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.