Greed God chapter 179

April 4th 2016 Brightedge City 1:00 PM EDT

I  admit, I thought the dragon thing would be enough to keep them from  going off on me, but apparently I was wrong. Not that it did them much  good. I barely had to try as I ducked under a bottle Bridger the rock  troll swung at my head. A pair of large arms wrapped around me from  behind, probably the Ogre I'd seen at one of the tables, but I just let a  bit of Primal Force leak into my upper back and neck as I smashed my  head back into his chin.

There was a grunt as I was  released, and I sighed as I turned to try to get as much of the room as  possible in view. "Alright gents, no reason to make a federal case out  of this. You have to know I'm going to kick your asses. What's the point  of coming at me just because I said a name?" I wasn't actually too  opposed to the fight, but dropping bodies would probably leave me on  cleanup for longer than I would like.

The only possible  upside was that I doubted I'd run into the League or their junior squad  down here, so even if I had to get a bit bloody there wasn't any real  long term harm. Given how magical this place was I doubted even Kara was  a problem. Still, as much fun as beating on some bar patrons was, a  full on brawl with everyone here was going to be a time sink. I'd wanted  a chance to slap some people around, but a twenty on one fight wasn't  what I had in mind.

Bridger look a LOT less friendly now,  stepping from behind the bar with a bat that was, based on a quick  appraisal, a G-rank enchanted weapon. "Some names aren' to be said. That  one especially. We can' let ye walk out of here, just in case yer one  of her cultists. If she gets released...well, sorry to say we're gonna  have to put ye down. Dragonkin are strong, but there are quite a few of  us, and we aren' exactly harmless ourselves. On the off chance this is  some kind of misunderstandin' beggin' yer pardon, but ye still need to  die."

Gods damn it. Thanks other me. Couldn't have  mentioned she was some kind of forbidden subject? I scowled at them. "I  don't get it. She was the queen of the whole damn world. Why are you all  so scared of her getting out. Don't you all want to be in charge again?  I mean...no offense, but you're literally living in a hole in the  ground right now. I'd think a shot at an upgrade would be a plus. You  certainly signed on with the Sun King quick enough."

Bridger  barked a harsh laugh. "Ye think humans was the only ones what wanted  her gone? We all helped banish her. If she comes back she comes fer us  all. We couldn't live with her anymore, even for a few she was a  bloodthirsty tyrant. She killed at a whim and gloried in suffering,  treated us all like pawns and amusements. She cursed and transformed  anyone in sight just for the thrill of it, until in the end even we  couldn't bear her wickedness anymore. Me own grandfather took part in  the revolution, I heard the stories growin' up on his knee."

Well  shit. Nice work mom. Way to be a team player. This was why I didn't  randomly torture and murder people like all the other supervillains.  What the hell was the point of inflicting random suffering on anyone who  looked at you funny? And what kind of fucking psycho is so twisted that  fucking FAIRIES thought she was too extreme. Of course my mom was a  fairy dictator. Because why not.

I was so distracted by  the revelations that I ALMOST missed the attack from behind. Almost. I  heard it just in time to drop into a roll as a fucking SCYTHE whistled  through the air where my neck had just been. I popped to my feet, using  the momentum to spring up into a spinning kick at the...Pumpkin Headed  reaper thing that had tried to kill me. Apparently it was an F-ranked  fae called a Jack of Lanterns. I channeled Primal Force into the spin of  my kick and my foot smashed into the pumpkin head, though it didn't  pulp like expected.

There was no time to celebrate the  bastard sailing across the room because a fucking dark elf slipped into  try to spear me midair with a pair of daggers even as a banesidhe  drifted forward to wail at me. I felt some kind of death magic wash over  me, but it was so fragile compared to my own power I just channeled my  energy through my body and tore through the thing like wet tissue paper.  I planted my foot on a platform of wind and catapulted off at the same  time, avoiding the knives and the claws of a Cait Sidhe that tried to  disembowel me from the other side.

I landed and dipped  into a handspring, using force magic to push me far enough that I had my  back to the wall when I came up. "How many of you motherfuckers ARE  there in this bar!?" I growled in annoyance, letting my full draconic  hybrid form clothe me. Scales covered my whole body, isolating me from  harm and turning me into a living weapon as I glared around me at the  crowd of fae.

Jack of Lanterns wasn't dead, though he  looked unsteady, and the others closed ranks to try to encircle me. I  could probably have taken them down after a long hard fight, earned  their respect and gotten out of this without any long term  consequences...but fuck that. I'm not some loser hero wannabe. I'm a  fuckmothering dragon. I might give someone a free pass once or twice,  but a series of legit murder attempts?

I snorted, and a  puff of smoke came from my nose, crackling with energy. "Alright  fucksticks. I'm just about out of patience with this shit. So listen up,  and listen good. The next one of you assholes that comes at me is going  to fucking die. Not get hurt, not get knocked out. I'm going to end  you. It won't be fucking merciful either. I'm going to make it hurt. No  more Mr. Nice Dragon, you fucking get me?"

A snorted laugh  came from one side as the Ogre lumbered forward to attack again, and  without a second of hesitation I turned and exhaled right at him. My  dragon breath had taken a fucking level in badass when I ranked up for  sure, a ball of explosive hyperdense force and fire rocketed out of my  mouth and smashed into his big green chest. I could see wind and  lightning swirling inside, left over remnants of what I had been before,  but most of it was flame, and since all of those things were, at their  core, Force. I was able to control and shape that damage when it struck.

The  ball seared right through his chest, burrowed up so his ribcage would  soak most of it, and then DETONATED. The Ogre, too shocked to react  besides just panicking, threw back his head and SCREAMED. Flame and  lightning fueled by gale force wind and torrential force magic came  bursting from his mouth, eyes, nose, ears, and every other hole on his  body as his Ogre hide stretched and warped, containing the blast in a  way that only worked because I willed it to when I was shaping the bolt.

The  ogre stood there, blazing like a roman candle from every orifice, until  he finally fell over, dead. His formerly massive form was still longer  than most, but there was nothing inside the skin except charred meat and  ruin. The bones and burnt muscle flaked and collapsed as he hit the  ground, crumbling into essentially a skin bag full of ash and chunks of  Ogre flesh. I watched dispassionately and then turned to the Bridger.  "See what you made me do?" I said regretfully.

Clicking my  tongue, I surveyed the terrified fae. That Ogre had been an F ranked  fae, and I'd smoked him (pun intended) in seconds. "So." I said  severely. "Here's how this is going to go. Anyone who wants to die the  same way he did, line up over there and I'll take care of you real  quick." I pointed off to one side and then waited. "No?" I said with  mock surprise? "No more takers? How strange. Well then, we can move onto  the compensation part of the evening. First off, you-" I pointed at  Bridger. "Are going to pay me not to burn this place down."

The  rock troll grimaced, but nodded. "Aye. Tis' fair enough. Merciful  enough you lettin' us live. What, exactly, will this  little...transaction, be costin' if I might be so bold as to ask?" He  sounded much less upset than I had expected. If someone burned a  customer of mine alive and confessed to being about to rob me I'd be  upset, but he just seemed respectful. I remembered a snippet from the  fae book I'd skimmed of Zatanna's. Fae respected strength above all.  Unless you were an absolute lunatic like my mom apparently. Still,  barring insanity kicking the shit out of a fae would get its  cooperation.

On the flipside fae  had almost no sense of loyalty whatsoever. Fae would obey you pretty  much exactly up to the point it became more useful to do otherwise.  Being here right now I could kill them all and they knew it, so the  practical thing was to shut up and do what they were told. Once I was  gone that little compulsion would be gone, but so would I so who cared.  They ALSO held grudges. Killing the Ogre wouldn't mean shit since fae  didn't really have friends as much as casual acquaintances, but if I  started snatching ancient weapons I'd have to deal with a bunch of  bullshit later.

I  decided that none of the random G ranked garbage they were swinging  around was worth stealing, there were only a few things here anyway.  Rather than gold or random trinkets, the best payment would be the  information I cam here for. "You're going to tell me where I can find  knowledge about Tsaritsa." His expression hardened (pun intended) but I  held up a hand to cut him off. "I'm not trying to free her or anything  stupid like that. I'm interested in learning more about her for other  reasons. Don't get your granite panties in a bunch."

One  of the other fae,I think the Cait Sidhe, snorted out a laugh, but they  had regained a stoic expression by the time I turned to look. The undine  to one side of him winked at me salaciously, but I had other things to  be getting on with. Bridger took a long, deep breath. "Well as I said,  me grandfather was the one what saw her fall, not meself." I let my eyes  begin to glow with Primal Force, an extremely neat trick that looked  terrifying but did almost nothing, and he scrambled to cut me off. "But!  I'm not the oldest here! When the Sun King invited us we'd been  gathered under single banner."

I  raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to clarify. He swallowed hard. "The  lord has been long outcast. Separated from his lady love when she  returned to her husband. We had gathered to his cause, and immortal  magic user who was once human but now walks the world as on of the fair  folk." He steeled his nerve, as if bringing this up was dangerous. "But  if ye be searchin' for answers, he'd be the one to be talkin' to. Travel  deeper into the depths of the earth master dragon. Tamlin the Falconer  has the answers ye seek." Well. Good to have a direction to point in at  least.