DD 301 Ch 14

The entire class attempted to clear the boss, though two groups of three were unable to take down the boss until they began testing other combinations and the order of poison, frost and fire last was most successful. Especially when they controlled their damage so they went off nearly back to back. Then essentially the only one doing damage was the fire.

Our whole extended group dove into the safe zone beyond. It was populated with plenty of people moving about, yet we couldn’t go further.

“Hold up,” an Orkai stopped us at the bottom of the stairs, giving my whole group a once over. "Your reason for entering?" The Orkai asked. He wasn’t particularly trying to be imposing, however his size did that easily enough. That’s when I noticed the badge of the Arbiters on his chest.

"Shelter from the dungeon," I replied, hesitating briefly. This was the first time an Orkai had stopped us from entering a safe zone. Was there a problem?

“Do you have relatives in this safe zone?" The Orkai asked and I shook my head quickly.

"No, we were just passing through this area as part of our dive. We started in Star City." I hoped the reference to the Orkai city might win us some favor.

The Orkai gave our group another once over and nodded. "I understand. Please be advised that this safe zone is currently under investigation of an arbiter. I advise you not to step into the safe zone itself. However, the outlying area should remain safe during the investigation." His arm swept to the side.

I stared at the edge of the wall that circled the safe zone. There were a few groups milling about, some pointedly moving along the wall, others camping. But like he said, none of them ventured towards the center of the safe zone.

That's when I realized the milling about in the safe zone were more Orkai, likely under the direction of an arbiter. If there was a problem here, then we should best stay out of it.

"Understood," I glanced back at the ladies with me. "I guess no bed tonight? We'll just let the arbiters do do their thing." I turned back, nodding to him and working to give the Orkai as much respect as I could muster. Even Crimson had been hesitant of the arbiters. I saw no reason for a bit of comfort to make us piss them off. 

Even Harley gave up, hanging her head as she slowly shuffled away to the edge of the safe zone. We all moved about, working to find a spot for ourselves along the wall and pitch our tents.

But as soon as we were seated, Harley leaned over amongst the group, a twinkle in her eye as she kicked off gossip. "Who do you think the Orkai are investigating?"

"That's not our problem. We spent Friday evening with the Whaleryn and most of the day to find our way back. We're just going to keep pushing this route for reasons only known to you and Crimson," Helen punctuated her statement with a snort which took off most of the warm fuzzy good feelings she may have otherwise engendered.

“Whatever, Crimson wants this so if we come back and we didn’t push this route then we’ll just have to do double training.” Penny said.

I just shrugged, but noted that her words seemed to be echoed by the others. If it was a path that Crimson wanted us to train on, no one saw a reason to argue.

As we all set down camp, I kept my eyes on the safe zone, watching as several armored green figures milled about. I held my CID up quietly to scan a few of them. It didn't hurt to understand the strength of the arbiters. Though, the ones moving about didn't come across as that powerful or frankly important. They seemed more like grunts, grunts that were level 70 and a wide array of classes.

Amongst what appeared to be locals were a variety of races from Angels to Nekorians and even a big red demon moving through the safe zone. Their levels were varied but most were in the mid to upper 50’s.

Candice came over to stare at the display on my CID. “Trying to understand their strength?” she asked quietly.

"I mean it wouldn't hurt to understand why everyone is so terrified of the arbiters, or perhaps put some numbers to that terror to rationalize it." I shrugged. “Perhaps it’s just morbid curiosity about the beings I’m told could pancake me easily.”

She simply nodded and sat down holding her CID but not scanning anyone. "You have to find the ones that move like they're important," she said. "None of those are showing leadership."

I glanced out and nodded in agreement. "So which one do you think is important?"

She didn't answer for a long moment until there was more pronounced movement amongst the safe zone. An Orkai moved through, and the others parted to create space for him to walk. It was painfully obvious just how much they wanted to scurry out of his way with each step that he took.

"That one." I said at the same time as Candice and held my CID up to try and get a read on him.

However, I was distracted by a flash of magic that hurled from the safe zone into one of the many Orkai milling about. The blast was strong enough to send that Orkai flying. Luckily they were caught by another Orkai and slammed to the ground as the other Orkai scattered like they were fleeing.

The important one I had been trying to scan disappeared from the spot where he had been, only to appear at the edge of the safe zone. The grunts scattered, using every ability they had to get to the wall of the safe zone. Several of them threw abilities behind them to stall or knock back individuals that tried to flee along with them.

The big Orkai boomed as he shouted. "I declare your actions and admission of guilt, and hereby purge this safe zone." The Orkai lifted his hand and then swiftly brought it down. A deafening roar filled the safe zone.

An ability ripped out of his palm and fired into the center of the building before growing so bright that I had to look away only for the boom to ripped through the safe zone and rattle my down to my core.

I clamped my hands over my ears and felt a warm trickle of blood seeping out of them before a flash ripped through the safe zone. I couldn't believe what I was seeing before my very own eyes.

Because, the building and the people in the center of the safe zone were simply gone. The entire area vaporized leaving a barren patch all the way to dungeon stone beneath the dirt and grass. Even that was cracked and smoked.

In that single gesture, he had killed the entire safe zone and ripped up every building. Through the dust, I could see no survivors.

Healing tickled at my ears and sound returned to me as those against the wall began shouting.

"Ummm question.” Hardly cleared her throat. "Is there a rule book somewhere in the Orkai version of libraries that we could all read? I'd really hate to do the equivalent of Orkai jaywalking, especially if my punishment is the destruction of an entire safe zone. Heck, if one of those arbiters went back to Haylon or Earth, I feel like they could simply wipe everyone out with a wave of their hand."

I couldn't help but nod in agreement. We had all seen something today that was going to change how we acted in the dungeon for quite a while.

"I vote we head back." Candice raised her hand. I looked over at the rest of the group who were all looking like they were going to readily agree with her desire to put space between them and the arbiter.

"Agreed. Let's head back. If we have more energy we can do a couple more attempts on that boss." I offered. “What do you think?” I turned to Kendra and Candice who both nodded.

Then we all turned to the last group, which happened to be Helen’s.

"That's fine as long as we can kill some monsters on the way back. I don't want to stop farming. I would like as much experience as I can get."

I could get behind that concept. After watching the recent display, I suddenly felt even more pressure to continue growing stronger.

There were grunts of agreement from the rest of the class, many eyes lingering on the destroyed safe zone. The punishment had been swift and brutal, and now we were sitting what felt like near the remains of an atomic bomb. It was hard to get comfortable next to something so powerful, especially with the errant thoughts of something upsetting the arbiter and causing him to attack again.

I don’t think I could rest with the palpable tension in the air. I got up, ready to start getting us ready to head out.

We had barely even put down our stakes in the ground, so it didn't take us long to rip everything back up and get moving to spend the night anywhere else in the dungeon. We also weren't alone in our decision making.

As we were packing up, more than a few other groups cautiously watched us while they packed up their own gear and either headed up or down the dungeon, keeping to the wall and well out of the Arbiter and his forces’ way. No one wanted to get too close.

The level of respect and terror was not dissimilar to the first time I'd seen Crimson turn two fellow students into bloody smears on the ground, only this one was far grander scale.

Really, that was fitting given that we were deeper in the dungeon. There were simply stronger powers now at play. If I wanted to protect the Silver Fangs, Nagato Clan or heck even all of humanity as time went on, my present strength or even Crimson’s was simply not enough.

While conceptually I knew the Orkai were stronger, watching that sheer destruction had really put the impact at scale. That Orkai would be unstoppable on earth if they chose. 

The smart thing was to put space between me and that force, and go get stronger. For now, that Orkai could do anything they wanted, and I would rather if my body were not nearby as that happened.

As soon as we got out of the safe zone, Harley turned to me. "So who do you think is stronger? An Orkai arbiter or Crimson?"

“I do hope you're joking.” I turned to Harley. “While I respect the shit out of Crimson, the reality is she has nothing on what we just saw.” I shivered at the thought of what Crimson would do if she had heard me actually say that.

"Really?" Harley sounded genuinely surprised. "I was never one for muscle mommies, but maybe I can make an exception. I bet having an Orkai girlfriend will at least prevent me from being executed without knowing what happened."

"Good luck with that." I chuckled at the idea of Harley and a massive green Orkai bending her in half.

"Don't laugh." Harley grumbled. "Just you watch. She'll be as cute as a button. She might even be a healer too."

“A healer that can break faces.” I replied.

Harley didn't give up so easily, narrowing her eyes at me in challenge. Maybe she’d do it just to win.

"When you find your face breaking muscle mommy, be sure to put in a good word before you introduce us." Des leaned over laughing.

"Not a chance." Harley grumbled and turned away from the Demonic Mage.

"So cold. So cold." Des said playfully.

"Will you all stop for just a minute?" Helen scowled back at all of us.

Harley turned to Helen, starting to make a loud siren noise. "Oh look, here comes the fun police.”

Helen rolled her eyes. “Maybe we should get back to killing monsters."

“I think I have to agree with Helen on this one. I would very much like to increase my level after seeing that Orkai.” I said, my words gained nods from the class around us haveing the sudden urge to push harder. “And if you'd like, I could tell Crimson that too.”

Harley's eyes went wide as she gasped. “You wouldn't.”

“I would. Even if you got an Orkai girlfriend, the reality is the only thing that stops you from dying to an arbiter like that before knowing what hit you is the strength to survive a single strike.” I had to break it to her and everyone else.

The thought brought me back to the rankings that Karnak had mentioned. I wondered if there were any arbiters listed in those rankings for me to get a better understanding.

I glanced down at my CID to realize that I had managed to capture the arbiter’s stats, but they were over level 100 and seemed to be having errors. It was as if the CIDs weren't built for the scale of numbers that an Orkai arbiter had. I picked up my pace, ready to put more space between us and the arbiter.

***

Karnak watched the Nekorian and his two fellows as they walked into the tavern and slid into the table he was using.

“You'll be fighting Ken tomorrow, correct?” Lucian asked as casually as could be.

“That is correct. He's also expressed some interest in trying to better understand how our kind approaches rankings,” Karnak replied. “And so, I'll bring a few observers as well so that Ken and his group can get themselves better acquainted and recorded within the Orkai ranking system.”

Lucian nodded along. “Of course. Then amongst a crowd, I would stand out far less, correct?”

Karnak inclined his head, though the real reason was more strategic. By including a number of observers, nothing would happen tomorrow at least, nothing could happen. While he was complying with the aggressive Nekorian’s request, should anything go awry, he didn’t want the eyes of the arbiters gazing down upon him.

There had been more turmoil lately after the Dungeon Shuffle. He had heard that several investigations since the shuffle had recently closed swiftly, and as a result entire safe zones were being swept clean. The arbiters were on a mission to cleanse the surrounding area and return everything to order.

Meanwhile, Karnak had a crafty Nekorian shaman prowling around him, seeming to seek justice outside of the standard methods.

“Good, good. And you don’t have to be worried,” the shaman said, nearly reading Karnak’s mind as he stared into Karnak’s eyes. “I will do absolutely nothing to Ken Nagato. As I said before, a man who has made himself an enemy of my people is simply someone I’ve been charged with gathering information on.”

Karnak nodded, but he wasn’t a fucking idiot. He didn’t believe those words, but the Nekorian was still playing within the rules of the law.

“And the other information I asked about?” Lucian leaned against the table, sipping Karnak’s beer.

“We’ve asked several pointed questions,” Karnak replied. “We’ve only had a few run-ins since you tasked me with gathering the information. One of his harem mentioned that he has a large number—several, in fact, who are just as powerful as the one that fought the Nekorian shaman in the safe zone, the one where the arbiter intervened.”

Lucian nodded. “Of course. That makes perfect sense. If he has one of that strength, he would likely have more.”

“I can also confirm there have been more significant arrivals of humans in Star City over the last several weeks,” the shaman added.

Lucian’s eyes sharpened. “Are they his forces? Present?”

“I cannot confirm that,” Karnak said carefully. “I’ve reached out to several Orkai who joined a human guild to see if we can better understand his overall influence. However… they are not the most responsive of our kind.” Karnak grimaced and bracing for anger, but the Nekorian remained calm.

“So you're saying there are hints of further depth to his power. Greater overall forces, yet you've been unable to confirm them.” Lucian confirmed.

“Given the little time I’ve had, yes. That is accurate,” Karnak ground out, feeling defensive at the question.

“Well, even Orkai have duds.” Lucian looked him up and down.

“I cannot perform a miracle for you. If that upsets you, please—go find someone else’s services.” Karnak gestured around them. Oh how he wished the Nekorian would, but the cat was playing with him and his guild. He had no doubt some of his people would disappear if he refused Lucian’s requests.

“No, your services are quite all right,” Lucian said, waving a hand. “It is, however, always in my best interest to push.” He leaned back with a grin. “Well, tomorrow will be an interesting day, indeed. I hope to be able to see his forces in full.”

Karnak raised an eyebrow. The Nekorian wasn’t even posing proper questions to seek information anymore. He was being incredibly cautious. And that was another glaring warning sign.

“After this is done, I do hope you won’t bother me with more requests,” Karnak fought to keep a grimace from his lips. He needed to extricate himself from this Nekorian and whatever idiocy he was about to perform that could bring the arbiters down.

“Why not? I think you’re a wonderful partner,” Lucian said, flashing him a massive, fake smile. “Of course, the arbiter has never intervened between you and I. And I do hope you have the best of safety as you continue to dive the dungeon.” Lucian gave him a broad, mocking grin, slugged the rest of his drink, and sauntered away.

“Boss,” Dral said softly, once the Nekorians were out of even their enhanced earshot, “we really ought to separate ourselves from them.”

“Do you not think I’m trying?” Karnak snapped.

“If he’s threatening you, perhaps we could try the arbiters,” another of his men offered.

Karnak shook his head. “We all know the greatest problem with the arbiters. They only react after the rules have been broken. Sure, we could report his threat and maybe the arbiter will come clean up the mess after our bodies have already been absorbed by the dungeon.” He exhaled slowly, his jaw tightening. “But between you and me? That’s small consolation. I’d far rather resolve this and keep the arbiters as far away from me as I can.”