◈ Chapter 78:

The man who inspired fear amongst Leveler and Monster alike strode down the road to his town.

He narrowed his one eye as he approached, he could already sense something was amiss. The town gates were open, no guards, no people, discarded personal effects lying on the road as though the owners had fled in a hurry.

His suspicions were reflected in the hound trotting at his side, an enormous Hellhound, a brutal looking thing similar in appearance to a doberman but more violent, more savage, its teeth larger, serrated, its eyes red, its fur red. The Hellhound radiated an abyssal hellishness, a sulfuric cruelty that made it clear it was not of this world. It scented the air, watching their surroundings carefully, waiting for an attack.

But none came, they were alone.

“Erin.” he gravelled, rolling the last of a black cigar between his teeth. “What has my little pet been doing?”

He drew in and then blew out a rolling plume of black smoke. An outside observer looking at that smoke carefully might have noticed the subtle suggestion of shapes in it. Unsettling demonic shapes.

After a moment he finished the cigar and flicked it aside. He continued forward and passed beneath the gates and into the town proper. Above the rooftops something caught his attention, a thin column of smoke coming from the direction of the town hall. Curious. Very curious.

--

Lyra scrunched up her nose and tried not to breathe. The place she was standing in was dark and damp and muddy and smelled awful, in fact it smelled so bad that she was starting to feel woozy. Her hooves shifted and she nearly slipped off the chair she was standing upon. She desperately wobbled before regaining her balance, the skinny rickety thing squeaking under her weight.

This was decidedly not an ideal position to find herself in. She looked down at the sloppy wet brown stuff below. And she especially did not want to fall in that, she’d never get it out of her wool!

As she watched a spot on the mud began to shift, the surface bubbling before bulging upwards. She stared at it in alarm as the bulge grew higher, taking on a cubic shape then lengthening, the mud seemingly drawing up into it to create new solid form. A mud coloured post was slowly rising out of the mud.

“Oh gods, please stop!”

Not knowing what else to do she kicked out at it, desperately balancing on one hoof as the chair rocked side to side. Once, twice, she managed to catch it on the third attempt and her hoof struck it up the side. The post wasn’t weak, but it still was hit at such an angle that it broke, the top half falling to the mud below with a splat followed by the toppling bottom half.

Lyra let out a sigh of relief.

Then a dozen more posts began to rise.

--

Bane the Ranker, in effect town dictator, strode through his streets, his empty lifeless streets,

Not that he cared. If the levelers under his thumb were afraid of Erin then that was their own personal failing.

As he paced his one eye roamed from building to building watching for an attack. Orcs, a Succubus, levelers furious with him for summoning said succubus, it didn’t matter, he was prepared to crush them all and force them to bow to his will. He was the Ranker by dint of power, all else was lesser for strength was the first truth, all other truths were flawed, meaningless in the face of unyielding might.

But then he paused as something unusual came into view, something unexpected, something that wouldn't have fit in even if the town been as he had left it.

It was a monster, a monster sitting on a chair in the middle of the street. Some kind of large wolf monster, just sitting there, its intense yellow eyes staring straight at him, unmoving.

Bane studied this new oddity. Beside him the Hellhound let out a low growl, its hackles rising.

The monster shifted, its arms folded across the back of the chair where it straddled it.

“There never was any Orc clan, they never came here, to my town,” said Bane. “You are the one the Inquisitor is after, the one who took her arm, I recognise you from her description. And more, you left the dungeon through the same improbable exit I did, trapping your enemy inside and allowing you to do as you willed.”

It continued to stare at him silently.

“Interesting, very interesting. A ‘sub-sapient’ monster doing all this. Of course, I know better about your kind because I have been more closely involved with monsters than most. I know what is said about monster sub-sapience is a lie, you are capable of higher thought. Outsmarting an Inquisitor is indicative enough of that. Hmm, but why call me from the dungeon in the guise of my councillor? Surely you know what will come of this.”

“Don’t you wonder what that column of smoke behind me is Ranker?”

Bane’s gaze drifted upward to the smoke. If he was in the least bit surprised the monster was capable of speech he didn't show it. He narrowed his eyes, was the smoke coming from out of town and not the town hall as he had suspected?

“I'll tell you. I found where you lived. I killed and ate your harem. I burned your home and possessions. And I took all your gold. Oh, and you should know, I'm just getting started.”

The Ranker’s gaze dropped back down to the monster, “You. Did. What?”

The Hellhound snapped and snarled at the air, jittering forward on the edge of charging this monster, reflecting its owner's fury.

“I am the result of every life and everything of value you stole from this world Ranker. I am your death, and a hateful miserable death it will be.”

Bane stared at him and then furrowed his heavy brow. “Strange intent for a monster, and I have met many. You seem… different somehow.”

--

Lyra was getting desperate, she was fighting a losing battle against the rising posts which insisted on growing out of the mud no matter how many she kicked down. For each one her wobbly dancing destroyed another took its place, sometimes even two. Frantically swaying around on the chair and making it go up on two legs she managed to take out another with a hoof strike sending the solidified mud substance splatting back into the mud below before it could grow up to the ceiling.

“Is he even there yet? I can't keep this up much longer you know! I’m getting really tired!”

Above her a sheet of entirely unsupported cobblestone began to ever so slightly vibrate and shiver, each individual stone resisting the force upon them that made them remain in place, desperately trying to fall as gravity intended but being stopped by some strange phenomenon.

--

“You took advantage of this situation with my Succubus, you pretended to be my councillor, you took my Inkerchange and then you weaved a lie to not just call me from the dungeon but to make me come alone, alone to this place, an empty town devoid of other levelers.”

“Yes.” The monster tilted its wolf-like head to the side, “I want you alone so that no one can save you.”

Bane paused at that.

“Ah, a mistake. You see, had I brought others with me it would have been in your favour, not every leveler likes to show all their cards, but since it is just you and I, and you are soon to die, it is not a concern.”

He reached over his shoulder and unhooked his greatsword from his back, an evil looking thing, more a rough slab of dark brutal iron than any sword, its surface pitted and scarred, dried blood filling the cavities. It had the look of a tool that had been used daily to a heavy degree, this rough thing had a bloodier purpose than any tool however.

“Your death is utterly worthless to my leveling you should know, it won't change my level in the slightest. To be clear, my reasons for what I am about to do to you are entirely my own, keep that in mind as you scream yourself bloody.”

The Hellhound’s growling suddenly died off and it looked down at the ground in confusion. It lifted a heavy paw then put it back down, then did the same with the other, as though testing something.

“Shut up.” said the wolf monster, studying the Ranker.

Bane blinked at that response and then glanced down at his hound, then his gaze moved to the cobblestones they were standing on. The stone was shifting, unstable, the surface dipping in waves.

“What-”

The ground collapsed.

--

A small red Kobold waved his claws madly in Lyra’s direction.

“She says go!”

“Okayokayokay, I can do this, I can totally do this!” said Lyra her voice frantic, her hands fretting.

She drew in a steadying breath and then she jumped off the chair, leaping fully into the air, and in the same moment, ended her Invisibility Skill.

From Red’s point of view a sheep girl had just appeared out of thin air falling toward the mud, or more specifically, a leather bag placed on top of the mud which had its opening held wide with some string and twigs.

She held her arms to her body and her legs straight and flew straight through the opening and into the bag vanishing from view.

Red didn't waste even a split second and hauled on the rope in his claws before she was even fully inside. His gold was in danger, he wasn't about to let the masses of stone above bury his precious gold! The bag leapt from the mud, dragged into the air by the rope tied to it even as Red turned and fled as fast as his legs could carry him, fleeing up the stairs in the adjacent room, bag in tow.

Behind him, the ceiling of the no longer suspended cobble fell to earth like a sheet of water breaking apart. With it came a yelping hellhound and the Ranker who roared with a terrible fury.