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.