◈ Chapter 93:

Rain eased his paw down, shadow slipping from his fur, extending, black scythe claws sliding out of nothingness, the leaves of the bush curling away as they brushed up against the ruinous surface of the scythes.

He was a hunter, a thing that stalked the night, a monster that inspired fear like no other. All were like terrified bunny rabbits before his monstrous yellow gaze, a thing that slid from moonlit shadow to moonlit shadow, hounding its prey.

At least, that might have been the case, if it wasn’t broad bloody daylight.

Instead of being a nigh invisible creature of the night he was a spot of easily visible darkness on the bright sunny canvas of the day, showing up in clear sight amongst the leafery of the forest. The horned boar monster stared right at Rain as he crept through the foliage, its little piggy mind wondering why the hell this creature thought it was being stealthy, if it did think that, well it was doing a terrible job and fooling nobody. Still, those black claw scythes radiated danger, and even though the boar was enormous this black furred monster was still very very large. Deciding that wisdom was the better part of valour it took a step back, then another, yes, better to not risk this strange wolf thing that seemed to think it was being stealthy.

It was then that Opal who had been waiting hidden behind it thrust out her rapier and stabbed deep into its ass.

“SQUEEEEEEE!!”

Shrieked the boar as its ass was violated by the needle of metal, a laughing Goblin girl swinging of the hilt and pushing it deeper.

Out of its mind with panic and pain the boar charged, charged straight into the foliage, unfortunately for the boar right at the spot where Rain was ‘hidden’. The black fur Moved, a predator in motion, exploding forward, leaves and branches flying up around it. The black scythes swept up and took the boar under the head, four blades punching up through its jaw and straight into its brain with a satisfying schthunk sound.

The boar dropped like a rock, its head ripping free of the blades and in doing so the blades went out the front, canyons of flesh writ across its face and already starting to writhe. The boar hit the ground with an earth shaking thud, its brains and flesh wriggling away across the grass.

“Those weird blades are a little unsettling you know... Give me one.”

Rain blinked at her. “You want- ? No, I can’t do that, it’s too dangerous for you, and besides these are claws not blades, I can't make blades, totally different thing.”

Opal scowled at him. “Fine, giant claws, whatever, give me some of them, I want to add them to my collection of pointies.”

“We don't have any healing potions left Opal, if you accidentally cut yourself with this stuff it won't just be a cut, it will be a wound liable to make you bleed out. Find something else to obsess over.”

Rain turned on the fuming Goblin girl allowing the dark claws to syphon back into his fur as he reached out and eagerly grabbed hold of the boar. His jaws came down and he bit into its side, ribs failing and breaking apart as his teeth inevitably cut through its flesh, scooping out a great mouthful and then gulping it down.

“ ‘s good,” he muttered between bloody mouthfuls. Hunting hadn't been hard in the forest, the floating pairs of wolf teeth ensured that, but they hadn't come across anything large, no, mostly small animals, which was a problem as his endless burning hunger needed a lot of food. He’d been forced to make do over the last few days by having the teeth hunt down everything that breathed or moved, stripping the forest bare of animals, deers, foxes, rabbits, birds, anything, all chased down and killed by the wolf teeth then gathered together and eaten, hundreds and hundreds of animals. It wasn’t as though he had a choice, he could feel his hunger nipping at his heels, edging into that state of extreme mindless hunger like that after he had eaten Adlen. He couldn't risk going back to that, he couldn't put Opal or Lyra in danger from himself again. Not happening.

It was starting to be a real cause for concern that the hundreds of animals wouldn't be enough, but then they had stumbled on top of this giant horned boar monster. Nearly directly stumbled upon it, not seeing its green camouflaging mossy fur until they were practically on top of it and only spotting it by the great curving horn sticking from its forehead, a yellowed cracked ivory.

Of course, he had hesitated.

The boar was a monster and that meant killing the thing was going to add to his levels. There was a real feeling of uncomfortable apprehension about that, which would have been an alien and unthinkable thing to feel in his past life. Being wary of leveling? The one true key to having a good life in this world? Madness.

What was more he hadn't told either Opal or Lyra that he was now in part a leveler. He didn't even know how to begin to approach that problem, he somehow doubted Opal would react well.

But those were things for future Rain to worry about, at that point he was absolutely ravenous and just the sight of the boar made his mouth water. He had barely needed to glance at Opal to communicate what he wanted, although that was hardly difficult to understand. Opal had grinned and snuck off around the boar, circling, while he pushed ahead, drawing the boar’s attention, and then they had sprung their trap.

And now Rain gorged himself on the dead boar, damping down that burning hunger within, the satisfying squish of its heart as he tore into it pushing him on. He would have continued on happily like that but then, out of nowhere, something struck him in the side, something pointed, something that dug painfully into his flesh.

He lurched back with a roar, stringy lines of red dripping and flecking from his blood drenched muzzle. He turned his head, left, right, searching from whence the attack had come, then seeing nothing glanced down to find a black arrow poking out just below his ribs. He snarled and grabbed it, ripping it out and tossing it aside.

It was a moment of distraction, enough for a huge longsword to sweep toward him, powering through the air with Skill empowered weight.

Rain hadn't been idle however, as soon as he had felt the arrow pierce his side he had started shedding darkness, black mist seeping from his fur and coalescing, taking form. The blade came down on the half formed shape of a scythe clawed paw, crashing into it and lodging halfway inside, darkness misting around it.

He turned his head to find the owner of said blade, a large Orc with oversized tusks parting his lips each capped with copper. He seemed startled that his attack had been stopped.

Rain punched his half formed other dark paw into the Orc’s stomach and the Orc’s guts spilt free, fleeing from his body, falling around the scythes as Rain sunk the claws deeper until they were pushing out from his back and scraping against his spine.

“F-foul thing,” gritted out the Orc in immense pain, his eyes pin points of agony, he lifted a shaking hand and slapped hold of Rains arm, his thick Orcish fingers curling into his fur.

“Burn.”

Sparking flashing electricity exploded from his hand, an instantaneous agony that made Rain lock up, his body going so tense that he couldn't move a muscle, his vision going white, flashing strobes, a roaring in his ears, he couldn't breathe! He felt more than heard the Thunk of an arrow slamming into his back, then more Thunk Thunk Thunk Thunk. He wanted to cry out in pain but he couldn't even do that, only stand and take it as his body burned, smoke rolling off his burning fur in waves. This was too much.

With a savagery that caused muscles to tear and split apart he forced his arm to move through sheer bloody will. The scythes in the Orc rose slowly, agonisingly slowly, cutting up through his stomach, into his rib cage, slicing through rib after rib, cutting into the now screaming Orc’s lungs, then with a snarl and a lurch he cut through the Orc’s heart.

The burning sensation ended instantly and he stumbled forward as he regained control over his shaky limbs, breath ragged.

Thunk.

He roared and ripped his paw up, cutting through the top of the Orc and shredding his head. He spun around, paw whipping forward, darkness billowing from his fur, a half dozen wolf jaws being flung into the air.

Opal yelped and flattened herself against the ground with her hands over her head as the teeth shot by over her, snapping and slavering. The teeth blasted into the foliage, cutting down a small sapling and revealing the Orc hidden there, her yew bow half raised, eyes wide in surprise. The teeth attacked gleefully, her bow coming up defensively more out of instinct than anything. Lucky for her as the teeth bounced off of it, arcing around. She turned, nocking an arrow and letting loose, the arrow struck home, guided by some unseen Skill, cracking against one of the pairs of teeth and sending it tumbling out of the air and crashing to the ground where it began to disintegrate where the arrow had struck. She quickly nocked another, desperate calculus in her eyes.

Then one of the jaws that she had failed to see bit into her thigh. She screamed as her flesh parted, a U shaped bite into muscle and bone, her flesh rippling in reaction, skin tearing away, muscle flopping free. She collapsed, landing with a thump on the grass, desperately trying to beat the teeth of her thigh with the bow. Another pair bit into her foot, then her arm, then one got by her thrashing limbs and buried itself in her guts, eating up into her body.

The Orc threw her head back and screamed her agony. Which gave her a clear view of the pair of teeth latching on her face for the all of three more seconds she was alive.

The sound of flesh being savaged and torn apart filled the air, and then the teeth collapsed in on themselves, becoming a black mist that slowly drifted back toward its master.

Rain raised his upper lip in pain as his paw pads wrapped around the next bolt in his side, flesh being dragged out and split apart as the arrow head broke free. He lifted it up and examined it. The steel head of the arrow was serrated and had many long back curled barbs designed to hook into flesh and stay there.

“Any deeper and I’m not sure I would have been able to get these out, gods…”

The arrows were… cruel, if he had to describe them, designed to stay in even if a quarry escaped, it was only his inherently tougher body that had prevented them from being more permanent additions.

Opal picked one up that he had discarded, peering at the arrow head, a sour look on her face.

“Levelers like to use these on us. It doesn't matter if a Gobbo runs away, hides in a tunnel, or dives underwater, if they have one of these in the wrong spot they are a dead Gobbo walking. You can't take them out without ripping your body apart, and you can't heal with them in, you just die over days, becoming a curled up thing, paralysed with pain until you get so weak and sickly that you can't eat or drink. It’s a nasty way to go.”

Rain paused as he pulled on the last arrow.

“Why use them? That seems so... what’s the point?”

“Isn't it obvious?” she gave him a dark smile, a smile that hadn't the least bit of mirth to it, “levelers still level when the Gobbo dies, doesn't matter if it’s days later, they still get it. If you can tag a monster with one of these that's an easier way to level, to get stronger, you don't need to hunt a monster to the death where it can get dangerous.”

“...That's incredibly fucked up.”

“It’s looked down on, in the city,” said Lyra, appearing out of thin air, the Dimensional Bag at her hip, her belly once more trim and flat. “Those who do it are seen as fools, the thinking is that a leveler who does such a thing is setting themselves up for trouble when they later have to fight to the death for real and lack the full expertise, they will end up getting themselves killed by making a novice mistake.”

Opal glared at her and spat to the side. “I’m sure that would be really comforting to the Gobbo dying on her own with an arrow in her gut, ‘oh the leveler isn't going to learn how to kill monsters properly and might get in trouble later, oh that makes me feel much better about dying’.”

Lyra blushed with embarrassment.

“It’s not- Hey you’re one to talk, Rain here eats people alive!”

“That’s different.”

“Really, how’s that?” said Lyra crossing her arms.

“It’s natural, like a wolf hunting and eating in nature. plus it’s fast… sort of fast… okay medium speed. It doesn't take days like one of these shitty leveler arrows.”

Lyra opened her mouth to reply but Rain held up a paw, tossing aside the last removed arrow with his other.

“Quiet.”

He eyed the wood line, then he curled the digits of his held up paw minus the index, he pointed then twirled his claw. The sound of snapping wood and rustling leaves came from the bushes and then a red haired Orc burst free, his legs pumping like pistons as he charged past, a terrified look on his face. Behind him came a pair of wolf jaws that snapped at his rear, trying to get a grip but failing as the Orc was covered neck to toe in a kind of hardened leather armour marked with crude runes.

“Uhhm, Orcs t-tend to move in clans, it m-might be quite bad if-”

Rain was already moving. His feet sending up sprays of earth and grass over the unfortunately positioned Lyra as he powered forward leaving Lyra’s cries of distress in his wake. He bounded forward, leaning into his run and maximising the sheer strength he could exert to accelerate massively, chasing as the Orc managed to make it to the treeline, fleeing between the heavy timbers.

Rain followed, a terrible shadow hot on his heels.

His size proved problematic as the branches and trunks blocked his way slowing him down and forcing him to swipe them aside. He roughed through, trying to keep the fleeing Orc in sight, all of his instinct screaming at him to catch the quarry, hunt the running prey. Despite all his need to catch the Orc it wasn’t quite enough and the gap between them was steadily increasing.

Desperate now, Rain flung out a paw, darkness flinging from his claws, sailing into the air in an arc, forming as it dropped to the ground, a sleek black house cat except thrice its normal size. The house cat bounded ahead of him, far faster, snaking between the trees with ease.

The cat caught up. Of course, the cat was even less likely to be able to pierce the Orc’s enchanted armour than the wolf jaws. But that wasn’t what Rain had willed it to do.

The feline shot forward, darting in front of the Orc’s feet, an unexpected obstacle. The Orc’s foot collided and the cat was launched into the air with a yowl, but at the same time the Orc stumbled and slowed. Taking their chance the wolf teeth darted in and slipped around the Orc’s ankle. The Orc let out a yell of surprise as his ankle twisted and he went down, crashing to the ground and rolling, bursting free from the trees in a shower of leaves.

He kicked wildly at the teeth wrapped around his foot, trying to dig into his sabatons. His heel came down once, twice, three times, and the edges of the black teeth started to disintegrate, fringing away in flickers of chromatic aberration. But then a yowling house cat landed on his face and he could see nothing but furious spitting cat face.

“G-get the fuck off of me!”

He reached up and ripped the cat off, flinging it away, clearing his view.

He did not like what he saw. A pair of terrible yellow eyes stared directly into his. Pure fear flooded his body, his mouth going dry, a weight dropping in his gut. The monster had caught him.

A paw wrapped around his throat, so enormous that its digits could reach fully around his neck. The paw drew together and pressure was applied. He could barely breathe but the Orc had the distinct impression that the wolf monster was doing its utmost to hold back, as though using only a fraction of its true strength for fear of pulping his neck.

The monster’s other paw drew up and black teeth started to emerge from its fur and pads, half a hundred fangs and canines, overlapping crisscrossing rows, a terrifying sight.

“Are you the last or are there more of you? Tell me or I will remove your face while keeping you alive.”

The Orc raised a shaky hand, fingers trembling, pointing past Rain.

Rain blinked and then turned his head, following the direction he pointed.

They were on a rise and had a view over a sparsely treed valley.

At the center of the valley was a vast camp, an Orc camp.