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.”