Chapter 184

◈ Chapter 184:

The feeling of fuzzy mindedness lifted slowly, but it did lift.

Any soporific effect was never going to last of course, because Rain's body gradually devoured the invader the same as it would any toxin or poison, Quistis's tricks were no exception.

With the clarity the pain returned, the sharpening of his mind coming with a jaw throbbing ache. He tongued the cuts in his mouth, small bloody slots that had been cut into his gums, into his cheek, and worse, into the roof of his mouth and through his tongue, cutting into bone. His mouth was awash with the taste of salty iron and he wrinkled his nose as a particularly nasty cut twinged.

The transformation of the smoke had been awful just used in his mouth, he hated to think how helpless he would be if Quistis turned the cloud of smoke currently sitting in his lungs against him.

He eyed the crowd as he licked his wounds. Most of them were distracted but some had taken notice of him. Nearly all of those were looking on with mild curiosity or sometimes eagerness, greedy for what he represented in levels. But a couple or so had taken one look at him and gone pale as a sheet, standing and quickly shuffling toward the back of their private boxes and out, departing the arena.

It seemed at least a few people had heard something of him, even if what they knew was garbled and confused, most likely assuming he belonged to the terrifying summoner known as Murmer, or Sombur if you were Vash. An infamous reputation like hers was a force in of itself and caused others to scramble to avoid being anywhere near her.

As his head cleared he idly shifted his tail.

This new display cage was much smaller than his previous cage so that where he sat cross legged his tail was long enough to reach beyond its bars, the tip slipping just over the metal edge of the floor and down onto the sand.

Perfect to hide what he was doing.

A long thin centipede crawled from his tail and burrowed down into the sand out of sight. This was followed up by a snake— a miniature version of the giant sandy scaled snake— then another centipede, then another snake.

As he was focusing on sneaking his predation under the sand Quistis passed the cage by.

Fortunately she didn't notice anything out of place. The burrowing of the things under the sand was barely noticeable, just the occasional shifting or few rising grains. Something that Rain himself kept a careful eye on to track where the predation was as it wasn't easy to tell exactly where he was directing them.

Quistis slithered up to the edge of the drop, the pit over a dozen feet below her. She gazed over the many private boxes, each filled with the wealthy gorging themselves on food and drink, barely paying attention to what was happening outside.

She huffed and a column of smoke shot up from the sand beside her, quickly pulling in on itself. In a moment a great bronze bell appeared, a wooden frame holding it up. She flicked out her wrist, a wooden hammer appearing in her hand with the motion, and struck the bell. The metal shivered and gonged with the impact and the crowd quietened, turning to stare at her.

Quistis smiled.

"Welcome—" her voice was louder than it should have been, some basic Skill if Rain had to guess, "—to the Abattoir. Many of you are veterans of our service, many of you will be new. All should at least be vaguely aware of what we offer, levelling with no risk of death, zero. No leveller has ever died under our watch, even fighting the most terrifying of monsters, monsters that regularly slaughter levelers by the dozen in the dungeon."

Rain had to wonder about that. He was sure those attacked by the chimaera had at minimum been severely injured.

The sandy scaled drake stepped up beside her, his voice rising too.

"Even monsters that less than half of levelers survive against are something to take on at your leisure within these secretive walls. Yes, even Panthara can be safely killed in this arena, in fact it is a regular occurrence."

"Indeed. If you have the will and the money you will find this is the fastest and safest route to power that there is. Reach out your hands or claws or paws and take it for yourselves, this opportunity may not last forever, we move locations often enough and you may never hear how to find us again. I promise that missing out will weigh on your mind for the rest of your life, that chance lost to become a higher level than your rival, to become higher level than your competition. That potential lover you have been courting could come across someone of a greater level than you and be swooned by such a sizable number, you could sincerely stand to lose your future by not acting. A fate where you toss and turn in bed at night wondering what could have been until in a pique of desperation you go down to the dungeon itself, frantic to catch up with everyone else… Only to die down there in the churning meat grinder, another corpse for the mountain of dead the dungeon creates each year."

Rain had to admit the pair were quite good at piling on the pressure. He found himself experiencing a strange fear of missing out just hearing them speak, even though it wasn't relevant to him. He tried to keep his mind off what they were saying as he focused on directing his predation.

Little trails could sometimes be seen in the sands if he watched carefully, the subtlest of hints that the snakes and centipedes were crawling just below. He watched as the slight indications of his predation slithered out, reaching the stands, emerged, then slipped amongst the stone, sneaking beneath the many statues of half naked heroic levellers that Quistis had built into the place.

It wasn't always easy to will the predation where to go as he couldn't see it at all times, but he managed to direct some to hide themselves amongst the stands and then had the rest crawl down a column into the arena out of sight. Then, once reaching the sand, burrowing into it and spreading out. He scattered them across the arena and began work with his trap making Skill.

"—We have good news and bad news for tonight's event, dear audience. Those who are returning guests may have realised it already but we ah, don't have quite as many large monsters as in previous events. This is not for lack of effort, it was simply that one monster took all of your attention, all of our efforts, and all of our vast resources to contain."

She pointed the wooden hammer at Rain who remained sitting very still.

"I'm sure those with an experienced eye can take one look at this thing and will more than understand."

Rain felt the stares of hundreds on him. He gazed back over the crowd. Now a couple of levellers were frowning as they stared at his blood covered body, slow recognition dawning on them. A few appeared afraid of him, most became more eager still, sitting up with excitement, a chance to kill a monster so incredibly dangerous and valuable? Yes, very much yes.

"The prize of the night to be sure… But first."

The sound of steel on sand came from behind and Rain turned his head to see a huge cage being dragged across the ground toward the arena pit, the enormous sandy scaled snake monster that the drake seemed to have tamed hauling the cage over to the edge. There the snake expertly gripped it and tipped the thing forward just as Quistis flicked out a hand. The front bars of the cage instantly turned to smoke and the huge monster that had been resting against them was left to fall free.

The monster hit the sand with a thump and scrambled to its feet, shaking its body with a snarl.

"A Draconith."

Rain looked down at the monster with curiosity. It wasn't a monster that he had seen before. It appeared like how he imagined a dragon might, except it had no wings, and it was rippling with huge amounts of muscle packed onto its frame like an overly muscular bull. Its cream and aquamarine scales shifted across the striated form of muscle just beneath the surface of its scales. The thing looked incredibly strong and very dangerous and was ten foot at the shoulder.

"Of course don't let a Dragon ever hear you call it such. They share things in common, just as, ah,— apologies to our Drake attendees—, just as Drakes and Kobolds share a few things in common. But of course our Drake friends are much less sensitive about such topics. A dragon will burn you to death on the spot just for uttering this monster's common name. Indeed they are a rare species as dragons make a habit of hunting them down and killing them. Now we start the—"

"Five thousand!"

Rain looked across the arena to see the rotund man who had first tried to purchase him when he entered the Abattoir. To his surprise the man had both of his arms. It seemed that the arm the chimaera had ripped off had been reattached, no doubt using healing potions. He had one ring encrusted hand resting on the railing of his private box, his other hand raised showing a gold plated paddle with a family crest of some kind on it.

Triskian smiled toothily and pointed at the man. "Five thousand. Any other takers?"

One of the many humans who worked for Triskian and Quistis scribbled something in a book beside them, no doubt keeping track of the bids.

"Six." came a feminine voice. Rain's gaze shifted several boxes to the side where a graceful figure in a cream dress rested upon a luxurious chaise. She lazily raised a wooden paddle which was painted with a blue scaled emblem. Rain frowned as he looked closer. She was obviously some kind of cross species mix, a human with long frond like spines mixed in with their long glossy black hair, her arms covered in vibrant bright blue scales from the bicep and ending in drake like claws, and on her head large curling black horns like a rams. Clearly a mix of more than just two species.

The fat man leaned over the railing of his box and scowled at her.

"If you dare start this nonsense of yours again Bastial—"

"I'm a paying customer just like any other."

The man fumed.

"Nine." gravelled a deep voice. "It would dishonour the gods to allow a leveler infected with monster to take part in the greatest gift. That which is harvested should belong solely to the pure."

Across from the mixed species leveler and the human a centaur rose to his hooves. Rain watched him warily. While the other levelers weren't particularly physically intimidating this centaur was enormous, his head easily nine foot above the ground and body rippling with muscle, his horse body appeared to be like that of a carthorse used more for heavy labour than any horse that might be ridden.

He wore white linens that strained over his broad shoulders and pecs before draping around his front legs, religious symbology woven into the trim of the material. Around his neck must have been a dozen slim chains, from each of which hung some spiritual symbol wrought in precious metal or small incense burners that oozed smoke staining the linen with dark colours and rising up around his long curled hair in a fog.

The centaur was clearly highly religious. Rain hadn't seen such a fervent light in anyone's eyes since the priestess who had been part of Lynthia's council.

This one looked like trouble.

"Ten."

"Eleven," said the mix.

"Will you stop interfering Bastial!" snapped the fat man. "This isn't a game!"

"No."

"He's right, and more, you shouldn't be here. Fifteen." Came another voice, this time in a box near the centaur. Rain followed the voice and found himself looking at a trio of elves dining around a table. One of the elves, a young adult, stood and approached the railing, looking out over the arena at Bastial. He wore a suit of full body armour, silvery chrome, with ornate golden words engraved into each piece. The words read 'Light' 'Faith' 'Purity' 'Steel' 'Pride' 'Smite' and many more as though the armour were some blessed litany or prayer.

"Look at you Bastial, just sitting there like you think you belong, thinking you are more than just Leveler waste and offal. It's clear to all it would have been better if your father had stained the sheets rather than stained society."

Clearly this elf took similar views to the centaur.

The mix idly sipped her drink as she looked back across the pit at him.

"In your case your father did stain the sheets. It seems a troll then got between your mother's thighs and fucked her good and hard until she was begging for it like a good elven slut. Clearly the magicks making you appear as pure elf and not half troll are only partially effective as the troll stench remains lingering about you, really, I can smell your vile odour from all the way over here. Perhaps learning to bathe yourself properly would be of use?"

Rain somehow doubted any of that was true as his own sharp sense of smell would have picked it up… But the insult served to piss off the elf to an exceptional degree, the elf's face descending through several shades of crimson as Bastial spoke, becoming increasingly irate, armoured fists white-knuckle gripping the railing.

The elven couple sitting at the table behind, probably the parents, paused hearing this and turned to scowl at Bastial too, but it was the younger who spoke, or rather shouted, first.

"Disgusting monster freak! Sub-sapient shit—

"Twenty thousand!" Came yet another voice, this one female.

Heads turned to see a small figure wearing an oversized brown cloak that covered their body entirely, the hood hanging down over their face. They waved their paddle in the air which was just a flat green, holding it through the sleeve of the overly large cloak.

Behind this figure a woman sat at the table wearing a white dress, a huge floppy hat angled down and hiding her face from view as they ate. They froze as the cloaked figure spoke up.

The crowd murmured, surprised at the sudden jump in bid.

There was a moment where Rain thought the cloaked figure had won it, but then the rotund man leaned over and bellowed.

"Dear gods, am I destined never to fight a monster today? Twenty one thousand and damn you! This is for me! Me!"

"Twenty two!" said the figure waving their paddle excitedly.

The two went back and forth, the fat man becoming increasingly angry, and then even more irate when Bastial dropped her own bid in, seemingly just to annoy him.

Eventually, however, he won, topping out at an eye watering thirty thousand, the small cloaked figure becoming distracted by something the woman at the table was frantically whispering at them.

"Sold! To Ravoure!" cried Quistis smacking the bell with her hammer.

Ravoure huffed, petting down the wrinkles in his fine clothing from jerking his golden paddle up in the air so many times, his face red with exertion.

"Truly ridiculous. A simple purchasing system would be so much better than this insufferable bidding nonsense."

He gathered himself and put one boot on the railing as his servants handed sacks of gold to the Abbatoir's members behind.

For a moment it looked like he hadn't a chance of making it over, the next moment he was kicking off the ground and leaping up, jumping into thin air above the pit. Rain thought he would crash to the ground like a lead balloon, but to his surprise several of his rings lit up and slowed his fall. His feet hit the sand with a heavy thump, but hardly the impact it should have been.

The Draconith prowled ahead of him. Keeping its eyes on the man as he brushed sand from his silk trousers.

After a moment he turned his head and paid attention to the monster, and then… simply began walking.

The Draconith seemed as unsure of this strategy as Rain was. In fact Rain half wondered if the man was going to walk into one of the various traps he had been busily creating below the sand with his new trap making Skill and would simply die before he made it over to the monster. The problem was he didn't precisely know where the traps had been created because was unable to actually see the snakes and centipedes below the sand.

Half expecting the leveler to just abruptly die he watched with apprehension as he approached the monster.