Chapter 199

◈ Chapter 199:

Rain wasn't sure how long he ate for, in the dark and gore, time seemed meaningless.

It was easier to become a mindless thing, an animal, fighting to survive, than to think, and he chewed his way through the snake's insides like it was the only thing left in the world, working purely on his instinct to devour.

Of course, it could never last forever, as the urge to breathe started to slowly build up in the background. He could hold out for a long time with what little air he had, or small pockets of air he came across, but eventually he became desperate to take a real breath… unfortunately there was only blood so he had to make a choice.

Realising he was near to passing out he thrashed to the side, reaching, and grabbing hold of bone, a rib, dragging himself close. He bit into the scaled wall, ripping it asunder and then tearing aside flesh with his paws. He clawed his way to freedom and stepped onto solid ground.

If he was coated in gore before, now he was truly dipped in it, a fully crimson wolf monster.

There may or may not have been light outside the snake, he wasn't sure as his eyes were filled with blood leaving him blind. He wiped the back of his paw over them and squinted.

He wasn't sure he could possibly be any more filthy.

He blinked rapidly trying to clear the blood from his eyes and looked around. He'd come out in the fighting pit, and as he turned he realised that the snake had smashed through the walls, only the middle part of its body was lying within, the head and tail lying outside the arena.

The snake was also very very dead.

As he was wiping at his face there was a flash of motion and a scaled form shot over the top of the dead snake, a spear spinning in to claw before being expertly thrust down on target for Rain.

"What have you done?!" came a ragged scream from Triskian's mouth.

Rain raised his paw and a mess of predation exploded from his fur tossing aside caked on gore as it surged out, a copy of his own paw mixed with teeth and claw that smashed into the tip of the spear. The velocity of the spear was slowed as the predation crashed into it and misted, and then slowed further with the next shadowy paws, then three shadow paws taking hold of the spear and bringing the thing to a halt in mid air, a surprised drake hanging onto the end.

"You set her on me, if you cared so much you wouldn't have been so rash." growled Rain.

"No! It wasn't- I- I Didn't!" came the drakes reply, voice breaking, beyond irrational.

He kicked off the end of the spear and threw himself to the ground, drawing a long hooked knife in the same motion. He shot forward, ducking underneath the mass of dark above, and then dodging past the emergence of a second clumsy blob of dark from Rain's fur.

He almost made it within striking distance with the small bladed weapon, but then Rain grunted and abruptly moved, having finally cleared his eyes. His leg was drawn back, and in one brutal motion he kicked Triskian, his massive foot connecting with Triskian's chest.

The drake's expression went from one of mindless anger to one of realising he had made a terrible mistake. Most of his ribs snapped under the savage impact and his lungs were crushed flat back against his spine. The momentum cancelled out his own and he was lifted off his feet and launched across the arena from Rain's foot, crashing into the snake's side and knocking back its massive body with the impact. The drake glanced off and fell to the ground, bouncing off the sands  before coming to a rolling stop clutching at his concave chest.

Not that Rain saw any of that however as a steel clad knight lunged for his back from atop the snake in the same moment he kicked, and this time Rain didn't catch sight of the movement soon enough to be ready.

With a ragged scream Aolis brought his sword down on Rain's shoulder.

A horrible moment passed where Rain half expected the blade to cut down through chest and slice his entire upper body in half, instantly killing him. But to his immense relief the blade caught in his shoulder, digging into his clavicle. Extremely painful, true, and causing him to gasp in pain, but seeing that the blade lacked its glowing state almost washed away the pain with a relief of its own. Whatever caused the infinitely sharp edge wasn't functioning. Close. Too close. Had the blade been in the state it was before then he would have died, he felt sure.

The blade flickered, talking on its glowing state for just a millisecond and he felt it sink deeper. His eyes widened and with a snarl he twisted, smashing the elf back against the wall of scales with all his might. There was a gasp of breath expelled from impact and the gauntleted hand was jarred from the sword's grip, knocking the blade free from the wound and sending it tumbling through the air.

Rain's paw darted back to grab hold of the elf and tear him limb from limb, but before he could get a grip on him the sand beneath his feet erupted, a plume geysering up between himself and the snake and launching Aolis out of his grasp. He stumbled back and turned to find the trio who he had previously badly injured with his roar, the fish girl, the elven archer, and the leather clad human woman along with her twin. Blood was crusted around their ears and eyes and mouths and the elf was sagging, struggling to stay upright, but they seemed more than willing to try make what they had paid to fight him actually worth something. Such stubbornness, or maybe it was desperation.

They weren't alone and over two dozen levelers stood behind them, all of them with murder in their eyes, and more dropping down from the boxes behind.

Ah.

Being ganged up on was a serious threat. True some levelers were being cautious, but with so many together many were throwing caution to the wind and pouncing on what could be an opportunity for free leveling. An injured monster of this value? It was like the smell of blood in the wind to those confronting him, the only question was how many could contribute to his death.

They only had themselves to blame then, in the end.

He raised a paw and the sand writhed. Giant centipedes tens of meters long lashed and roiled from the sands, twisting and flailing, the tips of their many many legs replaced with long harpy talons. It was an aimless attack but with so many levelers clustered together the arcing bodies quickly found bodies, and then bared flesh. Predation finding exposed legs or arms or heads and slicing through, sending dismembered limbs and fingers spinning through the air as the levelers panicked, the ground becoming a shifting storm of death.

Of course, running only made things worse, as they tripped and fell over the arcs of the centipedes rising from the sands, falling on predation to find their bodies coming apart, hands and limbs scattering like seeds.

The screams were very loud.

Ravoure stood at the center of this all, the small bubble of a personal shield protecting him as he looked around wild eyed at all those dying around him.

He seemed to gather himself and pressed a ring to his throat.

"QUISTIS THEY'RE EVERYWHERE IN THE FUCKING SAND! CHANGE IT! CHANGE IT DAMN YOU!!"

Rain blinked as for a fraction of the moment the sands took on a slight grey hue, and then a moment later became a smooth white marble that formed the floor of the bottom of the pit. The centipedes were quickly crushed inside the stone as the marble expanded to fill the holes the centipedes made and each arch of black turned to mist leaving only a scattering of dead or groaning levelers across the blood stained white marble.

Rain turned to find Quistis looking down at him from atop the great snake having just climbed atop it. Her gaze shifted between Rain, and then Triskian who was weakly crawling across the marble, clutching at his chest. The drake coughed and a pint of blood spilled from his mouth, splattering noisily against the flat surface.

Quistis did not look very happy.

In fact she looked quite angry.

"You sub-sapient piece of garbage, you fucking piece of SHIT!" She screamed, throwing her hands forward.

Rain wasn't quite sure what to expect, but a diamond tipped spike launching from the ground wasn't one of them. He grunted as it took him through the shoulder and ripped him from his feet, sending him hurtling through the air.

He looked down in shock as the prow of an entire stone and iron ship rose from the marble, driving forth what he realised now was not a spike but a sharpened bowsprit. He could do nothing as so much mass gained momentum behind the spike and drove him through the arena like a pinned insect. With a Crash! he found himself smashed through the arena walls as the massive ship was relentlessly driven up through several private boxes even as it disintegrated, the occupants screaming and fleeing, many being crushed to death as the monumental mass of stone and iron came on. He thrust through the back walls and into the rooms beyond, through that again and then finally pinned deep within the arena's structure, rubble pouring around his shoulders and burying him up to the chest as he clutched at the spike impaling him.

She could do this kind of thing?!

He supposed he shouldn't have been that surprised considering she grew a tower from the earth.

Blocks of stone crumbled around him as took hold of the bowsprit in his paw, squeezing down and slowly bending the thick steel, trying to work it free from the stone of the ship it was connected to.

It was hard to see much around him as the air was filled with masses of masonry dust, but he still heard the footsteps as they came closer, his ear twitching at the sound of steel on stone.

He watched as a steel clad figure stepped from the dust and stood on the prow of the half destroyed ship.

Aolis stood before him and drew his blade. One eye visible through the damaged helm, one arm limp at his side.

"They tried to steal you from me, when you are mine by right of coin and honour. I should kill them all for this, especially that Lamia. But for now you will die, on the tip of my blade like the dog you are."

He took a step onto the bowsprit, leaning out so that he could thrust the tip of the blade through Rain's throat where he lay trapped, embedded in the stone and pinned in place.

"You'll want to hurry up with that." Rain growled, looking up at him with steady yellow eyes.

Aolis kept moving but still replied.

"Why?"

"Sheep."

A large hoof collided with the steel clad rear of the elf, a hammer blow of a powerfully thrust leg which caught the imbalanced Elf off guard. However he wasn't just sent stumbling, he was full body launched forward with a cry, booted from the ship and into Rain's waiting paws.

Rain took hold of the elf's arm and the sword fell from his fingers. He held the limp empty arm one with his other, dangling the elf in front of himself.

Aolis was trapped just as he. The elf gave him a hate filled look from behind the damaged helm.

"You can't kill me wolf. You never can."

Clunk.

"I will never stop hunting you. Your death will be the symbolic pinnacle of my family crest, a story I shall tell my children around the fire. I will haunt you like a spirit, I will never allow you to—

Clang.

" —to leave this place alive, I will strike when you least expect and… and…"

His voice petered off as the sound of more metal being dropped came from behind.

"What- What is that sound? What are you doing?!"

He tried turning his head to look over his shoulder, but the armour wouldn't quite allow it.

Rain turned him so he could see.

Lyra pulled the last of the other two suits of armour from her wool with a grimace.

"It wasn't easy getting hold of these in all the chaos you know, everybody forgot they were alive down there and gave them no healing potions so they died. Well, in one case probably because the snake landed on them. Oh, and by the way, your big dumb snake almost squished me while I was fetching them!"

"It's not my snake, it's- it was the drakes." gravelled Rain.

"So? You couldn't have directed it to not cause quite so much damage!?"

"...How?"

Lyra paused for a moment. "I don't know, by biting one side to make it change direction?"

Rain gave her a funny look.

"Okay, maybe not, but still, It nearly went through our private box! You're lucky we got out in time!"

She gathered up one of the dead elven knights and carried them over to the edge of the ship. With a grunt she tossed the slack figure down onto the rubble within reach of Rain.

Aolis looked between her and the limp knight lying on the ground with a look of absolute horror on his face.

"Don't give me that look you awful elf. I saw and heard everything."

With a grunt she tossed down the second suit of armour.

"Now, do what you have to do…"

She turned around and put her hands over her ears.

It didn't really help muffle the sound of steel being torn apart and the following screams. It sounded like Aolis tried to switch armour a few times, but it didn't save him, only extending his death. The crunch of metal and the shrill screams growing more and more desperate, becoming frantic as he was eaten, and then the eventual grizzly crunch as Aolis's voice was silenced at last.

Quite horrible in Lyra's opinion. But she couldn't say she had any pity for the much more horrible elf.

She turned back as Rain returned to trying to remove the steel spike through his shoulder.

That was the easy bit, now came trying to explain something important to Rain.

"Uhm, something happened with Opal…"

Rain paused, his head jerking up to look at her.

"Oh, she's not hurt or anything. But something did, uhm, happen, on the way in here to the Abattoir. She told me it was fine… but I think she was lying to me. And, well, she's… doing something. She does have a plan though, or at least that's what she said."

"A plan?"

"Yes, she told me to tell you that you need to do something that's super extremely important and if you don't do it she will be furious with you and you will be furious with yourself. It's got everything to do with getting at Myra and Brax and some other important stuff she didn't say that is also super important."

With a grunt, the steel spar ripped from the stone bow and Rain pulled it bit by bit from his shoulder. The metal clanged as it rolled down the heap of rubble into one of the lower rooms.

He pulled himself free from the masonry and stood by the prow of the shattered stone ship. He had a lot of predation to spare so he let various dark horrors emerge from his fur to go bounding off into the dust filled air, the dust making whorls and eddies as their tooth and claw covered bodies vanished from view. He turned to Lyra.

"What is the something that she wants me to do?"

"Uh, she told me to tell you that you can't kill Quistis. You have to capture her. Alive."

Rain stared at her in disbelief.

"What? How am I supposed to do that?"

She handed him a trio of healing potions and he crushed them with his teeth and drank them down. It helped a bit.

"I don't know but she said you need to do it. You can't kill her."

Rain recalled just how terrifyingly dangerous the lamia was and how he was barely able to keep her at bay let alone fight her. Of any leveler he had seen here she was the one he found the most threatening and likely to kill him with ease if he fought her directly. In fact she was one of the most dangerous levelers he had ever come across. Fitting as one of Wranvyre's brood.

And he was supposed to capture her alive?