Greed God chapter 206

April 8th 2016 Brightedge City, Grayson Pier, 1:00 PM EDT

I  turned to glare at Cherry. "You didn't think it was a good idea to MENTION the army of werewolves?" It was probably unfair, I could see  that they were fear constructs, but I was still annoyed. This was why we  did fucking recon damn it! I didn't have time for this shit.

Mary  chuckled seductively. "Oh, don't blame the little ghost girl. You think  a vampire as old as I am doesn't have wards for detecting spirits.  Especially in Gotham." She paused. "Or what used to be Gotham. Still  getting used to that. Regardless, it isn't her fault. I took precautions to hide my little friends." She pouted at me sexily. "Or are you upset to be spending time with me? I can't see your  face under that mask but your body is phenomenal. And that blood." She  gave a full body shudder. "I can feel it through your veins. Such  power."

I grinned at her. "You can have some if you like.  You just have to close your eyes and suck it out of a hose." She  actually smirked a bit at that.

"I think it would be  easier just to spill it all over the ground. But if you decide to give  in and let me have a sip without a fuss you can let me know at any time.  I can't guarantee my friends here will stop in time, but at the very  least you might be able to survive. Now, all of you-" Her voice was cut  off by a startled yelp as she dove behind one of the werewolves.

Barbie  had apparently gotten annoyed and opened up with the holy fire  flamethrower, hosing the whole room down in consecrated white flame.  Sadly the werewolves didn't seem to mind it, though the flames did spark  up a few drapes and a couple bookshelves. She put them out with the  paintball gun, showing absolutely pinpoint accuracy and managing to tag  at least three of the vampires.

Mary hissed with  displeasure, gesturing her minions, vampire and werewolf alike, forward.  To clarify the situation, I finally had a chance to use appraisal on  her real quick as we engaged.

[Appraisal function  activated. Treasure detected. Mary Seward- C rank vampire queen. Known  as Mary, Queen of Blood, Mary was a servant girl for Andrew Bennett, a  young nobleman's son. When Bennett disappeared his father took the  opportunity to assault her repeatedly. When Andrew returned to reveal  he'd been turned into a vampire,he turned Mary, who then murdered his  father and left on a quest for vengeance. Traveling to live with a  distant relative she came across Vlad Tepes, quickly becoming a favorite  of his and earning a place in his court.]

Ok, so  that was...not super useful. I already knew most of that, but hey, at  least I'd confirmed her rank. She was C rank, though from what Tamlin  had said she wasn't as old as he was, so probably not as strong. I was  pretty sure I could take her. The issue was all these fucking  werewolves, most of which appeared to be D rank. I didn't know if the  Fear host had these stashed away before or found a really good fear  source, but these bitches would be too much for my girls.

Growling  in frustration, I roared and pounced on the first werewolf, the one in  front of Mary, and tore it in half with my bare hands. She grinned at  me. "Oh, how forceful. I like my men with a little animal in them." Eyes  flashing red she lashed out with a pair of claws. I put up both arms,  letting them skate over my scales, drawing sparks as I smashed a punch  out at her face.

Giggling and dancing backwards, Mary  clapped her hands in glee. "Oh, wonderful, you're every bit as fun as he  promised. You will make a wonderful sacrifice. After all, there's a  certain poetry in sacrificing a dragon to resurrect a princess." She  paused. "Well, Queen, but my way sounds better." She dove in again,  claws blurring as she tried her best to disembowel me. Sadly for her,  they smashed into a spike of purple stone that had exploded from the  ground between us, pushing her back.

"Excuse me." My wife  said, her voice as cold and angry as I'd ever heard it. "That dragon  already HAS a princess. Two in fact. If you'd like to apply for a third  position you can make an appointment. Assuming you survive the night."  Her eyes sparking with purple light, she unleashed a massive wave of  purple crystal spikes at Mary, whose eyes widened as she danced back out  of the way.

Note to self, C rank vampires are NOT within  my ability to handle alone yet. This had been a fucking trap, and I was  pissed. Whoever this Fear host was knew more about me than he should,  and I absolutely wasn't going to put up with him endangering me and  mine. I reached into my pouch and pulled out a familiar bottle, popping  the cork with the claw on my thumb and taking a long pull.

Mary's  source must have briefed her on this because she hissed at the sight of  the brandy.. As I stoked the fire in my stomach and spat out a burst of  green gold flame, she screamed in outrage. A hand came up from her  pocket, clutching a talisman with a design I'd never seen before. She  held it in front of herself and a dome of darkness appeared to block the  flames.

The reaction when it made contact was like fire  hitting a lake, the shadows consumed the flames, emitting a hiss as they  boiled off, but it was more than enough to protect Mary. By the time  the dome faded she wasn't even standing there anymore. I stepped back,  putting my back to Amy's. Between the two of us we had enough power in  ranged and melee combat to negate Mary's advantage from what I'd seen.

I  looked around to check on the girls, and they seemed fine. They'd  grouped up, and Cherry was taking advantage of their distraction to  backstab as many of the werewolves with soulripper as possible while  Barbie rained down star bolts (apparently she'd figured out the knack)  and Sindara chained them with shadowy ropes.

Seeing they  were fine I began searching as hard as I could in the nearby area for  any signs of Mary. She'd been way too prepared. That amulet had hard  countered my brandy breath. I slipped a hand into my pouch and pulled  out an emerald. I'd had an idea after making the stakes, if the emerald  could act as a carrier for the energy and upgrade the stake itself then I  might be able to make something usable out of just the stone.

I  focused on the storm raging inside me, condensing the most destructive  and chaotic aspects of my Primal Force into the emerald as I waited, and  when I noticed a slight disturbance I spun and hurled the overcharged  stone like a fastball at the spot I'd noticed the movement. The stone  streaked across the space, arriving in front of the vampiress as she  emerged from the shadows.

Hissing again, Mary whirled her  coat up over her head to block her face and upper body as the stone  detonated. An explosion of life force and destruction formed midair  where the emerald had exploded, but I was already moving through it,  having drawn my stake and aiming it at Mary's heart as she was  distracted by the blast. I slammed it down on her chest through the coat  as a spike of purple stone speared up behind her, Amy blocking her  path.

With the coat in the way I couldn't see where her  heart actually was, but I was almost positive I'd gotten close, at least  until she reached up to grab it, her hand burning as she wrapped it  around the stake and tore it from her flesh with a roar of pain. She  hurled it at my face and I reached up to bat it away, only to get  smashed by her shoulder and sent flying back. With an inhuman screech  she turned on the spot, her body shifting as she did, wings exploding  from her back, and streaked up into the air, smashing through a  skylight.

I knelt to follow, but Amy grabbed my arm.  "Don't!" She said urgently. "It's another trap. One on one neither of us  is strong enough to take her, and the stake won't work again. Your  advantages will all be gone if you fight in the air. I know you want to  take care of her, but we need to focus on destroying the rest of them.  It'll take her time to replenish her forces, and they won't be as  strong."

I sighed and nodded, letting my scales roll away  until I was only sporting them up to the elbows. "Yeah, you're right.  That stake didn't kill her but it at least hurt. I doubt she'll manage  to heal that wound anytime soon. We can kill the rest of them and search  the house. Mary will be a problem for another time. Though we need to  figure out what the hell the sacrifice she was talking about is. I don't  like the sound of her sacrificing me to revive a 'Queen'."

The  only real upside was that it didn't make sense for her to have been  talking about Tsaritsa since she wasn't dead. Of course, that meant we  had ANOTHER dangerous supernatural monarch to worry about but I'd deal  with that when I came to it. Maybe we could find some clues in their  stuff. She clearly hadn't been expecting me to chase her off. My  preparations had fucked up her trap well enough that she might have left  some stuff behind when she fled.

With me helping we made  quick work of the other vampires (mostly E rankers) and the werewolves,  who were at the most barely D rank. Once I tore the last one in half I  kicked its head off its shoulders in a fit of annoyance. "Fuck!" I  hissed. " I'm getting real sick of this fucking monster making asshole.  Now this crazy vampire bitch wants to use me as a sacrifice?"

Not  that I had any idea to who yet. I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my  nose. "Alright. Everyone search the house. Stick together, pairs at  least. And keep your flamethrowers out. They should work on more than  just vampires. Let me know if you find anything." They all made  affirmative noises.

Amy stepped up behind me, putting a  hand on my shoulder. "Hey, trap or not you had the foresight to put  countermeasures in place. Plus they clearly weren't prepared for  everything. Seems like they were using information from our little  outing for Penguin. I held back more than a bit that first night.  Whoever this monster maker is they clearly did their research, but they  weren't prepared for most of your tricks."

That was a good  point actually. Amy had taken her completely by surprise. They has also  seemed a bit thrown by my party favors with Mary not even dodging the  stake. They were working off old information. I could use that. In fact  it gave me an advantage. They could basically only react and not act  themselves.

I let out a long breath. This hadn't been my  fuckup. I'd been working on incomplete information. Now that I knew they  were already working together I'd include that in my plans. I'd played  this right, lots of prep and recon, and we'd come out of it on top, even  if it kind of felt like we lost. "Thanks Ames. You're right. And thanks  for having my back out there."

Her reaction time had been  damn solid, and she'd worked with me well. We had practice with each  other's styles from sparring but she'd put that into action better than  expected. "Of course." She said with a smile, holding out her hand. "Now  let's go search through spoils and see if we turn anything up."