throat as she stood behind her, her body trembling with fury.


    ¡°I saw everything, I kn-know you c-care about this one! You can''t do anything while I have her!¡±


    She pressed the blade closer and Rain froze, hopelessly caught between wanting to lunge for the Orc and fear for Opal¡¯s life


    ¡°That¡¯s right, just stay still, don''t move, now bare your throat for me and let me slit your windpipe and I¡¯ll let this goblin live. It¡¯ll be quick-¡±


    Opal began to struggle, not liking what she heard.


    ¡°Shut the fuck up you stupid Orc, you aren¡¯t doing anything, anything!¡±


    The Orc grit her teeth and held her firm, a slim rivulet of red rolling over the blade held at her neck.


    Rain barely able to control himself eased back, trying to be as non-threatening as possible.


    ¡°Good, now-


    Opal struggled harder, the blade becoming messy with red.


    ¡°Stop moving you stupid Goblin, do you want to die?¡±


    Opal glared up at her, fierce. Then she blinked, as though something had occurred to her.


    It only took a moment, the tent was dimly lit, shadowed, the Orc blocking the light of the one small brazier behind. One moment Opal was there and the next she was gone, vanished.


    The Orc stumbled forward, hands grabbing at the place that Opal had just been. In a moment of panic her head darted side to side, desperately searching the tent for the goblin even as Rain started to move. Wide eyed and fearful she turned to check behind her. That was when Opal rose back out of the shadow cast by the Orc and slashed at her neck with the dark harpy talon.


    The Orc gurgled, the flesh around her gaping neck wound burbling, fleeing, and then she flopped down dead.


    Opal flipped the talon in her head then let it mist back into her horn, one hand resting casually on her hip.


    ¡°What? Did you think the free stabby was all I got from evolving?¡±


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


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 Chapter 108

    CRUNCH, SNAP, CRASH, RUSTLE.


    The forest was disturbed from its peaceful slumber by the sound of innumerable twigs and tree branches being snapped and ripped free, unable to hold firm against the unstoppable force brushing past them.


    Planks of wood, straight and curved, crates, chests, barrels, all adorned with canvas sacks, anything that could be used to carry things really, even a number of wooden buckets hung by ropes from the enormous construction, each overflowing with loot.


    The construction was roughly cube shaped, over ten foot a side, its walls made from the various wooden containers two or three deep, roped tight to heavy oaken beams.


    Atop this lumbering building a sheep girl was desperately trying to keep treetop leafery out of her face.


    She was not doing a very good job of it and a leafy branch rudely slapped her across the face. She made a choking gasping sound, airway blocked, and after a moment of struggle managed to spit free a saliva covered leaf.


    ¡°This was such a terrible idea! I told you it¡¯d never work!¡±


    Opal who was sitting at the front of the lumbering construction with her legs dangling over the edge looked back at her. She casually spun the shadow talon in one hand as she did so, the living matter of the tree branch about to hit her disintegrating and falling to her side.


    ¡°What do you mean told us? It was your idea sheepy! And what were we supposed to do? Just leave all these lovely pointies and stabbies behind?¡±


    ¡°We quite literally have enough weaponry here to equip an Orcish war party!! What are we even going to do with all of this?¡±


    ¡°Backups. You can never have enough backups. And choice, lots of choice is nice. This way I can experiment and try new things, find which feels best to use.¡±


    Lyra squinted at the Goblin girl, not quite sure if the deadly serious expression she was giving her was actually serious.


    ¡°I feel as though you are mocking me, no one single Goblin needs this much¡­¡±


    Opal patted her rounded pregnant belly and raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°Okay, more than one eventually. But still!¡±


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not like most of this is pointies anyway, you and Red picked up so much useless stuff that you could have easily left behind.¡±


    ¡°Well, that''s different see. I couldn''t leave with all that treasure just lying on the ground, and there was no way it would all have fit in the Dimensional Bag. I mean, who leaves a fortune just lying there? No one with any sense that''s what.¡±


    A tree groaned as the construction crashed up against it and proved to be far far stronger, heavy treasure filled chests slamming into the trunk with a crunch, implacable force driving them on, the trunk splintering and crunching under the momentum. With a sound of shrieking wood the tree was felled, crashing down to the forest floor and leaving a wide gap in the canopy.


    The construction slowed, the momentous weight of it all taking half a minute to come to a halt.


    At last it stopped, and then a muffled growl came from within.


    ¡°We will stop for now.¡±


    Lyra wobbled atop the construction as it began to lower, her hooves clattering across the tops of crates as she struggled to keep upright. When the whole construction came down to earth with a muffled boom she lost it and slipped onto her rump with an oof.


    She struggled to all fours and rubbed her rear, which was an unfortunate position to be in as a barrel lid promptly popped open nearly hitting her square in the forehead. She yelped and scrambled backwards as Red emerged from the gold filled barrel, coins and jewels sheeting of his red scales as he arose like an undead creature from a particularly shiny crypt, ring encrusted claws and bejeweled necklaces layered heavy.


    ¡°Why are we stopping? We shouldn''t be stopping! I didn''t say we should stop! There could be bandits or gold eating monsters or magpies out here!¡± He looked around furtively as though expecting them to jump from the foliage and start grabbing up treasure at the drop of a hat.


    A large paw emerged from deep within the construction and took hold of one of the oaken support beams set at the top and forcibly moved it aside, ropes and rope netting dragging around it. Once there was space a crate was pushed up and over and Rain poked his head free from the small space, then squeezed his shoulders by, then his arms which he used to lift himself up then out, kneeling on top the building sized block of treasures, the gap in the canopy from the felled tree creating space above it.


    He rolled his shoulders.


    ¡°Not as heavy as you would think, but still, it''s time to make camp before it gets too late.¡±


    Lyra squinted at him, then at the sky above. It was late in the day but not that late.


    ¡°I guess?


    Rain nodded, ¡°The more tired I get the more trees I stumble into without noticing, and-¡±


    ¡°And?¡±


    He hesitated then came closer to Lyra. Of course their sheer size difference meant his head was near as large as her torso and he positively loomed over where she sat, even crouching. He lowered his voice as Lyra looked up at him with wide eyes.


    ¡°How close are you to leveling up?¡±


    ¡°Ah- UH- wh-what?!¡±


    Rain gave her a steady look. ¡°I want to know how close you are to leveling up.¡±


    ¡°Uhm, l-lots, I haven''t really done anything to level up since the- uhm, d-dungeon, and I need to kill lots more or s-stronger monsters each t-time I level s-so...¡±


    Rain eased back a bit. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ not what I was hoping for.¡± He scratched at his jaw in thought, brow furrowed.


    ¡°It¡¯ll just take time is all, but if we come across a monster I just need to help k-kill it if you, uhm, hold it down.¡±


    ¡°There weren¡¯t any on the way here, but that roaring¡­¡±


    Lyra blinked at him. ¡°What roaring?¡±


    ¡°In the distance, couldn''t you hear it?¡±


    Lyra shook her head, perplexed.


    ¡°Must be my hearing improving... Doesn''t matter.¡± He lowered his voice further, which was difficult with how deep it was. ¡°I think there are monsters nearby...-ish¡­ that''s why I really stopped.¡±


    ¡°Why are you trying to whisper? I can literally hear everything you are saying extremely clearly,¡± said Opal with her hands on her hips.


    ¡°...I-¡±


    ¡°You want to go hunt monsters with Lyra to level her up.¡±


    Rain gave her a pained look. ¡°It¡¯s not that simple¡­¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re pregnant. I don''t want you coming with us needlessly trying to fight monsters, it¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    ¡°-unsafe and¡­ and¡­¡± Rain petered off and stared at her. ¡°Okay?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I mean, it¡¯s not like some dumb mindless forest monster is going to ever hurt you as huge as you are and I don¡¯t particularly feel like being chased around by a set of claws and teeth, I feel like I¡¯m waddling half the time, this is way heavier than it looks.¡±


    Rain wasn¡¯t sure he had been prepared for that answer. ¡°If I leave you here alone though you could be attacked.¡±


    Opal rolled her eyes and then sank into the shadow cast by the top of a chest rising above the others, her body engulfed in darkness. A moment later she popped out on the opposite side of Rain, the top of her head, then shoulders, then torso, each rising smoothly up as she left the shadow.


    ¡°Scout Gobbos are good at running away, a Scout hob? With shadowy sex magic? No one can catch me like this.¡±


    Lyra spluttered ¡°S-sex magic?!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, where else did you think it came from sheepy? Way too similar to be a coincidence.¡±


    ¡°B-but like that- w-wait, hold on a second, I d-did I- d-d-di-!¡±


    ¡°Yes, you happily bounced on his big fat dick too.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m- I¡¯m not a monster nothing will h-happen! It''s not the same!¡± said Lyra her cheeks flushing pink.


    Opal shrugged and turned to a nearby chest and flipped open the lid. Unlike the others this chest seemed to be filled with more practical supplies. Mostly. She pulled out a number of plush cushions plundered from Tamriel¡¯s tent and carefully arranged them against the crate Rain had placed on top of the loot construction. Then she pulled out a glass bottle filled with an orange liquid and poured it into a mug, finishing the fruity beverage off by adding a straw. Without preamble she flopped down on the pillows and lazily sipped.


    ¡°Whatever helps you sleep best at night sheepy, although that probably means a good hard dicking in your case.¡±


    Lyra opened her mouth in outrage but Rain lifted a paw cutting her off.


    ¡°You¡¯re sure about this?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sitting on top of what is basically a fort and can escape anywhere anytime, yeah I¡¯m fine. Red, make me something tasty?¡±


    Rain looked between the Kobold who was putting together a small cooking fire at the corner of the construction and Opal who was shading her eyes from the sunlight as she casually sipped her drink.


    ¡°It¡¯s not enough.¡±


    He lifted a paw and black mist spilled onto the wood, quickly forming into a series of sleek shapes. Opal perked up as three shadowy housecats appeared, their constellation eyes looking around with curiosity.


    Rain rolled his claws, pointed, and the cats obeyed, approaching Opal then stalking up onto the pile of pillows. As expected their touch didn''t harm her in any way now that she had evolved and she was able to reach out and pet the cats bare handed. The cats appreciatively purred and rubbed their heads against her or paddy pawed the pillows.


    ¡°Cute,¡± she murmured.


    ¡°Still not enough.¡±


    Rain grimaced and more dark poured from his mane, this time a much much larger house cat appeared, a house cat four foot at the shoulder. It blinked in the sunlight and preened, washing its shadowy fur.


    ¡°This will see off anything that comes close. Probably.¡±


    The cat turned and plodded over to the edge of the construct near Red who looked at it extremely warily, a frying pan held uncertainly in his claws, clearly wondering if he would need to defend himself. The cat sat itself down and gazed into the forest, keeping an eye out for danger.


    Opal watched bemused, a cat now sleeping on her lap, the other two lying against her legs.


    ¡°This is kinda nice¡­ comfy.¡±


    Rain looked her over, this time at least a little satisfied. He turned to go.


    ¡°This shouldn''t take long.¡±


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 109

    ? Chapter 109:


    ¡°This shouldn''t take long.¡±


    Without pause he turned and grabbed hold of a squawking Lyra, his paw wrapping around her waist. In one motion he slipped over the side of the construction and crashed down to the forest floor below, feet sinking inches into the earth, the loot construction behind rattling as the ground trembled under the impact


    He smoothly leveraged his momentum by leaning into his weight and bounded forward, racing into the trees, leaves flying up around him. It didn''t take long for his improved hearing to pick up the sounds of something out of place in the quiet forest and he adjusted his direction.


    Without carrying the many tons of the Orc clan''s wealth on his shoulders he could actually use the immense speed being long legged and overwhelmingly strong allowed and he tore through the trees so fast that a cloud of leaves and twigs was continuously exploding around his body. His pace meant it took only a half hour to near the source, screeching and roaring, the sound of animalistic monsters.


    The destination flickered through the trees and he picked out the sight of stone, grey stone, a clearing, and more importantly, caves, caves at the far side of a clearing amongst the trees.


    At the center of the clearing a half dead stag bellowed and bleated mindlessly. Its haunches dragging across the ground as a giant brown bear bit into its guts. At least, it appeared as a bear at first glance. The forest of meter long spines clustered over its back and neck, and the second set of triangular teeth behind its first set, and its long furred otter-like tail said otherwise, not to mention its pink-red slitted eyes.


    The sharp sound of bone shattering filled the clearing as the monster bit through the stag''s spine. The whip crack crunch was like a starting signal and a massive blur of black shot from the treeline and crashed into the bear like an out of control freighting wagon running down hill.


    The bear like monster was ripped away from happily eating the stag alive and sent tumbling, massive black furred arms wrapping around it as they rolled once twice, then a pair of feet dug into the earth, tearing up the ground spray of earth and grass, a ferocious snarl ripping from a pair of wolf teeth as paws found the bear like monsters arms and head, holding the monsters arms behind as the other paw gripped its head holding it in place, the long spines protruding from the bear like monster¡¯s back doing nothing, simply snapping against Rain¡¯s front, scattering to the grass as they broke and splintered, unable to pierce his skin.


    In a moment Rain had locked it in place, on its knees, head wrenched up and throat fully exposed.


    ¡°Now Lyra! Do it now!¡±


    The air flickered and then Lyra materialised out of thin air. She held a black knife in both hands, arms shaking wildly, sharp tip wavering through the air as she shook and trembled, breath coming in hiccuped gasps, eyes round and scared.


    ¡°Kill the thing Lyra, cut its throat! Do it!¡± Rain roared causing her to flinch in fright.


    Panicking now, she stumbled forward, knife aiming for the thrashing monster, its neck jerking side to side as it snarled and roared trying its utmost to escape Rain¡¯s grip.


    The blade missed, glanced off Rain''s claw, and then it sunk deep into the monster, the blade slipping into its throat with ease, the strange blade almost eagerly seeking to end the monster¡¯s life.


    The monster froze and blood burbled from around the wound.


    Rain waited, checking it had truly died, and then, assured it had, he released it. The monster slumped to the ground limp, its body eerily still in death.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡±


    Lyra stared at her trembling hands and then let out a long steadying breath.


    ¡°Yes, I just, it¡¯s¡­ really really intense¡­ and I have not had a very good time f-fighting lately, I feel¡­ I felt unsafe. I couldn''t do anything, just panicking all the time, and then to just kill such a scary strong monster so- so-¡­ I didn''t know if I could...¡±


    ¡°I understand, being a Class that isn''t about fighting is difficult, not being strong on your own is difficult, I knew that too well as a low leveler, and then surrounded by the strong¡­ The council, the Ranker, the Orcs.¡±


    ¡°I... can be called a low leveler too. With a Class like mine even being level fifteen isn''t much help. In others eyes I may as well be really really low level since I¡¯m not a fighter. I¡¯m¡­ not happy about that, In Florens I was looked down on, nobody wants or likes a weak Class because it makes life so much harder.¡±


    Rain nodded. ¡°Your Class is good, they¡¯re obsession with power blinds them to that. What you could become once leveled...¡± He turned and stared at the crowd of bear like monsters that were gathering at the entrance to the caves, two dozen, more. ¡°But this won''t be easy, you¡¯re going to need to dart in fast then escape unnoticed. You think you can do it?¡±


    Lyra swallowed then steadied her shaky legs. She lifted a hand and the black knife materialised in it, her fingers wrapping tight around the hilt.


    ¡°Yes. Just, take care.¡±


    Rain didn''t reply but suddenly lunged forward, the nearest bear like monster which had been creeping closer taken by surprise. In moments it was spun around and held down, Rain''s weight pinning it, a paw under its chin holding its throat up and exposed.


    The monsters behind roared in outrage and lunged for his back, a wave of heavy muscle and brutal claws crashing down, the brutal thump thump thump of flesh against flesh, claws raking, tearing.


    Rain remained implacable, not even bothering to turn his head as the sharp claws tried to rend him to pieces and utterly failed to even mark his flesh. The monsters weren¡¯t even strong enough to shift him as he held the bear monster he had taken in place.


    A flash of fluff and a knife slice followed by the fluff vanishing once more and then the bear was dead, slumping in Rain¡¯s paws.


    He turned and took hold of the next one.


    --


    The last bear like monster died and an exhausted Lyra flopped to the grass.


    She watched as Rain picked up the monster and tossed it, adding to the hill of the things. It had turned out that the first two dozen was not the total of all the monsters, the caves they had come from were apparently some kind of large warren and by the end Rain had held down nearly fifty of the things for Lyra to kill.


    She had leveled twice.


    Which, looking over the sheer number of the powerful monsters piled up high, was maybe a little disappointing. She wasn''t sure how she would have managed to do such a thing without help, having to kill a staggering amount of weaker monsters she supposed, it was no wonder non-combat Classes tended to languish at the lower levels.


    She eyed Rain. He was¡­ very strong now, easily equivalent to some high leveler or other. Yet, a high leveler would never ever help a low leveler like herself to level, in some ways it was a very unique leveling opportunity.


    Now that the excitement was over, and she had a chance to breathe, she brought to mind the visualisation of her Classes information, the way that things she needed to know about her Class were displayed to her.


    An obnoxiously bright pink floral notebook decorated with flowers and hearts appeared in her mind¡¯s eye. The book flipped open and revealed a fresh page. After a moment pink inked writing started to appear, which was a little hard to see as the pink ink was on pink paper. The invisible pen wrote out her name, her species, her new level, her Skills, including her strongest Skill, her invisibility, written as [Unseen Safety] here as well as her climbing Skill.


    The invisible pen came to a halt having written out no new Skills, in fact she hadn''t gained anything new at all, apart from her level number 15 ticking up to 17.


    Her shoulders slumped in a rush of disappointment, all that killing of the crazy bear like monsters for nothing? She had been hoping for another ¡®Key¡¯ powerful Skill like [Unseen Safety]. That had been one of her earlier Skills gained and she was due another strong Skill after this long and this many levels, she was sure. But then, these things sometimes happened, a level without a Skill was common enough, only the added benefit of becoming a bit physically stronger that naturally came along with leveling.


    She let out a sigh of dissatisfaction and started to close the pink notebook in her mind''s eye.


    It was then that more ink started to appear.


    Writing at the bottom of her Skill list.


    In Black Ink.


    She froze up in shock as words formed on the paper, two words, words of a Skill. The pen finished and she read them, uncomprehending.


    [Fleece Harbour]


    A new Skill, a Skill different from her others which were all written in pink ink, a Skill that almost felt foreboding to look at. Not quite sure what she was doing she focused on the Skill and the page flipped, fresh text, details of the Skill revealed.


    [A place of safety in the dark for those in need, carried always.]


    ¡°Wh-what?¡± she warbled in confusion.


    Rain lifted his head from where he had been lost deep in thought, going over his own level gains, which he had of course not mentioned anything about to Lyra.


    ¡°You got something? A new Skill?¡±


    ¡°I- don''t know, it looks different from my other Skills, it looks¡­ uhm, out of place.¡±


    ¡°Try it, show me.¡±


    Lyra bit her lip, readying herself for something that-, well, she wasn''t sure what, her Skills usually weren''t so cryptic.


    She drew in a breath, counted to six, exhaled, counted to six. Then she used the Skill. [Fleece Harbour]


    And¡­ nothing happened. She blinked at Rain then looked around. Nothing.


    ¡°I don''t get it, what''s supposed to happen?¡±


    She looked back at Rain to see him staring at her legs. She looked down just in time to see her wool go from a bright snowy white to a dark black.


    ¡°Wh-what?! My wool! What''s it doing to my wool!¡± she twisted and checked over her body. Everything was black now, the same black as Rain¡¯s fur, her legs, her arms, her hair. She pulled the top of her shorts out with her thumb, even the square tuft of fluff above her mons was black!


    ¡°H-hey is this forever?! This isn''t forever is it?! And wh-why does it look like yours!¡±


    She grabbed for her thighs in a panic and her hands sunk into the black, not touching her flesh on the other side but disappearing into it, as though she had plunged her hands into some kind of portal or dark pool.


    With a cry she snatched them back and stared at her traitorous fluff in alarm. Could her fluff be trusted?


    ¡°It¡¯s your Skill, what did your Class tell you of it?¡±


    ¡°It said it created a place of safety, but I don''t see how, I don''t get it! How is this safe?!¡±


    Rain knee walked over to her and lifted a paw, extending a claw he experimentally prodded at her thigh. His digit sunk into her fluff, disappearing from sight.


    ¡°Interesting.¡±


    He pushed further into her, up to the knuckle, then further, the wool seeming to stretch outward, spilling around his digits, like it was trying to consume them. His entire paw disappeared into her thigh and Lyra looked down in horror, her cheeks going pink at the baffling sight and Rain¡¯s nearness.


    ¡°I can feel an empty space inside. Empty air.¡±


    ¡°H-hey don''t say it like that! I don''t have empty air inside me!¡±


    Rain withdrew his paw and looked it over, checking he was fine.


    ¡°This seems like it would fit your Class right? Rescuer. I remember you said yourself that you often had to drag half dead bleeding levelers out of dungeons, a place to put them makes a lot of sense.¡±


    ¡°But why does it look like your fur!? Oh gods this isn''t because we- because we- I¡¯m not like Opal nooo!¡±


    Rain shrugged.


    ¡°Want me to look inside of you?¡±


    ¡°L-look inside m-meeee?!¡± She yelped, very unsure of how this was all going, Rain inside her? Well, that didn''t sound so- She shook her head and swallowed, throat dry. ¡°I- I- s-suppose?¡±


    Rain nodded then took hold of her hooves, forcefully arranging her legs so she was cross legged, the area the black wool covered maximised. Then Rain began to lower his monstrously large head and Lyra quickly had second thoughts.


    ¡°W-wait! Wait!¡±


    But Rain didn''t stop and his snout came down in her lap, inches away from her crotch. His nose touched the black wool and then dipped into it, passing through like she wasn''t there.


    She shuddered at the sensation and blushed furiously, hand grabbing hold of the pair of large wolf ears in front of her and holding on for dear life as his muzzle descended, the head so large that it covered her front, breasts pressing against the top of his head as he descended into her.


    ¡°Oh- oh g-god wh-why does this f-feel s-so! Hnnnnn!¡± her eyelids fluttered as the feeling of being entered into rushed over her.


    The black wool didn''t seem to mind that Rain should have been too large to fit and it bloomed around him, fluff spilling around his head as he lowered himself into Lyra¡¯s lap.


    He closed his eyes as his head fully passed inside, the incredibly soft wool brushing over his head and then ears.


    Then he opened his eyes. He was in a different place, or at least his head was. He was in an open space, the air fresh and breathable, a room, a room made of dark black stone, octagonal in shape, eight tall walls arching to a center point at the ceiling, windowless, a soft directionless glow lighting the space. Each of the walls apart from the one he was partially emerged from had a stone bench, or rather bed, and by the beds were stone basins which were filled with water. It wasn''t hard to understand the intent, this was a place for the injured to rest and wash their wounds, shelter, a sanctuary from the outside world, almost temple like in its stillness.


    The only other thing in the space was the larger than life white marble statue that stood on a plinth in the centre of the room. A statue of Lyra facing the entrance, a wide grin on her face, jauntily winking, one hand on her hip, the other giving a thumbs up. She was also completely stark naked and the statue was incredibly detailed showing absolutely everything, a viewer looking up had a clear sight of her, well...


    Rain decided it might be best Lyra did not know that she had a large naked statue of herself inside of herself, she¡¯d never let anyone in here if she did, and this was decidedly the most perfect pregnant Opal protection he could have hoped for. His intent had been to level Lyra up to help, this was that and then some.


    Pleased, he withdrew his head, pulling back into the dark wall and out, out of her legs and back into fresh air.


    ¡°Huaah! NUAAA! HNYYAAA!¡±


    He was greeted by Lyra holding onto his head for dear life as she shuddered and shook, hips shifting and bucking.


    After a moment she slumped back on the grass, chest rising and falling as she desperately took in air, her black wool rapidly returning to its original summer cloud white.


    ¡°That- that was amazing...¡± she breathed.


    ¡°What was amazing?¡±


    Lyra¡¯s breath hitched and she hurriedly sat up, in the same motion wiping away the sweat on her skin as quickly as she could before she stilled herself, pretending calm. Of course, her blushing cheeks betrayed her.


    ¡°N-nothing! Nothing at all!¡±


    Rain narrowed his eyes at the suspicious sheep girl.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 110

    ? Chapter 110:


    ¡°She who lays with monsters should look to it that she herself does not become one, for if you fornicate with the dark, the dark also fornicates with you,¡± murmured Lyra looking over her black wool in wonder.


    ¡°Hmm? What was that?¡±


    ¡°N-nothing!¡±


    Lyra avoided Rain¡¯s gaze. Fortunately they were walking back through the forest beside each other and that wasn''t hard to do.


    She brought her arm up to her eyes. Black wool. A Skill which she strongly suspected was a powerful key Skill just like her invisibility. Her wool was acting as a portal to some kind of space, a space that, according to Rain, held stone benches and basins of water and nothing else whatsoever. Obviously a place of safety for those in need.


    She stared at the wool. She would just take a quick look, surely that would be fine right? Just bring her arm close to her face, sink inside, sink into that darkness¡­ But what if she couldn''t get back out? She¡¯d been for lack of a better word, infected, by Rain¡¯s- whatever Rain¡¯s monsterness was, and that could mean anything! She found the things he summoned unsettling enough, and now that was somehow part of her. It was enough to make her shiver.


    She brought her arm away. She would trust Rain¡¯s word for now, it was just an empty space, not very exciting anyway, yeah.


    Well, that wasn''t quite correct, it was all very exciting, she could admit that. What leveler wouldn''t be excited by having a new powerful Skill? That was enough to fill her with delight, it was just with the small sidenote that it seemed to have been produced by having sex with Rain.


    She bit her lip. Would¡­ Would having sex again produce another powerful Skill when she next leveled? The thought gave her pause. A weak leveler with a ¡®bad¡¯ Class like herself couldn''t have even dreamed of something like this.¡­ If she had a lot of sex maybe she could even get a lot of powerful wolf Skills. Her ear tips went a little pink. No, no, she couldn''t just- she couldn''t just sex her way into powerful skills, even if that did sound really really really appealing.


    Her eyes unconsciously moved to Rain¡¯s massive body, his legs, up, certain areas that made her breath come faster that she struggled to pull her gaze from, then up to his chest, and then above where she found Rain staring at her.


    She froze.


    ¡°Is anything wrong?¡±


    ¡°UH- UHM- NO! EVERYTHING IS FINE! COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY FINE!¡±


    Rain looked at her blankly. He had his paw held up in front of himself where a house cat was sitting comfortably. Apparently he had been experimenting as they walked. She wasn¡¯t the only one pondering their abilities it seemed.


    Desperate to change the subject she thrust out a hand and pointed at it.


    ¡°Y-your weird monster magic, you¡¯ve gotten b-better with it?¡±


    The house cat tilted its head at her adorably.


    ¡°No, I¡¯ve been avoiding using certain parts of it because I don''t know what I¡¯m doing. You must have seen it at some point, the Harpy Queen.¡±


    Lyra blanched. She had seen it, a cackling ragged shadow flickering between a crowd of panicking Orcs unable to escape or flee from her, a whirlwind of razor talons, a wind of death. That Opal had picked her talon to use a weapon said something of how terrifying the out of control Harpy Queen had been.


    ¡°I did, she was, uhm, terrifying¡­ I don''t know why you thought it a good idea to copy her, she was intense even when I was imprisoned in the cell next to her¡¯s in the half Goblin tribe.¡±


    ¡°...Was she a copy?¡±


    ¡°What are you saying? She was like the other-¡±


    ¡°She remembered me Lyra, she knew who I and Opal were.¡±


    Lyra stared at him.


    ¡°But that can''t be, what does that even mean?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know. Something unthinkable maybe, or just disturbingly perfect copies, or something else entirely, I just don''t know. I think I need to know more, I can''t keep fumbling in the dark like this, that Harpy Queen would have killed Opal in a heartbeat and I¡¯m not certain I could have stopped her. But I feel it¡¯s worse than that, Opal is pregnant with something that if it''s anything like me is beyond dangerous, something that could put her life at risk, for all I know it could kill her. I don''t like that thought, it bothers me a lot, other monsters aren''t like me¡­ I¡¯m worse¡­ what if it hurts her?¡­ what if it kills her?¡±


    Lyra tapped her chin in thought.


    ¡°Well your species would probably be a good place to start.¡±


    ¡°I don''t know my species and as best I understand they last lived over a thousand years ago, maybe a lot more than a thousand years ago, not even Vash knows what I am and he is centuries old.¡±


    ¡°Then it¡¯s simple, we just need to find a record of that. Knowing what you are is the first step in finding out what is going on with your magic and what Opal is, uh, going to pop out.¡±


    Rain wrinkled the top of his nose and furrowed his brow. ¡°Where?¡±


    ¡°Isn''t it obvious? In Florens! Florens has some really old and really big libraries. If your species wasn''t completely isolated from the world then chances are at least one leveler would have written something down. If it¡¯s true that the ruined city we we found in the dungeon was made by your species like you think then there will be for sure a record of it, there¡¯s no way that wasn¡¯t recorded, heck, it was probably levelers who destroyed it and no leveler worth their salt wouldn''t boast about that!¡±


    ¡°That¡­ is true. Just knowing something would help a lot, well, as long as it isn''t something bad.¡±


    ¡°Mhmm! Knowledge is how you do something about it, uh, carefully, and without accidentally making anymore insane Harpy Queens.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d rather avoid a repeat of that, I couldn''t control her, I-


    Rain paused and turned his head, drawing in air through his nose.


    ¡°Do you smell that?¡±


    ¡°No? Smell what?¡±


    Rain didn''t reply but fell forward and powered into a bounding run that sent him shooting through the forest, leaves exploding around him.


    Lyra was left mid step frozen in surprise, but then realising she was being left behind she hurried after him, following the trail of destruction.


    It didn''t take long to find what had caught his attention. A burning smell.  Lyra dashed form around a tree to find smoke wending its way through the branches and up ahead the loot cube, which was currently on fire. A squawking Red was frantically running around with a leaf covered branch trying to beat the fire out. His branch caught fire after a moment and he waved it in the air in a panic, then realising he had no way to extinguish the fire he fell to his knees in despair.


    Rain stepped up behind him and lifted a paw, hundreds of teeth and claws tumbling through a dark mist poured from his paw and washed over the fire, quickly covering it, smothering it. The teeth and claws misted as they touched the fire but altogether it was enough and the part of the loot cube that was on fire was smothered, the crackling flames dying off, leaving behind a haze of grey smoke.


    ¡°Oh thank the gods!¡± groaned Red, ¡°My gold was almost charcoaled!¡±


    ¡°Opal?¡±


    The goblin girl appeared at the top of the cube. ¡°Red sucks at cooking. He said everything was fine so I nap for a bit, then I wake up to half our stuff on fire.¡±


    Red glared up at her, tears in the corners of his eyes. ¡°It was fine until that black cat thing tried to rub its head against me! I fell and fire went everywhere!¡±


    Opal scratched her cheek and shrugged. ¡°Should have been more careful.¡± She glanced down at the damaged crates and chests, gold spilling across the ground as well as innumerable other things they had taken from the Orc¡¯s camp. ¡°You know I did say we could take one of those cart things. Oh well, guess we¡¯ll just have to leave all the gold behind.¡±


    ¡°We tried a cart remember? Several of them. They all collapsed under the weight of so much gold,¡± said Lyra.


    ¡°Yeah, because you insisted on taking all of it and more!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine we have something better now. Something that can''t be burnt or stolen.¡± Rain took hold of one Lyra¡¯s hands, carefully, and then with his other paw scooped up a number of coins which he then dropped into her arm, the coins instantly vanishing into her black wool.


    ¡°My gold!¡±


    ¡°It hasn''t gone anywhere, her wool is acting like a portal, there¡¯s a spa-


    Red dived for Lyra¡¯s legs and the sheep girl yelped in surprise as the Kobold thrust himself head first into her thigh, then claws scrabbling at the grass shoved himself all the way inside leaving Lyra stumbling back in surprise.


    Opal stared at her leg. ¡°Did your wool just eat Red sheepy? And wait, why is it black, why is it black like Rain?!¡±


    ¡°N-no reason!¡±


    ¡°She leveled and has a new Skill, like the dimensional bag, but different.¡±


    Red suddenly poked his head from Lyra¡¯s thigh, the sight of a Kobold head sticking out of her leg looking more than a little absurd.


    ¡°There¡¯s space in here, like a room, and there¡¯s this big sta-


    Rain gave the Kobold a death glare and he flinched back in fright.


    ¡°-There¡¯s nothing else, just a perfectly good and useful s-space we c-can use!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a place that you can hide in Opal, if necessary.¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°I don''t need to hide, not now that I¡¯m like you.¡± She suddenly vanished from sight up atop the cube and popped up behind Rain in his shadow. ¡°It¡¯s others that need to hide from me. I¡¯m basically a badass assassin now.¡± She vaguely waved the harpy talon in the air as if to demonstrate that she had it and could use it.


    Rain did not feel particularly happy with that answer but deciding to leave it for now he turned to the cube and took hold of a crate, tugging it free and setting it aside.


    ¡°I did intend to bury all off this outside Florens,-¡±


    Red looked as though he¡¯d just suggested burying Kobold children alive and pulled himself free from the wool.


    ¡°-but if Lyra can use her new Skill to keep it safe that will work too.¡±


    He gestured at her and after a moment of hesitation she put her arms together and held them up. Rain tilted the crate forward and coins and various treasures mixed with much less valuable things began to spill from the rim.


    They all stared at the strange sight of gold coins slipping into her black wool and vanishing from sight, at least the ones that hit, many spilt around and fell to the grass below.


    After a moment Red seemed to come to his senses and realised that precious things were being carelessly discarded. He leapt forward and grabbed up the coins tossing them into Lyra¡¯s legs.


    ¡°This uh, feels kinda weird,¡± said Lyra looking uncomfortable.


    ¡°It should only need to be done once, if you can put up with it.¡±


    They continued putting treasure into Lyra¡¯s wool, the sheep girl sitting down on the ground and putting her legs together so that Rain could pour in chest after chest, crate after crate of loot from the Orcish camp, a waterfall of treasure and supplies pouring into her fluff.


    It took a surprising amount of time for the crude construction to be pulled down, taken apart, and put into Lyra¡¯s wool but eventually it was done, the sheep girl left surrounded by empty crates and chests, her cheeks a little pink.


    Red suddenly popped out from her legs and looked around, clearly wondering why there was no more gold coming.


    ¡°Oh, is that all of it? Hmm, thought there was more¡­¡±


    ¡°I haven''t looked but I can''t imagine there¡¯s anything but a lake of gold in there.¡±


    ¡°There is, but I can barely dive into it without hitting stone, how am I supposed to swim in this?!¡±


    Rain gave the Kobold a flat look.


    ¡°Okay, you¡¯ve made me curious, I want to see what this looks like now,¡± said Opal dropping down from the crate she had been perched on. She skipped over to a worried looking Lyra and then without preamble thrust her head into her legs.


    After a few moments with her head in the sheep girl¡¯s black wool she pulled back out, a laugh already on her lips, which she tried to smother as she found Lyra looking at her in question.


    ¡°What? What is it?¡±


    ¡°Uh, Red¡¯s enjoying his gold in there, it was cute, yeah¡­that.¡±


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 111

    Lyra squinted at the magical map, studying the small mark that represented the town of Silvara, a few scratchy lines of ink describing a wall with triangular roofs behind.


    She moved the map to one side and looked down on the actual town of Silvara, honestly not that different from the inked scratchings, a small town smaller than Lynthia, surrounded by enchanted walls.


    After all of the Orcish loot had been put into her Fleece Harbour Skill, her wool space, they had camped for the night amongst the wreckage of the crates and chests and barrels, then, in the morning they had set out intent for Florens.


    This time Rain was not burdened with carrying so many tons and had been free to choose a pace. He had chosen a very fast pace, picking up Lyra and Opal and then sprinting full tilt through the forest at a frightening speed, crashing through trees that got in his way, or leaping from rock to rock when they came upon stone filled meadows and clearings, a black shadow that blew threw the peaceful forest leaving birds shrieking in alarm and small animals fleeing for their lives... for all of a second before he was once more gone leaving the wildlife wondering what it was that had just passed.


    They had made such ridiculously good time that what Lyra had assumed would take days to journey to they had arrived at by midday. Being far far faster than a sprinting horse¡¯s top speed, and able to keep it up for hours and hours somewhat broke her sense of distance. He had been fast before, but after the Orc tribe Rain seemed to have boundless energy to spend.


    Silvara. One of the feeder towns around Florens, that is, a town without its own dungeon, instead relying on access to the especially enormous dungeon under Florens for leveling.


    ¡°You want us to go in there?¡± gravelled Rain, peering down at the small town.


    Lyra Hesitated then nodded. ¡°I think so, yes. It¡¯s not that we need to it¡¯s just, well, practice.¡±


    ¡°Practice?¡±


    ¡°Floren¡¯s walls are a lot more secure than this, with many more guards who are far higher leveled. If something went wrong I don''t know if we could make it out alive, probably not if there are any guard captains around.¡±


    ¡°Ah, you want to do a trial run to see what might go wrong. If something does go wrong here they won''t be able to stop us from leaving, better that happen here than in Florens.¡±


    ¡°Yes, this way is much safer, I thought you might appreciate that with, you know¡­¡± she glanced meaningfully at Opal who was lazing on a boulder sunning herself.


    ¡°Fine, but how are we supposed to do this?¡±


    ¡°Well obviously the fake persona of Fitz we got away with in Lynthia won''t work, and you¡¯d have to be a noble or have real connections to be allowed to take a monster as threatening as you into the city, I can''t bribe my way into- well, maybe actually with the frankly obscene amount of treasure we have, but there¡¯s no way I¡¯d find a private place to do that and more importantly the guards would likely just say no, this isn''t like out in the backwards sticks, guards actually guard here, uh, no offence.¡±


    ¡°Then magic it is. Invisibility.¡±


    Lyra shook her head. They will have elves with truth lenses all over the place on the walls, we¡¯ll be seen instantly. I do know there are some branches of the dungeon below Florens that extend well outside the city walls, my plan was to go in on my own, find information on where they are, then have you dig for a few weeks until we found them, then travel through the dungeon and come up into the city from there.¡±


    ¡°That sounds¡­ bad, it would be far easier to just use your new Skill.¡±


    ¡°Exactly! You go into my wool space and then I just walk through the gates! Probably. I believe it works differently than a dimensional bag and shouldn''t be noticed when it¡¯s turned off, but I uh, don''t know for sure¡­¡±


    ¡°And testing it here instead of at the extremely dangerous and protected city gates is the smart thing to do.¡±


    ¡°Yup!


    ¡°Alright, lie down so I can go inside of you.¡±


    Lyra¡¯s smile froze on her face. ¡°Uh- y-you -want to do wh-what now?¡± she squeaked out.


    Rain tilted his head. ¡°I need to go into the wool space, it''s easier if you are lying down.¡±


    ¡°Oh! Ahem, I mean, yes! Very well!¡±


    The sheep girl looked around and finding a nice flat boulder she stepped onto it and then awkwardly sat down. Rain approached and took hold of her legs, crossing them, making a larger space. He paused as he was about to dip into her lap.


    ¡°If anything happens Lyra, let me out.¡±


    Lyra nodded then watched, pink-cheeked, as his nose pushed into her lap. In moments his head was inside and he was struggling with his shoulders. The black wool spilled from her legs, boiling outward to take him, and soon he was shoving his shoulders inside. Lyra gasped, their apparent ¡®link¡¯ being stimulated in the most embarrassing way. She grabbed hold of his back as he slipped inside, fingers clutching, breath coming in desperate gasps.


    ¡°F-fuuuurrrccckk!¡± she groaned as Rain¡¯s rear passed into her, then his legs and tail, and then he was gone.  She slumped back, breathing hard as her wool sprung back to normal.


    Opal appeared above her, an eyebrow raised.


    ¡°Well, are we going in or what?


    ¡°What? Oh, yes!¡± she sat up quickly tidying her dishevelled hair and got to her feet. ¡°I think since you, uh, need to be safer since you are pregnant now you should get in my wool space with Rain or the dimensional bag with Red.¡±


    ¡°Nah, I¡¯ll just be a fake slave again, it¡¯s way too stuffy in there and Red won''t shut up about gold.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s dangerous, you should-


    ¡°Make me sheepy.¡±


    Lyra sighed, but she supposed a goblin was hardly going to draw attention, especially in a town next to Florens which contained a vast number of Goblins, so many that they were just part of the background, unremarkable.


    ¡°Alright fine, but stay close to me. And don''t draw any attention, no jumping into shadows or waving around swords or harpy talons.¡±


    Lyra glanced over her wool, realised it was still black, and let the Skill drop. Her wool returned to its usual snow white and she let out a breath of relief.


    ¡°Why are you turning it off?¡±


    ¡°Because it drains me far more than my invisibility, I can¡¯t keep it active unless I want to pass out while walking through town.¡±


    They set off down the slope and soon arrived at the entrance. Unlike Lynthia the gatehouse was fully guarded and hadn''t been understaffed by an expedition to a dungeon. That meant two elves, each of them with violet lensed spectacles waiting by the gate, along with a number of other guards, each of them heavily armed and wary. The two elves weren''t facing in their direction, but as they neared they both turned without warning and looked directly at Lyra, their senses obviously superior to the other guards, both magically and non-magically.


    Clearly they recognised something was amiss as they both immediately lifted the violet spectacles hanging from chains on their chests to their faces and peered at her through them, smooth professionalism in every motion.


    ¡°Ah, h-hi? I¡¯m just coming through if that''s okay?¡±


    The two elves didn''t reply, only looking over her body, becoming particularly fixated on the dimensional bag at her hip. A good thing Lyra supposed, better that than they think that she had an unthinkable Skill like Fleece Harbour.


    ¡°What¡¯s in the bag?¡±


    ¡°Nothing special, can I go in?¡±


    One of the elves took a step forward, adjusting his spectacles and leaning down close, peering hard at the bag, his eyes narrowing. He suddenly seemed to understand what it was he was looking at and grabbed hold of the opening spreading it to look inside. He then jerked the bag as though to sift its contents, dragging Lyra along with it, a Kobold squawk of alarm following her own.


    ¡°H-hey! Do you mind?! That¡¯s my stuff!¡±


    ¡°I know,¡± said the elf, straightening. ¡°Just be grateful I¡¯m not taking you in for a talk. All that gold, and a Kobold slave, is quite curious. You have the look of the city about you alright so I suppose you think that¡¯s normal to just carry around.¡± He shook his head as though exasperated by frequently annoying city dwellers.


    She was suddenly very grateful that she had put Vash into her wool space and only left enough money in the dimensional bag for emergency bribing.


    She passed through the ivy clad gatehouse, guards eyeing her suspiciously, and entered into the town proper, cobbled streets and old crumbling buildings dotted with spring green moss. The town wasn¡¯t terribly busy but there were still a number of people around. Still, she barely drew a glance, Opal even less so, and they were free to wander through the town¡¯s winding streets until they found the market, the air filled with braying and mooing, the clatter of cooking, and the raucous voices of boasting arguing merchants.


    ¡°This seems fine,¡± said Opal curling a finger through her hair and eyeing the people passing by, ¡°Levelers really don''t think they are under threat at all when they are inside their precious walls huh?¡±


    ¡°...No, not from monsters at least. The nearest leveler is way more of a threat normally¡­ unless the walls fall, or a dungeon breaches, and that¡¯s¡­¡± her voice faded away as she found someone blocking her way, a large rabbit person wearing intricate puffy clothing patterned with chevrons, his black furred ears pierced with multiple gold rings stood tall above his head and a pair of violet spectacles hung from a gold chain from his neck.


    Lyra blinked up at him, then tried to step around.


    The rabbit person stepped to the side blocking her way.


    ¡°C-can I help you?¡±


    ¡°Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on your name.¡±


    ¡°What do you want to know my name for?¡±


    The rabbit gave her a long studied look then turned his head and nodded across the street. Lyra followed his gesture and found a large notice board, a notice board covered in sheets of brown paper. Standing proud in the centre of the board was a crude sketch of a half woolie half elf in coloured chalks, the wool done in white, below it the words ¡®Lyra Bellerhorn, Wanted, Dead: 50,000G¡¯.


    Lyra turned back to the rabbit person, ¡°So, uh, m-my name is not that- uh-¡±


    ¡°So what is it?¡±


    Lyra stared at him, frozen, like a fox caught in the lamp light.


    ¡°It¡¯s-


    ¡°Well?¡±


    Lyra¡¯s mouth opened, closed, then she turned around and quickly ran away.


    The rabbit person didn''t seem to register what had happened for a moment, but then they cried out ¡°Hey!¡± and chased after her, an amused Opal following in their wake.


    Lyra fled down the street, hooves clattering on cobble, eyes darting madly, there! She spotted an alley and dashed into it.


    She needed an escape, anything, but the alley was empty and worse a dead end, invisibility wouldn''t work, the rabbit person intent on her bounty would see straight through it with those spectacles. She was trapped, doomed, but then maybe she didn''t need an escape, just a disguise, and, conveniently, she had one, her Skill made her wool and hair black, very different from how she was depicted, yes, this was perfect, and she had time, the rabbit person was slow catching up.


    She focused and willed her Skill to trigger. In moments her wool was slipping from white to black and then-


    Rain exploded out of her leg, ripping himself free from the wool in a moment, scrabbling at the ground, a terrible wheezing rasping escaping his throat, desperately trying to draw in air, his eyes bloodshot, paw clutching desperately at his throat.


    Behind him Lyra thrashed on the ground, hips thrusting into the air as a wet patch appeared on the cloth, eyelids fluttering, practically frothing at the mouth as she trembled and shook.


    Rain, completely oblivious to this, still desperately trying to breathe, staggered blindly to his feet, stumbling from foot to foot, then, promptly passed out, his eyes rolling up into his head as his entire nine foot five height toppled like a fallen tree¡­. Straight into the alley wall, which gave way like wet paper.


    The family of four elves sitting at the table inside were nearly crushed as Rain came through the wall, smashing down in the middle of their dining room, his head going through the table, cutlery and dishes scattering around the rubble and fur, the four of them leaping back from their chairs, shouting and screaming in alarm.


    Outside the rabbit person dashed into the alley and came to a hesitant halt, gaze moving from the still squirming and moaning black wooled sheep girl, to the enormous hole in the alley wall, a mound of black fur lying still beneath a scatter of rubble.


    ¡°Huh.¡±


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 112

    ? Chapter 112:


    The black furred rabbit person paced past the hole in the wall where the still form of Rain lay, his body unmoving. The rabbit was clearly wary, one paw resting on the pommel of a shortsword buckled to his belt, digits tense.


    ¡°Curious,¡± he murmured, ¡°A slave monster? But then how was it allowed in. Ah,¡± his gaze moved to Lyra, ¡°Nobility? That would explain that absurd bounty¡­¡±


    Lyra didn''t respond to his words, her eyes still rolled up, eyelids fluttering, a puddle of herself formed around her soaked through shorts.


    The rabbit person squinted at her, his eyes moving down her now black wooled body to her still squirming hips, thighs desperately rubbing together.


    ¡°... but what exactly happened here?¡±


    ¡°Seems like sheepy came her brains out when she let wolfy out too quickly. There''s definitely something suspicious about that, and the colour of her fluff now. Hmm.¡±


    The rabbit person turned to find a pregnant Goblin girl standing beside him also looking over Lyra and stroking her chin. Oddly there was a black singular horn on one side of her head, small and nubbed.


    He furrowed his brow. A Goblin speaking up willingly? Without a care? One apparently evolved in some way judging by that horn? Strange. Very strange. It was unnatural enough that it almost made him uncomfortable, like a piece of furniture had suddenly grown a mouth and started making pointed observations about the room it was in.


    After a moment he managed to bring himself to reply, unused to conversing with the green skinned monsters. ¡°You also belong to this noble?¡±


    ¡°I don''t belong to anybody, I¡¯m my own Gobbo. If anything she belongs to me, my sheep.¡±


    Opal nodded as if that was a pleasing idea.


    ¡°Ah...I see, you¡¯ve been mistreated and gone insane. I¡¯d heard the nobility were particularly cruel to their Goblin slaves. I suppose you are the result of that. Your pregnancy, no doubt some Noble¡¯s drunken deviancy. I feel as though I am a little closer to understanding why this Lyra Bellerhorn is so wanted.¡±


    Opal squinted up at him. ¡°What are you trying to say bunny boy?¡±


    He drew the short sword from his side, the steel coming free with a ringing scrape of metal.


    ¡°If you call me that one more time I will cut your head off too. Being half mad won¡¯t save you. Although I guess killing you now would just be getting to the point a little faster, without an owner you are going to die as soon as you catch the wrong leveler¡¯s attention.¡±


    He took a step towards the still helpless Lyra and raised his blade, ready to start chopping at her neck.


    ¡°Maybe I should take you as my own, I will need assistance carrying the sheer amount of gol-AHHHKK!¡±


    The rabbit person made an undignified screech and stumbled forward, nearly tripping over Lyra, sword and paw flailing as he regained his balance.


    He steadied himself and his paw reached for his rear. Then he drew it back. There was blood, a lot of it.


    ¡°Wha-...¡±


    He turned to see Opal. Somehow she had acquired a round ball of black fluff. She casually threw it up into the air and caught it, a few small drops of red falling to the cobble as it spun. His eyes moved to her other hand which appeared to hold some kind of sheer black sickle, a cruel and dangerously sharp looking thing. His eyes returned to the ball of fluff.


    ¡°Wow, this stuff cuts through flesh like it''s nothing.¡±


    Even as the pain started to set in he didn''t quite comprehend it, his¡­ tail had just been instantly and easily sliced off¡­ by a Goblin, a Goblin girl casually playing ball with it, tossing it up and down in front of him.


    His tail.


    The rabbit person made a wordless scream of pure rage and leapt at her, eyes wild, ears flapping, blade jabbing straight for her chest.


    Opal blinked in surprise at the sudden motion and just, fell away, like she had been standing on a ledge and had stepped off, plunging down into the shadowed ground, her long fluttering hair the last to vanish.


    The rabbit missed wildly and overshot, having to catch himself from falling to the ground with his free paw. He swung around breathing hard, searching for the strange Goblin, but he was alone, only himself and the still out of it Lyra lying on the ground.


    ¡°I¡¯m up here bunny.¡±


    Confused, he looked up to find the Goblin high above on the rooftop, one hand resting on the chimney, his tail still in her hand.


    ¡°N-now listen to me, just give me the tail and this doesn''t have to end badly. A simple healing potion and I can have it re-attached, no problem, I won¡¯t be angry I promise, you won¡¯t need to die for what you did. Come now, it¡¯s the smart, logical thing to do! Just toss it here!¡±


    ¡°MMMMM¡­. Yeeee-¡±


    The rabbit nodded his head eagerly, lifting his paws ready to catch.


    ¡°-eeeea- No. My tail now. Maybe I¡¯ll give it back if you walk out of town without speaking another word to me or to anyone.¡±


    The rabbit spluttered, but then caught himself from speaking. Quick calculation followed. He wanted his tail back, but then, the bounty, an absurd amount of gold. As much as losing his tail hurt, a lot, he couldn''t discard fifty thousand, he just couldn''t. He grit his teeth, rabbit nose wrinkling as he scowled in fury, resolve straightening his back.


    ¡°I¡¯ll burn you alive Goblin, I¡¯ll tie you over a fire and watch you char and scream along with that noble¡¯s spawn in your belly!¡±


    ¡°You really shouldn''t have said that.¡±


    He lifted his sword and took a step toward Lyra. ¡°You are a Goblin, I do not care at all about what you have to sa-


    ¡°HUP!¡±


    The rabbit paused as he caught sight of motion out of the corner of his eye. He turned in time to see Opal falling through the air, arms wrapped around knees, her body forming a ball as she dove straight down onto the cobble street, a suicidal leap considering the height. Fully expecting her to crumple and die against the stone the rabbit stared, but instead, she fell straight through it, falling into the shadow the building cast, only a small puff of dust kicked up from her motion marking her passage.


    Unsure what was happening anymore the rabbit stared at the spot she had vanished, which was unfortunate as when Opal came flying out of the shadowed lip of the roof he was completely unprepared. Her full momentum from falling transferred into horizontal flight, a pregnant Goblin spinning through the air, a flicker of black held in hand.


    The Goblin soared over the rabbit person¡¯s head in a smooth arc and then she was past, falling into the shadow cast on the wall of the opposite building.


    She popped up again on the first rooftop, flung into the air by her momentum until gravity took hold and she managed to grab hold of the chimney, easing herself down onto the tile.


    She had two things held in her hands, two flat shaped things covered in black fur on one side and pierced with gold earrings. She flapped them in the air experimentally, the fleshy things like some kind of grisly hand fans, the many gold earrings clattering against each other.


    Below came a blood curdling scream, the rabbit person¡¯s paws clutching at the stumps of his ears, blood pouring down his face, filling his eyes, staining his chevron styled clothing red.


    ¡°MY EARS!¡± he shrieked, a kind of mortal horror in his voice.


    ¡°Well, my ears now. They¡¯ll make a nice snack for my wolf.¡±


    The rabbit gave her one terrified look, clearly completely out of his depth and set way off balance when it came to a Goblin slave being anything but powerless, and then he turned and fled from the alley.


    ¡°And if you come back I¡¯ll feed the rest of you to him too!¡± yelled Opal after him.


    She watched him go and confident he was not stopping she slipped into the shadow and rose up beside Lyra on the street below. She poked her in the side with her big toe. The sheep girl let out a soft moan in response, her eyes closed, seemingly having fallen asleep.


    ¡°I don''t have this problem when using my ability you know. Are you sure you aren''t just being weird about it when Rain goes into you?¡±


    ¡°Wha- whassa?¡± murmured Lyra, bleary half closed eyes peering up at Opal, her expression sluggish.


    She sighed. ¡°Nothing sheepy, now will you get up already, and Red, why are you so utterly useless huh?¡±


    A flash of red scale could be seen at the opening of the dimensional bag on Lyra¡¯s hip and a muttered voice came from within, ¡°What am I supposed to do? You never gave me a weapon and I¡¯m not about to do some filthy disgusting vile foul nasty bribing with my gold.¡±


    ¡°True,¡± admitted Opal, ¡°I should fit you with a pointy, that way you can stab people.¡±


    As she spoke Lyra was recovering, wiping strands of sweaty hair that had fallen across her face aside and sitting up, then looking down in dismay as she found her shorts soaked through and dark with slightly sticky wet. She blushed furiously as she realised what it was and awkwardly scrambled to her hooves, stepping aside from the puddle she had left on the cobble.


    ¡°Ahem, I uh, don''t know what happened here¡­ Wait, the Lapine!¡±


    ¡°Do you mean the rabbit leveler? He ran away.¡±


    ¡°R-really?¡±


    Opal waved the pair of rabbit ears vaguely in Lyra¡¯s direction. It took a moment for Lyra to realise what it was she was looking at and then she paled.


    ¡°What did you do?!¡±


    ¡°Took his ears, duh, oh and his tail. He was totally afraid of me you know.¡± Opal gave her a slightly manic grin. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a leveler fear a Gobbo like that before, not alone anyway. It feels¡­ good.¡±


    Lyra rubbed at her face. ¡°I don''t think this is good at all, he will have gone for the guards, I¡¯m certain of it, we- we need to get going. Where¡¯s Rain?¡±


    ¡°Having a nap,¡± said Opal, flapping an ear in Rain¡¯s direction.


    Lyra turned and looked at where she was pointing the still mass of fur mostly inside a building.


    ¡°What? Wh-why?!¡±


    Opal shrugged. ¡°He came out of you then he fell down and went to sleep. I guess there was a problem with your shitty skill, same as happened to you.¡±


    Lyra stared at her then raced over to Rain, coming to a halt by his legs. Not sure what to do she jumped up on top of him and entered the building. As she entered she was met with a scuffling sound and a cry of effort. Directly in front of her stood a male elf. He held a spear in his hands and had the blade pressed against Rain¡¯s throat. Even as she watched he threw his weight onto the spear, his entire body lifting up into the air as he repeatedly slammed himself down onto it, grunting with effort as he desperately tried to force the spear point into Rain¡¯s neck. Beside him a sweat covered female elf had one booted foot up on Rain¡¯s back, a longsword held in both hands, lifting it up and then stabbing it down at his heart over and over.


    At Rain¡¯s head a pair of elven children kneeled, one trying to wiggle a long knife into Rain¡¯s ear hole, the other frantically trying to part his closed eye and force through a dagger.


    None of them were having even the slightest effect.


    ¡°What in the abyss are you doing!¡± cried Lyra.


    ¡°Get back lass, this is ours, our kill, our leveling.¡±


    ¡°NO! This isn''t, he¡¯s not- I- I- He- It¡¯s my SLAVE!!¡±


    The family paused in their work, and for the first time gave her their full attention.


    ¡°You are joking-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not! How did you think it was allowed into the town in the first place!¡±


    ¡°See! I told you!¡± said the female elf.


    One of the children kept stabbing her blade into Rain¡¯s ear hole until the other child elbowed her in the side.


    ¡°You''re attacking my property! God knows what damage you¡¯ve done to it, do you have any idea how important and wealthy I am in the city?¡±


    ¡°Your slave destroyed my wall and dining room!¡± scowled the female elf sheathing her longsword with a clack.


    ¡°Well, we¡¯ll call it even then since you damaged my property too.¡±


    ¡°The monster is fine, my house on the other hand.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s¡­¡± Lyra looked down at the huge slumped form she was standing on, something wrong suddenly occurring to her, something terribly terribly wrong. Rain was still and unmoving¡­ not even his chest rising and falling.


    ¡°N-not breathing?¡± she whispered faintly.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 113

    ¡°She¡¯s right, there''s no air coming out,¡± said one of the children, her hands held up against Rain¡¯s nose and mouth. ¡°It¡¯s dead!¡±


    ¡°Aww but I didn''t even level once!¡± groaned the other child.


    ¡°What are you talking about, he¡¯s fine,¡± said Opal, appearing beside Lyra. ¡°Just sleeping... Right?¡±


    Lyra looked down at the black furred mass she stood on. Maybe there would be movement if she watched closely, his chest expanding, drawing in air, alive, the vibration of his heart beating ... But there was nothing, he remained completely and utterly still, the stillness of death, was his body already cooling?


    ¡°I¡­ I-...¡± a rush of horrible thoughts snatched her voice from her throat, had she accidentally killed him? Her Skill had been used incorrectly somehow, in the wrong way, she had... Killed Rain? Breathing suddenly became much harder, her airway constricting with anxiety. She was guilty of his death, and now she was alone, without him. She suddenly felt very exposed and vulnerable, her subconscious feeling of safety ripped away in a moment, obvious now in its absence. That Lapine would only be the first now that a wanted poster was out there, an unstoppable wave of levelers would come for her head, she didn''t stand a chance.


    Opal fell to her knees beside her, fingers curling through black fur. She pushed at Rain¡¯s back creating wrinkled folds.


    ¡°Hey, wake up, Rain, wake up, Rain just w-wake up.¡±


    Lyra was a dead person walking, she knew that, and Opal? A Goblin alone? She was painfully aware of the fate of unwanted Goblins in Florens, what happened to them, what happened to an unwanted pregnant Goblin.


    The guilt was too much and she could do nothing but stand and watch as Opal became increasingly frantic, pulling then hitting at Rain¡¯s back, fierce at first, then weak limbed, until finally, she buried her face in his fur, her face...


    And the black horn on her head.


    A moment passed with the horn pressing against him, then his body spasmed, once, twice, then pressure, pressure in his chest, ending in a deep bass thump that caused dust to fall from the ceiling, his heart squeezing out a reluctant starting beat, and along with it a sharp gasp of breath, eyes shooting open, legs and arms flailing, rubble flung across the room. Lyra was tossed off and sent sprawling as Opal cried out in surprise, then from her mouth came a bubbling laugh as dark shadows crawled over Rain¡¯s fur, teeth and claws, and slavering jaws, talons and pincers and stingers and nails and spines. The Goblin didn''t mind, it didn''t affect her, and she straddled his back as he slowly lifted his head from the ground with shaky arms, her tear reddened eyes squeezed shut with joy.


    The family of Elves minded slightly more and openly screamed at the horrifying sight, backing away in a panic, weapons raised, the terrible realisation dawning on them that the thing they had been unable to harm in any way shape or form was now moving, and looking like something that had crawled out of the deepest darkest pit of nightmares.


    Rain shuddered, his jaws straining, just trying to draw in air, many long strands of drool falling to the ground, hyperventilating as his fur billowed with predatory dark things, predatory dark things that were spilling onto the rubble, creeping between the stones and shattered furniture, looking for something to devour.


    Lyra pressed back against the wall, alarmed, but more so filled with an overwhelming feeling of relief that he was alive, her shoulders easing and a long breath being released. Fortunately the dark seemed uninterested in her and surged toward the Elves who were understandably freaking out. The male Elf stabbed at the roiling carpet of darkness and shouted in distress as it ripped off the end of his spear leaving him with a useless stick.


    ¡°G-go! The door!¡± cried Lyra pointing.


    ¡°No, stay, let wolfy eat you!¡± cackled Opal.


    The Elvish family seemed to gather together some basic semblance of rationality and they dived for the exit, forcing wide the rubble blocked door and fleeing down the hall out of sight.


    ¡°Aww, why¡¯d you have to say that?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not having Rain eat a family of Elves, even if they did kind of try to murder him.¡±


    ¡°You weren''t so fussy when it was Orcs!¡±


    ¡°You think I haven''t tried telling Orcs to stop being so murderously Orc like before? No thank-¡±


    Rain let out a long groan and for the first time the creeping darkness which had covered most of the room''s floor started to slow in its spread.


    ¡°Where- where am I? Is this someone''s house¡­?¡± Rain slurred, head swaying as he blearily tried to look around.


    ¡°Er, it belongs to a family of Elves, you fell through their wall, I think.¡±


    Rain turned his head toward her and Lyra couldn''t help but blanch. There was blood in his eyes, not just bloodshot, but reddened with blood from fully broken veins, a well of red filling the lower half of the yellow.


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t, everything is fuzzy, I was¡­ I was in a place with gold, there was¡­¡± He suddenly leaned to the side, arms almost collapsing, and had to catch himself, shaking his head slightly as though to clear it.


    The fact that the frighteningly strong monster that was Rain had almost been killed by herself, a diminutive half Woolie with a weak Class, was not lost on Lyra, especially after an entire clan of Orc¡¯s had failed to do as much... But how?


    ¡°Do you know what happened? You went into my wool space, and then when I activated it again in town you tore free instantly, I uh, lost track at that point.¡±


    Rain¡¯s swaying slowed and he seemed to gather himself. ¡°I... remember going in, I was in you, I remember it being fine, at first.¡±


    ¡°But then?¡±


    ¡°The longer I was there the more out of breath I felt, like I had run a marathon, but no matter how hard I breathed I just felt worse and worse, sweating like a pig and wheezing, I thought I had been poisoned, or the space was doing something to me, rejecting me.¡±


    ¡°I don''t understand, my Class is supposed to save people, not poison them, this doesn''t make any sense!¡±


    ¡°I remember Vash was there, tossed amongst the gold. He knew something, I remember him talking as things were starting to go dark. He said it was my size, that all the air had been used up, but that makes no sense, I could breathe, It just... didn''t help.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± said Opal. She had been happily wiggling atop Rain¡¯s back but as he finished she paused. ¡°I know what happened and why.¡±


    ¡°You do? Wait, why would you know? Your entire existence was spent at the bottom of a dungeon, you know nothing about Skills!¡±


    Opal gave her an annoyed look. ¡°I know because Gobbos have to swim to escape predators sometimes. A good place to hide from a Panthara or a cave bear is an underwater air pocket, they don''t like water and you can stay there until they leave. But Gobbos who don''t know better will stay too long, or a pocket will already be full of bad air, and they will die.¡±


    ¡°Bad air?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, when there is nothing to refresh the air in an air pocket it turns bad if Gobbos breathe in it too much, breathing bad air makes a Gobbo pass out and drown.¡±


    ¡°... I... didn''t know that¡­ Am I¡­ genuinely learning something from a Goblin? I¡¯m¡­ not sure how I feel about that,¡± said Lyra faintly.


    ¡°Typical leveler thinking you know everything, tch. Unless you have perfectly sealed air pockets on the surface why would you know? Anyway, that¡¯s what happened to Rain. It¡¯s a whole room in there, not just a small pocket, but being really really big probably turned the air bad really really fast because of bigger breaths.¡±


    ¡°And I nearly died from it, I don''t even remember escaping, I was in the room and then nothing.¡±


    ¡°More than nearly died, more like dodging death by the skin of your teeth,¡± murmured Lyra.


    ¡°Mhmm,¡± said Opal tapping her horn. ¡°Your heart was stopped until I restarted it with this. Guess it recognised home and tried to help.¡±


    As she spoke the last of the carpet of predatory darkness pulled back into Rain¡¯s fur, slipping in silently. Once it was fully inside Rain rolled, shifting and turning over so he was sitting cross-legged, the last of the rubble spilling from his back as Opal slipped down onto the floor.


    ¡°I... should be grateful I¡¯m not dead,¡± he ran a paw over his face, ¡°Let''s be a bit more careful in future with your Skill, yes?¡±


    ¡°S-speaking of being careful, there¡¯s a small problem with my bounty.¡±


    Rain lifted a brow at her expectantly as she nervously tapped her index fingers together.


    ¡°There¡¯s a wanted poster in this town... of me.¡±


    ¡°How is that possible? Lord Wranvyre is miles behind us in Lynthia.¡±


    Lyra grimaced. ¡°We aren''t the only ones with an Inkerchange. He¡¯s wealthy and connected enough to have his own, and he would likely have left one of the paired books on his estate before travelling to Lynthia. It¡¯s the only thing that makes sense. They wrote out my description in the Inkerchange, which was received in Florens, then drew me from the description for a wanted poster¡­ Which probably explains why it doesn''t look very much like me apart from, you know, being a white wooled half woolie¡­¡±


    Opal scratched her ear. ¡°Too bad that bunny knows you can make your wool black huh? He¡¯s probably telling everyone who will listen right now, makes me wish I hadn''t scared him away so quick.¡±


    ¡°I thought that at first too, but no, I don''t think he will. I mean, would you? That¡¯s critical information for taking the bounty, if I wanted fifty thousand gold coins I would keep that super important knowledge close to my chest.¡±


    ¡°...True. I suppose he¡¯ll want to come back even without the bounty,¡± said Opal, pushing something into Rain¡¯s mouth.


    ¡°He will?¡±


    ¡°Yup, to recover his ears, and probably his tail too, he really seemed offended that I took that.¡±


    Rain chewed and swallowed.


    ¡°Tastes like intense chicken,¡± he gravelled.


    Lyra stared at Opal then at Rain¡¯s teeth.


    ¡°Did you¡­ did you just feed¡­ oh, my god.


    ¡°What? Rain needs to heal and he heals faster when eating lots.¡±


    ¡°Nevermind me, that Lapine is going to put his everything into ending your life if he finds you again!¡±


    ¡°He can try. I don''t mind if food wants to deliver itself.¡±


    ¡°You are unbelievable you know, he¡¯s a dangerous problem not- not a meal!¡±


    Opal shrugged. ¡°He didn''t seem like a high leveler. What do you think would happen if Rain was between him and us? Rabbit dinner, that¡¯s what, he doesn''t have a clue about wolfy here.¡±


    Lyra opened her mouth to reply but found she hadn''t an answer for that. It was true the Lapine would be in for a surprise if he did try something again while Rain was there.


    ¡°Okay fine. But he still might not be alone, and more importantly, he might have gone for the town guards, he doesn''t need to tell them about my black wool to take advantage of the situation, just swoop in at the right moment.¡± She paused, recalling something, ¡°Even if he doesn''t fetch them, that Elven family certainly will.¡±


    Rain struggled from sitting and managed to get his feet beneath himself. From there he shakily rose, head banging against the ceiling as he stood forcing him to awkwardly lean down. With one paw he picked up Opal and held her underarm. The Goblin girl seemed pleased by this and snuggled against his side.


    He held out a massive paw toward Lyra.


    ¡°Then we should leave. At least this mess happened here and not in Florens. We¡¯ll use your Invisibility for now. Hopefully, we won''t come across any Elves with lenses.¡±


    Lyra stared at the large paw then hesitantly took hold, her hand grasping one of his pads.


    ¡°Uhm, right. On three, One, two,-¡± she twitched as her black wool returned to white and she activated her invisibility Skill. She seemed to fall into shadow to Rain¡¯s eyes and he nodded. Good.


    Lyra blinked as the paw she was holding closed, engulfing her arm. Without preamble she was lifted into the air and Rain stepped through the destroyed wall, stones falling around his shoulders as he stepped out into the sunlit alley.


    ¡°Uh, this is a bit¡­¡± said the helplessly dangling Lyra.


    ¡°You want up top?¡± not waiting for an answer he lifted her and placed her on his shoulders, legs spread wide around his head and neck, hooves dangling on pecs. She grabbed for his ears and held on tight in alarm. She had been up here before, but not when he was well over nine foot tall! With her height added she was even further up, and the ground was distressingly far away, she could quite clearly see into second floor windows!


    Her hands tensed claw like, gripping onto his soft ears like vices. This was going to take a little getting used to.


    No sooner had Rain started striding away than guards entered the other end of the alley, their armoured boots striking cobble.


    ¡°No Elves yet,¡± whispered Lyra. ¡°Don''t run, you''ll break the invisibility, smooth and steady.¡±


    They turned the corner just as the guards cautiously approached the hole in the wall.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


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    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 114

    The apprentice¡¯s face was pale beneath her unwashed and uncombed hair, eyes heavy with dark rings from many sleepless nights.


    Not that Baera was surprised at all by that considering what had happened. The apprentice had always been a nervous sort, one who jumped and flinched at the slightest thing, like a gazelle tip-toeing by a den of monsters. To nearly be eaten one had truly terrified her.


    It was a minor miracle the apprentice was alive at all, having fled into the dark from the anomaly like a headless chicken. Baera had fully expected the girl to have fallen into the clutches of some monster or other and died.


    But defying probability she had stumbled across her alive, albeit near out of her mind with fear, chattering and huddling and shaking like a leaf in the dark. The young apprentice had clutched to her master like a life-raft as she had left the dungeon to prepare the expedition back in.


    In retrospect it might have been better to have left her outside, first because the apprentice might actually have been able to sleep at least a little... but more importantly because she could tell her what the actual fuck happened to the town of Lynthia while she was in the dungeon.


    Baera scowled as she surveyed the field of shattered buildings, streets filled with rubble, cobble splitting chasms. In sum: utter ruination.


    Beside her a number of the local levelers who had also just returned from the dungeon were standing and staring in clear despair, or fallen to their knees and openly weeping, truly a pathetic sight.


    The town had apparently folded like a wet paper bag, its sturdy walls made worthless, its people¡­ not there?


    Well, she wasn''t quite certain of that, but it was true that as they had picked their way about the edge of town there had been no sign of bodies or blood or survivors.


    ¡°I sense that you might be in a rather deep amount of shit miss Inquisitor, if you don''t mind me saying.¡±


    Baera¡¯s scowl deepened and she glanced at the Centaur to her side.


    ¡°Having the town I was assigned devastated from wall to wall is hardly a result I could have planned for.¡±


    ¡°Mmmhm. Any ideas?¡±


    ¡°Exceptionally destructive Orcs perhaps. But the fact that the town is deserted and bloodless is not in keeping with an Orc attack, or any other species of leveler for that matter.¡±


    ¡°You did tell me this new monster thing can eat a shocking amount?¡±


    Baera hesitated. ¡°That did appear to be the case from what I saw, but¡­ I have yet to see a sign of struggle here, no discarded weaponry or broken armour, or even any blood, and from what I know of this wolf monster it is a messy eater.¡±


    Drassi tapped her furred chin with a claw.


    ¡°Best hope it''s not the cause then for your sake, trapping yourself in the local dungeon and allowing the monster you sought to do this? Good luck avoiding your bosses wrath on that one.¡±


    Baera tried to think of a counterargument to what the Centaur said, but found she could not. The fact was that she had fucked up. Acting in feverish anger she had closed off the dungeon and put her all into hunting down and killing the monster that had taken her arm.


    They had found¡­ nothing... nothing apart from a number of the levelers she had brought dying to various monsters, a dozen to Panthara alone. It seemed the anomaly had simply left the dungeon before she had closed it off.


    It was a humiliation.


    One that made her heart thump with fury.


    Ignoring the Centaur and apprentice she strode forward, small stones and bits of rubble crushed to dust beneath her steel clad boots.


    Moving through Lynthia did not improve its appearance. It was remarkable in how uniform the devastation was, as though an earthquake had struck it.


    She eyed the sheared stone of a nearby building, a flat line in the masonry as though it had been cut by an enormous sword.


    The town seemed as if it had been struck by an earthquake... but also something else.


    As she neared the square that had housed the town''s bell tower she heard the scuffle and clop of feet behind her, the others catching up.


    It didn''t matter. She was no closer to understand-¡­


    She paused as her eyes caught something red amongst the stone. She approached cautiously, wary of a trap, but there was nothing, only the jagged stump of the bell tower¡¯s base.


    And blood, a lot of blood.


    Something had died here, and messily, the ground and wall were plastered with dried red, seeped between the stones and leaving long lines down the wall.


    Her eyes drifted up above the huge red mark and alighted on scratches on the wall. Words. Or at least they had been. Whatever had deigned to make them had scratched them out leaving whatever it had said unreadable.


    It wasn''t hard to see that something had happened here. The one death of the entire town?


    More interesting was that it matched what she knew of the wolf like anomaly, masses of blood, and no body.


    ¡°Uh-uhm, d-does this m-mean what I think it means,¡± whispered Jilli beside her, voice barely audible, ¡°Th-that h-horrible thing is outside the dungeon?¡±


    Judging by the way the girl was swaying like a tree in the breeze Baera suspected she might faint on the spot if she agreed.


    ¡°We know nothing for sure as of yet.¡± She turned to the Centaur. ¡°Would you see about gathering supplies with Jilli here?¡±


    The Centaur rolled her eyes dramatically. ¡°You know I was expecting something a little more exciting than babysitting your apprentice.¡±


    ¡°I do not doubt that will be the case. In the meantime, you will do as I ask.¡±


    Drassi grumbled but seemed to reluctantly agree.


    She turned her head to the side and glanced back at the black cloaked figure riding her back.


    ¡°You heard her, get to it.¡±


    The blank wooden mask turned to look at her, a moment of incomprehension. Then, as if processing what she was saying, the figure slung its leg over the side and dropped to the ground, ragged black clothing fluttering around it.


    Jilli eyed the thing warily, unsure of it. The figure stiffly turned and stared directly at her, making the girl clearly uncomfortable.


    ¡°Uhm h-hi?¡±


    The figure continued to stare.


    ¡°Oh stop fucking with the poor girl and follow me, I''m sure I saw a warehouse more or less intact on the way in,¡± said Drassi, stepping by them.


    Baera gazed at the enormous bloodstain as the clop of hooves moved away behind, the near silent steps of the black cloaked figure, and then the lighter feet of Jilli following.


    She waited until she could no longer hear their footsteps and then she stepped around the side of the shattered bell tower, emerging into a rubble strewn alley.


    ¡°I know you are watching me. Come out.¡±


    At first, nothing happened, but then, from behind a corner, a red dog stepped.


    It stood and looked at her, silent.


    Baera set her lips in a line. Then she turned and stalked away.


    The dog trotted after her.


    The inquisitor picked her way from street to street, navigating the ruin of a town, a spot of red fur occasionally seen following in her wake.


    She soon found what she was looking for, the building that housed her office as the town''s Inquisitor, or what remained of it. Where once there had been a roof to the building now there was none.


    She approached the door and put her hand on the handle. It didn''t open. She snarled and applied her strength, the door groaned, and then with the sound of a small mound of rubble moving, she forced it wide.


    The inside was as empty as the rest of the town, abandoned. She eyed the tables. Plates of food, half eaten and starting to mould, drinks unfinished, a thick layer of masonry dust covering the leavings. It was clear that those who had been eating here had left in a hurry.


    It was all very strange, none of the scenarios she brought to mind fit and it bothered her. Something new then? Or maybe more than one thing happened here?


    She couldn''t say and she worried the problem as she clumped up the stairs to her office, or what remained of it, which wasn''t much. The hall was clogged with shattered stone and wood which she kicked aside as she entered her now roofless place of work. It appeared it had rained at some point and the papers she had left neatly arranged on her desk were soggy, the inks run to unreadability.


    She righted her fallen chair and with a weary sigh slumped into it, boots scraping across the floorboards as her long legs extended.


    She had options, just none that she liked. Most consisted of being put before the Queen to answer for her failure. A bad bet for her continued good health. She counted through each option, decided she didn''t like any of them and then counted through them again hoping to find something she hadn''t noticed.


    She didn''t have any such luck.


    Her hand drifted down to her pocket and pulled free a small white book.


    She placed it on the dust-covered table and gave it a long considered stare. She could simply open the book, pick up a pen, and begin to write, it would be so easy, and those she answered to oh so far away would see and read her words.


    But then she would surely be removed from the case and any chance at redemption for her failure would be snatched from her fingers.


    She couldn''t have that, first because her pride and anger wouldn''t allow it, but also because she was beginning to suspect that the anomaly was such a major threat that any previously made fuck up on her part would be instantly forgiven if she could simply kill the thing. The value of its death was just that high.


    She reached for the book and carefully removed it from the desk, unopened.


    A noise caught her attention as she was returning it to her pocket and she lifted her head to find a red dog sitting on the floor just in front of her office door.


    A moment passed in silence.


    ¡°Hello Bane. Or should I say, Bane the Butcher as you were once known.¡±


    The dog remained perfectly still.


    ¡°I know you are in there, Bane. Although how you managed to hold your soul together in what amounts to a storm made entirely of soul dicing razor blades I do not know.¡±


    The dog remained perfectly still.


    ¡°Ah, or perhaps you didn''t quite manage it. A Hellhound is made to subsume souls after all. Do you understand my words Bane?¡±


    The dog remained perfectly still.


    Then slowly nodded its head.


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep things simple. Did the wolf thing from the dungeon flatten Lynthia?¡±


    The dog slowly nodded.


    ¡°Did it kill and eat every person in this town?¡±


    The dog seemed to think on this for a moment, then it shook its head.


    ¡°Then the levelers of this town simply left?¡±


    The dog nodded.


    ¡°Hmm. Then I can interrogate the refugees once I come across them. Good.¡±


    The dog didn''t seem to like that suggestion, but remained where it was as Baera climbed from her seat and rounded her desk.


    ¡°I would hear from you however all you know of this wolf monster... and how you managed to leave my sealed dungeon.¡±


    The dog liked this even less and its lips lifted showing its teeth in disgust, extreme reluctance.


    But then it grimaced, realising it needed to do something, anything. It lifted a paw and carefully placed it on the masonry dust covered planks before itself. It moved its limb and crude lines began to appear under its pads, a small circle, malevolent looking runes, geomatracies.


    It finished and the design momentarily radiated a red light before it seemed to melt away, the dust shifting until it looked as it had been, undisturbed.


    A moment passed and then the dog shuddered, its body rippling, then it fell to the floor, full-body convulsing, paws and head violently striking the wood as it spasmed. A spill of white foam washed from its mouth and pattered onto the dusty floorboards.


    Then, its flesh began to boil, roiling, bulging out as bones shifted inside, the snap crackle of its rib cage filled the room with a continuous drum roll as it expanded and grew, enlarging, widening, its head too became larger, not quite dog like, slowly morphing, one eyeball shrivelling, malformed.


    But then something seemed to go wrong, its limbs abruptly sucked inward, the paws dissolving into a slurry of liquified meat and bone that sucked into its torso then collapsed into a ragged blown out mess, a wash of blood pouring free.


    The convulsing Hellhound was quickly surrounded by a pool of expanding red that washed up against the Inquisitor¡¯s boots.


    She stared down at the horrifying thing on the floor, a dog trying to become a man, a mess of both, and unable to form all of its body.


    The limbless thing opened its mouth and made a hissing gurgling sound as it stared up at her, its tongue quite clearly missing.


    But it needed no voice, it''s one eye said all, it held an unending hate.


    The Hellhound held the form a moment longer as blood was quickly filling the room, already it had reached wall to wall, a crimson lake peppered with rubble, then rolling out into the hall and waterfalling down the stair. The Hellhound was dying, bleeding out. But then in a rush of flesh it fell back in on itself, meat springing back into its natural dog shape, uncountable fragments of bone snapping back together into their whole once more.


    In moments paws and legs emerged from the slurry of gore, blood soaked limbs sliding over slippery with blood planks and then the Hellhound was back as it was, lying limp in a pool of crimson, chest rising and falling as it desperately took in air, eyes closed tight.


    Baera eyed the red soaking the bottoms of her boots, then the Hellhound slumped before her.


    ¡°The wolf took them, your arms and legs, your tongue, and you can''t reform them just like healing cannot reform a lost limb, there¡¯s nothing to go on. You are as you were when you died, when the Hellhound subsumed you.¡±


    Baera lifted her arm, a stump past the elbow wrapped in fresh white bandages.


    ¡°It seems we have something in common.¡±


    The dog cracked an eye and glared up at her, as if to say, ¡®is that all you lost?¡¯


    She ignored the look.


    ¡°I have an answer to this problem of ours as it happens. I looked into your history before I was made the Inquisitor of this town Bane. What you did before you supposedly ¡®retired¡¯, and more, I read everything I could of your past acquaintances, more specifically a certain Centaur, a certain Centaur I ensured was taken into the dungeon with you. I did such a thing so I could have a private word with her alone.¡±


    The dog snorted derisively and closed its eye.


    ¡°What? Did you think she would say no? When I demand something Bane it''s not with just my might, but with the might of the Queen herself. I told it to her face that her clan would be glassed flat with dragon fire and her species made permanently extinct if she did not give me what I desired, you should have seen the look of dismay on her face.¡±


    The dog opened its eye once more, this time puzzled.


    ¡°Her clan normally keeps its secrets close and refuses to work with outsiders no matter who, something of a custom due to how they are treated by other Centaurs. Secrets such as how to circumvent grievous injuries like this.¡±


    She lifted her bandaged stump.


    ¡°Now I am willing to take you with me Bane, take you with me and turn you into something more than a kicked dog¡­¡±


    She took a step forward and leaned over him, threatening.


    ¡°...That is if you will join me in finding and killing this anomaly.¡±


    The dog huffed air out its nose, a dog¡¯s impression of a laugh.


    ¡°Mm, that''s what I thought.¡±


    She stepped around the Hellhound, boots splashing blood over its still rising and falling chest as she passed.


    ¡°Come then Bane the Butcher. We have a monster to kill.¡±


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 115

    Rain pressed back against the alley wall as a message runner passed by, completely unaware that their letter stuffed bag was mere inches from an enormous invisible monster.


    The runner passed and Rain let out a long raggedy breath.


    ¡°Shush! don''t breathe so hard! Your breaths at your size are way too much! ¡±


    Rain raised an eyebrow and tilted his head, eyeing the sheep girl clutching his ears.


    ¡°My throat is still hurt after...¡±


    ¡°Uh- oh, r-right, s-sorry! I d-didn¡¯t mean-!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine Lyra, we¡¯ll be fine...¡±


    He felt the sheep girl''s thighs clench around his neck but she didn''t reply, her worries clear in their own way. After a moment he eased away from the wall, slipping from the alley they were secluded in out into the streets of Silvara.


    The town remained relatively uncrowded, that is apart from the occasional guard rushing by which caused Rain to swiftly step into the nearest alley for fear of elves. Despite that it didn''t take them long to reach the tall outer wall of the town.


    He gazed up at it. Lynthia¡¯s walls had been crumbling and unkempt, no Ranker of Lynthia caring enough to spend the money needed to maintain them in centuries, or update their enchantments. However these walls were formed of fresh clean masonry, all sharp lines and unweathered stone and hundreds of runes were subtly carved across the wall''s surface forming an interlocking geometric pattern, nothing like the vast crudely shaped runes of Lynthia.


    He lifted a paw, but then hesitated.


    ¡°I... don''t know if this is a good idea.¡±


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± hissed Opal who was still held carefully under one arm. ¡°Break it and climb the wall and let''s get out of this leveler shit hole already!¡±


    ¡°I think I have to agree with Rain,¡± murmured Lyra, ¡°I don''t know if this wall could be part damaged like in Lynthia, it¡¯s way way more modern, just destroying one rune doesn''t necessarily mean anything and whatever magic is woven into it may stay up or trigger. Uhm, meaning setting of a town wide alarm, or some magical trap going off, a flame trap, or something.¡±


    Rain lowered his paw. ¡°If we can get out though a gate we should. I want to at least check before I¡¯m forced to climb these walls.¡±


    He turned and slipped back through the streets and alleys, carefully navigating between pedestrians.


    The part of the wall they had come up against was near where they had come in so it didn''t take long to find what he was looking for, the streets converging on a square, the town entrance at the far end, the portcullis raised, freedom in view, rolling fields of lush summer grass framed by the arch of the gatehouse.


    The problem was the guards clustered in front of it, or more specifically the elven guards with violet spectacles dangling from their necks.


    ¡°Not good,¡± whispered Lyra, ¡°We¡¯re never going to get past that lot!¡± She tugged frantically at his right ear trying to steer him into an alley. He shrugged his shoulders causing her to bounce with a yelp and quickly stop.


    He still stepped back a bit, hiding behind a house, yellow eyes peeking around the edge, Lyra above peeking too, and a struggling Opal below trying to peek with them.


    The crowd of guards parted and Rain was dismayed to see what had their attention. It was the family of elves. The very loud and very unhappy family of elves.


    ¡°I demand you do something!¡± shrieked the female Elf.


    ¡°Let us by you fools, we¡¯re not staying with that thing inside the walls!¡±


    ¡°Please calm yourselves,¡± said one of the guards, ¡°We are checking on what you spoke of right as we spe-


    ¡°Your people are already dead! You don''t know what I- what we saw!¡±


    The guard scratched his brow and frowned.


    ¡°I somehow doubt that. In any case you will be waiting here as the captain has questions for you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not stay-¡± the female Elf glanced down at the child pulling at her leg. ¡°Will you stop doing that, please darling, this isn''t the time.¡±


    ¡°B-but!¡±


    The Elf placed her hand on the girls head and gently pushed her away, attention already returning to the guard and completely missing the small raised arm, finger vaguely pointing in Rain¡¯s direction.


    Rain pulled back with a grimace. The Elven child had noticed Lyra¡¯s ability, the use of magic. Not good.


    ¡°I don''t think we have a choice wolfy,¡± murmured Opal, ¡°Unless there''s another gate out of here?¡±


    ¡°There are two more gatehouses I believe. Maybe we¡¯ll get lucky?¡±


    Rain nodded in agreement and was about to retreat into the alley when something caught the edge of his hearing. He turned and blinked as something moving incredibly fast darted into the distant end of the street, something making a lot of noise, something tossing people aside as it rammed past in a frenzied stampede.


    The guards'' voices slowly faltered as they turned to see what it was.


    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!


    Screamed the Lapine clutching the stumps of his ears as he rocketed past, a flecked mist of blood left in his wake, eyes rolling wildly in blind animal panic.


    The group of guards watched him pass in frozen silence, then half of them cried STOP! And raced after him.


    The female Elf jogged after them, ¡°SEE! SEE! I told you! We are all going to die in here!! Did you listen to me? Nooo!¡±


    The male Elf groaned and dragged his hands over his sweaty face in clear frustration and chased after her. ¡°Dear stop! We- we need to get ou-


    ¡°No! I need them to know I was right! This is important!¡±


    Rain seeing his chance slipped from the alley and slinked around the edge of the square, edging quickly toward the gatehouse and freedom. Only the elf child remained of the elves to notice them, her head tracking them with wide eyes, clearly unsure what it was she was sensing or if she should speak up.


    Her chance passed and then they were out.


    They slipped free from the gatehouse and emerged onto the road and then into the long grass, nothing to stop them, they had made it out undetected.


    ¡°Woo!¡± cried Opal


    ¡°SHUUSH!¡± hissed Lyra.


    Rain ignored them both and quickly made his way away from the town, or as quickly as he could go without breaking the limits of the invisibility. He breathed a sigh of relief as he broke the tree line and made it into the woods, the trees hiding them from the town¡¯s view.


    ¡°If the levelers in Florens are anything like that we¡¯ll be fine,¡± said Opal, squirming in Rain¡¯s grip.


    ¡°Ahahha,¡± laughed Lyra nervously, ¡°That was extremely lucky, and It¡¯s, uh, not really the same¡­¡±


    ¡°How do you mean?


    ¡°Erm, it¡¯s just way way way-... well it might just be easier to show you since we¡¯re pretty close now,¡± said the sheep girl producing the magic map and unfurling it on top Rain¡¯s head. She peered at it as Rain continued on through the forest, occasionally prodding a finger at the map then pointing where to go.


    Rain followed her directions and after a few hours the ground started to rise.


    He caught sight of a field of white through the trees, the edge of the forest and... flowers?


    He blinked as he pushed past the last tree and they came out on a rise.


    ¡°I¡­ don''t understand,¡± whispered Opal.


    Rain didn''t either, and he could only look on uncomprehending. He felt Opal wiggle free and take a few steps forward, as though to do something, but then at a loss, she simply fell to her knees, shoulders slumped.


    ¡°How can this be real, it can''t be it just¡­ can''t. We never stood a chance, this is, It¡¯s too much! IT¡¯S TOO MUCH!¡±


    She curled her hands into tight fists in the grass, blades clenched between knuckles.


    Rain let Lyra down and found himself sitting beside the Goblin girl. He was from the surface, a town, but even he couldn''t comprehend what he was looking at.


    A wash of white stone that reached from a wall without end back and over the horizon. An ocean of buildings, at its center a golden cubic structure, It was just incomprehensible, Lynthia would fit inside of this city thousands of times over, tens of thousands of times.


    Lyra uneasily scratched her cheek. ¡°I uh, did I not mention that Florens is a Mega City?¡±


    ¡°How many?!¡± cried Opal rounding on her.


    ¡°H-how many what?¡±


    ¡°How many levelers are in this Florens?!¡± she hissed.


    ¡°Uhm, millions, many millions.¡±


    ¡°Thats¡­¡± she whispered, ¡°How could any monster ever stand up to that.¡±


    Lyra tilted her head.


    ¡°If it makes you feel any better Opal the dungeon is even bigger. It covers everywhere beneath the city and extends out past the walls. It¡¯s, well, no one knows how deep it is, no one has reached the bottom, at least no one who¡¯s talking, the dynasties might have¡­¡±


    Opal took a step back and then turned back to the view, trying to picture the titanic dungeon that lay below the city.


    She quickly got a headache.


    ¡°...Why?¡± asked Rain, ¡°Why haven''t they reached the bottom? Lynthia¡¯s dungeon was known top to bottom and there are so many more levelers here, so many more.¡±


    ¡°Just more? There¡¯s more levelers there than I¡¯ve seen in my entire life!¡± cried Opal.


    ¡°Well it gets harder as you descend into the dungeon, but there¡¯s one thing in particular that makes it really hard as you go down deep. Panthara¡­ Hives.¡±


    ¡°Panthara¡­ what?¡±


    Lyra licked her lips, nervous, ¡°Uhm, for your peace of mind you really don''t want to know. Trust me, you won¡¯t be able to sleep if you, uh, because there¡¯s these- N-no, you just don''t want to know okay, and we need to all be focused and not sleep-deprived.¡±


    Opal stared at her. The headache seemed to be getting worse by the minute.


    ¡°Can we move on?¡± said Lyra, hurriedly trying to dry her sweaty palms against her clothing. ¡°I- I don''t want to think about it anymore. P-please!¡±


    Rain hadn''t thought it possible to feel more unsettled. He turned back to the view and tried to picture the millions in the city and utterly failed, and then what must be millions of monsters on the first floor of the dungeon, then another floor of the same, and another, more and more and more, down and down and down.


    His world in Lynthia suddenly felt very small.


    But more importantly, it made his vengeance nigh impossible.


    ¡°How am I supposed to find Brax and the others in this, how am I supposed to find anything in this!¡± he thrust out a paw gesturing at the horizon spanning city.


    Lyra blinked at him. ¡°Oh that''s easy, the city has various parts just like Lynthia.¡± She pointed at the huge golden cubic object. ¡°That big golden thingy is a giant pyrite mineral growth from the dungeon, Florens¡¯ Ranker lives at the base of it in his palaces.¡± Her pointing moved to the side and at what very distantly looked like a cluster of ornate buildings near the pyrite growth, mansions and estates peppered with green gardens. ¡°The family dynasties cluster in that one place, Brax will be there if he is in Florens, I guarantee it.¡±


    Rain peered out over the city, focusing carefully on the spot. Could he see people moving about in those gardens? He couldn''t say, his sight was exceptionally sharp but it was just such an extreme distance. Still, such a small spot comparative to the entire vast city was actually manageable. Was one of those minuscule dust sized dots Brax strolling through the gardens of his estate?


    He suddenly wanted to get inside this city very very much.


    ¡°I want to go in, same as the town of Silvara, I hide in your wool space and you walk through the gates¡­ this time without you deactivating the Skill so I don''t nearly die.¡±


    ¡°Er, right, plus it¡¯s a kinda sorta disguise so I don''t get head hunted.¡± She looked over her wool and set her lips in a line as it washed from cloud white to wolf black. ¡°I¡¯m not certain but I don''t think truth lenses can actually see into my wool space, at least if it''s anything like a dimensional bag. The Elf guard in Silvara easily knew that the dimensional bag was there and magical but he couldn''t see within it and had to physically open it up and look inside.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s simple then, in the time you can hold fleece harbour active you enter the city, then once inside and away from the guards we switch to invisibility,¡± said Rain, eyes eager, paws itching to get moving, clenching and unclenching.


    ¡°H-hangon, isn''t this a bit too sudden? I at least want to do some more practice! If things go wrong here it would be very bad, that enormous gatehouse you see down there is swarming with guards! Strong ones!¡±


    ¡°But-


    ¡°We get one chance at this, do you want to mess it up and lose everything?¡±


    Rain had to concede Lyra was making sense, it was just the thought of once more nearing  those who had murdered him made his hackles rise in anger and his heart beat faster. Killing Adlen had been a relief, in that moment everything had lifted, become brighter, more colourful, the ever present little claws of trauma that picked and pulled at the back of his mind banished in the light.


    He wanted his murderers dead and gone and he wanted more of that feeling of lightness, to fully rid himself of those claws they had put inside his head, those dark watery depths.


    He managed to slow his breathing.


    ¡°Okay. Practice, fine.¡±


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


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 Chapter 116

    ¡°Okay. Practice, fine.¡±


    He reached for Lyra who froze up, what practice would actually involve abruptly dawning on her.


    ¡°UH-¡±


    Rain¡¯s enormous paw enclosed her arm and pulled her close, intimate, then with his other paw he took her and placed her on the grass, forcefully bringing her legs together. Giving her no time to prepare he pressed into her wool and found his head once more emerging into that temple-like room, wool space.


    He struggled and pressed into her, in a moment his head and shoulders and then body popped through, hips then legs as he rolled down onto the floor.


    Or at least what would have been the floor. As it was he landed on a lake of gold and treasure, the noisy clatter of metals filling the space, coins sliding against his fur.


    His tail came last and he rose to his feet. The space was large enough that even at nine foot five there was still some space between the top of his head and the ceiling. Still, the room felt a little cramped. They had stuffed everything they had stolen from the Orc clan inside after all. All seven stone benches that were meant to hold the injured were instead piled high with loot. One held stacks of swords and blades, neatly ordered by size and type, it wasn¡¯t hard to guess who had made that. Another held blankets and bedding, another food and cooking supplies. Another the shiniest of gold treasures.


    He turned to the most important bench of all, more important than all the treasure, one that was bare apart from rows and rows of round glass bottles with long necks each holding a clear fluid. He lifted one and flicked off the cap with his thumb digit, or at least that was what he intended, instead the neck of the bottle snapped off and went spinning through the air. He was still getting the hang of that. He poured the remainder of the bottle onto his fur and sighed as it bubbled and fizzed washing over his body in a wave, cleaning him to perfection.


    He felt certain he would need to acquire more of these in Florens, he¡¯d already used more than was healthy and may have been a little addicted.


    ¡°You are the most cleanliness obsessed monster I have ever come across brute. You make some levelers I¡¯ve met seem like grubby slobs.¡±


    ¡°Being regularly covered in dried and sticky blood and gore feels horrible with fur, I think anyone would end up feeling the same way I do.¡±


    Vash gazed at him, the green flames of his eyes steady.


    ¡°No monster.¡±


    ¡°Then you don''t know monsters.¡±


    The skull did not look happy with this answer but he lifted himself on his eight chicken bone legs and scuttled around the base of the Lyra statue¡¯s marble feet set atop the stone plinth in the centre of the room.


    ¡°I would like an update of what it is you have dragged me into brute. I do not like to think that the air headed sheep girl might die while I am inside this space you have placed me in. I don¡¯t know what will happen to it if she is killed.¡±


    ¡°You don''t? I thought you had centuries of experience in, well, everything magical.¡±


    The skull peeked from behind Lyra¡¯s marble legs, his flame eyes scowling.


    ¡°That doesn''t mean I know everything, I¡¯m not some kind of endless magical fountain of magical information. This Skill she has acquired is... unique to my knowledge, I have my speculation but-


    ¡°Speculation?¡±


    ¡°...Yes. This space we are standing in right now, didn''t you consider it? There¡¯s an obvious answer to where we are.¡±


    Rain didn''t reply but stepped towards the statue and adjusted the loot that had been placed upon it. He had felt a little bit bad about not telling the bubbly sheep girl that she had a naked statue of herself within her wool space and had attempted to cover her shame. The statue now sported white sheets wrapped around her chest and hips, as well as a collection of gold jewelry, Red¡¯s addition. Strangely it made her look almost fitting for the temple-like space, like some goddess of protection, beckoning to safety those levelers trapped wounded and scared in a dungeon.


    Vash seemed annoyed at his lack of reply, at least judging by the irritable tapping of his spider-like legs, and answered his own question.


    ¡°It may be the same space that all dimensional bags exist in! The impenetrable void!¡±


    ¡°I know it is,¡± murmured Rain, poking vaguely at a net of gold placed on the Lyra statues shoulders.


    ¡°You do? Wait, what do you mean you know? You know nothing of this!¡±


    ¡°I know because I remember when I was trapped in here and everything was starting to go dark, I remember just hearing them, their cries of pain, a distant feeling of suffering. It was just like Red said it was.¡±


    ¡°...Ah. I suppose that would be one way of confirming the truth of the matter. I cannot sleep as an undead so I have no way of hearing such a thing.¡±


    ¡°Do you know what happens to a dimensional bag if it''s destroyed?¡±


    ¡°Usually the contents are ejected. But since this ability of hers appears to sever the connection entirely when it''s inactive leaving an unconnected bubble I don''t know if the same thing would happen.¡±


    The scuttling paused, and Rain looked down to see the Skull¡¯s flame eyes looking down and to the side.


    ¡°I¡­ do not want to be trapped in this place for all eternity if the worst comes to pass.¡±


    Rain gnawed on his lip. It was true the necromancer had gone up a few notches in his book after he had helped free Lyra and Opal from Bane¡¯s imps. It was just hard to extend any trust at all knowing what Vash was, an ancient conniving creature with an obvious agenda of his own... But still¡­


    He turned to the one black wall of the room.


    ¡°I want to find what out I can about my species in the libraries in Florens. I... could do with the help.¡±


    The clicking of bone against stone sped up. ¡°Ah, a scholarly endeavour into the tomes of old, yes I can see how I could help¡­ and be outside this¡­ space.¡±


    Rain paused, nodded, and then approached the wall, padded feet pressing down against the gold layered floor, coins clicking against his claws.


    He lifted a paw and hesitantly touched at the one wall of the octagonal room that wasn¡¯t stone, a blurred pitch blackness, completely featureless. There wasn¡¯t any real feel from it from this side, that is until he pressed a little deeper and felt something like wool.


    He retracted his paw and pushed his head through. Dark, soft wool, and then light. His head broke free from Lyra¡¯s lap, the first thing he heard being a gasp from above his head.


    Trying his best to ignore that he looked around. Opal was standing nearby, she had acquired a stick from somewhere and appeared to be prodding Red¡¯s¡­ body with it? The diminutive Kobold was collapsed face first on the ground.


    ¡°What happened here?¡±


    He felt Lyra¡¯s fingers enclose his ears as she managed to steady herself.


    ¡°I- I let him out the dimensional bag-¡±


    ¡°And?¡±


    ¡°He uh, saw the city, and uhm, immediately fainted flat.¡±


    ¡°Oh, well I guess I can understand that, it¡¯s almost too much to look at for me.¡±


    He ignored that he was currently avoiding looking at the sprawling city.


    ¡°If I pull back can you try walking up and down?¡±


    He felt her hands tighten on his ears, but then she nodded.


    He pulled back into the cloud of wool and was faced once more with the black wall.


    This time he waited a moment and then turned his head at an angle, poking one wolfish ear into the dark. Soft muffled wool then cool air, along with a yelp of alarm. He felt a hand grab hold of his ear.


    ¡°R-Rain, I can''t have a freaking wolf ear sticking out of my leg!¡±


    ¡°It won''t make you look any sillier than normal sheepy,¡± he heard Opal say.


    ¡°I don''t need your ignorant commentary! Stick to Kobold poking!¡±


    He heard a huff and then what sounded like wood tapping at scale.


    Rain hrmmed and pulled back. This time he tried a more awkward angle, angling his head so that he was going in closed eye first. He opened his eye once he felt air and found himself close down by the grass, which was a strange experience to say the least.


    ¡°Oh gods, this is starting to make me feel ill!¡± came a very distant voice.


    He looked up to find Lyra looking down at her thigh in utter dismay. He supposed a yellow eye peering out of her wool wasn''t a very nice sight to see.


    He blinked as he realised that he had heard her despite his ear still being inside of wool space. He pulled back, and yes, he could still hear talking, his exceptional hearing just about able to pick up the sounds of a voice.


    He scratched at his jaw and frowned. That made a certain amount of sense, the room¡¯s air was being refreshed when the skill was active which meant air was coming through the wool barrier, and that apparently meant sound too.


    He spent the next half hour experimenting with the ability, pushing its limits, a series of yellow eyes appearing amongst the increasingly concerned Lyra¡¯s wool, as well as noses and ears.


    Satisfied he pulled free, slowly, so as not to over stimulate the sheep girl.


    He found Opal with a bleary Red hanging of her shoulders. As he watched the Kobold¡¯s head slowly raised, wobbling side to side, his eyes moving until they focused on the city, at which point the Kobold shrieked and promptly fainted again, flopping against Opal¡¯s shoulder and nearly dragging her down.


    ¡°He shouldn''t be so bad once actually inside Florens, it¡¯s just from above that it¡¯s a bit much for him I think.¡±


    Rain nodded, still carefully looking away from the city.


    ¡°I think we¡¯re ready.


    ¡°I¡¯m not! Do you have any idea how unsettling it is to look down and see a big yellow eye in your fluff!? I¡¯m going to need a spa day just to recover from this nightmare!¡±


    Rain carefully plucked the unconscious Kobold from Opal¡¯s shoulder and lifted him into the air, delivering him into the dimensional bag on Lyra¡¯s hip.


    ¡°Can you make do until we get through the gate?¡±


    The sheep girl sighed. ¡°Yes, I guess.¡±


    She sat down and crossed her legs allowing Rain to enter, which he did so after a moment, leaving her breathy.


    Turning around once inside he poked an eye through the barrier and found the two girls ambling down the slope, lush long grass swaying around them in the warm summer breeze. It was a long way from the city, the sheer size of it made judging distance difficult and he wondered if Lyra would even be able to keep the skill active the entire time without fainting.


    Soon they came down to the road that ran toward the city gate. It was¡­ extremely busy. A solid line of wagons and carts and caravans pulled by horses or sometimes just crowds of exhausted looking goblins and hobgoblins tied with long ropes.


    The line moved steadily and ahead the gatehouse neared. The gatehouse alone was multiple times larger than any one building in Lynthia, more like some monstrous castle of its own, tall and rectangular, its towering white walls indomitable. From his position low on Lyra¡¯s thigh he couldn''t help but feel even more awed by the scale of it. He readjusted his position and heard a muffled yelp of distress as he peered from the ball of fluff on top Lyra¡¯s chest.


    The gate still appeared unbelievably huge even from higher up. Rain could absolutely admit to himself he was feeling like a tourist, like some ignorant backwater leveler from the countryside gawping at the sights, he could also admit he kind of liked it. Seeing a new place like this, unlike anything he had ever known before and beyond stunning was, well, fun. He was a giant terrifying monster that made people cower in fright, but he was also currently a tourist.


    His view was suddenly blocked by a hand and he saw the flicker of a shadow passing by. Lyra blocking a person on the road from looking too closely.


    Not wanting to miss anything he returned to the more stealthy position of her thigh and people-watched the people passing by on the gatehouse road. To his surprise there were a lot of the so called Lapine, a hell of a lot, rabbit people that seemed to all have black fur, their clothes well cared for and styled with chevrons. He spotted a herd of haughty centaurs passing by, heads held high, bodies draped with intricate silk dresses. They wore saddlebags on their horse backs which clattered with metals with every hooved step.


    There were just so many peoples. Humans, Halflings, Dwarves and Drakes, Minotaurs, Leonins, Orcs and Satyrs, Felis and bird-like Wren, strangely elegant and colourful insect like things he didn''t even know the word for, and myriad other species and as many again mixed breeds.


    He was fairly sure he had settled into some kind of mild shock.


    He shifted as a massive cart rumbled past, Lyra having to grab Opal by the shoulder to haul her back. The Goblin didn''t seem much better than himself, staring around in wonder.


    They weren''t even in the city yet! Clearly this might become a problem.


    He continued to stare as they passed up the road and the huge shadow of the gatehouse fell over them. Soon they were passing into the tunnel through the building, dozens of portcullises one after the other raised over head, each beam that made up their grids as thick as a tree trunk.


    The crowd packed in tight and Rain had to take care as Opal and Lyra were squeezed between a family of Minotaurs and a band of scantily clad Satyrs.


    He was settling in to wait when Lyra urgently hissed.


    ¡°Elf!¡±


    His eye swivelled and he caught sight of an Elf approaching up above on the long spars of wood that crisscrossed above the crowd, a grid used by the guards to look down on them like so much cattle.


    In a moment he pulled back fully into wool space and then moved his ear as close to the black wall as he could without pushing through, stilling his breath as he listened furiously.


    ¡°Uh-uhmm, i-is there a problem?¡± came Lyra¡¯s quavered voice.


    The sound of boots striking stone followed and Rain imagined that the Elf had jumped down from the wood above.


    ¡°A problem?¡± came a new female voice. ¡°Only that you''re radiating more magic than anyone else I¡¯ve seen today, and that''s no small feat considering who I''ve seen through.¡±


    ¡°MY BAG!¡± blurted Lyra.


    A moment of silence followed.


    ¡°Your¡­ bag?¡±


    ¡°Yes! It''s my dimensional bag, it''s all magicy and stuff! That''s what you''re picking up!¡±


    Rain could feel his paw edging toward his face. What was she doing?! The Elf was never going to believe her panicky words.


    ¡°No. It''s really not.¡± said the Elf.


    Paw met face and Rain groaned.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 117

    ¡°No it really is! Mother gave me the bag and it¡¯s really powerful and magicy!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a dimensional bag, yes, I come across them often enough. Let me see inside.¡±


    ¡°Well gosh, if it¡¯s really that important to you.¡±


    The shuffle of something moving was heard, then the rattle of coin as the apparent dimensional bag was looked into.


    ¡°...Miss are you aware you have a dead Kobold in your bag?¡±


    ¡°Oh no, Reddy is just sleeping!¡±


    ¡°...Right. In any case this is clearly not the cause.¡±


    ¡°Really? Well I did try to expand it, maybe that makes it more magical!¡±


    There was a moment of pause.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you did what now?¡±


    ¡°Yes! I couldn''t fit all my furniture inside so I took this knife-


    ¡°Woah! What do you think you''re doing! Where the hell did that come from!?¡±


    ¡°Oh this? It¡¯s just my magic knife, it¡¯s super magic. Anyway, I took my magic knife and I poked it into the stone inside the bag a few times and wiggled it around. It went in really easy!¡±


    ¡°I... see,¡± came an increasingly rattled voice. ¡°Do you not know why that is a bad idea?¡±


    ¡°Mmm, well Reddy kept screaming about nightmarish creatures dwelling on the other side trying to claw their way through and eat him but I didn''t believe that, it¡¯s probably fine, he''s just a big Kobold baby. Why is there a reason?¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve heard things, and- look, I¡­ highly advise you to take that bag and get it repaired as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°You think so? I¡¯ve heard it creaking and groaning sometimes like there¡¯s something trying to break through, and there are these cracks in the stone getting bigger and bigger as every hour passes, but that''s just normal right?¡±


    ¡°NO! I- I- look you silly noble, you need to get that thing to an Artificer, as soon as you can and- Just, just follow me okay, quickly now. You move out of the way! Guard on business coming through!¡±


    Rain settled back, not quite sure what was happening. Lyra had clearly tricked the guard into believing that the source of magic she had sensed was emanating from the bag and not her wool space, and the guard seemed decidedly unsettled by that, scared even, and was now giving them a personal escort through the tunnel gatehouse and into the city.


    He tried to think why, well, maybe that wasn¡¯t that hard to imagine. A space that caused nightmares when slept inside? That would give birth to endless rumours and creepy stories that would spread and spread and especially spread to a guard¡¯s ears who regularly came into contact with the bags due to the sheer number of people passing into the city.


    The guard could have heard some truly disturbing things and¡­ Lyra had apparently calculated and played into that?


    Not bad.


    The sound of the crowd echoing in the tunnel slowly softened to his ears and he realised that they had passed into the city proper. He almost looked through then and there in his eagerness to see but managed to restrain himself, at least for a moment.


    ¡°Wow, thanks! All that queuing was soooo boring!¡±


    ¡°I didn''t do it for your convenience Miss, you need to get that bag-


    ¡°Aww but I wanted to have a spa day!¡±


    He heard the Elf making a sound of agonised frustration.


    ¡°No, no spa day. Go immediately to the Artificers district and get that bag fixed!¡±


    There was a long sigh, followed by what sounded like Lyra flipping her hair. ¡°Fiiiine. I¡¯ll go get it checked out or whatever, I am doing this as a favour to you you know, it¡¯s such a bother, you should honestly be grateful.¡±


    Rain wouldn''t have been surprised to hear the Elf¡¯s head explode, as it was he was fairly sure he could hear her actively grinding her teeth together.


    ¡°Well, bye bye guard person! Have a nice day doing guard things!¡±


    ¡°Just go!¡± came a strangled Elven voice in reply.


    Rain waited a moment, then unable to stop himself he peeked through the darkness.


    Light, and crowds, and tall white stone buildings half a dozen storeys tall rising all around, they were inside of Florens!


    ¡°That went well,¡± he heard a whisper from Lyra. ¡°I¡¯ll go a little deeper where it''s less busy and find an alley, I should be alright to hold the space open until then.¡±


    He blinked in reply.


    Then he got back to city watching.


    He wasn¡¯t the only one, Opal was staring with her mouth slightly parted, eyes wide, apparently still lost for words.


    He followed her gaze and found she was looking at a particularly large building that they were approaching, one that the road from the gatehouse seemed to split around and beneath two huge flat metal arms that arched down from the top of the building to the ground, the official entrance to the city? He couldn''t say, but that was hardly the only thing he didn''t understand, the occasional bronze open bell shaped things attached to the tops of buildings were also a curiosity, the arcing lines of metal that were embedded in the road around the large building too.


    The city was filled with strange things and beautiful white stone architecture, that and colorful myriad species of leveler.


    He drew back and poked his nose through and then drew in air.


    The smell of the city struck, a scent scape larger than anything he had scented before, an intricately complex thing that covered everything from crisp spices to acrid forge smoke to ticklish perfumes to horse manure to tangy smitheries and delicious markets and cookeries to, well, a million other things he had no idea of. It was a lot to take in with his fine sense of smell and he almost wanted to spend forever just scenting the city. He did remain like that for a number of minutes.


    But that meant he couldn''t see and more than anything he wanted to take in the city¡¯s sights.


    He returned to gazing through Lyra¡¯s wool and found that they had moved deeper into the city and the crowds were becoming¡­ busy, in fact Lyra was being elbowed and jostled and was forced to keep a hand on Opal¡¯s shoulder to stop her from being swept away as the moving crowd became increasingly packed in.


    ¡°Th-there might be a small problem here,¡± muttered Lyra trying to push past but finding she simply lacked the strength. Levelers who tended to be strong were not pushed aside easily by a sheep girl who wasn''t very strong.


    She could do nothing as she was swept through the city and pulled into ever larger streets filled with ever larger crowds. The crowd was more than a crowd now, it seemed to have intent, the people cheering as they walked, colourful petals falling from the sky as those atop the buildings lining the street threw them from baskets.


    Rain boggled as a full sized longboat suddenly turned into the street they were on. The wooden thing was being lifted by the crowd, their level gifted strength allowing them to hold it above their heads and pass it on, the thing quite literally sailing the crowd.


    The boat itself was fronted with a styled wooden dragon head, and its black sail was marked with a white flower. The deck however was filled end to end with black iron cages, cage after cage after cage stacked and layered, and each of them held a person, a leveler.


    He felt Lyra move and then heard her voice once more.


    ¡°Ah, so this also might be a small problem.¡±


    ¡°What is going on here sheepy,¡± hissed Opal, ¡°What are those levelers doing on that huge boat thing?¡±


    They had been moving as they spoke and Rain saw that they had moved beyond the buildings and had passed onto a long bridge that extended over a staggeringly wide river. The sight of a longboat sailing over a bridge that itself crossed water was a strange one to say the least.


    Lyra spoke quietly as they walked. ¡°Well, every city or town has its, uhm, well rules really, and those rules are whatever the Ranker of a city or town wishes them to be, whatever they say goes whether that''s no rules or lots of rules. Follow the rules or the Ranker crushes you.¡±


    ¡°And this?¡±


    ¡°Wellll some Rankers are a bit more dramatic than others with how they enforce their rules, aheh.¡±


    The parade continued over the bridge until it eventually reached the end and came amongst tall white stone buildings once more, the distant pyrite growth looming closer than ever over the rooftops. Were they nearing the estates of the family dynasties Rain had to wonder, his blood pumping at the thought.


    The crowd was rushing now, practically jogging, buildings flashing by until they suddenly spilled out onto a wide square, rapidly filling it as the longboat was moved from hand to hand,


    crossing the square until it was put down beside a huge gold and marble white throne set high on a wide stepped structure made of heavy black stone. The stepped structure was draped with silks and various scantily clad levelers of various species were scattered around it, male and female. It seemed a place for public hearings that had been made luxurious and comfortable.


    The crowd formed around the structure in a ring.


    Unfortunately, Lyra found herself near the front, her and Opal both given an unwilling front row seat due to the eager crowd.


    Rain could hear Lyra start to breathe harder, struggling to keep her Skill active, exhaustion clearly taking hold. He hoped this wouldn''t take long and peered out over the space to the throne and who was sat upon it.


    An enormous black furred Lapine sat on the throne, easily seven foot tall the leveler looked every inch the Ranker he was. Domination and power given form. Muscular body scarred with battle, only wearing a pair of baggy chevron styled shorts that ran to his knees where they cuffed tight, he lazed in his throne, legs spread wide, head resting against one paw curled into a fist, long Lapine ears lolling with gravity. He seemed almost bored.


    But then Rain looked closer at the Lapine. There was¡­ something wrong with his eyes.


    It took him a moment to understand what he was looking at, the Lapine¡¯s eyes had been cut at and sliced, the iris a grey white underneath lines of scars crisscrossing his eyeballs.


    The Ranker was completely and entirely blind.


    Rain watched in disbelief as he lifted a great paw and fumbled to his side, an oiled human male wearing silks was holding a bowl out for him and swiftly moved it to the Ranker¡¯s clumsy paw where he grabbed up the candied contents and lifted them to his mouth and began chewing.


    Rain had a burning question.


    ¡°Uhm, You¡¯re probably wondering how the Ranker is still the Ranker when he¡¯s blind Rain.¡±


    Yes, that was the burning question.


    Lyra continued whispering, ¡°and you''re probably thinking that he must have some Skill or magic to work around that, or his other senses are unnaturally accurate, or it¡¯s a trick and he can still kinda see.¡± She paused, ¡°There¡¯s nothing, he is as blind and as clumsy as a normal blind person, it¡¯s just, it doesn''t matter, he¡¯s so flipping strong that he cannot be killed. I¡¯ve heard of people trying to take his place as Ranker, using his blindness to their advantage. It didn''t matter in the slightest, every one of them died, and extremely horribly. Elzodium has been the Ranker of Florens for over a decade, he is utterly terrifying and I hate to think of how high his level must be.¡±


    That¡­ was concerning to hear.


    He focused back on the massive Lapine who was lazily running a paw through his ears and yawning.


    A tall and particularly slim Elf with long blonde hair and blonde eyebrows and wearing neat all white clothing trimmed with gold stepped from the crowd.


    ¡°Ranker, we, ah, have a collection of levelers who went against your wishes for you to look- I m-mean s-sentence!¡±


    The Lapine lifted another pawful of candies to his mouth and didn''t respond. The Elf stood in increasingly uncomfortable and agitated silence until finally, he could take no more.


    ¡°Uhm, b-bring them out! Bring them out for the Ranker!¡±


    The crowd around the now lowered longboat shifted and guards began climbing up its sides, unlocking cages and then kicking their occupants over the side to fall to the flagstones below, some crying out as they landed badly.


    Then, once done, the guards pushed and shoved at the group of prisoners, forming them into a vague line, a very unhappy line.


    The tall Elf stepped forward and grabbed the nearest, a broad shouldered man with long hair, he hauled on him and the man was sent sprawling to the ground where the Elf grabbed his hair, dragging him closer to the base of the structure the throne was set atop of.


    ¡°Th-this one Ranker! This one you will want to hear of!¡±


    The Ranker paused. ¡°Describe them.¡± came a deep voice in keeping with his size.


    ¡°H-human! And with black hair, on the larger side as humans go, oh, and uh, male!¡±


    ¡°Attractive? Does he have an appealing body?¡±


    ¡°Uh,¡± the Elf looked down at the grizzled man below, ¡°N-not really? I think?¡±


    The Ranker remained silent, lifting another pawful of candies to his mouth.


    Not sure what else to do and wishing to avoid another awkward silence the Elf lifted a sheet of paper to his eyes.


    ¡°This one broke your rules about letting large monsters into the city, he is not of an especially high level or a noble, that uh, might have been why things went, well, very badly.¡±


    The Ranker flicked an ear. An order to continue.


    ¡°Uhm that is, he took a Panthara into the city-¡±


    The crowd broke out with cries of anger at that, and the Elf had to raise his voice to be heard.


    ¡°-T-Took a Panthara in chained with forty three locks, he and his crew assumed they had the thing under control, perhaps they did at one point, but in the night the Panthara learned from scratch how to pick the locks using its talons as best we can tell. It broke free and went on to kill one hundred and sixty seven people before it was found and killed.¡±


    ¡°Taking a monster like that into my city? I do not like that, I do not like that at all.¡± gravelled the Ranker. ¡°Cut off his hands and put him and his people, hmmm, as far down in the pit as can be managed. If he likes Pantharas so much then he can visit their hives.¡±


    The crowd cheered as the man screamed.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 118

    The crowd only seemed to grow louder and more bloodthirsty as the Ranker sentenced those put before him, the prisoner¡¯s screams on hearing their fate barely heard over the cheers, the volume rising with each mention of the ¡®pit¡¯, fists thrust into the air, the square echoing with the roar until chants of PIT! PIT! PIT! were rolling across the space in waves.


    Elzodium didn''t react in the slightest, he may as well have been in private for all the attention he paid the excitable crowd, casually waving a paw for the next prisoner to be brought forward before reaching out for another fist full of candies from his harem.


    The line wasn¡¯t small but, eventually, the longboat full of prisoners had all been sentenced, some sentenced with just a grunt and the word ¡°pit¡± by the lazing Ranker, but all given at least a word. The last was dragged away and then the crowd was left with nothing to cheer, only Elzodium yawning, as though he couldn''t care less that he was surrounded by tens of thousands of people, resting his paw on his chest as he slouched in his giant throne.


    The Ranker¡¯s eyes closed and everyone watched, waiting for something to happen.


    Instead, the Ranker began to softly snore.


    A few awkward minutes of murmuring passed by with the crowd wondering if their Ranker had really and truly just taken a nap and forgotten all of them were there. But then once they realised that was exactly what had happened they slowly began to dissipate. The energy that had charged the crowd a moment ago subdued as they realised they weren¡¯t even an  afterthought to Elzodium. The excitement was over.


    Which was fortunate as Lyra was on her last legs, panting and sweating as she hung onto Opal, hands on the Goblin¡¯s shoulders as she tried to keep herself upright and the crucial wool space Skill active.


    Rain was more than a little worried. If Lyra fainted right now he would be trapped inside, and if she did not wake up quickly, well, he would most likely die. He could climb free of her wool, but the problem with that was he would be immediately attacked by the bloodthirsty crowd of levelers, and more importantly the Ranker.


    He held no illusions about the strength of Elzodium and his chances against him. He might have had hard-fought success against Bane but there was no guarantees with this one, especially as Elzodium was the Ranker of an entire Mega City and presumably far far far higher leveled than a mere town Ranker.


    He couldn''t leave, so that left him stuck and hoping for a snatched chance to escape out of view before the sheep girl collapsed.


    It seemed that he had made the right choice as the crowd rapidly disintegrated, the many streets that fed into the square syphoning it away in every direction, the varying species eager to get on with their day.


    Opal was leading the way now as Lyra was focusing on just staying conscious, carefully winding her way around and by the flows of people. Luckily Opal seemed to understand that they were in a dangerous situation and was moving Lyra along quickly, Rain¡¯s recent near-death experience clearly leaving an impression on her.


    They made their way through the streets and then through alleys until they found safe haven, an empty alley amongst a cobweb of deserted alleys well away from the heaving city streets, the buildings tall around them and muffling the sounds of the city. The sheep girl stumbled across the cobble as she was part carried, barely hanging onto Opal¡¯s shoulders.


    Then with shaky legs she slumped against the wall.


    ¡°O-Okay Rain y-you can come out now.¡± she managed to get out between breaths.


    Rain, waiting on the other side, heard her, but he didn''t move. His eye was peering from her black wooled thigh and had just caught sight of a number of levelers entering the far end of the alley.


    ¡°Wha-what are you waiting for?¡± panted Lyra, her voice directed at her wool covered arm.


    ¡°Levelers,¡± hissed Opal, watching the group of levelers approach and causing Lyra to look up in surprise.


    There were three of them. One a Lapine, that is to say a black-furred rabbit folk with chevron styled clothing, and the other two Human, two men in scuffed leather armour.


    Unlike other Lapine that Rain had seen this Lapine looked¡­ significantly rougher. Old scars that hadn''t been treated with healing potions made long ragged tracks in his fur and there were many triangular knicks and knife cuts on his ears. He was the same as the two men in that way, like they¡¯d seen a lot of fighting with blades.


    They carried themselves casually, cocky in their self confidence, as though they owned everything they walked on. It only took a moment for Rain to get the impression that these three were part of some kind of gang.


    Their steps slowed as they approached and paws and hands came to rest on the pommels of blades hanging from hips.


    The Lapine eyed Lyra.


    ¡°Do you know what dye is little sheep?¡±


    Lyra¡¯s head wobbled as it moved, breath coming in pants.


    ¡°Wha-?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a white wooled half-woollie-half-elf, there aren''t that many of that mix around. A little bit of dye and you''re nice and disguised. Which is likely a pretty important thing to be doing if, hypothetically, there were a large bounty on your head. It¡¯s the first thing I¡¯d do, and since I¡¯m me, a dyed half woollie is also the first thing I¡¯d be looking out for. Right, Lyra Bellerhorn?¡±


    It took Lyra a few seconds to grasp what they were saying but when she did the outrage seemed to give her life and she straightened from the wall, taking a half step toward them.


    ¡°Are you saying what I think you''re saying!? Half woollies are being attacked randomly? Even those who have nothing to do with that bounty!? Those who are a completely different shade of wool!?¡± She looked on the verge of tears. ¡°Innocent half woollies being harassed or worse killed?! No! No...That- that can''t be¡­¡±


    The gang seemed taken aback by her sudden emotional outburst.


    ¡°Interesting reaction to the name,¡± murmured one to the side. He drew steel, the blade making a terrible metallic scrape as it came free from his scabbard.


    The Lapine who had spoken followed his example, flicking free a scratched up short sword. ¡°You know, it¡¯s not like I don''t see your point of view girl. But fifty thousand gold in a city like this? There are gangs making marks of half woolies everywhere. One of us is gonna tag the genuine bitch at some point and get minted, just a matter of time. It¡¯s a competition over our rivals see, we can''t let them get the real mark first or it¡¯d be all over for us, that gold could fund an army.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s- that''s - all because of¡­ I- I don''t want it to be like this!¡± Lyra seemed genuinely upset that half woollies were being targeted. Verging on distraught, her fists curled at her sides. This could not be allowed to go on.


    ¡°Now, I know you may not actually be her, but it¡¯s just not worth the risk of letting slide such a prize on the off chance you are.¡± The Lapine smiled showing a shiny silver tooth. ¡°Course if we can''t bag anything better than you I¡¯m gonna try my luck dying your wool white and delivering your body to the lord like that.¡±


    Tears in the corners of her eyes, Lyra gave the Lapine a defiant look.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to let you go after anyone else! Or-or well, that is, he isn¡¯t, he¡¯s going to stop you!¡±


    The gang paused and glanced around, clearly wondering if there was somebody else sneaking up on them as there was clearly no male with the girls. The alley remained deserted however and their eyes returned to Lyra who was now holding her forearms together in front of her chest in an expanse of black wool.


    ¡°Care, she¡¯s trying to make a play using her Class. Let''s just end her already,¡± snarled the Lapine, nose wrinkling in irritation.


    He whipped his blade up and slashed down at Lyra, a diminutive sheep girl against a level empowered sword blow, impossible to stop, the blade meteoring down, air rushing, her knees shaking, eyes wide.


    ¡°RAIN!¡± cried Lyra, and a massive paw tore from her arm fluff and engulfed the Lapine¡¯s entire head then ripped him off his feet and dragged him inside of her wool in one violent motion.


    It took less than a second. The gang member was there, and then he wasn¡¯t.


    The remaining two gang members didn''t seem to have registered what had just happened, their gaze wandering from the muddy cobble where the Lapine had stood then up to the shaky hyperventilating sheep girl.


    ¡°I- I¡¯m sorry! I- I can''t just let you go around killing random half woollies! I- I¡¯m sorry! He¡¯ll make it quick, p-probably!¡±


    She took a step forward.


    ¡°What is this? Illusions? Is that your Class? You hid him from sight, that''s all.¡±  One of the two remaining spat wetly to the side and lunged for her, blade stabbing for her still held up arms.


    The blade came on, but then disappeared inside a massive paw along with half his forearm.


    The man screamed as he was dragged inside, the noise abruptly cut off as his head vanished into the boiling cloud of fluff, and then he was all gone.


    The last of the three clearly thought differently of his comrade¡¯s bravado and immediately turned on his heel to run, his sword falling from his hand to clang and clatter against the cobble, shoes slapping stone as he fled for his life.


    He managed four steps before a small green leg was extended out at the perfect moment, colliding with his foot and sending him crashing to the ground in a heap, the air forced from his lungs in a rush with the impact.


    He flailed at the cobble for a moment before scrambling to his hands and knees, frantically trying to crawl away.


    His motions came to a sudden halt however and he sprawled across the ground once more as something latched onto his ankle.


    The man turned horrified eyes back on Lyra and found her crouching on the ground, arms wrapped around legs, and a huge black arm emerging from her billowing wool, a huge black arm that extended across the ground and was latched onto his ankle.


    The arm began to retract.


    ¡°N-No NO! NO! NO!¡± screamed the man as he was hauled across the ground. He clawed at the cobblestones with his fingers, using his level empowered strength to hold on.


    It didn''t matter. One by one his fingernails snapped off and he was left scratching frantically at the ground with bloody fingertips as he was inexorably drawn toward the terrible fluff.


    ¡°Uhm, I¡¯m s-sorry! J-just let it happen!¡± said Lyra, trying to comfort the man.


    The man screamed even harder at that, that is until his head disappeared inside the wool, his arms and blood soaked fingers outside clutching at the ground for a moment longer before suddenly spasming and going as limp as wet rope.


    His flopped arms were dragged fully inside.


    Lyra¡¯s face was as pale as a sheet, and she looked at her black wooled arms in an extremely unsettled way. Her paleness wasn¡¯t entirely due to the sight of seeing three gang members disappear into her wool of course and the exertion of holding the Skill together for so long abruptly crashed home causing her to stagger across the cobble, barely keeping upright.


    ¡°Rain,¡± cried Opal grabbing at the sheep girl¡¯s hips and trying to stop her from falling, ¡°Sheepy¡¯s going to lose it! Get out quick!¡±


    Opal kicked the sheep girl¡¯s hoof, momentarily pressing her legs together, and her wool boiled outward, a huge head ripping free from the dark along with paws and a chest then body as Rain crawled free of sheep girl¡¯s cloud of wool.


    Just in time too as her wool washed to white as his tail flicked free.


    Lyra collapsed. Unconscious before she hit the ground.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 119

    Rain blinked in the light and then slowly rose to his full height, his full height, completely and entirely visible to anyone looking, a hulking nine foot five.


    ¡°Hey, uh, wolfy, kinda noticeable right now, just saying¡­¡± said Opal, one eyebrow raised.


    Rain turned to Lyra and set his lips in a line finding her still unconscious. She¡¯d clearly gone far over her limit and was suffering the backlash, which was a problem because who knew when she would regain consciousness. Opal crouched down and experimentally poked her. The sheep girl let out a snore in reply and then promptly continued snoring. It was surprisingly loud.


    Rain gave the sleeping sheep a dismayed look, then his eyes darted around the alley. By some luck it seemed that there had been no one near enough to hear the screams, or at least no one who had heard them and wanted to investigate.


    But that didn''t make him any less exposed, it would only take one leveler to stumble upon him then run shouting for help and levelers would soon be magnetically drawn in. First a trickle, then a stream then a flood, as all the levelers in the area who wanted to level came like moths to a flame.


    He couldn''t fight the city, which meant he needed to hide, and quickly.


    His eyes darted to the tall walls and the nearest door. Most of the doors of the alley seemed small, but this one was larger and away from the others, a double door, in fact he was sure he was looking at some kind of warehouse.


    Without hesitation he lunged for it and grabbed the handle. Locked. He tried to pull on it but the metal handle immediately snapped off the door and was crushed flat in his pads. Not good. Frustrated now, he pressed against the door, trying to force it open. The doors were promptly ripped off their hinges and crashed down against the floor inside, sliding across the flagstones in a scatter of dust.


    Rain growled in vexation but didn''t pause to grab up Lyra¡¯s limp body and then Opal and then duck inside.


    The space was pitch black dark, lacking windows, motes of dust suspended in the beam of light that spilt through the broken down entrance. Yes, this place would do.


    He found the warehouse seemingly empty, disused? Only a few huge crates were scattered across the flagstones and amongst the heavy support columns that disappeared into the gloom and rafters above.


    He carefully arranged the sheep girl against one of the crates, getting Opal to fetch her spare clothing she kept in the dimensional bag then rolling them up to use as a neck pillow.


    Once satisfied she was comfortable he stepped away to investigate the warehouse, checking to see if there were any levelers hiding nearby. He wasn¡¯t going to take for granted its abandonment.


    Opal was left crouched by Lyra. The Goblin gave her an impatient look, the sheep girl had her head lolled to the side, mouth parted, openly snoring with a spot of drool on her cheek.


    She was¡­ a little adorable to see like that, even Opal had to admit that, and she dabbed the drool away with one of Lyras spare shirts. She quickly glanced around to make sure no one had seen her do such a thing.


    It was as she was peering into the dark wondering if she¡¯d seen movement that voices echoed from outside. A lot of voices.


    Dismayed. She turned to the door, shadows of figures moving across the cobble just visible through the rectangular entrance.


    ¡°Well, where are they?¡±


    ¡°Not here.¡±


    ¡°Amazing observation skills, no really, how did you figure that one out.¡±


    ¡°Not here.¡± grunted back the same voice


    There came an exasperated sigh, ¡°look, they either bagged their mark or they didn''t. We got our head, they¡¯ll have to deal with the consequences of fucking off-


    ¡°What if they took her head and went to claim the bounty themselves?¡± came a third voice.


    The first voice paused before replying, ¡°No, far too cowardly, they¡¯re well aware what happens if someone goes sideways on us.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re wrong, look, this blood here doesn''t tell us all we need to know?¡± the third voice insisted. ¡°They killed the half and then fled. They figured they got the real deal and are going to claim the Fifty K.¡±


    ¡°Blood?¡± came the first voice, then a moment of silence, ¡°This¡­ isn''t enough blood from a decapitation, or a blade wound¡­ and it¡¯s in long ragged lines, and these¡­ these are broken fingernails, someone was dragged against there will here.¡±


    More silence followed that.


    ¡°The half woollie?¡±


    ¡°You think they¡¯d bother keeping her alive? No, something happened here, I can feel it.¡±


    ¡°Pipe down a sec, I think I hear something.¡±


    The voices outside fell dead silent and Opal¡¯s eyes widened as she realised that Lyra was snoring loudly enough to be heard. She slapped her hands over the sheep girl¡¯s mouth, then nose as the noise didn''t stop. A muffled but determined snore continued behind her hands.


    It was all too late. The shadows in the light outside approached the door.


    ¡°This door was broken down, broken down by force, the lads must have come through here, or more likely than not are still inside.¡±


    The light was blocked by one of the figures and Opal¡¯s eyes adjusted until she could see them. It was a half-human half-Lapine. Tall scarred ears emerging from lank black hair above a pale face. The tall figure strode into the warehouse and narrowed his eyes, ears twitching irritably. A brown leather bag was tied at his hip, the leather shaped around the head contained inside and outlining a nose, a chin. The outside of the bag was smeared with hastily wiped away gore.


    It didn''t take him long to spot them, the entrance just casting enough light into the gloom to spill onto Lyra¡¯s legs and front.


    ¡°The mark is here. Thought she was decapitated for a moment, but no, she¡¯s whole. Can''t see the others. That snore suggests she''s alive to me, just unconscious.¡±


    A large muscular Lapine passed by the half-Lapine and squinted in the two girls direction.


    ¡°Where¡¯re the others then?¡±


    ¡°Spooked no doubt. Something happened. If I had to guess she has some Class or other they weren''t ready for and thought they were going to get caught out, underestimated her level.¡± As he spoke levelers spilled in around him, two dozen, mostly Lapine with a number of Humans. ¡°Course we won''t have that problem, especially as she looks half-dead.¡±


    He took a step forward and flicked a hatchet free from his belt, spinning it casually in hand, the light from outside sparkling along the razor sharp edge, then dimming as he moved deeper into the warehouse.


    ¡°You aren''t getting her!¡± said Opal stepping between them, hooked harpy talon already in hand.


    The half ignored her and took another step forward.


    ¡°Think it was talkin to you boss,¡± grunted the muscular Lapine


    ¡°It¡¯s a Goblin, just toss it aside or step on it, I don¡¯t care.¡±


    ¡°B-boss! Boss! Th-there-¡± came a squawk from behind and the half scowled before turning.


    ¡°What?! What is it now!¡±


    ¡°Th-there was a noise and I t-turned and they¡¯re, gone!¡±


    ¡°Who¡¯s gone? What are you blathering about?¡±


    ¡°Everyone who was standing behind me,¡± whimpered the Lapine.


    ¡°How many?¡±


    ¡°I- I don''t know! Maybe six? Why¡¯d you tell them to leave boss?¡±


    ¡°I didn''t tell anyone to leave. None of you are allowed to leave.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re all going to die in here,¡± murmured Opal.


    The half Lapine wrinkled his nose and snapped back to the Goblin girl ¡°Why haven''t you kille-¡± but the words died on his lips as he found the muscular Lapine was gone too.


    He blinked in surprise and then peered into the gloom, squinting, trying to see where he had gone. Had he run off into the dark?


    Muttering made him turn back to his dozen strong crew. Hadn''t it only been six missing? They were nearing him now, forming a ring, blades heald out in all directions, watching to see what was taking them. All nine of them were hardened gang members, grizzled, veterans of the street. He licked his lip. Something was wrong here.


    The door seemed distant now, and the dark very very oppressive. They squeezed close and the half elbowed the Lapine next to him in the side as they crushed in, breathing heavy, eyes wide.


    As it was he had a front row seat as something closed around the Lapine¡¯s head and then pulled him up in the darkness above in one swift motion.


    A moment passed and then came a grizzly crunch followed by bone crackling and flesh parting. The gang members were looking straight up when the blood waterfalled down on them, sheets of sticky red filled with bits of meat sheeting over the remaining seven, splashing over their upturned faces.


    Before the screaming started the half Lapine caught sight of something in the dark, a pair of huge yellow eyes, looking down on him. He could almost hear his Laporine half screaming in terror on a primal level as he looked into those yellow eyes. A rabbit before something terrible that lurked in the night.


    The others fled from around him, running to the open door and sunlight, escape.


    They might have made it even still, but then pitch black goop started rolling down from the top of the door frame, black ichor that rolled and squirmed with claws and teeth and pincers, liquified nightmare.


    The gang members dived for the rapidly diminishing light at the bottom, but they weren''t even close to making it. The darkness oozed down to the bottom fully blocking the entrance and the light in the warehouse space snapped off like a smothered light.


    Absolute pitch black darkness, the kind where you could not see your hands in front of your face.


    The crowd of levelers seemed to think they could rush the stuff covering the exit, and many of them tackled it in their panic. Their cries descended into animalistic screams as they were scratched and cut by the claw covered wall and their flesh started to do things they couldn''t see, only feel, their bodies parting beneath their fingers and paws.


    Raw panic took hold and many of them fled blindly into the warehouse.


    One by one the panicked voices were cut off, fearful cries disappearing in silence or sometimes a crunch or a snap.


    Then there was silence.


    The half Lapine stood alone, frozen, unsure what to do, his panted breaths loud in his rabbit ears, sweat rolling down his skin in rivulets, the bag on his hip heavy, throat constricted.


    ¡°You should have stayed away,¡± came a dark gravelled voice from nearby.


    The half Lapine shrieked and leapt backwards, sword slashing at the air, eyes wild. Not that it mattered. His back hit a wall of fur and then a pair of paws wrapped around his head, and then he was being lifted, feet kicking at air, and then there was only pain and then there was nothing.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 120

    ¡°I don''t like it, I don''t like this at all¡± grumbled Rain.


    ¡°Yeah, well, eating half a gang and spreading bits of them all over a warehouse, along with gods knows how much blood, is going to cause some problems okay?¡± Lyra waved her arms wildly in the general direction that the blood was in, which happened to be pretty much every direction. ¡°I mean what do you think is going to happen if somebody comes across this? Bad things, that¡¯s what! Guard things!¡±


    Rain set his lips in a line and eyed her, then lowered his gaze to the two cleaning potions she had in her hands. He¡¯d already used one to clean his fur. She wanted to use more?


    ¡°But do we have to use my valuable cleaning potions? They are¡­ limited.¡±


    ¡°Unless you can magic several mops and barrels of water and a convenient drain out of thin air then yes. I¡¯ve already had Red clean up in my wool space,¡± she lowered her voice to a dark mutter, ¡°Although I hardly had to ask, he was more concerned about his gold than me.¡± She looked back up at Rain, ¡°Now we just have to do it everywhere else. Look, it¡¯s only a few potions, it¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    Rain understood it was necessary. It was just that using a few potions here meant a few potions less to clean himself when he was in dire need later. He considered whether it was worth the risk of leaving the warehouse looking like an incredibly violent massacre had taken place.


    It took a moment.


    But in the end he reluctantly agreed she had a point and Lyra upended the first potion onto the flagstones.


    Rain watched in dismay as the clear fluid fizzed and bubbled and washed out for a dozen feet leaving behind perfectly clean and blemish free stone, like it was freshly lain by masons.


    His dismay only increased as Lyra used the potion in her other hand then stuck her hand in her currently black wooled thigh and waved it around. She pulled free and then after waiting a moment a red-scaled pair of claws emerged holding a fresh bottle of cleaning potion which she politely collected.


    It didn''t take long for the job to be done with the power of the potions. Liberally splashing the powerful cleaning substance around left the place going from looking like an overly excited butcher¡¯s shop floor to looking as though an army of expert cleaners had assaulted the place. Twice.


    At last, after a painfully large number of potions were used, it was done, and then Red emerged from Lyra¡¯s wool with one more cleaning potion.


    Rain wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to know how much of his collection was left. He watched as the sheep girl¡¯s wool slipped back to cloud white and then she scampered outside and began pouring the potion onto the long lines of red created by one of the gang member¡¯s fingers.


    Opal tapped  her chin as she looked over the result. ¡°This stuff is cleaning and that means it is automatically bad, but I can admittedly see its uses,¡± she turned to Rain and grinned, ¡°No more mess from eating levelers or cattle or stuff. Can''t get chased around by angry levelers if the evidence just disappears into thin air!¡±


    Rain¡¯s dismay only increased.


    ¡°That¡­ would need so many of my limited number of potions¡­¡±


    Lyra waggled the bottle in her hand, shaking the last few drips free, and then turned to Rain.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure we can find more, this is Florens you know, everything is in this city. The metal worker¡¯s district will no doubt have some of this heavy duty stuff, we¡¯ll simply do a little bit of casual looting, in the night, of course.¡±


    ¡°You seem to have gotten a certain... taste for looting. Lynthia and then the Orc¡¯s where you organised taking everything not nailed down... and a number of things that were nailed down.¡±


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not my fault I was put in such a convenient situation! What was I supposed to do? Not loot? No thank you. And hey, you know what the best deal ever is? The deal where it¡¯s all free! How could I pass a deal like that up? That would be silly!¡± She smiled as she flicked the empty bottle aside with a tinkle of glass. ¡°We¡¯ll add finding more of this stuff to the plan.¡±


    ¡°Plan?¡±


    ¡°Mhmm, I¡¯ve been making a plan, sort of. There¡¯s finding out about where your, ah, murderers are exactly staying, that will need a little snooping, and there¡¯s that you need to find out about your species so you can figure out if your really super concerning magic is too dangerous to use, and the other thing.¡±


    ¡°Why? We can just go to Brax¡¯s family estate right now.¡±


    Lyra let out a breath. ¡°This isn''t going to be that simple. His estate is going to be secure, just marching up and fighting our way in is, uhm, probably not going to work, not unless you want half the city to come down on you and then there¡¯s that we don''t know if the, uhm, others you want are actually there too, so uh, you know¡­¡±


    ¡°What are you suggesting,¡± said Opal squinting up at her.


    ¡°Just that we need to see where they are, and that''s going to take time. So¡­ we need somewhere to stay. Plus looking into the libraries will take time too right?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s something you aren''t saying,¡± gravelled Rain eyeing Lyra who wouldn¡¯t meet his gaze, one hoof turning back and forth against the cobble.


    She remained silent.


    Rain blinked as he realised what was bothering her. He rubbed at his jaw in thought. ¡°I didn''t expect that the interest in your bounty would be so extreme. If there¡¯s going to be people coming after you even when you are disguised that¡¯s going to make things much more difficult, how are we to ask for information on Brax and his family when you are being attacked all the time?¡±


    Lyra¡¯s voice was low and pained as she replied.


    ¡°Yes, that is a problem, and for me, that there are gangs going after random half woollies, killing them because they look a bit like me? I don''t feel good about this, I feel¡­ guilty.¡± Lyra¡¯s shoulders slumped and she stared at Rain¡¯s feet. ¡°It¡¯s not like I don¡¯t have friends who are half woollies, it¡¯s just something that happens you know, naturally meeting and getting to know them and then becoming familiar with someone who has something uncommon in common. All I can think of right now is that street gangs could be trying to kill them and it¡¯s my fault, it¡¯s my fault they could be dying¡­ I- I saw the evidence in that bag, I know it¡¯s happening.¡±


    Rain reached out a paw and clasped her forearm. ¡°I don''t like you being targeted like this.¡±


    ¡°But what am I supposed to do about it?!¡±


    ¡°Oh that¡¯s easy,¡± said Opal. ¡°Rain can just eat the gangs, and that Lord asshole too.¡±


    ¡°He can''t just- Lord Wranvyre is- these are really big and scary gangs!¡±


    ¡°So? Did you think he wouldn''t need food in this city sheepy?¡± Opal flashed her a white toothed grin and leaned forward, ¡°Has to come from somewhere right? This way your sheepy friends are protected too. Just eat the gangs!¡±


    ¡°G-gods Opal, you can¡¯t just make all the worlds problems go away by eating them!¡±


    ¡°I mean, you probably could though.¡±


    Lyra let out an exasperated sigh. ¡°I¡¯m not even going to give that absurd statement the dignity of a reply. Look we do need to get a move on, I¡¯d like to find somewhere to stay before sunset at least. We can start in the lower leveler¡¯s areas, they will probably have less guards visiting so that¡¯s good right?¡±


    ¡°Agreed,¡± gravelled Rain, ¡°It¡¯s not like you can hide us all of the time, we are on a timer and I¡¯d rather you didn''t pass out for hours again.¡±


    He leaned forward and clasped the sheep girl¡¯s hips in his paws, lifting her then putting her on his shoulders just as Red jumped back into the dimensional bag. He then picked up Opal under one arm and watched carefully as they seemed to fall into shadow. Lyra¡¯s invisibility taking hold.


    Rain cautiously took a step from the warehouse door, having to crouch down so that Lyra didn''t bash her head against the doorframe. Outside the alley seemed as it was, peaceful, empty, the distant sounds of the city drifting by.


    Looking at the city through wool space wasn¡¯t quite the same as standing fully within it. It felt¡­ special. The tall white stone walls of the alley loomed many stories above reaching for a strip of brilliant azure blue sky, the edges of massive miles high galleon clouds just visible past the rooftops.


    Rain breathed and the air of the city filled his lungs, just smelling the life, the bustle of so many levelers going about their daily lives, thousands of them, hundreds of thousands, millions, a hunting grounds that was teeming with prey, so much to kill, so much to ea-


    ¡°Hey, we gonna go or are we just standing about here all day?¡± said Opal elbowing him in the side from where she was held in his arm.


    Rain blinked and tried to recall what he had just been thinking about. Day dreaming probably. Not the best thing to be distracted by in a city peopled by millions of those who hunted and killed monsters as often as they could manage.


    He made his way down the alley and then into the next, giant foot pads pressing against cobble warmed by the summer sun, the sounds of crowds drawing closer, closer, and then the alley was opening up and Rain was standing in front of a river of moving levelers. His height allowed him to look over their heads, hundreds of people in just this one street, laden market stalls lining the way like boulders in a stream as currents of people chattered and wandered by. It was a lot to deal with.


    Above Lyra tugged one of his ears to get his attention.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to have to be extra super careful, if someone stumbles into you it will break the invisibility, and at your size, well that''s kinda more likely than not. This street isn''t too busy but make sure to go slow.¡±


    Rain took a step and eased out into the street, head moving quickly, watching to see if anyone was about to run into him. A Drake carrying a huge wicker basket was headed straight toward him and he carefully took a step to the side, squeezing up against a market stall as he brushed by, the corner of the basket inches from his fur.


    The Drake continued on, clueless that he had been so incredibly close to an extremely dangerous monster.


    It didn''t take long for Rain to get the hang of moving through the street, he learned rapidly as he went. The easiest thing to watch out for were clusters which were usually made up of groups of friends or families, easy to see where they were headed. Harder were singular workers rushing about, and harder still were unpredictable children. At one point Rain had to lift a leg as a Lapine and a Human child raced by laughing, practically running between his legs.


    Still, with time, even those were something that could be skillfully avoided. It helped that he had Lyra and Opal keeping an eye out, either tugging at his ear and pointing or waving for his attention. Working together like that he was able to make his way through street after street with relative ease despite his size and he started to relax, the motions needed to avoid being run into becoming second nature, instinctive.


    He felt a small hand grip at his fur as he turned a corner and looked ahead to see a crowd of what was perhaps fifty goblins being herded by, each of them wearing heavy iron collars. The levelers around them brandished switches to keep them from wandering off, not that there was much chance of that, the Goblins looked beyond exhausted, although that didn''t stop the overweight leveler at the front from bellowing their potential over the crowd.


    ¡°Rent a slave! Come rent yourselves a slave! A whole thirty percent off my usual offerin¡¯. Help with the shopping! Lady, look how much work you¡¯re putin¡¯ in carrying round those bags, you¡¯re all sweaty and a complete mess! For cryin¡¯ out loud I¡¯ve never seen someone in such need of a rental slave!¡±


    The woman blushed but that didn''t stop her awkwardly approaching the loud mouthed slaver, the social pressure apparently working.


    Behind him two Hobgoblins held up a pair of ten foot tall sticks which had a banner stretched between them, emblazoned with: ¡®Calum¡¯s Rent-A-Slave, just too copper a hour, (deeposit of one silver)¡¯ in Goblin green paint.


    Behind this parade of miserable looking Goblins came a massive six-wheeled wagon the size of a house, together the procession parted the stream of levelers that flowed through the street. The wagons motion was as slow as the many Goblins likely because it was being pulled by the many Goblins, dozens of knotted ropes winding through them.


    The sides of the slow moving wagon were open and shaded by brightly coloured and trimmed canvas awnings. Within could be seen masses of tarnished and rusted armour and swords stacked in piles. A sign over the huge wagon said ¡®Calum¡¯s amazing valu armour! Keep you and your family safe in the dunjeon! (Now with Sords!)¡¯ A muscular Orc was handing out pieces of what looked like dubious quality armour to those keeping pace with the slowly moving wagon.


    Rain eyed a Human child running to keep up, a few copper coins held up high in her hands. The Orc grabbed them and handed her a rusty sword that was so bent it looked like it had an elbow.


    ¡°This is, hmm, pretty commercialised? They¡¯re making money of the dungeon so- so brazenly?¡±


    ¡°Oh you have no idea! There are merchant companies making a fortune off the backs of unknowing levelers! Those complete idiots don''t even know they¡¯re buying what amounts to tin, I guess it¡¯s better than nothing but still, they¡¯re totally getting ripped off and they¡¯ll need to buy a new set of equipment as soon as they¡¯re done with a run in the dungeon!¡±


    ¡°In the slums of Lynthia that kind of thing happened too, although not with dungeon stuff. A good pair of sandals lasts for years, but is expensive, a cheap pair of sandals lasts months but then you need to buy a new pair. No one could afford the expensive sandals so they bought the cheap pair and then bought another cheap pair when those wore out.¡± He snorted. ¡°You¡¯d end up spending more on sandals than someone in the higher quarters while barely scraping by. It was shit and unfair, but there was no other option.¡±


    ¡°I c-can¡¯t say I ever experienced that, I was brought up- I didn''t mean you were- Ah, uhm, w-well it¡¯s better than no sandals r-right?¡± said Lyra fidgeting nervously with Rain¡¯s ears.


    Rain remained silent.


    They passed by the massive wagon full of wares and into a warren-like market, a market that like the wagon appeared to be selling things geared toward dungeon diving, everything from swords to armour to potions that promised to make you strong or stop you bleeding out or even just regular healing potions, apparently.


    The air was filled with bellowed offers. Gruff and grizzled veterans offered guidance into the dungeon for a fee, and jewellery encrusted monster farmers offering to bring farm raised monsters to your doorstep for you to conveniently kill after breakfast while promising that their farmed monsters weren''t enfeebled like the others, and that was on top of all the armourers and merchants shouting their wares. It was deafening. Overwhelming.


    Rain moved beyond the raucous markets quickly. Strangely he felt uncomfortable around them. In his past life he doubted he would have cared, maybe even relishing the opportunities to get ahead in the leveling race. But now? As a monster? The perspective was almost painfully different. Here was an industry dedicated to seeing him killed as efficiently as possible. He wasn¡¯t even seen as an animal, just stock to be sold to clients, a disposable object, like the paper wrapper that food from a street vendor might come in, take the nutrition, the levels, then discard the wrapper, his corpse.


    He found the brutal uncaringness of it all unsettling. Was this how Goblins felt all the time? He moved faster to take Opal away from the sight, moving away from the noise and into a decidedly more rundown area.


    He felt Opal relax a little as he moved away. He wouldn''t admit it out loud but he also relaxed. That place was not a good place for a monster¡¯s mental health.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 121

    The rundown area they were in became even more rundown as Rain carefully picked his way through the streets.


    ¡°Is this the right way?¡± he gravelled, eyeing Lyra who was leaning over his head.


    ¡°Mhmm. What better place to hide than the low leveler slums? There aren''t going to be any truth lenses for miles around and guards only come in here if something big happens, probably.¡±


    He murmured his agreement as he moved deeper into the slums. Unlike the shining white buildings of the districts he had just been in these ones were dirtier and shacks had been built onto the walls to expands the amount of livable space. This of course narrowed the streets and they became shadowed, the azure sky a thinned jagged line above broken by rickety bridges spanning from building to building.


    ¡°Where?¡±


    ¡°Erm, w-well I hadn''t thought that far, I, uh, haven''t actually been here very much, but I know there¡¯s probably some abandoned places, we can hide there until night!¡±


    ¡°Really? This place looks pretty packed to me, like stuffed to the brim with levelers¡± said Opal, wriggling as she moved to look around at the crowd.


    She had a point as Rain had to move awkwardly to avoid a number of Lapine passing by, their dirty ragged clothing the first time Rain had seen a Lapine without their signature chevron arrow fashion. They weren''t the only ones with poor clothing, many of the species walked barefoot across the mud and trash smeared cobble, and many of them sported crippling injuries, missing limbs, horrific scars. In fact he was sure he¡¯d seen more people with a limp in the first ten minutes than he¡¯d seen in years, even the normally exuberant Orcs and Minotaurs looked hunched and surly here.


    He peered into the nearest alley hoping to find it deserted, but this too had occupants, a number of Humans and Lapine in rags huddled against the walls.


    ¡°I don''t think any place will be abandoned here, not if there are so many living on the streets.¡±


    ¡°...I suppose. I-I didn''t think it was this¡­ bad.¡±


    Rain moved on from the alley and peeked into the next, and then the next, but each of them was peppered with levelers, hardly a promising sign of finding somewhere private. He wandered deeper and deeper into the endless warren with no luck, increasingly thinking they would have to give up on the potential safety of the slums and hunt for something in one of the other districts. But then, at last, he found an alley deserted.


    It was almost a surprise, why were there no people here?


    ¡°I think this might actually be abandoned,¡± murmured Lyra, ¡°S-see I was right¡­¡± Her words didn''t hold much confidence as she eyed the few empty windows that lined the otherwise blank flat walls of the narrow alley. No one appeared to live here.


    He hesitantly entered. The place remained eerily still. He took another few steps, gaining confidence. This place could be exactly what they wanted, yes.


    He was peering up at the tall walls wondering if they truly were deserted when he stepped over a pile of trash in the middle of the alley.


    The trash exploded.


    Caught mid-stride there wasn¡¯t much he could do and a thrashing body collided with his legs, the invisibility shattering, something clawing and biting at him before leaping away with an ear-shattering screech.


    Rain swiftly backed against the wall, unsure where the attack was coming from, then blinked as he saw what it was that had bitten him.


    The thing was pink-red, but not a nice pink-red, the pink-red of damaged irritated sickly flesh, of flaking cracked skin.


    It was shaped something like a very skinny and lithe Kobold but even more lizard-like in form with what looked like the ragged and torn up remains of neck frills hanging limp around its neck. Its narrow muzzle was parted by a pair of enormous five-inch fangs, incredibly fine things with needle-like points. Its bloodshot eyes were an unsettling pink and its talons that weren''t broken were so long and fine that they were nearly transparent.


    It was a lizard creature that had no scales, the flesh beneath exposed and raw, flesh patterned with reddened pits where its scales had once been.


    ¡°Why is there a monster here Lyra?¡± growled Rain as he dropped Opal and Lyra behind himself and readied to fight. ¡°Why would it be allowed to live in a place like this starved for leveling?¡±


    ¡°I-uhm, don''t know, I don''t know the low leveler areas very well, maybe it¡¯s just hiding out here?¡±


    The monster had been pacing them as Rain spoke, softly hissing as it carefully eyed him, then Opal and then finally Lyra.


    The monster¡¯s pink eyes stared at Lyra as she spoke for a moment and then started to turn back to Rain. But then Lyra shifted and the bag on her hip came into view. The creature¡¯s demeanour immediately changed, going from an animal defending its nest to insane rage in a flicker of motion.


    The monster let out a blood curdling screech that echoed off the walls of the alley.


    ¡°SKRIEEEEEEEE! THE PLaCE! tHe PlAcE! ThE pLaCe! tHe PlAcE!!¡±


    It ran at her in a berserker rage, long needle-like claws raking at the air.


    ¡°W-wait hold on! Why is it going after meeeeee!¡± wailed Lyra.


    Rain swung a fist, about to hammer down the thin creature in one deadly strike, but before he got close the both of them were drawn up short by a flash of white, a flash of white fur.


    Rain froze finding a child in the path of his paw and halted in his tracks, awkwardly stuck mid strike.


    He stared at the child, toddler? A tiny goat kid with fluffy white fur all over and floppy ears.


    The tiny goat had her arms spread wide, the lizard thing behind her hissing and spitting but holding back, she was defending it? She glared up at him with big blue eyes.


    ¡°D-DON¡¯T HURT BEAN!¡± the goat child seemed to struggle to get the words out, as though she wasn¡¯t used to speaking.


    It took a moment for Rain to realise that ¡®Bean¡¯ was supposed to be the horrifying lizard thing behind her.


    He tilted his head in confusion.


    ¡°Why do you care? you¡¯re a leveler,¡± snapped Opal, ¡°Just eat the monster already wolfy.¡±


    ¡°Nnnn-not M-monster, l-leveler!¡±


    Rain, Opal, and Lyra all stared at her, and then up at the lizard thing standing behind her. It was twitching and jerking as yellow foam dripped from its mouth. One eyeball had started rolling off in its own direction and was winding its way upward until it disappeared behind the things pink eyelid. A long black tongue licked some of the yellow foam rolling down its chin and fangs.


    ¡°There¡¯s no way that- that horrible THING! Is a leveler!¡± said Lyra jabbing out a finger at it as if for emphasis.


    The tiny goat girl petted the thigh of the lizard thing, its thigh was head height with her she was so small.


    ¡°Is! Is leveler!¡±


    ¡°Does it matter? Leveler, monster, whatever, eat the insane thing already wolfy, look it wants to attack again!¡±


    She was right, the lizard thing¡¯s eyes had found the bag on Lyra¡¯s hip once more and its breath was accelerating as it stared, fixated, claws rising.


    Rain hesitated, but then as the thing took a step forward he readied.


    ¡°N-NUU!¡± cried the tiny goat girl, grabbing hold of the lizard thing¡¯s thighs, ¡°Bad Bean, be nice!¡±


    The lizard thing didn''t seem to understand and it tried to force its way by, the goat child¡¯s feet sliding against the muddy ground as she was pushed back, despite leaning fully into its legs.


    ¡°THE PLAAAACCCEEE!¡± hissed the lizard thing, eyes locked onto a panicking Lyra.


    Rain lifted a paw to end the clearly insane thing before it reached Lyra with those needle like claws, even as the goat girl started to cry.


    ¡°Keep your slave under control damn you!¡± bellowed a voice, and a man burst from the nearest door. He had long black wavy hair and a weathered face below which was an oiled and trimmed beard. He wore heavily patched leathers along with a shirt that had seen better days. Walking with a limp he hurried over, the startled lizard thing flinching back as a working man¡¯s hand slapped down on its shoulder and then roughly shoved it aside. It went rolling across the mud with a yelp before bouncing to its feet with a kettle like screech.


    ¡°Pickle come here, get back from that thing, it¡¯s dangerous.¡±


    The goat girl glared at the man. ¡°No throw Bean!¡±


    ¡°...She¡¯s named Pickle!?¡± said Opal trying to keep a straight face.¡°Pickle and Bean!?¡±


    The goat girl rounded on her. ¡°Good names! Good!¡± this only seemed to increase the difficultly Opal was having in keeping her face straight.


    Lyra whisper hissed up at Rain, ¡°This isn''t good! This really isn''t good!¡±


    ¡°No, it is not, Lyra Bellerhorn,¡± said the Man, eyeing Lyra as he drew Pickle close. ¡°I know it¡¯s you, people of your standing don''t come round here unless they have problems. I¡¯ve seen the posters, what you look like, you¡¯ve got the kind of bounty that makes waves.¡±


    ¡°Why does everyone know my name!¡±


    ¡°You are here for her head?¡± growled Rain, his body language radiating danger, shifting position to kill the man.


    ¡°You¡¯re here for my head?¡± Echoed Lyra.


    ¡°...No. I don''t think I can kill a monster like this you have here. I figure for you to have stolen it from a Lord as vindictive as Lord Wranvyre it must be worth its weight in gold, or rather leveling, and that means it is, hrmm, extremely strong.¡±


    ¡°Wha-? I mean, uh, yes? Yes, I stole this monster and yes, it is crazy strong, like smash a town flat strong! You would die in less than a second if you fought it!¡±


    ¡°And it does as you command because you have control of its heart pin.¡± The man grumbled in thought and petted Pickle¡¯s head who was hugging his leg.


    ¡°Yup! One hundred percent control! Rain lift your leg in the air!¡±


    Rain gave the sheep girl a dead flat stare and didn''t move an inch.


    ¡°Eep! W-well mostly! He¡¯d break you in half anyway!¡±


    ¡°I get that impression. Fine. I want to cut a deal.¡±


    ¡°Er, deal?¡±


    The man nodded. ¡°When you kill this monster Lyra Bellerhorn I want you to let my Pickle help. Allow Pickle here to take a knife and slit its throat alongside you.¡±


    ¡°What? That''s so fucked up!¡±


    ¡°A child¡­¡± growled Rain.


    ¡°...Pickle!?¡± giggled Opal, ¡°Pickle and Bean!¡± she laughed harder.


    The man gave them a stoney faced look.


    ¡°She named herself as that, she also named Bean here. She is¡­ creative with names.¡±


    Lyra waved her hands frantically, ¡°Hold on, even if that was something I would consider you¡¯re just asking for that? Like, straight up?¡±


    ¡°No. I know you need time before the killing, otherwise you would have done it on the day you thieved the thing. Look, In exchange for letting little Pickle here slit the monster¡¯s throat I can keep you safe and out of view from the rest of the city. Nobody will find you, you will have food, warmth, and shelter, and enough room for that monster of yours.¡±


    ¡°Yes, agreed, bargain, deal, done, transaction complete,¡± said Lyra marching forward and grabbing hold of the man¡¯s hand then shaking it enthusiastically up and down. ¡°Take me to warmth and safety and dinner thank you mister- ah, what is your name?¡±


    The man seemed to be struggling a little with how quickly Lyra had agreed.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ Warwick, call me Warwick.¡±


    ¡°Well mister Warwick take us away from this dingy alley!¡± she flapped her hands at Warwick who had an increasingly strained expression.


    ¡°...Sure.¡± He scooped up Pickle and returned to the door, looking over his shoulder to check that they were following. ¡°It¡¯s up here, command your slave to follow.¡±


    ¡°Are you taking us to your home?¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°Ah, it¡¯s just your home?¡± repeated Lyra, a little disappointed.


    Warwick gave her an annoyed look. ¡°No, not quite.¡± He turned and disappeared inside, Pickle looking over his shoulder at them as she disappeared from view.


    Lyra jumped up the steps to the door and waved back at Rain. ¡°Well, come on, better in there than out here and exposed right? Right?¡±


    Rain glanced back at Bean who was busily burying itself in a pile of rotting trash. Then he turned and followed Opal and Lyra up the steps to the door.


    Stratothrax


    Dreadwolf Patreon


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 Chaper 122

    Following the others through the door wasn¡¯t exactly easy and Rain had to squeeze down to fit. Inside the hallway wasn¡¯t much better and he filled it wall to wall, shoulders and head pressed up against the ceiling of the cramped space.


    The hall lead deep into the building until it met the bottom of a stairway. Interestingly all the doors he passed by were broken down or left open, the rooms inside abandoned and barren.


    Not knowing where else to go Rain made his way up, not easily, and also with alarm as the stair groaned beneath his pads. He made it up to the first floor without incident, only a few split planks, but then had more trouble going higher, putting his foot fully through the staircase and having to awkwardly step over the holes he left behind. Whoever used the stairs next would have more than a few obstacles to overcome.


    He reached the top nearly on all fours and with genuine relief emerged onto the stone landing.


    There he found Warwick with Pickle held in arm. Crushed in behind him was Lyra and Opal in the small space, which became even more cramped when Rain joined them.


    ¡°I would appreciate it-¡± muttered Warwick as he fiddled with a key in a lock, ¡°If you kept that beast back, while I- Ah!¡±


    The lock suddenly clicked and swung wide and Rain, interested, leaned forward to see a¡­ closet, complete with straw brooms and buckets.


    ¡°Uhm, no offence but I don''t think this is really going to work¡­¡± said Lyra


    Warwick ignored that and pushed into the closet. After a moment of muttering and the sound of metal scratching against metal the back of the closet swung inward with a creak. Expecting to see something interesting they crowded forward and found a¡­ second closet.


    ¡°Is this a joke?¡± growled Rain.


    ¡°Yeah, you expect us to sleep in this thing?¡±


    ¡°Hardly. In my line of work the best defence is secrecy, and if that fails then your best bet is a fuck off big iron door.¡±


    Rain blinked as he realised that the back wall of the second closet was in fact metal.


    The heavy door opened slow as Warwick swung it wide and to their surprise daylight poured through. Opal and Lyra quickly followed Warwick leaving Rain to struggle with the first closet. Needless to say by the time he¡¯d squeezed through every single broom had been snapped into kindling and every single bucket had been flattened.


    He stumbled free at last and found himself standing on grass, vast galleon clouds drifting by far above. It was a courtyard, a courtyard that was surrounded by buildings, which, Rain realised, must have been built on top of the original structure.


    The courtyard was overgrown with grass and even had a wizened apple tree in one corner. The grass at the centre of the courtyard had been stamped down in an oval and a long oaken table was set out with a few worn out chairs arranged around it.


    More eye-catching than everything else were the cages, dozens of them stacked along one wall of the courtyard. Most were empty but a few contained large green furred rat monsters with three green eyes. Beside the cages were dozens of barrels, the barrels were labeled with things like ¡®grass slime¡¯ and ¡®moss slime¡¯.


    ¡°What is this?¡± gravelled Rain.


    Warwick didn''t reply until Lyra repeated Rain¡¯s words, ¡°Why are you keeping monsters like this?¡±


    ¡°Why am I keeping a bunch of weak monsters taken up from the dungeon? For the children. I have them so that children can kill them.¡±


    Lyra gave him a blank look causing him to snort.


    ¡°Please, you wealthy snobs have no idea, you think Florens¡¯ dungeon is dangerous? When you can afford good escorts? Good armour and good weapons? Have decently leveled family to help? Try going down there as a family of low levelers, so poor the only sword you can afford is made of tin and worse taking your kids down there to level with you. I¡¯ve lost count of how many families I¡¯ve known to lose their children in that hell hole. Half the folk in these slums have given up on leveling it¡¯s so bad down there. But the only way out of this kind of poverty is to level, so those who want better lives keep trying, they keep trying and they keep dying.¡±


    ¡°They- They gave up on leveling?¡± said Lyra, the words sounding alien in her mouth.


    Warwick turned away from her and plucked a plate from Pickle¡¯s hands placing it on the table as she ran back into one of the buildings for more.


    ¡°Yes. Hope is scarce to come by when you see so many of your peers killed or crippled. Is it really that surprising? Florens¡¯ dungeon is a meat grinder.¡±


    ¡°So you help out by bringing the monsters out the dungeon... But why are you hiding up here? These aren''t exactly the biggest of monsters, it¡¯s not like you¡¯d get in trouble¡­¡±


    ¡°Who said I didn¡¯t used to bring ¡®em big? ...Not that it matters. An easy to kill monster around here is like holding a prime cut of lamb while walking by a pack of starved dogs. Go figure. If I didn''t have this place I would be getting robbed left right and centre and I¡¯d never get the monsters to the kids who need it, I know that for a fact.¡± He paused momentarily. ¡°Hiding a big one like yours is just going back to my old ways. Fool me.¡±


    ¡°Is it you that¡¯s causing no one to live or come around here then?¡±


    ¡°... Actually that would be Bean.¡±


    ¡°Really? That skinny little thing scares away all the other levelers?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s stronger than he looks and I¡¯ve seen him use some concerning Skills, but it¡¯s more than that.¡± Warwick¡¯s expression became mixed, ¡°People... have tried to sleep around here¡­ they don''t last long. Waking up in the middle of the night with Bean breathing loudly while lying on top of you and trying to lick your eyeballs tends to scare people away¡­ and that''s not even mentioning his habit of syphoning people¡¯s blood. The stories about him that have built up over the decades are, hrmm, disturbing. But in reality he¡¯s not that bad, fine enough keeping folks away from me and mine.¡±


    Lyra stared at him. ¡°Licks your eyeballs? In the night? H-hold on this wasn¡¯t part of the agreement??!¡±


    ¡°Just push him off until he gets the hint. You¡¯ll get used to it.¡±


    Lyra had trouble letting that slide.


    As Warwick spoke Pickle had brought forth several more plates and now there was enough for Warwick Pickle and Lyra. Warwick rolled his eyes when Pickle brought out a fourth and fifth plate for Rain and Opal.


    Rain examined one of the chairs, then deciding it stood about as much chance as the stairs and brooms he carefully picked it up and placed it to one side. He sat crosslegged on the grass which was good enough to eat from the table.


    He looked down at the plate. It had a chunk of bread and many pork chops that an enthusiastic Pickle had poured too much gravy over. The bread was already sponging the gravy up.


    It wasn¡¯t much of a meal if he was honest, but then he had a slightly skewed perspective.


    Pickle was wandering around behind as he examined it but then came to his side where she placed two small hands on his thigh, comparing how much larger he was. She turned an awed expression up at him.


    ¡°W-Will Pickle be so big s-someday?¡±


    He gave her a blank look until Lyra gently elbowed him in the arm from where she sat by his side.


    ¡°Inside, you''re always big, little one,¡± he managed to get out after a moment.


    This seemed to please Pickle whose eyes became sparkly and round with awe, imagination running wild.


    Rain tried his best to ignore that and turned to the plate of pork chops he had been given. He carefully picked it up between paw pads and lifted it to his mouth, upending it and eating the food in one bite.


    He placed the empty plate back on the table where Pickle scrambled up on a chair and lunged for it, grabbing it and then jumping back down onto the grass.


    ¡°Pickle get more!¡± said the goat child as she disappeared back inside the house, empty plate raised above her head.


    The awkward meal continued, Warwick eating silently, carefully watching Rain.


    Rain eyed him back and calmly lifted a teacup to his mouth. The handle promptly snapped and the cup crashed loudly against the table splashing tea over Lyra. He tried to play it off cool, not breaking eye contact with Warwick. It didn''t work very well with a loudly complaining sheep girl at his side.


    Pickle ran back and forth giving Rain more plates of porkchops. Which was like a raindrop in an ocean compared to his appetite. He still ate it. Eventually though Pickle became tired and curled up in the grasses and began to snooze.


    The sight of the child sleeping finally drew Warwick¡¯s antagonistic attention away from Rain and he moved to pick her up, lifting the ball of white fluff into his arms.


    ¡°You can take one of those rooms over there,¡± he said, nodding across the courtyard.


    ¡°Uhm, yes, thankyou.¡±


    Rain Lyra and Opal collected themselves and left the table, crossing over to one of the buildings. The room they found themselves in looked like a bunk room of some kind with rows of beds, the floor and sheets dusty, clearly the place hadn''t been used in some time.


    Rain let out a sigh. It had been a long journey to get to Florens, a real genuine bed at the end of it all was more than welcome. He paced over to the nearest and stared down at it.


    It was a bit¡­ small. But still, optimistic about his chances, he carefully turned and slowly eased his rear down.


    The bed let out a shriek of breaking wood and immediately collapsed, the legs blowing out to the sides.


    ¡°Did you really think that was going to hold up?¡±


    Rain turned to find Lyra. The sheep girl had gotten a set of far too large pajamas from somewhere with an Orc motif on the chest, and was halfway through brushing her teeth. ¡°You¡¯ll need beds made for larger species in future you know,¡± she paused, ¡°Well, maybe with some extra reinforcement too, even those beds are going to struggle with you now.¡±


    Rain grunted in agreement as he turned and lay down on the flattened bed, most of his legs reaching over the bottom of the bed onto the floorboards, reaching out and pressing against the base of the bed opposite.


    A crash of metal behind Lyra drew her attention and she paused in her brushing and turned to find Red holding the dimensional bag up and shaking out heaps of gold and treasure on his chosen bed. The bed looked like it was on the verge of collapsing itself and curved down alarmingly in the middle. The last of the gold was poured out, a few coins bouncing free across the floorboards, and then Red pounced on top of the pile of treasure, paddy pawing at it before curling up like a dragon atop his hoard.


    To Rain¡¯s amusement Opal promptly copied Red, leaping up on his chest and then curling into his fur like a dragon, arms and legs wrapped against her preggers belly.


    Lyra raised an eyebrow at him as she politely spewed her mouthful of toothpaste foam into a cup. She then neatly flipped over her bed covers and slipped inside, pulling it up tight and snug and neat.


    As the darkness became complete Rain drifted off, Opal¡¯s breath tugging at his fur.


    -


    It was dark outside now. Night had fully settled in, the massive many coloured moon high in the star speckled sky.


    On the rooftops above where Rain slept a person was sat, relaxing against a chimney. Her hands were clasped behind her head and one leg extended across the tile with her other  knee up, gently bouncing as she hummed.


    The leg suddenly rippled a little and she paused.


    ¡°Ah calm down would you, he¡¯s just nearby.¡± She patted her red skin and the rippling settled down.


    Her eyes drifted down to the roof, as though she was peering through it at what was within.


    ¡°Rainy Rainy Rain, oh it¡¯s just like I thought! There is a way to take that delicious tasty power out of you and absorb it without having my body disintegrate. A black horn and black wolf wool huh? Ooh! I wonder what goodies you have for me!¡±


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 123

    ? Chapter 123:


    Morning light filled the room.


    Rain cracked his eyes, then quickly shut them again as the light stung. Too bright.


    He was considering simply going back to sleep then and there but there was this annoying noise that was grating on his peace of mind. Snoring. It was snoring. And it was very nearby.


    He opened his eyes a little once more, squinting through the brightness.


    His eyes drifted down from the ceiling, trying to find the source of the snoring. Opal? But no, his eyes were met with a pair of overly large pajamas, a pair of pajamas on a white wooled sheep girl who was currently spooning a curled up Goblin. Both of them were on top of him.


    It was honestly a wonder that Opal was managing to sleep at all with Lyra making so much noise so close to her head, like a two man lumber saw being slowly put to work.


    Lyra¡¯s face was smeared against his chest and to his dismay she was openly drooling on his fur. He really wanted that to stop, but then they were so painfully cute together that he couldn''t make himself move them off.


    Lyra had gone from her neat bed to slumped on top of him at some point in the night. He had to wonder why.


    A noise provided a potential answer to that and he turned his head to the side.


    Bean was in the room with him. The unsettling lizard leveler was on one of the other beds¡­ curled over something.


    It took Rain a moment to realise what it was that he was looking at. Red was beneath the creature, still curled up on his mound of gold, and the creature was curled up on top of Red.


    He watched in a kind of detached horror as Bean¡¯s foot long black tongue rolled over Red¡¯s scales, a wash of yellow foam left behind, licking over his face, his cheek, then up to his eyelid where the tip slipped across the rim, then tried to penetrate.


    Red seemed to be in a deep sleep but he still murmured incoherently, claws waving vaguely at the air, legs kicking faintly as the black tongue pushed harder, trying to get inside.


    Fortunately for Red his scaled eyelids seemed impervious to Bean¡¯s tongue, frustrating the horrifying lizard¡¯s licking.


    Bean let out a soft hiss at this and drew back puzzled. He licked some yellow foam from his lips then eyed the Kobold¡¯s neck.


    He opened his mouth wide, crimson interior flashing, then brought his needle-like five inch fangs down onto Red¡¯s neck. The fangs touched and then simply pierced through Red¡¯s scales like they weren''t even there, their scalpel sharpness puncturing with ease. Rain, in a fuzzy half-asleep state, wondered when Red was going to start screaming or if this was really just some kind of strange dream he was having. Instead the Kobold only murmured incoherently as the lizard thing¡¯s fangs became tinted red, swiftly pumping blood out of his body.


    It occurred to Rain¡¯s sleep addled mind that Red having his blood drained was probably not a good thing and he fought past the sleepy mind fog, becoming more awake by the moment.


    His paw came down on the bed next to his and gripped the bed¡¯s pillow. He then pulled his arm back and flicked it away in one motion. The pillow sailed across the room and slammed into Bean¡¯s side so hard that he was knocked free with a grunt of surprise, droplets of blood flung into the air as his fangs were ripped out of the Kobold¡¯s neck.


    Bean landed on his back, claws scrabbling at the floorboards.


    ¡°Fuck. Off.¡± growled Rain, low and dangerous.


    Bean hissed and scuttled across the floor on his back, and then up the wall, still on his back, and then across the ceiling, talons allowing him to grip it like some nightmarish spider.


    He stopped over Rain¡¯s bed.


    Rain decided this was one of the worst sights he had ever seen while waking up in the morning. He glared up at Bean whose tongue was rolling across his own face, tip slipping under his eyelid and then circling his eyeball.


    Rain bared his teeth at the creature hoping it would take the hint.


    Bean continued washing his eyeball.


    ¡°Shoo,¡± whisper hissed Rain.


    Bean continued gazing at him while washing his eyeball.


    Unfortunately, A large blob of yellow foam was building on the creature''s lip as he waggled his tongue around and Rain¡¯s eyes widened in slow motion as the blob reached a critical mass and then fell¡­ directly on Lyra¡¯s face.


    There was a moment of silence as the blob of foam rolled down her cheek and Lyra¡¯s snoring came to an abrupt halt. Then Lyra blinked awake, her head turning, looking to see why ¡®wet¡¯ had dropped on her from above.


    The first sight she got to see as she opened her eyes was Bean directly above her on the ceiling, his tongue rolling over his eyeball, mouth wide.


    She screamed.


    Bean screamed.


    Lyra screamed some more.


    The yellow foam on her cheek rolled into her mouth.


    The screaming ended and she started gagging and spitting, thrashing around on Rain, slapping at her mouth. The struggling woke Opal with a loud curse and the sheep girl suddenly found herself punted over the side of Rain, falling to the floorboards, flopping and flailing like a beached fish.


    Bean gave her one last red mouthed hiss and then scuttled across the ceiling to the window where he climbed through at the top and disappeared out of sight.


    Rain watched him go, mouth slightly parted. That thing was going to be coming into their room each night?


    Maybe it wasn¡¯t too late to find somewhere else to stay...


    Across the room Red appeared to be waking, Lyra¡¯s screaming finally getting through to him. The Kobold was clearly pale from the blood loss, his head wobbling as he rose. He blinked at Rain then lifted claws to his face, touching at the yellow foam smeared across his scales.


    ¡°Wha?¡± mumbled Red.


    ¡°What the furckkkk,¡± groaned Lyra who was slumped breathlessly against the floor.


    Rain settled his paw over the hyperventilating sheep girl, giving her something to hang onto and hug.


    She latched onto him like a life raft and wiped her mouth on the back of his paw before looking up at him, tears in the corner of her eyes.


    ¡°I-I need to renegotiate this deal with Warwick, that, that thing! That horrible nasty Bean creature! WAAAAH-¡± her scream of misery was cut off as she buried her face in Rain¡¯s fur.


    An extremely shaky Red was trying to rise from his pile of gold, arms like that of a decrepit old man, wobbling wildly until they gave out under his own weight and he crashed back down, gold coins scattering across the floor.


    ¡°Whur harpened?¡± he slurred.


    Bean had taken a lot more blood out of the Kobold than Rain realised. Whatever Warwick said about the creature it was genuinely dangerous and far from being harmless. It made complete sense to him now that this part of the slums was deserted, a person would have to be insane to live around here with that horror crawling through the windows at night.


    He wondered what that said about Warwick.


    A sleepy Opal was sitting up on his chest now, rubbing grit from her eyes and yawning. He sat up too and she slipped down into his lap.


    Red managed to sit up also after a struggle, his back slouched forward as he sat on his pile of gold. He touched gingerly at the bite mark on his neck and gasped as he found it sore and sensitive, the pain waking him properly.


    ¡°Will someone tell me what ha-happened?¡± said the Kobold.


    Lyra had recovered somewhat too, climbing to her feet and straightening her dishevelled pajamas as she stood, a small speck of Bean foam still on her cheek. She wiped it away and glanced over at Red, her breath ragged, eyes alighting on his wound.


    ¡°We were assaulted. By Bean.¡±


    Red slow-blinked at her.


    ¡°We were assaulted by a bean?¡±


    ¡°No, the Bean, not a bean. Bean is¡­ wait weren''t you listening as we came in yesterday?¡±


    Red got a little defensive, ¡°I was busy. I don''t have time to get involved with all of you crazy people¡¯s problems.¡±


    ¡°Busy doing what?!¡±


    ¡°Counting gold. I am the treasurer you know.¡± He sniffed as though she wasn¡¯t able to understand the importance of his work.


    Lyra rolled her eyes. ¡°Look, that doesn''t matter, the fact is that we were both attacked by a mons- by an insane thing called Bean. It bit you and drooled on me and it¡¯s going to come back!¡±


    Red touched once more at the two red dots on his neck. ¡°...I was bitten by this Bean thing?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    ¡°And you think it might happen again?¡±


    Lyra nodded seriously.


    Red shivered. ¡°That''s creepy.¡± He turned to Opal, ¡°I want a sword. Next time it comes back I¡¯m going to stab it.¡±


    Opal cracked her knuckles as she slipped from Rain¡¯s lap. ¡°Oh yeah, it¡¯s about time.¡±


    She darted over to the Kobold who blinked in confusion as she pulled him off the gold so that he was standing, albeit swaying slightly. She looked him over then lifted his arms and compared their length to her own, then she moved them up and down experimentally, then extended and retracted them.


    ¡°What are you doing?!¡±


    Just checking your balance and fit.¡± Opal waved for Lyra¡¯s attention.


    ¡°Open your weird Rain space sheepy I want to get something¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not- It''s not his space, it¡¯s mine!


    ¡°Then why is it exactly the same shade of black as his fur?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s just a coincidence!¡±


    ¡°Uhhuh. Well? I¡¯m waiting.¡±


    Lyra was clearly displeased but her wool washed to black as she rolled up her pajama leg.


    Opal darted inside the billowing wool cloud and in moments was back out, she held a gladius in a fat leather scabbard wrapped tight with steel chain down its length making it even larger, it had no guard as it was a gladius so it appeared as if it was a crude cudgel.


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen this and it¡¯s not a sword, it¡¯s a club,¡± said the Kobold.


    ¡°Maybe to someone who doesn''t know the trick. Look, it opens.¡± She fiddled with a hidden catch on the scabbard and drew the blade. The highly polished gold blade.


    Red¡¯s eyes went very round as he examined it. ¡°For¡­ me?¡±


    ¡°See I thought you would like this one, it¡¯s like a blade made of treasure.¡±


    He carefully took the blade.


    ¡°This is-¡± he seemed to gather himself. ¡°Treasure is not for stabbing! This is as bad as that crazy sheep throwing gold at people!¡±


    ¡°You aren''t letting go of the treasure though, you¡¯ll still have it in your claws, that means the person you are stabbing doesn''t own it even when it¡¯s inside their body.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s still disrespecting the treasure. Treasure is for heaping in piles and sleeping on, not getting blood all over.¡±


    ¡°So you want a regular boring steel blade instead?¡±


    Red paused as he considered that. The blade was admittedly very shiny. ¡°I¡­ I¡­ I will trial it for now. Temporarily.¡±


    He waved it in the air experimentally, then, gaining confidence, he made a few shaky chopping motions.


    ¡°This¡­ isn¡¯t bad, it feels nice to swing and is well balanced. You do know something about this kind of thing I guess,¡± he paused in his experimentation, something occurring to him. ¡°Why do you like sharp things so much anyway?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t. I only like good sharp things, good sharp things that don''t fail you at the worst moment.¡± She picked out The Sounder from the pile of treasure on Red¡¯s bed, lifting the thorny rapier into the air. She looked it over carefully, checking for damage. After a moment she spoke. ¡°I was a young Gobbo being chased in the dungeon by a cave dog. It cornered me, I had to fight it, but of course I assumed I could win. I had a great Gobbo sword, everyone said it was a great sword, absolute peak of Gobbo crafting, a masterpiece. The dog charged and I swung the sword. The sword snapped in two. I drew my valuable Gobbo dagger and stabbed it in the chest. My dagger disintegrated into little bits. I then realised the dark truth. Gobbo weaponry is very shit.¡±


    ¡°How did you survive?¡±


    ¡°I bashed it on the head with a rock and then kicked it in the balls. It ran away.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°Point is,¡± said Opal waving the rapier and waggling her eyebrows at her own ingenious pun, ¡°That a good weapon is important, you may as well have nothing if it isn''t good¡­ But Gobbos can''t create that because Gobbo ancestral memory for making good weapons is... nowhere to be found¡­ It¡¯s just gone, if it ever existed.¡±


    Red blinked at her in surprise. ¡°Really? Kobold¡¯s have ancestral memory of weapon making. I¡¯ve always wondered why Gobbo weapons are so terrible in comparison. Huh.¡±


    ¡°Mmhm. So I collect good sharp things because I never want to experience that again, also sharp things are intimidating in a good way.¡± She lifted the Sounder, ¡°and this one has lots of sharpness.¡±


    As if recalling something she turned to Rain who was cleaning and inspecting his fur for yellow foam as he sat on the collapsed bed.


    She raised the thorny rapier and pointed it at Rain¡¯s chest.


    ¡°This,¡± she said, ¡°Is The Sounder.¡±


    Rain paused in his inspection and looked down at the very thin and spiky weapon.


    ¡°Oh. Looks pointy.¡±


    He went back to cleaning and inspecting his fur.


    Opal instantly rounded on Lyra, ¡°Did you see that! Did you see how brave he is! All those Orcs were terrified of The Sounder but Rain didn¡¯t even flinch! He wasn¡¯t afraid at all!¡±


    ¡°Do you really have to insist on that name,¡± muttered Lyra rubbing her forehead with her index finger, then louder, ¡°I, uh, think he might not know what that- uhm, w-well, I¡¯m not sure in a small town they would- uh, look can you please stop calling it that, I wish I hadn''t said anything, really, please.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± said Opal. ¡°I¡¯m going to use The Sounder and sound my enemies to death¡­ Unless you tell me what it means.¡±


    Lyra¡¯s dismay was clear and her gaze moved to Rain. She would have to explain-? In front of-? She was sure she would die of embarrassment if that came to pass. No. No way.


    ¡°It doesn''t mean anything, it¡¯s just something I made up.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Then why were those Orcs so scared?¡±


    ¡°They were scared of you, you¡¯re very scary holding a weapon like that, it wasn¡¯t the name or mental image at all.¡±


    Opal considered this, ¡°I don¡¯t believe you, and hold on, what do you mean by mental image?¡±


    ¡°The mental image of being swung at by that, it is very pointy, look at all those thorns.¡±


    Opal held the rapier up thoughtfully. It was very pointy, that was true. Was Lyra really telling the truth?


    Red took notice of what she was doing and paused.


    ¡°I want a name for my sword too,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯m calling mine Gold.¡±


    ¡°That''s not a very scary name, it just sounds like a name that will get you robbed.¡±


    Red sniffed ¡°You can think that if you like.¡± He chopped at his bed, annoyed, the metal hacking down into the wooden frame half an inch before he levered it free and chopped again, the gladius landing with a shunk, then again, and again.


    ¡°It doesn''t matter what I think it matters what your enemies think, and a good intimidating name is an advantage. ¡®Gold¡¯ is just going to attract pickpockets.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a good name!¡±


    ¡°I mean, is it though? Your name is Red with a sword called Gold. What? Are you going to name your loincloth Brown?¡±


    ^#;?


    He flushed with real anger, ¡°I didn''t name me that! It¡¯s not my bloody fault I-¡±


    His shaky armed chop missed the wooden frame completely and shunked into his leg.


    Red stared down in horror at the sword part embedded in his leg, blood already washing down the blade.


    ¡°Food for Rain¡­ and a healing potion for Red,¡± said Lyra with a sigh.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


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 Chapter 124

    ? Chapter 124:


    ¡°OW! OW! GAHH! STOP!¡± Red desperately tried to fumble for the bandages but Lyra slapped his claws away and continued bundling his leg in reams of clean white cotton.


    ¡°This is for your own good Red, I can''t have you bleeding out all over the place before we find a healing potion.¡±


    ¡°Don''t be sad, Ketchup Man, Pickle help!¡± said Pickle. The tiny goat child was standing next to Red who was slumped on the floor against the base of his bed. She had a bowl of chicken soup carefully hugged in one arm and a wooden spoon laden with said soup in the other. She moved the spoon toward Red¡¯s mouth with determination.


    ¡°N-nNo- I don''t want your stupid ssou-grAhbrGhl!¡± said Red as Pickle jammed the spoon into his mouth with an adorably innocent smile.


    The goat girl had been woken by all the noise they had made after Bean and had come to investigate. She had found Red rolling on the floor clutching his bleeding leg and with a gasp she had gone running for bandages, a lot of bandages, she had returned with a spindle of the stuff half the size she was.


    She waggled the spoon around in his mouth.


    Rain tried to ignore the gurgling choking Kobold as best he could. He was sat cross-legged on the remains of his bed, his eyes closed, arms resting in his lap. In his mind''s eye he flipped through his leveler¡¯s menu.


    He had of course leveled substantially after he had taken Lyra and killed the porcupine-spike covered bear like monsters, that was just the nature of killing strong monsters when low leveled. He had been a bottom of the barrel level three, the kind of leveler that would normally take on things like goblins and slimes to level up¡­ yet he had killed nearly fifty of what seemed to be a pretty strong monster, albeit sharing with Lyra. He had more than doubled his level in an hour, going from level three to a startling level seven and what felt like the very edge of reaching level eight. That kind of growth was unimaginable for all but the luckiest of low levelers, ordinarily it would take hunting and killing hundreds and hundreds of weak monsters to level like this because the porcu-bear monsters were far outside the ability to kill for a low leveler. However with a monstrous body like his¡­


    That said he had been more than a little bit disappointed with the Skills he had acquired... Which was maybe for the best as he hadn''t needed to struggle to hide any glee on his part from Lyra at the time.


    His efforts had gifted him two new basic Skills, Skills that he was now looking over in his mind''s eye. First was Accurate Throw, a Skill that allowed him to throw things accurately. Which really wasn¡¯t that exciting since he was very accurate without the Skill, able to throw rocks or objects with consistent accuracy on target. He hadn''t even bothered to activate it when he had thrown the pillow at Bean, he was just that confident in his own accuracy unaided.


    But maybe he was giving it short thrift and it was better than it seemed, he just hadn''t had a private moment to test it.


    The second Skill he had acquired could have some very narrow usage. The Skill was called Feather Fall, and was described as: ¡®Survive falling from great height.¡¯


    He knew one perfect usage for this Skill, Erin, that greedy succubus. If she still lived he would just love to see her try and fly him up into the sky and drop him now. He would land, and be completely fine, and she would be the one to suffer the damage of the fall. He could create a trap within a trap, and for a second he almost wished she would come for him. The look on her face seeing him float to earth while she went splat on the paving would be utterly glorious.


    But no, as much as he would derive satisfaction from seeing that disturbing demon fall it would be best if she stayed away, far far away, ideally sealed in a box, wrapped in chains, in a cave, under the ocean, on the other side of the planet.


    Still, nearly destroying the staircase in coming up here had given him an idea for another use of the extremely situation-specific Skill.


    He cracked an eye and peered at Red and Pickle.


    Pickle had her shoulder under Red¡¯s and was trying valiantly to lift him to Red''s great distress.


    ¡°Ketchup Man rise!¡±


    ¡°I don''t want to rise, my leg is ruined!¡±


    Yet somehow he managed it, his tail helping in his reluctant climb to his one good foot.


    The Kobold was left essentially balanced on one leg as Pickle¡¯s leaning on him was more hindrance than help. His other leg was raised, so many bandages wrapped around it that it looked like a sphere of white cotton had swallowed his shin.


    The Kobold wobbled for a moment, genuinely surprised he¡¯d managed to get upright.


    But then he started to fall, the weight of an over enthusiastic Pickle dragging him down and unable to stretch out his injured leg to catch himself.


    ¡°C-catch me! Someone catch meeee!¡± he wailed as he was slowly felled like a lumberjack¡¯s chosen tree.


    Pickle dove to his front, hands palming his abdomen, determined to stop his collapse. She slowed his fall only fractionally and Red continued to tilt toward the floorboards.


    ¡°Ketchup Man nuu!¡±


    Lyra stepped forward and with a flick of her wrist her wool washed black. The Kobold¡¯s mouth opened in shock, but he could do nothing as he flipped over the top of the diminutive Pickle and flopped into Lyra¡¯s side, the wool of her leg and arm blooming out in a cloud to catch him.


    And just like that he was gone, leaving a stunned Pickle behind.


    She looked at Lyra¡¯s wool in dismay.


    ¡°Sheep ate Ketchup Man!¡±


    ¡°Er,¡± said Lyra, ¡°I magicked him to a secret safe place to rest and recuperate, like a hospital, or something.¡±


    Pickle looked up at her, her mouth an ¡®o¡¯ shape.


    ¡°You have secret place?¡±


    ¡°Uhhh,¡±


    Pickle dove for her wool and Lyra yelped, jumping back to avoid her.


    ¡°Y-you can''t go in there Pickle, it¡¯s not a place for children!¡±


    Pickle ignored her and put her head down, tiny horns locking on as she charged forward after a skittering Lyra, desperately dancing back from her, hooves clattering across the floorboards.


    Lyra made her wool wash back to white as quickly as she could, but that didn''t deter Pickle in the slightest.


    Rain watched them pass by. The room was long and had maybe a dozen beds so they had plenty of space to move around. Lyra even leapt onto a bed, which Pickle charged under of course.


    She bounded from bed to bed until she came to Opal. The Goblin was just finishing up stuffing the last of the gold back into the dimensional bag with a satisfied nod when Lyra flew over her head and landed in front of her, bouncing off the mattress and springing onto the next.


    ¡°Hey you stupid sheep you almost kicked me in the back of the head!¡±


    ¡°Sorry!¡±


    The sheep raced by Rain and he extended an arm and caught her. He stood and in the same motion slung her over his shoulder. A furious Pickle lunged for his leg and tried to climb him, but finding she wasn''t strong enough she slid back down to the ground on her rump.


    Rain turned and grabbed hold of Opal too, putting her on his other shoulder, keeping her in place with his paw.


    ¡°We¡¯re leaving. Tell Warwick we will be back later.¡±


    ¡°Da won''t like,¡± said Pickle, nibbling her nail.


    ¡°Tell him I want to talk about nailing planks of wood over our windows!¡± said Lyra still slung over Rain¡¯s shoulder. ¡°He left out important Bean information when making our deal! We are a cheated and beguiled party and I won''t stand for it!¡±


    ¡°Bean is good person!¡±


    ¡°G-good? Th-that thing?! No Way!¡±


    ¡°Yes way!¡± said Pickle beaming up at Lyra.


    Lyra struggled to process that counterargument.


    Rain turned as they spoke and examined the nearest window. It, like the other windows of the slums, and the rest in the room, was glass free. There had been shutters at one point it seemed but most of them were broken or rotted away to nothing.


    Below the window sill he could see the edge of the original building that Warwick¡¯s buildings had been built on.


    Half a dozen storeys below lay the deserted alley.


    Rain hmm¡¯d while judging the distance. It was far, but he was very strong and he thought he could survive it with maybe only a little strain. He had experience with falling now after Erin had dropped him and had a feel for what he could manage. A drop like this was just a shallow step compared to falling out of the sky.


    Of course this was where Feather Fall came in extremely useful, he would simply step off, activate the Skill, and then float down to the alley below and not have to take the stairs which he suspected wouldn''t survive his passage.


    That would be fine right? Well, he wasn''t sure how much of an effect the Feather Fall Skill would have so to be safe he thought he had better take advantage of his monstrous abilities as well as his abilities as a leveler.


    Experimenting, he let a flood of darkness emerge from his back, claws and talons and teeth in a slurry of shadow. When he was a leveler in Lynthia he had often used the night to his advantage. Less people around at night meant less trouble, trouble for him as being a leveler with zero levels was life threatening, that was just a fact of being so physically fragile. Some of his only company in nights spent searching trash or stealing from gardens had been rats, cats, and, of course, owls.


    The black spilling from his back changed form from a mess of predatory things to thinner more angular lengths, a pair of limbs and then thin flat shapes, rows of them, feathers, feathers that spread and formed the wings.


    In moments a pair of large owl wings had formed on his back. He flapped them experimentally, bowling over Pickle with the backdraft. Yes, these would surely slow his descent even more than Feather Fall. He paused. Might he even¡­ fly?


    No, that couldn''t be, the wings weren''t large¡­. But still¡­ what if he could? Real flight? The thought was tantalising. Who didn''t dream of flying at some point?


    Opal looked down at the wings in delight,


    ¡°You can freaking fly?!¡± she gushed.


    Lyra looked down at them in slightly less delight.


    ¡°D-don''t you dare! N-no don''t do it! Rain? RAIN?! RAAAIIINNN!!¡±


    Rain pulled his wings in and squeezed through the window, stepping into open air, wings then spreading wide as he was freed. In the same moment he activated his Feather Fall Skill, and flapped as rapidly as possible.


    H-he was doing it? F-flying?


    Then gravity latched onto his ankles like a ten thousand ton lead weight and he meteored groundward like a wrathful god¡¯s fist punching the earth¡¯s crust.


    BOOOOM!


    The alley immediately cratered downward in a bowl shape, the wall of the alley hit by the shockwave caved inwards in two room sized circles on either side, rubble and cobble exploding, a hail of stone that ricocheted off the walls in all directions.


    A surprised Bean, disturbed from eating garbage, shrieked and crawled up the walls, hissing and spitting.


    Rain was left standing half crouched in shock at the bottom of the crater. The wings, the Skill, they had done practically nothing!? Was he really that heavy?!


    ¡°What the hell Rain!?¡± said a pale faced Lyra latched onto his head with a death grip.


    Opal whooped and thrust her fist into the air. ¡°That was fucking awesome!¡±


    A faint yelling came from inside the building. Warwick did not sound happy.


    ¡°Lyra, make us invisible¡­ quickly. Quickly!¡±


    He breathed a sigh of relief as he became shadowed, the invisibility taking hold. He carefully stepped free from the crater and backed away down the alley. The door to the building flung open and a furious looking Warwick limped out, then stopped short finding the crater spanning the alley.


    ¡°What in the¡­¡± he stared in confusion at the crater as Pickle scampered around him.


    Rain didn''t stay to hear the rest of what was said, quickly stepping away from Warwick¡¯s alley and into the spiderweb of alleyways surrounding it. Hopefully they would still have a place to stay when they returned, although he wasn''t so sure he minded being kicked out anymore considering Bean¡¯s nightly visits.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 125

    ? Chapter 125:


    They quickly left the slums and then the low level areas entirely, entering into a mid levelers district and then beyond that toward wealthier districts frequented by high as well as mid levelers.


    Rain knew instantly that this area was different. A green furred tiger the size of a cart horse lumbered past, a dainty elf wearing a flowing white summery dress perched on top, its reins held lightly in hand. That wasn''t something he had ever seen before. The Elf was casually riding an extremely dangerous monster like it was nothing.


    ¡°As you might have guessed the higher levelers operate on different rules,¡± whispered Lyra as the elven lady slipped over the side of the tiger and had it sit as she took a chair at an open air cafe. ¡°When you are powerful and connected you are allowed to bring large and dangerous monster slaves into the city.¡±


    ¡°Doesn''t the Ranker have a problem with that? What if it escapes and goes on a rampage?¡±


    ¡°You usually need to apply to be allowed to have it, and with that they check to see if you are strong enough to physically control it and kill it on your own if needed. That elf lady doesn''t look like much but I would be willing to bet she could punch that tiger in the head and knock it unconscious in one blow, although she might just have a heart pin if she is willing to spend the money. It¡¯s a bit more lady-like to simply trigger the metal pin inserted next to its heart than to be seen in public beating a tiger to death with your bare hands. Although you still need to have the physical endurance to trigger the pin if it attacks.¡±


    ¡°I see...¡±


    There were a number of large monsters around, but of course no Panthara. Not even the high leveled dared to try to keep those cunning creatures as pets. Not to say that what they did have wasn''t dangerous. He was surprised to see he vaguely recognised some of the monster species. A giant snake quite like the one he had eaten in Lynthia¡¯s dungeon and what looked like a cave bear cross-bred with a Kobold, black scales peeking from its fur. The Kobold-bear was carrying a large crate for its master and being directed to place it on top an ornate gilded carriage.


    ¡°Ah, this is exactly what we were looking for,¡± said Lyra.


    His gaze moved from the bear to where her hand was pointing, the shop behind the carriage.


    The outside had been made into an open air stall, if one aimed at wealthier customers, long colourful embroidered overhangs providing shade in the warm morning light.


    More important were the tables set out in the shade, tables which contained dungeon diving products, glittering swords, polished armour, and, of course, practical healing potions.


    Rain slunk by the shop and slipped into the alley beside it.


    ¡°How are we planning on getting the potions?¡± whispered Lyra. ¡°I could just buy them.¡±


    ¡°Drop me down and I¡¯ll snatch them, I¡¯ve seen how these dumb levelers act, they barely notice us Gobbos, it will be easy!¡±


    ¡°No, too dangerous,¡± gravelled Rain. ¡°And I''d prefer if you weren''t seen Lyra.¡±


    ¡°Hey there¡¯s hardly going to be any scummy gangs around here, it will be fine!¡±


    Rain considered this. ¡°...It¡¯s just not necessary, I can just do this.¡±


    He lifted his paws together and black mist began to coalesce, taking shape. In moments a dozen large rats had appeared on his pads, their inky blackness and star scatter eyes looking up at him with awe as their noses and whiskers wobbled.


    He crouched and lowered his paws and the rats poured from his digits, waterfalling down to the cobble below where they scattered and scurried by the alley wall.


    The shop¡¯s stall didn''t stand a chance. The rats waited for the overly perfumed shop owner to be distracted by a customer and then darted toward the nearest table, their small claws latching onto the colourful fabric overhanging the edge and swarming their way up.


    The first few rats reached the top where they found a number of glass bottles. Working together they removed them from where they were slotted into a wooden display box. One by one the bottles were stolen, a good six of them.


    Each bottle was then passed onto the next pair of rats dangling off the table cloth, who then passed it onto the next who then passed it down to the ground.


    It took less than twenty seconds. The rats were there, and then they were running back as fast as they could. They clambered onto Rain¡¯s fur and scrambled upwards to a disturbed Lyra. The rats then passed her the stolen bottles one by one.


    ¡°Erm, thank...you?¡± said Lyra with an armful of bottles.


    The leader rat waved and winked at her as it sunk into Rain¡¯s fur.


    ¡°With this Red can be healed, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but I can''t switch to my wool space without problems with my invisibility, I think, so uhm, we¡¯ll need to find somewhere private.¡±


    ¡°Not here?¡±


    Lyra eyed the mouth of the alley. The street outside was busy and it would only take a glance in their direction to be seen.


    ¡°No, not here, there¡¯s a better place than this, a place where we are unlikely to be seen at all where no one bothers to go.¡±


    ¡°And that is?¡±


    Lyra held the potions tight. ¡°The library.¡±


    --


    The library was a massive structure, a crumbling sprawl of connected buildings that seemed to have been added to over centuries and centuries of use. Because of that it was a mish-mash of differing architecture, huge pillars and pointed roofs and sandy walls or cream white walls and sloped roofs and rectangular windows dotted amongst arched. About the only one thing unifying the complex was the creeping ivy that wound its way over every other surface.


    The place was as deserted as Lyra implied, the streets around the library near empty, and nobody headed toward its vast steps.


    Rain approached the grandiose entrance, wary.


    He didn''t have much to worry about though, the library was of little interest to the city¡¯s citizens.


    He passed between towering pillars of the entrance for once feeling that the architecture was more fitting to his size, and entered the building, his caution not lowering in the slightest.


    The entrance hall was quiet and empty of all but a few people, which wasn''t all that surprising, even Lynthia¡¯s small library that Rain had snuck into as a child to try and study his way out of his level zero predicament was like this. He had a vague theory as to why that was. Libraries just weren''t that popular with a fighting populace¡­ which was basically everyone, and were considered the purview of dusty old mages... who were also often wealthy, which was why the library still managed to make a lot of profit.


    He drew in a breath through his nose to scent the place and had to slap a paw over his face to keep from sneezing as a wash of dust slammed into his nostrils. He had the instinctive feeling that a sneeze at his size would instantly destroy Lyra¡¯s invisibility.


    He passed by a desk where a purple scaled Drake sat, a pair of wire rimmed spectacles balanced on the bridge of her muzzle. It wasn''t the first time Rain had seen a Drake but he was always surprised by how similar they looked to Kobolds. In a lot of ways they were to Kobolds what Orcs or maybe Humans were to Goblins, the larger stouter leveler cousins of the monsters.


    Looking at her now he wondered for a moment if Bean was simply an extremely stunted and skinny Drake, but then Drakes did not have neck frills, nor did they have fangs long enough to peek from their lips. It didn''t seem likely. Bean was an enigma.


    The purple scaled drake paused in her reading and looked up.


    Rain blinked. ¡°Those glasses, she can''t see us, right?¡± he whispered.


    Lyra gripped his ear.


    ¡°No, they aren''t violet lensed, they¡®re just normal glasses, keep going.¡±


    Rain took a step forward and let out a breath of relief as the Drake''s gaze remained, unmoved, a puzzled expression on her face quickly replaced as a long bearded mage approached her. Rain swiftly stepped by them and entered into the library proper, passing into one of the many shelf lined passages leading out of the hall.


    Stairs and shelves. The complex wasn''t an open place and as he went deeper he found the place almost claustrophobic, barely enough space for him between towering shelves that reached the ceiling and spread in every direction, rows and grids sometimes, but more often than not the shelves went in out in any angle, a crazily branching maze lit gloomily by glowing glass orbs.


    When there weren''t branching rows of shelves there were halls like the entrance hall, two-storey spaces open in the middle with reading desks.


    ¡°Not here, deeper, where no one goes,¡± murmured Lyra.


    He continued on through the maze of passages until it opened up on one side and he froze seeing the view over the railing.


    The floors dropped away beneath them into the gloom, floors and floors lined with books, a vast rectangular chamber dozens of storeys deep, countless bridges reaching across from gallery to gallery, the space stretching into the distance, unending shelves, unending books. Here he could distantly see people, if only because of how much space it encompassed.


    The truth was the library wasn''t entirely underused, it was just so mind-bogglingly vast that even thousands of people could disappear in this place.


    He passed on from the huge chamber and back into the warren of passages where the passage split, then split again and again. The area they were in now appeared more run down than others they had passed through, and very very old. He had to put real work into not sneezing from the disturbed dust.


    He walked for minutes and didn''t see a single other person. It was perfect. He stopped at the next reading space, a smaller more cloistered spot with a privacy door and maybe a dozen reading desks.


    Lyra dropped the invisibility and climbed awkwardly down from his shoulder to the floor.


    ¡°This is perfect. No one will find us here, at least I hope not, but I mean who would even come here? This place is a dump!¡± She looked around at it proudly, hands on hips.


    Her wool suddenly washed to black and Red, who had apparently been leaning against the other side in wool space fell through with a yelp and crashed to the ground. A skull with green flaming eyes was latched onto his head.


    He flailed around clutching at his leg in distress ¡°OWOWOWOWOWW!¡±


    Lyra rolled her eyes and grabbed the edge of the bundle of cotton on his leg then jammed the neck of a healing potion bottle down it. A few glugs of fluid poured out and she then snatched it back and quickly screwed the cap back on.


    ¡°Oh gods the pain! The¡­ pain?¡±


    Red paused and examined his leg, experimentally moving it back and forth.


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°Yes, oh,¡± said Vash from atop his head. ¡°So this would be one of the libraries you mentioned brute.¡± he sniffed and jumped off Red¡¯s head, his chicken bone spider legs cushioning his landing.


    ¡°This is what I want your help with, I want to know what I am, what kind of monster, and¡­¡± he paused and glanced at Opal ¡°What dangers that might cause,¡±


    Vash followed his gaze, ¡°Ah, I see how it is. The follies of the living, to create new life in such a way, how nasty.¡±


    ¡°You play around with rotting corpses! You don''t get to talk,¡± glowered Opal who was busily perching herself on one of the reading area¡¯s chairs.


    ¡°Play. Please, what I do is art in one of its purest forms. Necromancy is using nature''s base clay to its utmost, whereas the living are but a child¡¯s clumsy mud pile a great undead is a sculpture¡¯s masterwork unparalleled amongst life.¡±


    ¡°Necromancy isn''t what you are here for. I need your help as a scholar, not as an undead.¡±


    ¡°You don''t have to tell me that, and I am quite familiar with this particular library.¡±


    Lyra and Rain stared at the skull. ¡°You¡­ what?¡±


    This just seemed to annoy Vash. ¡°Yes, look around you, how many centuries old do you think this place is? I spent years in libraries when I was alive, many of them in this city, Florens, and that includes this one.¡±


    Rain recalled the kind of old snooty mages that frequented the library in Lythiia. Yep, the skull¡¯s outlandish claim did somehow seem believable.


    Vash narrowed his flame eyes and flicked a boney limb at the shelves. A cluttering rattle came from beneath them and after a moment small white bones began to spill free with a wash of dust. Amongst the bones and buckets of dust were rat skulls.


    ¡°Not of the worst quality,¡± tutted Vash as he examined the bones which were piling up and forming skeletons. ¡°I suppose a library is much like a tomb in keeping remains at least a little respectable.¡±


    The twenty or so rat skeletons finished forming and scampered toward him, forming a row on the floorboards.


    ¡°I didn''t ask you to do that,¡± gravelled Rain, eyeing the rat skeletons with concern.


    ¡°Do you want to find out what you want to know this century? Do you have any idea how vast and absurdly disorganised this library is? Trust me, this is the way to do things, take advantage of my expertise in navigating libraries and I shall have researched your peculiar species in no time at all. It will be easy.¡±


    The rats began to work, scurrying over to the shelves then up, pausing by each book and looking it over, sometimes pulling a book free if the spine was too worn to read so they could examine the cover.


    Rain had to admit that his chances of finding out the truth went up a lot with Vash¡¯s help. He watched as they worked their way through the room, some of the rats darting out into the hall to explore the rest of the library as others remained.


    ¡°I shall, ah, just do a little solo study, this library is very large, it will be most efficient if I work alone, I shall see you¡­ momentarily.¡±


    Rain watched the skull scuttle casually toward the door. In a flash his paw whipped out and palmed the skull, lifting it into the air, chicken bone legs waving madly.


    ¡°What is the meaning of this!?¡± cried Vash.


    ¡°Did you think I would just let you do as you please? To go wandering off into this library never to return? You don''t have to say it, I can read you like a book. You thought this was your chance to escape.¡±


    ¡°Nonsense! Not true, n-not true!¡±


    Rain¡¯s paw closed and the skull¡¯s bone let out a creaking groan as a huge amount of pressure was applied, about to buckle and pulverise.


    Vash¡¯s voice stilled in fear.


    ¡°You take me for a fool because I am a monster. You call me brute because you think I am one step above being a mindless animal.¡±


    Darkness rolled and boiled up around the skull, nightmarish claws and teeth and talons and pincers scratching and scraping against the skull¡¯s bone.


    ¡°You can keep thinking that if you wish Vash. But you will be sharing that body of yours.¡±


    ¡°Wh-what?¡±


    ¡°Sharing it... with me.¡± Rain lifted his lips in a wolfish grin and a centipede snaked out of the darkness, coiling around the skull and then slipping through the opening for the spine. In moments the two foot long centipede had slithered into the skull''s empty cranium and had curled up into a tight ball.


    Rain placed the skull on the nearest table.


    Vash remained frozen, his eye flames unmoving.


    Opal prodded it.


    ¡°I think you killed him.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s still there, just not very happy about the situation.¡±


    The skull slowly tilted to the side, a black centipede leg could be seen moving in the back of its eye socket.


    ¡°I-,¡± said Vash, ¡°Don''t like this. I feel¡­ strange.¡±


    ¡°Good. This way you cannot leave without my say so. If you try something I will have that thing I placed inside your skull drag you back to me. You won''t be able to fight it. It''s very strong. It would only take flex of its body to shatter your skull to pieces and then you will once more be comatose until your bone regenerates.¡±


    Vash suddenly rounded on him, eye flames flashing.


    ¡°You treat me, the greatest necromancer of a century as- as some disobedient pet?!¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Vash¡¯s jaw flopped open in wordless outrage.


    ¡°You won''t even notice it¡¯s there, you don''t have a sense of touch, you are literally made of bone.¡±


    ¡°It still feels wrong and- and heavy! Gods damn you! Even I don''t know what this material you are able to conjure is, you could have put dangerous toxic poison in me for all I know!¡±


    ¡°Can skulls get poisoned?¡±


    ¡°Well... no, but that''s not the point!¡±


    Rain rolled his eyes. ¡°You agreed to help me find my species. Will you keep your word or not?¡±


    Vash drew up on his chicken bone spider legs. ¡°I always keep my word, I intended to keep my word from the start! I am a skull of honour!¡±


    ¡°Sure. By that you mean you intended to leave your rats to search for the relevant book while you left. I think you are underestimating how hard this is going to be. If you had left and your rats couldn''t find anything then you would be breaking your word. Don¡¯t deny it.¡±


    Vash seemed more peeved by the accusation than having a centipede put in his unfeeling cranium, although Rain was fairly sure what annoyed the ancient necromancer most of all was that his plan to flee had been thwarted by an ¡®uncivilized¡¯ monster.


    The skull harrumphed and turned his back on him. The rat skeletons continued to check book after book, occasionally pulling one free and dragging it down to be piled by one of the desks for them to examine.


    Opal swung her legs back and forth as she perched on the chair.


    ¡°Sooo, what am I supposed to do?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s simple,¡± said Rain, ¡°I¡¯m going to teach you to read, this time for real.¡±


    Opal squinted at him. ¡°I guess that¡¯s... good,¡± she patted her belly. ¡°Plus it would be neat if I could teach this ¡®reading¡¯ too.¡±


    Rain carefully perched on a bench on the opposite side of the desk from her, which by some miracle managed to take his weight, albeit with an alarming dip in the middle. A rat skeleton approached to his surprise and handed him a book. He examined it and found it was a book aimed at teenagers. He pushed it across the desk toward Opal who looked at it with curiosity.


    Lyra stood awkwardly by them.


    ¡°So, ah, I think I¡¯m going to go do some sleuthing and investigating, for, you know, your murderers? Libraries aren''t really my thing...¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t go out there, it¡¯s too dangerous, what if you are attacked by a gang again?¡±


    ¡°That was just because it was a bad area. You think that kind of thing would happen in the place where we picked up the potions? There¡¯s no way there will be any gangs around there, the wealthy and leveled wouldn''t stand for it. I should be fine, and I mean, how else are we going to find out what you need to know without talking to people?¡±


    Rain didn''t have an answer for that. After a moment of internal struggle he agreed with some stipulations.


    ¡°Take Red with you and.. something else.¡±


    ¡°Really? He¡¯s useless!¡±


    ¡°Hey! I swung a sword!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, into your leg.¡±


    The dimensional bag had been placed on the desk by Opal and Rain picked it up as they argued and overturned it. Gold poured out onto the floor along with various other treasures, including the paired Inkerchange, the smaller other half of which was in Lyra¡¯s back pocket. He placed it on the desk then pushed it to one side, putting down the now empty dimensional bag beside it, all while ignoring Red¡¯s complaints about disrespecting the gold.


    He raised his paws over the desk¡¯s surface and waggled his digits, a crafter readying to work.


    Darkness poured from his fur and formed a blob of shadow between his paws. The now over two foot wide blob came to rest on the desk, a pitch black spot in the room that magnetically drew the eye.


    He focused on it and pushed his will into it, forcing it to form as he desired. The blackness started to take shape, a cat¡¯s head forming at one end, a pair of centipede pincers at the other. The black at the base sucked upward, cat legs appearing, the claws like talons similar to a Panthara. He finished his creation off in a burst of inspiration, a pair of owl wings emerging from its back, stretching out and fluttering. He¡¯d created a super sized house cat with wings and talons and a centipede for a tail.


    The cat chimera blinked up at him with starry eyes, then experimentally flapped its wings.


    Perfect. Sort of. He was still getting the hang of this. He doubted the thing could actually fly, but it didn¡¯t matter.


    He turned to the bag and lifted it, the cat happily scampered across the table and hopped into the bag, disappearing from sight.


    ¡°Uhm, it''s cute but I really don''t think this is a good idea¡­¡±


    ¡°Cute?¡±


    Rain shook his head, that really wouldn''t work. He''d gotten so caught up in making it that he hadn''t considered what he really wanted it to do which was to protect and intimidate. He held his paw over the bag and darkness waterfall into it, a storm of nightmarish talons and teeth and centipedes, a stream of horrors.


    Lyra paled. ¡°S-slightly less cute, uhm, I hope you don''t expect me to walk around with that?¡±


    Rain held out the bag for her.


    ¡°I¡¯m only letting you do this extremely reluctantly, if something goes wrong I want you to use this and then flee, use your invisibility while they are distracted by the bag... Got it?¡±


    Lyra hesitantly took the bag of horrors.


    ¡°I shouldn''t have to use this, it should be fine¡­¡±


    Red and Lyra left through the door as Opal tried to sound out words from her book.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 126

    ? Chapter 126:


    A black wooled Lyra stepped through the upper class and quite posh streets with a little hop of excitement in her step. It wasn''t that she was afraid, of course she was afraid, a bounty hunter or gang with no scruples could come for her at any moment! But it was Florens. Florens! Her home city! Being here was special, in her opinion Florens was the greatest city in the world, although admittedly she might have been a little biased since she had grown up here.


    She tried her best to not think of how much her view of the world had changed since she had first left the city. Goblin slaves were once something that her eyes passed over without even registering, now they were eye catching blemishes on her city that caused a squirmy feeling of guilt deep in her gut.


    The small Kobold at her side was slightly less joyous, giving the well dressed levelers they passed surly looks, his claws resting on the sheathed blade on his hip, hunched and wary.


    The edges of vast manses could be seen over the roofs of the busy streets they were wandering through. They were on the edge of the noble quarter, as near as could be without actually entering it. They found themselves in a street of stalls and shops selling the kinds of luxury things the elite were likely to spend their money on.


    She stopped by a stall that a mouldy grey scaled Drake smoking a pipe was watching over, seated comfortably in an armchair.


    ¡°Hiya!¡± said Lyra brightly.


    The Drake eyeballed her, a wisp of pipe smoke curling around his head.


    He nodded toward the tables, and Lyra looked over them and bit her lip. She needed to buy at least something, what better way to get a merchant¡¯s lips flapping?


    After a moment of hesitation, she picked something out, a bottle of wine.


    ¡°Is this the wine that¡¯s like really popular amongst the nobility?¡±


    The Drake lifted a lip revealing gold teeth, sharp teeth.


    ¡°Aye, it be. Enough the stuff goes through those many golden gates to drown a dragon. Ain¡¯t hard to get a claw on a few bottles these days if you gots the know how. It¡¯s all yours, the real deal noble experience, all for a beggerin¡¯ twenty five gold coins.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?! That''s daylight rob- aheheh I mean, that¡¯s uh, nighttime gifting? Like, WOW, what a¡­ generous price. You are a very kind and handsome Drake.¡±


    The Drake squinted at her.


    ¡°If you don''t like the price then I reckon maybe you don¡¯t belong here. This isn''t a place for paupers and trash, girl.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure it is a great and very reasonable price, and I am. very. happy. to. pay. that.¡± said the sheep girl, struggling to get the words out.


    It was kind of like a bribe right? She found thinking of it that way helped a bit. A little bit.


    Lyra instinctively dipped her hand down to grab a fistfull of coin from the dimensional bag on her hip. At the last possible moment she recalled that it was currently filled with nightmarish shadow things that would very likely dissolve her entire hand if she were to put it inside. She jerked her fingers away with a shudder


    Instead, she carefully reached for a regular purse she had hung next to it in preparation for brib- paying for goods.


    A pair of claws latched onto her hand as she was fiddling with the purse and she looked down to see Red glaring up at her.


    ¡°I¡¯m the treasurer and I say no.¡±


    She reacted quickly.


    ¡°Get your filthy claws off of me slave!¡± She slapped Red in the face, gently of course, but it still provided an impressive stage sound.


    The Kobold looked at her flabbergasted.


    ¡°This is the last time I buy a dungeon fresh slave. You forget your place! Do not deign to talk to me again.¡± She waved him away and turned back to the Drake.


    The Kobold rubbed his cheek vaguely and glared at her. Were the dramatics really necessary?


    Lyra grabbed a fistful of coin from the purse and waved her closed hand in the air showing she had the money for the popular wine.


    She of course had been well aware that the bottle was a favourite of the nobility and in limited supply. It was the reason she had stopped at the stall in the first place.


    ¡°Soooooo. I suppose you have to be quite well connected to get your, aheh, Drakey claws on one of these bottles. Know the ins and outs and the comings and goings and the ups and downs and the insides and outside and the things that happen?¡± she lifted an eyebrow suggestively, then her other eyebrow too, doubling down on the suggestiveness.


    The Drake blew smoke. ¡°If by that you mean do I have friends amongst the staff. Sure. nothing wrong with that. I know many young maids, old too, you know how it is.¡±


    He gave her a weird leer, mouth opening and revealing that every one of his teeth were gold, smoke curling between them as he chuckled.


    ¡°D-do I? I-I mean, yes? And, good?¡±


    The Drake paused then snorted through his nose. ¡°You know nothing. Pay up or piss off.¡±


    ¡°I can pay, I can pay!¡± she dumped her fistful of coin onto the table, less than the total. ¡°You know how it is, gold is very heavy and I¡¯m only a little sheep. If you would take pity and help relieve me of some of it? Perhaps by telling me a little of a certain noble house? The Fenhorns? I¡¯m sure it would be of no trouble, no trouble at all.¡±


    ¡°You could have gone with that from the start you know.¡±


    Lyra paused. ¡°Well in that case I won''t buy this ridiculously over priced wine.¡±


    ¡°Too late now, if you don''t buy the perfectly reasonably priced wine you''ll have been wasting my time and that makes me less than inclined to be talking with a nosey one like yerself.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s-!¡±


    It was the Drakes turn to raise a brow


    Lyra let out an agonised sigh and scowled at him. But she still slammed down more fistfuls of gold onto the table.


    ¡°S¡¯good wine, no need to get in a huff. So good that I fancy it¡¯s aged into a finer vintage just as we been speakin.¡±


    Lyra¡¯s scowl deepened and she slammed down another fistful of gold, practically punching the table.


    ¡°The Fenhorns?¡±


    The Drake tapped ash from his pipe, speaking as he refilled the bowl.


    ¡°Can¡¯t say I know much about ¡®em. They¡¯re the soft in the head sort, the sort of folk who spendthrift on charity, helping out stuck low levelers, feeding the starving, all that kind of useless shit.¡± He relit the pipe by snapping his claws together, some Skill or other creating a shower of sparks. ¡° ¡®Course I do know of one of ¡®em more than the others. Their so-called golden child. Hard to not know about that, when a family is angling for the top they crow and parrot about their spawn havin¡¯ explosive growth at every chance they get.¡±


    ¡°Brax Fenhorn right?¡±


    The Drake nodded. ¡°Aye. Bugger came back to Florens and practically got a parade. The prodigal son returned! Look how strong and mighty he has become! Our star is rising!¡± The Drake turned and spat to the side. ¡°Bunch of cunts if you ask me.¡±


    ¡°Were there others with him? Did he return alone?¡±


    ¡°He had a few girls hanging off his shoulders if that''s what you mean. One a noble like him by looks, the other I don''t know. They¡¯re living on the Fenhorn estate. I hear a lot about that cause the maids ain¡¯t particularly happy about it, and by that I mean talkin¡¯ my ear off with complaints. Trashed rooms, won''t stop rutting on the furniture, oh and the wailing, waking them up at all times.¡±


    ¡°Uhhh, okay that last bit I really didn''t need to know, but... thank you?


    The Drake leered at her in that way again, gold teeth on display.


    ¡°If you want to meet them I can tell yah that there¡¯s a party, a celebration celebratin¡¯ the golden boy¡¯s jump in levels. You know how it is, you got that vibe about you, nobbity nobles treating leveling as an excuse to splurge huge amounts of coin and binge themselves shitfaced.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you are talking about. I have never heard of such a thing.


    ¡°Sure. And I¡¯m a sopping hatchling. In any case you¡¯ve heard what that wine gets ya, if you want to get past all the guards and magic and that then wait til the party and get in all sly like as one of the guests. You¡¯ll pass, as I said, you got the vibe, noble like.¡±


    Lyra glanced between the Drake and the bottle of wine.


    ¡°...I can''t help but feel you just told me things that were absolutely not worth all the coin I just spent on this wine.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what yer talkin about girl, I was just havin¡¯ a nice chat, ¡®ad nothin¡¯ to do with the wine, that was your own separate purchase. Not my problem if you are a wine lover who can''t help but go for a good vintage.¡±


    Lyra gave him an outraged look, but after a moment she snatched up the wine and turned on her heel.


    ¡°I frankly don''t appreciate the way you have treated me as a customer. Good day sir. Red come!¡±


    ¡°But-¡±


    ¡°This is no place for honest and honourable folk like ourselves!¡±


    She marched away with Red hurrying to keep up in her wake.


    ¡°Outrageous. To think that kind of unscrupulous conniving merchant makes his home here in the upper quarters.¡±


    ¡°Weren''t you trying to sort of bribe him for information?¡±


    ¡°No! Maybe! That¡¯s completely beside the point!¡±


    Annoyed, she stopped at a few more stalls and shops, even a butchers, but few others could tell her more, and only a little of that was useful. At least she now knew for certain that all of the ones Rain wanted were on the estate, further confirmed by their descriptions, an erratic elf girl, and a human mage, supposedly a water mage of some kind.


    Most interesting was the coming party however, and it did give her food for thought. Could she¡­?


    After a half-hour of learning nothing more, and a brand new collection of expensive junk plus a now empty purse, she decided not to push her luck on her first information foray any further and steered Red into an alley, the fastest way back to the library.


    It was as they were making their way through it that a large blue scaled Drake stepped from a door and blocked their path.


    ¡°Ah, sorry, just trying to get by?¡±


    The Drake didn''t move.


    ¡°Did you think passage was free? This is private property you are stepping on. There¡¯s a toll to pass.¡±


    ¡°... In that case I¡¯ll just be going back the way I came, uhm.¡±


    She glanced over her shoulder to find two more large Drakes had appeared and were blocking the way back.


    ¡°If you would just let me by? maybe?¡±


    The very muscular blue Drake was over a foot taller than Lyra and loomed at her threateningly.


    ¡°You¡¯ve already stepped hoof on our property, that means you''re using it. You wouldn''t take a    bite out of a baker¡¯s muffin then put it back without paying for it would you now?¡±


    The Drake took a step forward.


    A flash of red scale and a Kobold darted between them, blocking the Drake¡¯s path.


    Red lifted his golden sword, the point waving wildly as he aimed it up at the Drake¡¯s abdomen.


    ¡°Stop where you are leveler!¡±


    ¡°Red... y-you''re protecting me¡­?¡± whispered Lyra, eyes wide.


    ¡°Don''t come any closer to my portable hoard!


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°She and all the stuff I shoved inside of her are mine!¡±


    ¡°C-can you please not put it that way¡­?!¡±


    The blue scaled Drake sneered at Red, then in a flash of motion, that was likely Skill empowered, his claws darted forward and ripped the golden sword away in the same motion as a leg kicked out.


    The sandal caught Red in the gut and he was tossed into the air, limbs flailing as he was brutally winded. He crashed against the stairs of a nearby porch, body limp.


    One of the Drake¡¯s behind grabbed Lyra¡¯s wrist and dragged her to the side. The other snatched the black knife from her that had appeared in her hand, and then the dimensional bag from her hip.


    ¡°Wait! WAIT! TIME OUT!¡±


    The sheer alarm in Lyra¡¯s voice caused the thieves to pause.


    ¡°J-just listen very very carefully to what I am about to say.¡± she took a breath, ¡°If you open that bag even slightly, you, and all your friends, are all immediately going to die.¡±


    The Drakes eyed her then glanced down at the bag.


    ¡°That just might be the stupidest attempt at stopping a robbery I have ever heard.¡±


    The Drake moved to open the bag.


    Lyra struggled in the holding Drake¡¯s grip.


    ¡°DON''T DO IT! P-Please! You don''t need to die over just a little bit of run of the mill mugging! L-Look, I can give you gold not to open it, j-just take the gold and go, and- and put the bag on the ground. Carefully!¡±


    ¡°You know that implies there¡¯s something more valuable than gold in here right?¡±


    The blue Drake was staring at Lyra, not liking the genuine concern he saw in her eyes. Gone was his belligerent body language, replaced with wariness.


    ¡°I¡­ don''t know¡­ something is wrong here.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s pulling your tail, acting, I can''t believe you''re falling for it you egg rotted idiot.¡±


    ¡°Hey! She might be for real! It could be poisonous or- or something.¡±


    ¡°Uhhuh. And she¡¯s keeping a pet Panthara in it.¡±


    ¡°Don''t even joke about that!¡±


    As they argued a figure stepped from the porch Red was slumped against. He had a limp, and a walking stick, and mouldy grey scales. A wisp of smoke curled around his head from a pipe.


    He tapped the cane on the paving drawing their attention.


    ¡°You know you almost got by me without me twigging it you sneaky little thing.¡±


    It was the Drake from the stall. He grinned, the gold of his teeth somehow looking so much more predatory than before.


    ¡°T-Twigging what?¡± said Lyra.


    ¡°A half woollie on the run. Course she looked nothin¡¯ like you going by the posters, but a half woollie with a bit of a noble vibe? That cuts down who it could be by a lot, a hell of a lot from what I know of the Bellerhorns. Not to mention poking her nose into other noble¡¯s business as nobles love to do?¡± The Drake ran his yellow eyes up and down Lyra¡¯s body. ¡°Well, youse still might not be this ¡®Lyra¡¯ person, wools all the wrong colour, but I am the kinda Drake who likes a gamble and my gamba instinct tells me you''re a good bet.¡±


    ¡°You''re wrong! I don''t know what you are talking about! You don''t have to do this! Don''t let your boss person pressure you into making a mistake!¡±


    The grey Drake tilted his head. ¡°Boss? I am the boss lass.¡± he gestured with his pipe at the others. ¡°All these nasty little guttersnipes I keep around here are mine and many more. That''s how it is.¡±


    ¡°...But what if I¡¯m not her?! You might be making a terrible mistake, a really terrible mistake!¡±


    The grey scaled Drake blew out a plume of smoke.


    ¡°Oh so terrible hmm. If you are her you should say it now. The trouble you¡¯ve found yourself in is only going to spread.¡±


    ¡°...What are you saying?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s an easy way to get a leveler who''s gone to ground to come out: Go after their family. The Bellerhorns ain¡¯t much these days, fallen in their fortunes and kicked out their estate. Only reason a gang hasn''t scooped them up right away is their connections and levels. But that''s going to change as the competition heats up. They¡¯ll break into their home, take them by force, then call out this Lyra until she comes a runnin¡¯ and begs cryin¡¯ and blubbin¡¯ to be put under the blade to save her dear dear family.¡±


    Lyra instantly stilled in her struggle.


    ¡°...Okay. I¡¯ve changed my mind. Open the bag.¡±


    The grey scaled Drake narrowed his eyes.


    ¡°What is this...bag?¡±


    The Drake holding it lifted it to show the grey scaled Drake.


    ¡°It¡¯s a bag of something- probably treasure, we think.¡±


    ¡°She said not to open it.¡±


    ¡°No I didn''t.¡±


    The Drake blinked.


    ¡°You said it would immediately kill us all dead if we opened it!¡±


    ¡°That''s something I never said. I don''t know what you are talking about, those words never passed my lips. Are you sure you didn''t mishear? It''s just a bag of gold and jewels, feel free to steal it.¡±


    The Drake looked at her blankly, completely thrown off.


    ¡°That¡¯s not¡­ that¡¯s not what you were saying¡­¡±


    ¡°Something is wrong here, something tells me we shouldn''t open that bag boss,¡± said the blue Drake, gripping the golden sword in his claws.


    ¡°Hah! You¡¯re pretty shitty criminals, imagine getting talked into not opening it! Your criminal friends will all point and laugh at you when you tell them the story of how a clever little woollie talked you out of stealing a small fortune!¡±


    The grey scaled Drake was getting more and more irritated by the moment, puffing on his pipe furiously, a shroud of smoke building around his head.


    ¡°Gods this is ridiculous, she¡¯s just tryin¡¯ ter talk you in circles, that¡¯s her damned thing! Now give me the bag and lop off her head you utter morons.¡±


    The grey Drake limped forward, cane clicking against stone, and snatched the bag from the Drake¡¯s claws.


    Of course, in the process, the string that had been pulled tight came slightly loose as it snagged on one of the Drake¡¯s claws.


    A cat head popped from the opening and blinked in the light.


    The Drakes froze.


    ¡°Ah. You¡¯ve really done it now,¡± murmured Lyra.


    ¡°...Boss¡­ why is there a cat head poking from that bag?¡±


    The cat head turned toward the speaker and blinked at him, eyes filled with endless unimaginable stars drifting through an ungodly void.


    The grey scaled Drake snorted.


    ¡°It¡¯s her pet monster you dummy. She was protectin¡¯ it.¡± He glared at Lyra. ¡°Lass as much as this advice doesn''t matter since you¡¯ll soon be dead, you should look into protecting yourself before others.¡±


    ¡°Actually I was trying to protect you from it, but it¡¯s too late now, it¡¯s too late, it¡¯s all too late.¡±


    The cat head started to struggle and the strings pulled wide. A collar of talons and claws appeared around its neck. The grey Drake jumped in surprise and dropped the bag.


    The bag opened wide as it hit the paving and a nightmare poured into the alley. The cat was the head, the body was a maelstrom of black, a tiny cat¡¯s head perched on some many limbed bipedal giant thing made up of endless teeth and claws and worse all shaped into a creature taller than any of the drakes.


    The Drakes stared up at it in a state of shock.


    A limb lashed out and instantly engulfed the grey Drake''s head, a spray of red mist appearing around it as the dozens of talons and digits and claws formed a fist, crushing it. The ¡®fist¡¯ was removed and his uncorked body collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. His head was simply gone, as though it had just evaporated. Judging by the red mist maybe it had.


    The Drakes screamed and leapt away, desperately turning and running, falling in their panic.


    Black centipedal tentacles swarmed out like long black limbs, each as thick as a torso. The cat head ¡°meowed!¡± happily.


    Blackness roared past a Drake and half his body dissolved into a slurry of gore that splashed across the paving, his remaining half taking a step, the destruction so sudden he was momentarily alive despite half of his head pouring down onto his gaping torso. A moment later and the tentacles had torn the rest of him to pieces.


    One drake ran for a door, fumbling with the handle, keening in terror. It was locked and a wave of tentacles slammed into him, smashing his body against the wood. The tentacles retracted and all that was left of the drake was a red stain.


    The alley seemed to become shadowed and Lyra blinked as she realised that a pair of owl wings had emerged from the things back, wings that pressed up against the walls, each feather tipped with a small hooked talon.


    The last surviving Drake screamed as he looked up at the thing, desperately scrambling away on his back, Red¡¯s golden sword held up defensively in a blue scaled hand, the wildly shaking tip pointed at the thing¡¯s abdomen.


    The terrible thing stepped forward, one foot a harpy¡¯s, one a Panthara¡¯s. The Panthara foot came down on the corpse of the grey Drake¡­ and went through it, flesh disintegrating around the talons.


    It took another step forward as the dozen centipedal tentacles emerging from its torso slithered around the remaining screaming crying Drake, encircling it.


    A pair of pincers and talons darted in and snapped at the Drake¡¯s leg, cutting its foot off. The Drake high pitch shrieked and desperately scrambled back. The thing followed, boxing it in with tentacles, pincers snapping, taking toes, an arm, the sword clanged as it hit the paving, along with the wet thump of the Drake''s severed hand. The thing batted playfully at his thigh and meat fell away.


    To Lyra¡¯s great dismay she realised that just like a cat the thing was playing with its prey. It was behaving exactly as a normal house cat would with a mouse.


    ¡°F-finish him! Quickly!¡± she cried, not wishing to see the thing do anything more cat like.


    The thing paused and the tiny cat head perched atop the mass glanced at her. Lyra swear it actually pouted!


    A storm of pitch black predatory things smashed down on the Drake and he vanished with one final scream.


    The centipede tentacles receded leaving a lake of blood, the golden sword left amongst a scattering of clothing, The lake of blood washed outward and joined up with the others.


    The thing had smashed every Drake into gore and blood. It was a lot. The alley was filled with pools of red.


    Fortunately the thing seemed to have left the actual Red alone and he was pressed against the stone of the stair he had fallen against, claws clutching the railing in terror as he stared up at the thing.


    Lyra bit her lip. ¡°G-gods Rain, I really really super duper don''t think you know what the hell you are doing when you let this stuff out,¡± she swallowed as she looked over the undulating centipede tentacles bristling with hundreds of talons.


    ¡°Uhm, w-would you c-could you maybe g-go back into the bag now, pretty please kitty?¡±


    She pointed at the bloody dimensional bag on the ground.


    The thing stared at her without understanding. Then seemed to become distracted, just like a cat, a pot plant on one of the windowsills catching its attention, the fronds moving in the breeze.


    The cat batted playfully at the plant and the plant was instantly obliterated and a hole was punched in the wall. The cat looked at its centipede ¡®paw¡¯ in confusion, clearly wondering where the plant had gone.


    It turned back to Lyra as she desperately waved for its attention, jumping up and down and swinging her arms.


    ¡°Please go in the bag! Rain wouldn''t want you to be seen!¡± said Lyra, pushing the bag toward it with her hoof.


    This time the thing seemed to understand, the gesture helping, and it approached the bag.


    Then it curled over the bag.


    In a moment it seemed to suck inward, tentacles and wings and everything pulling toward a point underneath it. The mass syphoned down into the bag, the cat head remaining on top.


    Lyra watched, feeling more than just a little bit traumatised, as the blob of darkness wriggled down into it until it was just once more the cat''s head poking free from the strings.


    The cat gave her one last look, tilting its head, and then vanished inside.


    Lyra let a breath out she hadn''t known she¡¯d been holding.


    She looked around in dismay at the bloody messes that Red was gingerly stepping past.


    ¡°Sorry Rain but you¡¯re going to have to give up more than a few cleaning potions for this one.¡±


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 127

    A black cloaked figure paused by the shelves, the dim flickering of an enchanted light creating pools of shadow amongst the ragged fabric.


    The hem raised and a yellowed bone hand emerged from a sleeve. A single bony index pressed against a book nearly as ragged and crumbling as the cloak, the binding lit by a low green from beneath the hood.


    ¡°Dungeonic encyclopedia, canidae analogous monsters, edition one ninety three.¡± came a strong yet somehow ancient voice from the hood. ¡°And truly only thrice updated in all these centuries? Pathetic. These modern scholars are lazy, lazy and useless, lazy and useless and incompetent.¡±


    ¡°Why don''t you update it yourself then you dumb Boner?¡±


    The hood turned and looked down. A Goblin stood there. One that was unique amongst all other Goblins. Not because she was some peculiar evolution that he didn''t recognise, nor that she was pregnant with some monster spawn he didn''t know, no, it was because she somehow managed to get under his skin, or rather, bones, like nothing else.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to sit down and write out hundreds of analogous monster species and paragraphs of notes on all of their intricacies.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    The bony hand twitched.


    ¡°You are asking me why I don''t simply sit down and write several large entire books right now?¡±


    Opal tilted her head in question, as though she genuinely wanted to know.


    It took a moment for Vash to recall that she couldn''t actually read let alone write and she likely really did not know what she was asking.


    ¡°Believe me when I say it is just not¡­ feasible. And in any case that is not what I am here for, I am here to research. Research...¡±


    ¡°I thought you said this ¡®research¡¯ was going to be easy.¡± gravelled a terrifyingly deep voice.


    Vash turned his head to the side. The enchanted lights further down the corridor had died, likely a long time ago, just as the flickering one above his head was destined to. A pair of yellow eyes was watching him from that darkness.


    ¡°Yes, well, I may have slightly¡­ miscalculated, by a small margin¡­ of magnitude.¡±


    The truth was that the number of rat, mouse, and lizard skeletons that were scouring the library was stretching Vash¡¯s weakened state to its absolute limit. Hundreds of bony creations were scurrying through the walls and shelves and corridors, checking tens of thousands of books, dragging back those that showed some promise for him to check over properly, or being crudely fumbled through by the skeletons themselves.


    His confidence at the start had been absolute. Stacks and stacks of books were brought forth, and with the help of his army of skeletons he had made quick work parsing and   working his way through their contents.


    But then the number of books the skeletons brought had started to slow to a trickle, all the easy and promising targets already taken.


    His reading speed eventually caught up with the pace of the new books arriving and then as it slowed he found himself twiddling his bony thumbs in awkward silence as an increasingly unimpressed giant wolf monster watched him.


    He¡¯d gotten up and started looking himself just to get away from those accusing eyes, but then they had followed.


    ¡°Fine, I can admit it. Your species is not¡­ common.¡±


    ¡°I did tell you that they had last been around over a thousand years ago.¡±


    Vash sniffed. ¡°Yes, well, your academic source on that, a ¡®goblin spider witch¡¯ is not considered a quality reference in academic circles.¡±


    ¡°You haven''t found anything that suggests it isn¡¯t true though.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s more likely that your kind exist in the deepest darkest depths in some godforsaken dungeon somewhere and only rarely encounter levelers to make a note of their existence.¡±


    ¡°Not once in over a thousand years? I think I believe the word of the spider goblin more, my species is extinct.¡±


    ¡°What I said is not impossible, although over a thousand years of such a state would make it rather, hrmm, improbable.¡±


    ¡°Either way this library must have something, even it has been so long, this place is endless.¡±


    Vash nodded. ¡°Yes, it is vast. My search isn''t so much a problem of running out of books but that all the easy obvious places to check have been used up in this disorganised mess. Thus I have come here.¡±


    He suddenly turned and strode into the darkness, passing by the mass that was Rain, Opal following in his wake as bony feet clacked against stone.


    As he passed by the cloak shifted and the things that were inside were momentarily made visible to Rain. A human skeleton. But more than that, a human skeleton swarming with smaller skeletons, rats and mice and lizards. The ribcage and the space below it had become something of a construction with floors and a spiral staircase all made from bone. Many small skeletons worked within, pouring over decrepit library maps and the many defunct classification systems that only ever encompassed a couple of percent of the library.


    The cloak moved and the bones were once more hidden from sight.


    Acquiring a full human skeleton had been surprisingly easy. Extremely old people wandering through a vast maze of books had a habit of dropping dead in some forgotten corner and his rat scouts had found a number of differing skeletons to choose from. The one his skull was currently perched atop of had been found jammed behind a shelf, the owner in life apparently having gotten stuck and left to die in obscurity. Which seemed a fitting end for the clumsiness of life in Vash¡¯s mind.


    He stepped into a dark dust filled space beyond the shelves.


    ¡°So you aren''t giving up?¡± gravelled Rain.


    ¡°Hardly. My credibility as a scholar is on the line and I find myself taking some¡­ personal interest in this matter. As much as it galls me to say it you are a different kind of monster, a different kind of monster of some scholarly interest.¡±


    A mouse skeleton clambered from his shadowed hood and crawled onto his head. A small candle was produced and after a moment of fiddling with a tiny flint and steel, the mouse skeleton managed to light it.


    It held up the candle over its head and a dim light was cast over the rectangular hall, a room lined with steel doors. Door after door on either side. Most of the doors were open, the barren vaults inside laid bare, dunes of centuries old dust washing up against the walls, the remains of fragmented furniture and bookshelves sticking from the dust like broken teeth.


    ¡°I came to this particularly well hidden part of the library for a reason. In my time you could rent this space. Family dynasties stored their secure records and scholarly works here in case their estates suffered an attack and were burned to the ground. Which was a wise thing to do, although it seems it is no longer practised.¡±


    Every door in the hall was open and empty, except for the last door at the very end.


    Rain approached, struggling not to sneeze from the dust kicked up by their every step. The door was like a normal door, if a little larger, and much more secure with heavy steel reinforcement. Eager to be out of the dusty space Rain stepped forward and took hold of the iron handle. Obviously it was locked and they didn''t have a key.


    ¡°It''s locked.¡±


    ¡°Clearly,¡± said Vash acidly. ¡°But I hardly think that is-


    Rain punched his paws into the stone surrounding the door frame and curled his digits. With a grunt he heaved backwards and the entire door frame with door still in it was ripped out of the wall and sent flying across the room where it crashed against the opposite wall with a screech of twisted metal.


    ¡°-a problem.¡±


    Vash looked over the remains of the door. It was a lot thicker than it had appeared from the outside, ten inches of solid steel and likely many very very old enchantments. It hadn''t mattered of course, as far as the enchantments were concerned the door was still closed.


    It was more than a little concerning how much stronger this monster had gotten in the short amount of time since he had first met him in Lynthia¡¯s dungeon. How much stronger would he get?


    Rain ducked inside the hole in the wall and after a moment Vash followed.


    The interior was dark, but, surprisingly, there was only a little dust.


    The mouse on Vash¡¯s head lifted the candle and a spill of yellow light illuminated the rows and rows of bookcases


    Behind the necromancer a swarm of rats poured through the broken hole and into the vault, climbing the walls and bookcases and dragging free book after book, flipping them open and pouring through them.


    Vash paused as he noted a bronze bust by a set of reading armchairs.


    ¡°The Woldgut dynasty appears to be the ones responsible for this vault. In my time I did wonder, access was not allowed.¡±


    ¡°And they are?¡±


    ¡°A powerful dynasty of minotaurs. Their ability to level was remarkable, even their children became high levelers. Judging by how this place hasn''t been touched for many years they are either no longer using it, or¡­ they are all dead.¡±


    Most of the shelves had been checked over by this point, a swarm of rats furiously scanning through hundreds of books at a breakneck pace, occasionally turning over a book to Vash to be read properly.


    ¡°How curious.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve found what Iwant?¡±


    ¡°No. But this is the oldest book in the vault by far, maybe even the oldest in the library. I can''t date it exactly but it speaks of events and peoples I have never heard of. A species of wooly elephant leveler called a mammoth? It sounds fantastical but according to this they once supposedly existed in ancient times.¡±


    Vash put down the book on a reading desk and flicked through it showing Rain, Opal scrambled up onto a chair to see. The book had dozens of illustrations including a picture of the wooled elephant like people, a kind of strange jellyfish creature, a giant dragonfly person which was distinctly disturbing to look at, a frilled lizard wearing an intricate gown and holding a mages staff, a mole like-


    ¡°Wait, go back!¡± said Opal.


    The skeleton paused but then flipped back a few pages.


    ¡°Hey, isn''t that¡­ Bean?¡±


    Rain and Opal stared at the illustration, an aquamarine scaled lizard with an imperious look, its neck frilled, its clothing clearly of great value, and the staff it held black and encrusted with gold and jewels.


    It was as if there could be no different an example of a lizard thing from Bean, it depicted a mage at the height of their power and wealth, even their fangs were capped with gold.


    ¡°This book is flawed, this species still exists. We¡¯ve seen one in Florens.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, well that is not terribly surprising. I believe I recognise that jelly species from when I was alive. It is likely that the species did not go extinct, just hidden away in some far flung corner of the world, it happens more than you would think, the world is a chaotic place, I suspect your case is similar and that your kind is out there somewhere. If anything this proves that my theory is likely the correct one.¡±


    ¡°Is there a book like this but for monsters? That would be perfect.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately no. Some interesting books on monsters deep deep in the dungeon that I was not aware of, but nothing that even begins to describe your particular species.¡±


    ¡°Then this was another waste of time?¡± said Rain, his shoulders slumping.


    ¡°Hey, what about that?¡± said Opal. She pointed toward a metal box at the shadowed end of the room.


    Vash and Rain stared at it. How had they missed that?


    They approached.


    It appeared as if someone had tried to break into it at some point as it was marked with scars across the metal. There were some odd stains over the metal and across the floorboards too, and¡­ a pile of bones. A minotaur skull lay under the nearest bookcase as though it had rolled after decapitation.


    ¡°It appears the last to try and access this fell victim to its traps, fortunate for us it appears the act has degraded the enchantment. I doubt this will be of little relevance beyond some treasure or other. The kind of academic book we are looking for isn''t particularly worthy of a safe.¡±


    Rain took hold of the handle and then pressed his foot against the top. He strained, muscles bulging, and with a shriek of tearing metal the door came free, ripping from its hinges and leaving him holding a heavy rectangular slab. He let it fall to the floor with a thud.


    Rain and Opal peered inside eagerly. Vash despite himself leaned in too, although he acted as though it was only a casual glance, nothing serious, of course.


    Inside there was only one thing, a plain small wooden box.


    Opal reached out a hand and flipped the lid open revealing¡­


    ¡°A potion?¡±


    ¡°Well that was disappointing.¡±


    The potion was a slowly swirling orange and white flecked with metallic red. It glowed ever so slightly illuminating the safe it was in.


    Opal snatched it with a scoff. ¡°This isn''t a weapon, this is useless.¡±


    ¡°Be careful it could be of great value, you might be holding a new kind of special cleaning potion,¡± said Rain, eyes glittering with interest.


    The snort of laughter from Vash caused his rats to pause in their work.


    Opal held the potion up to the dim light coming from Vash¡¯s mouse.


    the red metallic red flecks sparkled.


    And then the potion moved.


    A tendril of orange touched up against the cap, exploring.


    The three of them stared at it.


    ¡°Hey hey hey, are potions supposed to do this? You know, try to escape?¡±


    ¡°I do not believe that is the case, no. That is not a potion, it is a very small slime monster that has been placed into a potion bottle¡­¡± murmured the skeleton.


    ¡°So, uh, should I drink it?¡±


    Rain gave her a flat look.


    ¡°No, I guess that would probably be a bad idea.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it would be. If I had to theorise as to why this slime has been bottled and placed in a safe. I would say it is some manner of extremely poisonous slime, a slime poisonous enough to kill even a high leveler. What would you keep in a safe like this? An assassin''s weapon.¡±


    ¡°A weapon?¡± said Opal squinting at the glass glinting in the light.


    ¡°A one-use weapon most likely.¡± grumbled Rain ¡°Take care of it. We may need it if a high leveler comes after us.¡±


    A scuffle came from behind, the sound of mounds of dust being kicked through, and they turned to find Lyra making her way toward them through the hall, being guided by a rat skeleton, and then entering into the vault.


    A spooked looking Red followed behind her but kept his distance, eyes locked onto the bag on her hip.


    ¡°Are you unharmed, did everything go okay?¡± said Rain, approaching to check her over.


    ¡°No it freaking didn''t go okay, I was attacked! By a gang! Even though it was a wealthy posh super rich area!¡±


    She flopped down in one of the dusty reading armchairs and a cloud of dust flumped into the air.


    Rain sneezed violently and her hair blew around her head as if in a gale-force wind.


    She gave him an offended look and tried to restyle her mussed hair. After a moment she realised it was hopeless, gave up, and slumped back with a sigh.


    ¡°You said it would be fine.¡±


    Lyra put her hands over her eyes.


    ¡°I did say that, didn''t I¡­ But what saved us, that thing you put in the dimensional bag, is somehow more unsettling than nearly being killed.¡±


    ¡°Why? It''s just a house cat.¡±


    ¡°Just- don''t you know what the hell it formed??? What came out of that bag??¡±


    Rain blinked. ¡°A chimaera cat and some random things I threw in?¡±


    ¡°No, actually, it formed a- a- I don''t have words for it, so look for yourself!¡±


    She tossed the bag to the floor and the noose of the bag slipped free. Darkness quickly poured out, a cat''s head and then more. The darkness grew and grew, things spilling and coiling and twisting in a monstrous mess of disturbing shapes that plucked at instinctive primal fears.


    It kept growing to Rain''s surprise, until it was up to his chest, the tiny cat¡¯s head looking up into his eyes, a pleased expression on its face.


    The thing was most certainly not the chimera house cat he had put into the bag.


    ¡°This isn''t what I intended, this is something else. I¡­ might have been a bit careless.¡±


    ¡°A bit?! What in the abyss did you give me?!¡±


    ¡°It seems to have mixed with the less stable stuff I poured into the bag¡­ An amalgamation from being squeezed together in a small space?¡±


    As they spoke something had caught the cat amalgamation¡¯s attention. A mouse skeleton crawling over the book shelf. Its eyes twinkled, quite literally with stars, a centipedal tentacle whipped out and the bookshelf was instantly obliterated, an explosion of shattered wood and books filling the air as the tentacle ripped through it.


    Lyra yelped and covered her head as she was pelted with splinters.


    ¡°You gave- you made a regular house cat with- with a body that came out of my deepest worstest nightmares! It acts like a cat! If I had cat treats it would try and eat out of my hand and likely eat my hand by accident too!¡±


    Rain lifted a paw and made petting motions at the creature and then made pspspsps sounds, rubbing his thumb and index together.


    After a moment the cat amalgamation blinked at him, seemed to understand, and came closer, looking to rub its head against his paw.


    Of course once the darkness touched his black fur it sank into it, disappearing from sight, dissolving and breaking down as it flowed into him.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be more careful next time.¡±


    Lyra let out a long sigh.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ fine. As completely out of control the whole situation felt it was still better than being killed by that horrible gang. And I did find out a little of what you wanted to know. They are all there on Brax¡¯s estate. You could probably go after them now, although there might be a better opportunity, a much better opportunity, one where you can guarantee getting them all without any escaping and without calling the city down on you.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°They are going to throw a party. Normally it would be very hard for us to get past the estate¡¯s defences without causing alarm, but an open party like that anyone with a bit of panache and fashionable style could slip by. Meaning¡­ me. I could walk into the party, with you in my wool space, and you can corner and get the three who murdered you one by one. Get them to follow you around a corner, in the bathrooms, or in a closet and you can¡­ drag them inside wool space, like you did to those Lapine.¡±


    Lyra looked extremely uncomfortable as she said spoke, wincing, her legs drawing up. She was clearly struggling to get the words out.


    Rain studied her worried face.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you want to do that. If you don''t want to be so involved then it''s fine, I¡¯ll find some other way.¡±


    ¡°It''s the easiest most guaranteed way to get them without any escaping. You need to do it. I don''t want to do it¡­ but.¡±


    But?


    ¡°I¡¯ll do it- I¡¯ll do it if you help me kill Lord Wranvryre. They¡¯re coming for my Family Rain.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re going to find them and use them as bait to get at me! And- wait, okay?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I was thinking of doing that anyway. It''s much harder for you to find out about Brax and the others while you are being hunted, and if I am honest you are the only one of us who can go and talk to levelers as normal. The levelers in this city aren''t going to pay attention to a Goblin or a Kobold, that is if they don''t casually kill them, and they are going to be more than a little bit upset if a walking talking skeleton talks to them, and they will for sure shit their pants if I appear. So it needs to be you, but you can¡¯t do that properly, so the bounty has to come to an end and the only way to do that is to kill this Lord.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s... accurate. Yes, it is the only way... Uhm¡­¡±


    ¡°So when can I kill him? When will he return to the city?¡±


    ¡°Ah, s-soon, maybe very soon, he travels by monster pulled carriage, that''s actually how he, uhm, took me to Lynthia to search for his wife.¡±


    There was a moment of silence which was broken by a skeleton making a throat clearing sound. Which was impressive as he didn''t have a throat.


    ¡°I shall assist in the killing of this Lord.¡±


    Opal, Rain, and Lyra turned and stared at Vash.


    ¡°...What?¡±

 Chapter 128

    ? Chapter 128:


    Opal wandered aimlessly through the shelves, mumbling random words as every so often she glanced down at several sheets of paper filled with even more words. She rested the hands that held the pieces of paper on top of her exposed pregnancy, easily done considering her size now.


    The Goblin had grown a lot since she had evolved, her belly going from a gently arcing curve to looking like a human at seven months, and now even more. She was sure she had even put on size since she had woken up that morning, her belly gradually growing larger and larger throughout the day until at midday her belly button had finally given up the fight against the immense pressure building within and had popped outward, turning from an innie to an outie.


    She suspected her growth might even be accelerating.


    That was¡­ unusual, even for a Gobbo. The others clearly thought it completely normal from their lack of comment, Gobbos were supposed to have really fast pregnancies right? Right? Well, they did, just not as freaking fast as this! Her current rate of growth was several times faster than any Gobbo she had ever seen or ever heard of! But Rain or Lyra couldn''t have known that was the case, they just didn''t know.


    She was also starting to get the impression she hadn''t in fact been pregnant since the dungeon, that had started afterwards, in the Ranker¡¯s mansion perhaps, it would explain why her explosive growth hadn''t really shown before, it was only a relatively recent development, concerningly recent as it implied just how quickly all of this was happening.


    Opal pondered how large she would get. If worst came to worst she could always lean on her awesome and very convenient shadow teleportation, so really there wasn''t a limit, and there was nothing to worry about. Mostly.


    Her lips formed words from the pages as she tried to keep her mind off the subject. There were a lot of words, nearly a thousand. Rain had told her to practice with them. Although she wasn''t really sure why that was needed because she had already memorised every single word she had been given. But when she told him that was the case he didn''t seem to believe her and said she was just trying to get out of learning.


    She really had memorised them of course, every last one, she found it easy, sucking up the knowledge like a thirsty sponge. True it was incredibly un-Gobbo-like and well outside of her comfort zone, just like washing and hygiene, but just like with washing and hygiene she was beginning to change, adapt, what was once unnatural was becoming natural.


    Only now she had to double-memorise them? Urgh. That was even more un-Gobbo-like! But that was apparently a thing people learning to read did according to Rain, practising over and over until they got it down perfectly, so she plodded onward, double-memorising the words, for some reason.


    She let out a yawn and rubbed her cheek, the mumbled flow of repeated words petering off.


    She paused as a flash of scale caught her eye and pulled her attention away from the pages. It was Red, the useless leg chopping Kobold. He was sitting at a desk reading a book in the reading space she had crossed into.


    She paused as she considered this. Had the Kobold been secretly learning to read too? Had he beaten her to the punch and was able to read before her? That would sting. He was a Kobold after all, and Kobolds and Gobbo¡¯s usually didn''t get on very well, competing for resources, food, territory in the dungeon, just competing in general.


    ¡°What are you reading?¡± she said, approaching, pretending to be as casual and as uninterested as possible.


    The Kobold ignored her and kept reading.


    She peered over his shoulder. The large book looked very complex and she found she didn''t recognise a single word on its pages. Was he already that far ahead of her? That wouldn''t do, it must be a trick somehow!


    ¡°Hey? Are you listening to me?¡±


    Annoyed, she placed a hand on the Kobold¡¯s shoulder and they jerked back in surprise, the chair scraping across the floor as they stood and turned and-


    Opal blinked as she looked into an unfamiliar face. It was a Kobold, with red scales, but this one was quite clearly female, and surprisingly curvy.


    ¡°Ah, sorry, can I help you?¡± said the startled Kobold.


    Opal eyed her suspiciously, suddenly on the back foot. ¡°No¡­ You¡¯re not who I thought you were, you looked like another Kobold I know.¡±


    The Kobold tilted her head. ¡°I¡¯m not them, so¡­¡± Her eyes wandered down from Opal¡¯s face to her pregnancy.


    ¡°Ooh! Your master allowed you to become preggers! Wow! If I did that I¡¯d get put out to pasture. Well, that is if it wasn''t my master¡¯s, not that the old sack of wrinkly dust could get it up in the first place!¡±


    The Kobold came uncomfortably close and her palms touched gently against Opal¡¯s belly then stroked across its surface, the Kobold pressing her flat midriff up against her.


    ¡°Is three a lot for a Goblin? I thought you lot had larger births, but wait, you aren''t really a Goblin are you? Some kind of Hob, what did you evolve into? Got a name? What''s with the horn?¡±


    Opal¡¯s brow furrowed as the excitable Kobold darted behind and wrapped her arms around her back, embracing her belly from behind. It was a distressingly intimate thing for a complete stranger to do. Opal was a Gobbo so she was very used to having zero personal space in a cramped tribe. But still. She frowned.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what kind of evolution I am, something special though, something really strong and awesome and¡­ wait¡­ what did you say? What do you mean three?!?¡±


    ¡°Three kids. Oh, didn¡¯t you know? Huh, it''s obvious to anyone with a bit of experience in midwifery. I¡¯ve helped see to a few births in my time let me tell you.


    ¡°I¡­ How can- I don''t know if I can believe you...¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s totally true! Trust me!¡±


    The Kobold squeezed her for a moment before letting go and swinging back around her front.


    ¡°That horn though, I don''t know how you got that.¡±


    She looked up at the horn, hand on chin, tilting her head side to side as if trying to make sense of it.


    ¡°I have no idea what that is, it looks magic, powerful.¡±


    ¡°It is magic, and extremely powerful.


    ¡°Ooh! How did you evolve? What was your trigger?¡±


    Ah, Opal understood now, the Kobold was one of those, an evolution chaser. One of those monsters who obsessed over the search for a trigger that would make them evolve, make them stronger.


    ¡°I nearly died.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± the Kobold seemed surprised by this, ¡°Is that all? I haven''t seen anything like it before and Goblins almost die in this city all day every day.¡±


    ¡°Well, there was something else, and that is probably why it is made of a certain... stuff.¡±


    ¡°Yes? Wait, don''t tell me, it''s the same source as your pregnancy? That¡¯s a thing that can happen after mating, I¡¯ve seen that a bunch!¡±


    ¡°...Yes?¡±


    The Kobold cooed at this and bounced on the spot excitedly.


    ¡°I knew it, I knew it, that''s how you got the horn! That¡¯s how you get the juices! Quickly, tell me what positions you did it in, how many times you needed to do it, for how long, how many teaspoons of his-¡±


    A skeletal rat appeared on the writing desk, scampered across its surface, and then abruptly booted the book the Kobold had been reading onto the floor with a bang and a flap of paper. It waved its arms in the air trying to get Opal¡¯s attention, pointing toward the entrance.


    ¡°Hey, focus!¡± said the Kobold, seemingly not noticing the rat as she continued to practically fondle Opal.


    ¡°Uh- it¡¯s¡­¡± said Opal, mentally set off balance. There was something about this Kobold that was really throwing her off. Slaves¡­ did not behave like this in her mind, but then if she was allowed to do as she wanted in the library maybe she was a special slave? One that belonged to an eccentric leveler who let her do as she willed?


    A noise drew her attention to the door, something was coming, a lot of somethings, making a lot of alarming noise. She turned back to warn the Kobold but found that the Kobold was no longer there. Had she fled into the nearby shelves to hide?


    Scratchy noises drew her attention back, and she turned to see a wave of skeletal rats pour through the entrance, and then a flustered skeleton, its black cloak billowing around its body as it strode.


    ¡°Quickly now, my rats sense her approach!¡±


    Rain appeared behind him ducking down to squeeze through the door, a skittery Lyra bringing up the rear.


    ¡°What is it? What''s wrong? Who¡¯s approaching?¡± said Opal


    ¡°I may have made a small mistake,¡± replied Vash, passing her by.


    ¡°You got seen! Your rats got seen!¡± shouted Lyra.


    ¡°Yes, well, scouting a library of this absurd a size includes inherent risks, naturally.¡±


    Light spilled from the door behind them, a lot of light, a shocking amount of light.


    ¡°What is that? What is coming?!¡± said Opal in alarm as the entrance behind them began to glow like the sun itself was coming down the corridor.


    ¡°My rats tell me that it is the Librarian. They are¡­ transformed, a Class of some kind, a strong one.¡±


    The light grew brighter and particles of light started to fill the air, the particles seemed to pay no attention to anything physical and drifted freely through walls and bookcases, tables and chairs.


    ¡°So make us invisible sheepy, hide us!¡±


    Lyra flinched as one of the particles drifted against her wool and made a loud crack snap! as it popped, electricity rolling up her body causing her to jerk and stumble.


    ¡°I already did! As soon as one of those things touches me it breaks! And she seems to somehow have our scent, we¡¯ve been all over the place but she just keeps heading in our direction!¡±


    ¡°That does seem to be the case. This way then, my rats know the way out.¡±


    Vash strode decisively ahead of them, causing Lyra and Rain to glance at each other in surprise then at the newly confident skeletons back.


    They passed into the next room and then the next, the light following them. Growing brighter still as it started to near.


    The air was full of particles now, a snowstorm of light that caused Lyra a great deal of twitching and jerking when they collided with her. If Rain felt the dozens crackle over his fur he didn''t show it.


    Opal spasmed as one touched her shoulder and she fell, her legs giving out. Fortunately Rain was able to catch her in one paw and scooped her to his chest.


    The light came on faster.


    ¡°She¡¯s going to find us!¡± yelped Lyra as she dashed forward.


    They emerged out into a large bookcase filled room, different from any of the others they had so far entered because this one actually had windows, tall ones.


    Ahead a swarm of rats had already forced one of the windows wide and were waiting patiently.


    Rain eyed the window. It was a large window, but that didn''t mean much at his size


    ¡°There¡¯s no way I¡¯m going to fit through that¡­¡±


    Lyra¡¯s wool washed black. ¡°Then get inside quickly!¡±


    He slipped into her as Lyra fell against one of the nearby writing desks, her fingernails clawing at its surface as her shorts became damp, biting her lip as she squeezed her eyes shut.


    ¡°Hurry!¡± said Vash as he disappeared out the window.


    ¡°I¡¯m freaking trying!¡± gasped the sheep girl as the last of Rain disappeared inside. She gathered herself and darted toward the window.


    Ahead of her Opal sunk into shadow and disappeared from sight, leaving Lyra completely alone, only a storm of lights behind her to keep her company.


    ¡°H-hey wait for me!¡±


    She leaned out the window and looked down. She was on the third floor, far above the alley below, Opal was emerging from a shadow as Vash gently reached the ground on a wave of rat skeletons connecting him to the ivy-covered wall.


    ¡°...How am I supposed to get down?¡±


    Behind her the light became far brighter, and a golden figure drifted into the room.


    It was the Librarian from the front desk, the purple scaled drake, although no longer quite so purple, her scales glowed with golden light as she hovered suspended in the air. She looked around the room, peering between the long rows of shelves from behind her glasses, her brow furrowed in clear anger.


    Lyra panicked and climbed on top of the window sill, crouching awkwardly. What was she supposed to do?


    The Librarian didn''t seem to have noticed her through the forest of bookcases yet, but that was soon to change as particles of light drifted toward her. She was going to be found.


    A rat promptly grabbed hold of the back seat of her shorts and yanked her off the sill.


    With a scream she plummeted, arms and legs flailing.


    A skeletal net caught her, over a hundred rat skeletons merged together to form a bed stretched between the wall and Vash¡¯s hands. She bounced in the net as she landed, her fall arrested, saved.


    But then she froze in horror as she realised just what it was she was that had saved her. Not all of the rat bones were nice and clean, some of them still had bits of dried fur, or worse, attached to them.


    She thrashed and the rat bones scattered apart which left her to fall to the cobble on her rear with an oomph!¡±


    She looked herself over with dismay.


    ¡°Di-Did you really have to catch me like this?¡±


    ¡°I assumed it would have been preferable to being caught and interrogated by the Librarian. Speaking of which.¡±


    Vash lifted his head and looked up, more and more light was coming from the window high above. The Librarian was approaching.


    With tears in the corners of her eyes, a bruised rear, and feeling extremely unclean, Lyra scrambled to her hooves and chased after Vash and Opal as they fled the alley.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


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 Chapter 129

    ? Chapter 129:


    Lyra¡¯s breath became a little heated, exhaling and inhaling faster than normal. But that was just from the run, there was no way she was more than just a little excited about the coming feeling of letting Rain out, that was ridiculous!


    She bit her lip and white knuckle gripped the railing as she felt him start to emerge, trying desperately not to whimper as black fur slowly, then more quickly, pulled from her black wool, her legs wobbling like jelly, her knees turning inward as that special magical link between herself and the giant wolf monster was greatly stimulated by his passage.


    Rain crawled free and got to his feet, turning to see a shivering Lyra barely hanging onto the railing as her legs half-collapsed beneath her, little rivulets of wet running down her inner thighs from her shorts.


    Rain spread his paws in outrage at the shakey little sheep girl.


    ¡°How are half the cleaning potions gone?!! What did you do!!¡±


    Lyra breathy and limp lifted her head and glared back at him.


    ¡°Do you know what your creation did to those Drakes? It exploded them into blood and little tiny bits! It got absolutely everywhere! Do you know how much blood and bits are in a Drake? A lot!! Someone stumbling across the scene would think half a hundred people had been killed there!¡±


    Rain¡¯s paws lowered slightly.


    ¡°What was I supposed to do? Just leave a blood covered alley to be found by the city guard?¡±


    ¡°Well, no... but still.¡±


    She wiped a stray strand of hair away from her sweaty face.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Rain, we can always find more later,¡± she managed to get her shaky legs under her and rose. ¡°For now we really really need to look for food. You are hungry, aren''t you? You¡¯ve barely eaten today, call me crazy but with you that is an extremely dangerous thing to happen.¡±


    Rain¡¯s stomach growled in answer.


    ¡°Hmmph, that''s what I thought.¡±


    Despite himself Rain had to agree, the point where he would lose control was starting to get dangerously close, maybe an hour away, he could feel the hunger pressing down on his mind, suppressing his conscious thoughts in favour of the ravenous predator. He might have been pushing his luck by staying in the library all day, the few snacks that Lyra brought back from her information hunt had only muffled the need for so long, a dozen pigs from a butchers shop weren''t going to cut it.


    ¡°Then where should we go?¡±


    Opal lifted her arms and gestured broadly in every direction. ¡°What do you mean where? There¡¯s food all around us, look, buildings and buildings full of delicious people, start here and work your way out! They¡¯re all probably in their beds too, all convenient to gobble up!¡±


    ¡°Aheheh, no, that¡¯s not what we are going to be doing,¡± said Lyra. ¡°This is my city you know, I don''t particularly want Rain rampaging around eating innocent people who have never harmed a fly in their lives.¡±


    Opal crossed her arms. ¡°How many of these people have gone down into the dungeon and slaughtered countless thinking feeling monsters to gain a few numbers?¡±


    Lyra wilted a bit hearing that. It was difficult to have the moral high ground when the people she was defending were mass murderers when looked at in a certain light. Worse a little part of her agreed with the Goblin, and even worse than that she herself was included in that certain light. She had gone down to the dungeon and done violent things, violent things that had made her feel good, proud even, at the time. Not so now.


    She wondered how long her moral compass was going to survive being around the Goblin.


    ¡°I don''t- Look, we¡¯re going to find a stable, we will be less likely to be discovered that way, no people to flee and tell the guards what happened. It just makes sense alright.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± said Rain. He turned on Vash. ¡°You, get back inside of her wool space. We¡¯re no longer in the library.¡±


    Vash crossed his bony arms and raised his bony chin. ¡°I do not need to be put back inside that space, I see no need, I am of more use outside.¡±


    ¡°An undead necromancer isn''t going to be particularly appreciated by the city, if anyone sees you bad things are going to happen, and as you told us, especially if the priesthood catches wind of you¡­¡± murmured Lyra.


    Still, Vash resisted, drawing his arms closer.


    ¡°Whether or not that happens seems irrelevant considering the chaos that will happen if the city sees the brute here, both scenarios will very likely lead to my demise. Thus it makes sense for me to be available to help.¡±


    ¡°He doesn''t want to go back into your wool space. He is afraid of it.¡± said Rain, furrowing his brow in thought. ¡°That is also why he volunteered to help assassinate Lord Wranvyre, he doesn''t actually care about whether Wranvyre lives or not, he just doesn''t want to go back into you and wants an excuse to be allowed to stay outside.¡±


    ¡°That- that is an utterly outrageous lie! I am only trying to make myself useful since I am seemingly attached to your fortunes for the foreseeable future. Your success is my success, and that is something I cannot help with trapped alone inside that deafeningly silent place!¡±


    Lyra squinted up at the skeleton. His flame eyes carefully avoided her gaze.


    ¡°You can come for now,¡± said Lyra after a moment.


    ¡°He cannot, he needs to go back inside.¡±


    ¡°He- he may be of use, a few rats looking out for anyone, uhm, getting near while we raid the stables¡­?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± said Vash, seizing on the idea, ¡°That is something I can do that no other can. You need me.¡±


    Rain gave them both a displeased look, lips thinning, but in the end he decided to relent.


    --


    It was getting dark in the city now, the luminous many coloured moon rising high in the sky.


    It wasn¡¯t lost on Lyra that she was currently riding on top of a giant wolf monster who held a Goblin in one arm, while beside them stalked a living skeleton, one boney hand resting awkwardly on Rain¡¯s other arm. She wondered what her parents would think of her these days, she had left the city such a different person, now she was marching with at least two things that would make most people piss themselves in fright. It was a good thing they were invisible.


    What she had thought was a stable turned out to be more of a general pen, a huge thing significantly larger than even Lythnia¡¯s stable, one massive rectangular building with multiple floors. Over the front entrance was a sign that said ¡®Calum¡¯s general animel storage¡¯.


    They passed around the side where Rain crushed the lock and handle of the back door in one paw and let the twisted metal fall to the floor.


    He squeezed down inside and entered the pens.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t going to work.¡± growled Rain looking into the dark, the sound of braying or squealing animals filling the air. He had become markedly more feral since they had begun walking, increasingly struggling to control himself with every passing moment, claws twitching.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°We don''t have enough cleaning potions to remove the mess.¡± Rain paused as he looked around. The pen seemed to offer a shodding service too as there was a backroom separate from the rows and rows of box stalls. ¡°But if it was done in one place...¡±


    He reached out and grabbed for the nearest horse, paw wrapping around its head, then his other paw for another horse.


    He quickly pulled the two horses off their feet and disappeared through the wide door. The horses were unable to do a thing as they were dragged bodily across the stable floor, the urgency with which Rain moved showing just how close he was to losing it.


    The sounds of horsey panic were quickly cut off in that dark place and then followed the sounds of teeth moving, incising.


    Lyra shuddered a little, still not quite used to that. Then she turned and looked at the pens. There were a lot of animals in here, some box stalls were just crammed with horses, others had been converted and filled with pigs or cattle, some had their walls knocked down for more space, more animals. It seemed like the merchants who worked the markets rented space here to keep stock close at hand. For Rain it was a buffet.


    Obviously she just had to get all of this through the door Rain had disappeared through.


    She blinked in surprise as a horse near Vash bucked backwards in fright when the skeleton took a step closer.


    ¡°Ah. That¡¯s how it is. Vash, I have a job for you.¡±


    The skeleton tilted his head in polite question.


    ¡°I want you to take your rats and scare all of these animals through that door over there, where Rain is.¡±


    The necromancer considered this.


    ¡°You want me to use my legendary ability as a necromancer, the greatest necromancer of his century, to¡­ herd farm animals?¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°I- That is there is no-¡± the necromancer sputtered.


    ¡°Do you want to go back inside of me?¡±


    ¡°...No.¡±


    Reluctantly, very reluctantly, the necromancer set to work. Rats poured amongst the box stalls, picking apart ropes and harness and locks and soon the animals were spilling out into the main corridor. At one end was a terrifying storm of moving rats and bones, boiling across the floor, at the other was a large open door they could pass through. The choice was easy.


    Soon the entire stable was on the move, a solid river of animals pouring into the shodding room. The cattle went through the door, a sound of animal alarm came from within, and then silence.


    The stream of cattle continued on, dozens, then over a hundred, cows, pigs, horses all directed inward. The long ramps leading up to the floors above were packed too as it all flowed down. It was a sight to see, a river of bodies filling the space wall to wall all pouring through into one small room at the back of the building. The stables held an incredible amount of stock, it was a popular service after all.


    Bit by bit the entire contents of the structure were moved into the back room. Hundreds and hundreds of animals disappearing into that carnivorous place to never come back out.


    Then, it was done, and Lyra set about pouring cleaning potions everywhere while trying not to think too hard about what had just happened, and Rain fussed over her wasteful use of potion.


    They finished and then they moved onto the next stable, repeating the same process. Skeletons frightened the animals, guiding them into a side room where they were rapidly devoured. Wash, rinse, repeat.


    They continued like that until Rain had eaten nearly a thousand and was feeling much better. Animals were never going to be as filling as a leveler or monster, but numbers could somewhat make up for that.


    They had to stop, in the end, not because Rain was full but because they were running low on cleaning potions.


    ----


    The horse-drawn stagecoach was old and worn, the varnish long cracked and peeling in the sun, what had once been a company coat of arms was bleached and barely visible on its doors. In short it looked neglected beyond belief. About the only thing that showed a tiny fraction of a care was the words clumsily painted on the side: ¡®inter city trahvel, wun coper a day. Customers reponseble for own protecshon from monsturs.¡¯


    With an alarming creak the decrepit thing came to a stop on the side of the street and the dozen or so occupants began to move around as they realised they were at last at their destination and needed to get off, clambering over each other in the small compartment.


    There was one person amongst the passengers who the others strained to avoid touching however despite the space being packed so tight. He looked like a normal person, a red haired Elf with well-coifed hair, but then when he turned his disfigurement became visible and the others flinched away. Not a common disfigurement, no, this disfigurement was especially unsettling, unsettling because it made you wonder how the owner was still alive.


    Part of his chest had been removed, a huge chunk that had included his right shoulder, part of his rib cage, and presumably a large part of his right lung. Of course that included his entire arm too.


    It wasn¡¯t hard to guess how he had managed to survive such a wound. The usual miracle of healing potions, in his case many many many potions frantically splashed against his flesh over and over and over as he lay dying under a table. It had somehow worked, just, the potions sealing of his broken veins, broken muscle, broken flesh, making him whole, just less of a whole.


    His extreme disfigurement was something the eye was loath to look at and the other occupants of the cramped stagecoach tried their best to avoid glancing in his direction.


    The Elf sniffed at that and pushed past them to get out the door, knocking down an old lady as he kicked and shoved his way out of the stagecoach.


    Pity? Their pity was a disgusting insult that should be met with aggression to teach them a lesson.


    He took the steps two at a time and stomped down onto the street, the old lady he had knocked over ignored as she struggled on the horse dung strewn cobble.


    He closed his eyes and stretched, breathing in free safe air through his nostrils and letting the chaotic turmoil in his guts leave with his long exhalation, his jangling nerves calming for the first time since he had left Lynthia. His breath wasn¡¯t quite what it was, of course, his lung capacity had been permanently reduced and he grew tired quickly, but he was alive, and that was what mattered.


    Zack had done it, he was safe, safe in the little town of Silvara. He had escaped that hell on earth, no terrifying wolf monsters or succubuses here, and with Florens so nearby there was no chance either a monster or a succubus could cause trouble. A monster like Fitz would be chewed up and spat out, and a succubus would be smashed dead the instant she was noticed, thank the gods.


    The thought gave him comfort. Perhaps he might actually be able to sleep a little tonight.


    He opened his eyes and found himself looking at a notice board. Dozens of sheets of paper had been tacked to it. A typical spot for such a thing since the intercity caravans used this street as a drop off point.


    He was about to turn away when something caught his eye. A wanted poster more noticeable than the rest, one placed quite visibly at the centre.


    It was of a half-woollie-half-elf. Not that would instantly cause him recognition as the drawing was crude, but the name, he knew that name. Lyra.


    He unsteadily stepped toward it, lifting his remaining hand and shakily pressing his palm against the poster, her face visible through his spread fingers.


    HOW?!


    It was her. That evil twisted bitch. The one who had humiliated him, rejected him repeatedly, had him tossed on a roof for half a day, stolen his chance to pin the town¡¯s problems on Fitz, and then finally had her monster eat his arm and part of his torso.


    His fingers tensed, nails scoring lines in the paper.


    Was she a criminal from the very start? His hatred was almost gleeful with the thought, killing her would be more than the imagined revenge he had obsessively gnawed at over the days stuck in the cramped stagecoach, now it would be public justice, he would be a hero. Wait, was she here? In Silvara? In Florens? And did that mean¡­ did that mean that Fitz, her wolf, was with her?


    He shuddered at the thought. His hope for a restful night of sleep rapidly dwindling to nothing. He very much wanted to kill that sheep girl, but equally, his bone deep fear of her wolf made him want to keep far far away.


    The conflicting feelings left him frustratingly torn and his hand formed a fist as he punched the poster as hard as he could. The board shuddered, papers coming loose and drifting to the ground around him. The exertion and anger caused his breath to come rough, his one remaining shoulder rising and falling.


    His eyes drifted down the poster, below the fist covering her face, to her name. Her reward.


    That was¡­ a very large reward¡­. A very very large reward. What in the abyss had she done to deserve that?


    ¡°You got a  problem with the sheep?¡± slurred a voice.


    He stilled and glanced to his side.


    A Lapine was slumped against the wall by the board, a ragged cloak drawn up, maybe a dozen empty bottles were scattered around him, the last held in paw, amber liquid sloshing.


    Interestingly the rabbit person had no ears. Where there would normally have been a pair of tall velvet black rabbit ears poking from the top of the Lapine¡¯s head there was now¡­ nothing, only two stumps of healed over flesh. The Elf recognised the fresh healing, it was as his own wound: potion healed.


    The Elf sniffed.


    ¡°You have no idea. I would do anything to see her dead.¡±


    The Lapine slugged from the bottle.


    ¡°Hmpph. Good luck with that. S¡¯only me who¡¯s going to find her now. S¡¯only me, just me, no one else, no one else in the whole wide world.¡±


    Zack narrowed his eyes. ¡°What are you saying?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s got a disguise. A good one.¡±


    He considered this. The Lapine knew something. He paused as something else occurred to him and his eyes moved back to the Lapine¡¯s ears. No, it couldn¡¯t be, could it?¡±


    ¡°Your ears. They were taken recently. Were they¡­ eaten?¡±


    The Lapine stared at him. ¡°A Goblin belonging to that sheep bitch took them¡­ But eaten? No, she said¡­ but she said they were a snack for her wolf¡­¡±


    A look of dismay appeared on the Lapine¡¯s face as it dawned on him that he was very unlikely to be getting his ears back.


    Zack¡¯s pulse sped up. They were here! Somehow the sheep and her wolf had overtaken him on his journey. This was the last time he went with the bottom of the barrel cheapest transportation option he swore to the gods!


    Even as those thoughts rushed through his mind he murmured his commiserations to the Lapine. The Lapine¡¯s loss was something he could genuinely sympathise with after all. Then he furrowed his brow in thought. A Goblin? Yes, there had been a Goblin with Lyra and Fitz, a very unslave like Goblin...


    ¡°That Goblin, that evil twisted bitch,¡± spat the Lapine in a mirror to Zack¡¯s hate, paws coming up and strangling the air, as if imagining the Goblin girl was beneath his digits. ¡°I won''t be caught out by some sneaky evolution trick next time.¡±


    ¡°Then you don''t know what the real threat is? I promise you it¡¯s not the sheep, or the Goblin.¡±


    The Lapine looked confused.


    ¡°It¡¯s the wolf monster. If anyone wants to take that bounty then the wolf needs to be taken care of, or distracted first, because it is... disturbingly strong, it¡¯s what took my arm.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ remember seeing something like that, a pile of fur fallen through a wall. And afterwards, there were these elves screaming about a wolf as the healer applied the healing to my poor head.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that, if you didn''t see it in action then you don''t know the danger. It¡¯s dangerous enough that it would likely be better to take the sheep and the Goblin away from it when it¡¯s not looking rather than take it on directly, leave it for others to deal with while claiming the bounty.¡±


    The Lapine considered this in his drunken state. ¡°You know a lot about them, and you know my pain. Do you¡­ want to make a deal?¡±


    ¡°What, with you?¡± Zack looked over the mess of a Lapine and his lip drew up in disgust before he could stifle it and school his expression. Fortunately, the Lapine didn''t seem to notice.


    He needed to be calculating. The Lapine could help him find Lyra. That meant he was valuable, despite his unimpressive appearance.


    He reached out a hand and the Lapine took it. With difficulty he hauled the Lapine onto his feet. The Lapine wobbled. Caught himself. Then found his balance.


    Zack nodded. ¡°Yes, a bounty hunting team. One to kidnap the sheep and the Goblin from right under the wolf monster¡¯s nose.¡±


    ¡°And kill them,¡± muttered the Lapine.


    ¡°Of course. You can call me Zack.¡±


    ¡°Tudor Black,¡± said Tudor.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 130

    ? Chapter 130:


    A strange scent disturbed Rain¡¯s sleep, something like cream, or maybe milk? It seemed so out of place that he drifted to consciousness, curiosity getting the better of him. Had someone brought him breakfast? More food was always welcome of course, especially after sleeping.


    He opened his eyes to investigate the unexpected scent and found Opal sleeping on her back atop him, huge pregnancy rising above her, mouth slightly parted, hands curled,¡­ and...she was... openly lactating. Her breasts had apparently grown during the night, swelling in size until her breast wrap had lost the battle to contain her and torn apart, boobs spilling through the strips of cloth and leaving her milky teats to leak across his fur making a mess.


    In fact they were more than just grown, they looked engorged, almost painfully so, as though overly full and tight.


    He lifted a paw pad and gently prodded at her right breast. It instantly sprayed a sprinkle of milk over his fur and Opal jerked away with a cry of alarm, which of course only disturbed her engorged breasts more causing them to sprinkle more and more milk.


    After a moment of panic in which every jerked movement just caused her to produce more milk, the Goblin figured out what was happening and stilled herself, blinking down at her chest in surprise.


    She struggled to sit up under her new weight, and mostly failed, hands slipping on milk slicked fur. Rain seeing what she was trying to do sat up himself and she slid down into his crossed legs, turning as she did so that she was facing him, her belly pointing toward him, twin lines of white running down it from her heavy breasts laying atop it.


    ¡°Wow,¡± murmured Opal in awe.


    She gingerly touched at herself, exploring with her new size, both her teats and her pregnancy which was now comparable to how a human¡¯s appeared at nine months.


    She was, in a word or so, extremely gravid.


    ¡°Is this normal for a Goblin? This seems almost... I don''t know, too much?¡± said Rain looking down at her with a frown.


    Opal seemed to hesitate before answering. ¡°Ahahaha, yes it¡¯s uhm, totally n-normal, for Gobbos...S-standard preggers stuff!¡±


    Rain eyed her suspiciously. Then his paws came forward and wrapped around her body, his thumb pads pressing up under her breasts and above her pregnant belly.


    Milk sprayed over his paws, a lot of it.


    She squealed as he lifted her, small hands clutching desperately at his forearms.


    He moved the Goblin girl close and opened his mouth wide, hot breath washing over her stiff and very sensitive nipples causing her to gasp.


    His broad tongue slipped from his teeth and in one long lick he lapped at her breasts, tasting her as she squealed once more, the rough surface stimulating her nipples and causing them to gush milk into his mouth. The Goblin girl''s motions became frantic as he licked, fingers clawing at his arms as she kicked at the air.


    He moved his paws, squeezing her breasts together and took both her nipples, and most of her breasts, into his mouth, He sealed his lips and began to suck, an immense suckling pressure being placed on them.


    Opal¡¯s eyes rolled up and she buried her face in the top of his head as her toes splayed, hips thrusting, her stiff nipples spraying down the interior of Rain¡¯s mouth, dual lines of white hitting the roof before splashing in every direction, streaming milk around his teeth and tongue.


    He swallowed and the pressure only increased, her breasts being pulled further into his mouth, his teeth indenting her softness.


    He could feel her shuddering and quaking with each massive drag on her breasts, kicking at his chest over and over as she squirmed and writhed in his grip, her cries of pleasure muffled.


    After some time the milk slowed, and then finally slowed to nothing, her breasts milked of everything they had to give, he had sucked her dry, drinking all of her down.


    He sat back with milk running down his chin and allowed the breathy gasping Goblin girl to flop down into his lap, little shivers running up and down her limp body.


    ¡°Y-you didn''t have to do that!!¡± she cried between heaved breaths. She punched him as hard as she could. He barely felt it.


    Rain nodded. Of course he had to do it. She was his and she had something to offer to soothe his appetite, it would have been rude not to.


    He let her lay like that, her face buried in his fur, just trying to recover from being drained, her sweaty skin resting on his legs.


    Rain turned his head to see Red waiting awkwardly by his flattened bed.


    The Kobold held several sheets of paper in his claws, his gaze firmly avoiding Rain¡¯s. There was a slight blush on his cheeks and a suspicious bulge in his loincloth. Had the Kobold been watching all of that?


    ¡°What is it? what do you want?¡± growled Rain.


    The Kobold flinched and frantically shuffled through the papers.


    ¡°I- I- f-finished the first accounting of the hoard!!¡±


    The Kobold held up the pages for him to see. Rain blinked in surprise, he hadn''t known the Kobold was literate.


    He examined the paper more closely and discovered that the Kobold was... probably not actually literate. The little reptile had created tables with crude drawings of objects and then some kind of scratchy numbering system that Rain didn''t recognize next to each drawing. It was a list of each treasure in Rain¡¯s possession and then how many of each.


    ¡°This is¡­ good, but I don''t understand these numbers¡­¡±


    Red nodded, ¡°Yes, this is a Kobold numbering system, it''s what we use for counting the clan''s treasure, it¡¯s something I was born knowing, an ancestral memory I was fortunate enough to be gifted.¡±


    ¡°It would be better if you knew the common way of numbering.¡± He hesitated before continuing. ¡°This is helpful though, and was needed, there is¡­ so much treasure now, almost too much.¡± Rain grimaced. It was true that they currently possessed an astonishing amount of valuables, enough to crush a person to death were they to fall under it all.


    Red sputtered at that statement. ¡°There is no such thing as too much treasure! Please never speak of such a thing again!¡±


    ¡°What are we to use it all for then?¡±


    This only seemed to annoy the Kobold more. ¡°You do not ¡®use¡¯ treasure, treasure is for keeping! And- and sleeping on!¡±


    Rain shrugged noncommittally. Sleeping on a pile of gold didn''t sound very comfortable in his opinion. ¡°If that¡¯s all you have for me?¡±


    ¡°Not all! Some of the treasure has been stolen! That''s why I urgently needed to talk with you!¡±


    Rain blinked, ¡°Stolen? Are you sure it wasn''t just misplaced?¡±


    Red shook his head emphatically. ¡°That might have been the case if it were kept together, but these were randomly thrown in with the gold. They weren''t kept in one place, but still they have slowly been disappearing.¡±


    ¡°What treasure has been disappearing?¡±


    ¡°The black gemstones that don''t reflect any light.¡±


    Rain dimly recalled the things. They hadn''t just found the highly useful dimensional bag at the Ranker''s mansion, they had found treasure, and amongst that treasure, standing out from the rest, was a collection of vanta black gems.


    Rain narrowed his eyes.


    ¡°Are you saying Lyra or Opal-¡±


    ¡°No! As much as that silly sheep would like to throw all the gold into a ditch, this wasn''t her, I know it wasn''t, it was-¡± Red lowered his voice as if afraid he would be heard. ¡°It was the skull. I left the sheep¡¯s secret place and when I returned I found another missing black gem, but no one else entered while I was outside, only the Skull remained. That''s how it is. It has to be him, the scale rotted treasure thief!¡±


    Rain pondered this. What use a skull would have for treasure when he wasn''t capable of spending it was something he didn''t know, and suggested that maybe this was a larger problem than it appeared.


    ¡°What should we do!?¡± hissed the Kobold.


    ¡°...We don¡¯t know truly that he took them,¡± said Rain slowly.


    As they spoke Opal had taken to her feet and had been busily wrapping her breasts with fresh white linen, accounting for her new size and tying them down extra tight.


    The cloth quickly gained two dark spots over her nipples.


    ¡°Then ask him. Ask Boner if he took them. Duh.¡±


    That was true, there was a simple answer to this problem.


    Rain rose from the bed, having to hunch down to not put his head through the ceiling, and went in search of Lyra.


    The bedroom they were staying in was dark and gloomy. Not because it was night time, it was actually morning, but because they had collectively, as a group, spent some time before going to bed nailing planks over every single window in the room and then jamming a bed up against the door.


    The room had been made singularly Bean proof. The wretched lizard thing blocked from entering while they slept.


    From what Rain could tell it seemed to have worked, their sleep hadn''t been disturbed by Bean breaking in and Rain hadn''t woken to the sight of Bean trying to give someone''s eyeballs a tongue bath, which was genuinely a massive relief, that was not a nice thing to see first thing in the morning.


    Maybe they wouldn''t have to find someplace else to stay after all.


    He strode from the room, having to squeeze down to fit through the door, and stepped into the large grassy courtyard that was the center of Warwick¡¯s home.


    There he found Pickle and Lyra. They were busily setting out breakfast on the long table, pans and pots full of bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and more lined up down its center, the morning air filled with the delicious scent of an extensive fry up.


    He approached the unknowing sheep girl tending to the table, his shadow falling over her.


    She turned, noticing something blocking the light, and nearly jumped out of her skin when faced with a fall of black fur.


    ¡°R-rain?¡±


    ¡°I need to enter you.¡±


    ¡°Wh-what?!¡±


    Rain rolled his eyes. ¡°Not like that, your wool space, quickly.¡±


    Lyra took a moment to gather herself, quickly squashing her shameful disappointment, and allowed her wool to wash black.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know- AHH!


    Rain ignored her words and picked her up, paws encircling her waist and lifting her into the air. Her legs pressed together as she rose and he took advantage to press his head through, the wool spilling around his ears as it billowed outward to take him.


    His head emerged into the space inside, poking incongruously from the wall of darkness that took up one side of the octagonal room that was Lyra¡¯s wool space.


    A lake of glittering treasure met his eyes, a lake that reached wall to wall to wall and lay concerningly deep, they really did have a little too much treasure to be practical.


    The statue of Lyra looking like a goddess of deliverance stood above it all, cheerfully welcoming him inside. By one wall, and looking decidedly less divine, stood Vash, his ragged black cloak folded neatly and put to one side leaving himself ¡®naked¡¯.


    The skeleton really hadn''t been happy about being made to return to Lyra¡¯s wool space. Even when they had explained that Warwick would take extremely poorly to having an undead skeleton walking around Pickle he had resisted, resisted until Rain had practically shoved him inside.


    Vash had his hands on his bony knees and his rear was parked over one of the stone beds. On the stone bed was a vanta black gemstone, carefully and purposefully placed.


    Rain stared in disbelief as the skeleton awkwardly lowered his rear down and over the bed, directly over the vanta black gem, his awkward pose looking for all the world like a person using the toilet who was afraid of touching the seat with their chapped and sensitive buttocks.


    After a moment the skeleton shuddered and its green eyes flared with fire, the flames doubling then tripling in size, becoming bonfire bright as power seemed to flood his skeletal body.


    ¡°Yes, yes, more! Return to me my power!¡±


    ¡°Return your power?¡± said Rain, his voice as cold and solid as a glacier.


    The skeleton squawked in alarm and fell forward, tripping over his own feet and face planting into the lake of treasure with a crash of metal and gems. He flailed around, bones clattering against metal in the most undignified way, until he found his center of balance and scrambled to his feet.


    ¡°B-Brute?! What is this meaning of this you interrupt my- my¡­¡± the skeleton glanced behind himself at the now slightly smaller vanta black gem resting on the stone bed. ¡°Uhhh¡­.¡±


    ¡°Give me a reason why I should not have that centipede in your head rip your skull apart right here and now. You have three seconds to answer me.¡±


    ¡°H-hold on! I was just- I was just- I-


    Rain narrowed his eyes at the skull¡¯s dome.


    ¡°Wait! I was absorbing them!¡±


    Rain paused. ¡°You agreed to not go against me in any way shape or form, that was your word.¡±


    ¡°And this isn''t that! I couldn''t do anything as I was before, even the tiny bone bow I formed to stop that Ranker from killing the sheep and the Goblin, I could never have made such a precise thing without such pure rubies, my necromancy was regenerating far too slowly, my absorption of these is the only reason the ones you care for still live!¡±


    Rain considered that. He almost shattered the necromancer¡¯s Skull anyway. The fact was he just didn''t trust him, and any slight trust that might have started to kindle had now been smothered by the necromancer¡¯s decision to hide this from him. If he hadn''t been able to control the ancient necromancer with the shadowy centipede then he was almost certain he would have crushed the skull to bits and burned the remains then and there.


    As it was the centipede allowed for a little flexibility, and the necromancer was admittedly useful. He thought over and over what to do as an increasingly nervous skeleton watched him.


    Outside Opal had made her way from their room and was watching Pickle with amusement. The tiny goat girl was running around Rain in circles. Rain was standing in the middle of the courtyard with an extremely red faced Sheep girl for a head, his neck disappearing into her crossed black wooled legs. It looked more than a little ridiculous and Pickle couldn''t stop giggling at the sight, waving her hands in the air and placing them on her head in imitation.


    After a time Rain pulled his head free from Lyra¡¯s legs and set her down on the ground, having to help keep her upright until her wobbly legs steadied and she could stand on her own.


    Opal slapped her rear as she passed by causing the sheep girl to stumble.


    ¡°What the hell Opal!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going to lose your mind if you don''t get it for real at some point. Just saying. All that teasing and edging stuff with the wool must be driving you absolutely crazy.¡±


    Lyra¡¯s cheeks blushed bright pink.


    ¡°I- I don''t know what you mean...¡±


    ¡°Mhmm.¡±


    Opal was struggling to get up onto her chair as she spoke, her new size causing her difficulty until Rain helped lift her up, pushing the chair in until her breasts were spilling over the table top.


    Smiling cheerfully she grabbed at the pots and pans and began shovelling breakfast onto her plate.


    Rain removed a chair and sat down on the ground beside her, as he did so Warwick appeared from one of the buildings carrying a cage with a monstrous rat inside. He stacked it amongst the other cages before joining them at the table, giving Rain an unpleasant look as he approached. He very clearly didn''t appreciate him being there.


    Opal had already finished her first serving and was pouring another six fried eggs and a dozen rashers onto her plate as Warwick ate his first mouthful. The Goblin girl¡¯s new production had apparently made her ravenous.


    Rain hesitantly picked at a plate of bacon Pickle had handed him. The gesture was cute, but he wasn''t sure he would even notice swallowing it. He ate it anyway of course.


    ¡°So why do you have Pickle, you aren''t her father by blood, at least I don''t think you are.¡± said Lyra between mouthfuls, desperately trying to make the awkward breakfast a little less awkward.


    Warwick hummed in thought as he lifted a fork, clearly deciding whether to speak or not.


    After a moment he came to a decision.


    ¡°You¡¯re right she¡¯s not mine. I¡¯m just looking after her cause I found her in the dungeon on one of my dives, one of my worst dives. Got caught out. A birthing Panthara. You know how it is. My¡­ business partners were killed when we were chased into an unmapped part of the dungeon, I nearly expired too after having my guts ripped open. But I survived somehow, the things missed me in the feeding frenzy and I was able to crawl away in the long grass.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by ¡®Birthing Panthara¡¯ ?¡± said Rain.


    Warwick gave him a startled look, momentarily forgetting that he usually wilfully ignored Rain¡¯s words. ¡°I had thought you were taken from some incredibly deep part of Floren¡¯s dungeon but if you don¡¯t know-¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± said Lyra, waving her bacon covered fork in the air, ¡°Tell us about Pickle.¡±


    Warwick hesitated but decided to respect his guest''s privacy.


    ¡°I was a dead man walking, or rather crawling. Creeping through the foliage like some helpless slug, terrified of being found and so delirious with pain I hadn''t noticed I was bleeding out.¡±


    ¡°Ooh I totally would have rescued you, that''s what i¡¯m good at, rescuing levelers from the precipice of death in the darkest of dungeon-¡±


    Warwick glared at her and she snapped her mouth shut.


    ¡°Sorry! Sorry! Please continue!¡±


    ¡°Hrmm. Anyway I would have likely died then and there but then a ball of mud came waddling through the grasses and found me. The ball of mud helped tend my wounds then went hunting for food and water, bringing me bugs and little mushrooms to eat. It was close, I still very nearly died, but with the little ball of mud''s help I somehow hung on. After a week of that I recovered enough to move. First thing I did was find a rock to defend myself from the little ball of mud. The thing was clearly a monster. It hadn''t spoken a single word and looked in a feral state. But then it returned and seeing me awake it hugged me. That was nothing like a monster would do. I pulled the muck aside and I realised the truth, it was a long furred toddler crawling around on all fours like some feral monster, her fur so choked and matted that it looked like nothing recognisable.¡± Warwick paused as he scraped food from his plate. ¡°Took another week of coaxing to get her to say a word. Asked her name and she said Pickle. That¡¯s about all I ever managed to get out of her concerning her past.¡±


    ¡°What in the abyss was a toddler doing in Florens¡¯ dungeon?!¡±


    Warwick looked genuinely upset at the question. ¡°No way of knowing for certain, but there is a belief that the earlier the kill the better prospects in life a child will have. Parents take their children down into the dungeon when they¡¯ve just started walking and hold down a monster and then have them kill it. Wild kills are thought to be the best, there''s probably some truth to that. Pickle¡¯s parents took her down no doubt, but then the monster they intended for her to kill instead killed them and Pickle was left entirely alone deep in the dungeon.¡±


    ¡°How utterly terrible¡­¡±


    Pickle looked up at Rain with big eyes.


    ¡°Sad,¡± said Pickle.


    Rain attempted to pat her comfortingly. She was knocked flat on the grass and he hurried to help her up, his heart dropping in concern that he¡¯d accidentally hurt her. She didn''t seem to mind and let out a laugh and beamed up at Rain, eyes squeezing shut as she gave him the most innocent smile he had ever seen.


    Warwick watched this with thoughtful eyes.


    ¡°Hrmm. You''re a strange monster.¡±


    ¡°And Bean is a strange leveler¡­ an extremely strange one.¡±


    The leveler gave him a sour look.


    ¡°I can see what you are trying to imply, monster. I don''t care for it.¡±


    ¡°But isn''t it true? Bean is worse than what levelers think of monsters, doesn''t that tell you something?¡±


    ¡°It tells me that levelers can fall far.¡±


    ¡°Or that there is nothing special about levelers, nothing unique, nothing civilised, it''s all a lie, there is no real difference.¡±


    Rain leaned over the table at the leveler.


    ¡°You are talking to a monster, one sitting and eating with you, and you think I¡¯m still less than Bean, a wordless mindless thing that crawls through windows at night to drink people¡¯s blood. Don''t you see how hypocritical you are?¡±


    He gestured at Opal as an example who was happily eating her fourth serving, far from appearing anything like Bean.


    ¡°What if it has nothing to do with how a monster or a leveler is born, what if it''s their life experience. A monster born in a dungeon is born into a pressure cooker of violence, a living hell, but if they lived in safety, generations only knowing peace, maybe they wouldn''t be like you think they are?¡±


    Warwick sneered, his lip curling in disgust. ¡°You are going to sit there and tell me that a fucking Panthara, one of the most abhorrent evil creatures to ever grace this world could be turned into a peace loving little flower sniffer if only they were raised right?¡±


    ¡°...Well... no, maybe not a Panth-¡±


    Warwick shoved his plate aside and stood up.


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard enough of this. Pickle. Come.¡±


    Rain watched quietly as the man scooped up Pickle and stormed away. The goat child wasn''t particularly happy about this, but Warwick seemed angered enough that she went quietly.


    Rain let out a breath.


    ¡°You¡¯re fighting an uphill battle Rain.¡± said Lyra, ¡°I know, I was like him not long ago. To him monsters do not have the capacity for kindness or civilisation or mercy, they aren''t capable of higher thought. And why would he want to think otherwise? To admit different means he has been doing terrible things for his entire life. That¡¯s never going to be easy to overcome on an instinctive level.¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯m sitting here telling him it is different! He can see and hear the truth with his own two eyes and ears¡­¡±


    Lyra hesitated. ¡°Maybe you got to him a little bit, he did seem unsettled.¡±


    Rain hummed in thought as Opal took her fifth helping, unconcerned, as though she had expected the conversation to go exactly the way it did.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 131

    ? Chapter 131:


    They had left after Warwick stormed off, leaving the slums and returning to the library. Hesitantly of course, as they were unsure if the Librarian was going to immediately attack them.


    She didn''t attack however. Even when Rain stood directly in front of her and waved his paws in her face, she simply had no idea they were there. It seemed that outside of her glowing transformed state the Librarian had no way of sensing them, and her night time hunt had just been bad luck. The Librarian had realised something was wrong but not what.


    Deep inside the library Vash had been allowed out once more and set to work searching for something, anything, even the slightest little hint on Rain¡¯s species, even one little sentence describing something like him.


    Rain no longer held much hope for Vash¡¯s success so he had sat down with Opal and taught her to read.


    It had gone extremely well to his surprise. It seemed like her repeated practice had allowed her to pick up words quickly, startlingly quickly, far faster than he would have thought possible. Already she was able to figure out basic sentences from context clues and was rapidly improving, improving even as he watched. It was shocking, but it also made him feel warm and fluffy with pride. She was a natural.


    They¡¯d moved from the reading desks after a time, Rain gathering all the pillows from every armchair he could find, then throwing them in one of the rare rooms with windows. He¡¯d built up a mound under a sunbeam then flopped down on it, placing Opal in his lap, her back pressed against his stomach.


    A book was resting on her belly and she slowly read aloud from it, stories of leveler heroes defeating big scary monsters. There weren''t a lot of choices when it came to fictional stories that she could read as a novice, basically all of them followed that same theme: Leveler hero, evil monster.


    He¡¯d closed his eyes listening to her sound out the words as the sun warmed his fur.


    This was bliss.


    Just lying there with his Opal, his breath coming slow and peaceful, feeling the weight of her.


    Lyra ran into the room as he was drifting off into a gentle nap and he jerked awake as the dimensional bag was tossed onto his chest, darkness already spilling back into his fur from its strings.


    ¡°He¡¯s here! He¡¯s here right now! He¡¯s here in Florens!¡± cried Lyra pacing around in a stress and running her fingers through her hair.


    Rain blinked at her.


    ¡°Who''s here?¡±


    The sheep girl stopped and turned on him. ¡°Lord Wranvrye! The one trying to have me killed, the one who freaking framed me for killing his wife!¡±


    Rain sat up and Opal scrambled to her feet.


    ¡°We¡¯re going killing? Feeding Rain? Oh Hell yeah! That¡¯s way better than reading dumb stories about stupid dumb levelers!¡±


    ¡°Er, r-right, killing.¡± Lyra swallowed. ¡°H-he needs to- He needs to die. Even if it wasn''t about me, he still killed those two innocent women I rescued, and then his wife, in cold blood. If there¡¯s any justice in the world then that noble needs to face his karma.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine Lyra. Don''t work yourself up. You are protecting your family with this.¡±


    Lyra hunched down a little, her voice small, ¡°O-of course...¡±


    They prepped quickly, snatching up Red and Vash then leaving through the front entrance. Just as when they entered the Librarian had no idea they were there and they were free to leave. Finding the Lord turned out to not be very hard. They headed toward the noble estates and quickly found the streets crowded with excited people.


    A caravan of carriages was the cause of public interest. Formidable looking things, they were pulled by great black stallions the size of cart horses whose lips were parted with long fangs and with large curved black horns on their heads, the front edge sharp and serrated.


    The carriages forded their way through the streets, crowds of curious people on either side, many having to leap out of the way of the monstrous horses for fear of being crushed under hoof.


    It almost looked like a parade now with all the people following, parades being something the citizens of Florens seemed to form out of habit more than anything. The carriages made their way through the city until they came out onto a wide open cobble square, which felt unusual to Rain now as he had quickly gotten used to the lack of open space in the city. The entire far end of the square consisted of a formidable wall, one that easily put Lynthia¡¯s or Silvara¡¯s walls to shame. In the center of the wall was a set of massive gates.


    Rain realised he was looking at the entrance to Lord Wranvyre¡¯s estate, a vast thing, it was like a town in of itself had been built within the city walls.


    The carriages pulled up outside the great gates and Lamia spilled from the flung open doors. Rain examined them carefully. The Lamia¡¯s had human-like upper bodies, but their lower bodies were snake-like and covered in colourful scales. They were greeted by many more Lamia at the front gates. Many of them were wearing black in mourning, although many weren''t. Many of the Lamia weren''t pure and were half breeds, Elf-Lamia and Gnoll-Lamia were a common mix. The half breeds seemed in less favour than the pures and kept to the back.


    ¡°That¡¯s his extended family,¡± whispered Lyra, ¡°Lamia have big clutches and are, ah, promiscuous, so combined with how attractive his stature and his wealth is to many, well, I wouldn''t be surprised if many of that crowd of Lamia was his own spawn, bastards or not, his and his wife¡¯s children from various flings.¡±


    Rain eyed the crowd. It was a lot of Lamia. Dozens and dozens.


    A small square dais had been put up in preparation, and after a lot of embracing and entwining of tails Lord Wranvyre approached it and slithered over its slight step, approaching a podium.


    He gripped the sides of the podium and leaned over it, eyes scanning the crowd. The crowd grew silent under his cold gaze and then he began to speak, his words solemn and harsh.


    ¡°This should have been a joyous return. Friends, family, employees. We should have returned with her, with Glyrieth. Returned to feasting, singing, drinking, and dancing. But¡­. we did not. Glyrieth was murdered in mindless greed for mere coin, a half woollie slit her throat in rage, an emotional anger that her demands for tens of thousands of gold were denied. A disgusting act by a leveler who is no better than a monster. Yes, that leveler trash, that sub-sapient filth, struck with a blade out of nowhere, too late for my dear wife to stop as she had implicitly trusted the half woollie, this Lyra Bellerhorn, a monster in leveler flesh.¡±


    The crowd grumbled their discontent. This Lyra person sounded like bad news.


    ¡°My house has been wronged, I have been wronged. I demand redress from this world. I demand redress from the gods. I demand vengeance. And as you may know my vengeance pays well. It pays extremely well. Bring her not to me alive, bring her to me dead, bring me her head sawn from her body so that the first thing I see is her glassy lifeless eyes. That is the only thing that can assuage my sorrow. Come my city, show your loyalty to Florens, to a noble Lord of Florens, to ME. Kill this wicked girl and become unbelievably wealthy!¡±


    The crowd roared their approval. Yes! This was great! A villain, an injustice, and a fabulous fortune. What wasn¡¯t to like?


    As the Lord spoke Rain felt Lyra¡¯s hands grip his ears harder and harder until she was digging her nails in.


    ¡°That evil snivelling wretched fuckhead!¡± she whisper hissed, ¡°Not only does he paint me as the baddest of bad guys but he¡¯s demanding I be killed before I can speak against him! So I can''t tell anyone about what he did!¡±


    The Lord glared at the roaring crowd, sniffed, then slithered away, storming down from the dias and toward the main gates, his long black tail lashing behind him.


    His very large family watched him go and then after a moment began following him inside.


    Rain eyed the gate, considering simply walking straight through it with them, but he was brought up short the moment he thought to move. There were halves there, more specifically half Elf-Lamias and they each had violet spectacles dangling from chains hung around their necks. The estate really was like a small town, and like a small town it had provisions to stop the magically evasive from crossing its threshold.


    ¡°What are we to do?¡± he whispered as the three of them watched as one by one the Lamias disappeared inside and the crowd filling the square slowly drained away.


    ¡°I- I don''t know! This is supposed to be our chance while they are dealing with the chaos of his return, but it''s too secure! There''s no way we¡¯ll get through the front gates with those half Elves hanging around.¡±


    ¡°So what then? We find a side entrance?¡±


    Lyra¡¯s head rose in hope. ¡°Yes, actually that could work! We just neeeed- There!¡±


    A finger jabbed out from above Rain¡¯s head and he followed it, looking across the square to where the Lamia were. Some of the Lamia were not going inside, some of them were leaving on business in the city, heading toward their side of the square and the path away from the expansive estate.


    However one Lamia was not heading toward them. No, she was following the wall, closely following it as she headed out to the side of the square unlike any other Lamia.


    ¡°You think¡­?¡±


    ¡°No, I don''t know anything for sure, but we can look, it''s not like there''s another option.¡±


    Rain slunk amongst the alleys they were hiding in. Catching sight of his target between buildings. A pink scaled Lamia, an older teenager. She wore a short flitty skirt on her hips and a puffy blouse. Her obnoxiously bright pink tail swaying behind her as she moved.


    He soon moved closer, their paths converging on the buildings that butted up against the estate¡¯s walls. To their delight she approached a small iron gate in the wall. It was a side entrance, just as had been theorised. She approached it¡­ aaand then walked past it, flatly ignoring it.


    Disappointed, they followed after her. Was she not returning to the estate after all?


    Down side streets and alleys she went, the further she came away from the main wall the dingier and darker the alleys became, it seemed like the servants of the estate lived in this run down place.


    What she was aiming for eventually became clear, a seedy looking Drake stood from where he was leaning against a wall, acknowledging her approach.


    Beside him was a large windowless prison wagon, its painted sides chipped and peeling.


    ¡°You have it? You have my Ogre?¡±


    ¡°Of course, you paid, and here we have it. Simple as. Simple as.¡±


    The Lamia bounced on the spot excitedly, her skirt fluttering as her coils lashed. Rushing up to the wagon she pressed her hands against the wood and peeked through a gap in the slats.


    There was an awkward pause.


    ¡°He¡¯s a little¡­ small.¡±


    ¡°Small? Why would that matter?¡±


    The Lamia set her lips in a line.


    ¡°I wanted a large Ogre not this, what is this? A teenager? a kid?¡±


    The Drake shrugged languidly, his motions easy. ¡°No, they just come in various sizes, different breeds. You did not specify which kind of Ogre you wanted in our contract.¡±


    The Lamia¡¯s expression soured further.


    ¡°I see. That is... unfortunate.¡±


    ¡°I can find you larger if you wish, in a separate deal, but specifying larger will come with additional costs.¡±


    ¡°It will have to wait,¡± she sighed in annoyance. ¡°Getting this smuggled in cost all of my allowance on its own.¡±


    As she spoke she unlatched the door and swung it wide. A muscular grey skinned form charged out, leaping from the raised door, tackling her, growling and snarling, a savage long tusked thing in a loincloth.


    The Lamia barely budged, humming as she took hold of the Ogre¡¯s neck, lifting him up into the air like he weighed nothing at all, her arm as unbending as steel.


    The Lamia teenager was clearly extremely strong and the Ogre was left utterly helpless, his feet kicking at thin air. It was true he was on the short side for an Ogre, although the Lamia herself was large. Had she been a human she would have been at least six and a half foot tall standing, as it was the Ogre was at least half a foot shorter than the top of her pink haired head.


    She looked over his body, one eyebrow rising as she spied his loincloth. Her tail tip darted forward and flipped it up allowing her to examine his privates.


    The Drake gaped at her.


    ¡°Wh-what are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Oh just checking my purchase over. Have you never vetted a horse before? This is quite normal, checking for disease, inflammation, you know how it is.¡± She squeezed the Ogre¡¯s neck and he was forced to open his mouth. She examined his teeth, checking for rot.


    ¡°... Okay?¡± said the decidedly unsure Drake.


    After a moment of watching the Lamia¡¯s extremely thorough examination he decided he wanted nothing more to do with this and leapt up on the front of the carriage. Snapping the reins he moved off, leaving the teenage Lamia alone, a diminutive Ogre held in her hand.


    The Lamia sighed and muttered darkly under her breath as he left, clearly dissatisfied with what she¡¯d gotten for her money.


    She turned and slinked down the nearest alley, this one especially narrow, Ogre dangling from one hand.


    Lyra gripped Rain¡¯s ears and he followed after.


    He watched as the Lamia stopped by a wall and fiddled with a hole in the stone work. After a moment came a clicking sound and part of the wall swung wide. It was a door cleverly disguised as stone block work.


    The Lamia disappeared inside and the door swung closed behind her. Or, at least that was what should have happened. Instead, a shadowy house cat slunk between the door and the door frame, blocking it from fully closing with its body.


    Rain moved close and carefully crouched by the door, straining his hearing to check if the Lamia had noticed. Silence. It appeared she had not. Careless. But carelessness that benefited him.


    He let Lyra and Opal slide from his body and reached out his paw, the cat slipping back into his black fur.


    ¡°Well?¡± said Opal, ¡°Is this what we came here for?¡±


    ¡°Y-yes, this place has to be connected to the estate somehow, this door even faces the outer wall. All we have to do is slip in, hunt down the one target, Wranvyre, then sneak back out this same way. Should be easy, right?¡±


    Opal shrugged then pushed past her, entering the shadowed door.


    ¡°H-hey wait up!¡± said Lyra hurrying after her and disappearing inside.


    Rain took up the rear, having to hunch down to fit through despite the entrance being especially large and built for Lamia¡¯s. He heard the door click shut behind him as he was enveloped in darkness.


    He filled the cramped space almost entirely and had to duck down to head forward, carefully watching Lyra and Opal walking ahead of him. The space was clearly designed to be a passage, more of a tunnel than a hallway, one that sloped down before levelling off. Rain realised that they must be within or rather below the estate by now, travelling deep into its confines.


    Noises ahead caught his attention and he slowed with the others, becoming wary.


    The tunnel terminated in an open space and Rain straightened as he came out into it. It was a large room, one lined with prison like cages down either wall.


    Rain peered through the bars at the occupants.


    Monsters. They were all monsters. Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, a muscular beefy shark person covered in innumerable battle scars. And then there were mixes, halves of monsters and monsters or monsters and levelers who weren''t quite leveler enough to be levelers, half human-kobolds, half kobold-goblins, a hulking wild dog person, even a strange hunch backed cat person with two heads, its eyes rippling like rainbows in the light.


    The Ogre was there, tossed in one of the cages and eyeing his much larger prison mates with clear fear.


    ¡°What is this place?¡± whispered Opal, staring at the monsters in the cages.


    Lyra tapped her chin. ¡°I would have said they are being kept here for easy leveling. It wouldn''t be the first time someone wealthy has paid to have monsters taken up from the dungeon for their convenience, although there is a limit to what is allowed, nothing too dangerous.¡±


    She paused and then gestured ahead of them where the cages stopped and a free space opened up in the room.


    ¡°But uh, looking at that lot I''m not so sure.¡±


    Rain peered over her. The space she was gesturing at appeared to be some kind of horrible torture chamber at first glance, one filled with spikes and whips and chains and manacles and¡­


    Rain furrowed his brow. Why was there a bed in the torture chamber? A bright pink one with flowery pillows? And why were there plush carpets on the ground, and why were those handcuffs fluffy?


    ¡°Why is there a large pink bed in this torture chamber?¡± he said aloud.


    ¡°Uhhh¡­¡± said Lyra pondering how to frame her answer.


    Opal scowled. ¡°Kinky levelers.¡±


    ¡°To put it bluntly¡­ yeah. Lamia are one of those very few species who somehow have a worse reputation than Elves for being, hmm, casual with...stuff, and doing a lot of¡­ stuff, and doing that¡­ stuff, in, uh, non-standard ways...¡±


    ¡°But with monsters?¡± grumbled Rain. Now he was looking over the prisoners he realised that they were all male, and each of them were very fit and healthy looking, muscular and toned. It was clear they had been picked out with something in mind.


    ¡°That is, uhm, taboo for the civilised and noble, we are supposed to be better than that, but you know how it is, Goblin slaves have a habit of ending up pregnant... Not that this isn''t completely scandalous! Only Lamias would keep an entire flipping selection of monsters just for s-stuff!¡±


    ¡°Wouldn''t Lord Wranvrye be very against this place existing?¡±


    Lyra paused.


    ¡°Maybe. But then he seems to care only if a child comes of it, I can see him doing the deed with a monster, and then just¡­ killing that monster.¡± She furrowed her brow and glanced at the large bed. It was very pink. Very very pink. ¡°But¡­ I don''t think he has anything to do with this, and the way that teenage Lamia was so secretive. I think this is something that his daughter or maybe daughters are hiding from him, they don''t want him to know what is happening down here.¡±


    ¡°Hrmm. Then this doesn''t matter. It has nothing to do with what we came here for. We¡¯re moving on.¡±


    Rain scooped up the two girls, holding them in his arms, and he felt more than saw Lyra¡¯s invisibility wash over his body.


    He approached the stair at the end of the room carefully, his ears focused as he strained to pick up if anyone was nearby.


    He heard nothing of course, and he made his way up, up through the spiraling stair, from what was apparently many floors underground, up and to the surface.


    He came to a door disguised as stonework and opened it, stepping out into an ornate room, his feet pressing down into the excessively fluffy and thick carpet.The door swung shut behind him and he realised from this side it appeared as a massive oil painting depicting a some ancient noble Lamia in a ruffled collar.


    The room he was in appeared disused, with sheets covering the furniture and dust in the air. It was clearly in an out of the way part of the building. He quickly left, seeking where Wranvyre might be, and stepped out and into an equally ornate hallway. This time there were signs of life. A human maid passed him by, forcing him to press against the wall to avoid being touched by her. As he continued the halls became busier and busier, it was fortunate they were so wide.


    He made his way deeper into the building, mansion? His eyes scanning, looking carefully for any sign of the Lord¡¯s private quarters.


    Unfortunately there appeared to be nothing. Despite passing through great dining rooms and luxurious lounges and busy bathing halls and various dancing parlours and everything else imaginable they saw no clue as to where they should be going. Only servants rushing around as Lamia lazed across furniture sipping from fruity beverages as they chatted.


    They were on the verge of giving up and interrogating one of the maids when they came to the end of a corridor and were faced with a large gold trimmed door.


    ¡°This has to be it, look how fancy this door is! This is totally the door of a Lord boss person!¡±


    Rain nodded his agreement and quickly pushed through, opening the large door and entering into the huge room beyond.


    There was... a lot of pink and a lot of floral things in the huge room, and a lot of stuffed toys too, in fact an absurd amount of stuffed toys. Rain eyed the mountain of the things piled on top of the enormous nine foot by nine foot Lamia sized bed, so many they spilt up against the wall. It was a collection and then some.


    ¡°This seems¡­ extremely un-Lord like. I don''t think I can quite picture Lord Wranvyre sleeping here,¡± said Lyra, squinting at all the pinkness.


    She tried to picture it for a moment, the severe black scaled and sharply clothed Wranvyre lying amongst pink heart shaped pillows and teddy bears, his long black hair framing his chiselled jaw. Nope. She couldn''t do it even slightly. There was no way that this was his bedroom. No way.


    ¡°We made a wrong turn somewhere, we need to go back and search more carefully.¡±


    Rain was about to turn and leave when something drew his eye. A giant wall height mirror was set opposite the bed and he caught sight of his reflection. What he saw made him freeze up.


    He had not seen himself this way before, normal mirrors were just too small. With this his sheer scale was revealed to him in perfect clarity for the first time.


    He was¡­ big¡­ very very big. He was caught off guard by the fresh perspective and his train of thought shattered.


    An impatient Opal squirmed from his stilled paw and dropped to the floor. She glared up at Rain then rolled her eyes and snorted. Lyra dropped down from his other paw after a moment too.


    Rain moved his paw watching his reflection move with it. It didn''t feel real. He lifted his paw above Lyra¡¯s head. He could enclose her entire head in his paw if he wanted to.


    After eating many hundreds of animals and the gang who had come for Lyra, he had reached just a little bit less than nine foot six. The top of Lyra¡¯s head now came up only to his naval and the top of Opal''s head was level with his sheath.


    He was, in a word, massive. He dominated the room, an overwhelmingly masculine presence with arms bigger than torsos. It was no wonder to him now that Opal had taken to sharing him with Lyra so easily, he really was too much for one girl to handle, just too much sheer physical presence, an excessive amount of maleness.


    Staring at himself in a somewhat self obsessed way he didn''t notice as a now bored Opal wandered around the room.


    Which was unfortunate as there was no one to stop her when she found a miniature door subtly hidden behind the furniture. A miniature door designed for a Goblin. She stared at it. There was a Goblin head silhouetted on the door below which were words in an elegant script. ¡®Slave passages¡¯.


    It wasn''t hard to guess what it was for. The servants had servant passages, the slaves had slave passages, special tiny cramped spaces for them to navigate the estate in a way that kept them out of sight and out of mind of the levelers.


    She wondered what she would find if she went in. A collection of well heeled Goblins who lived in relative peace? There were no dungeon monsters here after all, and if the Goblins had their own space¡­ well¡­ wasn''t that sort of like her town idea?


    She opened the door.


    ¡°Opal!¡± cried Lyra.


    But the Goblin was already gone.


    Lyra rubbed her hands over her face in frustration.


    ¡°Goddamit. Rain I¡¯m going to go fetch her, stay here okay?¡±


    Rain mumbled incoherently waving his giant paw in front of his eyes.


    The sheep girl failed to notice his state of shock as she locked the bedroom door. She then marched toward the slave door, crouching down to fit into the tiny thing.


    Which was unfortunate timing because at that exact moment someone rattled the bedroom door, found it locked, then smoothly slotted a key in and swung the door wide.


    Lyra in a moment of hideous panic turned and scrambled back into the huge bedroom, rushing forward, trying to reach for Rain in time.


    Too late, a Lamia came into the room, stretching her arms and sighing. It was the pink scaled teenager. She froze as her eyes snapped onto Rain. An extremely large wolf monster, an extremely large wolf monster in her private sanctuary.


    Rain blinked and came back to himself, realising that he was currently flexing rather absurdly in the mirror, one arm curled as he examined his bicep.


    This was decidedly not a good position to be caught in. He somehow felt doubly embarrassed, first for being caught in the first place, and second for being seen in such a ridiculous pose.


    ¡°What the fuuuu-!¡± cried the Lamia.


    ¡°Don''t scream.¡± said Rain hurriedly lowering his arms and desperately trying to pretend he hadn''t been doing anything silly in the mirror.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to- wait, are you not meant to be here? I was thinking you were a surprise gift from the girls, but¡­¡±


    She furrowed her brow and looked Rain over, her gaze catching on this sheath.


    ¡°Ahhhhh! I get it, you escaped from her clutches. You were trying to leave the estate and stumbled in here by mistake!¡± She snorted, her eyes dancing over his body.¡°Trust sis to find a specimen like you. Goddaaaaam. No wonder she¡¯s been looking so rosy cheeked and glowy scaled lately, you must be pounding her senseless every night! Gods that greedy bitch needs to learn to share.¡±


    ¡°That is¡­ correct????¡± said Rain, not quite sure what was happening but desperately hoping to avoid her raising the alarm.


    ¡°Hah. I knew it. She¡¯s gonna be salty about losing you hmm? What, did she misplace your heart pin?¡±


    Rain tilted his head, not sure how to answer that.


    ¡°No answer? Oh? Tell you what, we can do a deal. I¡¯ll let you go on your merry way, on this silly escape attempt of yours, if-¡±


    ¡°If?¡±


    She bit her lip. ¡°You do what you are doing to her to me.¡±


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 132

    ? Chapter 132:


    ¡°...I¡¯m sorry, you want what now?¡±


    ¡°Oh don''t play coy, there''s only one reason a monster like you would have been kept around without being killed, and that is to be used.¡±


    Rain furrowed his brow.


    ¡°Gods you are a dense one. Used as in riding your cock like there''s no tomorrow, getting off on you, using you as a convenient masturbation toy, and no, stop giving me that look, masturbation is healthy and normal.¡±


    ¡°...Masturbation... using a monster?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you are a toy to my older sister are you not? Let me use you without a fuss and I won''t bring hundreds of levelers down on your head before you get a chance to escape. It¡¯s simple really, you would have to be stupid not to take the deal.¡±


    She was asking him to¡­ It was a shocking thing to say to a strange monster, but then, from what he understood of these Lamia, maybe not.


    Rain glanced behind the Lamia and spotted a flash of white fluff. Lyra. She was crouched by the armchair that hid the slave door just out of sight. Just before the Lamia had entered the room and seen Rain she had vanished into thin air, becoming invisible, not quite able to hide Rain in time but still able to hide herself from the Lamia¡¯s gaze.


    As he watched she waved frantically trying to get his attention and mouthed ¡®what do we do?¡¯


    Rain shook his head fractionally, then glanced from her to the slave door beside her.


    Lyra seemed to understand, moving to go fetch Opal while he dealt with the teenager. Her gaze lingered on the Lamia before she left however. She almost seemed annoyed with what the teenager was trying to do, with the position she had put him in.


    She disappeared through the slave door.


    ¡°I can do what I do with your sister, to you, if you will stop blocking my way... and forget you saw me here.¡±


    ¡°Well duh, I¡¯d love to see that greedy guts lose you, small chance as that is.¡± She smiled airy and bright up at him, brushing a strand of pink hair over her shoulder. ¡°You may call me Rose when you''re groaning my name wolf boy, I like hearing that.¡±


    ¡°My name is Fitz...?¡±


    ¡°I don''t care.¡±


    Her tail tip slammed the bedroom door shut behind her with a definite bang and she slinked closer, her head tipping up as she neared, trying to keep eye contact but struggling with Rain¡¯s height.


    She gave up as she came within arms reach and focused on his front. After a moment of hesitation she lifted her hands and placed them on his midriff. Running her fingers through his fur and feeling the muscle below.


    She made a cooing sound as she pressed her palms flat against him.


    ¡°Oh I do love fluffy boys, especially really, REALLY, big fluffy boys. Sis must have saved up for a year to ger her hands on you huh.¡±


    She suddenly shoved forward, coiling her tail and heaving against Rain¡¯s body with all her might.


    Nothing happened. She may as well have been pushing against a brick wall.


    He heard her muttering in question under her breath, wondering why he wasnt being moved, and he realised that she was trying to push him down onto the bed. Not wanting to give her a reason to break their deal he sat down on the edge.


    To his surprise it didn''t buckle under his weight, in fact it barely shifted. The bed was solid as anything.


    Rose seemed to notice his expression and gave him a puzzled look.


    ¡°It¡¯s just a Lamia bed, weren''t you with my sis-


    ¡°Yes, it''s not that, it¡¯s all these¡­¡± he glanced over his shoulder, ¡°...stuffed toys?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, that¡¯s my collection yes, I made them all by myself over the years, but you may lie upon them... In fact, that¡¯s kinda hot thinking about it, a giant wild male monster on my cute little stuffed toys? So yes do that.¡±


    Rain hesitantly leaned back, hundreds and hundreds of stuffed animals taking his weight. A black furred stuffed Lapine toy fell over his shoulder and bounced down between his thighs. He carefully picked it up between thumb and index before Rose snatched it away.


    ¡°It''s sooo cute isn''t it?¡± she said holding it up and showing him its glass button eyes. ¡°But forget it, you can''t have it, you can''t have any, you¡¯re a monster. Monsters don''t get plushies.¡±


    After a moment of pridefully looking the stuffed toy over she tossed it back onto the pile and turned her attention back to the enormous monster lying back on her obnoxiously pink bed and mountain of plushies.


    The Lamia tapped her chin as she looked Rain over, then appearing to like what she saw she moved closer, her tail coiling down and lowering her upper body until she was between his legs.


    ¡°Now let''s see what got my sister hooked on you shall we?¡±


    She came closer still, her face nearing his sheath, her breath tugging at his fur. For all her use of the word ¡®toy¡¯ the teenager was visibly far more excited to touch Rain than she would ever have been with some simple object and her hands pressed against the sheath which was easily larger than both of her fists pressed together.


    At first she cupped it, exploring its mass, then she pressed her thumbs, then fingers over the front, pushing inward, exploring, a curious girl wondering what she would find.


    A flash of pink appeared amongst the black and she cooed. Excited now, she formed a ring with her fingers and pushed the sheath back using all her might. The black fur sloooowly slipped back revealing slick pinkness, pinkness that seemed eager to be free, something she was also eager for.


    She gasped as she pushed the sheath past a certain point and the broad head suddenly slipped out with a lurch, her fingers darting down and cupping it, the length swelling at her touch, pushing at her fingers, soft yet growing.


    Her greedy eyes drank it in as the length grew past five inches, more pouring from the sheath, soon passing seven inches, then nine, then reaching eleven inches, spreading her hands apart as she held the huge eleven inch mass up, preventing it from falling under its own weight.


    ¡°My- m-my you are a large one¡­ the biggest I¡¯ve seen of any monster on the estate.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not fully out yet,¡± murmured Rain.


    The Lamia blinked up at him.


    ¡°Wait, what?¡±


    The Lamia¡¯s mouth parted as Rain¡¯s sheath abruptly bulged as though something large was trying to escape, straining it wide until it abruptly slopped around his bulbous knot with in a rush and a soft schlop sound. His unengorged knot came free from his sheath, and cock poured past her fingers, reaching thirteen, then fourteen, before coming to a stop at fifteen and a half inches long, thickening until it became stiff and throbbing in her hands.


    The teenager''s eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the sight, the thing weighing in her hands as she struggled to stop it falling down under its own weight.


    Then, her breath coming in pants, she wrapped her fingers around the thickest part and found she couldn''t quite touch her fingers together even using both hands. Mouth now dry she lifted her forearm and compared.


    ¡°There¡¯s no way, there¡¯s no freaking way!¡±


    Touching her elbow against the base the tip of the thing reached her palm.


    ¡°What the fuuuccckk,¡± she breathed, her face flushing red as her imagination ran wild, just what could this thing do to her?


    Running her hands over the enormous cock she lifted it up then pushed it back letting it flop down on Rain¡¯s midriff with a thump. Then she scrambled half on top of him, palms either side of his cock.


    Rain couldn''t help but notice the teenager¡¯s hips had started to tremble, the tip of her long tail was lashing in the air behind her, and the scales below her flitty skirt had become shiny with long trickles of shiny wetness.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± murmured Rain.


    ¡°Mhmmff!¡± nodded the teenager biting her lip, her hips rolling side to side. ¡°B-big-BIG! fluffy boys, ye-yeah? Making me all hot under the collar like this, so not fair. G-god I want this fat fucking cock inside of me...¡± She seemed to get control of herself after a difficult moment and managed to drag her eyes away from the length lying between her arms. ¡°But not quite yet.¡±


    She suddenly dived forward, darting down under Rain¡¯s arm, burrowing into her stuffed toys then up. As Rain was aware she was very strong and surprisingly flexible, and she wiggled up behind him until her human body was behind his head and she was leaning over top, blouse covered breasts resting on the back of his head.


    His yellow eyes looked up at her flushed face framed in pink hair as she looked back down at him, head hanging over his.


    ¡°I just wouldn''t be getting my money¡¯s worth if I didn''t try everything you had to offer a girl¡­¡±


    She slid over his nose, blouse covered breasts rolling over his muzzle, and slipped down his chest then onto his midriff where his cock rested heavily.


    Her abdomen slipped by his head, then following that her skirt. The front part of the fabric flopped over his nose leaving him with his head buried beneath and he had a clear view of her mons just above his muzzle, and then a plump Lamia pussy, wet and juicy and dribbling gossamer strings. The teenager was clearly insanely turned on. He couldn''t help it, the sight was hypnotising and incredibly appealing and his heart started to race, his cock stiffening further and lifting away from his front before coming back down with an impressively loud thud under its own weight.


    Her pussy was human-like and the bottom edge of her plumpness was framed in pink scales. It was placed at the point where her skin transitioned to bright pink scales in a shallow ¡®v¡¯ at the base of her ¡®hips¡¯, where her Lamia tail began.


    In this extremely intimate position her scent filled his nose, her heavy arousal, and he watched as strings of clear liquid stretched between her folds and the bridge of his muzzle, more and more as she bumped against him, droplets sprinkling across his fur, some rolling down into his mouth. Rain felt his cock grow somehow thicker as he breathed her scent in directly.


    Unable to stop himself he lifted his huge paws and found his digits wrapping around her hips, claws digging into her rear causing her to gasp. He tilted his head up as he positioned her optimally above in a 69 and his tongue slipped from his lips. He lapped at her snatch, feeling every little fold of her, her heated muff and sloppy labia, the stiff little nub that was her clit poking from its hood. His rough tongue passed over it all, scraping her up, stimulating everything at once.


    He felt her cry out and her tail constricted hard around his body, wrapping tight, he was sure a normal monster might have been hurt under her coils, as it was he shrugged her clenching off and pressed his tongue between her folds, parting her with what was at his size an absurdly large tongue, stretching her around the muscle.


    He felt her fingers curling into his fur as he dug in deeper, pushing into her, stretching her out. Her walls clenched down on the intruder, squeezing on him and trying to keep him in place. It did little as he allowed himself a little extra force and began squirming his tongue in the too tight space, forcing her walls apart.


    He was rewarded with a mad fluttering, he pushed her response even higher by twisting his tongue then rapidly thrusting in, then out, roughly pushing his bottom teeth up against her swollen clit as he worked her, faster and faster and faster until the teenager let out a shriek and a gush of fluid spurted into Rain¡¯s mouth. He drank her down, she tasted vaguely like strawberries to his surprise.


    ¡°Wh-what the fuck?! There¡¯s no way she taught you- How do you know how to do that!?¡± cried the breathy teenager, his fur clenched tight in her white knuckled fists.


    He hadn''t always, but not all those in the whore house of his previous life had been wary of his circumstance. Some liked his small state, some found it cute, others just loved the chance to truly dominate and abuse a partner when ordinarily they would be far too low leveled and weak to do so to anyone. Many times in the night, when there was no one to see them, he had had visitors, visitors happy to teach him for their own benefit, teachings that he had used on Opal all the way back in the dungeon.


    This was far from the first time he had been ¡®used like a toy¡¯, somehow that particular experience had followed him into his new life, although it was hardly going to go the same at his current size and strength.


    He put that experience to use now rolling his tongue back to her most sensitive spots nearest the entrance then pushing deeper for the longer strokes. Having a far larger and stronger tongue allowed for some far more interesting techniques that just wouldn''t have been possible for a human, and he went to town on the Lamia¡¯s sloppy pussy, squirming his tongue furiously against her soft walls, intent on making her scream. He succeeded.


    ¡°HNYaAH!! n-nooooOHhhHhhGAAAAWWWWDDD!!!!¡±


    She howled into his stomach, fingers raking across his midriff as her tail lashed and coiled, her hips trembling in his grip as pussy juice gushed into his mouth and flowed down his throat.


    ¡°S-stop! S-slow down!¡± she managed to gasp out as she clung to his front like a drowning person cltuchign at a life raft.


    Rain didn''t slow, even slightly, and the Lamia was left writhing and squirming as she was thoroughly tongue fucked, one orgasm crashing into the other as he flowed from twisting to plunging his tongue in and out of her obscenely squelching sopping pussy, which was practically slurping on the thrusting muscle.


    Desperate to try and regain some semblance of control Rose grabbed for the fat cock that lay by her head, both hands gripping it but unable to fully encircle it she lifted the tip to her mouth.


    Rain¡¯s breath caught as he felt her soft lips roughly thrust against his cock head. She was too small to do anything but kiss and lick at the tip but she was still extremely enthusiastic, and it was amplified by her hands desperately stroking up and down his shaft.


    He struggled to focus on the motions of his tongue as she worked, but the Lamia noticing his reaction realised she had found a way to slow him down and eagerly thrust herself onto his length, desperate to take him, desperate for control.


    To Rain¡¯s surprise she started to succeed, her jaw straining wide enough to start take the mass inside as only a Lamia could, an obscene sight, her lips stretched thin as the massive head was slowly forced into her mouth, her eyes fluttering at the sensation even as Rain stirred her pussy up.


    The teenager took cock into herself until she seemed like she¡¯d hit a limit, unable to fully fit her mouth around the head and grinding to a halt, her jaw stretched wide. But then she came heavily once more and her back spasmed, jerking hard enough that she was thrust forward and the head slid fully into her, and then deeper.


    The teenager''s throat expanded from her neck as it was filled, her naturally stretchy Lamia skin evolved for taking prey stretching around the huge girth, an obscene dick bulge appearing in her throat. Rain punished her for her efforts with his tongue and she screamed around the length and came yet again, teeth pressed so tight against the unyielding flesh that it dimpled slightly.


    Rain could only groan as the vibrations of her scream did things to him, making his hips thrust of their own accord and forcing more dick into her throat, the bulge in her neck inching toward her collar bones as she was filled and stretched.


    Of course, she wasn''t the only one capable of creating vibration.


    He hauled on the teenager''s hips and her pussy squelched wetly against his mouth as he strained his tongue deeper and deeper within her. A very slight bump appeared on her midriff as he thrust as much of his tongue into her as he could, the huge thing stretching her further still.


    Then, his bottom teeth pressing hard against her clit, he let loose a bass growl.


    The vibration rose from deep within his chest, up his body, and then surged into the teenager¡¯s unprepared pussy, hitting both outside, shallow, and deep all simultaneously.


    The effect was immediate and dramatic. The snake tail wound around him began thrashing and spasming and she howled and howled into his cock, fists hammering at his fur, back arching, muscles trembling as she came and came and came. His mouth was instantly flooded with squirt in long pulsing sprays of clear fluid that waterfalled from his lips and splashed across his front.


    The motion of the teenager¡¯s rippling throat and the vibration of her howling had its own effect and Rain let out a long groan as his hips bucked up, once, twice, his length stiffening.


    Rose, realising what was about to happen flailed at his cock with her hands, slapping at it wildly and desperately trying to pull away.


    Too late he sprayed into her throat, directly into her stomach, once, twi-


    The teenager got a grip on his knot and with the use of her impressive strength hauled herself back, his cock coming free with a schlucking gush of fluid that washed down her chin and front.


    That wasn''t the last of it however as the teenager¡¯s face was immediately sprayed down, her eyes screwing shut as his bucking cock sprayed and sprayed into her face. Panicking, and desperately trying to draw breath, she struggled to lift herself with her hands and her blouse fell into the line of fire, quickly turning transparent and sticking to her skin as it was soaked through.


    The teenager opened her eyes, blinking rapidly, as at last the spraying came to an end, droplets of fluid flicking from her long eyelashes.


    ¡°What the fuck, how much do you freaking cum?¡± she panted.


    ¡°That wasn''t cum,¡± said Rain, ¡°That was precum. You will have to try a bit harder than that to get me off.¡±


    The teenager gave him a startled look then turned back realising that Rain¡¯s length hadn¡¯t softened at all if anything it was even stiffer than before.


    She then looked down at her soaked through blouse. There wasn''t an inch of fabric on her front that wasn¡¯t sopping wet, at least a cup of the clear fluid had been splashed over her.


    She licked her lips unthinkingly and accidentally tasted him, causing her to scrunch her eyes tight as she spat him free. This was not going to plan, not going to plan at all! It was all so- so- She was supposed to be in control! He was the toy! Suddenly she was feeling a little nervous. What the hell was this monster?


    ¡°Tch. That was- That was your ejaculate, you are lying, stupid monster.¡±


    The teenager carefully ignored the fact that the fluid was mostly clear.


    She slithered from around him, her pink tail pulling free until she was once more standing in front of the bed, her breath slowly steadying as she gathered herself.


    ¡°Are you going to keep that on? It''s soaking wet, it will become cold at some point,¡± said Rain, eyeing her as he lazed on the bed.


    She glanced down and realised he was right, her blouse was a sopping transparent mess clinging to her breasts, the colour of her skin clearly visible through it along with the pinkness of her nipples, both of which were clearly engorged and stiff, making tents in the fabric.


    ¡°That''s none of your business! Idiot monster!¡±


    Despite her words she flapped her hand at her blouse and to Rain¡¯s surprise it began to move on its own, the fabric rippling as the buttons roughly tugged apart, exposing her braless chest. Then it began to pull off entirely on its own, or rather peel off, the cloth was stuck to her skin with his precum and the thin cloth came away slowly, peeling from her pale breasts in a way that Rain found hard to look away from especially as her breath caught as the fabric peeled from her nipples.


    ¡°Do you need any help?¡±


    ¡°NO! And don¡¯t presume to ask!¡±


    She scowled and pouted and the fabric was ripped from her body, speeding up in moments until it was pulling from her lifted arms and she was standing there half naked, only wearing her flitty skirt, hundreds of tiny beads of clear precum dotted across her breasts.


    She examined the beads, brow furrowed.


    ¡°That was¡­ acceptable I suppose, your tongue work is a little better than average, I can admit that.¡±


    Rain tilted his head in doubt, but was distracted watching the blouse floating beside her, just hanging in the air. Rose rolled her eyes noticing what he was looking at and pointed a finger at it, making a quick circle with her fingertip. The blouse twisted violently, becoming a long thin spiraled twist of cloth that only drew tighter, a shower of fluid falling from the fabric as Rain¡¯s precum was squeezed out.


    The last of the fluid came free in a couple of drips and the blouse shook itself back to normal, floating in the air and looking fresh and ready to be worn, any creases simply gone, the fabric shaking them out with ease.


    It had returned to being bone dry.


    ¡°Your Class,¡± said Rain slowly, ¡°It lets you manipulate cloth¡­ and you aren''t actually strong yourself, it was your blouse that was pushing at me, not you.¡±


    ¡°No, I am still really really strong because I¡¯m amazing like that... But, yeah, I get a boost from what I wear, it¡¯s like an extra layer of strength.¡±


    The blouse neatly folded itself and flopped down on the bed beside him.


    ¡°But enough of that, now I want to see what my sister truly experienced,¡± she bit her lip as her gaze wandered down to the massive vascular pink-red length lying up Rain¡¯s stomach, unable to contain her cocklust any longer.


    ¡°I command you to fuck me slave. F-Fuck me like you did her until I can''t feel my tail anymore and-


    A pair of massive paws came down on her hips with a definite slap and she was roughly lifted into the air.


    ¡°Th-this-!¡± said the Lamia, her hands coming down on Rain¡¯s forearms and finding that she couldn''t move them even in the slightest. ¡°Just how did my sister physically h-handle you?¡±


    ¡°She didn''t.¡± said Rain.


    The teenager nearly bit off her tongue as rain layed her down over his cock lying atop his midriff.


    Unsure how precisely to use the Lamia¡¯s unusual anatomy he began by pressing her front down along his length where it lay against his stomach, squeezing it between himself and the Lamia, her tail dangling between his thighs, her flitty skirt draping. He then slid her down until her sopping puss came to rest at the start of his knot.


    Then he brought her back toward his chest, pressing her plump pussy down as he did so, the fatness of it squishing down atop every vein and bump. The teenager was able to do nothing as he used her, her breasts dragging down over his pecs as she was rolled down before being roughly shoved upward, using her pussy to lubricate himself.


    ¡°S-Stop using me like this! I demand you stop!¡±


    This was a far cry from any intent she had of using him as a toy and she clawed at him, desperate to take back control but remaining as helpless under his paws as one of her plushies.


    The thrusting increased, roughness pulling at her folds, until she cried out, her back arching as she came over his length, soaking him with her fluids.


    Rain took the opportunity and carefully smeared her juices down his length using her puss, thoroughly lubricating his entire length.


    ¡°Wh-what the hell was that for?¡± said the slumped Lamia, glaring up at him from below her pink fringe.


    ¡°It was to make sure I can fit.¡±


    He lifted her in one paw this time, hiking her skirt up under his thumb pad and holding her above, then with his other paw he pushed his length up, angling it from his hips and aiming at the reddened swollen mess that was the teenager¡¯s throbbing pussy.


    Her eyes came to rest on the thing just below it then widened realising what was about to happen. Her fists became white knuckled as they curled into his forearm fur.


    ¡°G-go slow, like really really really slow, h-holy shit!¡±


    The teenager trembled as she was lowered, then let out a little gasp as her softness came into contact with the broad tip. Her muff was squished inward by the thing which covered her labia entirely from view. Still, Rain could feel her pussy eagerly trying to take him, trying to spread around the tip, to greedily swallow his enormity.


    At first it didn''t look like she would succeed in taking him despite being drenched in slick, but then she ever so slightly descended, came to a crawling halt as she reached her limit, then, with a lurch, sunk downward in a sudden rush, her pussy engulfing the head.


    Her breathing came fast and heavy as she looked down at the thing spreading her wide, stretching her more than anything she had ever experienced, stretching her in the most incredibly delicious way, her labia strained thin around the massive cock.


    And then the sensation truly hit her and she screamed.


    Rain watched in wonder as the teenager squirted up his front, soaking his fur in long powerful sprays of fluid that rose as they came in pulsing waves, splashing across his pecs.


    Her breasts rolled across her chest as her back arched back and she thrashed in his unyielding grip, her pink tail whipping across the floor of the bedroom behind, smashing chairs and tables to splinters or knocking them to the ground, colliding with bookshelves and knocking dozens of books free in a storm of paper.


    Rain didn''t wait for her to finish and eased her downward usign both paws, watching with interest as a bulge in her midriff slowly rose from within the teenager, pushing out the hem of her flitty skirt and his thumb pads, before rising above and tenting out her pale belly, her belly button stretching over it. It was his length, pressing up from within her. He eased her down further, eager to see how far he could fill her.


    The bulge rose until he was halfway inside of her and then he eased her back up, nearly to the tip, then eased her back down, slow, then faster as Rose slowly became used to his size and he felt her relax a little, then tense as the speed only increased, increased by a lot, each drop coming on faster than the last, building in confidence.


    He lifted her and slammed the teenager down, using her as a sleeve for his cock, bouncing her up and down and watching as the bulge in her midriff jerked up and down too. He moved into long plunging strokes, each drop he entered the teenger a little deeper, spreading her a little more, scraping a little harder.


    Rose was rapidly losing her mind, arms shaking wildly as she clutched at his arms, unable to look away from her tented out tummy as she was thoroughly ravished, sheet lightning crawling up her spine as her pussy became a storm of pleasure, each plunge causing her body to shake and tremble, her eyelids fluttering as she came to yet another mind melting peak, it just didn''t stop! A chain of crashing orgasm that made sparkling fireworks in her mind, the intense tightness was scraping her nerves wild!


    "Hnnnnggghhhh-ah-aaah-ah-ahAIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!"


    Thrust, thrust, thrust, the teenager was bounced, and she sang and sang, wailing on Rain¡¯s cock, her insides clutching and rippling over him as she sprayed and squirted and creamed herself silly, and soon Rain felt himself getting near, his motions becoming arrhythmic as he used the teenager as a sleeve, accelerating, his breath becoming heavy.


    His muscles tensed as he began to near his peak.


    But it was then that Rain heard a commotion of voices coming toward the door to the bedroom, his sensitive ears perking up as he discerned maybe a dozen people over the sound of Rose¡¯s keening.


    There wasn''t any doubt about it, they were coming directly to Rose¡¯s bedroom.


    He froze mid thrust.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


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 Chapter 133

    ? Chapter 133:


    Rain froze mid stroke.


    There were people coming, a lot of people.


    The teenager on his lap shivered and squealed, not yet realizing the danger, her pussy still squeezing frantically at his length.


    He wrapped a paw around her head and her excited voice was cut off, muffled against his paw pads as he listened carefully.


    There weren''t any footsteps to be heard, meaning that the group did not have legs, meaning they were Lamia. They were talking a lot, and giggling. He caught a word, ¡®Rose¡¯. Yes, they were definitely coming here, there was no doubt about that.


    What should he do? They were coming and he needed to do something! Bite Rose¡¯s head off? No, that wouldn''t help at all.


    He couldn''t escape through the goblin slave door that Opal and Lyra had left through, far too small, and there was nowhere to hide, the largest piece of furniture, a wardrobe, could never contain him.


    The teenager with her head engulfed in his paw slapped and clawed at his forearm and he let go. She came away with a gasp and scowled up at him, a strand of sweaty hair lying across her face.


    ¡°What is it? Why the hell did you stop you dumb monster? I was about cum my freaking brains out!¡± she pouted.


    Rain could feel her pussy moving as she spoke, still trying to draw more of him inside of her.


    There are people approaching, a lot of people.¡±


    ¡°How do you know, I don''t hear-


    ¡°My hearing is significantly better than yours, it''s a monster thing. I hear their voices, one spoke your name, they¡¯re talking now, but they will soon come here.¡±


    Rose blinked then seemed to finally realise the danger they were in.


    ¡°It¡¯s her! It¡¯s my sister!¡± she whisper hissed, ¡°She knows you are here somehow!¡±


    ¡°Then lock the door!¡±


    ¡°She has a key!¡±


    ¡°Why does she-


    ¡°It doesn''t matter! She''s coming and she''s going to see you!¡±


    ¡°...Then they will have to die.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a monster! You are going to die! Not them!¡±


    Rain somehow doubted that, at least initially. The problem came after he killed the oncoming levelers, the problem of the hundreds that would follow.


    ¡°Fuck fuck fuck,¡± groaned Rose, ¡°Okay okay, are they still coming?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ve stopped, another voice joined them and they''re talking about something, I heard your name again.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I can fix this, I can fix this, I didn''t level so hard for nothing. Just stay perfectly still and don¡¯t move at all okay?¡±


    The Lamia drew in breath and raised her hands. Her pink hair billowed around her head as though in the wind and then things started to happen.


    The first thing Rain noticed was her blouse neatly unfolding and lifting into the air from the bed, sleeves smoothly slipping around her arms as she was once more made decent.


    The next thing to catch his attention was the carpet, it had started to ripple, undulating in waves across the floor, as though it was the ocean, moving from every wall inwards toward the bed. The chairs and tables that the teenager¡¯s thrashing tail had trashed were moving, moving across the rippling carpet and toward the bed along with books and anything else that had been knocked to the floor.


    ¡°Hiding what you broke or knocked over isn''t going to distract them from me¡­¡±


    ¡°Just one second¡­¡± said Rose concentrating.


    Rain blinked as cylinders started to emerge from beneath the bed from beside his legs, no, not cylinders, enormous rolls of cloth each a foot thick and four foot long, huge bolts of fabric in a variety of hues. The bolts halted and three rolls of black were picked out, sliding fully free, the rest shoved back under and the space left from removing the three the detritus of the room flowed into, flowing under the bed and out of sight and mind.


    The cylinders of fabric, which Rain now realised were fur-covered, launched into the air and began spinning incredibly fast, huge sheets of black fluff shooting in every direction, reams of useable fabric that reached a zenith, filling Rain¡¯s view with swooping looping lines strung about the room.


    A row of chests flung open and a cloud exploded from the rectangular openings. No, not a cloud, heaps of wool and fabric off cuttings. The white clouds joined the lines of black floating in the air.


    Beside a dressing table, and pride of place, a smaller gold and jewel trimmed chest carefully opened, and Rain realised he was looking at an extremely full sewing box, one which spewed out hundreds of small spindles of cotton thread and silvery needles.


    The room was becoming busy with floating objects, it was almost pretty, like a clothier¡¯s constellation.


    Then the looping black fur dove toward him.


    He blinked in surprise as black fur overlapped his own black fur, wrapping around his arms, his feet and shins, then his thighs even as more charged into the mound of stuffed toys and circled around his torso, once, twice, thrice and more, dozens and dozens of stuffed toys caught up inside, a river of fur lined fabric that was determined to encase him as quickly and as swiftly a possible even as puffy stuffing poured in behind it pushing the black away from his fur as free space was filled in, encasing him in wool padding. In mere seconds he was looking down at limbs covered with a different shade of black, of a trimmer less glossy appearance, dead fur used to cover his own living fur, his paws had become digitless nubs hidden behind stuffing filled fabric.


    As this was happening needles tied up tight with cotton thread flew around him like a swarm of insects, hundreds of flashing darting bright steel points whizzing and zipping through the air, darting in like kingfishers, piercing the fabric and roughly sewing it together, a hail of pinpoint sharpness that Rain felt especially uncomfortable around as steel passed mere inches from his eyeballs even as fur lined fabric wrapped around his head.


    His vision became fluff and fur and wool and for a moment he wondered if this was all a trick, an attempt to immobilise him for capture. But then the wool parted and he frowned as yellow glass appeared. Two yellow glass discs. He recalled the Lapine stuffed toy, it was the same but on a far larger scale, the glass eyes as large as plates, large enough that he was able to peer through them and see himself in the mirror across from the bed.


    He appeared¡­ as an enormous plushie, a softly shaped wolf with simple curves and simplified features.


    Rain considered this.


    Yep. This was the worst.


    Somehow he¡¯d been turned from a terrifying thing that prowled the pitch black night hunting for prey, into a giant cuddly stuffed toy that looked like it wanted to hug everything that moved, and probably most things that didn''t move too, something that belonged in a teenage girl''s bedroom.


    He moved his head in a mild state of horror, and watched as the plushie wolf head moved in the mirror.


    For a short moment he seriously considered letting his darkness out, his predation given form, to rip and tear the plushie disguise into a million little pieces... and then set those pieces on fire using his leveler Skill, and then bury the ashes somewhere nobody could ever see them. Ever.


    But then his ears picked up the sounds of the voices, they were right outside!


    Rose looked up at the wolf plushie she was sat in the lap off with her chin cupped in her hand, admiring her incredibly rushed but surprisingly excellent work.


    It was truly quite good, easily on par with any of the plushies on the plush mountain behind the giant plushie.


    Of course¡­ it was still in the shape of a wolf, and she realised in a moment of dismay that her sister, who was very likely about to step inside her room, might have some serious suspicions seeing a giant wolf plushie that was as vaguely as large as the giant sex slave wolf monster she had apparently misplaced.


    The door handle started to rattle.


    She threw up her hands in a desperate gesture and the fabric wolf head FWOMP-ed into a spherical ball, the fabric reshaping, crushing and stretching to form a giant teddy bear head.


    Rain blinked as the free space inside the head of the plushie increased as it doubled in volume, the glass eyes moving away from his own.


    He peered through them at the mirror to see what had happened and found himself looking back at what was now a giant teddy bear sitting on the teenager¡¯s bed, if one with a rather more wolf like body than normal.


    This was... really not an improvement. Maybe the ripping and tearing option was still on the table.


    Rose breathed out a sigh of relief. Everything was pretty much perfectly disguised and tidied up now and no one would ever realise that the giant plushie she was lying atop of was in fact a monster or that anything untoward had been happening. Even her sweaty skin had been neatly dried off with passing fabrics.


    Well, everything was perfectly disguised, that is apart from the giant cock currently sticking out of a slit on the things groin which was still partly inside of her pussy.


    She stared down in dismay even as the door began to open. It needed to be hidden, now, and so the teenager did the only thing she could. She slammed herself down to the top of the knot.


    She nearly let out a scream as her clit was thrust against the hard bulb, and only managed to stifle it by slapping a hand over her mouth, her other hand frantically arranging her skirt to drape over the massive knot hiding it from sight, twisting her very flexible body around so that she appeared to be draped comfortably on Rain¡¯s lap, her tail hanging over his thigh in loops.


    Just in time as a dozen Lamia girls spilled into the room from the swung wide doorway, a rainbow of different coloured scales, books and papers held to chests as they chattered, oblivious to what they were about to find.


    It only took a moment, they were talking, and then many pairs of eyes fell on Rain and Rose, and their voices died to absolute pin drop silence, the collection of teenagers freezing mid slither.


    They were all of a similar age to Rose and from what Rain could see were all of the pure Lamia variety. He looked closer and realised that some of them held vaguely similar features to Rose. Sisters, or at least half-sisters, and then maybe the others were stepsisters? Was Rose¡¯s older ¡®sis¡¯ amongst them, his supposed former master?


    It didn¡¯t matter. They would all die alike. Darkness began to seep from Rain¡¯s real fur in preparation to kill every one of them, his muscles tensing, readying to tear from the bed and rip them to shreds.


    But then they gasped as one and a short yellow scaled girl at the front flung her arms up in the air, sheets of paper flying everywhere.


    ¡°Oh my god Rose! What did you make?! Its soo cuttteeee!¡±


    Rain froze, the words somehow striking an upsetting knife at his heart. Cute? Cute?!?


    He would kill the small one first.


    Or he would, any moment now¡­.


    Any moment now...


    Instead, he waited. He didn''t have Opal or Lyra, if he fought now and everything turned to chaos and fighting he would have to search the estate as well as escape. He didn''t like their chances if that happened, at least one of them would most likely die. But if Lyra could return with Opal to this room first then he wouldn''t have to search for them.


    He would bide his time like this and watch the goblin slave door. Surely Lya would return soon with the errant Opal.


    Rose waved meekly at the collection of teenage Lamia.


    ¡°Uh, hi there. What exactly is it that you are all doing here? Doing here, in my room, right now, at this particular moment in time?¡±


    A wide hipped Lamia with an extremely thick tail and dark purple scales slinked forward.


    ¡°It¡¯s your turn you lazy lump of scales, your turn to host the critique,¡± she said, adjusting her glasses and shuffling the papers and books she held underarm.


    ¡°C-crit-? oh no, you mean-¡±


    ¡°Yup, I mean it, you''re going to sit here and you are going watch us put on the damn play, just as you did to me in my room, whether you like it or not.¡±


    Rain watched the teenager¡¯s face in the mirror go through a series of increasingly curdled expressions, very much not liking where things were going.


    ¡°I- I see¡­¡± she managed to choke out.


    The short Lamia with yellow scales who had thrown her hands in the air couldn''t contain herself longer, her tail wiggling around behind her.


    ¡°NEVERMIND THAT WHAT¡¯S WITH THE GIANT PLUSH!?!¡±


    She slapped her hands over her mouth, not meaning to yell. ¡°Sorry!¡± she squeaked.


    ¡°It¡¯s just something I made haha, just uh, a nice big comfy fluffy plushie to snuggle on haha, it''s nothing really...ha...ha¡­?¡±


    A moment later Rose realised her mistake, but it was too late to take back the spoken words released into the air.


    She had named the giant plush as a target of snuggling.


    The yellow scaled Lamia squealed and dived forward, jumping onto the Rain plushie, flinging into the air with her arms spread wide, a joyful look on her face.


    Rain could only watch, unable to move even an inch as the short girl leapt onto his arm and wiggled around it, encircling and spiralling up then hugging his giant teddy bear head, her blouse covered breasts pressing up against one of the yellow disks that was his view of the world.


    Things only got worse from there. The short ones reaction seemed to be a signal to the others that this was an okay thing to do and teenage Lamia girls lunged at the giant plushie.


    Rain could only watch in the mirror as teenagers landed on him and circled up his arms, spiralling around his torso, around his head, leaping into his lap and falling against his chest, until he was covered in a rainbow of scales and skirts and blouses, being hugged from every direction at once.


    Rose¡¯s situation wasn''t much better and her dismay reached new heights that she prior thought impossible. Two Lamia girls were in Rain¡¯s Lap with her, squeezing in tight, their bodies pressing close to hers, their tails entwined around both Rain¡¯s legs and her own tail in familiar comfort.


    Of course, they had yet to notice the extremely large bulge tenting out her belly. The only reason they hadn''t was because of how puffy and airy her blouse was and that she was putting a lot of effort into manipulating the fabric to drape and fold naturally in such a way that it hid the shape of his dick protruding from her midriff.


    But that didn''t help with the fact that one of her sisters was mere inches from the blouse! Inches from her obscenely tented out abdomen! She would only have to move a little and-


    The one Lamia who hadn''t leapt onto Rain to snuggle was the dark purple scaled Lamia. She frowned as she looked over her sisters coiled around the giant stuffed toy in a way that only Lamias could, a tangle of chattering giggling teenagers.


    With a sigh, and a shake of her head, she pulled close one of the tables and dumped her books and papers atop it, then pulled a sheet of paper from the top of the pile.


    She adjusted her black rimmed glasses.


    ¡°This is something you should take seriously sisters. Impressing Lord Wranvyre is a good way to ascend in the progeny ranking and gain his favour. Now if you would Arissa?¡±


    A lime green scaled teenager grumbled beside Rain¡¯s head before slithering down his body and onto the floor, somehow flouncing with her tail as she did so.


    Arissa came up beside the purple scaled Lamia and grabbed the sheet of paper, quickly scanning through it.


    ¡°This scene first? Alright fine, I guess it¡¯s one of the more interesting ones, this isn''t so bad.¡±


    ¡°You only say that because you get to use your magic!¡± said one of the teenagers in Rain¡¯s lap with Rose, her scales an aqua-marine.


    ¡°Well yeah. Don¡¯t say you wouldn¡¯t do the same Millie, because you would, you totally would.


    Arissa flicked her wrists, finger spreading as she faced her palms toward the mirror.


    Then her hands began to move and Rain watched with concern as she swiftly formed a series of shapes, fingers and hands crossing in complex arcane seals.


    As she continued fog started to form in small spots. No, not fog, clouds, white clouds expanding. In moments there were clouds much like the clouds of the outside world only in miniature, vast towering galleon clouds ten miles high, great cloud architectures that strode across the sky. Or in this case clouds that were six feet feet high and strode across the carpet.


    More and more clouds formed, swirling and drifting across the bedroom, dotting across the ceiling and clinging to the walls, mostly hiding the room, forming a cloudscape centred on a ring on the floor before Rain, setting the stage for theatrical drama.


    Rain could admit it did make things feel more dramatic.


    ¡°Rose? If you would.¡±


    ¡°Wha- m-me?¡±


    ¡°Yes you, are you forgetting? You do the clothes.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right, that.¡±


    The teenager flicked her hand and fabric poured from under the bed once more, already shaping into clothing that swam through the air and encased the acting Lamia even as they moved around reading from the script, so used to her ability that they didn''t pay it any attention.


    Around the standing Lamia off cuttings were starting to form, cuttings from the black fur currently encasing him Rain realised, off cuttings cut up into hundreds of little rags a few inches long, swarming and flowing across the carpet like grass swaying in the breeze covering it entirely. The swarm of dark fur lined fabric centred on a single point, a scruffle of yellow and white and gold fabric. A crown in a sea of darkness.


    In moments the two standing teenagers had been transformed, bedecked in fine clothing from some ancient time, puff sleeved jackets and ruffled collars. They appeared almost as serious actors and Rain found his attention drawn despite himself.


    ¡°This is but a forum, a forum of the gods to give voice. But I¡¯m sure you will agree this situation cannot be allowed to reach its conclusion while we stand idly by. The last city, the last remaining city in the entire world is about to be lost to mindless monster hordes.¡±


    The purple scaled Lamia gestured down righteously at the crown and Rain realised it was supposed to represent a city, and that the undulating mass of black was supposed to be a sea of monsters without end, spanning horizon to horizon. The two teenagers appeared as gods standing tall above the landscape below and Rain stared as the clouds surrounding them began to take shapes, loose soft shapes artfully suggesting people, other gods, their vast coils and claws and hands gracefully drifting as their noble faces looked down upon the dying city.


    ¡°With its end shall come the end of all civilisation and all shall fall into chaos and darkness, this world shall be subsumed by shadow, the dying, the dying of the light is what we here bear witness to.¡±


    Rose started to calm as the acting continued. There was a lot of talking. Apparently that was how Lamia¡¯s liked their plays. Rain could feel her shifting as she relaxed into him, her body sliding around his rigid cock. She was still incredibly wet of course and as the actors spoke aloud rivulets of her juices were rolling down his knot in little lines, the teenager only becoming wetter and wetter.


    The play went on, the minutes passing, the gods arguing, arguing about how the poor city was doomed to die, the last light of civilization flickering before the horde and how to save them or if they even should.


    And Rain would have paid a lot more attention to it, but he could feel a certain someone moving, more specifically he could feel Rose moving, bouncing ever so fractionally. She was grinding her hips down onto him, her pussy squeezing at his knot as the teenager tried to engulf the rest of his dick.


    Somehow the teenager had become bored of the play and in her still incredibly horny state she had decided it was a good idea to take his knot into herself.


    Madness! But there was nothing he could do to stop her in his motionless state, she wanted to take all of him, to take him while the teenage girls entwined around him had no idea she was being penetrated.


    ¡°Thee do not comprehend the loss of this last spark, this last desperate hope, this last bastion before animal savagery and sub-sapient beasts.¡±


    Rose¡¯s pussy squueeeezed down onto his knot, her labia going paper thin as her pussy hungrily tried to swallow the bulb, stretching her more than anything before in her life, pushing herself further down with each slight bounce, a little bit more of the fat knot easing inside of her, spreading her ravenous teenage pussy a little more,


    ¡°It is not for us to interfere!¡±


    ¡°Have you no care for them? They are but a flock at the mercy of the night, are we not their shepherds?¡±


    Her bouncing became more desperate, her pussy reaching its limits as it squeezed a third of the way down the knot, forming an obscene and shameful O shape. A little whimper escaped her that only Rain picked up with his sensitive hearing.


    Somehow the teenagers resting next to her hadn''t noticed, distracted by the play and assuming she was just fidgeting.


    The reticent gods had started to be persuaded by the others, the glorious heroics of the plucky survivors below apparently moving them, the clouds of the room darkening to black thunderheads as the little city became ever more desperate, fighting with all they had against the dying of the light.


    ¡°Very well, we shall do as you wish. But I demand this never happen again, never shall the flame of civilization be threatened by the barbaric hordes of the night, the mindless animals that snuff the light. This flame of yours must stand on its own, not as a sputtering spark, but as a mighty bonfire to beat back the dark.¡±


    Rose squirmed and rocked her hips, her muff stretching wider, millimetre by millimetre, little by little, engulfing more and more of the knot, her labia wrapping skin tight around every little bump and vein, clitoris squished flat against it as her hood was strained against the surface.


    Arissa raised her hand and amongst the clouds that drifted near the ceiling a ball of soft light started to glow from within the dark, a ball of different coloured lights that shifted and moved, a soft shape vaguely resembling the many coloured moon.


    ¡°And-


    Rose¡¯s pussy reached the half way point and slipped over the peak. The teenager suddenly had nothing resisting her bouncing and her pussy slopped around the bulb in one go, dropping her hips down as Rain slid fully inside, her cunny dropping inches and slamming into his sheath and hips.


    SCHLL-POP!!!


    The swallowing motion of it popping in broke the vacuum seal on her pussy as her belly bulge pushed out even further and the mix of air and masses of built up pussy juice interacted to create an incredibly loud schluuuurking Queef, an obscenely wet sound that filled the room as her pussy gaped open below the knot, desperately trying to fully close around the base but too stretched out to do so, only able to spasm and tremble as the teenager erupted in orgasm, squirting so hard against the inside of her flitty skirt that it was flipped forward before hanging back down as the fabric was drenched.


    Rose had only managed to keep herself from screaming out loud because a convenient ball of cloth had zipped into her mouth and instantly gagged her, only a few whimpers escaping as she went cross eyed.


    The play came to a stumbling stuttering halt as the pop and following sloppy wet queef announced itself.


    ¡°What the hell was that?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know, but it sounded¡­ really wet.¡±


    The teenagers turned toward Rose, the apparent direction the sound had come from.


    Rose reacted by coughing roughly into her hand, the ball of cloth in her mouth discretely spat out and hidden without being seen.


    ¡°S-sorry, my throat is really sore and I wanted something to drink but I accidentally squashed it!¡±


    Her tail slid from beneath the bed where it had been hidden, something clutched in the tip. She lifted the object into the air and showed her sisters. It was a wineskin, a flexible leather bottle used to store liquid. The cap had been broken open and wine was spilled down the leather, staining it.


    She squeezed the leather bottle with her tail as if to demonstrate and the last little bit of wine made a wet sound as it dribbled from the top, running down the outside.


    ¡°I¡¯m kinda clumsy with my tail I guess aheh.¡±


    ¡°You keep wine under your bed? Wow and I thought I had a drinking problem.¡±


    ¡°Oh come on, what true Lamia doesn¡¯t have a private stash?¡± said Arrisa, ¡°In fact I know for a fact you have a keg in your closet Julia, so you¡¯re totally full of Kobold dung.¡±


    The purple scaled Lamia shrugged, looking a little embarrassed.


    ¡°Whatever. Look, this next part is really tricky so don''t get distracted again. Focus okay.¡±


    Rain stared daggers at the teenager sitting smugly on his dick in the mirror. She had planned that from the start, preparing the wineskin in advance. She knew she could be found out at any moment and she had done it anyway. She was getting off on their precarious situation. She liked this! ...Or maybe it wasn¡¯t that, maybe it was that she thought he was doomed to be found out and she was getting her side of the deal out of Rain before he was discovered and she could no longer use him. ...Or worse, maybe it was both of those things at the same time.


    As if to confirm his theory he felt the teenager beginning to squirm her hips, grinding down onto him, her insides gripping down on his knot and length, eager to make him cum. The problem was, the horny girl had no clue just what it meant for Rain to ejaculate, the sheer amount, she just didn¡¯t know! She had no idea what was coming and Rain had no way to warn her.


    Julia returned to speaking and then, after a moment, her voice rose in harmony with Arissa.


    They began to sing.


    Poor or rich under these starry skies.


    Come to us, toward our violet eyes.


    Green and grey and silvery gold.


    Come our flock under our protective fold.


    Rose began to ever so slightly bounce, slowly at first, but then faster as Rain could feel her becoming more and more excited, her pussy rippling up and down his length as she forcefully kegeled over and over, secretly fucking him as her sisters sang directly in front of her, their voices heartfelt.


    Flitting lives witnessed colours moon.


    Mortal thrives blood inopportune.


    Coloured cobalt, azure seams.


    Searing scarlet, ruby dreams.


    For pain it pirouettes, so pretty, pride.


    Drowned in the blood of misery''s bride.


    Malice muzzles all mercy mute.


    Suffered at the hands of fate, the brute.


    But we here, not long, then gone tomorrow.


    Mortal''s pain, one song, and sorrow.


    An ounce of gold, a pound of rage, will not buy an inch of age.


    For time is the fire in which you burn.


    Another life for which you yearn.


    Now this life and story, heart surrenders.


    The whole of you, your soul, the embers.


    As your moonlit spirit drifts and flows.


    Your level lifts, it lights and glows.


    As the two teenagers sang the black clouds began to change, filling with coloured light as the ¡®moon¡¯ spread, the clouds going from black to a pastel-tinted chromatic rainbow of soft moving lights passing from cloud to cloud, an ethereal ghostly effect that gave the room an almost holy atmosphere.


    The clouds descended and expanded, spilling across the floor and the city, hiding it from view and enveloping it in colourful tinted fog, clouds falling around the Lamia entwined around Rain, over the bed and over mountain of plushies, covering everything in glowing moving coloured mist, sharply reducing vision to a few feet.


    It was undeniably pretty, the birth of the leveling system visualised.


    Unfortunately, Rain had other more distracting things on his mind, or rather on his dick.


    Rose was quickly losing it, her raging teenage horniness overcoming any basic rationality. She began thrusting herself down on the massive cock, visibly bouncing up and down in Rain¡¯s lap, little whimpers escaping her lips as she eagerly climbed toward the promise of an incredible peak.


    The aquamarine scaled Lamia called Millie she was resting against finally realized that Rose wasn''t just fidgeting because she was bored of the play, and that something was actually wrong with her.


    Her eyes moved down from Rose¡¯s flushed face as something pressed against her side, something pushing out from the teenager, her blouse stretching over the shape, a kind of bulging distended length that rose from her tummy.


    Puzzled, Millie lifted a hand and reached out, fingers touching down on the bulge, gripping it, eliciting a gasp from Rose who only bounced harder.


    ¡°What in the...?¡± she murmured, feeling the heat of it through the blouse.


    She lifted her other hand and squeezed the thing between her palms. Rose moaned. She tried pushing it to the side. Rose gasped, her voice becoming a rising keen as her tail lashed.


    She tried moving her hands up and down, dragging at it then moving up-


    She yelped as a pair of hands gripped her wrists, and she found her hands being pressed roughly against the bulge then dragged up and forcefully shoved down, Rose¡¯s outsized strength like manacles around her wrists as she was made to massage the rounded shape.


    Rain let out a low groan himself as he felt both the pressure of Rose¡¯s fluttering pussy and the pressure from Millie outside rubbing frantically up and down.


    ¡°Oh god, oh fuck, oh gawwddddd! I can''t- I can''t staaahhhppp!¡± wailed Rose, openly bouncing up and down now, her gaped pussy being dragged up, nearly slopping back over the knot, before being roughly slammed back down, over and over, her tail lashing between Rain¡¯s legs as she frantically pounded herself on his dick.


    ¡°R-Rose what''s happening?!¡±


    Rose¡¯s eyes rolled back into her head as she moaned like a slut in heat.


    ¡°FuCking HEavVenNn! AAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!!!!¡±


    The teenager slammed herself down to the base as hard as she could, her tummy bulge pushing against Millie¡¯s hands.


    Her soaked skirt hiked up over her hips as it dragged against Millie¡¯s side, revealing her distended gaped pussy as she came down and she squirted like a bursting barrel, clear fluid spraying from her cunt in a long near straight line, crashing into Millie¡¯s blouse and spraying it down, rising higher as she fell back until it was splashing across Millie¡¯s face and hair, the back spatter flying into the air and raining down over the other teenagers.


    Rose¡¯s pussy was a storm of quivering clenching fluttering orgasm and Rain near instantly lost his battle to hold out. His hips thrust of their own accord, bucking up as he exploded into her, cum surging up his length and spraying directly into her eagerly welcoming womb.


    She screamed as she came once again, thrashing around, her tail whipping through the air as her upper body rolled back and forth hands scrabbling as she bounced from sister to coiled tail to Rain¡¯s fur, squirting all over her sisters in long powerful sprays, turning everything in reach wet with herself, long lines of sputtering clear fluid pulsing from her pussy, spraying across blouses and skirts and scales, across open mouthed faces as her back arched.


    Even as she thrashed her belly started to edge outward, the cock shape softening as she was rapidly filled and filled with thick heavy cum, a smooth clean arc appearing from her breasts down to her mons, her skin becoming taut as it was stretched as another surge flowed into her, swelling her larger making her more fecund with monster cum, more gravid.


    She fell across Millie and her cum belly squished against the teenager¡¯s breasts, her blouse reaching the limit of what it could reasonably contain and beginning to be stretched around the dome of her belly. Puckered gaps appeared between the buttons as the fabric became skin tight against her roundness.


    Millie cleared the pussy fluid from her eyes and blinked down at the wobbling belly pressing against her.


    ¡°Wha-what? Are you p-pregna-


    A blouse button popped free and struck her on the nose snapping her head back in surprise. Then another popped free, pinging high into the air, belly spilling free from Rose¡¯s blouse as she expanded. Millie clutched at the swelling belly, grabbing at Rose in a panic, her hands cupping Rose¡¯s belly skin as the last of the blouse tore open and her naked tummy spilled on top of her, ripping her skirt open as it went, an incredibly hot dome that as she watched inched larger.


    ¡°HAAAAGH FUUUUUCK- M-MY¡ªAGH! HYK... THERE¡¯S SOOO MUUUCHH HNNYAAA!! P-PLEASE MOOOOOOOORE!!! MOOOORREEEE!!!!¡±


    Howled the Rose as her gravid belly approached eight months pregnant.


    Rain stifled a long groan, unable to stop himself as one last long rope of cum sprayed into her, the largest and longest yet, inching her just a little larger as she squirted yet again, her tongue straining from her mouth as her eyelids fluttered and her back arched, tail and arms going stiff, squirting and squirting over herself, down her scales, over her sisters, over the actors, up her cum belly, lightning crackling through her body, her vision filled with flashing popping lights as she peaked like nothing she had felt before, orgasm wasn¡¯t a strong enough word now, this was life changing, mind shattering, indescribable! Scream inducing! and then¡­.


    It was done.


    The teenager flopped limp as wet rope over Millie, her cum belly pressing against her.


    Silence. Only the drip drip sound of Rose¡¯s pussy juices falling from many shocked teenagers, their clothing and hair and faces damp with her.


    Then, everyone began shouting at once. Magic was used, balls of fire held in thrust out hands, electricity crackling across scales, the clouds reformed, clearing the view and becoming threatening thunderheads. Confused outrage was thick in the air.


    Rose flopped back and forth as Millie grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard, yelling.


    After a moment the shaking seemed to finally get through to Rose and the cum drunk teenager abruptly jerked back to reality and was faced with her furious sisters.


    She drew in a breath.


    ¡°JUST FUCKING RUN FOR IT FITZ!¡±


    The enormous black furred plushie that the girls thought immobile suddenly jerked to life and leapt from the bed with an impossible to stop or even slightly slow strength.


    The air became filled with forcibly launched damp teenagers.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


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 Chapter 134

    ? Chapter 134:


    The giant plushie Moved.


    A cloud of screaming teenagers filled the air as they were explosively launched from the bed, the giant plush toy they were resting upon violently leaping forward and acting like a Lamia based catapult.


    The only one not to be thrown off was of course Rose, and that was because Rain was tightly knotted in her, that, and she had known what was coming and wrapped her tail as tight as she could around the plushie.


    She just about managed to keep her composure despite the sudden motion and the tugging knot and flung her arms up in the air in a wild use of magic. She was well aware that they weren''t likely to make it out the door with so many powerful levelers who were going to be very upset with her so she knew she had to do something.


    Her magic roared and the air was instantly filled with not just damp teenagers but huge amounts of woolly stuffing, so much stuffing that it made it hard to see, a snowstorm of wool fluff that was flung against the Lamia to blind them, in particular Julia and Arissa who had been acting and not on the giant plushie. The two actors were instantly plastered from head to tail in white wool as Rain shot past, a clump even slamming into Julia¡¯s open yelling mouth causing her to choke and gag.


    Rain, inside the plushie, dove for the door and Rose snapped out an arm, a twist of cloth whipping around the door handle and hauling it wide before Rain could smash through the thing. It still broke against the wall as he blundered into it, his vision severely restricted in the bear head.


    He crashed through into the hallway, crushing a table and vase and denting the wall before bouncing off and charging down the passage, colliding with hallway furniture and turning it into so much splintered shrapnel.


    Rose hung on for dear life as he went, her tail looped around his hips as she was frantically bounced on the knot, each bounce causing her to gasp, her overly full taut belly sloshing and wobbling with every step as she desperately clutched at her ride.


    Behind her came the howls of furious teenagers, the girls picking themselves up from the floor where they had been tossed, their faces and bodies which had been made damp by Rose were now half covered with woolly fluff, the fluff sticking to their damp skin and scales, as if they had been attacked by a herd of shedding sheep.


    This made the teenagers very very angry.


    There came a storm of slithering, outraged cries rising louder and louder, and magic quickly filling the air. The teenagers however got stuck in the bedroom door as all of them tried to jam through it at the same time, the Lamia¡¯s natural size working against them,


    That didn''t prevent them from using the magic and as Rain crashed around the corner a fireball splashed up the wall, the wallpaper igniting as the gold trim melted.


    The flames barely missed a strip of cloth that was flying through the air in their wake, a strip of cloth that darted around the corner after Rain, whizzing between his legs and slipping onto Rose as he charged down the corridor. The strip of cloth circled the Lamia¡¯s hips forming a skirt and making decent once more as the remains of her blouse formed together, stretching over her rounded stomach.


    Just in time as they rounded another corner and nearly collided with a maid. The maid screamed as the giant plushie charged toward her, barely diving out of the way in time, the towels she was carrying flinging over her head.


    Rain ran on. The howls of the teenagers were chasing them still, but the Lamia were falling behind now, only their voices echoing.


    ¡°There, left! Now right!¡± shouted Rose, her arm flying out to direct her plushie steed.


    They fled until even the furious echoes were falling away. It seemed like they had made it, losing them in the maze of a mansion, only the occasional flabbergasted maid seeing them as they dashed past.


    But that wasn''t to last and Rain staggered to a halt as he came into a corridor with a bespectacled Lamia in it, a Lamia with a gnoll upper body, his scales gradually transitioning into patterned fur around his hips. The Lamia was directing nearly a dozen maids who were struggling to fit an enormous hardwood draw filled office desk through a doorway and completely blocking the path forward, there was no squeezing around this, especially with the addition of the huge amounts of luggage, clearly he was one of those who had just returned to the city with Lord Wranvyre.


    ¡°Rose? What are you doing?¡± said the Lamia.


    The teenager, who was fortunately made decent with her crudely made skirt, quickly patted her clothing down and arranged her hair, trying to make the best of things and make herself somewhat presentable despite being wrapped around a giant stuffed toy.


    ¡°Errr, I¡¯m just on a walk¡­ with my¡­ new golem?¡±


    The Lamia gnoll stared up at Rain blankly. Then at the teenager¡¯s rounded belly.


    ¡°Are you pregnant? The first time I leave on a trip in years and I come back to-


    ¡°Y-yes- I¡¯m preggers! Preggers with eggs and stuff! Totally have been for a while haha!¡± She blew a last strand of hair away from her face.


    ¡°Hmm, well I hope the father is of decent stock and not a useless waif from the slums, you would do well to learn from Millie¡¯s mistakes.¡±


    ¡°Well they aren''t a waif, that''s for sure,¡± said Rose glancing up at the towering form of the plushie.


    The Gnoll Lamia followed her gaze up to the teddy bear head.


    ¡°...That is quite an impressive piece of work if you don''t mind me saying, I hadn''t realised that you had leveled so much, your regular dungeon trips seem to have been paying off quite remarkably.¡±


    ¡°Aheh, y-yeah, that¡¯s right, I¡¯ve been going lots, and leveling, uh, lots so now I can make an entire wol- b-bear, teddy bear! G-golem thing! Just testing it out!¡±


    ¡°Hmm, perhaps I should join you on your next trip, that is if you wouldn''t mind? You seem to have a talent for leveling and I hate to think how much more destructive you will be killing monsters with such a thing as this on your side. My own work is suffering for want of mana that I just don¡¯t have the levels for so it would seem especially pertinent to plan an excursion, Lynthia¡¯s dungeon was simply not enough especially as the others were unmotivated in helping a half such as me.¡±


    ¡°Oh, uhh, sure! B-but right now I¡¯m just giving the golem a test run, would you uhm, Mind? Moving? Maybe? Please? Like, right now, quickly?¡±


    The Lamia tilted his head and then seemed to realise that his stuff was blocking the way.


    ¡°I will certainly try, come my servants, put your backs into it, it will surely fit if you just-¡±


    A blood curdling scream of fury came from behind Rain and he glanced behind to see a dark purple scaled Lamia, her glasses askew, her body covered in clumps of white wool stuffing, her hair and clothing dishevelled and soaked, her eyes slightly crazed.


    ¡°ROOSEEEEEIAMGOINGTOKILLYOU!!¡± screamed Julia.


    Azure fire began to coalesce around her hips in a halo, a ring of spinning flame.


    Rain did not like the look of it in the slightest and swiftly decided he wanted nothing to do with this Lamia¡¯s magic fire, especially as he was currently encased in what was likely an extremely flammable stuffed toy. It didn''t matter if the Lamia realised he was a monster or a golem, he would burn either way.


    Rain jumped. Leaping up into the air, giant fabric enclosed feet coming down on the enormous office desk.


    The thing held under his weight for about one-tenth of a second before his feet obliterated it, the surface crashing inward so hard that the draws exploded out of the front sending reams of paper flying into the air.


    He pelted down the corridor as he bounced off the remains and the Gnoll Lamia cried out in dismay, then cried out in even greater dismay as the crushed desk promptly ignited, Julia¡¯s fiery halo washing over it as she charged through the wreckage.


    Rain darted into a side corridor leaving the scene of panicking maids behind, then darted into another hallway and another. He was fast, but the Lamia was no slouch, the Lamia¡¯s tail allowed for some truly incredible speed, far faster than two legs, and his limited vision was making him clumsy.


    It seemed like Julia was going to catch them until Rose caught his attention once more.


    ¡°Quick, in here!¡±


    Rain darted into the open room Rose indicated and a curtain, which was moving on its own, slammed the door shut behind them.


    ¡°Use your monster whatever hearing! Is she following?¡±


    Rain came to a halt and perked his ears up, listening carefully.


    The subtle sound of carpet and scales came from beyond the door, as well as the sound of someone breathing hard, and with that the crackle of fire.


    He tensed, ready to attack if they entered.


    But then, they moved on. They hadn''t seen them enter the room.


    ¡°They¡¯re gone, they didn''t see us.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that''s good¡­ Now no more running please, your knot is driving me crazy!¡±


    She let out a sigh of relief and slumped against his fur, relaxing into him a little too much.


    Rain glared down at the teenager snuggling against his front.


    Somehow he felt like he had gotten the worse end of their deal. She had gotten what she wanted, and then some, and he was on the verge of being discovered, in fact he essentially had been, albeit their pursuers still might not fully understand what was happening, just that he was a threat of some kind.


    ¡°Will they fetch the guards?¡±


    Rose shook her head into his fur, her voice muffled. ¡°No, not likely, it would be waaaay too embarrassing to explain what happened and why they have to come after one of the family, come after me.¡±


    Rain considered this. It was something at least, it meant he only had to worry about the angry teenagers.


    Still, he wanted something more from her, something to rebalance their agreement, something useful.


    His eyes narrowed.


    ¡°Tell me where Lord Wranvyre is or I will kill and eat you.¡±


    The Lamia lifted her head from his fur and blinked up at him. ¡°The second part of that was a very monster thing to say, but the first part, that''s the kind of thing I would expect from a leveler. Why do you want that psycho? Why do you want my step father?¡±


    ¡°I want to kill- wait, you aren''t his daughter?¡±


    ¡°My mother is Lady Glyrieth. I have no blood relation to him, thank the gods, not that any blood relations ever mattered with mother. We should keep moving by the way, they will start searching rooms soon.¡±


    He gave her a sour look but moved to the door at the other end of the room and peeked outside. The hallway was deserted and almost looked disused, one of the spare and uninhabited parts of the vast mansion it seemed. He stepped out and began cautiously following it.


    After a moment she began to speak.


    ¡°I used to look up to him, I wanted to be him. He is the head of our vast family, our clan, and one of the most influential and powerful and charismatic levelers in all of Florens.¡±


    ¡°I told you I intend to kill him.¡±


    ¡°Did I say I cared? I have my reasons to want to see him dead too. Why do you think I¡¯ve been leveling so hard? I¡¯m going to do it myself someday in classic leveler fashion, the higher leveler crushing the lower, it''s what he deserves.¡±


    ¡°...Your family seems a little¡­ twisted, maybe more than a little, and none of you even seem that upset about what happened to your mother.¡±


    Rose snorted. ¡°Do you know how many siblings I have to share her with? Take a guess.¡±


    Rain thought back and tried to count through those he had seen. There were those who had met the Lord out front, maybe thirty or forty or so, although a number of those would have been too old to be his children, and then there were Rose''s sisters, who had probably been outside with those greeting the lord. He went for a guess at the very high end of what he thought it could be.


    ¡°Thirty five?¡±


    ¡°I have one hundred and ninety three siblings, and about one hundred nephews or nieces.¡±


    Rain nearly tripped and fell.


    ¡°How is that possible?!¡±


    ¡°Lamia have, hmm, very easy pregnancies, they only last like a month before the eggs are lain, and a Lamia clutch is at minimum six eggs. You won''t catch a poor Lamia having anything like more than one clutch though, someones gotta raise them and that''s expensive and really difficult, but if you are filthy rich, and uncaring, you can just pay for the eggs to be incubated and hatched and looked after by professionals while you go sleep around some more¡­ So yeah, I¡¯m not really my mother¡¯s daughter, I¡¯m just a statistic, a number in a ranking, to this family anyway.¡± Her voice became increasingly bitter as she spoke.


    ¡°You know that he killed your mother then?¡±


    She tensed against his body before letting out a long sigh.


    ¡°No, I didn''t actually, but I suspected, I suspected she wasn''t gonna come back. Every other girl loves using monsters on this estate, it''s this whole awesome and convenient thing, but we are always careful about it, none of the dozen monster stables ever got found after Wranvyre killed one of us for getting pregnant with a monster. Glyrieth, my mother, was a featherbrain however, and if she was still alive in a dangerous dungeon after so long I can guess the reason and that she finally stumbled onto his bad side.¡±


    ¡°I can see why you would want justice for that, but you told me you wanted him dead before I told you this, so why are you really leveling?¡±


    ¡°I was a child... and It was about a month after I had learned of my real father and his family''s existence. It was nice, meeting them, they were nice people. Then Wranvyre came and-... I later learned he has been doing that to those mother slept with. I think he even likes her sleeping around so he feels justified in killing them and their families, he truly gets off on it. Really, he¡¯s a demon, a monster in Lamia flesh. But you would never know it, he is a trained actor, that¡¯s why we put on plays, to impress his love for the craft, I sing for him, all while knowing what he did, what he did to them, seeing what was left of them in the slums.¡±


    Rose¡¯s voice was strained by the time she fell silent.


    Something cold and dark twisted in Rain¡¯s guts. A powerful leveler idly destroying a poor low leveler family? A common enough story, but it still made his fur stand on end, his claws twitch, his blood heat. It felt too familiar to not have his thoughts start to dwell on bad things, bad memories, bad memories that made his heartbeat accelerate and adrenaline flood his body.


    ¡°That is... very fucked up...¡±


    Rain remained silent for a moment, struggling with his thoughts, and then-


    ¡°You know where Lord Wranvyre is?¡±


    She nodded slowly. ¡°He¡¯s in his rooms.¡±


    ¡°Which are where?¡±


    ¡°The entire top floor of the building is his rooms, just go up.¡±


    Rain went up.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 135

    ? Chapter 135:


    Lyra found herself near crawling through a cramped passage no more than four feet high. At first she thought she would be in and out of the slave passages, grabbing Opal and dragging her back to deal with the Lamia teenager, but then the passage had split and then split again and again and then she didn''t know where she was going or even how to get back.


    How the hell was she to find Opal in any of this?! The slave corridors were more of a maze than anything, apparently every damned wall in the mansion had its own separate slave passage behind it, and she had quickly gotten very very lost.


    She had seen Goblins, sort of, whenever she caught sight of their frightened eyes they had immediately scurried away into the dusty gloom, clearly terrified that a Leveler had entered their sacred space and fearing for their lives.


    They didn''t even pause when she cried out for them to stop, darting into passages that when she turned into appeared empty. The Goblins clearly knew the place like the back of their hands and she simply did not.


    Lyra could feel herself getting more and more irritated. Here she was stuck searching for an Opal shaped needle in a haystack all while Rain was being accosted by some, some, slut of a teenager! Being seduced by her swaying hips and- and bralessness!


    It was clearly outrageous, obviously she should be the one doing the seduc- the pleasant and polite conversation.


    As she caught sight of a green foot just darting out of view she came to the end of her patience. It was time to resort to desperate measures.


    The problem was clear, the place was too large and too maze like, and that meant she couldn''t find anything alone, there was too much area to cover. She needed help, help from someone who could scout a very large area very quickly. She had almost brought that certain someone out earlier, but Rain had wanted to try interrogating a maid first.


    Her wool washed black, the gate to fleece harbour opening.


    The only problem was, how to get the snooty skeleton to come out.


    She held up her black wooled arm and then hesitantly whisper hissed ¡°Vash!¡±


    Nothing happened.


    ¡°VASH!¡± she yelled at her arm, dust falling from the ceiling around her, voice filling the silent cramped space.


    Nothing happened, and she suddenly felt a bit silly. Of course he couldn''t hear her, not everyone had hearing like Rain that could pierce the barrier of her wool.


    There was only one thing to do, she had to go inside herself.


    But what if that was a really bad idea? There was a reason she hadn''t done it yet, it just felt, well the idea of going inside herself felt really really weird, but there was also the possibility something bad might happen. A childhood spent with other noble children meant she had heard a lot of horror stories of the very rich and ignorant putting their dimensional bag inside their second dimensional bag and then their skin would turn inside out, or they would explode into lots of very small pieces¡­ Okay, maybe that wouldn''t happen, but she did have the sense to be wary of such a thing, logically bad things could happen when putting a dimensional space inside a second dimensional space. At the very least it could break, which was why she had never allowed their dimensional bag to be put into her wool space.


    Mentally preparing she drew in breath, exhaled, drew in breath, exhaled, drew in breath, held it, and jammed her forearm up against her eyes.


    The wool boiled and billowed outwards, engulfing her face. And she found herself looking into a room she had yet to see, her room, her wool space, her face poking from one wall.


    Her mouth immediately dropped open as the most eye-catching thing in the room instantly drew her attention.


    It was a statue of her, winking, and giving a thumbs up.


    And. She. Looked. Awesome!


    She boggled at the depiction of herself, like some gorgeous Goddess steeping down amongst the dirty dishevelled masses to offer divine protection. A being to be worshipped for her beauty and poise, and excellent fashion sense, a goddess that would have multiple large temples built in her name. She could feel her ego inflating in realtime looking upon the wondrous thing!


    How had they not told her about this awesome statue?!


    The second thing to catch her attention was slightly less poised.


    A skeleton was squatting over a stone bed, a book held in his hands, looking for all the world like a person reading while on the toilet.


    The skeleton had frozen as he noticed her.


    ¡°Wh- why is there no privacy for me in here?!


    ¡°What are you doing in my room?! Why are you pooping in here?! What the hell have you been doing inside of me?!¡±


    ¡°Poop-? I am not pooping!¡±


    The skeleton quickly straightened and tried his best to pretend that nothing had been happening. He dropped the book over a black ruby left on the bed in a quick attempt to hide it.


    ¡°Then what was that black thing huh? Are you going to tell me that didn''t come out of your butthole? That you aren''t defecating in me?¡±


    Vash¡¯s flame eyes flashed bright and burned with indignation.


    ¡°It¡¯s not- Skeletons do not have buttholes! I am merely absorbing to grow my power.¡±


    ¡°You are? Then why does it look like a poop that you were suspiciously squatting over?¡±


    The skeleton turned and snatched up the black ruby. He marched over and held it up in front of her face.


    ¡°Does this look like poop to you?¡±


    ¡°It is small and black, maybe you just ate something wei-¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not black! it¡¯s just a really deep shade of red that your inferior living eyeballs are unable to perceive in your limited spectrum! Not that you could appreciate its purity and nature even if you could.¡±


    Lyra squinted at the held up ruby. It just appeared as a flat black to her, a very very deep¡­ red? She thought she perceived something in there, a flicker motion, a river, a river of red.


    She flinched as the river of blood fully formed before her eyes for a moment before vanishing.


    Vash paused.


    ¡°Ah, perhaps I misspoke, I forgot momentarily that you are part Elf. A natural sense for magic may allow for some... deeper perception.¡±


    ¡°Wh-what the hell is that thing?¡±


    ¡°Hell, yes, an appropriate use of the word. Is it really that hard to figure out? You retrieved these rubies from a certain leveler who had a dedicated interest in the occult, in the demonic. Useful curios that I can easily make use of as an undead without risk to myself.¡±


    ¡°And Rain is letting you just absorb this sketchy looking stuff?¡±


    The skeleton unhappily lifted a finger and pointed at this skull.


    Now she was looking Vash¡¯s head did appear a little different, whereas before she might have seen a centipedal leg darting at the back of an eye socket, now there were dozens, a pair of pincers could be seen behind his teeth as well. The necromancer¡¯s skull had been turned into a full on centipede nest.


    ¡°Hmmm. Fine. But come outside, I need you.¡±


    ¡°Outside?¡± said the skeleton perking up.


    ¡°Yes, we¡¯re in Wranvyre¡¯s estate, you said you wanted to help didn''t you? Come come.¡±


    Lyra pulled back from her fluff and lost view of her wool space, her view replaced with the gloomy cramped slave passages, the wool on her arms snapping back to its original trim shape.


    After a moment it boiled again, this time on her legs which were pressed together as she crouched, and a dark cloaked figure crawled free on his hands and knees, getting his feet under him as he then rose, an imperious death mage, rising in freedom-


    His skull collided with the low ceiling with an impressive clonk and the skeleton nearly fell on his ass.


    ¡°Where in the abyss are we? Why are we in a rabbit warren? What is this?!?¡± he complained, feeling at the unfortunately low ceiling in the dark space.


    ¡°We¡¯re in Lord Wranvyre¡¯s estate as I said, in the main mansion bit of it, at least I think we are, and we¡¯re in the slave passage part of that. You said you wanted to help kill Lord Wranvyre right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I will help with that, it is a fair exchange for building trust, my recognition of that is why I deigned to offer.¡±


    Lyra nodded, ¡°Okay, then forget that for the moment, we need to find Opal before we can go give that asshole his due karma.¡±


    ¡°You summoned be from beyond the veil to find a runaway Goblin?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not ¡®the veil¡¯ it¡¯s my wool, and yeah, she¡¯s gone missing and we need to find her and then go and stop a Lamia from seducing Rain.¡±


    ¡°...I see,¡± said Vash, not really seeing at all, but still pleased to be outside of wool space. ¡°I will of course first need to rebuild my collection, pitiful as it is, my magics cannot pass through your woolen barrier and as such my previous rats were discarded. If you would only agree to let my collection into you-


    ¡°I¡¯m not freaking letting hundreds of dead rats into me!¡± hissed Lyra, practically spitting acid as she glared at him.


    ¡°Hmm. Well, in that case.¡±


    The crouching skeleton raised his boney hands, and things began to move in the dust around them.


    Lyra flinched back as a mouse skeleton crawled from under the dirt and crud, and then a rat from the wall, and then another, soon the corridor was swarming with skeletons and to Lyra¡¯s great dismay she found herself at the centre of it all.


    There was just something a little upsetting about being trapped in a cramped dark space as dozens of dead vermin clicked and scuttled around you.


    ¡°C-can you send them away, t-to scout?¡±


    Vash paused, noticing her dismay.


    ¡°I understand you are not a fan of these rats, truly I am neither, they are a poor material that can withstand little physical wear and tear, a very poor grade of undead clay.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s more that they¡¯re really gross.¡±


    ¡°Quite.¡±


    The skeleton snapped his fingers together, which on a skeleton made a sharp click sound, and the undead vermin army scattered, heading in every direction at once.


    It wasn¡¯t long before one returned and Vash had a direction. They set off down the passage, this time with a definite guide.


    The number of Goblins Lyra snatched glances of only increased as they went, the green slaves running in fright as they made their way deeper into the slave warren until the passage abruptly opened up and Lyra found herself looing out into a wide open space, one large enough to stand up in which she promptly did so. It appeared to be some kind of large dingy kitchen, one used by the Goblins to prepare food for their masters when the actual servants were off duty.


    Opal was there, standing on a crate as a crowd of Goblins clustered around her. She had gotten a flag from somewhere, a green one, and was holding it in one hand, she¡¯d also gotten a black scarf, which she had wrapped around her neck and chin making her look somehow roguish.


    ¡°-You don''t have to listen to me, but you know, you aren''t like dungeon Gobbos, I¡¯ve seen it, you care for each other and don''t stab each other in the back at every other moment. That matters! That''s different!¡±


    She had started to lose their attention however as they noticed Lyra, a ripple of genuine fear going through the crowd as they turned to see her.


    Lyra blinked as she realised that the Goblins were more afraid of her, a leveler, than the cloaked necromancer at her side, they thought her more terrifying than Vash!


    That was a weird feeling.


    ¡°Uh, Opal, we don''t have time for this, I¡¯m sorry, but we¡¯ve got to go.¡±


    Opal scowled at her. ¡°This matters too, just watch.¡± She turned back to the crowd of increasingly nervous Goblins.¡°This cannot go on, Gobbos cannot be slaves forever, you must do something, rise up or something!¡± She shook the flag meaningfully.


    An older female Goblin wearing an over sized apron hesitantly raised a hand


    ¡°Uhm, we-we already did that once.¡±


    Opal paused, ¡°You did?¡±


    ¡°Y-yes! And uhm, they herded every slave Gobbo on the estate into a hall.¡±


    ¡°And you fought them?¡±


    ¡°...No, they used us for target practice, the ones who were most bold tried to fight back were killed first, in the end only the timid were left¡­ But it¡¯s not so bad, as long as we don''t fight back, only one or two Gobbos die a week, that''s really much better than other masters!¡±


    Opal¡¯s flag drooped, her lips parting in dismay.


    ¡°Opal,¡± said Lyra softly, ¡°This isn''t it, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°I can''t¡­ I should help! somehow!¡±


    ¡°Maybe, but Rain is in danger of being found, and that would be bad, you don''t want that to happen right? They will kill him for being a monster.¡±


    Her shoulders fell slightly. ¡°Hey... it wasn¡¯t like I came in here just for me, I found out about the thing for you too, and more.¡±


    Lyra blinked, ¡°You know where he is? Where Wranvyre is?


    Opal gestured vaguely at the Goblin wearing an apron and Lyra turned to her.


    ¡°Y-yes, we know, the Lord had his usual orgy on his return and is currently asleep having expended himself, l-leveler mistress ma¡¯am!¡±


    ¡°How do you know this?¡±


    ¡°B-because we cleaned up the mess! There was a lot of wet patches and sticky stuff that the Lord wouldn¡¯t want to see or touch on awaking, so we do it while he naps, we have easy access just for that.¡±


    Lyra considered her words. The Goblins had easy access to Lord Wranvyre¡¯s bed chamber? Meaning the slave passages? And more, he was asleep? Right now? ...She believed it.


    She lifted a hand and a black knife materialised in her fingers. She gripped it, her knuckles going white.


    This knife¡­ this knife had killed Lady Glyrieth. She wasn¡¯t stupid, Lady Glyrieth must have been of a reasonably high level, yet this knife had easily pierced her neck. If Lord Wranvyre was asleep, couldn''t she do the same? She wouldn''t even have to put Rain in danger, she would simply step through the slave door appearing right next to Lord Wranvyre¡¯s bed and quickly stab down while he slept then dash back out, it would take seconds and then this would all be done with. The knife that had killed his wife would be used to kill him, the karma of it was almost beautiful, an elegance that just fit.


    In a moment Lyra knew this was what she wanted to do.


    ¡°Tell me, Tell me where he is Opal, Tell me!¡±


    Opal remained silent, then lifted her hand, her finger pointing straight up.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 136

    ? Chapter 136:


    Lyra double checked her invisibility was up, not because she suspected it wasn''t, but just to try and calm her thundering heart and her jangling nerves.


    She was crouched in front of a small door, a tiny door, one built for Goblin slaves. Beyond it lay her destiny, an opportunity to escape from the oppressive, and totally undeserved, bounty on her head. All she had to do was step through the door and- and- then- commit cold blooded murder.


    She blew out a long slow sigh, seconds long, trying to reset, to center herself. She needed calm and composure for this, absolute perfect stealth was in order.


    She lifted a shaky hand and pressed her palm against the door, slowly pushing as her other hand unlocked it.


    She winced as the door made a subtle creak, the hinges apparently in need of oiling. Fortunately the bubble of her invisibility Skill kept the noise from escaping and didn''t break, whoever was in the room beyond would have no idea she was entering, there was nothing to detect.


    Well that was apart from the door itself. Her ability didn''t work that great with doors, something about a large object pivoting from one point caused problems and she could feel the door pushing back against her hand, her ability trying to close it to ''hide'' her tracks. At the same time it seemed to flicker, the door itself going transparent and a second slightly transparent and closed door appearing, one that bisected her body as she emerged. She hoped it really was just an illusion and wouldn''t bisect her for real. Her Skill had done some strange things over the years, taking the masking of tracks and observation in some odd directions, not the least of which was turning to powder the blood free clothing she had given to one of her rescued clients as she had delivered them to their family. That had been awkward. Good sapient-like decision making wasn''t a strong point of the automated Skill.


    Still, it seemed she would get away with it. She emerged into the room as the door began to slowly close behind her, her Skill gently shutting it for her.


    The room was¡­ enormous, the ceiling was easily two storeys above the ground and a sprawl of furniture was cast across it, everything from Lamia style chaises, to low sofas, to coffee tables, to maybe a dozen drinks cabinets and huge and heavy dark wood wardrobes.


    Swirls of strong smelling smoke gently drifted through the air, indication that the dozen or so jewel encrusted sheeshas had been recently used.


    It was clearly a place for the Lord and Lady to entertain guests in a more private way before inviting them to their bed, which was of course also in the room, a vast thing well over ten foot by ten foot and built to hold multiple large Lamia, which it currently did.


    There were a total of seven Lamia sprawled across it and passed out, all pure blood, six female and one male. Him, it was him, the target, a striking black scaled serpent amongst the colourful others, a glossy shadow amongst the tangled rainbow coils.


    Lyra bit her lip as she looked over the mess of Lamia. How was she supposed to get a clean shot at him with a bed this large and with this many other Lamia in the way?


    Hesitantly she stepped around the armchair she had emerged from behind and approached.


    Not only was it wide and long It was also quite a tall bed, meaning it rose high from the floor, which just added to the issue of reaching Wranvyre. She stood at the edge, fretting, he was so near, so killable, but the risk¡­ In her head she had imagined a much smaller bed and no Lamia in her way, she would simply stand by the bed and stab down.


    No way that was happening here.


    But she couldn''t just go, she couldn''t just leave, this opportunity was a gift from the gods themselves.


    And how else was she to protect her family?


    There was no other choice and she reassured herself that once the blade pierced it would all be over, the aftermath would not matter.


    She very very carefully lifted a knee and slipped it onto the bed, easing her weight onto it.


    She paused waiting for a reaction, but of course, with the help of her invisibility, she wasn''t sensed.


    After a moment of tense observation she began to knee walk closer. The first obstacle was a Lamia tail, a large one, green, it blocked her way and she needed to get over it. Carefully


    now she moved sideways then lifted her knee, awkwardly straddling the thing then slipping over the other side.


    Fortunately, the Lamia was so addled with whatever they had been smoking that she didn''t notice, even when her wool brushed up against her. They had clearly been very busy in more ways than one before passing out.


    Lyra was close now. She had chosen her route carefully and only one sky blue scaled Lamia lay between her and the Lord. She bit her lip as she looked over her, completely naked of course, just like the Lord, everything on display.


    The black knife materialised in her fingers and she slowly leaned over the female Lamia, wobbling slightly as she tried not to fall.


    It was as she was balancing that her wool brushed up against the Lamia''s skin and the Lamia started to move, her tail sliding over the green scaled Lamia, up and around. She moaned "Wranvyreee," softly in her sleep, stretching her arms above her head, and the tail that now circled Lyra suddenly constricted, squeezing tight around her hips and legs in a loving Lamia embrace.


    Lyra froze as her invisibility broke under the touch. She was trapped. Trapped in the coils of a Lamia who was sleepily crushing her. Not good.


    But that was not going to stop her from saving her family, she still had the reach on Wranvyre. She firmed her grip on the knife and turned back to the Lord, lifting it in preparation to lunge, lunge for his eye. The quickest and most certain way to kill him remained her best option. She would aim the blade for his eyelid and stab through the eye socket and directly into his brain killing him instantly.


    The problem was. There was no longer an eyelid to aim for. Because the eyelid was open.


    Lyra looked down in horror at the Lord calmly gazing up at her, fully awake and aware, his dark brown eyes looking directly into hers.


    "Lyra Bellerhorn. How is that you have come to be inside of my bedroom, inside of my mansion, inside of my walled estate?"


    "I¡­ d-don''t- I-" Lyra''s mouth was dry, she couldn''t breathe.


    "Hmm, lacking your usual silver tongue. Perhaps I can slake your sudden drought of playful words. You are desperate, the bounty is a threat to you and yours and you came to solve the problem using your, really, quite curious invisibility."


    "I-"


    "Which is really the best possible outcome for me, with this there is no way that your lies will be able to become irritating rumours¡­ although." He glanced at the knife, his lips forming a flat line. "The betrayal of the knife was never part of the equation. To think it would abandon me for a brat like you, a cretin, a moron from a family of morons who simper and scrap at the noble table, begging to be allowed back into our circle."


    "F-FUCK YOU!"


    She slammed the knife down, the tip aimed directly at the reclining Lord''s face. The blade came on, about to pierce, and then it was going through a pillow, slamming to the hilt.


    Lyra blinked. One moment the Lord had been there, and then he was just gone. In an instant he had vanished into thin air.


    "It doesn''t matter, it''s hardly the first piece of poorly crafted magic to be unruly, failing to do as its master wishes."


    She snapped around, breathing hard.


    Wranvyre was across the room, opening a wardrobe as if nothing had happened, as if he had never been mere moments from death.


    "Y-your Class, it t-teleports you?"


    "Was it that hard to figure out? You realise now that there is no escape from this. I am well aware of your limitations."


    Lyra watched, trapped within the Lamia''s constricting coils as the Lord pulled on a shirt and buttoned it up, tugging at the cuffs to align them as his long black hair draped easily over the white fabric.


    "B-but h-how? No, wait, why did you let me go in the tent- back then? you could have teleported and ended me easily- but I managed to run!"


    The Lord had pulled open an inner door in the wardrobe and was browsing a selection of swords.


    "Hmm, that part was entirely intentional. Obviously I could have killed you at any moment, but I allowed you out of the tent and I allowed my brother in law to see and understand what you did. The knife unexpectedly choosing a new master was not something I would have allowed, neither would I have allowed you to stab him with it, although that did ironically seal the deal on his belief of what you did."


    He seemed to find a suitable sapphire pommeled rapier and picked it out, checking the balance in hand before readying it at his side.


    "And all because, as much as it galls me to say, there are certain rumours of my more... violent hobbies that had been circling, circling to the ears of my dearly departed wife''s family. For them I needed to put on a convincing play, an act, a performance."


    He casually passed his hands by his face and it was as if a different person was revealed in the passing of his fingers, his shoulders sloping, tears in his eyes, chin trembling, cheeks flushed with grief.


    "Sh-she did it, that destitute sheep. She did it, she murdered-" he swallowed, his throat bobbing with restrained emotion, "She killed her for gold, for fucking gold! You understand that, don''t you? I know you''ve felt it, their eyes gazing at us like rats hungry to devour, the public want what we nobility have, they always have, and they will kill for it, you know it''s true, I know you can feel it, feel their gaze crawling on your skin. Poor Glyri was a victim of the filthy greed of the deserved ''have nots''. It''s going to keep happening unless we do something about it¡­ my brother, she would want this."


    His hand moved across his face once more and he was as he was, as if he hadn''t been crying a fraction of a second before, his cheeks dry and skin unflushed.


    "My brother in law fell for it hook line and sinker." Wranvyre allowed himself a smirk. "Once you understand people they are easy to guide onto the wrong path with a little display, and then they get the bit in their mouth and they run with it forever, like a well trained donkey. And nobles? Well they understand paranoia and hanging on with clawed hands to what they inherited like nothing else, as I''m sure your parents would agree. I mean really Lyra, you look at me like this but it''s not as if you are innocent of such behaviour. I did acquire a report on you before my commision. Those promises made you so much money, and then when you promised so many what you could not deliver it all came crashing down. So much hope created from your big talk and then crushed back to savage grief, how many hanged themselves after what you did?"


    Lyra clenched her fists, fingernails digging into her palms.


    "You don''t know anything about me! And it was just a job until- until-... You know what, go fuck yourself Wranvyre, keep your shitty mind games."


    Lyra turned and slapped the Lamia who was coiled around her in the face, hard. The crack of hand on skin broke the air.


    The Lamia jerked awake, her eyes gummy with whatever she was still intoxicated with.


    "Wha-?"


    "Lord Wranvyre murdered his wife, he took this knife and slit her throat with. He did it because she was pregnant with monsters. If her body can be found you can see for yourself, if you can find someone willing to cut it open there will be half Goblins inside. You need to tell her family what happened! He killed his wife! They need to know!"


    The Lamia stared at her blankly, her mouth opening and closing in shock. She still seemed half out of it, but maybe it wouldn''t matter.


    "He-he did that? he- I- I can tell them, yes, I have friends that will-"


    Her words were abruptly cut off with the appearance of a piece of steel in her throat.


    Lyra stared in dismay as the Lamia died, choking and gurgling around the thin line of metal, blood pouring down onto her bare breasts as she rapidly expired, her hands clutching at Lyra weakly.


    Lyra followed the blade to the hand holding it and looked up to find Wranvyre looming over her.


    "If you thought any of these were leaving here alive then you were sadly mistaken.  Congratulations Lyra Bellerhorn, you will have more than doubled your cold blooded murder of the innocent, your infamy will be known far and wide in death."


    Lyra trembled before him, her eyes wide, face pale. She was nothing next to this leveler. She would die here. He couldn''t be stopped, he couldn''t be reasoned with, whatever words she could have used to save herself failed to come to mind as she knew instinctively they would never work. She could make herself and the dying Lamia invisible, which helped¡­ with nothing. The indentation in the bed sheets would indicate they were there and then Wranvyre would just stab and stab and stab. ...At Least her family would be safe with her death.


    Wranvyre lifted the rapier and lunged for her heart.


    -


    The slave door stealthily creaked open.


    Opal peeked from the gap wondering why it was that sheepy had taken so long to stab this apparently big bad leveler. Surely it was just a matter of one or two steps, lift then stab, then two steps back and done, right?


    Apparently not as the room was significantly larger than she had imagined, and the bed was¡­ absurdly large, large enough that it could fit an entire tribe of Gobbos! Well, that or a number of the aggressively large Lamia levelers, which it did happen to be filled by, and for some reason, a sheep girl.


    Opal stared at her. Why had sheepy gotten onto the bed and then wrapped herself up inside of a Lamia''s tail like she was wearing some kind of blue scaled snuggle blanket? What in the abyss was she thinking?!


    "Y-your Class, it t-teleports you?" spoke Lyra from within the coils.


    She followed the sheep girl''s gaze across the room to where an actually awake and moving Lamia stood, this one with black scales. He certainly looked like a merciless leveler Lord despite being in the nude.


    She watched with interest as the Lord dressed himself and then to her amazement changed before her eyes, becoming grief stricken, his body language and expression so accurate that she found herself reluctantly believing it for the moment it appeared.


    The sharp crack of a hand on a cheek came from the bed and Opal turned to see Lyra waking the Lamia looped around her, shouting in her face, trying to tell her what happened.


    "He-he did that? he- I- I can tell them, yes, I have friends that will-"


    The Lamia stopped mid sentence, her mouth open, perfectly stilled, her eyes unmoving. Lyra too, the two coiled together were stuck in place, frozen.


    Strange.


    She heard a sigh and turned back to find the black scaled Lamia by the wardrobe.


    He rolled his eyes as he shook his head, running a hand through his hair.


    "Not the move I would have made, and really, you just straight up told her? No ease in or spice for believability? I mean come on, what does the knife see in you as a deceiver? Fortunate for you that gullible idiot would believe up is down after an hour on a sheesha, not that it matters."


    He yawned languidly and began slinking toward the bed, his coils making rippling S shapes as he slithered between the grand furniture.


    "Gods, one of my best off the cuff bits too and I only have this fool of a sheep to witness it. What a waste!" He scratched his chin in thought. "Perhaps I could work it into a play somehow, the tale of the murder of Lady Glyrieth, of a mass murdering psychotic sheep, and me the stalwart hero."


    He mulled this for a bit as he stood by the bed, the sheep and Lamia on it still frozen in place.


    At last he clucked his tongue. "No, playing myself would just be too crass so soon after her death, even the nobility would balk at that."


    He seemed to think about this a little more, as if hopeful he could figure a solution, but then he shrugged and lifted the rapier, casually pointing it and pressing the tip against Lyra''s chest. He muttered something under his breath as he held it there and Opal caught the word "knife" and "Heart", but then his gaze was inevitably drawn up to her face, his hand easing on the grip.


    "...Ah but you have such a pretty expression Lyra, someone who is deeply familiar with true fear. A lifetime of desperate anxiety really does make for the best of faces. It''s a shame things turned out this way, truly, had things gone differently I had considered having you act in one of my theaters¡­ and even to make you an icon of the stage."


    He paused as he gazed into her eyes.


    "Perhaps a few more seconds seeing you in motion wouldn''t be so bad, a little animated reference to memorise."


    The blade tip moved from Lyra''s chest to the Lamia''s neck and then he pushed forward. The steel point slid into her, puncturing her skin as blood spilled free, at first just a little then a lot as the girls unfroze.


    The Lamia died in front of Lyra''s eyes. Wranvyre savoured her terror.


    Opal lay back and let herself sink into shadow.


    She hadn''t been sure precisely what was happening at first, the Lamia didn''t even seem that bloodthirsty, more mulling and thoughtful than anything, but then he had lifted the blade and she had realised her mistake.


    Nobody was allowed to kill sheepy. Rain would be sad. A quieter voice tried to speak up of her own feelings about that, but she swiftly crushed it.


    She rose up from the shadow, ready to kill, ready to-


    Her pregnant belly pressed up against the underside of the bed as she emerged from shadow. It¡­ was a lot closer to the floor than it had appeared from the Gobbo slave door.


    She wiggled, desperately trying to shove herself nearer the edge, nearer to the black coils sliding back and forth just out of reach. To no avail, she was firmly jammed under the bed and stuck tight.


    That was¡­ a problem. She looked past the black scales, desperately trying to spot a suitable shadow to move to, but there was none nearby!


    "-your infamy will be known far and wide in death."


    Opal grimaced, here it came, and she needed to do something. She readied herself to make a risky attack on the Lord, falling from the shadowed ceiling so far up without a shadowed landing would pose a danger to her offspring and yet if she had no choice... but then the tail moved as the Lord became agitated, his bloodlust showing through.


    The tail tip swept under the bed and Opal didn''t hesitate, her hand snapped out, the harpy talon forming in her fingers as it went, and in one motion she sliced the tip of Lord Wranvyre''s tail off.


    The reaction was instant, there was a scream and the scales jerked back from the bed, a streamer of blood flinging into the air as the stump of his tail tip whipped away.


    Now the Lord was in a more convenient position it was time to move in for the kill.


    -


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 137

    ? Chapter 137:


    Lyra fell back as the blade of metal whistled past her body, the Lord letting out a scream of agony as he jerked away from her, his tail thrashing.


    At first she wasn''t sure what had happened, but then the Lord held up his tail, staring at the stump, the last twelve inches or so missing.


    She was very familiar with those eyes. Many times she had gone down to the dungeon to save those in need and come across the dismembered, their eyes unable to look away from their stumps, the slow creeping horror dawning on them that a healing potion couldn''t save them this time, their limb was gone forever.


    Then came the second stage of limb loss, white hot anger.


    The Lord threw himself down, hands slapping to the floorboards as he dove to the floor, eyes searching, searching under the bed.


    A flash of green, then nothing, there was no one under the bed. Only a tube of glossy black scales. His tail tip. The Lamia reached for the blood slick thing, eager to get it back in the hope it could be reattached.


    Lyra watched in confusion from the blue Lamia''s coils, beginning to struggle free from the heavy things now they were loosened.


    Not in time to stop Opal rising up behind the Lord as he lay, rising from the shadows, her talon held in hand. She crept closer as Lyra watched, weapon raised and aiming for the Lord''s spine as he scrabbled around under the bed.


    She looked like she had it, but then the Lord stopped reaching, his body turning as he pulled back, and Opal was¡­


    Lyra stared in confusion at the Goblin girl, she was¡­ motionless, completely still like a statue. What was she doing!? But then... she understood.


    Wranvyre pulled himself fully from under the bed and stood, one hand held his blood slicked rapier, the other the tip of his tail. He did not look particularly happy.


    "You lied," said Lyra staring at the frozen Opal. "You don''t teleport, you- you put people to sleep! Freeze them!"


    Wranvryre raised his arms in a shrug, rapier and tail in each hand. "I am an actor, of course I fucking lied, it would have been rude not to when you threw such obvious bait to build a deception on right into my lap."


    He sounded exasperated as his arms dropped.


    "It seems I now understand how you made it past my children of elven blood. You had a Goblin slave, an insider, to somehow let you in." He peered closer at the frozen Opal. "A pregnant one with¡­ a black horn? Curious, did she evolve while on my estate? Hmm a purge may be in order. Starting with this one." He twirled the rapier and pointed it at the black scarf around Opal''s neck.


    Which was why he noticed when it moved. The scarf shuffled and then bones rose from within it, a shield of bones that wrapped tight around her neck. He furrowed his brow as he looked down to see the Goblin was now sheathed in bones, bones streaming up from the floor, a river that snaked back across the room, back to an armchair.


    The rapier wavered as he watched more and more bones covering her and then came a rat, a rat that crawled from her back and stood on top of the Goblin''s head as she was fully encased in bone.


    It put its paws on its hips and stared up at him even as more rats heaved a horned human like skull up behind it with green flaming eyes.


    "This is¡­ N-Necromancy?" said the Lord, sounding for the first time uncertain.


    The mound of bones quickly swelled, the frozen Goblin now fully engulfed, forming a hill, then a shape, a massive rat shape formed from thousands and thousands of bones, one eye socket was empty and one eye socket held the horned skull.


    Wranvyre uneasily backed up as the giant rat took a step forward.


    "You joined hands with a Necromancer? To get at me? One so deep in the dark art it no longer even has a living body?" The Lamia considered this, then snorted a breath through his nose and shook his head. "Not something I could have predicted, but¡­ Lyra Bellerhorn, you''ve turned me into a true hero, one who will be beloved. Your actions will go down with the public about as well as a pint of vomit, people hate Necromancers, everyone hates Necromancers! To ally yourself with such a thing is beyond the pale."


    Vash eyed the Lamia, the green fire of his eyes glowing steady.


    "I am standing right here you know," said the skull, almost sounding huffy. "And yes, if you must know I am a Necromancer, a crafter of the deceased, a master of undeath, a Lord of the eternal tomb etc etc, although this pile of bones may have been a minor clue in that regard, as much as it isn''t my best work."


    Wranvyre didn''t reply and instead took a moment to prepare, clearing his throat as if on stage. Then he puffed out his chest and flourished his sword, his voice commanding, filling the room.


    "Disgusting thing, know now that we of the living abhor your lot, your unholy ways, you anathema to life, you blight upon the land. Know that heroes shall always arise to make ruin your evil, to save the innocent from your undead armies, your deathly conquerings, your fallow wretched kingdoms. Your very existence is an insult to the gods and everything that is good in this world, and your kind shall without mercy be exterminated at every turn."


    If a skull could have blinked in surprise it would have, the green flames of Vash''s eyes still made their best approximation, squeezing down before flaring back.


    "Uhh, me? You''re talking about me? I mean, I just wanted to be left alone, it''s not my fault I was dragged out of my quite comfortable home against my will. It''s not me who has been conquering anyone, well, at least not for a long time, not my thing anymore, you know how it is. Retirement."


    "That wasn''t for your benefit, idiot." Wranvyre made a cruel grin, as far from anything heroic as could be.


    Then he Moved.


    The Lamia was fast!


    The rapier in that moment wasn''t so much a rapier as a crude implement, the enchanted blade unbending despite the whipping force it was put under. The blade struck the rat shaped mound of bones, and then passed through it, hundreds of bones cut apart and raining to the ground as more took their place, the shape losing cohesion as it went and the skull disappearing inside.


    Wranvyre swung again, grunting with the effort, and then again, each time a shower of rat bones exploded from the giant rippling mound as the blade passed through it. He seemed unable to harm it but the mound was so busy holding itself together that it was unable to attack back.


    Which was everything Vash intended as his human skeleton, now headless, approached the Lord from behind, a rune covered and glowing cutlass retrieved from the wardrobe held in one bony hand. The headless skeleton lifted it, and then struck down at the back of the Lord''s neck.


    Unfortunately it stumbled over the lashing black tail in that moment and the Lord turned at the touch, twisting around near instantly as only a snake could and catching the cutlass on his rapier, the two blades ringing together.


    Behind his whipping tail collided with the giant mound and it shattered apart, Vash''s skull spinning into the air before being caught on a coffee table by a pile of bones forming a large rat paw.


    Vash''s eyes flared green and the headless skeleton skipped its sword off the rapier and slashed for the Lamia''s belly. Wranvyre curved back, perfectly arcing his spine and tail so as to just miss the faintly glowing tip of the blade.


    Wranvyre struck out with the rapier aiming to lop the skeleton''s arm off in a counter, but its entire upper body abruptly spun around, the spine acting as a free pivot to dodge and the rapier instead came down on its ribcage, a scatter of cleaved ribs falling to the floor. The skeleton wasted no time in attacking once more and its bones realigned even as it lashed out, the two blades coming together in a shower of sparks even as skeletal rats crawled up the Lord''s body, harassing and distracting.


    Once, twice, parry, slash, over and over the blades came together, the Lamia becoming increasingly irritated as he brushed away the rats, his body slowing as he seemed to realise the skeleton posed no real threat and something was amiss.


    "Enough of this farce! You mock me with swordwork that is relegated to historical plays? What are you trying to do here?"


    He ended the fight with a whip of his tail, the skeleton scattering to pieces across the room as he turned to the Skull on the table.


    "Ah," said Vash, "I think I may be a tad out of practice. Good thing it doesn''t matter." The full sized bone crossbows that he had been constructing in the background pulled up onto the table and fired, slivers of bone snapping forward, sharpened bone bolts aimed accurately for the Lord''s eyes.


    The Lord barely dodged in time, catching two of the bolts on the basket of his rapier, the last skimming by his cheek.


    A line of blood crept down his skin and he dabbed it with a finger. His face twisted in disgust as he examined the red.


    "You sully my appearance on the stage?!"


    He lunged forward.


    Vash lifted his rat bones to block him, a desperate surge, genuinely panicking under the Lord''s rage. Clearly he had not expected his layered plan to have failed.


    "Wait!" cried the skull.


    It didn''t matter.


    Wranvyre brought the sword down, using the enchanted thing like a crude axe, and the skull was cleaved in two, then again, and again, and again, until all that remained of Vash was a scatter of skull fragments and teeth across the blade marked table along with a little black mist whisping into the air and drifting away. All the remaining animated bones fell to the floor as if they had had their strings cut.


    Wranvyre was left breathing hard, his chest rising and falling, one hand clutching the severed tip of his tail in a death grip, his rapier embedded in the wood.


    He shuddered, forcefully calming himself, and levered the steel free.


    Then, seeming to recall something, he turned, just in time to catch motion out of the corner of his eye, turning to find Lyra flinging herself forward, knife raised.


    His eyes flashed with a black glow and she froze in midair. Exactly as it happened Opal was released from her stillness and stumbled forward, nearly falling into a dune of scattered bone as what she was aiming for vanished from her perspective.


    She turned in time to see Wranvyre stab Lyra through the chest, the rapier going through her entire torso and out the other side.


    "Tch. Off a bit."


    "No!" screamed Opal, running for him.


    His tail casually flicked out and struck her across the face. She went rolling, pregnancy hitting the floor hard, crashing up against the bed in a heap.


    She struggled to sit up, her lip bloody from where she had bit her tongue under the impact, the tang of iron in her mouth.


    She stared as the Lord held the hilt of his blade, the steel inside of Lyra.


    "You- you can''t do this-!"


    He glared at her. "You aren''t worth the value of my words Goblin."


    He turned his gaze back to Lyra, to the rapier, then he began to twist it. The cut through her body was thin, but as he turned the rapier it became a cylinder and blood rapidly flowed from her, pouring and pooling on the floor below, her wool covered legs dying crimson. He began sawing, cutting across her ribs and breast to bisect her, to reach her heart.


    Opal watched, a stricken feeling she couldn''t have predicted twisting up her guts. Lyra was just- she was just a leveler, one of the worst things of this world¡­ but somehow, somehow she had found a soft spot for the wooly girl, more than a soft spot.


    Lyra''s simple perfect stillness as he cut her apart was something her eyes hated to look upon, it made her pulse race and her breath shorten, it made her feel sick, and she couldn''t stop the other voice from coming out.


    "STOP! Y-YOU''RE KILLING HER!...p-please¡­.. please... don''t do this."


    the Lord continued to saw undeterred, like a butcher cutting up a piece of meat, flatly ignoring the Goblin''s pleas.


    BOOM.


    He paused as the room shook, dust coming unsettled from the ceiling and leaving trails through the swirling sheesha smoke.


    "What was that?" he muttered looking at the large pair of double doors that was the entrance to his chamber.


    BOOM.


    The door shuddered, the wood bulging inward as something huge impacted it from the other side, a scattering of enchantments on its surface glowed bright, desperately holding it together.


    Opal wiped tears from her eyes and began to laugh a tad hysterically


    "...He''s here! You fucked up, you fucked up snake boy!"


    "What are you blathering about? What is trying to beat down my door?"


    "You don''t know, you don''t know," said Opal scrambling to her feet, "You thought Boner was the only thing we brought with us? Boner is nothing compared to wolfy!"


    The Lord eyed the Goblin. Seeing something he didn''t like he lifted his hand away from the rapier and a green fireball the size of a marble began to coalesce in his palm.


    Opal raised her hand, as if to present the thing coming through the door, perfectly timed as the doors finally gave in, smashing to splinters as the enchantments shattered in a flicker of blue light, the sheesha smoke billowing outward.


    In the doorway stood an enormous black teddy bear with a pink scaled Lamia attached to it.


    Opal''s hand drooped slightly.


    "...What the fuck is that?"


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 138

    ? Chapter 138:


    Rain wasn''t sure what he was expecting when he broke his way through the door, but finding Lyra and Opal already with the Lord was not high on his list. Even less high on his list was finding Lyra frozen in mid-air with a rapier thrust through her chest, her body awash with blood, her wool dyed crimson.


    The only reason he didn''t lunge for the startled Lord then and there like a mindless animal was the shock in seeing Lyra¡­ dead. That was exactly how she appeared, the blade had gone directly through her heart from his perspective.


    There was just... so much blood, nothing could survive what had been done to her. Lyra was gone. That was the only thing that could be said about such a sight.


    His throat constricted painfully tight as he stared, completely at a loss, a dark sea of emotion about to break over his head, about to bury him.


    Then his reasoning finally caught up with his dismay and he took note that she wasn''t just being held still in mid-air, it was more than that, her hair was frozen too, as though caught and suspended underwater, a very visible cloud of loose strands unmoving around her head, her ribbons floating behind mid leap. From there it was only the crazed and desperate calculation of hope, the only life raft his drowning mind could cling to.


    Lyra had been stabbed while frozen by some kind of magic, and might not die until she was unfrozen.


    But what the hell could he do with this information? The Lord must have been the one to do this to her, a leveler''s Skill that he possessed. Wranvyre had moved forward since he had entered the room, gesturing wildly as he shouted at Rose and Rose shouted back.


    Rain hadn''t heard a word of it, his heartbeat the only thing filling his ears. He needed¡­ he needed to get to Lyra without the Lord ending his freezing Skill, then retrieve the healing potions that Lyra had used on Red''s leg wound and use them on her before she was unfrozen. It was the only likely way to save her life, but also an impossibility as the Lord would clearly never allow it.


    He could not advance without Lyra dying.


    His head burned as he tried to think of a way to get the result he needed, a way to save her, a scenario where the sheep girl did not die. There was nothing physical he could do no matter how he struggled with the problem, maybe using his predatory darkness?


    But before he could even begin to form a centipede or a rat something caught his attention.


    Somebody else in the room had apparently gone through the exact same mental calculation as he just had and come to the exact same conclusion. The difference was, they were far better positioned to do something about it.


    A red scaled set of claws shakily emerged from the bag on Lyra''s hip. A small glass bottle held in its grip.


    Rain watched, stunned, his lips slightly parted, as the madly wobbling and clearly terrified arm moved up, up Lyra''s front, the bottle tipping, almost spilling, then was clumsily thrown over her chest, the healing potion washing against her wound, mingling with her blood.


    The entire bottle was emptied over her and the spill of blood pouring down her body started to slow. The skinny red scaled arm pulled back and another bottle was produced.


    "I''m going to build you a hoard to make dragons go insane with jealousy Red," he mumbled, watching in disbelief as the second life saving bottle went over her.


    "Did this golem of yours just speak?"


    Rain blinked and turned his attention to the Lord, for the first time processing what it was that he was hearing.


    "No. Stop distracting from the point. I asked you a simple question."


    "What do you expect me to say?"


    Rose practically spat as she replied. "My name. Say my name."


    Wranvyre for once looked nonplussed.


    "You smash down my chamber door and demand that I speak your name? I know your name, Rose. What? Did you expect me to say I did not? I have many many children and many many extramarital children but I know the names of every single one of them. Did you think my lack of acknowledgement of you meant I didn''t know? Why Rose, I''m sorry to tell you this but it had nothing to do with that, you just haven''t been of significant worth to yet merit mention."


    The teenager seemed momentarily surprised, as if she really hadn''t expected him to know.


    But then she grit her teeth.


    "That- that doesn''t matter! That''s not why I''m here! I know what you did, I saw everything! y-you killed them!"


    "...You''re going to have to be a bit more specific than that. Killed who, when?"


    "You butchered him and his family and- and you got off on it!- you fucking monster! No, you are worse than that! You''re filth, a d-demon!"


    "...Still going to need to be more specific."


    Rose let out a strangled scream of outrage, her hands rising as though she wanted to lunge for his neck then and there.


    "Control yourself Rose, you are no better than an animal like this. Really, to think you went and got yourself pregnant and thought this was the ideal moment to-


    "I''m not p-pregnant-"


    "Of course you are. What? Are you saying you just over ate? I think not. Your mind is clearly addled in your motherly state. It happens, pregnancy leads to extreme paranoia, and sometimes even dreams that can be mistaken for reality. Can you not see that? You are quite literally looking upon the sheep who murdered your mother and yet all your anger is for me. That is wrong Rose, you know that deep down. There is something wrong with your head Rose, you are sick, your pregnancy is very obviously making you sick, anyone can see that, it''s only you alone who can''t see what is happening here."


    Rose''s face twisted through a series of increasingly furious expressions as he spoke, his mistaken attempt to manipulate her only making her more and more agitated.


    "Shutup! Shutup! SHUTUP!"


    Her hands flung up and the bed behind Wranvyre exploded to life, curtains ripping from rings as bed sheets lifted into the air, tossing aside the still unconscious female occupants. The lengths of cloth moved violently, twisting like thrashing snakes, ready to strike at the Lord''s back.


    Rain let the darkness slip from his body, misted predation spilling through various rents in the bear''s fabric. Things were clearly rapidly deteriorating and heading toward a fight.


    "You''re making a mistake Rose."


    "You killed my father''s family! You killed my father!"


    "You''re lying to yourself Rose. The vilest vinegar of poisonous lies."


    "I d-don''t care what you have to say anymore! Fitz, move me closer so I can kill him!"


    Rain lifted a foot but then stopped mid step, both Rose and himself perfectly stilled, frozen in place.


    Wranvyre let out an irritated sigh.


    Behind him the once floating bedding flopped to the floor and Lyra dropped out of the air like a sack of potatoes, just barely turning to her side as she fell and avoiding having the rapier rammed all the way through her chest.


    Seeing her hit the ground Opal scrambled over to the sheep girl, a feeling of utter dismay opening up in her gut. Having your heart cut apart by a sword wasn''t something that could usually be survived, even seeing Red frantically splashing potions over her chest didn''t give her much hope for the sheep girl''s chances.


    She looked¡­ very dead. Beyond pale from blood loss, perfectly still and unmoving.


    She hesitantly pressed her hand against her front in disbelief. Nothing, and then¡­ a thump, the beat of a heart.


    But there was something wrong, her heartbeat felt off, fluttery.


    A rasp came from the side and she turned her head in alarm as Lyra breathed a whisper.


    "It...hurts...it hurts so bad-"


    Opal slapped her hand over her mouth then jerked it away as she realised that was as clear a sign of her still being alive as her whispered voice.


    She glanced over her shoulder to find Wranvyre looking at the sheep girl.


    "Y-you- you killed her!" she managed to get out in a moment of frantic choked panic.


    Wranvyre didn''t even glance at her, his eyes remain fixed on Lyra''s still body.


    The sheep girl remained still and silent and very dead looking and after a moment Wranvyre turned back to what he was doing, apparently not realising she still breathed, albeit barely.


    Opal let out a silent sigh of relief and watched the Lord carefully before turning back to Lyra. A red scaled set of claws had emerged from the bag on Lyra''s hip and Opal took the small bottle it held, carefully hiding what she was doing from view as she tipped it down the sheep girl''s throat a little at a time. She peeked at the frozen teddy bear as she tipped up the potion.


    She knew what the bear was now of course. The height was the first clue, but the black mist filled with teeth and talons seeping from the fabric was a much more obvious clue.


    But she struggled to understand why Rain had put on a giant teddy bear costume. What the hell was he doing?!


    She shook her head in disbelief as Red handed her the remaining healing potions. It didn''t matter, he was still frozen along with a Lamia wrapped around him who seemed to take issue with the Lord, an ally maybe?


    Wranvyre hummed as he grabbed another arm full of bedding up from the ground, roughly bundling it before slithering over to the nearby wardrobe and thrusting the fabric inside with the rest and locking the door. He closed a drawer before turning back, the severed tip of his tail neatly tidied away in a silk nest, kept safe for later reattachment.


    The bedding that had been strewn across the ground had been almost entirely hidden away by then, and only a single bed sheet remained, half under a passed-out Lamia on the bed. Wranvyre gave her a sour look, then he slithered over to Opal in several quick motions. Opal fell back in alarm, unprepared for an attack. But then he simply reached down and picked up Lyra''s black knife that had fallen nearby, casually spinning it in his fingers as he rose.


    "Back where you belong."


    He turned and in one fluid strike slit the throat of the nearest Lamia girl who had been tossed aside by Rose. She gurgled as she died, even now still too out of it to struggle back to consciousness before her life ebbed away with the waterfall of red washing over her bare chest.


    "I believe that counts as Lyra''s fourth official murder. Hmm. I suppose her theft of the knife worked out nicely to my advantage in the end, with this there will be no question of her actions." He finished slipping the knife through the next Lamia''s throat and held it up, blood drizzling from the shiny black metal as he examined it. "Was that the intent from the start? to help me? Poorly executed but¡­"


    He flipped the knife and slashed the next Lamia''s throat with a casual flick of the wrist.


    The last of the Lamia girls died with a sigh of released breath and he pulled back, turning and swiftly slithering close to the only living Lamia left in the room other than himself. Rose.


    The black blade lifted and pressed against her neck, her skin indenting under the sharp implement.


    "Idiot child. I remember all of my progeny''s names, direct or not. I''ve memorised countless scripts, a few hundred names is nothing at all." He paused as he looked into her eyes.


    "But most of all I do remember looks, visual memory is so much more malleable than verbal, any actor who has been forced to memorise a script knows that, and the tricks to make things stick. I remember you, more than remember, you and the others, Julia, Arissa. I remember your plays made in an attempt to please me and more importantly I remember your stage presence, pulling the audience into your flow, your web of emotive motions."


    The blade faltered against her neck. "Why the hell are you here of all my family Rose. Such a waste. Such a fruitless goddam waste." His eyes narrowed as he stared at the frozen teenager''s face.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


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 Chapter 139

    ? Chapter 139:


    The blade faltered against her neck. "Why the hell are you here of all my family Rose. Such a waste. Such a fruitless goddam waste." His eyes narrowed as he stared at the frozen teenager''s face.


    "I lost Lyra, but that was always tempered by the existance of you, my freshly plucked spark for the stage. Gods¡­"


    He pulled back with a groan of frustration.


    "What could she have seen? Did she hear? Can I really-? She knows my habits so she would¡­ But then those rumours have always existed..." The Lord muttered into his hand, eyes darting side to side in thought. He seemed to brood on something for a time, his tail lashing with irritation.


    "Fine. Perhaps I know a way I can more permanently fix you. Heart pins¡­ few know they work on levelers too just fine. Perhaps a perpetual fear of instantaneous death will improve your performance on the stage in the end, my Rose."


    He trailed off as his eyes caught on the black half formed mist that was spilling through a few rents in the teddy bear''s fabric.


    "But¡­ what is this you have brought with you?"


    He hesitantly held out the knife and prodded at the black mist. The blade passed through it pushing aside the magically frozen material. "Curious." He lifted a hand and hesitantly touched a fingertip against what looked like the half formed skull of some carnivore floating amongst it.


    A moment''s touch and he gasped in pain and snatched his hand back. He examined his finger tip which had turned red, blistering like it had been burned, the flesh visibly rippling.


    "An acid? Wait, this isn''t her ability, this is-"


    He abruptly jerked back from the bear.


    "-another leveler hiding inside. Assassin!" He spat.


    A hand came up and a fresh marble sized fireball began to coalesce, the flame compacting down into a flaring green ball and hovering over his index finger. He raised his hand, aiming the thing directly at Rose''s face, then shifted it up aiming for the teddy bear''s chest. Then, after a moment of thought, moved it to the side, aiming for its arm.


    Fwhip!


    The fireball launched and shot through the arm like it wasn''t even there, a straight line of destruction that blew through the front and out the back in a cloud of shredded stuffing that drifted to the ground. The fireball left a small black dot as it departed through the opposite wall.


    The Lord tutted as he watched it go then turned his attention to the ''golem'', watching carefully and expectantly. He was soon rewarded. Blood poured from a rent in the arm, spattering down in a steady shower onto the floor below.


    "You found an accomplice. This would be the source of your sudden confidence and reason for coming here now of all times."


    He raised his hand and three more fireballs began to form, one fireball for index, middle, and ring finger, respectively.


    "H-hey, what are you doing?" said Opal, struggling up from Lyra as she grasped what was about to happen.


    Wranvyre didn''t reply. Instead, he lifted his hand and fired one of the fireballs through the bear''s gut just beside Rose, then one through its chest, and then the last one through its head.


    Woolen stuffing fluttered into the air and blood flowed freely from the furred fabric now. The black slick and shiny with wet as red pooled on the floorboards.


    "The question is, how large is the leveler hidden within?" he mused, three more fireballs beginning to form in his hand.


    Opal''s breath caught in her throat as she watched the fireballs be put through the bear, shock more than anything stilling her. But then she began to move, rage making her fast, and she flung herself backwards, falling into shadow. She appeared far above Wranvyre, dropping from the ceiling, a black talon forming even as she silently fell toward her target.


    The lord sent the three just formed fireballs into the bear to the goblin''s fury.


    Both her hands took hold of the harpy talon as Opal flung her arms forward in a reckless strike, using the full weight of her momentum, a single life ending blow aimed straight at the back of the Lamia''s head without a care for her own safety.


    Opal very nearly made it, the talon merely a dozen or so inches from piercing his skull, but then the chair the Lord''s tail had been coiled around was whipped up and smashed into her. She was flung aside in a hail of shattering wood, landing badly atop a nearby table with a grunt of expelled breath and a nasty thump.


    The Lord set his lips in a line as he looked her over.


    "I really should stop thinking of you as a goblin slave, dead useless furniture does not attack its owner like this, and more, your weapon¡­ it''s strange, even for an evolution."


    He lifted his index finger and a fireball began to coalesce.


    Opal rose from the table, cold horror at what was being done to Rain keeping her motions efficient.


    She needed more. More power.


    Black mist like flame flowed from her horn and rolled over her skin, pouring down from her head, her body a bonfire of darkness. She snarled and it spilled into her free hand, a second talon forming, both swelling, one for each hand, larger talons, a Panthara''s talons.


    The Lord''s eyes widened slightly as he recognised the cruel shape of them and the fireball quickly snapped forward from the Lord''s index. Opal dropped, falling down just as the fireballs passed over her head.


    She came up behind Wranvyre, the momentum of her fall launching her into the air and toward the Lord. Of course Wranvyre was already turning, the black knife darting out to catch the first talon.


    The two black objects came together with a crashing screech that rattled the eardrums, yet Opal didn''t give him a moment''s pause and lunged with the unexpected second talon, a sweeping cross aimed for his gut. Wranvyre lashed his tail and hauled himself back, eyes flashing with anger that a goblin slave of all things was pressuring him.


    But Opal didn''t notice his expression because she was already falling, dropping through the air into the nearest shadow. The threat wasn''t so much her skill with the talons, or her speed or strength or the talons themselves, it was that where she would be coming from next was hard to predict. Wranvyre twisted to the side, knife raising in a defensive posture, certain that he knew the optimal position she would attack from, a cruel sneer twisting his lip.


    Instead Opal came up from within his coils, twisting as the talons ripped into the Lord''s black and red speckled scales in a flurry of fleeing gore, his scales ripping from his body like hail as his flesh below shredded apart.


    The Lord turned with a howl of pain and-


    Opal froze in mid motion, frozen with the Lord''s coils surrounding her on every side, his flesh parted around the talons, even still fleeing from their touch.


    -


    One moment Rain was stepping forward to attack, the next he was vomiting blood, pints of hot gore spilling from behind his teeth as his insides convulsed, throwing up more and more blood. The mess washed over the cramped wool filled space of the teddy bear''s head, staining everything red and splattering over the yellow disks of the bear''s glass eyes as pools of blood formed below his chin.


    He nearly collapsed then and there. He just couldn''t breathe, there were what felt like arrows through his neck, in his chest, no, not arrows, holes. Every breath was a burbling bloody mess, a choking struggle just to get air in.


    He peered through the blood stained yellow disks, his vision going blurry at the edges.


    Opal was there, frozen in mid air, Lyra was on the ground. Was she dead?


    Everything was unravelling. Everything was coming apart. Rose was shouting, but he couldn''t understand.


    He watched in a kind of cold horror as the Lord unwrapped himself from Opal, his face twisted with spite. He said something incomprehensible to Rose, turned, and then sunk the black knife into Opal''s pregnant belly.


    There wasn''t time for words or even time to think, Rain thrust an arm forward and an unformed mass of darkness exploded forth, a screaming column of predatory things that snapped through the air, tearing the end of the bear''s arm apart in an explosion of fabric.


    The Lord was forced to leap away as Opal was instantly engulfed in swirling tooth filled darkness, everything Rain had to give.


    As the darkness swallowed her, Rain drew in the best breath he could, a weak thing due to his perforated lungs, but enough.


    The following roar seemed to catch the lord by surprise, making him flinch, the bear head masking Rain opening his mouth. It barely seemed to have an effect because it was so weakened, not even rupturing Rose''s ear drums below, but it was enough as all he needed was to draw Wranvyre''s attention toward him. A centipedal arm suddenly lunged for the lord whipping out from the roiling mass of darkness that protected Opal as he turned toward Rain.


    Despite the sneak attack Wranvyre''s snake like reactions seemingly saved him at first, catching the motion out of the corner of his eye and raising the knife to fend off the centipede. But he had fatally misunderstood what it was that was coming for him. The pincers darted around the raised blade and in one motion snipped his arm off below the elbow.


    Wranvyre screamed as he fell away, a shower of blood falling with his stump, the knife clattering against the floorboards as it landed along with the soft wet thump of his severed arm.


    It was the perfect moment to end the Lord''s life and Rain shakily lifted a foot and took a step toward him at the same moment the morass of darkness moved.


    But then the lord''s eyes flashed and¡­ nothing happened. The darkness lunged for him just as Rain took his next step.


    Wranvyre seemed stuck in a moment of pure panic, the mass of darkness sloughing off from the goblin as it moved toward him, unstoppable, unfreezable, his power didn''t work on it. He turned on Rain as the thing pulled fully free from Opal and his eyes flashed once more. Opal collapsed to the ground with a pained cry as Rain yet again froze mid-step along with Rose.


    Unfortunately for the Lord the dark shapeless thing did not stop with Rain''s freezing and a house cat''s head framed in cruel talons formed just as a Panthara''s singular leg stepped from the morass and great room filling owl wings spread behind.


    "Wha-what is this?" gasped the Lord as he staggered back from the towering bipedal creature.


    The cat head looked down at the Lord cradling his stump, then at the severed arm on the floor.


    Then the creature very deliberately lifted its foot and stepped on the arm, never taking its eyes off the lord.


    Wranvyre watched as his arm turned to liquid mush under the foot, skin unravelling at the dark touch, muscle shredding into little bits, blood washing outward, finger bones slipping free from writhing flesh and scattering. It was very obviously gone forever, his arm permanently destroyed.


    He roared his loss-filled fury and lifted his remaining hand, fireballs already coalescing on each of his fingertips and thumb, five in all, the first firing half formed as he recklessly flung his hand forward.


    The half formed fireball snapped out and shot straight through the darkness, leaving a crater of black mist behind that spilled into the air.


    The house cat hissed in anger and centipedal tentacles lashed out from its still forming body, whipping through the air in a frenzy, reaching out for the lord in a flurry of pincers.


    Wranvyre danced backwards, a deep fear written into his eyes after seeing what the black stuff could do if he was touched by it.


    The horrifying thing needed to die.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 140

    ? Chapter 140:


    Fwhip, Snap, Fwhip, fireballs flinged away from Wranvyre''s remaining hand one after the other as he dodged and weaved around the lunging centipedal tentacles, each fireball punching a cylinder through the thing''s body, the other side of the room visible through the holes. With every fireball shot another immediately formed on his fingertips to replace it.


    It didn''t matter, the thing came on and Wranvyre was forced to retreat, backing up as he continued to fire fireball after fireball through its body, dozens and dozens until he was panting and sweating under the magical strain and the steps of the creature left a trail of disintegrated black mist behind it.


    The house cat yowled and came on, furious as only a cat could be, increasingly eager to kill its prey. But each dark centipede that grabbed for the Lord was countered with a fireball that lanced down its length, obliterating it. It wasn''t long before the mass of darkness was contracting, once several feet taller than the lord it began to falter and shrink down as it shed mass in a misted trail.


    The cat snarled in frustration as its body disintegrated around it, losing mass until it was at chest height with the lord, even its cat head half turned to mist, only one star-filled eye remaining.


    The small but deadly fireballs were faltering, but at last, the cat thing died with one final hiss, its one eye staring hatred at the Lord, the last of its body torn apart by the tiny compressed fireballs.


    Wranvyre was left breathing raggedly, chest rising up and down like a bellows, sweat pouring down his face from too much magical exertion.


    But he''d won.


    He turned on the bear.


    "Th-this is-! Where did you find such a leveler Rose!"


    With a snarl he raised his hand and a fireball sputtered to life above his index and fired into the chest of the teddy bear.


    "S-stop!" cried Opal from where she lay, clutching her front.


    Fwhip. Another fireball skewered the teddy bear.


    "S-stop you fucking asshole! Stop killing him!"


    The Lord flatly ignored her, it was as if he hadn''t heard her at all.


    Opal clenched her fists at her sides.


    "Stop ignoring me you snake faced multi headed dick hydra!"


    The Lamia snapped around, his face a picture of fury.


    "Will you shut up!!"


    The fireball intended for Rain shot out for Opal''s head. Ready for it, the goblin sunk into the floor.


    "If you think you can fool me into removing my Skill again with the same trickery you are beyond wrong. I-"


    CRUNCH.


    Wranvyre blinked at the sound and turned slowly to stare at the giant bear.


    It was surrounded with a halo of fractured light, the air splintered around its body like shattered glass.


    Another crunch filled the air and the arm of the bear moved an inch, the air seeming to break around it, the magic that kept it in place misting away.


    "What kind of illusionary trick is this? h-how are you-?"


    CRUNCH. The air broke further, sheets of some invisible structure breaking apart, breaking down into nothing, something pushing through the magic through sheer unbelievable brute force.


    The arm moved, and then so did the whole upper body of the bear, the air splintering and shattering around it, whisping into white mist as it broke down under the pressure, a column of hissing steam rising from the black bear''s fur as it shed the magic in sheets of misting transparency. One more sharp motion and the upper half of the bear was fully freed from its imprisonment, mist angrily boiling off its body half hiding it from sight.


    Wranvyre backed away as the bear was freed, raising his remaining hand in uncertainty and forming a fireball. But then his eyes dropped down, down to Rose. The teenager was still trapped and entirely frozen and remained wrapped around the bear, as was the bear''s legs, its hips wreathed in fractured air like a corona of shattered glass.


    "Impressive that you freed yourself, I have never seen that before. It seems I may have over exerted myself and left my Skill to weaken. But, assassin, you are still trapped as sure as if you were wrapped in chain. My own daughter is your shackle, an irony worthy of a play."


    The bear didn''t seem to hear him, its breath coming in ragged gasps as the pool of blood below it only grew larger.


    "...Not that it matters, you are on the threshold of death itself."


    The Lord seemed nearly as worn down as the bear and his hand shook badly as held it up, fireballs forming on his fingertips.


    "To tell the truth I''m not even sure what you are anymore. But no matter, you will die here and Rose will never again oppose me. No, she won''t even dare a thought against me once I insert her heart pin."


    The fireball on his index finger snaped forward like a bolt of straightened lightning and lanced through the bear''s head. It fell backwards, its upper body going limp, only remaining upright because its lower half was still frozen and locked in place by Rose''s motionless tail.


    The next fireball Fwhipped from Wranvyre''s middle finger as it formed, striking the bear in its guts and causing it to convulse.


    "Die, die now! DIE!" screamed the Lord, his body shaking with magical exertion as he fired into the bear over and over and over. The next set of fireballs formed on his digits and he laughed with a wild light in his eyes.


    But before he could move to punch more holes in the bear Opal lunged from the shadows, somehow no longer slowed by her injury, her momentum carrying her forward into a mad staggering charge. She held no talons however, and no darkness was whisping over her body. She was unarmed because she didn''t need to be armed. The goblin charged at the Lamia''s long tail which lay curled around the room''s furniture and lunged at it, rolling with the bloodied tip, flipping head over heels as she carried it across the floor, once, twice, three times, then sprung forward, arms outstretched as she flung the tail forward and straight into the waiting open wolf paw hanging from the ragged remains of one of the teddy bear''s arms.


    Wranvyre stared, not understanding.


    Then the paw closed.


    "H-hey-


    The teddy bear hauled itself forward, pivoting from the hips, then torso, then shoulder and finally from the elbow and wrist.


    Wranvyre barely had time to scream before he was ripped from standing position and sent tearing through the air at an incomprehensible speed.


    The arm came up and then it came down with all the force the bear could muster.


    The Lamia whipped groundward like a screaming meteor from the night sky and was forcibly sliced through a wardrobe, the solid piece of oak furniture instantly obliterated by the passage of his body, wooden shrapnel exploding in every direction.


    If it slowed the Lord''s descent even fractionally it wasn''t evident. He continued down through the floorboards, planks shredding apart as his body and then tail plunged through into the room below.


    The teddy bear twisted violently and the black scaled tail tore through the room, armchairs and furniture shattering or sent flying as the lord was whipped through the floor and the room below like a great living flail.


    The arm rose, and with it the lord, smashing up through the floor in a tumble of planks, his shirt shredded from his viciously lacerated body, blood pouring freely over his scales and skin, wide terrified eyes visible behind bedraggled hair.


    The whipping motion just didn''t stop and Wranvyre smashed against the ceiling, plaster raining down as he continued in his terrible arc, up over and then down. For the second time the lord was sent through the floor, through part of the bed this time, the mattress shredding apart in a cloud of feathers as he was whipped down so hard it might as well have not been there, the full terrifying strength the bear could apply multiplied by centrifugal force.


    The Lord had become just a snake being whipped around by a large teddy bear, like a scaled flail.


    Wranvyre''s screaming became muffled as he vanished into the room below again, the sounds travelling below Opal''s feet as the bear twisted around, the bear''s hips crashing repeatedly against their Lamia girl confines with each vicious motion.


    Wranvrye came up and then went back down over and over, turning every piece of furniture in the room into kindling and leaving long lines through the floorboards, or was smashed through the wall as the bear changed it up, crashing through the ceiling, into the walls again, through great vases or tables or sheeshas, or through vast ten foot tall lacerating mirrors, heavy stone walls and solid oak and glass alike the lord was used to destroy or shatter, the room obliterated by his whipping body, then again and again until everything standing had been pulverised and was utterly unrecognisable, not even the bed remained, just a sea of destruction.


    In the end it was only because of the slippery blood under Rain''s paw pads that the lord escaped the unending savage beating. He slipped from Rain''s paw and was sent flipping head over tail before he smashed against the half destroyed wall, falling down in a limp heap.


    The clatter of rubble coming to a halt filled the air as the blood drenched teddy bear slowly slumped in its still frozen Lamia harness, unmoving this time not from magic but from blood loss.


    The room became momentarily quiet, only clouds of masonry dust drifting through the air and the occasional tap tap of small pieces of rubble or splinters of wood falling as everything came to a gradual stop.


    Wranvyre lay like wet rope amongst the ruins of his room, his body somehow even more of a ruin, his tail and spinal column shattered, his ribs pulverised, his arms bent in far too many places, and all with large jagged shards of glass and ceramic dotted across his flesh. His nose was missing entirely, shorn off when he was put through a mirror, his jaw broken into a dozen pieces, his mouth a toothless hole.


    A long wordless groan emerged from what was left of the Lamia.


    His one remaining eye blinked as a shadow fell over him. White wool. White wool stained with red.


    He stared as Lyra wheezed, sucking in air like her lungs were not working properly. Which was not surprising considering the rapier was still skewered through her chest.


    She shook as she knelt by his body, barely remaining upright. But she still raised an arm.


    A black knife materialised in her hand.


    The black knife rose and Lord Wranvyre could do nothing but stare with his one remaining eye as it went up and up and up, preparing to stab down.


    He summoned everything he had, every little spark of strength and force of will left to him.


    "Please," he wheezed from a broken mouth, "Not the heart."


    "Fuck. You."


    Lyra stabbed him in the heart.


    She slumped back as the Lord died, his death rattle barely a rasp.


    Lyra lay there, on her side, just lying by the person she had come to murder.


    The sheep girl stared at the corpse, he was dead, it was over, and it only cost her having a sword healed into her chest... and what felt like her heart. In fact she was fairly certain the sword was embedded at least part way into her heart because her heartbeat just felt wrong, offset somehow, and no matter how much she drew in great gasping breaths, she still felt winded, light headed.


    She was a pair to Wranvyre in that way, the both of them with blades in their chests.


    Her fingers clutched weakly at the rapier protruding from her front. Maybe it was deeper in her heart than she had realised. Things were starting to get fuzzy and dark and she was bleeding around the steel again, the freshly regrown flesh where the sword entered her skin spilling red with blood.


    Unconsciousness took her.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 141

    ? Chapter 141:


    Opal sat up from her hiding spot just inside the slave Gobbo door.


    She hesitated... then felt at her front. The scar where Wranvyre had stabbed his knife into her was gone, not even a scratch on her stomach, just smooth taut perfect skin. The potion she had taken from Red had done its job very well, which was not that surprising considering the upper-class shop the potions had been stolen from.


    That didn''t make her feel any better. The moment of dismay when she had found herself on the ground, something terribly terribly wrong would stay with her forever.


    In those moments she had held the healing potion she had taken from Red against her wound, tipping it into what had been done to her with shaky hands, her breath coming in panted gasps of sheer panic.


    Then, out of nowhere, the potion had been yanked from her grip, something grabbing hold of it from within and pulling the neck of the bottle into her wound.


    She had watched in shock as the fluid in the bottle had been rapidly emptied and then the emptied bottle spat from the quickly healing wound moments later.


    She wasn''t sure how to feel about what had just happened. The monsters growing within her had-


    It was too much to process, too much to deal with in a moment when she needed to move, needed to move to save Rain!


    She had seen her moment and delivered the asshole noble literally into Rain''s clutches, and then she had hidden, running away, shaking and trembling as she tried very hard not to think about what was growing inside of her, Gobbos right? right?... But what fucking Gobbo forcibly healed itself in the womb!?


    Still, despite her worry, she was glad that she and her, really starting to become quite concerning, spawn had survived.


    Now just to fetch Rain and get the hell out of this leveler filled hell hole.


    She struggled to her feet and looked around the room.


    She had expected Rain to let loose on the Lord after she had pushed him into his reach¡­ but maybe this was a bit much.


    A ceiling beam crashed down, the chunk of three-foot thick timber punching through the floor and leaving a canyon like gap, the trashed dining room below clearly visible.


    ¡­Maybe it would be wise to leave sooner rather than later. Before the rest of the floor and ceiling completely collapsed.


    At the centre of this utter destruction was Rain, or rather whatever he was wearing. The teddy bear''s upper body hung limp from its frozen Lamia girl belt, limp and unmoving.


    As she watched the splintered air around Rain''s hips silently whisped into nothing and he along with the frozen Lamia around his hips suddenly became unfrozen.


    Rain and the Lamia collapsed to the ground.


    "What the hell Fitz!" cried the Lamia as she struggled to sit up, pushing up with her hands against his chest as she made it into a sitting position atop the teddy bear. She blinked as she took in the pulverised room, something that from her perspective had happened instantly. It took her a moment to form words. "...Uhm, well, shit. I guess that old rumour about him stopping time was true."


    The Lamia suddenly looked down at her hips, blinked, then opened her mouth wide as something seemed to happen to her, a shiver rolling up her body.


    "Oh- ooooh fuckkkkk! OH FUUUCK!"


    She shook and trembled and curled down over herself, whimpering and whining as the sound of spattered liquid came from beneath the teenager''s skirt at the same time she moaned low and long, her cheeks going bright crimson, clearly struggling to suppress an extremely pleasurable feeling.


    Opal set her lips in a line. Had the Lamia just peed herself? Odd. but she had more important things to worry about than a pregnant Lamia that couldn''t control her bladder.


    She summoned a harpy talon from her horn and hacked at the teddy bear''s head. It couldn''t cut fabric like it could flesh but it was enough to eventually open up the cloth up, the spherical head cut partially in two.


    Inside she found Rain, his head lying in a sodden wool lake of his own blood.


    He looked up at her, eyes half lidded.


    "Are- you -okay?"


    He sounded awful, his words slurred and scratchy.


    Opal instead of replying jammed another healing potion she had retrieved from Red into his mouth and upended it, giving him the entire thing in one go. He spluttered as the fluid ran down his throat, but then quickly relaxed back as the powerful healing started to take effect.


    A minute or so later and Rain managed to struggle up. He was still badly wounded on his extremities, but the potion had taken care of the worst of it, healing the holes in his neck and chest.


    He winced with the motion, but then turned to stare at Opal.


    "Hey, are you actually okay? I saw- I saw-"


    Opal rested her hand on her midriff.


    "It''s¡­ fine. I was ready. I knew I was probably going to get hurt and I prepared as best I could."


    "And- you know, h-how is¡­?"


    Opal found she couldn''t look him in the eyes. She didn''t know how she was supposed to feel with what had happened. Unsettled? Happy?


    "S''fine, it wasn''t a deep cut," she mumbled.


    Rain sighed in relief.


    A beet red Lamia girl glanced between them, both hands clasped tight around her mouth.


    "... and what happened to you?" squinted Rain.


    She shook her head frantically, unwilling to take her hands away.


    "Hmm." Rain turned to Opal who was looking over the blood covered bear suit with worry.


    "And Lyra?"


    "I, uh, I don''t know, I haven''t seen her."


    Rain heaved himself up immediately, wobbling like a drunk as he made it to standing. Rose made a desperate squealing sound from behind her hands as she was tugged up with him.


    From his greater height, and easier vision with the wide-open bear head, he could see across the wreck of a room and he quickly found Lyra. She was lying behind a pile of rubble from a partially collapsed wall.


    Wranvyre lay next to her.


    He took a step toward her and the floor let out a long and concerning creak. He paused. it didn''t seem like the room would last much longer. They needed to leave. Rain took another step and thankfully the floor held.


    He approached the limp sheep girl and gently kneeled before her.


    Unfortunately, she seemed quite dead and Rain fretted over her, too scared to press his paw against her chest for fear of accidentally crushing the wound and making things worse.


    Opal pressed her hand against her chest in his place.


    "She''s alive, but I- I don''t think she''s doing very well. Uhm, the sword should probably come out right?"


    Rose looked down at her from her perch on Rain''s hips, her cheeks still flushed but apparently having recovered a little.


    "If she isn''t dead already you''ll probably want a hell of a lot of potion while you''re pulling that thing out, like lots and lots, a dozen bottles at least."


    "We don''t have that."


    "Then you need to go somewhere that does, duh."


    Rain scowled. Then his eyes moved to the dead lord. This time he checked for a heartbeat himself, his paw coming down on the Lord''s chest. Nothing. The Lord was very very dead.


    He pulled his paw back and only then realised that he''d accidentally pushed the knife almost entirely into Wranvyre''s rib cage while he was checking. Well, if he wasn''t dead previously he certainly was now, only the pommel of the knife remained visible.


    Rain was about to turn back to Lya when Rose spoke up.


    "What did you do?!"


    He glanced down to see the teenager staring at the knife. He stared too. The flesh around the knife was dissolving into nothing as if a powerful acid was tearing his body to pieces bit by bit. A loud fizzing was coming from the dissolving meat, a hazy clear gas appeared above his corpse.


    Rain acted quickly, pulling back from the gas, dragging Lyra as best he could away from it while trying not to move her injury. Whatever it was it would probably be wise not to breathe it in.


    However he didn''t have to worry long. The gas appeared to be dissipating into nothing as fast as it formed, and once the apparent acid hidden in the knife ate the body up entirely there was no more gas to generate.


    The knife clanged against the rubble as it fell. The three of them stared at it, none of them daring to touch it.


    "There must have been something, a trigger." gravelled Rain.


    "Yeah, obviously the pommel, you hit it and released something." She blinked. "Why does the one who was framed as killing my mother have something an assassin would have Fitz?"


    "It wasn''t hers. It originally belonged to the Lord."


    "...Okay that I understand¡­" She looked up at Rain suddenly. "Wait, You know her?"


    "Yes."


    If the teenager hoped to get anything more than that out of him she was sadly mistaken.


    Rain carefully slipped his paws beneath Lyra and lifted her. The sheep girl''s eyes drifted open as she became momentarily conscious. She shook her head, mumbled something Rain missed and closed her eyes once more.


    "She said Wranvyre is very very very very dead," said Rose, apparently having understood her from her nearer position attached to Rain''s hips.


    "Not surprising she thinks that after what was done to him, apart from, yaknow, being eaten by acid¡­ and stabbed," muttered Opal.


    Rose tilted her head at the goblin. "What do you mean?"


    Opal gestured vaguely around her. "This mess was made by snake boy... going through it. A lot."


    Rose looked at her blankly then around at the obliterated room.


    "Oh."


    Rain turned and slipped the unconscious sheep girl into the bag Opal now held up, a pair of Kobold claws waiting to receive her.


    Inside the bag Lyra was made comfortable as best could be managed in a nest of torn up bedding Rose supplied, blankets made to hold her and the sword carefully in place and with Red standing ready to occasionally drip one of the last healing potions onto her wound.


    Rain breathed a sigh of relief as she was finally set in place and made safe.


    As Lyra was finally settled into the bag Opal held up a black handkerchief, the Lord''s insignia threaded onto it. The thing was bundled around something, something that rattled as she moved it.


    "S''Boner," she mumbled before tossing the thing into the bag with Lyra.


    "What happened?" said Rain, looking at the remains.


    Opal made a complicated expression. "He tried to save us... and was chopped to pieces for it. He... didn''t deserve that."


    Rain matched her complicated expression. Vash had¡­


    Something to work out later as distant shouting was reaching the room now, and the door in the room below slammed open, cries of anger filling the air, a dozen guards spilling into the dining room, all shouting about an attack.


    They quickly spread out with weapons drawn, which was unfortunate as it only took mere seconds for them to spot the giant bear standing above through the many holes in the floor, or more specifically the giant teddy bear with its head ripped open, a monstrous and bloodied wolf head quite visible within.


    The guards'' cries of alarm became much louder.


    Opal made grabbing motions and was lifted up by Rain, held in one arm next to Rose, their rounded fronts strangely twinned. Not that Rose was particularly happy about having a goblin held next to her, or Opal about having a leveler. They stared daggers at each other.


    "We can''t stay. Rose, can you guide us out?" gravelled Rain as the levelers below became angrier still.


    "Uhm, yeah I guess. That would be the least I could do after what you did for me."


    She squirmed her hips against him suggestively causing Rain to wince.


    "Injured still."


    "R-right."


    She flicked some of her pink hair aside and cleared her throat.


    "The uh, monster f-fucking stables are probably our best bet."


    Opal gave the Lamia a long steady look, and her gaze drifted downward, her eyes narrowing as she realised just how the Lamia was positioned.


    "Which we should probably be going to uh, before half the mansion descends on us? And you know, the room falls on our heads? and those guards arrest us?"


    Rain grunted in agreement and moved toward the door, ignoring the bellowed commands to remain still from the guards below. But then he hesitated.


    "Don''t just stand here, go go! They''re coming to get us!" said Rose.


    "It might be better if the rest of the mansion doesn''t immediately realise what I am¡­"


    "Shit, right, okay two secs."


    The teenager flung her hands up and the fabric that had been torn on the teddy bear''s head was forcibly made to re-knit into a clean spherical surface. At the same time the rest of any gashes in its body closed perfectly. The furred fabric violently rippled, pushing out most of the blood which quickly poured down and pooled around the bear''s feet.


    Rain looked himself over, surprised with how suddenly clean and new the bear appeared. Then at Opal''s prodding, he moved into the rest of the Wranvyre''s chambers.


    Voices could be heard moving closer, moving through the top floor which was all Wranvyre''s rooms. His ears twitched as he stalked through the extravagant hallways, carefully avoiding the sound of angry voices echoing through the walls.


    Things were going smoothly, and it seemed like they would be able to descend freely without being noticed, but then they came across the body.


    The bear pushed through the door and looked down to see a maid, some kind of fox girl, who lay sprawled across the ground.


    A marble sized circular hole was just visible on her forehead. The edges of the hole were burned.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 142

    ? Chapter 142:


    "Is that what I think it is?" murmured Rain.


    "He used these tiny deadly fireballs, lots of them, and they just went through everything," said Opal. "He didn''t seem to care very much. I guess if they didn''t stop when they went through you..."


    "Hey, what are you saying?" said Rose, unable to take her eyes off the maid.


    Opal shrugged. "Those guards said attack. I don''t think they meant the Lord, I think they meant everywhere. I think the guards didn''t come sooner because of those fireballs if they''ve been going through all the walls in this place, a lot of people have probably been killed by them."


    Rain began to step around the body, but then the door ahead opened. A Human stood there, one of the guards from the dining room below.


    The guard looked between the dead maid and the bear.


    "H-hey- Help! It''s here! It killed a servant!"


    "Do something leveler girl," hissed Opal.


    "I don''t- uhm," Rose bit her lip as the guard turned wary eyes on them, gripping his halberd tight. "Th-the golem-


    The guard narrowed his eyes in disbelief.


    "-the monster is under my control!" Rose finished weakly.


    "If that''s true miss then you will submit to our word while we sort this out. Have that thing lie on the ground and toss aside any weapons." He glanced down at the maid. "You see how this looks."


    More guards were spilling in behind him as he spoke, Lamia and various other species, each raising bits of steel and eyeing the bear warily.


    "There''s more dead in the Lord''s chamber," came muttered words from behind the guard. The guards became even more wary.


    Rose glanced up at Rain in question, wanting to know if they should do as the guards said, but he shook his head.


    "No. And you know why." he gravelled. It wasn''t even a question really. Wranvyre was dead, a lot of people in the mansion were likely injured or dead from the fireballs. There were half a dozen dead female Lamia in the Lord''s chambers, and finally, he had had a sheep girl with him who every single leveler on the estate wanted dead and would happily kill him to get at, even without any of that they might kill him just for a boost in levels, pretend slave or not.


    Rain took a step back from the guards.


    The guards took a step forward.


    Rain turned and fled back through the door.


    The guards roared their indignation at this.


    He charged through the hallways back the way they had come, this time without time to carefully open doors he smashed them aside with a flick of his arm.


    He made it back to the Lord''s rooms far faster than when they had departed and he flung himself into the air as he entered, a great leap that took him up and then down, falling through one of the many holes in the floor where he came down on top a half destroyed dining table the thing immediately flattened by the impact.


    "Ooh gods help me!" wailed Rose with the landing, her coils clutching desperately tight as her belly wobbled.


    A dozen startled guards watched while he leapt from the table and charged through the dining room doors vanishing into the rooms beyond.


    It seemed like a moment''s reprieve from the chase as they were slow to follow, but then he came through into a larger hall and found most of the original guards who''d been chasing them and many more. That was the problem with running from people who knew a place back to front and top to bottom, they could predict exactly where you might go.


    He made a hard right and crashed through a pair of double doors, ripping them from their hinges, cries of anger hot on his bear heels. Rain charged down the corridor, an unending tide of levelers chasing him.


    "Tell me how to get out of here Rose!"


    "Uh, uh, I don''t know from here! You''ll need to go down, uh, down the stairs, which are back there where the guards are!"


    The levelers weren''t stopping, magic filled the hallway behind him, a storm of fiery death that tore at the walls, far more dangerous than when the incensed teenagers had been after his tail.


    Rain leaned forward and ran for it, belting down the corridor, feet pistoning against the marble and shattering tile after tile. But even with his great speed there were always many more levelers, those coming to see the commotion, and more.


    Well, if there was no way out of this trap then he would just have to make one. He took aim for the blank stone wall at the end of the corridor.


    The wall exploded as he smashed into it, doing his best to protect Rose and Opal as he hit the stone by turning to his side and curling over them, using his shoulder to pierce the stone.


    He found himself flying through the air several stories above the ground, just as he had above the Lord''s room moments before.


    He came down with a crash, his feet making small twin craters in the cobble before instantly launching himself forward, reusing his momentum. A moment later a hail of magic came down where he had just been, lighting and fire and ice crashing across the stone, turning it into thousands of stone splinters in a moment.


    Rain charged through the estate, massive ornate buildings and decorative gardens flashing by, startled and expensively dressed Lamia staring at the giant sprinting bear plushie.


    He knew he couldn''t get out through the walls, the walls of the estate were like any town, heavily and dangerously enchanted, so that left just one viable route.


    He ran for the front gates.


    They were in luck. The front gates had been left open, the carriages of the Lord left out while their endless luggage was taken inside and the monstrous horses were seen too. But that was nearly done with by the time Rain caught sight of the giant wooden doors, and the guards hearing the frantic cries of ''monster'' from those chasing behind were rapidly closing them.


    In fact when the guards saw the giant teddy bear storming toward them they panicked and began to close the doors much faster.


    He still almost made it, a mere dozen feet away from being able to slip through, but then the impossibly thick solid doors slammed shut with a deafening boom and a second later lit up bright with myriad angular enchantments carved across their surface.


    Rain hit hard, feet first, all the weight and strength he could bring to bear in one desperate leap.


    The huge doors crackled with light and magic, straining under the immense impact, the wood bulging outward.


    They still held.


    But that wasn''t what Rain had been aiming for. A smaller door was set into the much larger doors, a servants door. Rain''s full weight smashed into it at the exact moment it closed, the smaller runes on its surface only just starting to glow like the larger door.


    The small door held for all of a second before being launched outward, the entire thing tearing from its frame, a giant bear riding it down onto the cobble outside, the wooden rectangle sliding halfway across the square like some kind of impromptu sled until it came to a stop and the bear was forced to stagger into a run once more.


    Behind him nearly a hundred levelers poured through the once more opening main doors, and more, there were levelers waiting outside who heard the chaser''s cries of monster and joined, swelling the ranks of the furious mob already hundreds strong.


    Rain skidded into the nearest alley, colliding with the wall before bouncing off, his feet pounding stone as he ran and ran. A storm of magic and arrows followed behind as well as several of the faster levelers, those with speed related Skills, weapons raised to slash and stab at his back. Rose was forced to take hold of the clothes of one particularly fast spear wielder as they landed on Rain''s back, picking him up and launching him through the nearest window.


    The bear was fast, but it didn''t seem to matter. People throughout the city knew what the cry of ''monster'' meant, knew the golden opportunity it presented. Seeing half of Wranvyre''s estate racing after it only made the prize that much more valuable, who wouldn''t want to be in the great Lord''s good graces? Just how desirable was the kill on this monster?


    The harder he ran the more levelers there seemed to be, levelers who knew the city, levelers who knew shortcuts. More than once he pelted from an alley only to find a sea of people charging from a nearby street, all of them screaming for his blood.


    It was going just as he had feared being shown as a monster in this city would go. He would be killed by unending numbers, unending levelers hungry to level.


    He burst from a particularly long street and glanced behind him. There were so many people! a field of people that filled the street from one end to the other, all racing toward him! Hundreds and hundreds! Thousands!


    He nearly collided with the crowd ahead as he looked back, stumbling as he knocked a Lapine flat. The crowd behind cried for his head and those ahead turned with interest.


    It didn''t matter how far he ran he seemed doomed to be surrounded by thousands, no, tens of thousands of levelers all desperately eager to kill him, to stab and rend and burn and-


    Being caught seemed inevitable.


    Except there was a path out of this mess, a street that was barren and empty, the crowd avoiding even looking at it let alone going near it.


    He raced for freedom, the many thousands of levelers right on his tail, the crowd behind joining the mob, the continual siren chant of ''Kill the monster!'' egging them on, the air crackling with hundreds of spells.


    The buildings changed as he went, the windows lacking glass, instead filled with bars and grids of iron. What was this? A prison?


    He noticed that the crowd that was chasing him had slowed.


    Then even the buildings disappeared and he found himself on a bridge wide enough to take two coaches with ease, a bridge that flew out and split out into three other bridges which connected to more bridges? a grid of bridges? He continued out onto the grid, his own pace slowing. There were so many bridges here, like a network of bridges that had been placed over a lake.


    He slowed further as he realised the crowd had slowed to a near halt at the first bridge. Confused now, Rain neared the railing and peered over the side.


    What he saw almost made him run back the way he had come. The bridges didn''t span a river or a lake or anything like that. No, they spanned a pit, a vast cylinder cut straight down into the earth. The pits mind-boggling depths seemed to go on for at least a mile until they were swallowed in darkness. The many many bridges formed a great stone and iron grid over this space, each intersection of the bridges capped with a fortified tower. Already he could hear cries from the guards on the towers'' crenellations, alarmed and unsure about the giant plushies presence.


    But the crowd had basically stopped, hesitating to go further. This place was momentarily safe and he slipped out of view of the crowd behind one of the towers, hunkering down in the shadows of a stone battlement.


    He glanced down at the pit once more, unable to help himself.


    The walls of the bottomless pit weren''t empty, Rain''s eyes widened as he realised what he was looking at, there were an uncountable number of holes down there, an unending wall of barred rooms in the stone, each facing out over the gulf, tens of thousands of little prison cells. The mention of ''the pit'' by Florens'' Ranker suddenly made a lot more sense.


    "We shouldn''t be here!" whispered Rose.


    "Why? it''s safer than out there isn''t it?"


    Rose shook her head, her eyes very wide.


    "No! L-Look!"


    Down below Rain caught movement in the dark. A lot of movement. At first he wasn''t sure what he was looking at, just a multitude of limbs and glowing blue dots moving over and over, climbing up from the dark, a swarm that washed over each cell.


    Then the screams reached his ears, drifting up from the depths. He could see magic being used, the occupants of the cells fighting for their lives against the things that were attacking them, spewing magic, stabbing with Skill empowered spears, firing crossbows.


    They weren''t succeeding.


    The prisoners were being killed.


    He caught his first glimpse of what was coming up, dim light flashing of eyes that were filled with nothing but a glowing blue, horrible talons that could cut through steel, dragon like scales emerging from rough spiny fur.


    It was a Panthara.


    Or at least he thought it was, but then, did Panthara''s have six legs? and what was that thing being dragged behind it?


    Rain''s eyes went very wide as a massive bloated sac of heaving flesh was pulled from the dark. Instead of having a tail this creature seemed to have the insect-like abdomen of an ant queen, something no mammal or reptile was supposed to have.


    Behind it came hundreds more Panthara, many carrying pulsing abdominal sacs behind them, many more were like those he was familiar with possessing only four legs.


    The guards continued yelling and Rain realised they had never been yelling about him, they had been yelling because of the things that were crawling up from the depths of the pit.


    The crowd hadn''t noticed the invading Panthara yet, but were getting bolder and bolder, spilling out onto the bridges by the hundreds, voices rising in anger as the nearest spotted him.


    "We need to leave, we need to leave now!" cried Rose, her voice filled with genuine naked fear as she peeked over the railing at what was racing up toward them.


    Rain watched in fascination as the first Panthara clambered up underneath one of the bridges the crowd occupied, one with a sac. He had been mistaken about one other detail about these new Panthara. They were unbelievably enormous, each easily as large as a two storey building. The massive thing hung upside down from the bridge, its size so great that its six taloned feet gripped either side of the bridge with ease.


    The thing turned suddenly and its sac came with it, moving like a separate limb. The massive white thing flopped up over the top of the bridge and Rain could only watch as a yellow fluid was disgorged over the crowd from a pincered hole at its end. The screams were awful as the people were buried in the caustic substance, a heavy cloud of smoke billowing into the air as they burned and burned and burned.


    "Run!" screamed Rose.


    This time he listened, especially when the sac started spewing person sized soft black eggs that rippled and bulged with something inside trying to get out. The city could deal with whatever nightmarish things had just crawled out of the dungeon, he was done for the day, done and done.


    The guards yelled at the panicking crowd demanding they help them fight off the dungeon surge. It didn''t seem like they were having much luck, but it was all the distraction Rain needed. He fled across the grid of bridges and darted back into the city, fleeing down the first alley he saw and quickly losing himself amongst myriad twists and turns.


    They''d escaped the mob, they were free.


    Now all that remained was to heal Lyra¡­ and deal with Rose.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 143

    ? Chapter 143:


    Walking through the streets of Florens without the protection of Lyra''s invisibility was a new experience, and a worrying one, yet Rain found himself being left alone to his quiet disbelief. A giant teddy bear plushie with a Lamia wrapped around its hips and a goblin under one arm drew looks of confusion or curiosity but nothing like the howling mob that had chased him from Wranvyre''s estate.


    It seemed that this far away from the estate no one had a clue about his disguise. If he had to guess the city had much larger worries with what was surging out of the dungeon than spreading a strange rumour that a random monster was dressed as a giant teddy bear.


    Which was fortunate as Lyra was still very unconscious and unable to make them invisible if the worst were to happen.


    Being dressed as a bear did make him feel strangely naked, even though he was wearing ''clothes''. Walking around in public without Lyra''s ability just felt wrong somehow. He''d gotten so used to being under her invisibility that even his steps were calculated with being invisible in mind, hyper aware of the crowds moving around him and carefully changing how he moved to avoid even a touch.


    Which was awkward, as the crowd could very clearly see the giant bear that he was and tried very hard to step out of his way. More than once Rain found himself stepping into a leveler''s path as they stepped into his and sent them flying head over heels as they accidentally slammed together.


    Rose helped the latest Lapine to be sent sprawling by dragging them up onto their feet by their clothes.


    "Sorry! Still getting used to controlling it, new golem Skill, you know how it is!" she waved cheerfully.


    Surprisingly that seemed to work for every time a leveler was knocked to the ground, and Rain was allowed to go on his way after a few muttered curses about idiot teenagers.


    Eventually, he started to become used to being seen, becoming comfortable with people flowing around his size, ignoring the stares or people pointing and forging his own path rather than stepping around others. It was just like in Lynthia when he had pretended to be a leveler, people making way for him, except without the terror of being seen as a monster. ...It was nice.


    He wasn''t the only one becoming more and more comfortable.


    As time passed and they walked through the city, Rose was slowly becoming frisky, wiggling her hips against Rain and bouncing lightly with each of his steps. She was using his motions for her own enjoyment, her cum belly wobbling as she happily ground herself against him, her flitty skirt fluttering up and down with her hips, completely uncaring that they were out in public. The Lamia girl very clearly had a love of being surrounded by unknowing people.


    "Hey!" said Opal. She was held in one of Rain''s arms to Rose''s side and could see exactly what she was doing. "Stop that, stop bouncing on him!"


    "Hnff, but it feel so- so-


    The Lamia let out a low pleasured moan and Opal''s cheeks flushed with anger.


    Opal squirmed forward in Rain''s grip and pressed her belly against the teenager''s cum belly. To her annoyance she found she was smaller despite being so heavily pregnant. The Lamia was just on a different scale to her and apparently Rain had become a lot more productive.


    She tried pressing harder against the Lamia, trying to slow her bouncing. But if it slowed the frisky teenager it wasn''t evident. Even when Opal reached out and pressed her hands down on the taut rounded surface of her belly Rose didn''t slow, naturally stronger than the Goblin she wasn''t going to be stopped from getting what she wanted.


    Opal cursed and swore but was forced to give up as she couldn''t physically stop her.


    "Tch. S''not like you know what you''re doing anyway."


    "Ahnn- I so do! I didn''t go down to the monster stables so often for nothing, hnff, even if this one is sooo much bigger than any monster we''ve ever had on the estate!"


    Opal gave her a curious look hearing that. "You like monsters that much?


    "It''s the rough wildness, levelers are just lame in comparison, and- and the size difference, they can be sooo much bigger! G-gawddd!"


    Opal raised an eyebrow and glanced down at her moving hips.


    "How much bigger is he anyway?"


    "B-bigger?"


    Opal gave her a knowing look. "Yeah, you think he was always this size? He wasn''t this big when we last did it. He''s gotta be way bigger down there now cause he''s grown so much."


    "V-very- very b-big, s-so freaking beeeg!" keened the teenager as her bouncing came to a peak and a flood of clear fluid washed from beneath her skirt and sprinkled down on the street below, her fluids loudly spattering on the stone.


    She was left panting and desperately clutching at the bear''s fur.


    "Wait, g-gimme a sec," groaned the teenager.


    Rain stopped by one of the trees that lined the street and looked down at her with annoyance.


    "J-just a moment!" panted Rose, her skin was soaked and beads of sweat rolled down her domed midriff. She flapped a hand, trying to cool herself down in the warm sunshine after her exertion. After a minute of this Rain made to move off but Rose waved her hands at him.


    "Just a minute more, I''m really really sensitive down there okay!? All this running around and stuff, gods, you''ve no idea what you''ve been doing to me!"


    "Ughh." said Opal, rolling her eyes. She dropped from Rain''s arm, using the shadows to ease herself down by the tree.


    "H-hey, you said yourself you don''t know what this monster is like down there now, so shuddup!"


    Opal scowled at the teenager and crossed her arms over her front. Then her eyes moved to the teenager''s pregnant looking belly, her skin made taut and round by the massive filling she had been subjected to at the mansion.


    "I totally didn''t agree to share you with her, you know."


    "It was an emergency."


    "An emergency where she gets filled to the brim with your-"


    "Yes. We had an agreement, which went wrong... but in the end it worked out."


    Rain vaguely waved a blunt bear paw around as if to demonstrate. No one in the street seemed particularly threatened by the motion.


    "Her disguise is the only reason we can go anywhere with Lyra like this, you know that right? It was necessary."


    Opal scowled even harder. But couldn''t deny it.


    "This bear¡­ thing... that Rose made, lets me go anywhere. It lets me go somewhere safe to get help for Lyra where she won''t be attacked. Which would be-"


    "We could go to the library? That''s safe."


    "I don''t think it likely that Drake would allow me inside even if she thinks I''m just Rose''s golem. And besides, there''s no healing potions there, or someone who knows what they are doing with her kind of injury. There''s only one place to go, and that means Rose needs to go away."


    "What?!" cried Rose, "I''m not going anywhere! You opened my eyes to a whole new world of awesome monster sex!"


    Rain set his lips in a very displeased line. Especially as a number of passers by heard her loud words and curiously glanced in their direction.


    "No. You are not staying with us, you are not staying with me. Our goals happened to align for a short time, but you aren''t trustworthy. You''re a leveler. You know what we are."


    "No way! I''m totally trustworthy!"


    "You nearly got me found out when you decided to selfishly get yourself off on me right by your sisters¡­ and then made¡­ a mess all over them which made them go insane with anger. You didn''t have to do that. I''m sorry but you''re done."


    "I''ll call the guards down on your head if you don''t let me stay!"


    "You won''t know where we are, this city is enormous."


    "Then I''ll call them now, I''ll tell every leveler here what you really are!"


    "If you do that," said Rain, lowering his bear head down threateningly, "I will eat you alive, screaming."


    "Don''t threaten me with a good time fluffy boy."


    Rain growled and turned his head so that she could see his real head through a glass eye disk.


    Their eyes met.


    "I''ve lost count of the number of levelers I have killed and eaten Rose. If you think I won''t do the same to you if you threaten us¡­"


    "Okay okay I was only kidding, besides I wouldn''t ever wanna share you with my sisters and more than¡­ a freaking goblin apparently? Really?"


    "I am a monster too," said Opal.


    "Yeah, but a goblin is so like, gobliny, even if it''s a clean one."


    Opal didn''t say a word. Instead flicking a harpy talon from her horn as she sank into the shadows. She dropped down from the leaves above and landed on top of the Lamia''s belly, straddling her roundness with her thighs and pushing her rounded front up onto Rose''s breasts, dominating her with her pregnancy.


    "AHnnnn!" Rose whimpered as she was pressed down on the length still inside of her by the goblin girl''s weight.


    Her voice froze in her throat however when a black harpy talon was held by her neck.


    "He won''t have to kill you because I will."


    "But-"


    "-But I''m just a helpless little Gobbo? You''ll still die if I push this into you. That noble asshole nearly collapsed from exhaustion because of this stuff, he was that pants shittingly terrified of touching it he used up all his magic just keeping it away."


    Rose nervously licked her lip and tried to peer down at the thing held below her chin.


    "I d-don''t care! I want to be with Fitz forever and ever and ever! Stretching me out and pounding me to heaven in front of everyone all day everyday until- until I can''t feel my tail! Until I can''t move and everyone is looking right at me, everyone watching my tummy grow fat with his seed!"


    Opal and Rain glanced at each other hearing that, or at least the giant teddy bear head looked down at her.


    "Uh, okay this one is foaming at the mouth like crazy," said Opal falling back and tumbling off the Lamia''s belly head over heels. She dropped through the shadowed ground and popped up by the tree, smoothly coming to a standing stop with a small hop.


    "I''m not crazy, I''m not!"


    Rain lifted his paws and put them under her arms. Then he began to lift.


    "Wh-what are you doing!? N-NUUU!"


    He hauled up on the teenager, his knot tugging at her pussy lips, stretching her wider and wider, her labia going thin in an O shape around the massive thing until-


    SCHL-POP!!


    The knot came free with a teenage scream and hot cum gushed from her massively gaped puss, a solid wrist thick flow of thick gooey white that rolled down her pink scales from under her skirt, all completely visible to everyone passing by.


    Rain''s cock flopped down, quickly becoming flaccid, and with an awkward shake of his hips pulled back through the slit in the teddy bear''s front.


    He lifted the trembling Lamia up and placed her in the tree, her hands desperately reaching under her skirt, clutching at her loins and unsuccessfully trying to hold back the slow flow oozing from her swollen reddened muff.


    Rain ignored her struggles and grasped the end of her tail and flipped it over the branch she was sat on. Then he looped it back through the first loop.


    He took the tail tip between his bear paws and hauled back on it, one foot pressing against the tree trunk. The tail drew almost painfully tight around the branch. Then he repeated what he had just done with the rest of her tail.


    The Lamia was left tied to the tree with her own body.


    Rose wiggled her tail experimentally and found she couldn''t move even an inch. Cum continued to slowly pour from under her skirt.


    "Are you serious?! Are you just going to leave me tied to a freaking tree in public with your cum leaking out of me?!"


    "Yes."


    The teenager made an outraged squawk.


    "D-don''t leave me!"


    "If I untie you you will just follow, and I can''t have that. I need to get that sword taken out of Lyra. I don''t have a choice, that''s how it is."


    He turned and strode away, Opal following smugly in his wake.


    After a moment he slowed as the entire bear plushie he wore pushed against him, trying to drag him backwards. The pressure wasn''t enough to really slow him, but it was annoying. He turned and glared at the leaky teenager.


    "Eeep! S-sorry! It- it was, uh, force of habit!"


    "Goodbye forever Rose."


    He passed through the crowd, people moving around him like shoals of fish around a shark. The bear disappeared down the nearest alley.


    Rose forlornly watched him go, a huge puddle of sticky white slowly forming on the ground below her.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 144

    The journey back to Warwick''s place went smoothly. Most levelers seemed to figure that a large monster was not very likely to be wearing a giant bear plushie and just walking around calmly on its own. He was left alone, and especially left alone as they neared simply because there were so few people. Bean seemed to act as a natural geographic falloff, the nearer you got to where he lived the less people wanted to be around.


    Rain looked for the right opportunity and stepped into the alley depths unseen. The stark emptiness of the place was almost eerie and he wondered how many years they had been abandoned like this. Bean had supposedly been around a very long time, many many years, and that was reflected in how unlived in the place appeared.


    He found his way deeper and entered the building that housed Warwick''s hideout? base? Wherever the grumpy leveler did his work anyway.


    The stairs had been changed since Rain had last used them, the mostly shattered and broken steps replaced with oak and bracketed in steel, someone obviously putting quite a lot of work into replacing them.


    His foot still went through a number of them.


    At the top he found Opal fiddling with the doors, apparently she had watched Warwick carefully and figured a way to open the things on her own, that or she had stolen a key. In any case, her small hands worked quickly and she got through the first then shoved open the second door and rushed through.


    Impatient, and struggling with the too small doorway, Rain forced his way past as he followed, knocking part of the door frame off as he stepped free into the grassy square that made up Warwick''s home, various buildings surrounding the rooftop garden.


    A startled Warwick looked between Opal, who was clambering up onto the outside dining table, and the giant plushie barging its way through his front door.


    It only took him a moment to figure it out.


    "Gods damned clumsy monster! What have you done to my doo-"


    "We need your help." growled Rain.


    "Help? I have an agreement with your master for Pickle to end your life. There was never anything about ''help''."


    "If she dies you won''t get me. The deal will be void."


    Warwick blinked then turned to see Opal and Red together dragging an incredibly pale and deathly looking Lyra free of the dimensional bag and onto the table.


    Warwick stared at the rapier that was stabbed through her chest.


    "She''s dead," said Warwick, his voice cold and quiet.


    He suddenly turned and backed away from Rain. In the same motion his arms rose and a heavy loaded crossbow materialised from thin air and fell into his hands. He aimed it at Rain.


    "Don''t move an inch monster or I will send this bolt straight through your chest."


    "It wouldn''t be the first thing to be sent through me today" said Rain as he looked over Lyra. "She''s still alive right?"


    Opal nodded as she held her hand over the sheep girl''s mouth.


    "Mmhmm. Still breathing and beating."


    Rain turned on the leveler. "You have treated severe wounds before. I know you''ve been at what you do for a long time and I''ve seen how many people are maimed in these slums. Florens'' dungeon is so bad that you must have come across the worst cases over and over, therefore you must have significant experience and a supply of healing potions, potions she needs."


    The crossbow lowered slightly.


    Rain frowned when Warwick didn''t make a move to go fetch them.


    "You made an agreement leveler. And if you think a few potions are worth more than a monster like me then you are a fool. Even nobles would kill just for the opportunity to kill me."


    "Agreement?" came a female voice.


    A tall muscular woman wiping her hands on a rag appeared behind Warwick, her hair done up in a severe black bun, a heavy apron hanging over her front.


    "What does this, whatever this bear thing is, mean by agreement Warwick?"


    "Uh," said Warwick. "It''s nothing, uh, we have¡­ an injured leveler. An accident in the dungeon I assume, they''ve come for help."


    The woman looked over at Lyra as Warwick gestured at her. Her brow rose in alarm as she saw just how dead looking the sheep girl was.


    "So help them!" she yelled, smacking him on the arm.


    "I was¡­ going to do that. Gods, give me a moment."


    "Moment over, get to it."


    "I was-!"


    Pickle raced past his leg, an open topped box filled with bottles balanced on her head.


    Warwick looked down in alarm as the rattling box passed him by and reached out to grab it. The small goat child nimbly darted away from his grasp and jumped, thrusting the box on top of the table. She quickly scrambled up on one of the chairs and then onto the table top along with the box.


    She raised her hands.


    "Pickle heals!"


    The woman crossed her bare arms, her biceps bulging. "A moment where Pickle moves faster than you? You''re getting too old for this line of work Warwick."


    Warwick scowled but then stomped over to the table where Pickle was picking up bottles one after the other and ogling the sparkling or glowing contents.


    "Some of these are dangerous Pickle. Don''t just be throwing anything on a patient. I''ve heard of a few times when a panicked leveler confused a bottle of acid with a healing potion and made their injured comrade''s wound fatal."


    Pickle blinked up at him, then looked at the bubble filled bottle she held. She shook it cautiously, as if half expecting it to explode.


    "Don''t do that."


    Warwick plucked a pair of more normal looking potions up and approached Lyra. As he did so Red tapped the last of the stolen healing potion into her wound. He gave the Kobold a curious look as it was his first time seeing him but then moved onto the patient''s wound.


    He leaned in close and moved his head side to side, judging where the blade was placed.


    "This is¡­ The blade is actually in her heart? And she lives?"


    "Yeah, don''t you think? look where it is."


    He gave Opal a sour look but visibly forced his dislike of speaking with monsters down for the patient''s sake.


    "I''ve only heard of this happening once before. They died. But in theory it should be possible to save her. The heart isn''t special like most priests would tell you, it''s just a big lump of muscle and flesh, something healing potions are pretty good with."


    "Yeah? So we can just yank it out right?"


    "I really wouldn''t recommend it. The heart isn''t the only issue here."


    "We were told removing it while pouring lots of healing potions over it would work," gravelled rain.


    Warwick raised an eyebrow. "Well they told you right, or close enough. But that is far easier said than done."


    He hesitated then handed a potion to Opal. Then after a moment, handed the other to Red.


    "You want her to live then you will do as I say. Kobold, you pour yours on her back. Goblin, you pour yours on her chest. I''ll drag the blade free. Pickle you keep ''em supplied, you know what the healing ones look like now right?"


    Pickle nodded furiously, already holding several bottles ready in her arms.


    "It''s Red, actually, not, ''Kobold''," sniffed Red as he crouched down behind Lyra''s back as she lay on her side.


    "That''s nice." said Warwick, not even looking in his direction.


    He placed one hand on Lyra''s sternum, then wrapped the other around the handle of the rapier.


    "On three, two, -"


    He began to apply pressure, slowly easing the blade from her as Opal and Red frantically splashed potion at her wound.


    Inch by gradual inch the blade eased free, Warwick occasionally stopping to check she was still alive.


    "It''s going in," cried Red as the steel tip disappeared past the skin of her back and the potion began to heal it over.


    "Good, move up to her head and start pouring that thing down her neck, I-


    He stopped moving suddenly, his eyes snapping down to her chest.


    "What is it?" gravelled Rain.


    "Her heart stopped."


    "What do you mean her heart stopped?" cried Opal.


    "It''s just as I said, it''s no longer beating."


    "If she dies leveler, I will end you."


    "Shut up. Pickle, pass the box, quickly, quickly!"


    The box was dragged over by a fearful Pickle and Warwick darted his hand amongst the bottles, scattering several across the table top as he looked for what he needed. He plucked a bottle the size of a thimble from the box, the thing glowing and crackling with light, then he turned, flicked off the cap and splashed the continents over Lyra''s front.


    She jerked, convulsing as visible lightning rolled up and down her body, her back arching.


    "What are you doing to her?!"


    "Forcing her heart to beat, making her breathe. Watch."


    A choked gasp came from Lyra''s lips after a moment and her back eased.


    "More potion, quickly damn you!"


    The others got back to work furiously dumping potion on the sheep girl as Warwick hauled on the blade, pulling and then tugging at it, scraping past the bone of her ribs as the slim steel was finally ripped from her chest, a thin line of blood flung over the grass as the bloodied blade whipped free.


    Opal and Red and Pickle descended on the wound, pushing her on her back and jamming multiple bottles of potion down her throat at the same time and pouring the stuff liberally over her chest.


    "Hey hey I''m not made of money! She''s got enough! She''s done!" bellowed Warwick.


    They pulled back as Lyra rolled onto her side and vomited up unused healing potion all over the table.


    "Bwaarghrghrghrghlllll!"


    She flopped back breathing hard, her cheeks rapidly washing from pale like death to red with exertion.


    "What. The fuck." she groaned.


    Pickle yelled happily and leapt into the air, belly flopping onto Lyra''s stomach.


    "OOF! What the furcckkkk!" Gasped Lyra as the wind was knocked out of her and she curled up.


    She grabbed hold of the snow white goat child wiggling against her and tried to push her off. Pickle was having none of it and wiggled harder.


    "Pickle! Geroffoutofit!" snapped Warwick and the child finally fell back allowing Lyra to sit up.


    "I¡­ feel like shit." She blinked and looked down at her chest, a hand raising to grasp at a phantom rapier that was no longer there.


    "You nearly died," said Rain.


    "Oh." She hesitantly pressed a hand against her front, the wound gone, not even a scar. "Hey, I guess I''m like you."


    Rain tilted his head.


    "You''re the one who usually gets horribly wounded. Guess it had to happen to me sometime¡­" she smiled weakly. "Karma for murdering a Lord of the city. I''m a real m-murderer now."


    "I''m going to be real with you sheepy. You didn''t do much."


    "Hu-wha-? I freaking stabbed him to death!"


    "Yeah, after he was turned into mash potato by Rain here. He was gonna die no matter what."


    "I- whatever! That doesn''t matter, I dealt the final blow, my kill!" she almost sounded annoyed with the goblin.


    Opal scratched her nose and shrugged. "He wasn''t very strong for a supposed tip top elite noble leveler once Rain got hold of him," she snapped her fingers together, "He got turned into a boneless whip like that."


    Warwick looked between the two girls, seeming alarmed.


    "What- who do you mean by¡­ elite noble leveler¡­? You don''t mean..."


    The pair flatly ignored him.


    "He was pretty strong Opal. Being able to stop living things in place. Do you have any idea how insane of an advantage that is while leveling in a dungeon, or when dueling other levelers, or- or doing anything! I don''t know, stealing treasure? or assassinating people?"


    "Freeze a monster and pincushion them with fireballs that can punch through anything," said Rain. "That''s more dangerous than any brute strength, more than any simple magic." The plushie bear head turned to Opal. "Without you we all would have died. You know that right?"


    Opal blinked. "Okay I changed my mind. He was the most dangerous leveler in existence and I am a legendary Gobbo Hero. Quick! We need to get this written down, this is way better than those shitty leveler books in the library!"


    "You''re not writing down our crime as evidence Opal!"


    "Find me pens! paper!"


    "Opal!"


    Warwick''s expression became increasingly concerned.


    "It''s a good thing I nurture a small hatred for the nobility girl or I would be doing something you wouldn''t like after what I just heard. Still, if you bring down the nobility on my family''s heads, I-"


    "Oh that''ll never happen. It should be fine. Probably."


    Warwick did not look particularly satisfied with that answer.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 145

    ? Chapter 145:


    A radiant azure butterfly fluttered across the grass, gently flitting from blade to blade. Pickle watched her target with a furious focus, like a tiny tiger, only her eyes visible from where she hid in the long grass.


    After many minutes of patience the butterfly at last came close to where she hid and she pounced. Leaping into the air, reaching to catch the pretty sparkly thing!


    She missed completely of course, and rolled head over heels across the grass until she came to a stop with a flop.


    A moment later the butterfly alighted on her unmoving head.


    It lazily moved its wings up and down in the sun, sunbathing, seemingly considering the goat child a complete non-threat. After a moment of disbelief Pickle growled at the indignance and grabbed for it in a surprise attack, but the butterfly casually fluttered away, teasing her by remaining just out of reach.


    "Badfly," she groaned before sitting up.


    Clearly the butterfly was cheating and magic. A hero like her couldn''t be outsmarted by a butterfly, that made no sense. She''d have to make some artistic flourishes to the story of her epic hunt when she told it to Bean later.


    She flicked away a blade of grass on the bridge of her nose and watched as the gem like butterfly fluttered across the grassy square that was home. New father was there, being grumpy as usual. Doubly so than normal as new mother was visiting for her monthly deep clean of the place.


    Pickle didn''t mind. When new mother visited that meant the most amazing food ever would soon be served because new mother was a very good cook.


    In the past she''d even tried to get Bean to eat new mother''s super tasty food, sneaking portions away from the table to feed him. But he''d simply hissed at the stuff and angrily licked his eyeballs. Bean had a weird sense of taste.


    Things had been peaceful with new mother and new father pottering around the various buildings that made up home and that seemed likely to continue until nap time. But then the front door had swung open and the green girl who had eaten too much had appeared, then, to her astonishment, a giant teddy bear had stepped into her world.


    Today was clearly going to be a great day.


    Pickle was a good girl. At least in her estimation. No, wait, more than good, she was a hero! So of course she was the first to figure out that the girl who wore clouds was hurt really bad, and first to fetch the healy box that new father had taught her about.


    They''d saved her of course, thanks to her quick thinking, which just went to show how heroic she was, butterfly or not. She would definitely be telling Bean about this later when they had their midnight storytime.


    The only thing that had been better than being very heroic and amazing was the appearance of the giant teddy bear. Now that was something she could stare at forever. So much fluff, so much bear. It was hard to comprehend. The only one who could possibly compete with this new fluff bear was the ultimate fluffy boy. It was a shame he wasn''t here, two big fluffs were so much better than one.


    She wrinkled her nose as she recalled that Bean wasn''t a fan of the ultimate fluffy boy. Which was silly, really, who wouldn''t be a fan? Fluff was so soft and he had so much fluff! Fluff!


    It was one of the few times that she and Bean had ''argued'', the last storytime had ended with lots of arm waving and huffing, which bothered her a lot, she didn''t want to upset the bald lizard.


    New father had saved her from the dungeon, but Bean¡­


    In the early days, after leaving the dungeon, when she couldn''t sleep and spent her nights weeping, he had come for her. At first she had been scared of the thing creeping in the dark, but then she had slowly gotten used to the bald lizard''s presence, and then somehow they had begun to communicate, mostly wordlessly and with gestures.


    Her forever connection to the bald lizard had formed when she had come to understand that Bean was afraid, afraid in the exact same way she was. He too had come from a place of nightmares, a place of horrors, a place that preyed on the mind.


    She''d asked him what his bad place had been, had it been the dungeon like her?


    Bean had told her, his voice a scratchy whisper, a voice not used in years and years.


    He''d told her, "The Place."


    She''d instantly understood that was its name, it wasn''t the dungeon, it was so so much worse than that, and then she''d seen his eyes, the sheer depth of the trauma there was like a physical blow. She couldn''t breathe at the sight, her throat constricting, her guts filling with ice. His eyes told her that what had been done to him had happened there, the loss of his scales, his lack of voice, the endless haunting fear.


    She''d burst into tears and the bald lizard had fretted, tears rolling down his scale-less cheeks.


    They''d held each other, shaking and crying in shared trauma until the sun had risen, so much fear and trauma cried out in one night that she had felt light headed and shaky limbed the next day.


    It was only after she had found Bean and in him someone who so perfectly understood her that she had been able to open up to new father and new mother and family.


    That was why she was so fiercely protective of Bean. He was family.


    -


    Rain let out a breath of pained air as he moved to sit cross legged by the table, his arm twinging because the marble sized holes that had been punched through his flesh had only been half healed.


    He lifted a bear paw to touch at it, but paused as movement caught his attention.


    Pickle was there, standing on the table. She held out a bottle for him. A healing potion.


    "...Thank you?"


    Rain brought his bear paws together and gingerly plucked it from her hands. Pickle gave him a brilliantly pleased smile, her eyes squeezing shut with joy. He wasn''t sure she knew who was in the plushie, but she had quickly noticed he was injured. That was kind of impressive in a way.


    The bear paws of course were just nubs, they didn''t have any digits, and he had no way of actually using the potion on his wounds.


    It was time to lose the plushie.


    A dozen dark centipedes poured from his fur, their pincers sliding into the fabric. Then they began to scissor.


    "What the hell are those things?" snapped Warwick, his crossbow once more materialising in his hands and pointing at Rain.


    Rain didn''t answer but sat patiently as the centipedes did their work, cutting and chewing a ring around the neck, the shoulders, the legs, and then finally dividing the torso into front and back sections. The fur lined fabric cut up in a way that he could maybe sew it back together someday.


    It was a ridiculous thing to wear really¡­ but he had liked being able to walk through the city without people screaming their heads off in fright or attacking him.


    The centipedes finished and took hold of the cloth, tugging the separate parts away as he held out his arms and spread his legs.


    The stuffy spherical head pulled free and his head was bathed in sunlight. He breathed in fresh air through his nose with a long breath. Of course then the wool stuffing poured down on him from the opening on the bear head held above and he sneezed as he breathed it in.


    Most of the rest of him was covered in the wool stuffing too as the limbs were pushed and pulled off. His lap was just a heaping mountain of wool which Pickle immediately jumped into with an excited cry of "Fluff!".


    "Injured still" he groaned, snatching up the potion from one of the centipedes and throwing the entire thing into his mouth instead of struggling with the miniscule cap. His teeth turned the glass to harmless powder and he swallowed it down with the contents.


    "What in the¡­" came a shocked voice.


    He turned to see the muscular woman staring at him, her body tense as though expecting an attack. He couldn''t say he blamed her, seeing a monster appear out of a teddy bear sounded like something from a leveler''s worst nightmares.


    "He''s... probably not going to attack. It''s¡­ okay," said Warwick after a moment, the crossbow lowering.


    "And you brought a monster of this size, and- and threat, up from the dungeon? Are you insane? You were supposed to have put this kind of thing behind you a long time ago!"


    "Not mine. A slave. Hers."


    Lyra waved vaguely at Velatha. "Haha, yeah, he''s mine. Don''t, uh, worry, he''s mostly harmless."


    "Mostly harmless¡­" muttered the woman staring at the enormous and terrifying wolf monster as the black centipedes retracted into its fur.


    Opal snorted, "The mostly bit is cause he ate an entire Orc tri-blarhghl-"


    Lyra cut the goblin off by slapping a hand over her mouth. She laughed awkwardly as the others stared.


    "Ignore her, she''s just trying to stir up silly drama. Uh, V-Velatha, do you do what Warwick does too? The whole dragging up monsters from the dungeon for low levelers thing?"


    Velatha narrowed her eyes at the clear attempt at a subject change.


    "... No, I''m mostly retired from dungeon diving. I did my time and I''m happy enough with my level and my work. Risking my life to catch slimes and rats in that hell hole is an idiot''s game."


    Warwick elbowed her in the side.


    "An idiots game that saves children''s lives."


    She rubbed her side and frowned. "I never said it didn''t. It''s still idiotic. You have children of your own to survive for."


    "I''m surviving perfectly fine thank you."


    "If you say so husband."


    Opal wiped at her mouth as Lyra removed her hand.


    "You''re married? Well why haven''t I seen you before? This is where that grumpy ass lives, right? Don''t you live here too?"


    "No dear¡­ g-goblin. My children and I do not live here. They are afraid of Bean, and my husband''s business brings unsavoury people and dangers that we both decided were better compartmentalised."


    "Oh? So you don''t count Pickle as family?"


    The woman made a complicated expression. "We love Pickle very much, and I''ve tried to take her away to our little apartment on the other side of the city multiple times. She just keeps sneaking back here, for her¡­ friend."


    "Bean, you mean Bean right?"


    "Yes, that¡­ horrifyingly evil wicked thing. I understand why it is useful for keeping people away¡­ but there is a limit, something that- that- cursed! Shouldn''t exist!" She let out an involuntary shudder and her eyes darted around the grassy square, as if expecting Bean to leap from the shadows and start licking her eyeballs at any moment.


    Pickle raised her hands in the air and yelled "BEAN GOOD!"


    Velatha flinched at the cry and glared at the goat child.


    "Enough of that Pickle, you might attract its attention."


    Rain lifted a paw and gently patted Pickle who was sitting on a mountain of wool stuffing beside him. This time he managed it without knocking her flat. Pickle giggled and grabbed at his paw, hugging it.


    After a moment Velatha took notice, her eyes darting between Rain and the goat child, clearly considering something.


    "You think this new attachment of hers could replace her insane attachment to Bean," she murmured to Warwick by her side.


    Warwick jerked at the statement, his eyes snapping onto Pickle, seeming for the first time to notice the way she was hugging Rain''s paw affectionately.


    "That would be¡­ extremely bad¡­ when the time comes for her to k-" he glanced at Velatha, recalling who he was talking to, "This monster isn''t going to be here for long, so no."


    "If it isn''t for long then that''s even better. She can become attached to this one, then when he goes she''ll hopefully give up entirely on this habit of attaching herself to dangerous things." She paused, "You realise where she picked that up from yes? Her time in the dungeon..."


    Warwick remained silent as he watched Pickle give up on wrestling Rain''s paw and tumble down the mountain of wool stuffing before she went racing off into the grass.


    Rain moved uncomfortably as he watched her go.


    Unfortunately, while healing potions could heal his injuries, they couldn''t heal another nearly as pressing issue.


    HUNGER.


    Rain''s stomach growled embarrassingly loudly and caused the others to turn and take notice.


    "Oh? You haven''t eaten? Red, c''mere," said Lyra as her wool washed black.


    Red made a grumbling sound but disappeared into her wool where she sat on the table. He appeared a moment later hauling a dead calf by a rope. He stumbled as the last of it pulled free, the thing left on its side on the table top.


    Velatha immediately darted over, clearly interested in making a friendly connection with Lyra.


    "Ah, you want to feed your monster? Well, I can certainly cook this for you, I work as a cook you see and-


    Rain picked up the calf and bit its entire head off. He swallowed it down in one gulp.


    Her words petered off to nothing as she looked up at the headless calf, her face paling.


    "He likes it raw."


    "I- I see¡­ b-but surely it would taste better cooked."


    Pickle raised her hands in the air at the calf "OM NOM NOM!"


    Rain tore into the calf''s ribcage, quickly biting it down in chunks, devouring it.


    "Is- Is he¡­ going to eat all of that? the entire thing?"


    She was given her answer as Rain ripped his way through the rest of the calf and swallowed down its back legs in one go.


    "Snack." gravelled Rain.


    "What?"


    "Just a snack."


    The woman blinked and turned to see Red hauling out yet another calf, nearly a dozen lined up on the table now.


    "This is all for him..." said the woman, her voice faint.


    "I know, it''s not very much. So uh, we''d better hope it''s enough to take the edge off his hunger, or bad things will happen."


    "Wha- what happens if it doesn''t?"


    Opal looked the muscular woman over, as though weighing her up, judging how filling her body would be, like a cook checking over her ingredients before putting them in the pot.


    Velatha did not like the look she was being given, not the least of which was because she weirdly recognised the look as a cook herself.


    It only took her a moment to come to a decision.


    "I, uh, uhm¡­ Warwick! I''m opening up the emergency food stores!"


    The man snapped around, a fiercely protective expression already on his face.


    "You wouldn''t dare!"


    "T-trust me on this Warwick, I have this¡­ feeling. Call it a cook''s instinct."


    To Warwick''s annoyance, the supplies of the hideout were swiftly turned out for the group. Fortunately for Warwick many of the supplies turned out not to be meat which Rain couldn''t benefit from. Still, Warwick practically steamed with irritation as he watched various apparently magically frozen carcasses paraded out from his food storage building and placed onto the dining table.


    After finishing the last of the calfs Rain hesitantly picked out what looked like a boar. The thing was frozen solid of course and he waved the stiff thing around for a moment before attempting to take a bite.


    The boar immediately shattered into a hundred pieces as his teeth sliced through it, chunks of angular iced boar meat scattering over the grass.


    "What are you doing?! At least let me cook it for you, gods."


    A bonfire was quickly constructed and lit and the two dozen frozen carcasses were thrust into the flames as Rain watched, practically drooling as the frozen things became unfrozen and their scent made his mouth water.


    He darted out a paw to snatch up one of the boars, but a spoon appeared and smacked it away.


    He growled at the spoon wielding Velatha as she did her best to stare him down.


    "God knows I have enough Skills on these damned things hurrying them along, you can wait for what little time it takes to cook."


    "I don''t care if it''s cooked. It doesn''t taste any better," he snarled.


    She put her hands on her hips.


    "Do you cook it plain?"


    "..."


    "I mean do you use spices?"


    Rain stared at her in incomprehension. He hadn''t used spices in his human life let alone in his monster life.


    "A few species of leveler prefer their meat basically raw too you know, Drakes and the like." She paused for dramatic effect. "That is unless I use my special secret spice mix."


    Rain wondered how long this was going to take. Velatha was starting to look more and eatable.


    She plucked a bag from her apron, turned, and threw a handful of the contents inside over the rapidly cooking carcasses.


    Rain stared. It looked like some meat with powder tossed randomly on top.


    He reached out a paw.


    "Not yet!" she smacked his paw aside.


    Some time later, and after the carcasses had been repeatedly turned and pounds of Velatha''s ''spice'' had been thrown over them, it was done.


    Rain was finally allowed to eat.


    "There, all done. Trust me it will be worth the wait."


    He almost didn''t hear the words, his eyes locked onto the woman, seconds away from ripping her head off and eating it.


    But then Opal kicked him in the thigh where he sat and he came back to reality.


    Food.


    He tore into the food like an animal, grabbing the carcasses from the still burning fire without a care and shovelling them into his mouth, shredding and swallowing as fast as he could.


    It was only on the third boar that he became aware of the taste. It was¡­ different. It tasted pretty much as good as having the meat raw, which was actually a big improvement as cooked meat had always been inferior. He half wondered what these ''spices'' would taste like on raw meat, maybe better than both raw and cooked?


    Velatha watched as his eating slowed, savouring the taste. A strangely pleased expression appeared on her face, a cook''s satisfaction that even a monster could enjoy her work.


    Rain doubted she would be feeling as pleased as she did if she knew she had been mere moments away from dying.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 146

    ? Chapter 146:


    Opal peered into the handkerchief embroidered with Lord Wranvyre''s insignia. Inside were a number of bone fragments that rattled and clattered against each other as she moved the cloth side to side.


    "Should we really be doing this?" whisper hissed Red.


    The kobold was watching her nervously, rubbing his claws together like a person wringing their hands.


    "Well yeah, I owe Boner for doing what he did, and it''s not like Rain is going to be eager to bring him back." She shrugged, "Getting chopped into little bits probably deserves this much right?"


    The kobold frowned but shook the bowl they had prepared. Inside the bowl were a number of vanta black gems, clicking and clacking against each other with the motion.


    The bowl wasn''t really a bowl, mostly because bowls weren''t exactly common in libraries. Instead they had found something that Opal figured was made out of really thick paper. Yes the library didn''t have bowls but it did have lots of big balls with pretty colours and a large dark stain on each of them. It hadn''t been hard to find one that had been broken open and discarded and the Goblin and Kobold had repurposed a part for their ceremony.


    "It''s still not a ceremony," muttered Opal.


    "Magic gems, a skull, a bowl, and all done sneaky and furtive. That''s exactly like the weird cults of my old tribe."


    "Hmm. Were you ever part of that?"


    "No." He looked down at the bowl of gems and grimaced. "Until now apparently."


    "Well good, because I know exactly what you are talking about."


    "You do?"


    "Yeah, where do you think those cults of yours got their live sacrifices from? That really heated up the Gobbo Kobold grudge, it was so much more than just killing us."


    "Er, right¡­" He seemed to think on this for a moment, "Not mine though, those glowing mushroom eating loons are their own thing. It was funny how the hottest Kobold girls always seemed to fall into that stuff, I think it was the pretty body painting."


    Opal held the handkerchief over the bottom-third-section-of-a-globe bowl then let it fall open. Skull fragments danced and rolled as they landed amongst the gems, the bone white standing out amongst the sheer black.


    After a moment Red shook the bowl and the gems and skulls bits sifted together.


    The pair stared at the mix.


    Nothing happened.


    "How does this work exactly?"


    "Sheepy said there was squatting involved."


    "Squatting?"


    "Yeah, you know, like squatting to poop."


    "I don''t think he can poop without a body Opal."


    Opal considered this. It was a fair point. The necromancer no longer had a body, or even a head, so he clearly couldn''t squat or poop.


    "Okay you''re going to have to squat poop in his stead."


    Red gave her a blank look but let the Goblin take the bowl from his claws and place it on the ground. She took hold of his shoulders and spun him on the spot. She then pressed down and the Kobold found himself squatting over the bowl.


    Opal stepped back and examined her handiwork, tapping her chin in thought. She nodded thoughtfully, coming to a conclusion.


    "We might need to take this to the next level."


    "I''m not pooping on the necromancer!!"


    The Kobold scowled up at her from where he awkwardly squatted, tail and rear lifted.


    "Oh come on, it''s just some bones."


    "Yeah, and what if he actually comes back? I don''t want to be on the very scary necromancer''s bad side, you saw how scary he could be in the dungeon."


    "I think he would be grateful for being brought back to life more than anything." She paused as a thought struck her. "But maybe we should prepare rags to wipe the poop stains off his skull."


    "I''m still not doing it."


    "If you don''t I''ll lock you in a cupboard with Bean for an entire night."


    "D-don''t even joke about that," gasped the Kobold.


    "You think I''m joking? My shadow teleportation lets me teleport anyone I want with me. It would only take me a second to grab Bean and teleport him to a locked cupboard and then teleport you in with him. You wouldn''t be able to do a thing Red, you would be trapped in there with him, just think of that long black tongue all over your face, under your eyeli-


    "Okay!" half screamed Red, looking on the verge of a panic attack. "I''ll d-do it!"


    The Kobold drew in a breath and began to strain, his claws forming fists on his thighs, his tail liting behind him.


    The Kobold let out a long groan and looked on the verge of succeeding with the job when the bowl suddenly reacted.


    A flare of green surged from the gems and bones, a conflagration of emerald, a spear of fire that went vertically straight up into the unfortunately placed Kobold''s rear end in the absolute worst position.


    Red howled as he leapt into the air, claws clutching at his undercarriage before he came crashing back down, whimpering and whining as he rolled around on the floor, tail wrapped protectively between his legs.


    "Huh, I was correct. That really was the trick to make it work," said Opal.


    "I can''t feel my anus," whispered Red.


    "And I can''t teleport people. My evolution doesn''t work like that so I wasn''t really going to put you in a cupboard with Bean. You should pay more attention to what others can and can''t do."


    "I can''t feel my anus," repeated Red, horrified.


    Opal turned from the unfortunate Kobold and examined the green bonfire in the bowl.


    The bowl wasn''t doing very well, which was maybe to be expected as it was made of paper. It quickly caught fire, forming ash as the green fire slowly burned down and down until it was nothing, just a few scattered green flames amongst a pile of ash and bone.


    Interestingly the black gems were missing.


    Opal watched as one by one the green flames winked out until there were only two left placed randomly on the pile.


    She eyed them.


    "I know you''re there Boner, you''re not fooling anyone."


    The green flames seemed to look up at her with annoyance, but then the fragments started to move, the angular shapes pulling together, pieces slotting and then merging as a dome shape appeared from the ash, then a nose cavity then jaws and teeth. Last of all was a pair of horns which drew up and socketed into the skull''s forehead.


    The two green flames took their rightful place in the eyesockets.


    "Welcome back Boner."


    The skull sniffed. "Is this my welcome party after I sacrificed everything for you? Why the brute and the dumb sheep aren''t even here."


    Opal shrugged. "Red is."


    A faint murmur about ''anus'' came from the gently weeping kobold.


    "Plus we have the Inkerchange." She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at a book left open on a table.


    "Hmph. It''s not the same." He seemed to study the Goblin. "I suppose that it was you who revived me earlier than I would have otherwise naturally, but the question is, why?"


    "Because you saved me. Does there need to be another reason?"


    "With you, yes."


    "Well I do want to know why you want to help us so much lately and I do kinda want to know why you saved me, you didn''t have to do that, that''s not just something a necromancer who hates the living does on a whim."


    "I don''t ''hate'' the living, I just think you are of terrible build quality and mostly inferior." The skull paused for a moment, as if considering his answer. "I suppose I can say this much, although I think it has become somewhat obvious."


    "It has?"


    "Yes. The brute. This property of growth in size and power the monster possesses is quite unique, and further the strange dark things he controls. I can only surmise they are pure distilled predation by the properties they exhibit, something unheard of. I am not stupid, I have watched the brute''s trajectory, and it is truly meteoric. I''ve reluctantly come to believe that he will change things¡­ I wish to see that, to observe as a scholar, to see how far he can go, how much of the world he can upend, destroy, and sow with chaos. You live and do not seem to be grieving. My guess is that the brute found this Lord Wranvyre and ended him. Am I correct?"


    "He broke every bone in his body and turned his insides into goop."


    The skull seemed to accept this as though it was as he expected.


    "You see? A Lord of this city, one of its most powerful and influential levelers, assassinated by a monster in his own home surrounded by hundreds of other levelers. That is unprecedented¡­ I want to witness more, to see how many he can bring low before the weight of leveler society crushes him alive." The skull grinned as skulls always did. "It is entertaining, yes?"


    The skull seemed satisfied with his own answer, and the conversation concluded. A skeletal rat appeared behind the skull and after a moment of struggle managed to heave the skull up onto its shoulders. It moved like a drunk under the weight, staggering side to side.


    "And?"


    The skull paused.


    "What do you mean ''and?''"


    "And? what else is there?"


    "There is nothing else, I have given my reasons as thanks for bringing me back to undeath. Be satisfied."


    "And?" repeated Opal.


    "And nothing! I am not going to dither around listening to this when I could be doing important research."


    The rat started to stagger away again.


    Opal crossed her arms.


    "Tell me what else."


    "There isn''t anything else."


    "Tell me what else and I''ll stop calling you Boner."


    The rat froze in its tracks.


    Quick calculation was happening in the skull''s flame eyes, weighing the offer, judging the cost.


    After a moment the skull spoke, its voice serious.


    "There is, something else."


    "Tell me."


    "I am an immortal, I do not die, the weight of time does not age me. I am as I was centuries ago unchanged. The brute may be killed or he may succeed in whatever it is he wishes. It doesn''t matter, I will only need to wait, and someday he will die through age or violence. He will die and I will have material for an undead that will make every undead I have ever collected look like nothing. I don''t just want to observe, I want to see him grow ever more powerful, ever larger and stronger, because in the end, he will be mine."


    Opal nodded knowingly. "Yeah, that''s kinda what I thought. We want exactly the same thing me and you. More big. More strong. More sex."


    "S-se-? No! Not that part! That is your own madness of the living, breeding like barbaric animals, urgh, vile."


    "I''m not really sure how he''d have sex with you as a skull though, maybe he could stick his dick into-"


    "Shutup! Stop talking! For the love of god please stop talking!"


    "-and then you might pop, he kinda cums a lo-"


    "ARRGGGGGHHHH!!"


    The rat backed away, the skull desperately trying to unhear the goblin''s words, backing away right into something large and invisible.


    The rat stumbled forward and turned just in time to see Rain return to visibility, Lyra held in his arms.


    "Vash." growled Rain.


    "H-how long have you been there?"


    "Long enough."


    "Ah."


    Rain gazed at the skull and Vash had the distinct impression that he was on the verge of being devoured.


    "You don''t need to look so concerned Vash, he''s already eaten, why do you think we got up so early?" said Lyra with a yawn.


    "That''s¡­ good."


    "Five stables wasn''t enough," gravelled Rain.


    "Th-there''s important research that I need to be doing! Research on you! Your species that it is extremely important to know! So I''ll just be going okay!"


    Shadowy centipedes poured from the wolf''s fur and Vash found himself being lifted into the air, the rat skeleton falling away beneath him. A massive paw palmed the skull and a pair of luminous yellow eyes stared into his.


    "You don''t think you can find my species. You''ve given up."


    "I have?"


    "Well when you aren''t even bothering to read the books your undead are handing to you it kinda looks that way aheh," said Lyra. "You didn''t exactly hide it very well."


    "Th-there was reasons for that! I was, uh, I needed to rest, uh-"


    "You believe this library isn''t the answer."


    "..."


    "Which is kind of surprising considering how huge it is, don''t you think?" said Lyra, scratching her cheek.


    After a moment Vash let out a conceding sigh. "Yes, fine. I have mostly exhausted this incredibly large library in my search, which mind, took me very little time. It would have taken an army of scholars months to do what I did, to be frank."


    "That doesn''t help me."


    "...Actually I think it does."


    Rain tilted his head to the side in question.


    "You see, I just can''t imagine that your species wasn''t noted, especially with what you have told me and with what you theorise. In fact, I''d say your kind would merit far more than just a mere mention, hundreds of books have been made on far lesser monster species. The answer seems obvious in retrospect."


    "What are you saying?" said Lyra.


    "I''m saying that the information has been intentionally destroyed, and from what I suspect that is the case everywhere since this library has absorbed hundreds of other libraries over the years. There has been a systematic deletion of your species, your kind were erased from history by an interest with incredible influence across the world, an interest that has been around longer than most countries.


    "Who?"


    If the skull could have shrugged it seemingly would have. "I can think of a few organisations, but if I had to guess... the priesthood. It would likely have been pretty easy for them too, librarians and monks have been one and the same in times past."


    "Then we''re screwed? It''s all gone? all of it?" said Lyra.


    Rain held the skull up.


    "You''ve already thought of something."


    "Yes, actually, I have... There is one place in this Queendom where the priesthood has never exerted any influence. The Capitol of the Queendom, the seat of Queen Tiamat and all her terrifying children."


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 147

    ? Chapter 147:


    A dog trotted its way through the camp on the plain.


    It was a boiling hot summer''s day and the sun beat down relentlessly, not even a breeze to stir the endless long grass stretching to the distant horizon. The sounds of millions of crickets making their home in the grasses made the air buzz, creating a low constant music below the sounds of the camp''s own: Mindless chattering, the crash of metal against metal from cooks and smiths, the clop of hooves on dirt. The camp on the plain lived and managed like any other day.


    For the most part, the dog was ignored, it was after all just a dog, even if its coat was of an unusual colour.


    But then there were always those in a community who wanted to pet a dog.


    A small centaur child with the upper body of a gnoll approached. She wasn''t much larger than the dog itself, but that didn''t stop her from raising her hand, raised and ready in child-like petting mode. She smiled as her hand came down, completely innocent of the idea that petting a strange dog could be dangerous.


    The dog considered the child, her chubby hand nearing. Then it began to open its mouth. There was one simple way to teach the dangers of strange dogs, and the dog was of the opinion the more permanent the lesson the better.


    The dog''s razor sharp teeth and the child''s hand moved into a collision course, the dog''s mouth about to snap shut around small fingers.


    "CLARA!!"


    The child paused and turned, an adult centaur staring down at her from where they leaned out from a tent flap.


    "What are you doing? Get away from that thing!"


    The child huffed but moved toward the tent, stomping inside as the fabric flapped shut behind.


    "..."


    The dog slowly closed its mouth.


    Perhaps that had been the better result in the end. Sometimes it was difficult to control the more wild impulses of being a demonic dog.


    Still, if there was any place in the world to lose a limb this was it. That was true enough that the child might not have even learned her lesson.


    The dog snorted but then moved on, carrying on through the camp.


    Of the camps many tents one stood out more than any other. Mostly because it was very large. Its white canvas sheets towered above the other tents and ragged cloth pennants flopped down across its exterior, limp in the windless heat.


    The dog pushed its head through the flap and slipped inside.


    The interior was plush, with thick incredibly intricate rugs embroidered and piled across the ground. The air was cool too, nothing like the exterior, the temperature apparently controlled through some trick or other.


    Much of the interior of the tent wasn''t visible as it had been partitioned into separate ''rooms'' with curtains, although the one he had emerged into was most definitely in use.


    "Don''t go wandering around the camp Bane, I don''t want to be forced to make more threats if you cause an incident."


    The inquisitor was there, sat slumped on a chair, her long legs casally spread, one elbow hooked over the backrest. Her other arm wasn''t visible from this angle, it rested on the table beside her and a small privacy curtain had been erected masking most of the limb from view.


    No less than six gnoll centaurs sat at the table beyond the curtain, working furiously on whatever it was they were doing to her maimed arm.


    "After we caught up with the refugees and I understood what you did and what they were fleeing from, well you''re lucky I didn''t collar and leash you right then and there, and I might still if you push me, so heed what I command. Summoning a Suc-'''' she glanced to her side recalling the centaurs who were tending to her, "Summoning what you did and unleashing it on the town of Lynthia is enough for me to execute you ten times over."


    The dog tilted its head at her in question.


    "The only reason you still live is because I believe the wolf monster to be a much more significant threat. There isn''t a one of what you summoned capable of doing what was done to Lynthia. I dread to think of such a thing unleashed on a populated city and not an abandoned town."


    The dog nodded its head in agreement, although the dog doubted the inquisitor understood what succubi were really capable of.


    "Bane! Get your mutt ass in here!"


    The dog turned to see the one adult centaur of the camp who was happy to see him, her head poking from one of the partition curtains.


    "We''re finished you know. Come see! Come see!"


    He trotted through the curtained partition after her and the dog found itself standing on sand. The plains from what the dog had seen were all long grasses which made this space unusual. The clan of centaurs had apparently gone to the effort of hauling large quantities of pristine white sand from somewhere and carefully raking it across the floor of the tent creating a soft yet level surface.


    The large thing created for the dog, which had apparently just been finished, lay on this pristine white sand. ...The thing didn''t look like anything useful at all if the dog was honest. Spars of metal, seemingly random shapes, curved plates, gears and rods, most of which couldn''t be seen because a huge blob of reflective steel had been poured over it, the thing coalescing into a perfect sphere amongst the apparent frame beneath of which only bits poked out.


    The centaur practically pranced as she waited for the dog''s reaction.


    The dog considered what he was looking at. It looked like some maniac of an artist''s drug fueled binge of a sculpture if the dog was honest.


    "What? You don''t trust it? I know, I know, threatening us with death by Dragons doesn''t exactly make for the most honest of business relationships. But c''mon Bane, it''s me, we''ve always been close, we dove countless dungeons together. I get what happened with the level cap and why you quit, and ya know, I don''t like seeing you like this, like a mindless animal. I would never let the sacred crafters do something sneaky like."


    The dog glanced at the centaur, considering her in the same way it considered the metal structure.


    After a moment the dog let out a sigh of resignation, it seemed it had no choice.


    The dog lifted a paw and pressed it down onto the sand in front of it. Then it began to move, making circles, jagged lines, geomatrices and runes. The dog lifted its paw away as it finished and the thing radiated a red light before melting away as if it had never been there.


    A moment later and the dog convulsed, foaming at the mouth as it collapsed and thrashed, its body swelling and growing, one eyeball shrivelling away as its head and torso put on size, twisting and changing from quadrupedal to bipedal.


    It was as it was reaching the peak of change that its limbs abruptly disintegrated. Unable to hold together for a moment longer the meat and bone just seemed to collapse into a slurry of gore, fresh blood pouring from the left behind stumps.


    Despite this the dog thing began to move.


    Blood poured across the pristine white sand as it flopped, a torso with no limbs. The thing thrusting itself forward, inching across the ground using its chin and arching its spine, crawling like some kind of horrific larva.


    The dog thing reached the strange metal sculpture and then the blob contained within lunged.


    Liquid metal poured down onto the maimed dog thing, and with it was dragged the metal framework. Metal flowed and poured and things snapped into place, shaping and unwrapping before closing in tight.


    The dog grit its teeth as liquid metal flowed into its ragged stumps, connecting with severed nerves, plugging veins and threading cotton thin wires deep into the dog thing''s body, melding with it. More and more metal pieces moved, metal clicking into place, metal plates joining together, flowing down and forming limbs.


    The dog thing was left panting on the sand. The metal frame thing was no longer next to him because it was a part of him, they had become one and the same.


    Limbs moved and Bane rose from the sand, laboriously climbing to his feet.


    "Huh," said the centaur, "You''re even larger than you were as a human, and you were a big bastard then."


    Bane looked at her with his one eye then looked down at his body.


    For the most part he could almost be confused with some kind of dog like species of leveler; his head and bare torso weren''t that far off, just a leveler whose limbs were now encased in plate armour, like that of a knight.


    He lifted an arm and watched. The complex moving parts of the gauntlet clinked together as he curled it into a fist. Needless to say, there was no actual living flesh inside the armour, just metal, gears, moving parts, and of course the liquid metal.


    "Wow you got used to that fast, usually takes a while for the nervous system to adapt and take over the steel slime."


    Bane tilted his head.


    "We did add a little something to talk with you know, I was gonna miss your acidic commentary.


    Bane opened his mouth revealing a liquid blob of shiny steel had taken root where his tongue had been. After a moment he managed to take control of the thing and hesitantly moved the steel tongue around. Then his jaw and the tongue shifted together and a voice emerged from his mouth, a metallic shriek.


    "SLiMe?"


    The centaur winced. "Uh, yeah, you''re going to need to practice with that, it''s not what you''d be used to."


    Bane grimaced but didn''t try to use his new ''voice'' again.


    "And yeah, slime. As in slime monster. Don''t give me that look, slimes aren''t like you think, honestly they might be some of the most powerful monsters in the world, it''s just their evolutions occur so incredibly rarely. That steel slime you''re merged with being one of those rarities. It took us nearly six months to find the thing so you had better be grateful as fuck."


    Bane didn''t answer but looked over his body, lifting his double jointed dog-like legs experimentally, watching as the steel plates of the armour smoothly slid over each other.


    "Its mind, or whatever, works like an organics, electrical signals control movement. That''s why it can be adapted and modified to work with flesh if you got the right know-how. That is: centuries of hard won knowledge through trial and error passed down through generations of our clan, passed down from before the leveler system even existed and use of slimes and other simple monsters to get an edge was common. Mind, the priesthood would throw a fit if you were to suggest such a thing."


    Bane continued to flex his new body, observing how well it moved.


    "I''m guessing you probably want to give it a test?"


    Bane nodded.


    "That''s what I thought. Sister, come here."


    The black cloaked figure turned its blank masked head. It had been sat with a nervous looking Jilli at one end of the room, playing cards apparently. The two had at some point in their journey to the plains formed a sort of shaky companionship.


    As the apparent sister stood up and wandered over she looked Bane over with clear curiosity.


    "Just blunt stuff, no sharps." said Drassi "Oh and If you knock out a nerve ending sis I''m gonna be pissed, he''s fresh as a daisy and no longer has levels or a Class to rely on."


    The figure nodded, and then Moved.


    The figure darted forward in a flash of kicked up sand and Bane whipped up an arm, a clumsy defensive strike with the back of his gauntleted hand.


    The figure ducked under the armoured fist and the cloak struck out, a sleeve moving. The breath burst from Bane''s lungs as what felt like a steel ingot struck him in the gut.


    He stumbled back in surprise. She was fast!


    Ready for her speed now he advanced, with every second passed he was becoming naturalised to the steel slime that his mind had taken control of, using it to drive the geared steel approximations of muscle and bone in his armoured limbs.


    This time he dodged to the side when the figure ducked into his lunge and his foot struck out in a counter, a sweeping kick that whipped up through the sand and crashed into the figure''s legs.


    It felt like kicking a building sized anvil, and if she felt it at all it didn''t show.


    His strike did manage to shove the figure back a few inches across the sand at least, and Bane took the opportunity to try and shove her off balance, to push her over.


    His gauntlet came down and grabbed hold of what he thought was her shoulder.


    But the figure turned in the same moment as his metal fingers grasped. The fabric tore open and a thin skeleton like metal limb took hold of his far larger armoured arm and shoved it aside as she spun away.


    The figure stepped back as she came to a halt and glanced down at the metal arm that was protruding from her torn cloak. She gave the distinct impression of being annoyed, and as Bane watched the skeleton-like arm clicked and separated, the ''bones'' which had been bundled pulled apart and Bane found himself looking at two separate thinner limbs on her left side, the steel bones of the slim fingers clicking as they rolled.


    "You can''t do that, not yet anyway, your steel slime hasn''t been fed anything like sis," said Drassi, watching with her arms crossed.


    The figure came on and Bane found himself being hard pressed, fighting three arms was far more tricky than two, especially as he still wasn''t used to his new shape despite rapidly adapting.


    He staggered as skeletal fists slammed against his raised arms, each blow like a sledgehammer, the impact rattling his body from top to bottom.


    "Hey take it easy on him, you''re gonna yank the nerves!"


    The figure slowed and Bane took his opportunity, thrusting his animal legs behind and powering forward in a way that a human could never, freighting into the figure with an unstoppable shoulder check.


    This time he hit at an opportune angle and the figure lost her footing, falling backwards along with Bane, crashing to the sand with incredible weight, what seemed like tons and tons of steel landing with a ground shaking BOOM that cratered the sand.


    As the figure impacted the mask was knocked aside for a moment and Bane caught a glance of what was inside. To his surprise there wasn''t a face to be seen, only glass and behind that glass a liquid. Something moved in the shadows there, the red of raw meat.


    Then the sight was gone and he was sent head over heels rolling across the sand as the figure tossed him. He shifted cleanly from rolling to skidding to a halt then turning as he stood.


    The figure was clambering to her feet in a mirror to himself, a skeletal hand affixing her mask back into place.


    Bane frowned and examined the figure, his eyes lingering on her hips.


    He opened his mouth at Drassi.


    "SiStEr?"


    The centaur winced at the horrible approximation of a voice.


    "Yeah. And no, not adopted."


    Bane stared at Drassi, then at the figure. The figure was quite clearly bipedal and standing on two feet and lacked anything like the horse lower half of a centaur.


    "Yes¡­ she''s a centaur like me," said Drassi, her voice soft. "The Homini thought to teach us a lesson when she fell into her hands. They¡­ dismantled her, and delivered what little was left to mock us, to show that we couldn''t save everyone. But they underestimated just what we were capable of."


    "H-Homini?" said Jilli from the table.


    "The Homini are the centaurs you think of as having human-like upper bodies. They are religious purists and consider all other races of centaur heretical to the gods. Sadly most other races of centaur are gone these days, hunted to extinction by the Homini... You understand why we take your master''s threat of Dragon fire so seriously Jilli. We are on average very leveled despite there being so few of us left, and our Ranker is stronger than most... But no non-dragon leveler can oppose a Dragon, they cheat the system too much. Our race would be gone just like that, ash in a sea of flame."


    "KiLL." came the metallic shriek of Bane''s voice.


    Drassi and Jilli flinched at the ear grating sound.


    Drassi recovered first and gave Bane a small smile. "We aren''t just sitting around doing nothing about the Homini Bane. That was actually why I was visiting Lynthia, to find rare and powerful metals in the dungeon and to feed them to sis here. We found things down there during the Inquisitor''s quarantine that were quite... interesting. So many curious ruins, so many long dead golems. I did ask sis to take it easy on you for a reason." Drassi''s voice lowered, becoming cold like steel, her expression darkening. "Someday the Homini will find something coming for them that they won''t be able to stop or even slow, something that will relentlessly hunt and kill them one by one, the mothers, the fathers, the children, all. Every last Homini slaughtered into extinction."


    Bane eyed the figure as its split arm snapped and clicked back together once more forming a bundled one. The thinness of the arm truly belied its weight.


    Drassi''s expression returned to being bright and pleasant.


    "Perhaps you will have the same material density control as sis someday, yes? You seem to have grasped the potential of what you have been given in any case."


    Bane grunted noncommittally.


    As the cloaked figure returned to playing cards with a significantly more wary Jilli the curtain partition started to part. Baera stepped partially through, her armoured boot coming down on the white sand.


    She jerked to a halt before she got any further however and scowled at the curtain. With a flex of her body she twisted and something large and metal ripped the fabric from its rings. She balled it up and tossed it aside as she stepped free onto the sand.


    Her arm appeared like Bane''s, like that of a knight, sheathing her limb all the way up to the shoulder where it ended in a pauldron.


    At the elbow however an absolutely enormous gauntlet began, one roughly the size of her own torso, one built out of thick chunky metal and layers of plate armour, intricate yet brutal in design.


    Bane had the vague recollection of the Inquisitor complaining to Jilli about being bitten by a certain wolf through her greatly valued vambrace. It wasn''t hard to guess why she had asked for her replacement arm to be built as defensive as a castle.


    The inquisitor lifted the arm and experimentally rolled the lage blocky fingers, the joints of each digit clearly visible unlike Bane''s which was much more natural and knight-like.


    She flexed the fingers and rings of conical spikes emerged behind the hand part of the gauntlet, the section that covered her forearm. It seemed the Inquisitor very much intended not to be bitten in the same way twice.


    "Hmm. Not bad," she mused before looking back up at the others. "Come Jilli, Bane, we are departing. I''ve had word of a large black bipedal wolf monster being sighted by a family of elves. You tell me if that doesn''t sound like our quarry."


    The plate armour rattled as Bane trembled with rage.


    "wHeRe?" he screeched.


    "It seems it was headed to where it can feed and grow. A place of millions. The wolf, it appears, is in Florens."


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 148

    ? Chapter 148:


    Elves possessed naturally long and shapely legs, but even amongst elves Myra''s were particularly long and shapely.


    She stretched her legs out like a cat on the sun lounge, splaying her toes, before crossing one leg over the other, gracefully and in a very intentional manner. The elf was very clearly aware of what she was doing, although maybe that was obvious since she was entirely stark naked.


    Brax raised an eyebrow at the naked elf.


    "An elf with a tan? I don''t think I''ve seen that before."


    Myra hummed and wriggled her hips. "That''s because city elves don''t like nature. They never come out from behind their safe little walls to dance amongst the trees and to have really wild sex under the stars like elves are meant to. City elves go all in for that pale and gaunt look, kinda how Eliza looks when I say the word Rain."


    "Sh-Shutup I don''t! I''m just¡­ wary, okay. You didn''t see or experience what I did, that thing Rain has become is dangerous, I know that, that Inquisitor knew it. She shut down the dungeon for a reason, she knew."


    "I think anybody would feel pretty pissed at the thing that chewed their arm off Eliza. That said, you, uh, were right to convince me to leave Lynthia¡­"


    "I was?"


    "Yes, now if you want to survive Rain then hit the target."


    Eliza hesitantly lifted a hand and from a chunk of azurite set on her ring a pellet of water lanced out.


    It shot across the ornamental garden and missed by a good foot the crude card cutout of a black wolf figure stuck on top of a bush.


    Eliza gave the untouched thing an unhappy look.


    "Is her aim getting worse? I feel like her aim is getting worse. Is there such a thing as leveling down from being too stupid? because I''m totally getting that vibe from you Eli."


    Eliza lifted her fist and pointed it at the elf. Her fingers held at least two rings each, crowded with chunks of deep blue azurite.


    "Want to say that again?!"


    Myra''s voice became as sweet and as insincere as sugar. "I''m just saying that maybe fatigue is affecting your performance, friend."


    "I can put you two in a room and lock the door if you wish. Maybe you''ll fight it out." Brax seemed to consider this. "Maybe you''ll end up fucking again."


    "That was one drunken mistake!" spat Eliza. "Will you stop bringing it up!"


    "Didn''t feel like a mistake at the time," purred Myra, squirming in her nakedness and fluttering her eyelashes at the water mage.


    Eliza''s eyes flashed and spheres of water started to bubble into the air from her rings, hovering around her shoulders and head.


    "Let''s see if you can keep up that smug look of yours while your lungs are filling with water."


    "If you try to drown her Eliza I''ll make you regret it," murmured Brax, his voice low. "You know your one Class can''t compete with even one of my two."


    The watermage''s lip twisted into a snarl, but after a moment she let the water drop. It splashed as it hit the grass, flinging fine droplets up her legs.


    Her shoulders slumped and she let out a sigh.


    "This isn''t working Brax. None of this is! You two don''t even believe me about how serious-! Rain - I''ve never seen something that needs to kill like that!"


    "Like I said, I understand. I understand because Rain left the dungeon and followed us here Eliza, he was spotted in Silvering, a nearby satellite town to Florens. He has¡­ grown¡­ a lot, as you predicted he would¡­ and there''s more, it''s like he has evolved, he has control over a black substance, like your control over water."


    Eliza''s face became very pale, fear outlined in her eyes.


    "That''s¡­ really nearby. You know that that means he is coming straight for us Brax, h-he''s coming to kill us!"


    "Pale face!" giggled Myra.


    "Quiet. Listen, Eliza, Lynthia is gone."


    "Wh-what do you mean gone?"


    "I''m not sure myself." Brax ran his hand through his long glossy black hair and sighed. "The refugees say they ran because a succubus had been summoned, but they say they left the town as it was, whole. Yet there''s reports that the town is flattened, not a single structure left untouched, and most of the surrounding forest felled, but no bodies or even husks of bodies."


    Myra scowled. "Hey, are you trying to imply it wasn''t the succubus and that Rain is-"


    "Adlen is dead. He never made it out of Lynthia."


    There was a moment of silence.


    "We should have taken him with us," murmured Eliza, face drawn.


    Myra stirred her drink. "Nah, that moron was where he should have been, acting as a just in case heads up for us, the vanguard." She paused, "Just¡­ didn''t expect Rain to make such a mess that it didn''t matter."


    "Now you''re concerned you idiot elf?" hissed Eliza "What, recalling how you set him on fire? How you slowly pushed a blade into his groin? How you knifed him in the kidney? No? He remembers all of it Myra!"


    "Yeah, and like you didn''t gut him like a fish. The smirk on your face, tut tut."


    "I know I did! I fucking regret it okay! I never would have done it if I''d known he would come back stronger than me! And- and now he''s coming to kill and e-eat m-me!"


    "Personally, I''d do it again, in a heartbeat. In fact, If he wants to come I''ll cut his dick off and make him eat it. I''ll pull out his intestines and loop them round his neck like a funny necklace. I''ll burn all his skin off until he''s screaming and begging to die. Oh the sound of fat crackling while it cooks on a living body is, hnnff, just the best kind of sound."


    Eliza stared at the tanned and very naked elf as she sipped from her ice and fruit filled beverage, re-crossing her long legs with a happy humm.


    "Were you raised by freaking Harpies?!"


    "She was my nursemaid actually. A slave."


    Eliza boggled at the elf, mouth flapping open.


    "That''s--!!"


    "Not productive to get into now," interjected Brax rolling his eyes. "Look Eliza, before you have a full blown panic attack, you need to understand there''s a simple path out of this."


    "What path? Run? Yes, we should run!"


    "No. I''m not spending the rest of my life fleeing a monster that seems to be getting stronger the longer it is left alone. The answer is that we need to be of sufficient level and then work together to kill Rain, exactly the same as any other monster. We need to outpace him and then kill him before he grows out of our reach."


    "Look at me Brax! I can''t keep up- I can''t keep up with either of you let alone Rain! I can''t even shoot straight!"


    "Can''t even shoot diagonal," mumbled Myra from behind her glass.


    Brax frowned. "I have something that may help, if you want it."


    He clicked his fingers at the sole other person with them in the garden, a solemn looking drake maid with white scales.


    She turned and dashed back into the mansion.


    A moment later she was hauling out a scrawny woman who was blindfolded and wearing ragged clothing, her wrists and ankles done up in chains, skin chaffed red and raw under the lightly rusted steel.


    The maid shoved her forward and she came to a stumbling stop by Brax.


    He held out a hand and the maid dipped her claws into a small bag hanging off her hip, leaning down so that her arm entered it past the elbow. She came back up with a glass bottle, one that held a slowly swirling orange and white liquid flecked with metallic red.


    Brax plucked it from her hand and held it up.


    "This is a slime trapped in a bottle."


    "That''s nice Brax, did you catch that little thing all by yourself?" murmured Myra, shading her eyes as she sipped from her drink.


    "No, because this was bottled centuries ago. It''s-... slimes aren''t like you think, honestly they might be some of the most powerful monsters in the world, that is if they ever evolve. This¡­ came from a distant ancestor, a family of minotaurs we married into."


    Myra eyed his body up and down. "That kinda explains some stuff, though why haven''t you got horns or anything minotaury?"


    "Species dilute out quickly with newer generations without the previous species adding back in. You should know that as an elf, your lot are so promiscuous there wouldn''t be any normal looking elves left if it didn''t. All that''s left of my minotaur heritage is the horn in my family name, Fenhorn, and these slimes."


    Myra shrugged uncaringly, "Okay, whatever, so it''s a rare slime. Good job, maybe you will gain one millionth of a fraction of a level if you kill it."


    Brax for once looked a little annoyed. "I might level, but if you or Eliza here were to take it you would gain multiple levels. This slime is special."


    "That little thing?"


    "Have you ever wondered how many monsters are killed by other monsters in the dungeon below our feet? It''s a very large number. The problem is that no leveler benefits from a monster killed by another monster in isolation. This slime once modified will putter around a dungeon for years or decades, it will find dying monsters, and it will collect their flesh which it then preserves, alive."


    Myra and Eliza stared at the orange white blob in the bottle. It was touching experimentally at the inside of the cap with a tendril, trying to open it.


    "Their flesh¡­? That thing is full of monster flesh?"


    Myra sat up. "So killing that is like killing a bunch of monsters all at once?" she grasped at the air with her hands, "Give, give, lemme smash."


    "Doesn''t work like that, the bits are too small. For this you have to drink the slime, and allow your own body to kill it."


    "D-drink lots of little monster bits?"


    "Yes, hundreds, maybe thousands of monsters all collected into this one slime, collected centuries ago and all perfectly preserved."


    Eliza''s face was fast shifting from pale to looking a little green, but she clenched her fists before reaching out. "If it saves me from Rain? Fine. I''ll do it."


    Brax moved the vial from her grasping hand. Then he turned to the blindfolded woman.


    "Eliza, this woman is level two. She was taken from the slums. She is human garbage. Too cowardly to risk her life in the dungeon. With this I will make her jump immensely in level, I will make her powerful."


    Brax unscrewed the cap and in one motion jammed the bottle down the shocked woman''s throat.


    "H-hey that was for me! I-..."


    She paused as the woman began to groan, then claw at her belly like she was in extreme pain. Her groan rose into a panicked frantic scream as she bent over, her whole body trembling and shaking as blood poured from her lips, spilling over her chains.


    A moment or so later she collapsed.


    Eliza stared at the woman laid out flat on the grass. She was very still, that is until something moved at the back of her throat. A blood slick blob of orange and white crawled into the woman''s mouth and began feeling around at her teeth until the drake maid leaned down and scooped it into a fresh bottle.


    "See to it that thing is cleaned."


    The maid nodded.


    "I''ve gotten¡­ close to you Eliza. I can''t make you drink something like this when there is a real chance it will kill you at your level. To drink the slime your body needs to be strong, sturdy, meaning you need to be decently leveled. Unlike me or Myra you will be risking your life. Do you still Want it?"


    Eliza stared down at the dead woman as a sound like distant wind rose from her still lips, an unsettling death rattle.


    "Fuck no."


    "Gawd you are such a pussy." Myra swung her legs over the side of the sun lounge and stood, bouncing on her heels before skipping over to the patiently standing drake maid who was far shorter than her.


    She looked down at her, practically pressing her bare breasts into the unblinking maid''s face. Then she snorted and bent down, reaching a hand inside the bag on the maid''s hip.


    She came back up with a pair of bottles held between her fingers and flopped back onto the sun lounge.


    "I''m still not drinking that."


    "Never said you should bitch, these are both for me."


    The elf flicked the two caps off and downed the slimes one after the other.


    "Hrnff, kinda cold, ah, I can feel them m-moving."


    Her hand stroked her toned midriff and she shivered, tensing up over and over before easing back against the sun lounge.


    Myra''s eyes became unfocused as she seemed to examine something unseen.


    "Oh my¡­ that is a lot of levels."


    "This could be the difference between dying and surviving Eliza," said Brax as the maid handed him another of the orange and white potions.


    "I''m not doing it! if you care so much why don''t you drink one of those horrible things!"


    "I have. Many of them. I haven''t had a choice, I have two separate sets of levels I need to manage. My family gave every last one of these left in our possession to me because of that. The last few in existence because no one knows how to make them any more. Now I''ve used so many of the things I''ve hit diminishing returns, I could do the same with the rest for maybe a half level, but I feel I can put these to better use by helping those I care for..."


    Eliza did not look happy. "I¡­ I can''t do it, I''m sorry Brax."


    "I see, I''m sorry to hear that¡­ Would it change your mind if I told you that Lord Wranvyre appears to have died."


    "I have no idea who that is¡­"


    "He''s one of the most prestigious nobles of Florens, he has arguably the best defended estate in the city, he is surrounded by hundreds of powerful family members and guards, and he himself is known to be pretty much unkillable."


    "What does that matter?"


    "He was there Eliza. It was him. He came and killed a leveler far better defend-"


    Eliza snatched the bottle from his grip and downed it in one swift motion.


    She stood frozen, chest rising and falling, staring wide eyed down at her midriff, a growing creeping horror welling up within her as she realised what she had done in a moment of animal panic.


    It didn''t take long for the pain to hit.


    Eliza started to groan, curling over herself in agony.


    "No! NO!" she yelled as real fear entered her voice.


    She curled her hand into a fist and belted herself in the stomach, then again, and again.


    "D-Die! Please just die! DIE!"


    The white drake handed her a healing potion and she downed it in one and then stared hopefully at her midriff. Her blouse seemed to move slightly as the slime thrashed within and she keened in pain.


    "Why isn''t it workiiiing!"


    "Healing doesn''t kill the slime Eliza, you need to fight," said Brax, watching her with concern.


    In a moment of desperation she lifted her fist to her mouth and water abruptly roared from the azurite rings and drove down her throat, a good half gallon. With blood running down her chin and neck her hands curled claw like as she manipulated the water in her stomach making it crush and churn. She groaned as spasms of blinding agony ran through her.


    But then¡­ It was done. The slime was dead.


    She flopped down on the sun lounge, falling atop Myra.


    An elegant elvish hand caressed her cheek, brushing sweat slick hair away as Myra''s naked legs embraced her, allowing Eliza to use her as a pillow.


    Myra held her close as she wept into her bare breasts.


    "There there, it''s all over now," said Myra , her voice soft, "The pain is gone, you survived¡­ and you leveled."


    "I don''t want to die," sobbed Eliza, "Don''t let Rain kill me Myra!"


    Myra smiled.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 149

    ? Chapter 149:


    Food.


    Food was annoying.


    Annoying because Rain felt he needed so much of it to prevent himself from accidentally eating Opal or Lyra. It was a fairly inconvenient thing to have to deal with to say the least.


    Worse, it was getting more inconvenient to deal with. The various animal stables they had been preying on were starting to disappear. Mostly that was because Rain had either eaten every single animal in them or because the panicking owners were taking their animals and fleeing to some other part of the vast city.


    That meant they had to go further and further afield to get the meat Rain needed to remain in control.


    A skeletal rat wobbled around the corner where Rain hid crouched. A skull was balanced on its head, held up by its ratty arms.


    "It''s clear, no levelers to interrupt, you can go eat¡­" the skull lowered its voice surreptitiously, "...and grow."


    Rain set his lips in a line. Opal somehow finding an unlikely ally in Vash in her determination to get him to eat and grow as much as possible was probably not a good thing.


    Still, Rain couldn''t deny his growling stomach and he slipped from the shadows, moving through the large stable doors and into the interior. The sound of nickering horses came from the darkness and his instincts perked up. Prey was near.


    Lyra rushed by his side. She''d gotten a stick from somewhere and on the end of the stick was a ball of skeletal rats hanging onto each other. She waved the stick vaguely and the sound of alarmed horses came from the dark.


    "Alright I want a nice clean operation, no slip ups. I don''t want to see half a hundred horses left wandering around the streets of Florens again okay?" She pointed to what seemed like an office. "Rain take the dead end. Vash, on me. Opal, lock and bar the doors."


    There was¡­ something almost a little offensive about how the sheep girl had started treating his hunting. It just didn''t seem very wild and predatory, in fact it felt more like an organised dinner event that she directed.


    He slipped into the pitch black back office.


    Soon after the first of the horses were chased inside, boney rats scuttling around behind it spooking the thing and getting it to move.


    A massive paw reached from the shadows and gripped its neck, dragging it into the dark.


    This was the fourth stable they had raided that night, and Rain was starting to feel a little better. He''d just eaten yet another horse''s head and was about to bite into its ribcage when Lyra''s voice made him pause.


    "H-hey, you''re not supposed to be here! This is private property! I''ll call down the guard! I''ll call down the, uh, the Ranker! Seriously, you''ll totally regret breaking and entering!"


    "This is our fucking stable you insane sheep!"


    Ah. That sounded like a problem.


    Rain let the meat fall with a thump and slunk toward the door, luminous yellow eyes peering from the shadowed doorway into the pool of candle light held by the one who had spoken.


    A pair of rabbit eared Lapine were there, standing with a black wooled Lyra and Opal. There was no Vash to be seen. Although Rain suspected that might be a wise choice on Vash''s part, word spreading of his existence would make it harder for the necromancer.


    The taller and more muscular of the Lapine leaned over Lyra, the dyed chevrons patterned up its ears unkempt and faded, along with the rest of him.


    "Girl, if only you knew who you were trying to steal from. The ''wrong kind of people'' don''t begin to say it."


    He reached out a paw and took hold of Lyra''s neck, dragging her close to his face, his warm breath on her cheek.


    "Which is bad for you considering we don''t have the choice to go to the city guard. But I''m a good guy, you know, so I''ll give you a chance to make up for it."


    "Hey," said the other peering into the dark stalls.


    "-Now just get down on your knees like and open wide-


    "Hey!"


    The Lapine snapped around to his friend.


    "What is it?!"


    "The horses, it''s not just mine, half the stable is missing!"


    The Lapine blinked.


    "Hey, sheep girl." The grip on Lyra''s neck tightened. "What did you do with my boss''s horses?"


    Lyra made a strangled sound and flapped her hand at him in a request to speak.


    He eased his grip.


    "I didn''t do anything with them! how would I disappear, what, a dozen horses, in a closed and locked up tight stable! I was asked to look around for intruders by our boss, are you completely clueless? Haven''t you heard about all the stables being raided recently?"


    The Lapine stared at her.


    "Check the back," he said after a moment.


    Then when there was no reply from his companion he turned sharply.


    "I said-"


    But there was no one there.


    He frowned and tried to peer into the dark, lifting the small candle he held, trying to see motion.


    "...Hey, get the fuck back here you idiot, stop fucking around."


    The Lapine waited but there was nothing but silence.


    "Left you on your own I guess harhar," croaked Lyra from around his paw.


    "I hope you weren''t referring to me as this ''idiot''" came a new voice.


    Lyra''s eyes darted to the side and then widened as a collection of Lapine came from the dark, each of them somehow even more scruffy looking than the one who held her.


    The largest of them was a big wide Lapine, with arms the size of legs and dyed chevrons scrawled across his body.


    "B-Boss-"


    "Shut up. I don''t care. Where are the mounts? We''re going to get there late and those Drake fuckers will snatch them from under us."


    "Uh, half the horses are missing boss, you, uh, you sent this one here to guard?


    The man peered at Lyra, frowning with puzzlement.


    "I¡­ did not. Look this doesn''t matter, we''ve got to move, right now. We''ll take half of us and leave the rest behind to deal with this while we take the big bounty''s family."


    Lyra''s eyes widened in sudden fear.


    "Wh-what are you saying?! Wranvyre is dead! there is no big bounty!"


    "No body, no dead. He''s counted as missing, even if they found one of his eyeballs and most his teeth embedded in the walls that''s no certainty. You don''t know that snake, he breathes manipulation and lies and fakery like he breathes air. But even if he doesn''t turn back up I''m sure we can make some new arrangements with the bereaved family."


    "NO! It- He''s dead! he''s fucking dead!"


    "Who are you to care so¡­ so¡­" The large Lapine frowned and peered closer at Lyra in the gloom.


    As suspicion dawned on the Lapine''s face Lyra drew in a breath.


    "Raaain!"


    There was a series of grunts that filled the air and the Lapine boss turned to see those behind him collapsing as black things dangling from the ceiling snipped bit and clawed at the backs of their necks or pierced through their skulls, disturbing hanging stalactites of jaws and claws and coiling centipedes.


    "Wh-What-- hrck."


    The large Lapine looked down to find a set of black scythes emerging from his chest. His legs gave out and his flesh parted as he fell through them, head splitting into three.


    Rain let the scythe like dark paw sink back into his fur and turned to find Lyra with her hands on the remaining Lapine''s shoulders, his arms inside the wool of her forearms. The Lapine seemed surprised, but then he started screaming.


    His thrashing managed to knock Lyra off him and she stumbled back, the Lapine''s arms pulling free from her wool and revealing that they were covered in knife wounds.


    He stumbled back, eyes wide, and then turned and fled.


    Fled right into the embrace of the headless undead horse rising behind him. Its chest split apart in the most grisly way, its ribcage like that of teeth. The thing enclosed his head as the spars of the rib cage speared through his chest, puncturing his lungs. There was a momentary shriek, and then silence. The undead horse slumped down with the dead Lapine in its chest cavity.


    "Wet work is so messy. I really prefer my dead to be at least a little dried out before I do anything with them," said Vash with a sigh as his rat-supported skull jumped down off the now still horse.


    He was about to turn to Rain when Lyra suddenly jumped forward and booted the skull. A surprised looking Vash was engulfed by the black wool of her leg as a frantic Lyra darted to Opal just emerging from one of the box stalls.


    "Hey what''s- argghhfcckk!"


    Lyra stuffed the startled and struggling goblin into her wool before racing back to Rain.


    "What are you waiting for! GOGOGO!"


    "...Where?"


    "To my parents! You heard what he said! They''re going to be attacked! They''re going to die!"


    "I can''t hide while runn-"


    "I don''t care!!!" shrieked Lyra, "I don''t care if this entire fucking city sees you! Run Rain! Fucking Run! After everything I''ve done for you, you can r-run- I can''t do this with you anymore m-more if- if something happens- I dont - I- I can''t-"


    She looked up at Rain with tears running down her cheeks.


    That did it.


    The barred stable doors exploded as a wolf monster crashed through, the wood turned to flying shrapnel that hailed against the opposite buildings, a sheep girl hanging of its shoulders crying out in alarm as it sprinted full pelt down the street.


    Dark streets only lit by the occasional lamp flickered past, a finger pointing overhead directing the wolf through street after street at an astounding pace, feet pounding against cobble.


    The streets of Florens weren''t entirely deserted of course, they never were, even at night, and there were cries of alarm as a massive black thing thundered past in the black, a shadow seen at the occasional edge of the lamp light.


    Even with Rain running full tilt, his paws practically brushing the ground along with his feet, it still took a long time to cross the entire city. The reason why the gang had wanted the horses was made clear, and Lyra''s panic only increased as she cried out for Rain to run faster, charging through quarters and districts, rich and poor, low and high and mid level, miles and miles of built up city and millions of people.


    Eventually they came out into what appeared to be a district of individual houses with walled gardens, a sleepy wealthy street, with leafy draping trees shading the cobble streets.


    Less sleepy and wealthy were the people moving in the dark. A lot of people. A lot of people fighting and killing. Knives and crude cudgels swinging along with spouts of sudden flaring magic, flashes of fire and sparks, Lapines igniting with a scream as fire met fur, Drakes roaring their victory only to be counter skewered by the lightning quick lunges of the Lapine.


    Rain ran through them all to the target, a house, one a little bigger than the others, one with light spilling from the windows and noises coming from within. Rain didn''t have to smash down the gate because it had already been broken open. He sprinted toward the building, a screaming Lyra on his back.


    People were moving around inside, visible through the windows. Shouting and fighting and cries of pain came from within. A few were kneeled cowering on the ground, someone was holding up a blood stained axe, about to swing at the huddled shapes.


    If there was chaos before it became ten times so as a huge paw smashed through a window, engulfed the head of the axe wielding Drake, and ripped him out of the house screaming.


    The gangs, Lapine and Drake both, all froze in their fighting as they watched one of their number vanish into the night.


    "Wh-what the fuck? What the fuck was that?!"


    The darkness of the broken window frame seemed to bulge inward, as though the night itself was spilling into the room. But then it was moving down and a large wolf-like head was pushing through the too small window, the window frame and most of the walls disintegrating around it as a maw opened and white teeth flashed.


    "Monster!!" came the cry, and the gangs which had been trying to kill each other a moment before turned on the wolf together, nearly two dozen levelers in total.


    Magic bloomed and fire roared, and a slurry of even greater darkness billowed from the wolf''s fur, throwing itself up to stop the attack even as it disintegrated and puffed into mist, so much of the stuff disentrating under the barrage of magic that it filled the room, muffling the lantern light to bare dimness, and making it nearly impossible to see.


    A paw came from the mist and grabbed the nearest Lapine hauling them out of sight. Screams and terrible crunchy fleshy sounds came from the dark.


    The paw came again, grabbing a Drake''s sword and ripping him off his feet with a wail as he rocketed into the mist.


    Panic closed on the gangs as they were slowly vanished, Drakes and Lapine alike huddling together, backs pressed against each other, cowering in fright.


    It didn''t matter. They were each taken, one by one, each disappearance increasing the pressure in the little cramped space in the dark they occupied, pumping up and up and up the sheer blind heart pounding panic to boiling point until they were keening as blade tips waved madly, each wide eyed glimpsed sight of the huge paw causing high pitched screams and a frantic mad struggle to shove and push others in front, clawing and biting at each other like mindless trapped animals, doing anything, anything, not to be taken.


    Their numbers dwindled until there was one.


    And then there was none.


    Lyra stumbled through the remains of the wall, waving away the dark curling mist as it spilled back into Rain''s fur.


    She dropped to her knees and embraced the cowering elf and horned sheep person along with a smaller figure who was like a slightly smaller version of Lyra.


    "Wh-what did you do to your wool Lyra?" came the elf''s faint voice.


    "I- It''s dye, don''t worry- are you okay?"


    Lyra lifted the chin of her smaller version and gasped as she found a brutal axe wound across her face, her nose split in two, the bone and cartilage of her nasal cavity visible in the cleave, blood streaming freely down her chin.


    The smaller Lyra blinked slowly, clearly in a state of shock.


    The elf cried out at the sight and pressed her dress against the wound stemming the flow as the woolie darted to his feet, frantically pulling draws from a desk until he found what he was looking for. A small vial of potion was tossed through the air and caught by the elf who applied it in one fluid motion, expertly pouring it over the wound.


    Lyra slowly rose to her feet, her whole body trembling.


    "K-kill them," she whispered, voice raw.


    Rain leaned in, "Are you sure?"


    "I don''t care anymore. I just don''t care. Kill them Rain, kill them all."


    She shivered as the mass of black fur moved past her and slipped out into the night.


    Screams could be heard soon after.


    Lyra watched as her mother pulled away her blood soaked dress from her sister. Thankfully her face was whole once more, albeit with a nasty scar.


    The half woolie teenager blinked up at her.


    "Lyra?"


    "Yeah¡­ it''s me¡­"


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 150

    ? Chapter 150:


    Rain devoured the last of the gangs, drakes and lapines all, dozens of them. Those who had been killed by each other, or by himself. He had to admit of the two species Lapine was definitely the tastier, rabbit was just so moreish, drake was just a less spicy kobold.


    Careful not to make too much of a mess he carried the bodies away from the street and into Lyra''s family garden before digging in. Probably for the best as there were a few neighbours peeking through their curtains trying to see what all the noise coming from the lightless dark was.


    He finished up with a polite belch. Levelers were so much more filling than animals, there really was no comparison, and the greater growth was alway a plus. Maybe hunting the city''s gangs was the better answer to his daily hunger problem instead of devastating Florens'' animal population.


    With a groan he rolled his claws and stretched like a cat as the feeling of a little growth washed through his body, expanding his size a bit. That was the trouble with needing ever more food to grow the same amount, needing ever more to achieve the same wonderfully satisfying feeling. It made him want to go after all the gangs then and there, to eat them all, to really cut loose. How many gangs even were there?


    He pondered that as he returned to the house and stepped through the broken down wall. There was no one there, nor were there any bodies as he had eaten those too, but there were voices coming from a room deeper inside the house.


    Rain followed the sound and found Lyra with her family sitting at a dining table, her exceptionally beautiful elven mother serving tea from a teapot as though they hadn''t just been raided and almost killed by multiple warring street gangs.


    There was a certain amount of alarm as Rain entered, which he didn''t think was entirely fair, he had been careful to clean off the blood.


    "This is the monster you said belongs to you Lyra?"


    "Mhmm! He was a gift from a friend. Don''t worry, there''s like ten- no, twenty- uh, thirty! heart pins aimed directly at his heart, or something, he can''t hurt a fly if I don''t want him too, but I don''t need to because he''s a good boy, yes you are, aren''t you just!" said Lyra, tilting her head and smiling up at Rain, her eyes squeezed shut.


    Rain gave the sheep girl a very flat look.


    "Aheh, anyway, he''s been keeping me safe. It would take a seriously strong leveler to beat him in a fight, and before you get any ideas dad, no, you couldn''t beat him, you would get destroyed."


    "I wasn''t about to say anything," grumbled the large sheep person, ram person? Woolie? Rain wasn''t sure, but he did have two large curling horns on either side of his white furred head, matched with a gold-brown waistcoat and a pair of armless ivory spectacles balanced on the bridge of his muzzle.


    "Well good. Come here Rain I''ll get you some tea."


    "You''re going to serve the thing?!" scoffed Lyra''s father.


    "Yep. Aren''t you at least a little grateful he saved your life? I think the good boy deserves some tea."


    Rain momentarily considered throwing Lyra out a nearby window, but with a sigh he stepped forward and took the seat she pulled out for him.


    The wooden chair immediately collapsed as he put his weight on it and he was dumped onto the floor.


    "You knew that was going to happen." he growled.


    "It can speak? I thought I heard- but¡­" said Lyra''s mother looking faint.


    Rain adjusted and sat cross legged which at his height left the top of the table slightly below his chest. It wasn''t that far off from how Lyra was sat at the table with a chair honestly, but he still felt ridiculous.


    Lyra''s father squinted at him. "Why do I get the impression that this slave is valuable, as in paying a fortune in gold to possess kind of valuable."


    "Eh, something like that. Here you go Rain."


    Lyra slid a steaming cup of tea over to him which Rain peered at. Hesitantly he lifted a paw aiming for the handle, but then recalling what happened at Warwick''s he adjusted and aimed for the cup part. He carefully and slowly slowly brought index and thumb together to squeeze and lift the thing, with perfect precision.


    He misjudged and the tea cup was instantly crushed in a splash of hot tea that made the others flinch. Chunks of delicate shattered ceramic slid across the tea puddled table top.


    "Aww, that''s okay Rain you big clumsy pup, don''t worry, I''ll get you another one."


    Rain was getting the distinct impression that Lyra was setting him up for something somehow, and that was¡­ concerning.


    He glanced to the side and found a smaller teenage version of Lyra staring up at him with very wide eyes. Her hair was done up similarly to Lyra''s except with pink ribbons, and she wore a slightly too large long sleeved blouse.


    "Is this your¡­ mega puppy?"


    "No Ceria, not a puppy, a very dangerous monster. You''ve killed enough monsters in the dungeon to know that monsters aren''t to be treated lightly, they are to be treated as a threat and a source of levels," grumbled the ram.


    The mini Lyra''s lip wobbled as she seemed to remember something.


    "Kill the mega puppy? But he saved us¡­ saved us from¡­"


    "Look what you''ve done dad! you''ve upset her! Rain is a mega puppy, a super soft and kind one, just uh, ignore all the dead gang members. Look, Ceria, try and pet his arm."


    Lyra''s parents became extremely alarmed as Ceria reached out a hand and hesitantly touched Rain''s fur. Her face, which was drawn and pale with remembered distress, lit up as she buried her fingers in soft fluff and started petting, unable to stop a smile appearing on her face.


    Rain decided he desperately needed to find a way out of this Lyra designed situation, gods knew what she was planning next. He turned his head to the elf.


    "Aren''t you worried the city guard will come after what happened? They might not take kindly to Lyra and me being here¡­ so¡­"


    The elf took a moment to deal with being directly addressed by a monster. "Uh, th-that, is uh," she shook her head slightly as though to clear it. "We¡­ are far from any guardhouse here, and I can''t imagine our neighbours are willing to leave the safety of their homes to go wandering through the pitch black night to go fetch them. It should be fine until dawn, I think."


    "Yeah Rain, it''s fiiine. Anywaaaay, totally random topic change, what do you guys think of close relations between monster and leveler?"


    Lyra''s father choked on his tea and the elf had to slap her hand on his back to clear his airways.


    Rain nodded. Lyra had made him seem as non-threatening and silly as she could to prime her parents. Of course.


    He glanced at the nearby window. Maybe it wasn''t too late to escape through it, he could use the cover of darkness to hide as he fled.


    "Wh-what are you im-implying Lyra?!"


    "Huh? Implying? I wasn''t implying anything, it was just a question about monster leveler relations in general, you know, like with the dungeon surge recently. Us levelers sure do hate monsters a lot haha. Why? What did you think I was talking about?"


    The two parents gave Lyra a disbelieving look.


    Ceria rubbed at the scar on her nose, then looked over Rain''s body. "Eh, I kinda get it, big fluffy and very safe. Didn''t know you were so kinky though sis, a monster? For real? That''s pretty fucked up¡­"


    Hearing that the ram looked like he was about to swallow his tongue, his eye twitching violently.


    "This- this had better not be true, Lyra a-"


    The elf thumped a fist into his shoulder


    "You did marry an elf you know."


    "What does that have anything to do with anything?!" he squawked.


    "That elves are more, hmm, open minded than most, mostly anyway. Lamia wish they were half as open minded," she patted him affectionately on his furred cheek. "Big, fluffy, and safe huh?"


    It was Lyra''s turn to choke and splutter on her tea, having to grab a napkin and wipe away the tea all over her chin.


    As she did so Ceria bit her lip as her gaze looked over Rain more closely.


    "Yeah, really really really big and a body like-"


    "Gods please save me from my elven family," groaned the ram, burying his face in his hands.


    "Ceria, please stop looking at my-- at my monster in that way."


    "Wow, so greedy."


    "You can go find your own one."


    "Hmpph maybe I will."


    "You aren''t even going to entertain that idea Ceria, we''ve fallen far enough without something as scandalous as that getting out."


    "But Lyra is getting away with it!"


    "Yes, but we tell everyone we''ve disowned her so it doesn''t matter. Do you want us to do the same with you?"


    Lyra stared at her parents. "Y-You do?"


    The elf sighed. "It''s¡­ I won''t pretty it up for you Lyra, it''s a convenient lie. One that was easily believed as you had already left Florens in disgrace before this thing with the bounty. You are an adult and you inherited my admittedly bad habit of flexing the truth a bit, I know that you fully understand."


    "A bit? Your idea of the truth looks like a soggy pretzel," grumbled the ram.


    "Oh shush."


    Lyra seemed to struggle with the idea that she had been outwardly disowned, but then she sighed, her shoulders falling, a certain heavy sadness falling over her.


    "I¡­ understand, probably too well. You know what with everything that happened¡­ I just¡­ wanted things to get better, that''s all I ever wanted¡­ and now I''m fake disowned¡­ How did it end up like this?"


    The elf patted Lyra''s arm comfortingly. "It''s okay Lyra, it wasn''t your, uh¡­ you did what you felt you needed to do, and just took on a little too much work is all."


    "A little? I left Florens because everyone hated me!¡­ I thought it would be better out there, but somehow it became ten times worse¡­" said Lyra, despondently stirring her tea.


    "You should never have left, this city is your home, it was never right to be treated so poorly, and then to have that thing with the Lord happen to you, gods what an abhorrent Lamia, he really does give us nobility a bad name," sniffed the elf.


    "If you can even call us that anymore," gravelled the ram, "Losing the estate, nearly all our possessions, and being up to our eyeballs in debt. Here''s the thing Wynather, it''s all about perception. No one calls a pauper nobility because doing so devalues the real nobility by association, even if they have the heritage." He gestured at the room broadly as if to demonstrate their dire financial situation.


    To Rain''s eyes the place looked fabulously wealthy, with ornate furniture and oil paintings all well kept and expensive looking, yet the Ram seemed to be implying this was poverty. He wondered what the ram would label how he had lived in his past life. Super poverty? Extra plus poverty?


    Lyra shrugged meekly. "I know what I did, I led so many along, I fed them lies and made up hope when I couldn''t-- I couldn''t do it! I just wanted things to go back to how they were for us! I think I can say that out loud now without wanting to curl up and die of shame. What happened in Lynthia was my karma for that, and it¡­ helped, helped me deal with the guilt I guess," she fiddled with her empty tea cup before glancing at Rain and lowering her voice, "But in other ways I feel like I''m drowning..."


    "Life is cruel, it comes down to who you can protect when everyone wants to kill you." gravelled Rain.


    Lyra squinted at him. "I feel like you''re taking steps backwards sometimes. Like you''re becoming more monstery as Opal becomes less monstery."


    Rain shrugged.


    "It''s just how things go. Protect what little you can in a storm." he glanced at Lyra. "You should know that now, you''re hunted too, like a monster. Every leveler out there wants to kill you, the only difference is that instead of levels they get gold. Maybe that''s why you understand me, because you''ve become a monster in your own way."


    "Uh, no Rain, ahaha, I think not," said Lyra nervously waving her hand in the air as though to flap away the idea. "I''m not a monster, I just¡­ seem to hang out¡­ with a lot of them¡­ uh, a lot¡­ apparently." She nibbled her lip as she considered that she was the only leveler in their little group.


    "I always knew you were secretly a monster sister, ever since you started stealing my hair ribbons. Totally monster behaviour."


    "Shut up Ceria," said Lyra, rolling her eyes.


    "I don''t like this," said the ram adjusting his ivory spectacles. "I''m not a fool, I can tell you''re wrapped up in something. It needs to end. Sell this¡­ slave, and remain with us, safe and sound away from any monster."


    "Dad, I''m not staying with you, hell, I''m not even going near any of you until I know for a fact this bounty is dead and gone forever. It''s just way too dangerous to be around me, in fact it''s dangerous just being here. Is there somewhere you can go where you won''t be found?"


    Wynather hesitated but nodded. "I have property in the city no one knows about, an obscure inheritance, we can hide there, it should be safe."


    "Good, then that''s where you''re going," said Lyra, getting up from her chair.


    "Now? But the butlers aren''t here, how are we possibly going to take all our luggage?"


    "Bloody well carry it yourselves! Gods, when was the last time you did a dungeon dive without a million servants? You know what, don''t answer that."


    Lyra flapped her hands and yelled at her family until they finished their tea and gathered together enough belongings to make do in Lyra''s mother''s place.


    As that was happening Red was dragged out from Lyra''s wool and made to splash cleaning potion over the blood splattered garden and street. Rain of course savoured a portion of a bottle for himself to properly clean his fur, and then hung around in the dark watching Red with narrowed eyes to Red''s distress, checking to ensure he didn''t use too much of the precious liquid. There wasn''t much left of the stuff, even with how much better they had gotten at using it efficiently.


    Rain returned to the house to find the family coated and hatted up to avoid being recognised. In Lyra''s mothers case a wide floppy brimmed summer hat plus a puffy coat, and in her fathers a heavy woollen cloak with a hood. They carried fancy suitcases underarm as well as wheeled behind. Altogether they looked fairly ridiculous and Rain half wondered if they would make the walk without getting lost or mugged.


    The very first glimmer of light was beginning to glow from over the horizon when they set out.


    Rain and Lyra watched from the broken gates as the family made their way down the street, arguing with every step.


    Lyra bit her lip.


    "Uh, maybe it would be better to make sure they make it at least part of the way?"


    "They might be okay¡­"


    They watched as Ceria became unbalanced under the overstuffed bags of luggage she held and fell into a hedge, Lyra''s mother squawked with fright and began fighting the hedge to pull her free.


    "..."


    "Yeah, I''m gonna say we should follow them for a bit," mumbled Lyra.


    Rain found himself stalking after Lyra''s family, a grumpy goblin held in arm, a sheep girl on his shoulders, all of them invisible and unseen.


    It was a long walk to be trapped with Lyra''s family and Rain wondered if he was ever going to escape. He almost turned around and fled when Lyra''s mother started talking about size difference and how that would even work, holding up her hands to demonstrate different shapes that he really did not want to know were supposed to be, and worse when she started comparing those shapes and sizes to Lyra''s father by holding them up against him. He was fairly sure Lyra was struggling too with the way her thighs clenched around his neck.


    "I regret everything ever," groaned Lyra.


    "I could have told you that telling them was a really bad idea."


    "You didn''t think it was going to be bad in this way though, did you?"


    "...No." He watched as Ceria held her hands firmly over her ears as Lyra''s mother started discussing how important bed size and steel reinforcement was with such size differences and how their own bed compared under enthusiastic strain. "...This is not how I imagined it going. At all."


    Lyra''s father might have had a point about needing saving from elves.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 151

    ? Chapter 151:


    Opal and Lyra watched with absolute perfect concentration as the teapot packed full of tea leaves slowly poured into the teacup until there was nothing left.


    Steam wafted off the surface as the waterline reached the rim and opal eased the teapot back onto the pile of embers, all that remained of the damaged books they were using as fuel to heat the water.


    "Are you sure this will work?"


    "One hundred percent."


    Lyra gave the goblin girl a sceptical look.


    "Why do I feel like this is just going to make me incredibly aroused and still unable to fit Rain? I barely managed him last time, but now he''s so much bigger¡­ There''s no way¡­"


    "It''s the truth, I swear on it." Opal reached out a hand and patted the box of dried tea leaves marked with the word ''Aphrodisiac'' "When we did it in the Ranker''s mansion I took him just fine and I''m smol. It''s why I''m not worried about him getting too big down there anymore, because you levelers already have stuff to ease that problem."


    Lyra paused as she thought about that. It did make a certain amount of sense, it wasn''t like Rain and herself were the only ones in the world to have issues with size difference, there were tons of large species who reproduced with small species. Now that she was thinking about it the mechanics of that probably required a lot of outside help, the tea being just one example.


    Still¡­ Rain was¡­ quite large, and she was¡­ quite small.


    "I don''t know Opal¡­"


    "The ranker, ya know, huge human, had a halfling in his harem." Opal lifted the box and shook it as though to demonstrate. "Which is literally why he had this, also why I stole it."


    Lyra gazed down at the tea, it looked very strong, it was practically black. Opal had been generous with the amount of leaves used.


    She sipped it. Unsurprisingly it tasted like tea, quite nice tea honestly. She waited for something to happen, a sudden desperate thirst for lots of cock, her loins surging with need, anything.


    Nothing happened, or if it was happening it was taking its time.


    Opal looked her up and down excitedly as though expecting her to instantly become more heated than a fox fucked five times in a forest fire. She was visibly disappointed when Lyra remained calm and normal.


    "Maybe it will take time cause you''re bigger than me," she muttered.


    "Opal, here, you haven''t finished," came a low grumble from behind.


    "Yeah yeah, I''ve got the writing shit down, just let me tell the awesome story of my heroics as I like."


    Rain held up a book that was filled with crudely black inked writing. There were corrections in red ink made over the black, underlining spelling mistakes and with notes in the margin. The red ink was somehow even more clumsily applied than the black ink with gigantic  splotches of the stuff scattered across the paper.


    "Hey what the hell did you doooo!"


    "Corrections." growled Rain, a red dipped quill held awkwardly in his other paw.


    Lyra watched the heavily pregnant goblin girl charge over to Rain and leap at him, wrestling to get the book away. Not very successfully.


    She turned back to more important things, specifically the clothing that had been chosen and carefully laid out on the table. Surprisingly it had been Vash who had supplied it, the library was so large that many of its librarians had their own apartments in it, apartments easily accessible for his rats.


    Lyra lifted the blouse up and looked it over. It was a crisp thing, a clean sharp professional white. She glanced over the skirt, a black pencil skirt. Then she tried on the librarian glasses. the glasses didn''t actually have any glass in them of course, they were just empty frames. She still perched them on her nose and adjusted them in a way a haughty librarian looking over her desk might.


    Next came the clothing. She glanced over her shoulder at the others.


    Rain was still trying to get Opal to learn, but the goblin seemed more interested in doing her own thing. Vash was somewhere in the library looking up facts about the dragon capital and Red was sounding out words from a children''s book. Rain had commanded him to learn numbers and words because that was something a treasurer should probably know. He hadn''t been happy about it at first, but the books with pictures seemed to cheer him up.


    None of them were looking in her direction at all so she quickly slipped off her jacket, then blouse, tossing them aside as she cupped her bra clad breasts under arm and grabbed for the new blouse. She quickly slipped her arms into it and pulled it tight. Glancing over her shoulder every few seconds to see if Rain was watching.


    Annoyingly he wasn''t, still focused on Opal who was scribbling busily in his lap with her tongue sticking from the corner of her mouth.


    "Hmpph." She left a few more buttons than she otherwise would have undone over her bra, so much soft cleavage spilling free that the black edge of her bra was visible peeking out from either side of the deep v and her indecently large breasts muffin topping against its rim.


    Then she turned to the next step. She hooked her thumbs over her beige short shorts, and began wiggling her hips, shifting them down over thighs than by her fluff. She was left wearing a pair of slim white panties adorned with blue ribbons that matched those in her hair.


    Still no attention from Rain.


    Practically fuming now she grabbed hold of the panties and hauled them down over her legs, bending down far enough to peer between her knees at him, presenting her naked rear and her inflamed pussy which was glossy wet with need.


    A single bead of her arousal cruised down over her perfect soft thigh leaving a wet line behind before it darkened the white of her wool part way up her thigh.


    Okay, maybe the tea was starting to have a small effect.


    But, unbelievably, Rain still hadn''t noticed! This was complete bullshit!


    She kicked at the floorboards and swayed her hips in a figure eight, hoping he would notice the sound and motion.


    At last, Rain started to turn, yes! he would catch her like this, in this incredibly embarrassing and compromised position and then-


    "Fitz the monster! Fitz, I know you are here!!" bellowed a voice from somewhere nearby.


    Lyra let out an inelegant squawk and tried to straighten up at the same moment she stepped from her panties. She tripped over the fabric and immediately face planted, slamming to the floorboards, her legs up in the air, her glasses clattering across the floor as they fell from her face.


    She let out a groan.


    "What was that?" said Opal.


    "Not someone I want to see." growled Rain.


    There was a pause from outside the room as Rain''s deep voice passed through the walls.


    Then the sound of quick slithering as someone approached and burst through the door.


    "Fiiitz!


    Lyra''s view from the ground was interrupted by a wall of pink scales and she looked up to see a Lamia girl who nearly rode over top of her before she stopped.


    Rose stared down at her and blinked.


    "What are you doing?"


    Lyra quickly scrambled to her feet, grabbing for her glasses and perching them back on her face. She then glanced down and realised she was half naked. In a panic she lunged for the black professional looking panties on the table and leapt into them, hiking them up over her hips as she scowled at the tall teenager.


    "None of your business," she snapped, "and why the hell are you here?!"


    "Aw, were you about to have sex with the monster?" cooed the teenager.


    Lyra''s cheeks bloomed crimson.


    She heard steps behind her and turned to find the masculine wall that was Rain looming over her.


    She grabbed up the black pencil skirt and hurriedly slipped it on while trying her best not to let him see her blush.


    "How did you find me Rose¡­" graveled Rain.


    "I just went to every library in the city with a drake on the front desk then began shouting your name as I went around all day. The goblin said library, and you mentioned a drake, wasn''t hard to figure out, it just took, ughh, freaking forever! And this library the most, I''ve been slithering for freaking hours! It''s way too large."


    "Finding me was the biggest mistake you have ever made. I did warn you Rose." A paw moved toward the suddenly pale looking teenager.


    Lyra found herself nodding, that is until the paw wrapped around Rose''s neck and began to squeeze. The teenager scratched at his arm, unable to breath, her face turning red.


    "W-wait hold on! You can''t just kill her!"


    Lyra''s moral framework was slowly collapsing as of late but she wasn''t about to watch this probably innocent teenager be killed and eaten, plus she had heard what she''d done for them, she couldn''t be all bad right?


    The paw eased a little and Rose drew in a desperate partial breath.


    "...Why?" snarled Rain.


    "Because she hasn''t done anything!"


    "She betrayed my trust. Now she betrayed it again. She sought me out when I said not to, she put you and Opal at risk of being killed, she could have been followed, she could be leading others to us."


    "That''s not a good enough reason to kill her! I- I get how you feel, but you''re being way too protective! Look, if she was really a threat to us she could have told others about how to find us, she could have told a gang, or her family, or the city guard, but she didn''t, I think."


    Rain scowled but after a moment let the teenager drop. She fell to the floor in a heap of coiled tail. Rose drew in great gasps of air where she sat curled on the ground, one hand massaging her throat.


    "I''m not-" she wheezed, "-going to tell anyone,- I said- I wouldn''t,- and I won''t! I want you for myself¡­" she glared at Lyra, "As much for myself as I can get anyway, I don''t want it like the monster stables where every half hot monster gets ridden like the town''s rent-a-pony."


    Lyra scoffed, what a ridiculous suggestion. Sharing her Rain with this brat? No chance.


    "Why aren''t you imprisoned? They saw you with me, they must have thought you had everything to do with Wranvyre''s death."


    Rose shrugged. "I''m not learning to be an actor for nothing. It wasn''t hard to do a little fake crying and weave a little story of a monster breaking out from the monster stables and taking me hostage."


    "They believed that?"


    "They didn''t need to believe it, none of the guys knew the secret monster stables existed so I just showed them, showed them all the stables, and then told them how often they were used, and who by. Oh boy, they completely lost their freaking minds and forgot all about me. When I left they were still arguing and screaming. Turns out the guys weren''t particularly happy to find out what their significant others had been casually enjoying. Super duper scandalous you know?"


    She flicked a hand past her face and when it passed there were tears in the corners of her eyes. "It- It all went wrong a-and I was r-raped by this horrific monster, it h-hurt, I can''t- I''m s-sorry- the others said it would be f-fine! Th-that they d-did it all the time! but it took me h-hostage and-" her chin shook violently, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.


    Then with a flick of her wrist she was as she was, cheeks dry.


    Lyra stared at the Lamia, a cold still feeling in her gut. What had she just witnessed? It was like Wranvyre had been there with her for just a moment, that exact same insanely well controlled acting technique. That was¡­ unsettling¡­ Maybe Rain was right about her¡­


    "What about the bounty, the one on Lyra''s head?"


    "For mother? I don''t know, it''s kind of been forgotten in all the drama. All my siblings are in a ranking that Wranvyre controlled. Number one in that ranking should theoretically take over the estate, but Wranvyre''s firstborn clutch aren''t having it and say they should inherit everything. When I left they were on their thirty-sixth duel of the day. That, uh, and the screaming and shouting about the monster stables I showed everyone, it was so chaotic, like a civil war or whatever. But now-"


    Rose suddenly lunged forward, hugging at Rain''s waist and rubbing her cheek in his fur.


    "-But now I''m here with you Fitz and we can be together forever and ever and ever! Hhhnnff!"


    She slid down as she curled her tail around his legs and began kissing at his sheath, snuggling her face against it.


    Lyra stared at the teenager, a deep fury rising up in her chest. The teenager couldn''t be all bad? No. This teenager was evil incarnate, purest evil! How dare she take what was hers now of all times! Today was supposed to be her day! A deep heat in her loins rose to match the one in her chest as she watched the teenager practically snog his sheath.


    A paw came down and palmed Rose''s head before she could go any further however and the lamia found herself being peeled away from Rain''s body. She was left dangling from his grip.


    "You''re not staying."


    "But I can be of use to you with- actually what is it that you are doing?"


    Her eyes moved over to Red and blinked as she watched the Kobold sound out words.


    "C. A. T. Sat. D. O. G. Dorg."


    "uhhh, teaching¡­ monsters to read?"


    Rain shook her. "If you don''t leave I am going to kill you."


    "I can help teach reading!"


    "No!" snarled Rain pushing his face close to hers, huge teeth just by her wide open eyes. "I don''t want you here. I don''t trust you. What I am doing has nothing to do with you, you aren''t involved and you never will be!"


    Rose''s face dropped.


    "So you just hate me? Is that how it is? After all we went through together?"


    "I literally barely know you."


    Rose gasped like she''d been slapped and she struggled free from his grip, dropping down to the floor.


    "It''s true we were only an hour or so together, but I told you things, things that really mattered to me! And you saved me and- you avenged- and- and you did- I- we f-fit so well, when you were inside me, it was p-perfect! Like we were made for each other! Did it mean nothing at all!!"


    Lyra watched as the Lamia burst into tears and rushed away.


    As much as she was feeling incredibly horny and possessive of Rain it didn''t seem right to let the infatuated to the point of idiocy teenager just leave, for one the teenager seemed genuinely upset enough to do something rash and dumb like call the city down on them. She should at least be calmed before being cut loose.


    She sighed and then jogged after her, darting into the narrow book lined hallway outside the larger room.


    To her surprise she found the Lamia was already disappearing around the corner, her tail was a lot faster than it looked, although it didn''t help that Lyra''s legs were constrained by the tight pencil skirt making her stride small.


    A few corridors later and she lost sight of Rose in the dark and gloom. The lighting was neglected in this part of the library, the enchanted lights overhead dead or dimmed.


    She was left alone, panting, in the darkness.


    "Goddammit. Did you have to be so hard on her Rain," she muttered.


    She turned in time to see Opal catching up.


    "Hey, you could have caught her with your teleporting magic thing, so why didn''t you?"


    "You think I want her around? Naw. Rain''s right, she''s a liability, he should have eaten her."


    "I don''t want her either, but keeping her near would be better. Keep your enemies near, or close, or something?"


    "Close so they are more convenient to eat, yeah, I agree."


    "Not, quite like that¡­"


    An incredibly deep and low rumbling growl came from the shadows.


    Lyra blinked, trying to see into the dark. She had decent-ish night vision as a half elf, but the library just seemed to collect pools of impenetrable gloom.


    "R-Rain? Is that you?"


    The growling seemed to move, shifting around her. It sounded¡­ threatening.


    She suddenly felt unsettled and she swallowed, her throat dry. Her fingers clutched at the hem of her skirt with a nervousness that she hadn''t felt in some time.


    "Rain this isn''t funny!"


    "You should probably run sheepy. He''s coming for you."


    "Wh-what?! B-but I''m not prey to be hunted!"


    Opal rolled her eyes in an exaggerated way.


    "You did specifically ask for this, repeatedly, in way way too much detail, when we asked what would make you feel better about nearly dying. You''re pretty kinky, you know that right?"


    "Yes but, now?! Right now?! I could still maybe catch Rose if I went to the library''s entrance!"


    Opal grinned. "Yeah, that''s probably why he''s doing it now, to stop you doing that. Kills two rats with one stone."


    A snarl came from the dark and Lyra flinched, the sound of something massive and heavy and dangerous moving out of sight.


    "Hey sheepy," said Opal.


    Lyra''s wide eyed and panicked gaze darted to the goblin girl.


    "Run."


    A blood chilling roar came from the shadows and Lyra screamed, fleeing down the corridor, her hooves tap-tapping madly against the flagstone, legs moving as fast as she could in her tight skirt.


    The sound of heavy feet followed behind and she shrieked and ducked as something huge whistled by her head, a claw filled paw a second of a way from mauling her, it obliterated a bookcase as it missed, shredding books and wood alike and sending a cloud of torn paper into the air.


    Lyra darted into a minor side door, the sudden change of direction giving her time to get away and flee into the large hall beyond.


    She glanced over her shoulder as she ran and saw something massive forcing its way through the small entrance, the frame coming apart as the beast broke it with a snarl, wood and stone crumbling apart and washing across the floor as what seemed like half the wall disintegrated.


    "Eep!"


    Legs shaking wildly she darted into the standing shelves, a maze of book shelves that filled the hall.


    She found herself deep inside, curled up small, wrapping her arms around her legs, back against a shelf. She held her breath trying to be as quiet as possible.


    Her breath caught as she heard the first footstep, a heavy footstep, one that could only belong to a massive monster. Did it know she was here? Could it smell her? She shivered uncontrollably, her whole body trembling, each successive footstep making her flinch, little whimpers of innocent fright escaping from her clamped together lips.


    The footsteps stopped at the distant end of the book cases and Lyra''s head turned jerkily to see-- to see the large thing standing in the barest pool of light in the pitch black dark. It was massive hulking¡­ and many limbed? Lyra froze stiff as she saw the centipedal tentacles and the house cat head. That wasn''t Rain.


    A warm breath brushed against the back of her neck, ruffling her hair.


    Heart thundering a million miles a minute she managed to turn her head little by little, the whites of her eyes showing as she turned to see luminous yellow eyes.


    "You can''t hide from me."


    Lyra screamed.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 152

    ? Chapter 152:


    Bookkeeping as a librarian was a tough job. Lyra the librarian spent many a day reorganising the mess pesky customizers left or dealing with the pesky customers themselves who often seemed to think of her not so much a living breathing person but as some kind of convenient book golem in the shape of a person.


    Seriously, it was like she was some kind of brainless dispenser of book related information to these people! She loved her job as a librarian, she really did, and she was a dedicated worker, a librarian who took her job seriously over the years, but gosh was it a little much sometimes.


    Her dedication was such that it wasn''t that surprising that she often ended up working late organising discarded books by messy customers, left to replace books long into the night, just as she was now.


    It was getting dark and there was no one else around, just her and the books alone, a sheep girl in a professional pencil skirt, blouse, and librarian glasses like all the best librarians wore.


    Alone apart from the monster stalking her.


    At first she had thought it was someone coming to check on her and had called out. But only a low rumbling growl had been her reply, something so deep and low that she could feel the floorboards vibrating through her hooves, loose nails rattling under the throbbing impossibly heavy sound.


    It was the growl of a terrifying predator her instincts told her, ancient primal instincts that were screaming at her to flee! Flee from the predator! You are being hunted, run!


    Instead, trembling like a leaf, she hesitantly approached the dark, "H-Hello? Who''s there?"


    Inky shadows moved and something massive shifted, something that made her mind shut down in shock, something that drew her eyes up and up, finding a pair of teeth capable of ripping her head off, teeth headed toward her bare neck.


    She had fallen back with a scream, the maw snapping closed just where she had been as she scrambled and fled, fleeing into the darkness of the library, fleeing the monster that hunted her as prey.


    She had ended up crouching by the shelves in some dark and forgotten part of the library, her arms wrapped around legs, shaking and trembling while desperately trying not to breathe even a little. Then, turning her head she had found, the wolf!


    "You can''t hide from me."


    Lyra screamed.


    "Is that okay?" he growled.


    "Yes! Stay in character!" hissed back Lyra.


    Rain snarled and Lyra squeaked, eyes going round as Rain loomed over her small curled up shape.


    If she had been wet with arousal before now her panties were like a minor flood plain. She squeezed and rubbed her thighs together, feeling her wetness slick on her inflamed skin, only becoming more so as her eyes roved over the massive masculine form riding down upon her, she felt so smol and vulnerable!


    Her whole body shivered as the wolf head neared her eyes.


    "You can''t hide from me because I can scent your arousal, your need."


    "Wait wh-what?! H-hang on, time out, that''s something you can smell!?"


    "Your panties are a blazing bonfire right now, screaming for attention, your body filling the air with a call to be hunted down and bred over and over and over until you can''t feel your legs."


    A spluttered gasp escaped from Lya''s lips, her eyes round. "Th-there''s no way-" She writhed her legs together, hand slipping below her skirt''s hem to check just how wet she really was.


    She found soaked through dripping fabric, instantly drenching her fingers in hot wet arousal.


    "Hnnff! Th-that''s not true! I- I''m not that wet, y-you can''t smell me down there!"


    Her finger tips traced the crevice of her pussy as her soaked panties clung skin-tight to her swollen puffy muff.


    "I guess I''ll just have to tear all your clothes off with my teeth to check then."


    The beast lunged and Lyra yelped, scrambling back from the reaching grabbing claws, then scrambling to her hooves and fleeing into the dark, racing past shelf after shelf, desperately looking for somewhere, anywhere, to hide.


    Each step was accompanied by the softest  plat plat as droplets from her drippy panties sprinkled from under her skirt, a trail of droplets left in her wake as she left the dark part of the hall and moved into a well lit area.


    She found what she was looking for, one of the massive heavy shelves had been drawn up close to the wall and the space between was only a slim gap, just enough for a small girl like herself to hide behind.


    The sheep girl slipped inside the space, it was so tight that her breasts brushed against either side and she couldn''t turn her hips at all.


    She frantically shuffled back just in time as with a roar and a boom the monster crashed against the wall, yellow eyes flashing as a massive paw reached behind the shelf grabbing for her, reaching to tear her to pieces.


    Hyperventilating the sheep girl stared as claws moved just before her face, inches from ending her life.


    But she had moved back far enough that they couldn''t quite reach, the wolf couldn''t touch her, she was safe, she''d done it, and after a few more attempts the monster retracted its arm.


    A pair of luminous yellow eyes amongst black fur stared at her from the end of the cramped space, watching her carefully. After a moment the monster turned its head, attention shifting as it stepped away and vanished from sight.


    Lyra let out a little breath of relief. Now she would only have to survive in this small space until morning and hopefully someone would come to rescue her, to save her from this terrifying beast.


    Her racing heart started to slow, relief so strong it made her legs weak and wobbly.


    She was going to make it.


    She wiped sweat from her face just as the entire massive bookcase started to shift, a weightage in the tons of room spanning double wide shelves lifting away from the floorboards books spilling free as it moved.


    With an awed expression she watched as the great thing rose up in the air, a staggering amount of weight lifted by muscular arms until with a snarl it was thrown aside over the top of a long table that split the row, disintegrating under its own mass as it smashed apart between the shelving.


    Lyra tried to flee, she really did, but instead a massive paw whipped out and gripped her neck, lifting, turning and slamming her brutally against the opposite shelves.


    "Did seeing me lift that turn you on? Your scent doubled when you saw me raising it all over your head." His eyes moved down and a wolfish grin appeared. "Do you have a rain cloud under your skirt? You''re dripping all over the place Lyra."


    Lyra whimpered and shuddered, unable to form a reply.


    "Why don''t I have a look?"


    The sheep girl found herself rising up, the paw around her neck moving down to her hip along with the other until she found herself seated in Rain''s paws, held up in the air as a massive head pushed between her legs, muzzle parting her thighs, spreading her to access her loins.


    "N-nuuu!" squealed Lyra, hands desperately scrabbling at the beast''s head as it moved toward her privates.


    She didn''t even begin to slow the monster from pushing beneath her skirt and a large tongue darted from behind its teeth, licking up over her skintight soaked panties and eliciting a gasp, then more breathy gasps as it rolled up and down, swirling around the little hard shape hidden behind the fabric, her engorged clit, teasing with touch.


    Then the tongue slipped to the side, pressing in her muff before dragging at the thin cloth, pushing it to the side as it peeled away from the surface of her pussy, exposing her folds to the heated air and Rain''s breath.


    "Ffrrrccckkk" she groaned, curled over the monster''s head as the giant tongue lapped at her wetness and stiff little clit, softness deforming under his relentless tongue, quelching wetly as her labia was played with, her wetness causing her folds to slip and glide around the muscles motions with quick slippery ease.


    "Oh god Opal wasn''t kidding about the tongggue hnnnn! Y-you can''t do this to meeee!"


    "You can''t stop me." said Rain, momentarily pulling his tongue back to trace around the softness of her puss, eliciting adorable little moans as her hips bucked mindlessly against his muzzle. He suddenly slipped his paws fully around her waist to gain leverage then pressed his mouth against her folds and sloppily made love to her pussy lips.


    The blissful squeaks from above signalled Lyra''s appreciation and he started to edge his tongue deeper. Her back arched and a long lush moan was drawn from her lips as Rain''s huge tongue eased deliciously slowly into her passage, stretching her around its girth as his teeth brushed against her clit.


    Then he went deeper.


    The desperate trembling clenches against his undeniable tongue were what he was waiting for and with a grin he thrust, slipping deep within her and then squirming furiously against her walls, scraping up her pleasure centers as he writhed the muscle from shallow to deep, each plunge into her depths causing her to buck against him and cry out, her pussy contracting harshly as she rode over the cliff into yet another powerful orgasn.


    His efforts were rewarded as a little of her nectar fountained into his mouth and he happily drank her down, thirstily partaking of her as he drove her yet higher, her pussy squeezing tight over and over as squirming and quivering against the muscle in tight little circling motions.


    From experience he knew now was the perfect moment to take her to the next level and he went in for the kill.


    "AIIIEEEEE!!"


    Boiling hot pussy juice gushed over his face in long powerful jets, hips thrashing in his paws as she exploded over him, fluid rushing into his mouth to pour from his lips before he drew tight and clamped against her puss, applying a sucking pressure and drawing her down as she rolled into a second thrashing orgasm even greater than the first.


    Lyra opened her mouth wide and howled, fingers clawing frantically at his ears in bliss tipped ecstasy.


    To be crude, he played her like an instrument until she''d cum her brains, pushing her to climax after climax and then¡­ it was over.


    Lyra flopped back, chest rapidly rising and falling, blouse soaked through with sweat.


    He could practically hear her eyes rolling back, feeling that satisfied little expression of hers, mouth hanging open, corners lifting.


    She was well and truly done for.


    "Your tongue is too freaking muuuch, uhnf! That felt¡­ that felt amazing¡­" she breathed.


    He eased back, massive tongue slowly pulling from her clinging heated folds until it came free with a wet schlrp and a trickle of clear fluid that rolled down his chin.


    Lyra managed to gather some basic composure and lifted her head to look down at the wolf head pulling from beneath her skirt. She bit her lip, eyes fixated by the sight of her soaked black panties dangling from his teeth, a wicked grin on his face.


    "Th-that''s r-really furking hot you know that right?"


    He snorted a laugh and spat the panties aside, gripping hold of the sheep girl and turning toward the heavy oaken table. Lyra found herself whipped through the air and slammed down atop the table top that divided the shelves from the wall.


    Huge claws came down on her front, shredding her blouse and leaving her indecently round breasts wobbling across her chest, a stiff pink nipple slipping free from her bra. He roughly grasped her pencil skirt and pushed it up her hips until it was just a slim rumpled circle around her waist, her lower half left naked.


    She peered down over her bust with difficulty, eyes going round as Rain''s length came into her view a little over fifteen and a half inches of fat cock lowering down onto her body, her abdomen, the sheer heat of it warming her body.


    It was a lot of cock.


    And she needed it inside of her like she needed to breathe.


    "Look what you''ve done to me, are you going to take responsibility for this?" sad Rain, his voice low and near, the vibrations tickling her body.


    Lyra nodded her head dumbly and chewed her lip. Her hands darted up and pulled at her ribbons, hair was freed and spilled around her shoulders and across the table top, instantly shifting her appearance from severe prim librarian to something wilder, something more sexual.


    It caused a reaction and the already enormous member stiffened further poking against the underside of her bra. Rain groaned at the touch and fell forward, paws coming down above head as he bent over the table, Lyra''s legs spread into splits as his thighs forced them up, her knees hooking around his legs.


    The tip of his cock slid up with the motion, poking under her bra and parting her soft boobs, the tip rising up between as he leaned more and more over her, his chest above her head as he practically fell over the heavy table.


    Lyra barely noticed despite the intimacy, fixated on the massive cock head rising up from between her boobs. She watched as little beads of pre leaking from the tip smeared across her clear skin, over the softness of her breasts, the intense heat on her flesh, the powerful scent striking her nose like a hammer. She swallowed noisily.


    Without a moment''s hesitation she grabbed for it, both hands part encircling the shaft below her breasts as she leaned her head down and open mouthed kissed the tip, a long groan escaping as she tasted him, taking the beads of pre cum into her mouth and swallowing.


    She could feel herself somehow becoming even wetter and needier with his taste.


    Her eyes rolled up as Rain thrust forward into her mouth, the tip spreading her lips slightly as she was pushed back, bumping against her teeth, her legs drew tight against his thighs and her hands clutched the length, bra clad breasts parting around him, her entire body becoming a toy to masturbate him.


    She didn''t even need to bob her head much to get him off, working his long malehood with her tongue, mouth, and throat as he made little thrusting motions over the table, huffing as his mass, overwhelmingly larger and heavier than herself, shifted over top, dominant in size but in that moment weak to her tenderness.


    She soon got a reaction for her efforts with her mouth and breasts and hands, working his length from so many directions at once the stimulation was intense and Rain shuddered over her.


    She was rewarded by a heavy spurt of cloudy clear precum, the hot fluid quickly filling her mouth, filling her until her cheeks were bulging out and she had to pull away. The built up  fluid waterfalled from her lips and all over her breasts and neck as she gasped for air.


    Her gasps were stifled as more spurts of pre splashed across her face, splashing up her neck, her chin, into her gasping mouth and over her eyes until she blocked it with a hand, spurts of pre dashing against her fingers until finally he slowed and stopped.


    Rain pulled back as the fluid covered sheep girl blinked, sprinkles of pre flicking from her eyelashes.


    "G-gods you are too much!"


    "Want to stop?"


    "Hell fucking no." came the breathy reply. She smiled happily up at him and made a show of licking pre from her lips. "You''ve got to properly ravage this innocent defenceless librarian."


    Rain grinned back and shifted away, lifting away from the table and dragging his cock down from between her breasts,  a trail of cloudy slightly sticky fluid left in its wake as his cock continued to drool all over her.


    The trail of pre followed his cock down her front, over the top of the rumpled skirt, then pooling and overflowing in her belly button before he dragged his length back far enough that the tip was balanced on her mons.


    "D-do it," whispered Lyra, eyes dancing as she watched from between her breasts.


    Rain allowed his length to slip down, the tip grinding against her cute little clit before the mass came down facing her folds, slightly parted and trembling from sheer need and bawling lubricant that pooled and puddled around her globular rear pressed against the table top.


    A soft keen escaped Lyra''s lips as the massive tool started to press in. It was impossible that he would fit, impossible! he was too freaking beeeg!


    But then to her shock she found herself parting, spreading as the monster eased into her, lower lips easing around the broad tip, hungry to have him inside, practically pulling him in.


    Eyes wide she watched as the impossible thing slowly eased its way inside her, stretching her more than anything she had ever felt, yet it didn''t hurt, it just felt¡­ it felt fucking incredible and her breath caught in her throat as she watched her midriff rise with his penetration, her belly slowly pushing out with the blurred shape of his member.


    Her hands darted to the bulge, cupping the shape of it, breath coming in pants as her fingers were pushed up and apart as more and more entered her, more cock, there was always more cock!


    He slowed about halfway inside of her and then began to pull back, Lyra''s fingers following the bulge in her belly back as he eased free, her pushed up belly button sinking back down, his cock now covered in her juices lightly steaming in the air before it began to once more ease back in.


    "Oh f-furrrckkkk"


    Rain moved into long languid sawing strokes, spreading the sheep girl before pulling back only to inch deeper with the next slow stroke, each incredible thrust causing Lyra''s heart to beat harder, her fingers pushed up by her rising belly more and more, her incredibly wet pussy slurking and quelching over him as her juices eased his movement.


    Her unribboned hair bounced wildly around her head with the motion until her librarian glasses slipped from her face to clatter against the table. She barely noticed.


    The pace gradually increased until he was sawing in and out and her back rose, arching as sparks transformed into electricity that surged up from her pussy rising and building as he tended her until with a shriek her legs went stiff toes splaying as her nails dug at her belly bulge.


    skllrrrrrsh!! skllrrrrrsh!! skllrrrrrsh!!


    She howled as she sprayed down his front, a massive squirting messy orgasm that made her muscles tense so much it practically hurt!


    Rain paused.


    "Want me to slow down?"


    "G-Go! don''t stop!" she cried out.


    The next thrust was sudden and deep and she squealed as her walls rippled up and down his length even as he pulled free once more.


    "Ah, AH! H-harder! Harder! Fucking destroy meeeee!"


    She sang as the pace increased, Rain putting his strength to work, thrusting deeper and deeper until his massive knot was slapping up against her abused puss with each stroke, the massive ball of flesh reddening her fat pussy further with each wet slap against her folds, squishing down her clit.


    The thrusting became harder still and the heavy oak table started to shift back across the floor as the too big monster fucking the sheep girl thrust himself on it, thighs colliding with the edge.


    The table crashed up against the shattered bookcase blocking the row and then began ramming against it as Rain growled, roughly thrusting himself into the sheep girl, forcefully trying to fit his knot in her swollen pussy.


    The table didn''t hold up under the treatment and with a shriek of wood it began to disintegrate, tablelegs coming free as planks separated.


    He snarled and grabbed hold of the Lyra as the table fell apart around him, wrapping a paw around her waist and neck he lifted her and slammed her against the bookcase to the side causing it to fall against the bookcase behind giving him an angle to keep fucking the sheep girl.


    Which he did.


    Hard.


    Lyra screamed as she found her back pressed against books, her pussy enthusiastically   spraying down the monster bent over her as he roughly pounded up into her.


    Brutal thrusting followed, each slammed home thrust causing her cry out as it drove her up the angled bookcase, his knot slamming wetly against her engorged muff until finally:


    Schlrr-POP!


    Her folds stretched paper thin around the massive bulb before engulfing it entirely, slipping around the base and pulling tight, her insides clamping down around it.


    "Mmmh-HNNYAAA!!!"


    Skllrrrrrshhh! Gllrrrrrsch!


    She cried out as she squirted wildly, soaking her legs and hips. "Fill meee! don''t stop! don''t ever stop! HNYAAA!!" she clawed at his chest as she spurred him on.


    Rain grit his teeth and rapidly humped up as he thrust her down over and over with what little give his knot inside allowed, her pussy straining wide before slopping back as he lifted, the pace accelerating until he was throwing his head back and roaring, whole body stiffening up as he held her, sheathed to the hilt, cock going rigid in her quivering pussy until the first pulsing surge of boiling hot cum pumped into her womb, immense heat filling her core causing her to squeal, toes splaying as she in turn stiffened up, legs extending either side of him as she came harder than ever before, jets of her squirt spraying up between them as she screamed.


    "AAAIIIIIEEE!!"


    The arc of her tummy rose with each little erratic thrust, tugging her labia back and forth with the knot now too large to come out. She buried her face in his fur as she howled, hips rocking as her pussy milked him for all he was worth, rippling up and down and drawing all she could from him.


    The delicious taut sensation of Rain''s cock shifting and spraying into her, each surge stiffening it further, was sending her into repeated mind melting ecstasy, each groaned ejaculation pushing her into the next orgasm before the last had even finished, a chain of orgasms that sent fireworks non-stop crackling across her mind.


    Her belly gradually rounded with his seed, passing three months, then six, until she appeared eight months pregnant, her hands clutching weakly at her rising midriff, eyes rolling up, jaw slack, there was just so much!


    And then it was over. Lyra slumped back limp as she found she couldn''t milk a single drop more from her monster.


    Rain lay over the top of her.


    Both of them just breathing.


    "I- I''m so full with youuu," moaned Lyra, hands feeling around the mass that was her cum tummy.


    "Feeling better now?"


    Lyra nodded dumbly. "I¡­ I feel like I''m glowing and tingly all over, like there''s this warmth in me and-"


    A light caught her eye and she paused as she watched a firefly-like thing drift through the bookcase next to her head, a particle of light.


    "What¡­ is that?" It drifted into her bare shoulder and she yelped as she was electrocuted, her passage tensing up around the length inside of her. "What the fuck?!?"


    Rain blinked down at her then turned his head to see the more lights drifting lazily through the bookshelves, more fireflies that snapped and zapped as they touched at his fur or Lyra''s skin.


    "That Lamia bitch! she told the real actual librarian we''re here!" scowled Lyra as she batted a firefly away only to get buzzed once again.


    As they watched more fireflies drifted through the wall, and in the distance came a light growing ever brighter.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 153

    ? Chapter 153:


    Rain pulled away from the bookshelf with Lyra held in his grasp. The sheep girl was of course completely stuck tight and fast on his length and wouldn''t be coming off any time soon, which was a problem as the fireflies of light buzzing around them clearly indicated that the great library''s head librarian was about to find them.


    "I don''t know how strong she is, and to fight like this?" He glanced down at the sheep girl on his dick, "Is¡­ problematic."


    "Then Go!!" whisper-hissed Lyra "Let''s get out of here before she finds us!"


    Rain nodded and held her tight as he rushed away, the floating lights snapping against his fur as he moved, the occasional one getting past to pop against Lyra''s skin causing her to quiver.


    He reached to the end of the row of bookcases and nearly tripped over a small red-scaled Kobold who was peeking around the corner, a tent in his loincloth held tight in one hand. He squawked in alarm and fell backwards as he saw Ran, grabbing hold of Opal''s leg who was also there, one hand down her shorts


    "Were you both freaking watching us?!" cried Lyra in dismay.


    Opal shrugged guiltily. "S''hot. So what."


    A firefly drifted through the nearest bookshelf and landed on Red''s nose. He yelped as it zapped him, grabbing at his muzzle in alarm.


    "This time it wasn''t me, I had nothing to do with this!" said Vash appearing behind them, his skull wobbling on top of its skeletal rat servant.


    "These two peeping on us?"


    "What? No, the librarian!"


    "Oh, well that''s because it was Rose, it has to be, I told you we shouldn''t have let her go!"


    "Hey, I wanted her to stay too, in Rain''s stomach that is."


    Another firefly drifted through the shelves and Rain lifted a paw to prevent it touching Opal.


    Light was pouring over the shelves by then and an ominous hum filled the air, the librarian drawing alarmingly close.


    "Whatever! It doesn''t matter now! We''ve got to go! Rain, grab them and put them in my wool!"


    Opal only had a moment to cry out before a paw grabbed her and stuffed her inside Lyra''s wool, quickly followed by red and then Vash''s skull.


    Just in time as the light turned the corner and the real librarian became visible, a floating figure glowing with immense light.


    Rain ran for it, darting past the shelves.


    Unfortunately, the librarian caught sight of a tail just disappearing around the corner and charged after, flying through the air, like a wrathful goddess of books determined to make war.


    Speed was on Rain''s side because while the librarian was fast he was faster and he bounded through the library to Lyra''s squealed distress, her cum filled belly sloshing with every step.


    The librarian seemed to be aware of this advantage and was countering it by spreading out her fireflies, using her greater knowledge of the layout of the library. Rain turned a corner to find a hall filled with fireflies and had to back away and choose a different path.


    The fireflies seemed to build after that and becoming frustrated he charged through a group only to find the librarian intercepting him a little later, the touch of the flies seemingly pin-pointing his position for her.


    "Sh-she''s, hnfff, pr-predicting everywhere- oh gawd- that we g-go!"


    Rain couldn''t disagree with that assessment, the librarian had cornered them in a part of the library with few escape routes. It wasn''t long before everywhere he turned there were more fireflies and in the distance a glowing light that always seemed to be approaching around the corner.


    "We can''t escape!"


    Rain grimaced. If that was going to be how it was¡­ fine.


    "Wh-what are you doing? You can''t fight her with me like thisss!"


    "Wasn''t planning to."


    He turned in one smooth motion and punched the wall, fist connecting with enough force that the stonework cratered before exploding out around the impact point. A few well placed kicks on the lower down parts and an impromptu doorway in the wall had been created. Rain stepped through into another part of the library.


    Escaping the librarian was rather a lot easier after that as Rain simply punched his way to the edge of the endless structure, eventually finding a window out onto an alley and dropping down. Lyra activated her invisibility as a glowing drake head peered from the sil and down at the alley looking straight down at them, although failing to see them under Lyra''s Skill.


    The librarian scowled as her eyes ran up and down the alley, searching but finding nothing before she withdrew and stomped away.


    Lyra breathed a sigh of relief as she disappeared from view.


    "This all could have been avoided you know, if you hadn''t been so harsh on Rose, she''s clearly infatuated with you, you didn''t need to toss her aside so harshly."


    "She just betrayed my confidence for a third time, she revealed where we were to someone. I was absolutely right, she isn''t to be trusted, especially since I''ve barely just met her."


    "Yeah, but most people don''t have life changing awesome monster sex in the first hour they meet and then fall for the one that made them feel that way."


    He squinted down at the sheep girl.


    "Maybe that''s how she sees it," he reluctantly admitted.


    "She for sure sees it that way, you don''t know what you do to me and Opal, seriously." She ran a hand down the smooth arc of her belly. "Anyway, we should get moving, I saw the way she was looking at this alley, she knows something is off. I wouldn''t be surprised if she is going to fetch a pair of violet spectacles right now." She flapped her hand toward the alley exit. "So, we should get going right?"


    Rain shook his head. "Better position. Clothing."


    He had her pluck a fresh blouse from the dimensional bag and slip it on, the buttons open over her pregnant looking belly, unbound hair tumbling over her shoulders. He then took hold of the sheep girl, gripping her in his paws, and slowly turned her around, the knot in her pussy dragging at her insides as she twisted eliciting a squeal as her heavy cum belly turned with her until it was facing outward, drooping down slightly as it hung under its own weight. Lyra''s legs dangled from his crotch where she was connected as he hauled down her skirt from her waist, the back of her pencil skirt riding up behind her as it hid their obscenity from view.


    Unfortunately the stimulation of so much motion finally got to Lyra and with a flicker her invisibility promptly dropped.


    "Take it easy! Y-you broke my magic!"


    "I don''t have to hold you in place so much this way since you can rest on me more. It should be easier now."


    He finished with repositioning her and hiding their connection from view. Then he held one paw resting over her front, something for the sheep girl to cling to.


    "F-fine, but go slowly okay! I''m really sensitive down there!"


    They set off as the invisibility washed back over them and departed the alley, stepping into the city proper.


    It was a warm day in the city with the sun beating down overhead, the sky above a pure blue gradienting up into a deep azure, huge miles high cloud towers vaulting the dome.


    And because it was such a nice day it seemed the city was out in force to enjoy it, the streets were stuffed to the absolute brim with people, even in the high level areas where they stepped, fancily dressed levellers in every direction.


    Which was a problem as Rain needed to manoeuvre through it without touching anyone.


    The crowd parted suddenly and Rain was forced to leap out of the way as a horse sized green tiger prowled through the crowd, an elf perched atop its back.


    Unfortunately that meant sudden motion and Lyra tugged along by the knot in her pussy let out a squeal, clutching at his paw.


    The invisibility broke and a giant wolf monster appeared in the crowd for a moment, the sheep girl held by it quickly switching from white wool to black.


    The green tiger''s head snapped around with a snarl as it scented Rain, a threat, and bucked against the elf riding on its back.


    The invisibility was hastily reapplied and Rain darted back as the tiger came on searching for them even as its mistress kicked at its sides and yelled, rattling the chains around its neck.


    "I''m sorry Rain, I c-can''t focus properly!"


    The invisibility broke again as Lyra moaned, all eyes snapping onto her, those closest stepping back as a murmur went up.


    "Slave monster?"


    "Running around with an invisible slave?"


    "What does she think she is doing?"


    Grumbled the crowd.


    "I c-can''t bring it back! I need a moment without moving Rain!"


    Her hand darted out and pointed, an open air cafe with chairs and tables that spilled onto the street.


    "There, go sit!"


    Not liking his chances with the wooden chairs, Rain spotted an iron bench and quickly moved over to it, sitting down to hide his penetration of the sheep girl from public view.


    Her belly pressed up against the cafe table as his legs spread either side of it. They got a lot of confused looks from other customers.


    Lyra waved nervously, mouthing the word ''slave'' at those staring at her.


    But before those staring could respond a snarl came from the crowd and the tiger barreled through, knocking people to the ground as it roared, foam spilling from its mouth as the crazed thing bucked trying to throw the elf from its back.


    It succeeded at last, throwing her as it twisted, tail lashing, and the elf alighted on the paving with an elegance that belied her struggle to keep the tiger under control.


    The tiger seeing this lunged for her in an out of control fury, maw opening wide as it aimed to tear her face off.


    The elf turned and her hands flashed out even as her stance shifted, becoming wide and steady to take the tiger''s charge.


    The tiger''s long sabre like teeth collided with the elf''s hands as she formed fists gripping them tightly. and then she violently twisted from her core, her arms whipping around each other, a twisting motion rising up from her legs, through her torso, then through her arms and into the tigers head, violently turning it in an instant.


    A grizzly crunch-snap filled the air as the tiger''s body caught up with its stationary head and the snapped neck behind it, huge mass curling up over itself as it went from motion to an abrupt stop.


    The elf let the limp tiger fall from her grip. It flopped to the ground dead and unmoving.


    The crowd stared at the dead tiger and then at the elf.


    "Hmm, not even worth a level single level, I knew I was overpaying for this garbage."


    She turned and stalked away leaving the massive dead tiger on the paving like so much discarded trash, a food wrapper tossed aside.


    "This¡­ might not be the best place to get into a fight,'''' whispered Lyra, "Like, don''t bet on winning, gods knows what kind of levelers are in the crowd."


    Rain grumbled. "Then make us invisible so we can get out of here."


    "I- I can''t! stop doing that to me!"


    "Doing what!"


    "Rubbing against my sensitive parts!"


    "Ma''am?"


    Lyra blinked and turned to find a waitress with a notepad standing by her.


    "Erm, y-yes?"


    "Your order?"


    "Uh, just a coffee please!"


    The waitress nodded and stepped away.


    "Hnnf seriously R-Rain," she hissed, "Stop doing that!"


    Rain blinked wondering what she meant and looked her over.


    The problem was obvious once he was looking for it of course, she had made her wool black as a disguise once the invisibility dropped and that black wool was now brushing against parts of his body as she lay against him, preventing her from focusing on her tricky invisibility Skill, their magical connection being stimulated in that certain way, driving the sheep girl to distraction.


    In fact, he could feel her pussy clamping down on his length in reaction to their touching, practically rippling up and down as the sheep girl was trapped in a recursive loop. The touch of the wool caused her to twitch and clench which in turn shifted her wool against him which stimulated her again.


    He would be lying if he said it didn''t feel really good.


    But they were in effect trapped in public.


    "Oh gosh how far are you along?" came a voice.


    He turned his head to find a human leveler dressed in an extremely expensive looking dress standing by them, her jewel-encrusted fingers clasped together, red curly hair falling around her shoulders as her blue eyes studied Lyra. Another two of what Rain strongly suspected were noble Ladies stood behind her.


    "Uhhwha?" warbled Lyra barely holding herself together.


    "Your pregnancy girl, you must be nearly at term now judging by your size."


    "I- uhm y-yeah, I''m uh, pregnant with my h-husbands, an elf!, baby, uhm¡­"


    "Aww, she''s adorable, don''t you think?" said the red head turning to her friends.


    "I just want to know where she got a monster like this one," said one, a lapine with dyed pink ears. "It''s got that look Audrey, you know, the look."


    "It''s just a regular monster, nothing special, hnnfff," Lyra managed to get out as her pussy clenched up over and over, her hips slightly shifting up and down, Rain''s knot dragging slightly at her labia as she bounced.


    "Nothing special? Hah! You get a sense for these things darling, and a one with a look such as this is worth far more than most, it''s the eyes I believe, they have the look of a monster that has killed countless other monsters, they just scream danger, much unlike that spoilt tiger the elf disposed of," the third lady said, a fan in her hand and breezing herself in the summer sun. She looked up at Rain and he gave her a death stare. She shuddered and took an involuntary step back, fan dropping down.


    "Oh hush you, it''s impolite to ask about a lady''s monster, especially one who is using it to protect her vulnerableness," said Audrey.


    "V-vulnerableness?"


    "Why yes, carrying to term a child as a leveler is ever fraught with danger, at least if one wants to a leg up in the race to level ever higher. Why, the number of pregnant women who I''ve seen doing battle in the dungeon with young children clinging to their legs, is just terrible. But with you I suppose you don''t have anything to worry about."


    As she spoke Lyra''s grinding on Rain''s length was becoming more and more intense and to his dismay he found himself rising toward a second orgasm. The red headed noble woman seemed obvious to this, but the Ladies behind her had started to give them confused looks, eyes darting down to Lyra''s shifting hips.


    "I- I have to w-worry about a lot -eep, a-actually!" squeaked Lyra.


    The waitress arrived with her coffee and carefully placed it on the table as she spoke, even she was giving Lyra curious looks as she stepped away.


    "Always a worry for a mother, which is another thing, how many children are you expecting? Wait, don''t tell me, I''m an old hand at this."


    To Lyra''s utter horror the woman darted down, leaning over the table to press her ear against the surface of her cum belly.


    A moment passed in dizzying frozen dismay.


    "Strange," said the noble woman after a moment, "I¡­ haven''t heard anything quite like this before¡­"


    "Wh-whats wrong with my babies!?" squawked Lyra, as her insides continued to squeeze down and massage Rain''s cock.


    "I¡­ It sounds rather¡­ wet? In there?"


    "Weeeett?" moaned out Lyra, finally losing her battle over her self control and thrusting herself down against the cock she was speared on. "D-Don''t be, s-silly, hnyfff!"


    "Hnnggh," groaned out Rain as Lyra orgasmed, in turn her pussy convulsing up and down his length.


    Rain''s paw which had been resting on the arm of the bench closed and with a groan of metal the arm crumpled beneath his paw. The three nobles looked at the crushed metal in alarm. Although that was nothing compared to their alarm when Lyra''s belly started to expand once more as Rain ejacualted into her, the metal table making a screeching racket as it was slowly pushed away as she grew, the coffee sloshing from the cup resting on top as she easily reached nine months pregnant in size.


    "HnnnnyAAHHHH!!"


    Unable to keep her lips clamped tight any longer Lyra let out a long wail, her face flushing bright red as every customer in the cafe turned to stare at her.


    "It''s too mucchh Rainnn!"


    That was true, it seemed like her belly was reaching the limits of its capacity, slowing as it became hard with its pressured filling.


    Of course, Rain was still surging load after load into her and with nowhere else to go there was a certain amount of escapage, then a lot of escapage.


    A lance of white exploded out from the side of Lyra''s rear from where her skirt was hiked up, a high pressure hose of seed that sprayed down the legs of the noble ladies standing next to them eliciting cries of alarm.


    The next spray was even greater, shooting from between her legs and under the table splattering and puddling across the cafe floor, the third from the other side, launching into the passing crowd, and it was only getting worse as the backflow increased.


    "Rain run!" cried out Lyra in distress as she realised that things were rapidly unravelling and soon everyone would know she was riding her monster''s cock.


    Rain was trying to stem himself but realising it was a losing battle lurched from the bench, knocking over the table even as cum sprayed up his chest from Lyra''s behind.


    "Wh-what is this substance?" said one of the ladies lifting her hand and smelling the globs of white sticking to her fingertips, "Is this, is this freaking cum?!?"


    Lyra shifted her hips to the side with a groan and cum exploded in all directions, plastering the noble ladies from head to toe even as Lyra clutched at her belly and moaned.


    "R-Run dammit!"


    Rain sprinted from the cafe, cum going in every direction as the three noble lady''s screamed with fury, magic and lightning exploding from fists and fingers. He scooped up the chains of the tiger in passing and darted down the nearest alleyway before they could take aim.


    Despite the lady''s rage and desire to kill they struggled to follow, quickly finding that high heels didn''t make for particularly good footing when covered in cum. They fell about on the paving, slipping and sliding in the goopy white, apoplectic with anger but helpless to give chase.


    The sheep girl and her monster slave escaped into the endless back streets.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


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 Chapter 154

    ? Chapter 154:


    "The problem is," whispered Lyra, "Is if anyone starts asking questions. I can''t prove I''m strong enough to control you Rain, any check on my level and they will instantly know that you aren''t anyones slave, especially as you have no provable heart pin, and that''s not even to mention that I don''t hold a permit for you from the Ranker."


    "Questions will come because you don''t look strong enough to control me."


    "Hey! I resent that accurate statement!"


    He tilted his head, the chains around his neck shifting and rattling, his ''slave chains''. In reality they weren''t doing much, copper chains, enchanted with something or other and a little corroded with green verdigris, they hung loosely around his shoulders. They weren''t really chains to bind but reins for someone to direct what they were riding with, specifically the dead tiger monster he had taken them from.


    Still useful enough to give the illusion of being bound, even if they made him feel uncomfortable and itchy to the point he half wondered if the enchantment on them was doing something.


    The main advantage was that a lot less people were interested in him in the higher leveler quarters, barely drawing a glance as he appeared pretty much as the elf and her tiger had, a powerful influential leveler allowed by the Ranker to own a dangerous monster slave through dint of might.


    That facade of protection of course didn''t work so well once they started to leave the higher leveler quarter where the desperate and more observant noticed the issues with the disguise. More than once a number of levelers approached, only warded off by Lyra''s words about terrible injury and death, but it seemed eventually even that wasn''t enough. The desperate saw the gamble of opportunity, the ambitious saw riches of levels.


    The largest attack came once they stepped into the city slums.


    Nearly a hundred levelers swarmed from the alleyways. They surrounded Rain on all sides and drew blades, axes, clubs, glancing at each other as much as Rain, wary of how much the value of the monster might be lowered by sharing it with so many.


    Lyra looked around in dismay.


    "You''re seriously going to try this? Just look at this monster of a monster! He''ll tear your arms and legs off and eat them! And just think about it, if a monster is this strong I''ve got to be super ultra strong to control him right?"


    One of the more gaunt and desperate looking stepped forward and raised his arms.


    "Then kill me where I stand girl, gods know it would be a good enough farewell to this hellish city." He spat at Rain''s feet. "Somehow I doubt you''re capable."


    Lyra looked at him blankly. "Uhhh, Rain, little help?"


    Rain lifted a paw.


    "Wait wait, maybe don''t hurt him, just show him you mean business."


    Rain hesitated, a talon covered centipede half emerged from his fur.


    "How?"


    "What do you mean how?"


    "I can''t touch him without his skin disintegrating. How am I supposed to show I mean business without touching him?"


    "Err¡­ well, bring out that horrible cat chimaera thing you keep around, that should scare them properly."


    "It will likely slaughter them all in seconds."


    "So hold it in place and tell it not to slaughter them all to death in seconds!"


    The group of increasingly concerned levelers were pushed aside as someone made their way into the circle, striking at legs with a cane to get the crowd to move out his way.


    An old man, one with a heavy furred coat, pierced ears, a pair of gold spectacles perched on his reddened nose, and with ring encrusted hands appeared.


    "Back off now, back off you silly buggers!" he bellowed at the levelers clumsily waving his cane around.


    Lyra blinked and turned her head to see the man. He wasn''t alone, two scantily clad Lapine  girls followed on either side, each of them weighed down by an impressive array of jewelry and corsets.


    "Hey¡­ don''t I know you¡­?"


    The old man grinned, flashing many gold teeth.


    "Don''t recognise the one you saved from your big bad beast lass?"


    "The old man in the cabin, after we left the dungeon, it''s you!"


    He gave a dramatically low bow, tipping his feathered hat. "The one and only. A man reborn thanks to your most wonderful generosity."


    His gaze drifted down to the swell of her belly.


    "Uhh, I don''t quite remember-


    "I just ate a lot, ignore it."


    "But-


    "Do you want me to take the gold back?"


    "Okay okay, I see you don''t want to talk about it, reckon you must have been hiding it with some fancy city magic last we met, it not being your husband''s I assume."


    "Something like that." Lyra glanced at the uncertain looking levelers around them. If they were going to attack, the moment had more than passed. She made shooing motions with her hands.


    "Well? Go on then, you aren''t getting anything from us so shoo!"


    Reluctantly the crowd disappeared, filtering back into the slums.


    The old man scratched his beard thoughtfully once they were alone.


    "Names Horus by the way." He eyeballed the chains around Rain''s neck. "And I know for a fact that those chains are doing diddly squat because that ain''t a slave."


    Lyra grinned. "You know how it is."


    "No lass, I don''t. A monster is a monster, even one befriended."


    "You can think what you like, I don''t care." graveled Rain.


    Horus eyed rain, having to lean back a bit with his new height.


    "Aye I can, and I can say it''s a tad worrying seeing you''se so much larger, what the hell have you been feeding this thing lass."


    "Oh you know, a few nicely cooked steaks, some sausages, a clan of orcs, a glass of milk."


    "Wait what was that one-"


    "Don''t worry about it, it''s fiiine."


    Rain had started walking again and the old man followed, the two long legged Lapines stepping in his wake.


    "I do worry, I worry because this monster of yours just oozes danger," he paused in thought, "Which reminds me, what did I unleash on Lynthia by letting you go?"


    "Er¡­"


    "Lynthia is gone," graveled Rain.


    The old man froze mid step. "G-Gone?" Rain didn''t stop walking however and he had to hurry to catch up.


    "Dammit Rain, you didn''t need to to say it like that," hissed Lyra, then louder, "It, uh, came under attack from a succubus, but don''t worry everyone made it out okay, I believe the refugees are headed here as we speak."


    "I suppose that''s¡­ good, as much as those fuckers fucked me over the town didn''t need to disappear." The old man stroked his beard in consideration. "Let me guess, this succubus had something to do with the Ranker."


    "Yes, how did you know?"


    "I didn''t, but I was well aware that warlord prick was involved with the occult."


    "The town survived, but he didn''t, or his harem."


    Horus perked up hearing that, "Is that so? that''s good to hear, I''ve never met such a vicious cruel group in all my years, just the things they did in public alone," he shuddered. "Thems get their comeuppance and the rest of ''em being made refugees? That''s some damned tasty karma that is."


    "Aren''t you kind of a refugee yourself?"


    "Me? No lass, I-" he puffed out his chest, "-Am an investor."


    "..."


    "That means I buy up merchant houses."


    "Yes, I know what bloody investment is, but you are, no offense, a herdsman who literally lived in the backwoods of bumfuck nowhere not long ago."


    "Oh, don''t get me wrong, I''m not straying from my woodtrack on this, I only invest in houses that deal with livestock and horses and the like, which I''m familiar with, the sort that I got the expertise to buy up cheap."


    "Uhm¡­You, uh, d-do that? Ch-cheaply?"


    "Course I do, you would not believe the bargains I''m getting what with everyone being spooked away by the thefts, all that cattle stock just up and vanishing into thin air." He tapped his ruddy nose, "I''m in for the long haul though, so many animals can''t keep getting nicked by rustlers forever, at some point things will go back to normal and then I''ll be so rich it''ll curl your fingernails."


    "Uhh, y-yeah, sure¡­"


    He held out his hand and one of the scantily clad Lapine''s produced a metal box from which he plucked a folded scrap of paper.


    "I best be going, I''m off to buy half a hundred mark of horse flesh, but if you''re ever in trouble lass come visit me and mine at this address and I''ll try help. Mind, that''s a point, if the refugees are coming here I suppose I can prepare something of a welcome for them, if only to see the expressions of those who wronged me."


    A wicked gold toothed grin appeared on the old man''s wrinkled face and a spring appeared in his step as he practically skipped away, the two Lapine bunnies hanging off his shoulders.


    Lyra waved vaguely at him as she watched him go.


    "He seems¡­ nice," she mumbled.


    Rain grunted non-comitally in reply.


    They made their way deeper into the slums, and as Lyra calmed down she managed to regain her invisibility, mostly, only a few moments of blinking back to visibility before they reached the empty area of alleys around Warwick''s compound. There Lyra made them wait until Rain started to soften, then awkwardly pulled herself free as he sat. She struggled up, legs quivering, breath coming in pants as Rain cleaned off with a cleaning potion.


    She bit her lip as she looked down at her rounded belly, practically holding it up with her arms.


    "I uh, need to empty¡­"


    "So do it here."


    "In this dirty horrible alley? With Bean hanging around somewhere?! No way!"


    "So what are you going to do?"


    The sheep girl huffed. "I''m going to empty myself in Warwick''s bathroom, obviously. Now come."


    She began walking down the street, well, waddling like a duck, her arms hugged around her pregnant looking belly as she moved.


    Rain followed in her wake feeling a bit bemused watching her.


    Making their way up the stairs to Warwick''s compound took a while and Rain ended up practically carrying the sheep girl, stepping over the twice repaired steps. They finally reached the top and spilled out the doorway together with Red and Opal now freed from Lyra''s wool to find Warwick and his wife along with Pickle and two other children about to start eating a meal set out on the outdoor dining table.


    They all turned their heads to see a very pregnant looking Lyra wearing a librarian outfit. Lyra flushed beet red and with an EEP! dashed toward the bathrooms.


    Their gaze followed her before returning to Rain who shrugged.


    "She ate too much."


    ---


    Lyra slammed shut the bathroom door, frantically sliding the bolt home as she panted for breath, her cheeks glowing hot red with sheer embarrassment. Why did Warwick''s entire freaking family have to see her like this, gosh! She was going to have to go hard on the lies after this one, maybe she ate too much? Yes, that was probably her best bet.


    She glanced down at her rounded belly. Okay, maybe she ate more than too much, maybe she accidently took part in an eating contest and her competitive side took over.


    For the moment however she really needed to deal with this, as much as it felt strangely wonderful to be filled with so much heavy warmth in her core it was still not something that she could keep forever. Although a little voice in the back of her mind very much wanted to stay like this forever.


    She shook her head. No, it had to go.


    Lyra turned to find the toilet, a surprisingly advanced thing that actually connected to the city''s sewers. The slums might have been slums, but the original buildings beneath it all had been built as the rest of the city, white stone buildings of a standard quality.


    She wiggled her hips, slipping her skirt over her legs and flicking them aside before turning and carefully perching herself over the toilet, her huge pregnancy lying heavily in her lap.


    "Gods just how much did you put in me¡­" she mumbled looking down. Rain had of course cum not once but twice into her, filling her to the absolute limit. Tea to make her body more flexible or not it still felt like she couldn''t take a single thimbleful more of his seed, which might have been why there had been so much backflow at the cafe. Now that made her want to shrivel up with embarrassment. What the hell had she been thinking?!


    She had mostly been thinking about sex if she was honest, the stimulation from both Rain being inside of her and his touch on her black wool had turned her temporrily insane.


    Wiggling her hips she tried to push down, squeezing out the gallons of cum with her body.


    Nothing happened and she found herself feeling silly. It was almost like her body was resisting being emptied, desperately trying to hold his seed inside.


    "Goddammit body you can''t keep it," she muttered. Hesitantly she wrapped her arms around her size and hugged herself.


    A feeling of pressure built in her core as her arms squeezed, something on the verge of escaping, straining deep in her pussy, until suddenly the damn broke in a rush.


    Her body went stiff and she gasped aloud as what felt like an incredible amount of viscous fluid gushed from her pussy, a continual solid stream that made her legs tremble and her muff tingle and her toes curl.


    Minutes passed of just softly moaning and trembling as she emptied herself of boiling hot seed, a solid waterfall of white that oozed from her reddened puss and disappeared into the toilet''s bottomless depths, her cum belly slowly receding back to smooth and flat as she emptied herself.


    It was an extremely satisfying feeling of release to say the least.


    But at last she was done and she stood, wiping away the last of the white from her lower lips with toilet paper.


    She felt, well, she felt sweaty and disheveled and deeply satisfied to her very soul. Her near death experience already felt like a distant memory.


    One thing was for sure though, she needed a damned bath.


    She peeked out the door of the building. Warwick''s family had convinced Rain and the others to join them in eating it seemed. That was fine with Lyra, it gave her the time and privacy she needed.


    She sneaked out and silently slipped into the bathhouse next door. The bathhouse was a great tiled thing, a gently steaming pool in the center. Something left over from when Warwick had run a more lucrative business with his peers.


    Rain had been permanently banned from using the bath of course after he sat in it and displaced all of the water, making a tidal wave that washed through the door and flooded the grassy square outside.


    She eased down into the water, the heat rising up her legs until it was washing up her torso then rising up to her breasts, until her unbound long hair was floating around her. She let out a long weary sigh of relief.


    Her eyes closed and she simply soaked in the wonderful relaxing heat. Really, apart from being ejaculated into in public it was hard to know a better day, playing out a personal fantasy, really really amazing sex, and then relaxing in the bath. What wasn''t to love?


    A noise tugged at her ears and she cracked an eye to see someone moving in the steam.


    Opal was there, struggling a little in the deeper end until she drew close.


    "Hey."


    "Uh, hey,"


    The goblin girl shuffled uncomfortably close and peered up at Lyra, one eyebrow raised.


    "Sooo, how did it go? The sex?"


    "W-weren''t you eating with-?- I, erm, mean, well, it went¡­ okay¡­"


    "Details, give me details!"


    "I play pretended being a librarian being hunted by a big bad monster, what more do you want to know?"


    Opal huffed. "More than that, gods, give me the goods, how did you do it?"


    "Uh, w-well, I don''t know if I really feel comfortable speaking-"


    Opal lunged forward and grabbed at her breasts, her hands mauling at Lyra''s nipples causing her to yelp in surprise.


    "Did he grab you like this as he fucked you? How hard did he go? Did you drink his seed? How long did he last? you''ve clearly already been affected."


    Lyra whimpered as the goblin girl heaved and pulled at her chest.


    "Sto-p- W-wait what do you mean affected?!"


    "You can''t tell? Hmm, interesting. Quick, tell me if you had to drink his cum!"


    Lyra blushed, completely out of her depth with the situation, a girl was giving her a lewd bathroom massage while pumping her for answers, literally!


    "N-no Opal, I d-did not d-drink of him, w-well apart from a little, but that''s not the same!"


    "Interesting, interesting," Opal pushed close, her own breasts pressing up against Lyra''s as she stared up at her, studying her face.


    "And how did it make you feel when he blew a belly busting load in you?"


    "Wha- you can''t just ask a girl that Opal!!"


    "Tell me."


    "Look, I understand you might be feeling a little jealous with not being able to do it right now but you can''t just-


    "Tell. Me. Everything. In detail."


    Lyra squirmed on her seat, getting more and more set off balance by the goblin''s intensity, the sensation of her nipples being milked at by expertly teasing fingers.


    "OKAY! Fine!... It felt, it felt like I could barely contain him, but that wasn''t a bad feeling, no it felt good, and that was without him moving¡­ Then¡­when he began to thrust into me, hnff, there was this tingling all over but especially from down there you know? That just built in these powerful surging downwaves, building me higher and higher until I couldn''t breathe, becoming so intense I couldn''t speak, I couldn''t think, until I¡¯m throwing my head back and screaming, until I feel like I can''t take it anymore and everything is roaring in my ears! Ahnnn!¡±


    Lyra was becoming more confident as she spoke, Opal''s massaging increasing in intensity until Lyra found herself lost in the sensation. The goblin girl seemed to be some kind of master, had she been practicing or something?!


    "Then after reaching the peak I come crashing down, floppy limp, my whole body glowing and pulsing until it focuses back on my core, my pussy is left contracting over and over with the aftershocks around his still stiff cock and it feels amaaaazing! -HNNNF O-Opal!- Each contraction is fast and so strong at first, then slowing, until I¡¯m so sensitive that I can barely move! The afterglow feels like I¡¯m high and I just want to lay there stuffed full with so much of his cum in my womb, ahn! J-Just feeling incredible and complete, like a deep need to be bred has been satisfied that never could have been beforeeee- oh god OH! OH!¡±


    Her body stiffened as Opal''s mauling motions reached a climax and Lyra gasped aloud, eyelids fluttering as she flopped back against the pool edge, little buzzy feelings rolling up her down her body as she bathed in the feeling Opal had drawn from her chest, her eyes closed, heart pounding.


    It took her a moment to recover.


    "Wh-what the fuck was that Opal?!"


    There was no reply and Lyra opened her eyes to find that no one else was in the pool with her, she was alone.


    "Huh?"


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 155

    ? Chapter 155:


    Lyra slowly towelled herself dry, her mind still stuck in the moment Opal had accosted her and like some kind of breast massage wizard had driven her to climax through touch alone. Had the goblin girl always had such insane skill with her hands? It was honestly hard to believe.


    Secondly, and perhaps more strangely still, why had she wanted detailed descriptions of her time with Rain, she certainly knew what that felt like so why did she want to hear it from Lyra''s own mouth? And hang on, she paused, frowning in thought, hadn''t Opal watched the whole damn thing from the shadows? They had stumbled upon both her and Red happily fondling themselves as they peeped after only a dozen steps so why the hell did she need to know what had happened when she had seen it for herself?!


    Strange. Very strange.


    Could it perhaps be some kind of jealousy?


    She pondered that as she dragged out a spare set of clothes from the dimensional bag and put them on, slipping fresh short shorts over her hips, then digging free a few ribbons and neatly retying her hair buns before donning a blouse.


    Maybe it was her own fault. She hadn''t offered to share even a little, dead set on playing out her librarian fantasy and giving no thought at all to the goblin girl who hadn''t had any true relief in some time. Gods, she was probably going absolutely insane with horniness! No wonder she had been masturbating as she watched her and Rain.


    Humming and pondering the situation she pushed the door open from the bath house and trotted into the square of Warwick''s compound. This time atleast she was presenstable, no longer a bedraggled sweaty mess wth sex mussed hair, she appeared neat and tidy which made her feel a little bit better about the sight she had presented on first entering.


    Opal was there, sitting on the table cross legged and devouring a chicken.


    She approached.


    "Opal, I understand how you must feel, and it was maybe bad of me to demand what I did after what happened. I just didn''t think, but I know better now. I should have shared Rain with you, you could have been the librarian''s assistant who gets trapped and hunted along with the head librarian, we could have trembled in fear together before getting ravished." Lyra nodded wisely, yes this would set things right.


    Opal gave her a blank and completely uncomprehending stare, a piece of chicken hanging from her mouth.


    "...What."


    "Please, I know you don''t want to say anything because it would be rude, but I understand, I do, you must be dealing with the worst kind of arousal to have become so desperate that you would accost me, to think you must be massaging yourself day and night to have acquired such skill with your fingers."


    Opal chewed slowly as she stared at the sheep girl. She swallowed.


    "I have literally no idea what you are talking about sheepy."


    Lyra glanced to the side seeing Pickle looking at them while picking her nose.


    "I get it, you don''t want to speak about it here. But maybe we can figure something out, you can''t do the deed with Rain right now, but maybe we can be together?" Lyra tilted her head and raised her eyebrows up and down suggestively.


    "We¡­ what??" said Opal, staring wide eyed at the sheep girl.


    Is there something wrong?" said Velatha as she approached, a keg of something held under her muscular arm.


    "Uhm, no, just ah, girl talk, between, uhm girls."


    Velatha eyed her, "Girl talk. It''s not really normal to treat a goblin in such a way you are aware of that right?"


    Lyra blinked, she had gotten so used to thinking of Opal as a person that it was almost jarring to be reminded that others simply did not.


    "Uh, it''s not normal, right, but it is how things should be, don''t you think?"


    Velatha sighed, glancing at Opal who was busy burying her face in chicken. She stepped aside from her and placed the keg on the table and began fiddling with the tap.


    Lyra came closer, getting the distinct impression that she wanted a word.


    "Listen," said Velatha lowering her voice, "I do get it I do, I''ve seen levelers become attached to monster slaves in the past, it does sometimes happen."


    Lyra gave her a funny look, that wasn''t something she herself had come across.


    "But you should know it always ends badly. Warwick has lost many friends to monsters so he hates your goblin and kobold and he especially despises your wolf, he wants nothing more than to see them all die. Now, realise that he is perhaps one of the kindest most thoughtful men in this entire city, and consider just how a leveler who has had their family or children killed by monsters would feel seeing you treating one like a person?"


    "They would feel¡­ angry?"


    Velatha nodded, "It happens, monster slaves aren''t treated as anything more than objects as to do otherwise is an insult to those who''ve lost everything to them, it''s the only way it''s tolerated. A goblin treated as a leveler will eventually find itself dead at the hands of the grieving or spiteful, and if they are hateful enough they will kill you too. Look, all I''m saying is keep your treatment of this goblin on the down low okay?"


    "Like your children do?"


    Lyra glanced to the side and Velatha followed her gaze with a frown, finding Pickle and a human boy and girl giggling and racing around Rain as he sat cross legged. Occasionally Rain would lift his tail and they would collide with it, sputtering as they got a face full of fur causing the others to laugh.


    "They¡­ shouldn''t be doing that, it''s not natural. Well, perhaps for Pickle it may be of some temporary benefit, anything is better than her attachment to Bean." The woman shuddered at the mere thought of the bald lizard. "But no, I won''t allow this to remain as it is, it''s too risky."


    Lyra rubbed her chin looking between the playing children and Velatha. "Say, don''t you think it''s interesting that children have to be taught to fear monsters? Doesn''t that tell you it''s not natural?"


    Valetha looked a little uncomfortable hearing that. "That''s only because we haven''t taken them down to the dungeon yet, a few trips down there and they will come to fear and hate them as everyone else does once they understand the monster filled hell pit this city rests upon."


    "But-"


    "I don''t want to talk about this. Listen girl, monsters are dangerous, you think you''ve formed an attachment to these three slaves of yours? You''re lying to yourself, and someday they will turn around and kill you."


    "Aheh, I''m not really sure you know what these three are like-"


    "And the big one? Don''t think I didn''t notice how the lot of you acted when it hadn''t been fed. There was real concern there, you were worried that it would become dangerous if it got hungry enough."


    Lyra had to admit that was unfortunately true, but that wasn''t Rain''s fault!


    "That''s not his fault, that''s just an appetite problem!"


    "Uh huh, and you expect me to trust my children around it."


    Lyra blew out a breath. "I don''t, but he''s been fed plenty and if it''s up here where no other levelers can see then what does it matter if they get on well?


    "It still matters¡­ They need to learn."


    "Pickle''s learning alright¡­" said Lyra nodding her head in pickle''s direction.


    The larger of the two human children, a girl, had gotten a faceful of Rain''s tail and this time she snapped when Pickle giggled. Storming over to her to exact some revenge she picked up a stick in passing, raising it to start hitting.


    She found her way blocked however when a large paw came down in front of her path, a paw as large as she was. She looked up to see the monster it belonged to not even looking in their direction, instead devouring several roast chickens from its other paw.


    Pickle stepped close and peered over the paw at her smugly, sticking out her tongue.


    The girl scowled from behind her long curly fringe but didn''t move to approach further.


    Seeing this Pickle patted the paw and it smoothly grabbed hold of her, lifting her up into the air as she stared the girl down, only breaking eye contact when she was dropped into Rain''s lap where she promptly curled up for a nap.


    "Don''t tell me that''s not cute, because I know you''ll be lying," said Lyra, lifting an eyebrow.


    "Making friends with a monster is a bad thing, this will do nothing but harm to Pickle because it''s just going to be that much harder for her to kill her first monster when the time comes."


    "But for now¡­ in the moment¡­ she seems happy, you know." Lyra gave her a piercing look.


    "I¡­ I suppose that is true."


    Velatha stared at the goat child gently snoring, and her two children behind fighting and laughing over the monster''s wagging tail.


    She sighed.


    "Maybe, maybe this isn''t so bad,"


    Lyra tilted her head lifting her brow in question.


    "Yes okay okay I see your point, at least this monster doesn''t lick people''s eyeballs while they sleep."


    Lyra gave her a smug look reminiscent of Pickle. "So maybe you weren''t so right?"


    "Gods, you are a one for getting your own way. I''ll¡­ try and be a bit more open minded¡­"


    "Immediately? You did say it wasn''t so bad?"


    "How am I-"


    "You can try, it doesn''t cost you anything to try! Come on!"


    A strained expression appeared on Velatha''s face but she looked down at the keg she had placed on the table in thought then shook her head. "Not the expensive stuff."


    She stalked over to a shed on one side of the compound''s square and disappeared inside for a moment before reappearing with a fresh keg, this one black. She hesitantly stepped over to Rain.


    "Want a drink¡­ R-Rain?" said Velatha, voice uncertain.


    "Don''t you dare accept wolf, you''ve already eaten me out of house and home!"


    Velatha sighed. "This is that rotgut stuff Warwick."


    "Oh. In that case, drink as much as you want."


    Lyra narrowed her eyes at Velatha. "I smell a scam, what''s wrong with this so called rotgut?"


    Velatha heaved the keg onto the table.


    "There''s nothing wrong with it, well, actually there''s a lot wrong with it, it''s a viciously strong drink distilled from god knows what taken from the dungeon, the kind of drink the slums drowns its misery in. My husband here takes it as payment from families in exchange for a captured monster to kill, not because it''s worth anything, but because that way the children don''t suffer the abuse of their drunkard parents."


    Warwick glowered at her. "You didn''t need to tell them that."


    "And you didn''t need to keep a shed full of the stuff because you never throw anything away. The monster is welcome to it."


    Rain leaned over the table and took hold of the black keg, he brought it up to his mouth with both paws. With a quick bite down his teeth sliced through part of the wood and the alcohol immediately poured down his throat. He finished the keg in a few gulps and placed his impromptu beer mug aside. Surprisingly it tasted pretty good, although it did burn like a mildly poisonous acid on the way down.


    He found Warwick across the table from him giving him a venomous stare, his own beer tankard held in hand.


    Rain glanced at it and lifted an eyebrow. Warwick sneered at that, then lifted the tankard and drained it in one. He reached for another keg as Velatha returned with two more under arms and poured her own drink, although not from the black kegs.


    A rhythm quickly built. The children would supply Rain with a fresh keg of rotgut rolled over for each he drained and in turn Warwick would drain his own tankard, his gaze becoming more and more angry with each passing moment along with his face which became redder and redder.


    Warwick lifted a wobbly finger to point at Rain, voice slightly slurred.


    "Monster, do you have any idea how many of your kind I have defeated and laid low?"


    Rain shrugged, "Do you think I haven''t killed monsters?"


    Warwick scowled hearing that. "You should be angry, I killed your kind, I''ve killed so many."


    "And how many levelers do you think I''ve killed? How does that make you feel? Do you feel differently when hearing about stronger levelers slaughtering weaker levelers?"


    Warwick''s mouth opened and closed, struggling to find words. "Yes of course I bloody do!"


    "Why?"


    Warwick slammed his tankard down, beer sloshing over the edge.


    "B-because it''s different!"


    "Hmm. What''s worse, a monster killing a leveler in self defense or a leveler killing another leveler for fun?"


    "...You like your mind games far too much for a monster," said Warwick, narrowing his eyes at Rain, "There''s¡­ something about you that I can''t quite put my finger on, something almost levelerish." He downed his pint slowly.


    "Let''s uh, get off the dark topics for a little bit shall we dear," said Velatha quickly shoving a fresh drink into Warwick''s hands, "Not really the right thing to be talking about around children yes?"


    Warwick scowled but held his silence as he noticed Pickle staring fiercely at him from where she stood up on Rain''s lap.


    The effect of the booze was starting to hit home despite Rain''s resistant body, whatever the spirit was it was extremely strong to the point his vision was shifting and wavering.


    After the twentieth keg things started to become blurry, awareness coming in flashes, doing battle by drinking Warwick under table became various other contests Velatha organised, including trying to throw a stone at a target- Rain sent it through several buildings, trying to walk in a straight line- neither of them could (especially not Warwick with his limp), and last of all a general knowledge quiz- Rain didn''t have a clue due to his upbringing (Although Warwick was somehow not much better.)


    Rain was vaguely aware that at one point there had been some kind of singing contest too which Velatha had entered with them and won, although how that had happened he wasn''t sure, and of the actual singing itself his mind had forcibly forgotten it, thank the gods.


    The sun was set by the time they finished as Rain, the only one left standing, staggered into one of the compound buildings, he had no idea which one, and finding a bed keeled over onto it, instantly smashing it to splinters.


    A moment later he was out like a snuffed candle.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


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 Chapter 156

    ? Chapter 156:


    Consciousness came slow and very fuzzy, but sooner than expected. It was not the morning light that had woken Rain, it was a sound. Somehow Rain doubted either would have woken him at all if it weren''t for his body slowly absorbing the obscene amounts of rotgut he had consumed. Unsurprisingly he felt a lot like he had when he had been severely poisoned by a butler in Lynthia, limbs like heavy lead, his mind a fog.


    Even now the fuzzy feeling hung over him like a smothering cloth even with his ability to resist and digest poison. That probably said something about how nasty the stuff was and how suicidal those levelers were who drank it.


    Through ever so slightly cracked eyes he peered into the darkened room, half heartedly trying to see what had made the noise.


    Green? Ah. His eyes eased closed again as he felt a certain goblin girl climbing onto him, crawling between his legs.


    He expected her to curl up and fall asleep then and there, but to his surprise found her breath tugging at his sheath.


    "I get jealous you know," she murmured, "even though I can''t handle all of you, if I could I would, I wouldn''t share."


    Well if she wanted to give him attention he wasn''t one to stop her, not that he was capable of doing so right now, his head felt like pudding.


    The goblin girl began tugging and pulling at his sheath, pushing it down as she stirred him to life, soon the pink tip of his cock was emerging, peeking from the blac fur as it grew and swelled into her hands.


    "I am greedy, I always want more, more of you, and more and more and more."


    She dipped her head down and mouthed the tip as it grew past her lips, her hands working the hardening shape up and down as she teased.


    A breathy groan escaped Rains lips as she tended him, touching and tugging at his nerves in just the right way as she made him grow, grow until she couldn''t fit the tip in her mouth anymore and she pulled back with a gasp, long strings of saliva connecting her lips to the tip as she drew in air.


    His cock continued to lengthen in her hands, pushing them apart and gaining weight until she was struggling to handle it and it fell back against his abdomen with a thump.


    "Sheesh, you''ve gotten big Rain since we last met."


    "Wha?" He mumbled "What¡­ Do you mean?"


    "Ah since we last did it, I meant."


    Rain wasn''t capable of thinking more on that as he felt the goblin girl''s breasts touch down on his shaft, then move up, her belly along wit her tits pressing against him as she hauled herself up until she was on top practically hugging the thing, her breath tugging at his flesh.


    "This is enough to make any girl shudder just looking at it, both in fear and curiosity, you know that right?


    "Are you afraid or curious?" mumbled Rain, eyes still closed.


    "Neither, I simply can''t wait any longer to have all of you inside of me."


    Opal abruptly stood, her feet coming down either side on his hips and bent over, hands grasping the length and with difficulty began to heave it up, pulling his cock up from lying against his abdomen until it was vertical, the tip pointed at her belly.


    With a shift of her hips she aligned herself over top, belly in front and then lowered herself down.


    With a sigh she pressed her folds against the broad head and rain let out a groan as he felt her softness pressing against his stiffness. It was a wonderful feeling, but¡­


    "You can''t take me, not without help like the tea," mumbled Rain with a sleepy yawn.


    "J-just the tip then, just to see how it feels to be stretched."


    The goblin girl pressed herself down, little sounds coming from her lips as her pink folds slipped and slid against the broadness, her adorable clit scraping over the roughness as she stirred her pussy against the tip.


    "Hnff g-gods f-furking giant bloody monster, h-how are you so beeg!"


    Rain was drifting off to sleep again despite the attention, content to let the goblin girl tire herself out. He thought she would never succeed to take him naturally so it was just a matter of time before she flopped down and curled up with him to sleep.


    But Opal didn''t give up, she only became more determined, first clutching at his hips with her ankles and then bouncing on his tip, using the weight of her pregnancy to drive herself down, each bounce spreading her little puss a little wider, stretching her labia a little more over his shape.


    Her bouncing became frantic, a keening sound escaping her lips as she drove herself down, motions desperate, desperate to take him inside, Rain could even feel her pussy trying to draw him in, practically slurping at the tip of his cock.


    Then, with one final cry and a loud slipping sound her pussy slipped around the tip, her lower lips going paper thin as they strained and encircled the huge thing. Opal, went cross eyed, her thighs wobbling and shaking like jelly as she barely stopped herself from collapsing.


    "HNGHGGGFFFHHGH!! Hnnnn! Gawddss n-no leveler has ever- this barbaric a tool cannot overcome meeeee!"


    She was squatting over his length, quite clearly speared on it. Which he didn''t need to see to know, he could feel her incredibly tight insides squeezing the head of his cock from all sides, intense pressure as she stretched hugely around him.


    Rain cracked one eye to peer at the goblin girl.  "You look like you''re struggling Are you okay?"


    A sweat covered face with bedraggled hair glanced up at him. For a moment he thought Opal''s horn appeared red instead of its usual black, but that must have been the rotgut playing tricks on his fog addled mind. His eyes wavered and drifted down and he found her pregnancy had disappeared, her abdomen flat. Ah, clearly this was actually a dream as that was clearly impossible. Apparently he had been missing sex with Opal more than he realised.


    "F-fine, I''m fine! this is nothing! you are nothing!"


    "Weren''t you saying how I was too much for you a moment before?"


    "F-for most girls, b-but not for me! I won''t be laid low by some- some monster!"


    "By some monster?" he mumbled, this seemed a strange dream.


    "I, uh, mean, some cock."


    She set her teeth and began to bounce once more, shifting up and down on the tip of his cock, little whimpers escaping her mouth as she used weight and momentum to move Rain deeper.


    To Rain''s sleepy surprise she started to succeed and he watched as inch by inch her pussy lowered down eagerly taking more and more of him inside.


    "G-Goddam fit, d-damn you!" whined Opal as she slowly lowered. At one point she got stuck, but then she only seemed to become more determined, more desperate to take him, and her thighs bulged with muscle as she thrust herself onto him until with a soft sound she suddenly slipped inches down.


    "HNYYAAAA!!!" she cried, her hands clapping over her mouth before she could stop the sound escaping. A small sprinkle of her fluid sprayed from her pussy and dripped down onto Rain''s hips.


    Was this even safe for her? Rain didn''t know but Opal didn''t seem to care, too insanely horny to stop, her soft breasts dripping milk all over the place as they rippled with her shuddering frame.


    "I''m n-not supposed to be the one struggling!" keened Opal.


    "You can stop if it''s too much."


    Opal practically snarled at him, baring her teeth.


    "Words that attack my pride as a suc- that attack my pride as a g-goblin just came from your mouth. I will never be laid low by a simple cock!"


    She began bouncing furiously once more, hands clutching at her wobbling breasts as she shoved herself lower.


    "G-get in meee-hnyyaaa!"


    Rain yawned which only seemed to make the goblin girl livid with fury, her bouncing becoming faster and faster, shoving more and more cock inside, her belly tenting out with the shape of the massive cock within her, belly button riding up.


    She rode all the way down until with one last milky breast wobbling slam she reached the knot, the huge thing slamming against her muff.


    Her legs flopped and Opal breathed in great gasps, arm clutching at her breasts.


    Her head drifted down and then she froze, eyes locked onto the sight of her midriff bulging with cock. Her hands shifted to it and fondled her shape. She swallowed and rain could feel her pussy fluttering at the sight.


    "H-how did that stupid sheep take this?!"


    "I made her take it," grumbled Rain.


    The goblin girl licked her lips but then seemed to gather herself. Her legs trembling, she began to rise, lifting herself away from the cock, the bulge at the top of her belly descending as she rose, her folds clinging to the length as they rose up the surface. She made it about half way before her legs could lift her no further and she slipped back down, her pussy crashing against the uninflated knot with wet smack and a gasp. A shiver rolled up and down her body as she orgasmed hard, but undeterred she started over.


    The goblin girl slowly eased into an up and down motion, her shaky legs lifting her over and over, each time slamming down to the knot, the top of her belly bulging out and pressing at the underside of her large milky chest. The milk that rolled down the undersides of her breasts made rivulets of white over her tented out belly, little drips rhythmically knocked free as she was shaped around him over and over.


    "Hnnnn!"


    Her fingers clawed at her breasts as she bounced, little sprinkles of milk spraying from between her fingers.


    Rain groaned in his dream fog like state, his vision flickering as the goblin girl was sometimes green, sometimes red, hallucinations? he wasn''t sure, but as the bouncing accelerated his swimming blurry vision started to build a little clarity, not one but two horns were visible on dream Opal''s head, and there was a motion behind her, a tail?


    He was so confused, but the stimulation just felt so good, and so he found himself mindlessly bucking his hips up into the bouncing girl, feeling the delusion''s vice like clenching of her insides as she rippled over him, it felt amazing.


    "OH GAWWWDD!!" squealed the now fully red Opal as she squirted all over his hips, spraying down his fur with long powerful jets of pussy juice.


    Rain let out a groan, coming to a peak and tensed up, his cock stiffening and swelling at the same moment he thrust up as hard as possible.


    SCHL-POP! Came the sound from the red girl''s pussy as it engulfed his knot.


    She shrieked as he fully hilted inside of her, falling against his front and clutching against his fur, fingers entwined with his fur,.


    Not for long did she lie against him however as her belly started to swell outward, pushing her up as she filled with cum.


    "Oh- g-gods how is there so muchhh!" she groaned, writhing against him, toes curling.


    The relief of ejaculating finally cut through the poison fog like a scalpel through flesh and Rain''s vision instantly cleared. He looked down realising something was very wrong and found Opal''s black hair, that was normal-ish, however the adorably small wings perking from her back and the long spaded tail were not¡­ nor was the red skin¡­


    "Y-you-?"


    Erin in full succubus form smiled up at him from where she lay on his front, her fangs flashing in the gloom.


    "Oh Rain, everything fell into place, you left yourself so uniquely vulnerable and your girls told me everything I needed to know about how to properly extract what I want from you without having my flesh tear apart."


    He raised a paw and palmed her head, jerking it back to look into her eyes.


    "How is this that? No, this is- I don''t know what this is, but you will regret it."


    "Hmphh. I have nothing to regret as you have already lost. Just watch."


    She placed a hand on her cum belly and to Rain''s astonishment it started to disappear, her belly shifting as it was absorbed. As it shrunk the succubus started to grow, her body becoming larger as she absorbed the gallons of seed. By The time her belly became flat once more she had gained over a foot of height.


    "F-fuccckkk that''s the stuff, everything I wanted from you but without the disintegrating body nastiness."


    She brushed a hand against his paw and Rain found his arm flung aside as if it was nothing.


    "Do you think you can do this to me and pay no price?" he snarled. "you''re trapped on me!"


    The fist he had formed collided with Erin''s side with a meaty thud and the succubus gasped.


    "Oh Rain, tell me how you really feel!" she giggled.


    The next fist smashed against her head snapping it back with grizzly crch sound.


    With a sigh she grabbed her head and repositioned it as it was, cricking her neck as it settled and bone healed.


    "Okay, maybe being attached to the hip of the giant ultra violent monster wasn''t the smartest of moves."


    "Then kill me."


    "Oh Rain, I could never, then I wouldn''t be able to drain more from you, I wouldn''t be able to get stronger and stronger and stronger! Really, succubi have drained entire towns of people for not even a fraction of the power you just gave me, mhhnf!!"


    "...You do realise you just gave me full permission to do as I like to you knowing you can''t fight back right?


    "Uhh¡­"


    Darkness started to spill from Rain''s fur, claws and teeth, talons and spikes, and Erin yelped in surprise, snatching her limbs away from him.


    The darkness rose, reaching for the succubi from his fur and she cried out in alarm, suddenly thrusting upwards, muscles bulging in her thighs as she strained, wings flapping madly, her pussy spreading to its absolute limit as it widened to reach the width of Rain''s fully swollen knot.


    "AAAAAIIIE!!!"


    SCHL-POP!"


    Sklrrrrrrrsch!! Sklrrrrrrrrrrsch!!


    The succubus squirted even as she fell back, clear fluid arcing high into the air to shower down over them both as her pussy went mad, hugely gaped and hanging open from being stretched so far, her insides visibly convulsing.


    She fell between his legs tumbling head over heels before crashing to the floor, legs flailing in the air.


    She managed to sit up.


    "That''s that horrible stuff I tried to absorb directly, how are you controlling-


    A set of scythe-like claws on one paw slammed down and Erin yelped, scrambling backwards as they schunked into the floorboards between her legs.


    "You fucker, you could have killed me!"


    The claws whipped forward as Rain lunged, the scythes reaching for the wide eyed succubus, a black bladed death.

 Chapter 157

    ? Chapter 157:


    The scythes slashed wide and Erin only avoided their touch by flapping her wings, wings that seemed to give lift completely out of proportion with their size. Dragged back unceremoniously on her rear the succubus came mere inches from being sliced to ribbons.


    She looked down at herself, surprised to see herself whole. Then she snarled, eyes flashing with anger.


    "I''ve changed my mind, my intent was to accost you in your sleep each night, but now I''m going to cut off your arms and legs and make you my bed Rain, you''ll be a limbless mattress for me to sleep on, and every day and every night I will drain you, drain you until there is nothing left and I am as a god."


    "If you think you''re capable then try."


    The succubus took a step forward but paused as shadows curled up around her, a cat head amongst centipedes. A look of fright passed her gaze as she looked at the stuff, clearly recalling just what it had done to her.


    "Weak." growled Rain.


    Erin screamed her outrage and lunged for Rain, darting around the dark, her hands reaching for his neck.


    Rain took an easy step back, twisted, then torqued up from his hips, a massive fist smashed into Erin''s head instantly snapping her neck once again and sending her through the wall, across the street and through the building on the other side.


    Rain stepped up to the hole in the wall and raised his arms, a horde of wolf teeth flung from his fur and streamed into the hole the succubus had made in the building opposite.


    He tilted his head, ears twitching as he listened carefully, eyes narrowing at the dark hole across the street. He sensed nothing, although he did find the succubus had been sent through multiple interior walls. The night outside was empty and silent, the soft pitter patter of raindrops the only sign of life, the rooftops of the slums lit by the faint glow of the many coloured moon.


    He waited.


    Was she gone?


    He was about to turn away when a red streak lunged up at him from the street below, freighting into his chest like an out of control carriage. The air was blown out of his lungs as his rib cage creaked dangerously, the sharp cold feeling of bone fracturing all he had time to register before he was launched through the ceiling, plaster, wood, and tile exploding around him as he went vertical, driven up by Erin''s rise.


    He came out in the thin air above Warwick''s compound, having a high view of the square of buildings on top the flat roofs of the slums, then a higher view still as Erin rose. Was she trying the same drop tactic as in Lynthia? He wouldn''t let her have her way.


    Hundreds of serrated fangs and teeth rose from his fur all over his body and began travelling in every direction, turning his fur into barbed mincer for flesh.


    He was rewarded by a scream of pain and the succubus shoving him away.


    Which left him far up in the air well above the compound. Not good.


    He instantly retracted the fangs and teeth as huge owl wings bloomed from his back, not to flap but to catch the air even as he activated his Feather Fall Skill, everything and anything to reduce the impact.


    As happened last time he couldn''t actually tell if either made any difference at all as he was just too heavy and he dropped out of the sky like a lead brick.


    BOOM!


    His feet hit the grass of the compound square¡­ and then simply went through it. The grass cratered below him and he exploded through the roof and into the room below, part of the original building. He had only a fraction of a second to register it however as he plummeted down into the next room, then the next, floorboards fountaining apart around his falling body.


    In the end the only reason he managed to arrest his fall was the huge owl wings. They crashed against the floorboards in such a way that they supported his weight across a surface area as his body punched through, slowing him as he dropped through room and after room until he finally jolted to stop half way through a room''s floor. Black owl wings filled the room his upper half remained in even as his legs dangled in the room below.


    "A much better attempt than last time Rain, but I still feel it''s a bit lacking."


    He showed up to see Erin descending down the holes he had punched down through the building, tiny wings flapping gently to keep her hovering.


    "Did you think this was everything that I could summon?"


    Erin had time to blink before the tiger monster he had dropped into one of the floors he had passed through pounced, lunging with a feline roar at the floating succubus.


    She hissed and tried to dive out of the way as the great black tiger lunged for, claws reaching.


    She almost made it, but her tail fell into the tiger''s teeth and with a snap a tail of red flesh was flying through the air, disintegrating as the tiger bit at it.


    Erin flew higher, out of reach, and clucked her tongue, holding up the other half of her severed tail in one hand.


    "This is the stuff that almost killed me when I tried to absorb it, it truly is quite troublesome."


    "Even for a succubus?" growled Rain, dragging himself free and onto the floorboards.


    "It wouldn''t be what it is if another kind of predator could prey on it, obviously."


    As she spoke she flicked a finger on her free hand and it transformed into a talon. She swiftly and carefully sliced off the writhing tip of her tail that was still reacting to the touch of the predation and had fresh flesh bulge out from the stump, rushing forth into a freshly grown tail.


    "Another kind of predator? A weaker inferior predator?" said Rain, tilting his head to the side as he looked up at her.


    She lifted a hand in front of her face.


    "That thing you did, with the scythes, how did it go?"


    Her arm suddenly rippled, red flesh shivering as it moved from shoulder to her wrist, flesh moving out as the metacarpals that made up her palms bulged then ripped through the tops of her hands, bone expanding and growing, becoming a set of four bone white scythes on each hand, each scythe over two foot long, their edges scalpel sharp.


    She examined the shapes and hummed.


    "You can try get a rise out of me if you wish Rain, but trust that it will mean the removal of your eyes and ears and tongue as well as your limbs when I make you into my mattress. You will simply be a lump of blind flesh with a dick for me to become a succubus god with."


    The owl wings lying across the floor suddenly disintegrated, the huge feathers reshaping into teeth that slipped together, becoming a half dozen huge sets of bone wolf teeth reminiscent of Rain''s own.


    The snapping teeth eagerly shot up at the succubus above even as Rain sprinted for the door, smashing it aside with a brush of his arm he bounced off the wall before diving for the stairwell. What had been twice repaired now took an even harder beating, steps splintering apart as Rain stormed up before diving out on the floor below the compound.


    There Erin erupted from the floorboards to find Rain waiting, scythe covered fist aiming for her head.


    She twisted in mid air, flipping on end, and the scythes sliced through her feet, cutting them off at the ankles.


    Erin howled and dove between Rain''s legs, raking her own bone scythes into his thighs leaving cuts that ran red.


    The succubus''s severed feet fell against the floorboards with a heavy thud.


    Erin stared at him from across the shadowed room, breathing heavy.


    "Cutting your feet off seems to have bothered you. Did you quite like your feet?"


    He stared her down as a black morass emerged from his foot and he stepped on her severed flesh, disintegrating it into pools of blood.


    If looks could kill the stare the succubus was giving him from the shadows should have turned him to ash on the spot.


    "It must be strange for you, as a succubus, you go around draining everything you can from your prey, but with me you simply can''t do that. But, I on the other hand, can eat you just fine."


    He took a step toward her, the half dozen floating sets of wolf teeth rising up behind him.


    "And when I eat you I will grow just a little bit stronger, and a little bit bigger. Does that make me a succubus Erin?


    Another step.


    "A succubus that preys on other succubi?"


    Another step.


    The sound of wriggling flesh being discarded and hitting the floorboards was his reply, then the wet slick sound of her feet regrowing.


    "You know my sisters would find you unbelievably cute back in hell, we would fight to collar you as a pet. Our pet dog. But here and now I really really just want to kill you."


    "That''s fine, I was just playing for time.


    "Huh?"


    The wall behind exploded as a centipedal cat headed nightmare smashed through, it''s domesticated cat head yowling its anger as centipal tentacle arms whipped through the air in a storm of death.


    Erin fell back in alarm, scrambling away even as pincers came inches from snipping her neck. The floating wolf teeth behind Rain charged forward eager for the kill and with a scream of frustration the succubus flapped her wings to escape.


    She shot out away from the housecat chimaera and toward the hole in the ceiling that Rain''s passage had made as he fell, angling herself up to escape into the night.


    At the very last moment she shot out her arms and legs, grabbing hold of the edges of the hole with all her might and arresting her motion, slowing her inertia hugely in a fraction of a second, muscles straining to their absolute limit, her face coming inches from the net of inch thick black centipedes that criss crossed the hole.


    Had she hit at full speed the net would have separated her body into diced up chunks.


    She realised it now, the entire thing had been a trap from the start, Rain perhaps even intentionally allowing her to carry him up into the air, all for this singular purpose, a trap within a trap within a trap.


    She screamed her outrage even as the house cat chimera and the wolf teeth bore down on her, she had nowhere to go, she was done, to become mincemeat in seconds.


    So she sacrificed her scythes.


    Slash slash slash, her arms moved like lighting, the living bone crashing against the thin centipedes criss crossing the hole, the bone cutting them to pieces even as it disintegrated at the touch, bits of bones and then fingertips falling around her as she cut and cut until there was barely enough space and she wriggled through even as the wolf teeth crashed up against the net bulging it out behind her but unable to fit.


    She rolled free with a gasp of fright, jumping to her feet and-


    Rain flying tackled her from the side, exploding from the doorway entrance to the compound.


    They came down rolling and roaring the succubus forming a set of talons from her severed fingers that she raked at his flesh with, strips of fur flinging away as she mauled at him.


    With a roar of pain Rain used his over bearing strength and grabbed her arm, rising to his feet and whipping her over head to smash down upon the out door dining table turning it to splinters.


    She coughed blood in the crater of shattered wood, staring up at him with pure hate.


    Then he placed foot on her chest and pulled.


    Erin began screaming as he pulled harder and with the grizzly wet sound of flesh parting he ripped her arm from her shoulder. Stronger succubus or not Rain was still stronger.


    The succubus shoved herself away, the flesh of her shoulder already bulging and morphing as a fresh arm started to grow.


    She glared at it before turning to Rain.


    "You have to sleep sometime Rain, then I''ll get what I want, no matter how many times I have to do it, I''ll drain you until I''m strong enough to rip you apart with my bare fucking hands!"


    With a wet fleshy sound meat sloughed from her shoulder, fresh flesh flexing in the pitter pattering rain and blood, a brand new arm.


    She turned and darted into the night sky, a trail of shadowy teeth trailing after her as they freed themselves from the net.


    Rain watched her go then turned as Warwick kicked open his bedroom door, still very obviously dunk by the way he had to hold onto the doorframe


    "What in the fuck do you think you are doing to my home!"


    "Succubus."


    "What are you blathering about?"


    Rain lifted Erin''s arm and waved it vaguely in his direction. The very clearly red skinned arm.


    Warwick went deathly pale, and he sobered up on the spot.


    "S-succubus? In the city? In Florens?!" he took a half step forward, clearly panicking, "That means it''s been feeding on the population without anyone knowing, there are more people here than any town! How has no one noticed?!"


    "She hasn''t been feeding."


    "What are you saying, of course it has, succubi rip through populations draining them to nothing just like that!" he snapped his fingers together.


    Rain shook his head. "If she has been feeding I doubt it''s been much, she has¡­ another source."


    "What do you mean? What source?"


    "Me."


    "You? You attracted it here? You put my family in danger?!"


    A heavy black crossbow materialised in Warwick''s hands, and was aimed at Rain''s head.


    But before he could speak further Velatha shoved passed him wearing a nightgown,


    "What are you doing?" Why are you pointing that thing at him?"


    "That thing attracted a succubus!"


    Rain lifted the arm to show Velatha and she gasped.


    "You fought it? You fought it off?"


    "She is stronger than she was, much stronger, but she can''t beat me as long as she isn''t using weapons, armour, or shields, she can''t touch me for fear of touching my magic and she can''t drain me safely like any other leveler. But even without that I can kill her with my own claws, she isn''t as strong as me."


    "You''re talking about a freaking succubus, a succubus! You need an army, or- or some elite leveler to deal with a succubus once they start growing out of control!"


    He held the arm up, "I''ll deal with her if she tries something again."


    "Y-you, one monster thinks they can-" Warwick shook his head.


    Velatha looked Rain over, the halo of writhing predatory darkness around him slowly seeping back into his fur, "Hey just what is this monster you''ve brought into our home Warwick, this isn''t normal."


    "Tch, you aren''t kidding. I never would have considered letting it in had I known, but for Pickle I-" he suddenly seemed to recall who he was standing next to and his mouth clicked closed.


    "But for Pickle what, what but for Pickle? what were you about to say?"


    "He was about to tell you of the deal we struck."


    Velatha turned on Rain, "Deal what deal? What is it he is hiding from me?"


    "He agreed to hide us and in exchange Pickle would slit my throat with Lyra and together share the levels I am worth."


    Velatha gasped and snapped around to Warwick. "You did what?!" she hissed.


    Warwick''s crossbow lowered. "Can you blame me? You know as well as I do that this thing here is worth a mountain in levels, if Pickle could kill the thing she might never need to kill another monster or ever need to go down to the dungeon for the rest of her life, she would never have to go back there."


    "She thinks he is her friend Warwick! You want a traumatised little girl who lost her entire family in the dungeon to murder one of the few friends she has made in the world?"


    "Its not murder! Its not murder! Its a monster! This isn''t like Bean, this monster doesn''t count as murder!"


    "Do you think she even remotely understands that?! Do you think a child understands the difference?"


    Warwick''s face became grim.


    "If the price of ensuring her an easy life is for her to kill her friend, then yes, I will make her do it, even if I have to guide the knife she holds into its throat."


    Smack.


    Warwick staggered as hand met face, the crossbow tumbling from his fingers onto the grass.


    "How can you say that!? She''s our daughter!" hissed Velatha.


    Warwick touched at his cheek, already bright red. He scowled.


    "I care for her, that''s why this needs to happen. If she kills it she will benefit immensely. Why are you siding with the monster!?"


    Pickle suddenly ran through the door and flying tackled Warwick''s weak leg. She hit him at just the right angle so that he fell and the tiny goat child scrambled on top of the fallen man, standing on his chest as she looked down at him.


    "Never."


    Warwick blinked up at her in surprise.


    "But-"


    She slapped a small hand over his mouth and shook her head.


    "No."


    After a few moments of them stuck like that with raindrops falling around them Warwick let out a long sigh and brushed her hand away. He sat up, causing Pickle to fall from his chest.


    "Fine... Pickle won''t kill the monster." He glared up at Rain. "Was this your plan from the beginning? To ingratiate yourself with my daughter so that she wouldn''t want to do it?"


    "Nothing to do with me." gravelled Rain. "You just didn''t think through your deal."


    "Fluff good," scowled Pickle and kicked Warwick in the knee.


    "Fluff¡­? Gods, is that why you are so fascinated with the damned monster?" Warwick let out an irritated sigh, "This leaves me with nothing, you two do realise? I allowed this insanely dangerous monster who is apparently wanted by not only the nobility but by a succubi too into my home for what? What was the point in all of this?!"


    "Fwend." said Pickle flatly.


    Warwick buried his face in his hands and groaned.


    Stratothrax


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 Chapter 158

    ? Chapter 158:


    It wasn''t long before morning light filled Warwick''s home and the devastation was lit up bright, all the rubble of Rain and Erin''s fight strewn across the grass, the long dining table shattered, stone and tile pockmarking the ground and of course the hole he had punched through into the floor below.


    Warwick was left looking hungover and gloomy sitting against a piece of detached wall half embedded in the ground.


    "What''s got your panties in a twist?" said Lyra, yawning as she arrived beside him, a cup of lightly steaming tea held in hand. She was wearing sheep themed pyjamas plus a pair of sheep themed slippers having apparently acquired a few things from her parent''s house.


    "Your shitty deal... Valetha won''t allow Pickle to kill your slave."


    "Oh?"


    "No. Tell me, did you expect this from the start? Did you plan this all along?"


    "What? That the tiny goat child would make friends with the terrifying giant killer monster? No, not precisely."


    "That somehow makes it worse, who the hell would think she would make friends with that thing?!"


    "Eh, you probably should have seen it coming, it''s not like Bean is any different, plus Rain has the fluff advantage."


    Warwick closed his eyes and groaned as he slumped against the chunk of wall.


    "Hey Rain! What happened to cause such a mess? Did I sleep through all of this?" she yelled.


    "Erin visited in the night."


    The sheep girl froze mid step, her herbal tea sloshing over the rim of her cup.


    "Huwhadidyoujustsay?" she squeaked.


    "The succubus, she''s been following us."


    "As in, that succubus, the one that very nearly killed you in Lynthia?"


    Rain looked grim.


    "That''s uhm, not good.


    "No, but one small blessing is that she seems obsessed with me to the point that I don''t think she''s running around draining from random levelers to become stronger, maybe because she doesn''t want to risk being discovered before she can drain more from me."


    "More from you?"


    "I¡­ don''t want to talk about it." he grumbled unhappily.


    "A succubus is just the cherry on top of the shit pie isn''t it?" spat Warwick glaring up at him.


    "Oh hush. If it makes you feel any better my actual plan was to push off the moment of killing Rain indefinitely by telling you about my deep emotional connection with the priesthood which states that optimal level gain can only be acquired under a certain kind of full moon in some unspecified future. But uh, you should know that Rain doesn''t actually have any heart pins or anything like that, he was never going to to be killed because he isn''t a slave."


    There was a moment of fear in the leveler''s eyes, legs drawing up as a dagger materialised in his hands.


    After a moment of pointing it at the motionless Rain he deflated, the dagger dropping from his hands to go rolling in the grass.


    His voice was low and defeated.


    "I''ve been speaking casually with a monster capable of killing me with ease at any moment with nothing to stop it and it¡­ chose not to."


    "You can call it another mind game if you like," said Rain with a huge yawn.


    He shook his head, "I don''t know what to believe. But it doesn''t matter in the end, the entire point of not reporting you has gone out the window and Pickle lost a life changing opportunity."


    "She met me."


    "That''s life changing in the worst way possible!" hissed Warwick, putting a hand to his head.


    Rain tilted his head then turned and picked up Lyra.


    "Uh, Rain?"


    "Wool. I want to access your wool space."


    "Okay¡­?"


    Lyra''s white wool washed to black and he stuck one arm into the wriggling squeaking sheep girl''s thighs, his paw disappearing in a cloud of fluff. He dragged his arm back out and with it came a barrel.


    "What is this?" said Warick, peeking from under his hand.


    "You can''t level Pickle''s future, so instead you will buy it."


    Rain upturned the barrel and gold and jewels poured out of the thing like a waterfall of wealth, a staggering amount of coin and gem that roared with clattering metal as it poured onto the grass, a pile building up and up and up until it was spilling over Warwick''s lap and the man was staring at it jaw hanging slack, eyes popping out of his head.


    At one point a Kobold dove from Lyra''s wool with a shriek of outrage before Rain picked him up and roughly stuffed him back inside, tears running down his scaled cheeks.


    "This isn''t real¡­" breathed Warwick, staring round eyed at the treasure, running his fingers through the heap of gold.


    "That''s all for Pickle¡­?" came a strained voice from behind.


    They turned to see Valetha looking shaky, her two kids beside her as she stared at the pile of wealth.


    Lyra scratched her cheek. "I guess so yeah."


    "I can''t, this isn''t, why do you even have that!?"


    "Oh, you know, reasons."


    "Reasons," she said faintly. "I¡­ see."


    Valetha keeled over on the grass, muscular arms spread eagled, eyes rolled up, her two kids looking down at her with alarm.


    "Think yah kinda might have overdone it a bit Rain?"


    "Maybe¡­"


    She sighed but then slipped a hand into her own wool, scrabbling around until she found what she was looking for.


    A rapier was pulled free, the one that had been stabbed through her chest.


    She held it and stared at it for a moment, but then held out the grip for Warwick.


    "Here, it''s worth a bit I think, the high grade enchantment on it so it never snaps is remarkable. Hang onto it, and then when Pickle is old enough, hand it down to her."


    Warwick hesitantly took the thing.


    "This thing screams extremely wealthy nobility, you know that right?"


    "Ehhhh, they won''t be needing it anymore." Lyra flapped her hand.


    Warwick hefted the blade a few times, feeling its balance, then with a flicker the rapier vanished into thin air before materialising in his other hand a moment later.


    "I suppose if anyone can hide a valuable weapon it''s someone with a Class like mine," he mused.


    "Perfect! Now hide the damned thing away before Opal sees I''ve given it to you and starts yelling, quickly now, vanish it!"


    Warwick did so. He still seemed to be struggling to mentally deal with the treasure spilling all over his legs, running his fingers through the gold like a kid playing with sand.


    Lyra, deciding to leave him to it, finished her tea and got changed, returning back to the square to find Opal peering down the hole in the grass to the rooms below. Warwick''s family were busy trying to organise the literal pile of treasure they had been gifted, occasionally fending off Red who kept hovering around them, making distressed sounds, or giving strained advice about the proper care and guardianship of gold.


    But eventually they left the increasingly excited family behind with their pile of treasure and descended into the slums once more where Lyra hid them with her invisibility. They made their way to the higher leveler area of the city where they found an alley. There Rain slipped inside Lyra''s wool and they set off for their true target of the day.


    Shopping.


    Rain watched from within Lyra''s wool as they blended into the crowds, Lyra with her goblin slave stepping along beside her.


    First and by the most important thing on their list (In Rain''s opinion) was a stop at a high end black smiths where Lyra inquired about not buying any of their weapons or armour (although Opal tried very hard to sneak some by) but about their cleaning potions.


    They had been given a small crate full of the bottles which Lyra crouched in front of. After a moment a huge arm reached out from her legs, grabbed hold of the crate and dragged it inside. That got her some wide eyed looks from the metal workers, but the stack of coin Red had prepared stunted their curiosity.


    Inside wool space Rain set about laying out the cleaning potions on the stone bench where he kept the others, after using one on himself of course, in his opinion cleanliness mattered even more with the sheer amount of fur he now possessed.


    It was the first time that the excessively vast amount of gold and treasure that they had acquired from the Orc clan''s plunder was making itself truly useful, which was a pleasing thought.


    The next stop was supplies, mostly this consisted of tents, bedding, flint and tinder, useful things like that, as well as a number of knives that Opal insisted on, lastly some minor emergency food supplies for Rain, a few cows.


    Rain watched carefully from the wool of Lyra, peeking from her fluff as they went about splurging coin, occasionally reaching through to grab things and haul them inside. Red, despite being strongly against it, had carefully prepared a series of coin pouches so at least they weren''t just in his words "fountaining gold at random levelers like gold hating crazy people!" Rain had to admit it was probably the better way of spending money rather than just throwing fistfulls of coin at shopkeeps and hoping for the best as they usually did.


    They finished collecting their purchases together and Rain reached his arm though for the lot collected in a pile, a huge black arm appearing from Lyra''s held together legs that latched onto the supplies and dragged them inside to the various clerk''s shouts of alarm.


    They were on their way to their most important target destination shop when Opal suddenly grabbed Lyra and hauled her aside, pulling her into a shop that made Lyra blush when she realised where she was. Rain peered through her wool, wondering what it was the shop sold.


    At first it appeared as some kind of herbalists, with dried leaves and plants and things, but then he started noticing the leather whips, lacey underwear, and¡­ phallic shaped objects. He jerked back from the dark wall in wool space in surprise, what the hell was this place?


    Opal pointed a finger up at the clerk behind the counter.


    "Give me all your sex magic."


    The woman looked blankly at her then turned to Lyra.


    "Aheh, I uhm, think she, uh, that is I am after a certain tea, that uh, helps with, uh, difficulties in the b-bedroom?" Lyra managed to get out.


    "Ah, your husband cannot perform, I understand perfectly ma''am."


    "Uh, h-hold on, no-


    "We have many kinds of aphrodisiacs designed to enable a near permanent erection or to greatly increase the quantity of seed."


    Rain thought he could practically hear Lyra blushing.


    "Th-that''s not-


    "All of it, we''ll take everything." said Opal slamming down the remaining purses of gold on the counter.


    The clerk stared at the shiny coins spilling from the strings as Opal began grabbing up boxes and jars and then roughly shoving them into Lyra''s wool, Rain jerked back in wool space as the things rained down around him, falling from all over the dark wall to come down on the carpet of treasure below, some of the jars shattering as they hit and spilling what looked like blue garlic powder everywhere.


    He shuffled backwards in increasing alarm as a floppy phallic shaped object fell through. He quickly decided to let the goblin girl do as she wished and moved away, far away.


    There was a lot of mess however still so he turned to Red.


    "Organise that stuff on one of the benches."


    Red gave him a look of open dismay, but unable to defy the command he hesitantly approached the mound, he was about to pick up one of the boxes when a big floppy equine phallic thing fell through and smacked him on the head.


    "Gah!" cried the kobold falling back onto the carpet of treasure that filled the woolspace, the big floppy thing falling on his chest.


    The kobold recovered and a moment later realised what it was that was lying on him, he cried out and flung the thing off in a panic, shuffling frantically back as more phallic things fell from the black wall.


    "I''m not touching those things!"


    "Do kobold tribes not have sex toys? They were common around the whorehouse that I- a whorehouse I knew of."


    "Of c-course we do! But that doesn''t mean I want to touch them!"


    "You are the treasurer."


    "Dildos aren''t treasure!"


    A green head poked through the black wall.


    "Oh hey, stack those up over there will you Red," said Opal looking down at the fallen kobold


    "N-no!" said Red crossing his arms.


    "If you don''t then I''ll try that pegging thing the clerk was talking about on you."


    "What is¡­ pegging?"


    "No idea. Okay, If you don''t stack ''em you''re banned from peeping, forever."


    The kobold''s mouth flopped open in betrayal.


    "That''s not fair!"


    Opal threw a large phallic object at the kobold and he was forced to catch it. He looked down in dismay at the thing flopping in his claws and made to throw it aside.


    "I need a test subject for some of these teas and pills you know,-"


    Red whimpered and backed away, scrambling with the floppy thing before slamming it down on the nearest bench. "F-fine!"


    Opal smiled pleasantly.


    "Don''t worry, this is all very useful and practical stuff."


    Rain somehow doubted that. Although¡­ his eyes came across an odd looking metal cage lying amongst the pile.


    Stratothrax


    Link to where you can read chapters and see art in advance along with HD art and character nudes. ( ?¡ã ?? ?¡ã)


    Dreadwolf Patreon


    >?)))áê ?? w ??

 Chapter 159

    ? Chapter 159:


    Boom.


    The windows rattled as violet fire flowed out from the impact point, a wave of purple plasma that crisped the wallpaper to ash revealing and blackening the plaster beneath.


    "Hmm. Not bad."


    Myra waved her hands and the flame shifted, forming shapes, huge exotic bird wings, layered wings made from violet fire. The many wings curled in on themselves, surrounding her in a shell of shimmering flame, blade-like feathers enclosing, heat haze wafting outwards.


    After a moment the fire shimmered and wisped away, purple flame flickering bright before dying to nothing.


    She was left standing in the hall. The furniture around her turned to crisp, fabric ash, wood blackened, black scorch marks scattered across the marble floor.


    "That was my furniture you just turned to scrap Myra."


    "Oops. Did you like my new Skill anyway? With this I can''t even be touched, and a certain highly flammable wolf won''t even be able to come near me!"


    Brax nodded his head, "I can see that being useful. Was that from your seventh leveling potion?"


    "Eighth. But I''m starting to have the same problem of diminishing returns as you. It''s the monsters that the little slimes collected right? They only seem to gather the weaker kind."


    Brax nodded. "Yes, unfortunately, it''s very rare they manage to survive deeper in the dungeon so they can take from a rarer powerful monster''s last dying moments. The potions are nearly all gone anyway so it''s probably for the best you''re reaching the limits of what they can offer."


    He turned. "And you Eliza, how are your levels?"


    Eliza quickly flicked her eyes over to Brax from what she was concentrating on, her hands moving carefully as she shaped the water in front of her, a block of liquid water six foot tall. The water shifted as she moved her hands, changing, a wolf-like head appearing, then a crudely sculpted bipedal body.


    "It''s¡­ fine. I was gaining four levels per potion at first, but after the eighth I didn''t even get one level."


    She added a tail and shaped the legs as she spoke.


    "Is this what you remember from the dungeon? This is Rain?"


    Eliza nodded. "I barely escaped, which is kinda obvious considering my hair." Her hand lifted to her head, hesitantly touching her hair which had been styled shorter on one side to hide that a huge chunk of it had been ripped out and was only just growing back.


    Myra danced around the watery statue of Rain, looking him over,


    "Humm. He seems pretty feral, like an out of control animal. And kinda small. Like, I''m nearly the same size."


    "He isn''t like this now Myra, he''s far far larger." Brax scowled, "This problem needs to be nipped in the bud sooner rather than later. The longer Rain is left alone the more time we give him to grow beyond the advantage over him we''ve gained with the potions. This may be our only opportunity to kill him."


    "So I''ve got to get it right, or I''ll die, I need to guarantee his death," said Eliza. She lifted her hands, making clutching motions at the air, and then with a jerk, she twisted her hands around. The head of the water statue twisted around with them until the neck snapped, droplets flying from the rippling liquid surface to patter over the elf standing behind.


    Myra lifted a hand and wiped a few droplets from her cheek.


    "You know, this is cute Eliza, but this really isn''t going to do anything against him, what was it you said? He just drank your water before? How is throwing more water at him going to help? Really Brax is she going to be of any use at all?"


    Myra flicked out a hand and the water statue began to boil, huge bubbles rolling up from within and causing its surface to ripple and sway.


    Eliza struggled to manage the thing, her hands darting around as she kept it together, steam boiling off the water surface as the temperature rose.


    She finally lost control and the shape disintegrated, water sloshing down onto the marble floor below. She raised her arms protectively with a cry of fear as droplets of boiling water splashed over her leaving streaks of red inflamed skin.


    The water spread out as it fell, covering the floor of the room and wetting the bottom of her shoes.


    The elf giggled.


    "You think this is funny you psycho elf!" Eliza screamed at the elf, thrusting her arms up to show her burns. "Look what you''ve done to me!"


    "Aww, does it hurt?"


    With an absolutely livid expression Eliza raised her hands into the air, palms outspread.


    The building began to shake.


    "Hey, uh, Eliza what are you doing?" said Brax.


    "Did you think there was only one river running through this city? Let''s see what this elf bitch thinks her flames can do when actually underwater!"


    The walls began to quake so violently that the glass panes shattered.


    Myra and Brax looked around in alarm.


    "Uh, Eliza how big is this river¡­?"


    "Normal sized!"


    The ground abruptly erupted as water domed upwards, a full on underground river redirected vertically.


    The roof blew off the mansion.


    ---


    "Hey is this rain?"


    "Our Rain?" said Opal by Lyra''s side.


    "No, as in rain rain, you know rain that falls from the sky."


    Lyra held up a hand and a few specks of water dampened her palm.


    She squinted up at the big, blue, and completely cloudless sky in puzzlement.


    "Weird."


    She turned and entered the shop they had been heading toward, the original goal of their outing, the essential and extremely important objective¡­ Which was to buy something for Lyra to wear at Brax''s welcoming party, something that would look the part of a filthy rich and influential noble attending a social event.


    Inside wool space Rain peered through Lyra''s wool to see various elaborate dresses hanging from racks, and behind the counter a thin man wearing severe clothing, a slender wispy grey moustache on his lip. He approached, hands clasped together.


    Before he could speak however Lyra snapped her fingers at him.


    "Clothing."


    "Uh.. y-yes that is what we supply here ma''am."


    "Barely. If you call these disgusting rags clothing then I can hardly imagine what you consider actual rags. No, this won''t do, I require¡­ something more." She held up a fist to emphasise her words. "Something to break all vogue, something to bend fashion itself to my will."


    The tailor blinked behind his spectacles.


    "We do custom-"


    "Yes, that, give me that."


    She flapped her hands at the tailor until he was chased into the backroom. Opal followed in his wake, occasionally poking at the expensive looking dresses as she passed.


    The backroom wasn''t quite as presentable as the display room, with bolts of cloth and huge spindles of thread stacked in every direction. In the middle of the room was a chair and Lyra stalked over to before perching her rear on the edge.


    "I am to attend the Fenhorn function, I wish to look the part." sniffed Lyra superciliously


    "I can provide a ball dress that would be, ah, suitable for such an event," said the tailor adjusting his spectacles.


    "Just a dress? Just a dress?!" Lyra snorted her contempt. "A mere dress isn''t enough, I wish to appear¡­ Divine," she breathed.


    "D-Divine?"


    "Quite. I should appear as one that cannot be questioned or opposed, authority incarnate, ideal for bluffing into- I mean being accepted into a party uninvited."


    "I''m not sure I have any idea what you mean ma''am, this isn''t the place for something-


    Lyra reached out and grabbed his shirt, hauling him down onto his knees in front of her.


    "You just need to do as I instruct, and of course, a little visual reference for what I have in mind."


    Her hands slapped against either side of his head and to the tailor''s horror she shoved his head down into her lap.


    Rain stepped to the side and pressed against the wall in wool space as a shocked senseless tailor''s head poked through the dark. His eyes darted around wildly at the ludicrous amount of treasure in the room, essentially a treasure cavern, and then at the statue of Lyra dominating the room dressed like some kind of goddess with sweeping bolts of cloth and covered in fine jewellery.


    The tailor gawped at the sight before he was abruptly dragged back out.


    Lyra looked down into the tailor''s eyes, his cheeks held in her hands, squishing his mouth into pucker.


    "So you see, I want that aesthetic, but tailored for me, and better. Also I am very rich."


    She nodded the stunned tailor''s head up and down in agreement then pushed him back. He fell on his rump before scrambling to his feet and bowing deeply.


    "H-Had I known- yes, yes we can work together on something like this, my skill as a tailor is beyond parallel and entirely at your service."


    Lyra smiled pleasantly.


    "Excellent. Now this may take some hours yet, you had better close up shop and get to work."


    Things happened rapidly after that. Working together Lyra along with the tailor started to form a dress, a new kind of dress, something that merged the best of the traditional with the godly and the divine.


    Opal hefted a bolt of cotton onto her shoulders and lugged it over to Lyra who had a circle of the stuff spread around her, scissors in hand, loose threads in her hair. She passed a finished cut off to the tailor who placed it onto one of the many mannequins they had set out, incrementally improving their concept.


    As Opal dropped the bolt with a thud Red darted out of Lyra''s wool and arranged yet another necklace on one of the tables, a collection that was intermittently compared against the clothed mannequins or to Lyra.


    Opal watched the process for some time, but getting bored, tried on one of the discarded designs. Of course it was far too large for her and the sleeves flopped well past her hands. She still felt very fancy.


    She turned around in the mirror just as Lyra stepped up behind her having pulled the latest dress design over her head.


    She froze.


    Somehow that dress was so much more betterer despite being lesserer!


    "Hey Sheepy, you look like you''re about to start a dungeon crusade, you know that right?"


    "A crusade to push back the dark with thy flame of civilization," spoke Lyra, her voice loud and commanding, as though an actor in a historic play.


    Then her shoulders dropped and she became more normal Lyra, "Aheh, what do you think?"


    "I think levelers are going to be falling all over themselves to get in your good graces, you look like peak up their own asshole leveler."


    "Hmm, perfect!"


    The pure white and gold dress didn''t come down the full length of her legs as a traditional dress did, instead stopping two thirds down her thighs, a practical measure so that Rain could reach through from wool space to drag victims inside. What might have held the design back though seemed only to push it beyond the boundaries of fashion to something new, something fresh, something that sent a lightning bolt through what was vogue.


    The waist synched close with a strip of cloth dotted in cloth roses and the upper half was strapless and cupped her expansive soft breasts, giving enough cleavage to drown a man in. The draping folds of the dress seemed to defy gravity and fall in the most aesthetic way possible around her thighs, light and breezy and effortless. Divine.


    The tailor wiped his brow with a sigh.


    "That was quite difficult, but¡­ I suppose the result was well worth the effort."


    "Now for the final verdict. Rain?"


    The tailor froze as a massive black paw reached from the held together legs of Lyra and pressed against the floor, then a head pushed free from the black wool, a huge monsterous head, the kind of sight to make a leveler pee their pants.


    The tailor staggered back, face pale as a sheet as Rain crawled from her legs and rose to his feet towering over the tailor, his ears brushing against the tall ceiling.


    "Wh-what the fuck is that?!" squeaked the tailor.


    "Ah, just my slave, don''t worry he''s not going to eat you."


    Rain turned to see Lyra standing in front of the mirror, she smiled shyly up at him and curtsied. She really did look stunning, and to Rain''s eyes, who had lived his life in poverty, she truly did look divine, like something he could imagine appearing in a sun beam at a great temple, a goddess of sanctuary, a really really hot goddess of sanctuary.


    Opal glared up at the sheep girl then tried to copy her in her too large dress, sleeves flopping over her skirt as she made a clumsy but adorable curtsy.


    "Both are good."


    Lyra rolled her eyes, "Is that all?"


    Rain dropped down and sat crossed legged then held his paws out in front, one for Lyra one for Opal, the two girls hesitantly took a pad each and Rain grabbed their arms, tugging them forward with a yelp so that they fell into his lap.


    He embraced them, holding them tight to his chest.


    "Hey! You''re gonna get fluff all over it!"


    "Both are very very very good, I don''t know the words to say it like a noble, I never lived a life to learn how," he said as he hugged them, after a moment the two of them relaxed into him.


    "Mines better," mumbled Opal into his fur.


    Lyra glanced at the goblin girl but then sighed and wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her closer into the three way embrace.


    Stratothrax


    Read chapters in advance of release:


    Centaurus Patreon

 Chapter 160

    ? Chapter 160:


    Bylrielle scowled and picked burnt carbon from beneath her fingernails. That was the problem with working all day at a massive commercial forge, you got incredibly filthy from the dirty burn of cheap shitty coal or whatever else it was the smithery masters had decided they could get away with.


    Seriously, sometimes she swore they used random street trash tossed into the flame to fuel the forges, awful stuff, it smelled like death, no, it smelled like death took a shit! She shuddered at the memory and wiped at her grime-covered cheek. It didn''t help and only made her face grimier.


    Her footsteps were as weary as the heavy bags under her eyes, not surprising after a twelve hour shift, but that was life when you had shit all for levels and no foothold in the city, you got what you got and that was that. The hard part came when trying to climb out of what you got to get something better. She''d hadn''t even had time to visit the dungeon since arriving in Florens. She''d heard it was a meat grinder that ate up the low leveled and spat out their corpses. But lately she was feeling so burned out that it had a certain grim appeal.


    Being burned out could be stated to be in more ways than one as she had been involved in more forge accidents in the last few months than the rest of her life combined. Commercial forge work on the cheap was a far flung thing from the bureaucratic health and safety of her home mega city. She used to complain about the bureaucracy, of how it stymied innovation and competition! Now it just seemed quaint, a silly affectation for a dwarven city doomed to die.


    She trudged through the near pitch black dark and found her way to a door, one of many crowded together, typical for the slums. After jamming the cast iron key (one she''d made herself) into the keyhole and wiggling it around a bit the lock finally clicked open and she shuffled inside.


    With clumsy determination she managed to wipe her soot-caked boots on the mat and shuffled down the hall, one room apartments on either side, one hand raised to make sure she didn''t collide with a wall. Her night sight had never been great for a dwarf.


    A noise made her pause, the sound of clothing shifting. Was her husband still awake? That was almost adorable, he was waiting up for her. With a smile she pushed through the front door into their living space.


    A candle illuminated her husband tied to a chair, a gag in his mouth, blood rolling down his face.


    "Wha¡­"


    A half-human-half-lapine stepped from the shadow, gave her a welcoming smile, then lifted her husband''s silver smelting hammer and brought it down on his kneecap. With a sickening wet crunch his knee went concave and an animal scream of pain came from his bloodied mouth.


    Without thinking she leapt forward, hands raised to grab the blood stained hammer from the half lapine''s hand. A second half-lapine stepped from the shadow to the side and kicked her in the stomach. The air blew from her lungs, snatching away her cry of rage as she fell to her knees.


    "Took your time coming home half pint. Too bad for your lover, gave me plenty of time to make good work of him."


    "What. Have you done." she wheezed, hands flat on the floorboards.


    The half rubbed his chin and spun the smelting hammer between his thumb and index finger.


    "Tried to get some secrets, figured you were both from that mega city that got taken out." He shrugged, "But after what I''ve done to your boy here I figure it''s just you. No one would go through all that without breaking. I hope you, uh, didn''t want any more children, I might have gone a bit too far."


    Bylrielle glared up at him with exhausted but furious eyes.


    "Don''t give me that look Bylrielle. Everyone in the slums around here heard where you''re from, the dead city, a survivor." The hammer lowered, "You can understand that for the likes of us desperate few acquiring a valuable dwarven secret is too tempting an opportunity to pass up."


    "I was just an apprentice you carbonised cunt! I don''t know anything! Whatever there was is gone, dead and gone like the rest of Dhagulduhr!"


    "Hmm, see, I''d like to take your word for it but it costs nothing to wiggle a bit of steel around inside you and see if anything useful falls from your mouth."


    Bylrielle grit her teeth and stood, hands forming fists.


    "If you think you''re getting anything but a beating after what you''ve done."


    She spat to the side and suddenly lunged forward, fist swinging forward into the beginning of an uppercut. The half seeing her coming casually brought down the hammer, aiming for her head.


    Bylrielle waited until he was leaning into the swing then dropped to her knees, sliding and ducking at the same time her fist flew, her diminutive height putting her in just the right position. An uppercut powered by muscles spent pounding steel day after day rocketed up, an uppercut aimed directly at his dick.


    A crunch filled the air as unstoppable calloused and rough knuckles found their place in the softest of spots.


    The half''s voice went supersonic, his masculine confidence becoming a feminine cry as dangly things that shouldn''t have been crushed were very very crushed.


    The half dropped on the spot and curled up in the fetal position as Bylrielle lunged for his neck, eager to finish the job with a clean snap.


    Before she could reach him however, a boot connected with the side of her head, a steel toe capped boot, and she went rolling as a slim fount of blood laid trail on the wooden floorboards.


    More boots followed, then more, apparently a number of rabbit eared half human half lapines had been waiting in the shadows watching their interaction, her children cowering in the corner behind them.


    She barely held onto consciousness as she was kicked in the gut over and over, steel capped boots kicking at her from all directions, breaking ribs and fracturing limbs.


    At last it came to a stop as the half finally struggled to his feet, both hands over his crotch.


    His voice was a few octaves higher than normal.


    "Don''t kill the bitch, don''t kill her, not until i''ve done things to her, things that will make her regret this. An eye for an eye, karma!"


    "I''m pretty sure she doesn''t have a penis for you to punch boss."


    He scowled at the one who had spoken.


    "Oh believe me, I think I''m creative enough to find an equivalent type of pain." He massaged himself and winced. "Genitals are so vulnerable."


    "Yeah, we noticed."


    "Sh-shut it!"


    There was the sound of boots on floorboards and the door swinging open. Not that Bylrielle saw, she had her eyes screwed closed dealing with her own pain.


    A younger voice came.


    "You''re wanted outside, quickly!"


    There wasn''t any rebuttal to that and the boots scrambled to follow, even the first half who whimpered with every limped step.


    Bylrielle found herself being dragged by her hair, two of the halfs hauling her from her apartment out into the shared hall and out the back of the building.


    The cool night air once more washed over her, this time cooling the warm blood on her face.


    "Help¡­" she croaked as she passed the silent apartment doors and once outside found herself looking up at apartment windows, her voice was a bare rasp that not even those dragging her noticed.


    Not that it would have mattered. She spotted someone looking down at her from one of the windows. They quickly closed the curtain and snuffed their candle.


    The courtyard was a square space surrounded on all sides by the apartment building. At six stories tall the courtyard never got much sunlight and at night was a dark silent place. No grass or anything green grew, only stirred up mud from passing feet.


    The only light she could see came from a pin prick blue fire. After a moment Bylrielle realised she was looking at the end of a cigar as it moved from what was apparently the owner''s lips.


    A moment later the younger half they had followed out produced a candle and they were given a little light, just illuminating the cigar owner. A grizzled looking overweight half lapine with a beard and a knife in one hand. He loomed over her.


    "Funny idea. Getting secrets out of a dwarf. Rarely works eh, but with a dwarf so young and with enough time¡­"


    The half suddenly crouched down on his heels and stared Bylrielle in the eyes as the ones holding her hair pulled her head up.


    "Anything you want to say now before we take you away?"


    Bylrielle spat messily on his knees, saliva getting on her chin.


    The half snorted.


    "And that grit is why force so rarely works on dwarves. Still. In times like these¡­"


    He raised the cigar and ground the burning tip against Bylrielle''s forehead. The smell of burning skin filled the air and Bylrielle gasped with pain, tears filling her eyes,


    Unfortunately she knew of this ganglord, she knew she wouldn''t be surviving this, once taken no one came back.


    "If you give me a good enough blowie I might see about reducing your time under my knife. That is if your tongue can waggle about your secrets as good as it can on my dick."


    "I''m going to kill you, I promise I''m going to kill you," she hissed, voice strained from the pain.


    "You don''t seem to understand your situation Bylrielle, let me make it clear. You are so far beyond f?§ãked you couldn''t catch a coach back to just being f?§ãked."


    A scuffle came from behind and Bylrielle''s eyes widened as her red haired daughter was dragged into the candle light.


    The dwarf child was brought close and the ganglord''s knife moved to her neck.


    "What some fail to understand is that physical pain isn''t always the best method, sometimes theres-


    A head fell into the candle light, like the cork spat from a wine bottle sent rolling and skidding across the floor.


    The ganglord''s voice died in his throat as the group stared at the sudden appearance of the head. A half with rabbit ears, the flesh of its severed neck twitching.


    Their eyes moved from the head up to the writhing thing that stepped into the light, a thing nearly nine foot tall, a mass of writhing shifting centipedes with a pair of huge owl wings behind it, its feet that of a panthara and a harpy.


    The house cat head nested at the top peered down at them.


    "Meow?"


    "Wh-what the fuck is that!?"


    The one who spoke died in an instant as the cat turned its attention on him, a centipede bursting through his chest and out the other side.


    The rest of the gang screamed, hands raised as fireballs spat, flame lighting up the courtyard in flashes of magic.


    This just seemed to make the cat happy and it playfully batted the fire balls aside, setting fire to those unfortunate enough to be in the way.


    The overweight ganglord hadn''t been idle however, huge meters long lances of ice formed from the air around him, hovering in place until there were nearly a dozen.


    He flung out a hand and the lances darted forward like bolts from a crossbow, firing directly into the writhing mass of the chimera. They pierced straight through and out the otherside, leaving misting ragged holes dotted up the things body


    The cat yowled in outrage and turned on the ganglord, its centipedes lashing at the air as its wings rose.


    "Surface area then," spoke the ganglord.


    The air around him became mist as hundreds and hundreds of smaller ice darts formed.


    The cat lunged, centiples whipping through the air to shred the half.


    Carefully aimed, the first of the darts fired off, snapping into the oncoming centipedes and cutting, cutting and severing the things the severed chunks falling to writhe against the dirt before becoming mist.


    And then the rest formed and fired.


    The house cat so used to playing with prey didn''t seem to expect such a complete attack and could do nothing. A literal hail of darts shredded its body from top to bottom, a cloud of black mist forming, turbulent as darts continued to pass through it.


    "Weird Class. Who''d you hire Bylrielle?"


    The overweight ganglord turned and clucked his tongue as he found Bylrielle rushing inside, her daughter clutched in her arms.


    He jogged after her, his longer stride following the faster but shorter dwarf''s, into the hall and toward their apartment.


    He reached the door and leaned around it. Bylrielle was there, frantically pulling the last of her husband''s ropes free and trying to drag the semi conscious dwarf to his feet, slumped on her shoulders, toward her two children cowering at the back of the room.


    "I didn''t hire anyone, that''s nothing to do with me! let me go!"


    The ganglord tilted his head in puzzlement.


    A groaning sound came from the hallway, the sound of planks splintering and breaking under load.


    Without a thought an ice spear formed and fired, shooting down the hallway.


    Of course, in the dark, it was hard to see anything, and especially when the thing to be seen was also dark.


    The ice spear shattered apart as it struck something a few feet in front of the ganglord, ice fragments going in every direction, clattering against the floor and walls.


    A growl of annoyance came from above and he looked up to see a pair of annoyed yellow eyes looking down at him.


    "M-mon-


    A pair of paws took hold of his arms and lifted him. Then his head along with a good quarter of his torso was bitten off in one brutal bite, chewed, and swallowed. Then the rest of him bit by bit until all that was left of the ganglord was a puddle of blood on the ground.


    Bylrielle held her family behind her, putting herself between the thing that was now trying to fit through the door to get at her family.


    The meagre candle light illuminated black fur and mass, so much goddamn mass, her eyes went round as she found herself looking up at the thing above, the thing having to slump down as its shoulders brushed the ceiling.


    "Monster¡­" she breathed.


    The pair of yellow eyes studied her and then a grabbing paw began to reach, her children started crying.


    ¡­ and then something moved from between the monster''s legs.


    A sheep girl and a goblin shoved their way from between, the sheep girl spitting fluff from her mouth as she emerged.


    "Hey! don''t you dare!"


    "They saw us, that''s a problem. You want to treat everyone like Rose? We can''t just let every single person in the city who might have seen me go."


    Bylrielle nearly fainted as the giant terrifying monster leaning over them spoke, it almost sounded annoyed!


    "Yeah, like people didn''t see you when you were wearing chains and walking around in public, or hell, even that tailor who we threw gold at!"


    The giant monster made a huff of annoyance. "That''s different."


    "How? how is that different!"


    He paused.


    "They didn''t see me kill anyone, they have no reason to think i''m not just an obedient slave and won''t report me to the city guard."


    "So it can just be the same here!"


    "Well we can''t do that now we''ve talked about it in front of them!" said the giant wolf monster lifting his paws in disgust.


    The goblin poked the sheep girl in the side. "Also he totally killed and ate that gangster. He''s right you know, best to eat them just in case, they''re probably part of the gang anyway, they look like gang members."


    "I''m not part of those scumsucking losers!" cried Bylrielle.


    "Opal, those two are literally children."


    "They start really early these days."


    "And look, they''ve been beaten and hurt!"


    "Intergang violence."


    "P-please don''t eat us!" wailed one of the kids with tears in her eyes,


    The sheep girl softened her expression and tried to be reassuring.


    "It''s okay, no one is going to eat you."


    "Unless you''re gangsters," muttered Opal.


    "...okay admittedly unless you are gang members, that''s an exception, but you aren''t gang members so you''re fine. Hey, we saved you!"


    The family looked at her with silent disbelief.


    They didn''t look very saved.


    "R-really?"


    "Yep, you aren''t in any danger from us. We''re just after gangs."


    Bylrielle gave her a studied look but then turned and checked over her family, helping her husband hobble over to a chair and easing him into it. It was a miracle he wasn''t screaming with his injuries, but then he barely looked conscious.


    "Gangs?" she turned to them. "You want gangs?"


    "Er, well¡­ yes?"


    "I can get you gangs, that fucker has bosses and is only one of many whove been harrassing the dwarven community, extortion, abuse, torture, threatening us, half the reason living here is so shitty is because of them!"


    "So no one will miss them if they disappear right?"


    "No, they''ll jump for joy. Let me tell you about gangs, let me tell you where to find them, where to find all of them!"


    Opal stepped forward, a pen and paper in hand, a wicked grin on her face.


    "You have a grudge? Well, tell me all about it!"


    Bylrielle snorted. "Dwarves nurse grudges like the finest dwarven whisky. If I weren''t so powerless I''d kill them all myself. If you''re willing to do that in my stead then that''s beyond fine by me."


    Opal began writing as the dwarf listed off gangs, where they worked, their territory, their leaders, their bases.


    They would have no idea what horror she was sending their way.


    Bylrielle found herself starting to cheer up a bit for the first time in months.


    Stratothrax


    Read chapters in advance of release:


    Centaurus Patreon

 Chapter 161

    ? Chapter 160:


    Bylrielle scowled and picked burnt carbon from beneath her fingernails. That was the problem with working all day at a massive commercial forge, you got incredibly filthy from the dirty burn of cheap shitty coal or whatever else it was the smithery masters had decided they could get away with.


    Seriously, sometimes she swore they used random street trash tossed into the flame to fuel the forges, awful stuff, it smelled like death, no, it smelled like death took a shit! She shuddered at the memory and wiped at her grime-covered cheek. It didn''t help and only made her face grimier.


    Her footsteps were as weary as the heavy bags under her eyes, not surprising after a twelve hour shift, but that was life when you had shit all for levels and no foothold in the city, you got what you got and that was that. The hard part came when trying to climb out of what you got to get something better. She''d hadn''t even had time to visit the dungeon since arriving in Florens. She''d heard it was a meat grinder that ate up the low leveled and spat out their corpses. But lately she was feeling so burned out that it had a certain grim appeal.


    Being burned out could be stated to be in more ways than one as she had been involved in more forge accidents in the last few months than the rest of her life combined. Commercial forge work on the cheap was a far flung thing from the bureaucratic health and safety of her home mega city. She used to complain about the bureaucracy, of how it stymied innovation and competition! Now it just seemed quaint, a silly affectation for a dwarven city doomed to die.


    She trudged through the near pitch black dark and found her way to a door, one of many crowded together, typical for the slums. After jamming the cast iron key (one she''d made herself) into the keyhole and wiggling it around a bit the lock finally clicked open and she shuffled inside.


    With clumsy determination she managed to wipe her soot-caked boots on the mat and shuffled down the hall, one room apartments on either side, one hand raised to make sure she didn''t collide with a wall. Her night sight had never been great for a dwarf.


    A noise made her pause, the sound of clothing shifting. Was her husband still awake? That was almost adorable, he was waiting up for her. With a smile she pushed through the front door into their living space.


    A candle illuminated her husband tied to a chair, a gag in his mouth, blood rolling down his face.


    "Wha¡­"


    A half-human-half-lapine stepped from the shadow, gave her a welcoming smile, then lifted her husband''s silver smelting hammer and brought it down on his kneecap. With a sickening wet crunch his knee went concave and an animal scream of pain came from his bloodied mouth.


    Without thinking she leapt forward, hands raised to grab the blood stained hammer from the half lapine''s hand. A second half-lapine stepped from the shadow to the side and kicked her in the stomach. The air blew from her lungs, snatching away her cry of rage as she fell to her knees.


    "Took your time coming home half pint. Too bad for your lover, gave me plenty of time to make good work of him."


    "What. Have you done." she wheezed, hands flat on the floorboards.


    The half rubbed his chin and spun the smelting hammer between his thumb and index finger.


    "Tried to get some secrets, figured you were both from that mega city that got taken out." He shrugged, "But after what I''ve done to your boy here I figure it''s just you. No one would go through all that without breaking. I hope you, uh, didn''t want any more children, I might have gone a bit too far."


    Bylrielle glared up at him with exhausted but furious eyes.


    "Don''t give me that look Bylrielle. Everyone in the slums around here heard where you''re from, the dead city, a survivor." The hammer lowered, "You can understand that for the likes of us desperate few acquiring a valuable dwarven secret is too tempting an opportunity to pass up."


    "I was just an apprentice you carbonised cunt! I don''t know anything! Whatever there was is gone, dead and gone like the rest of Dhagulduhr!"


    "Hmm, see, I''d like to take your word for it but it costs nothing to wiggle a bit of steel around inside you and see if anything useful falls from your mouth."


    Bylrielle grit her teeth and stood, hands forming fists.


    "If you think you''re getting anything but a beating after what you''ve done."


    She spat to the side and suddenly lunged forward, fist swinging forward into the beginning of an uppercut. The half seeing her coming casually brought down the hammer, aiming for her head.


    Bylrielle waited until he was leaning into the swing then dropped to her knees, sliding and ducking at the same time her fist flew, her diminutive height putting her in just the right position. An uppercut powered by muscles spent pounding steel day after day rocketed up, an uppercut aimed directly at his dick.


    A crunch filled the air as unstoppable calloused and rough knuckles found their place in the softest of spots.


    The half''s voice went supersonic, his masculine confidence becoming a feminine cry as dangly things that shouldn''t have been crushed were very very crushed.


    The half dropped on the spot and curled up in the fetal position as Bylrielle lunged for his neck, eager to finish the job with a clean snap.


    Before she could reach him however, a boot connected with the side of her head, a steel toe capped boot, and she went rolling as a slim fount of blood laid trail on the wooden floorboards.


    More boots followed, then more, apparently a number of rabbit eared half human half lapines had been waiting in the shadows watching their interaction, her children cowering in the corner behind them.


    She barely held onto consciousness as she was kicked in the gut over and over, steel capped boots kicking at her from all directions, breaking ribs and fracturing limbs.


    At last it came to a stop as the half finally struggled to his feet, both hands over his crotch.


    His voice was a few octaves higher than normal.


    "Don''t kill the bitch, don''t kill her, not until i''ve done things to her, things that will make her regret this. An eye for an eye, karma!"


    "I''m pretty sure she doesn''t have a penis for you to punch boss."


    He scowled at the one who had spoken.


    "Oh believe me, I think I''m creative enough to find an equivalent type of pain." He massaged himself and winced. "Genitals are so vulnerable."


    "Yeah, we noticed."


    "Sh-shut it!"


    There was the sound of boots on floorboards and the door swinging open. Not that Bylrielle saw, she had her eyes screwed closed dealing with her own pain.


    A younger voice came.


    "You''re wanted outside, quickly!"


    There wasn''t any rebuttal to that and the boots scrambled to follow, even the first half who whimpered with every limped step.


    Bylrielle found herself being dragged by her hair, two of the halfs hauling her from her apartment out into the shared hall and out the back of the building.


    The cool night air once more washed over her, this time cooling the warm blood on her face.


    "Help¡­" she croaked as she passed the silent apartment doors and once outside found herself looking up at apartment windows, her voice was a bare rasp that not even those dragging her noticed.


    Not that it would have mattered. She spotted someone looking down at her from one of the windows. They quickly closed the curtain and snuffed their candle.


    The courtyard was a square space surrounded on all sides by the apartment building. At six stories tall the courtyard never got much sunlight and at night was a dark silent place. No grass or anything green grew, only stirred up mud from passing feet.


    The only light she could see came from a pin prick blue fire. After a moment Bylrielle realised she was looking at the end of a cigar as it moved from what was apparently the owner''s lips.


    A moment later the younger half they had followed out produced a candle and they were given a little light, just illuminating the cigar owner. A grizzled looking overweight half lapine with a beard and a knife in one hand. He loomed over her.


    "Funny idea. Getting secrets out of a dwarf. Rarely works eh, but with a dwarf so young and with enough time¡­"


    The half suddenly crouched down on his heels and stared Bylrielle in the eyes as the ones holding her hair pulled her head up.


    "Anything you want to say now before we take you away?"


    Bylrielle spat messily on his knees, saliva getting on her chin.


    The half snorted.


    "And that grit is why force so rarely works on dwarves. Still. In times like these¡­"


    He raised the cigar and ground the burning tip against Bylrielle''s forehead. The smell of burning skin filled the air and Bylrielle gasped with pain, tears filling her eyes,


    Unfortunately she knew of this ganglord, she knew she wouldn''t be surviving this, once taken no one came back.


    "If you give me a good enough blowie I might see about reducing your time under my knife. That is if your tongue can waggle about your secrets as good as it can on my dick."


    "I''m going to kill you, I promise I''m going to kill you," she hissed, voice strained from the pain.


    "You don''t seem to understand your situation Bylrielle, let me make it clear. You are so far beyond f?§ãked you couldn''t catch a coach back to just being f?§ãked."


    A scuffle came from behind and Bylrielle''s eyes widened as her red haired daughter was dragged into the candle light.


    The dwarf child was brought close and the ganglord''s knife moved to her neck.


    "What some fail to understand is that physical pain isn''t always the best method, sometimes theres-


    A head fell into the candle light, like the cork spat from a wine bottle sent rolling and skidding across the floor.


    The ganglord''s voice died in his throat as the group stared at the sudden appearance of the head. A half with rabbit ears, the flesh of its severed neck twitching.


    Their eyes moved from the head up to the writhing thing that stepped into the light, a thing nearly nine foot tall, a mass of writhing shifting centipedes with a pair of huge owl wings behind it, its feet that of a panthara and a harpy.


    The house cat head nested at the top peered down at them.


    "Meow?"


    "Wh-what the fuck is that!?"


    The one who spoke died in an instant as the cat turned its attention on him, a centipede bursting through his chest and out the other side.


    The rest of the gang screamed, hands raised as fireballs spat, flame lighting up the courtyard in flashes of magic.


    This just seemed to make the cat happy and it playfully batted the fire balls aside, setting fire to those unfortunate enough to be in the way.


    The overweight ganglord hadn''t been idle however, huge meters long lances of ice formed from the air around him, hovering in place until there were nearly a dozen.


    He flung out a hand and the lances darted forward like bolts from a crossbow, firing directly into the writhing mass of the chimera. They pierced straight through and out the otherside, leaving misting ragged holes dotted up the things body


    The cat yowled in outrage and turned on the ganglord, its centipedes lashing at the air as its wings rose.


    "Surface area then," spoke the ganglord.


    The air around him became mist as hundreds and hundreds of smaller ice darts formed.


    The cat lunged, centiples whipping through the air to shred the half.


    Carefully aimed, the first of the darts fired off, snapping into the oncoming centipedes and cutting, cutting and severing the things the severed chunks falling to writhe against the dirt before becoming mist.


    And then the rest formed and fired.


    The house cat so used to playing with prey didn''t seem to expect such a complete attack and could do nothing. A literal hail of darts shredded its body from top to bottom, a cloud of black mist forming, turbulent as darts continued to pass through it.


    "Weird Class. Who''d you hire Bylrielle?"


    The overweight ganglord turned and clucked his tongue as he found Bylrielle rushing inside, her daughter clutched in her arms.


    He jogged after her, his longer stride following the faster but shorter dwarf''s, into the hall and toward their apartment.


    He reached the door and leaned around it. Bylrielle was there, frantically pulling the last of her husband''s ropes free and trying to drag the semi conscious dwarf to his feet, slumped on her shoulders, toward her two children cowering at the back of the room.


    "I didn''t hire anyone, that''s nothing to do with me! let me go!"


    The ganglord tilted his head in puzzlement.


    A groaning sound came from the hallway, the sound of planks splintering and breaking under load.


    Without a thought an ice spear formed and fired, shooting down the hallway.


    Of course, in the dark, it was hard to see anything, and especially when the thing to be seen was also dark.


    The ice spear shattered apart as it struck something a few feet in front of the ganglord, ice fragments going in every direction, clattering against the floor and walls.


    A growl of annoyance came from above and he looked up to see a pair of annoyed yellow eyes looking down at him.


    "M-mon-


    A pair of paws took hold of his arms and lifted him. Then his head along with a good quarter of his torso was bitten off in one brutal bite, chewed, and swallowed. Then the rest of him bit by bit until all that was left of the ganglord was a puddle of blood on the ground.


    Bylrielle held her family behind her, putting herself between the thing that was now trying to fit through the door to get at her family.


    The meagre candle light illuminated black fur and mass, so much goddamn mass, her eyes went round as she found herself looking up at the thing above, the thing having to slump down as its shoulders brushed the ceiling.


    "Monster¡­" she breathed.


    The pair of yellow eyes studied her and then a grabbing paw began to reach, her children started crying.


    ¡­ and then something moved from between the monster''s legs.


    A sheep girl and a goblin shoved their way from between, the sheep girl spitting fluff from her mouth as she emerged.


    "Hey! don''t you dare!"


    "They saw us, that''s a problem. You want to treat everyone like Rose? We can''t just let every single person in the city who might have seen me go."


    Bylrielle nearly fainted as the giant terrifying monster leaning over them spoke, it almost sounded annoyed!


    "Yeah, like people didn''t see you when you were wearing chains and walking around in public, or hell, even that tailor who we threw gold at!"


    The giant monster made a huff of annoyance. "That''s different."


    "How? how is that different!"


    He paused.


    "They didn''t see me kill anyone, they have no reason to think i''m not just an obedient slave and won''t report me to the city guard."


    "So it can just be the same here!"


    "Well we can''t do that now we''ve talked about it in front of them!" said the giant wolf monster lifting his paws in disgust.


    The goblin poked the sheep girl in the side. "Also he totally killed and ate that gangster. He''s right you know, best to eat them just in case, they''re probably part of the gang anyway, they look like gang members."


    "I''m not part of those scumsucking losers!" cried Bylrielle.


    "Opal, those two are literally children."


    "They start really early these days."


    "And look, they''ve been beaten and hurt!"


    "Intergang violence."


    "P-please don''t eat us!" wailed one of the kids with tears in her eyes,


    The sheep girl softened her expression and tried to be reassuring.


    "It''s okay, no one is going to eat you."


    "Unless you''re gangsters," muttered Opal.


    "...okay admittedly unless you are gang members, that''s an exception, but you aren''t gang members so you''re fine. Hey, we saved you!"


    The family looked at her with silent disbelief.


    They didn''t look very saved.


    "R-really?"


    "Yep, you aren''t in any danger from us. We''re just after gangs."


    Bylrielle gave her a studied look but then turned and checked over her family, helping her husband hobble over to a chair and easing him into it. It was a miracle he wasn''t screaming with his injuries, but then he barely looked conscious.


    "Gangs?" she turned to them. "You want gangs?"


    "Er, well¡­ yes?"


    "I can get you gangs, that fucker has bosses and is only one of many whove been harrassing the dwarven community, extortion, abuse, torture, threatening us, half the reason living here is so shitty is because of them!"


    "So no one will miss them if they disappear right?"


    "No, they''ll jump for joy. Let me tell you about gangs, let me tell you where to find them, where to find all of them!"


    Opal stepped forward, a pen and paper in hand, a wicked grin on her face.


    "You have a grudge? Well, tell me all about it!"


    Bylrielle snorted. "Dwarves nurse grudges like the finest dwarven whisky. If I weren''t so powerless I''d kill them all myself. If you''re willing to do that in my stead then that''s beyond fine by me."


    Opal began writing as the dwarf listed off gangs, where they worked, their territory, their leaders, their bases.


    They would have no idea what horror she was sending their way.


    Bylrielle found herself starting to cheer up a bit for the first time in months.


    Stratothrax


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