Chapter 74

Rain’s gaze slowly shifted from the bloodstains to the fat balding head councillor, his eyes luminous yellow with intensity.

“Why are there Kobold scales on your table? You have until the count of three to answer me.”

“Curious, this sub-sapient monster actually has expectations of us, I have never come across such an impudent beast before. To think it seems to believe it holds sway in any other matter than its death.”

“Er, that’s ah, it might not be such a bad idea to answer the monster this, ah, one time,” said Lixiss. She had surreptitiously moved herself away from the table and more importantly further away from Rain. Her hand was holding her fan in a white knuckle grip.

“One.” said Rain, his voice like dark iron. “Tell me what happened. Tell me where Lyra is.”

He felt Opal snuggling up against his chest. “I love it when you’re so commanding,” she murmured softly.

Rain carefully ignored that and continued to stare at the head councillor.

“Your master is out of your reach monster, there is nothing you can do but submit, lay your head upon the table and wait for our instruction.”

Rain tilted his head to the side.

“Two.”

The armoured leveler with a wide brim feathered hat abruptly hauled his feet off the table and sat up.

“Seems to me your plans have crumbled about yonder ears dear leader and I for one would rather be done with this farce sooner rather than later. If you want to sit around talkin’ all day that’s fine by me, but I’ll be taking dibs on all the experience and levels this here monster gives.”

“For once you say something of reason Haldir, to try and use a monster to avoid our current Ranker inflicted situation was folly from the very beginning, the gods would never bless such an endeavour, even against such a creature of raw hellish sin as a succubus. Monsters exist to make us stronger so we may do battle, not to fight our battles for us. You look upon your food and ask it to protect you from demons when one should eat said food and quickly grow strong, anything else is cowardly vice.” The priestess seemed like she was letting off a pressure valve as she spoke, as though she had wished to speak on the matter from the start but had been commanded or threatened to hold her tongue.

The head councillor rubbed some greasy grit from his eye with his index and then rolled it between finger and thumb.

“It’s not particularly complicated. Would you rather be in front of a succubus, naked and vulnerable to her draining of your precious invaluable levels and life’s work, or would you rather have a sub-sapient meat wall in front of you, actively protecting you from her touch, her kiss.”

This seemed to get a reaction out of the others despite themselves, the priestess shifted uncomfortably before an expression of fury crossed her face.

“That- That doesn’t matter! The inheritors of the gods gifts should fight for the gods, fight against hell’s demons as the antithesis of the gods, we have a responsibility!”

“Even if that means losing your levels, the gods gift?”

She scowled.

“If that what must come to be, then so be it,” she managed to grit out, although she still visibly paled at the thought.

As they spoke Zack was becoming more and more agitated, practically vibrating on the spot, his breath accelerating, his eyes dancing between the councillors.

“Y-you’re all just sitting here so c-calmly, when a succu- when a-!” he shook his head as though trying to clear it, his normally perfect hair becoming ruffled, a strand hanging limp across his sweaty face. “She can come and take our fucking levels at any fucking moment! Sucking them away, stealing them, taking them all for herself! My levels!”

His maddened gaze darted to Rain. “She can’t take them all, she can’t, not if I have more, if I have more levels then she can’t take all of them, there would be too many, too many.”

He licked his lip and thrust his hand out to the side. A spray of sparks spat from his palm along with a few dripping globules of something molten. Glowing red material oozed from his skin and then extended into the air, swiftly growing in opposite directions in a long thin sinuous shape until one end capped and the other swelled into a growing magma bulb before bloating out to the side, thinning, arcing, becoming a vicious looking black and orange-red blade, a molten scythe. Zack flipped the scythe around in his palm, lava hissing as it dripped from the edge and splattered across the ground.

“Now this is more like it,” said Haldir with a wide toothy grin. He set his feet and kicked back his chair away from the table, one hand grabbed at something below and he hauled out a large rectangular chest. He rapped his knuckles against it and with a clockwork click the box pulled apart, wooden panels smoothly sliding away.

As that was happening Zack lunged for Rain, the scythe swinging around in a great arc.

Rain was quite aware he was in a difficult situation, being surrounded by enemies, and worse, being made especially vulnerable due to having a half naked Goblin girl wrapped around his hips. He needed to cut down on threats swiftly if he was to have any hope of getting out alive and saving Lyra.

He slammed both paws up against the underside of the table, his biceps bulging, and with a bass roar sent the entire massive hall spanning oaken thing spinning skyward. The vast spread immediately flew in every direction and the air was filled with hundreds of falling objects.

Zack flinched back as plates and cutlery and food crashed over him and Rain took his chance, launching himself forward, his long arm reaching. Zack tried to move, to shift out of the way, but it was far too late. A massive paw wrapped around his hand and he was dragged right off his feet, his scythe useless up close. Rain’s jaws came down on his shoulder as though it wasn’t even there, instantly snapping together like a steel bear trap. It all happened in only a fraction of a moment and Zack was left stumbling away not quite sure what had just happened.

He turned his head and looked down, he seemed fine. Then his gaze shifted right and he found his shoulder was just ... gone, his boney clavicle sticking from the crater of gore that exposed part of his lung, his pectoral muscle twitching and trying to pull at an arm bone that was no longer there.