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.”