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-