I pray that Brother Stratocumulus and Sister Cumulus are correct. Perhaps I simply worry overmuch. If one or two nations are lost, I must simply do my best to preserve the lives of the innocents unfairly drug into war and death by their incompetent rulers. It is ever my aim to secure the best for this world through peaceful means, as befits one of my name. Despite that, I will follow the will of the storm. Let us never forget that peace, like perfection, is an impossibility that one must always pursue for fear of losing the path to it entirely. – Letter from the Voice Cirrus

“On your left Li! Watch out for the weight.”

Heading Kai’s warning, Li leapt backwards. The creatures were surprisingly fast despite their solid stone construction. Something he hadn’t expected when even the warlord had been noticeably slower than him. These things, stone lions roughly the size of a large dog, moved faster than anything he had yet seen in the dungeon.

There were also a lot of them. Between their speed, their pack tactics, and the sheer number, keeping track of every single one was proving to be difficult. It would have been impossible before his training with Norah and Djimon. Something he was even more deeply grateful for than usual.

They’d been making their way toward what Kai had called the Rosewater Bazaar, a supposedly safe part of the dungeon that monsters would not invade, when they’d the small horde of creatures had emerged from a system of small tunnels in the labyrinth’s walls. The things were incredibly aggressive and seemed to have no sense of self preservation as Kai and Norah killing seven of them in their initial charge had not been enough to make the rest back off.

Instead, they had simply spread out, attempting to harass each member of the party from all direction. The things would constantly place themselves in blind spots or charge straight at them, trying to ensure at least one of the aggressive things could get close enough to savage their desired prey with sharp claws and teeth. That wasn’t even counting the damage he would take if one of the solid stone creature, which Li estimated at weighing two hundred and fifty-ish pounds, managed to actually ram him. Even with his magic, stopping the creatures was something he could only do so many times.

“What are these things?” Li called out, “Also, if you have any advice on how to fight them that would be great!”

Leaping from a nearby shadow, Djimon briefly appeared before him. Despite being constantly on the move and pulling of incredible acrobatics throughout the fight, the man wasn’t even breathing hard. He slowed just long enough to ensure Li could hear him, but never stopped moving entirely.

“They’re fast and heavy. Means they have a hard time stopping or turning. Use that.”

As he left, Ananya stepped in close. She shaped a number of metal balls into a wedge and used it to shove a large part of the pack into a pile. The creatures seemed more surprised than anything that something had managed to move them, and slowly began untangling themselves.

“They aren’t incredibly smart. It’s easy to surprise them if things don’t go how they expect and it takes them a while to react. They also are pretty clumsy.”

Sending a rain of iron orbs into their midst, she began heading for a more central location. Three of her orbs remained with Li though, guarding his back. As she left, Emiko stepped close enough to yell over to him. The woman was surrounded by almost two dozen of Ananya’s orbs and was obviously her main defensive concern.

“They are stone, so they are vulnerable to rapid fluctuations in heat. They are also much more brittle than the Warlord was. Especially at the joints!”

Picking up when Emiko left off, Kai contributed his own answer, “As for your first question, they are called Lapitari. Strange to see them out here, but not unheard of. They are a fairly common creature to encounter inside the mountain, though usually with two or three times the numbers.

Considering that there were almost two dozen of the creatures even after Norah and Kai killed the first wave, the idea that this was considered a small pack was absolutely terrifying. Still, now at least he had some information to work with. Pushing even more Ki into his Colossus Armor, he began to get to work. He kept himself constantly moving, never giving them an easy opportunity to surround him. More than once he used a particularly sharp turn to send one of the creatures tumbling into its fellows.

Rather than using his Potential Energy Well spell, he got his first chance to really test out the Stonepiercer Rune he had won so long ago. The Runestone had been applied to one of his new purchases from the shop, a heavy kukri enchanted with durability. The rune, combined with the enhanced strength and momentum multiplication provided by his armor, meant he could cut deep gouges into the creatures. Especially when, following Emiko’s advice, he aimed for the creatures’ shoulders and hips. The resulting gouge would often further crack under the stress of the monster’s own weight, resulting in the limb either ceasing to function or entirely breaking off.

After the initial panicked moments of high aggression by an unknown creature, the monsters proved simple enough to handle. Soon enough, the party had wiped out the attackers and the group was beginning to loot the creatures. Apparently, the crystals that comprised their eyes and the magically reinforced flint that composed their claws were both highly sought after by crafters.

As they worked Kai began to talk, “We will need to be more careful. It is rare to run into Lapitari outside the mountain, especially this far out.”

“I agree,” Norah responded calmly. “It matches with the worries of more dangerous creatures though.”

“True, and on top of that…”

Kai broke down to mumbling at that point. Whatever worries he might have, he kept to himself in favor of focusing on harvesting parts from the monster in front of him.

#

Over the following days, Li watched as Kai became more and more pensive. More than once, the man would wander around an area muttering, looking at things nobody, not even Djimon, could make out. The rogue could usually make out what was holding the man’s interest. A strange layer of stone here, a claw mark there, an unnatural growth of rock in another place. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what things had to do with each other though.

A more obvious source of worry for everyone in the party was the lack of other adventurers. By now they should have regularly been running into hunting parties originating from the Bazaar. This area was one of the most popular places for new adventurers to hunt the generally low rank creatures in the area. The younger members of Wandering Horizons agreed that the best case scenario was that the adventurers were remaining in the camp to avoid the Lapitari, but none of them could entirely bring themselves to believe that was all there was to it.

The lions were a worry of their own as well. While not common, they had run into a second pack and seen signs that there was potentially a third. Something that didn’t match with Kai’s descriptions of known incidents where the creatures had previously appeared in the outer labyrinth. Those were almost entirely occasions where a single pack of the creatures had been driven out of the mountain by more dangerous monsters, something that the Adventurer Society called Rogue Dungeon Monsters.

Rogue Dungeon Monsters were rare, since most monsters wouldn’t leave specific areas of a dungeon without very good reason. The dungeon usually created near ideal environments for a specific creature, making it unappetizing for the monster to leave said environment. Especially with the subtle control over the monsters most experts agreed a dungeon could employ. Therefore, the only reason for a monster to leave was usually because something stronger forced them too.

This was also why Rogue Dungeon Monsters were increasingly rarer the more powerful the creature in question. This left most rogues to be the weakest creatures in their part of the dungeon. A boss rogue, for example, was something that was reported only two or three times a decade on the entire continent.

Usually, the problem was that no one was challenging the dungeon and competition between he more powerful monsters had become much more aggressive than normal the solution was for someone to clear the dungeon, eliminating some of the more powerful creatures that had become too populous. This would reset the monster populations and return the dungeon to normality.

Occasionally though, the change was a result of some new monster being introduced to the dungeon. Either some new creature attracted by the higher mana levels or an evolution of one of the native monsters. Afterward, the local ecosystem would need to achieve a new balance as the local predators reassessed their hierarchies. Eventually everything would calm down with new territories for the different species. Usually this would also result in the dungeon rank being reassessed to account for the new dangers.

Of course it wasn’t all bad, at least not in the minds of the younger members. A Rogue Monster would explain the strange increase in danger they had been warned about before entering the dungeon. It was actually one of the most reasonable answers to what had happened. It also offered a clear hope that the dungeon was not actually that much more dangerous than they had initially expected.

If the only issue was more of the same monsters that they had already expected, which was the most likely situation, that was good news for them. They already had extensive knowledge and plans for anything commonly found in the dungeon and a solid understanding of even the rarest creatures.

The good feelings lasted until they came across Serpent’s Junction. One of the few parts of the labyrinths that were fully enclosed, the area was named after the many depictions of large serpents stylizing the wall and a massive carving of a serpent’s upper jaw that stylized the start of the tunnel. Or at least that used to.

The front third, including both the intimidating fangs, had been broken off during an absolutely brutal fight. One which had claimed the lives of at least five adventurers that, based on their dog tags, were only F rank. Norah had assessed that more than one of the particularly mangled corpses had been purposefully left alive so that they desperate person could be played with by the sadistic predator.

One of them had been slowly crushed flat by a large boulder just a bit to heavy for the man to survive. Another had had bits and pieces slowly trimmed off an inch at a time until the blood loss had finally killed him, even with a magic ring that provided a continuous, minor healing affect. Something which Norah said usually entirely prevented death by blood loss.

When she got around to explaining that a large lump of oddly shaped stone and metal had once been a man, used as a living bludgeon to break the eponymous snake carving off the roof, Li had been forced to leave the area For the next half hour it took all he had to avoid vomiting and he could only sit in a far corner staring forlornly off into space.

Djimon, Ananya, and Emiko were hardly any better. They may not have been dry heaving as their bodies attempted to reverse every meal they had ever had, but all of them looked a bit green and couldn’t bring themselves to look closer at the scene of utter destruction. If anything, all three were even more bothered by the clinical, business-like attitude of Kai and Norah than he was.

He had been used to it from the doctors back on Earth at least.

In the end, once Norah had collected their dog tags, determined a cause of death, and collected any still functional items of value on each body, Kai and Emiko had created a large pyre to burn the bodies. It was apparently tradition to burn any bodies that could not be safely recovered and scatter the ashes over the site where they had died. Their belongings would be returned to the Adventurer’s Guild branch outside the dungeon and from there be brought to their next of kin.

The mood had only worsened when Kai revealed that he believed this was not the first such battlefield they had come across. He was of the opinion that at least some of the places he had previously inspected were likely to have been the spot where several other parties had been killed. Unlike now, previously the bodies had likely been claimed by scavenging monsters and it was impossible to put an actual number to how many had been killed by this thing.

Li had been confused why the bodies were still here this time until Kai explained that, as a Junction Corridor where many major pathways in the outer labyrinth intersected, Serpent’s Junction was a minor safe zone that most monsters wouldn’t enter. The fact that the location of what was, far and away, the most terrorizing series of deaths Li had personally witnessed the aftermath of had occurred in one of the safest areas in this entire death trap struck Li as morbidly ironic. He couldn’t help some amount of righteous fury that the supposed rules of this world could be so freely broken.

#

Kai and Norah had sent the others to their tents for the night. All four were too shaken up to be effective guards through the night. Kai would need to talk to them over the next few days. While Norah had specialized in healing the body, Kai had long ago learned everything his family had to teach about healing the mind and spirit. At least one individual with a solid understanding of mental illness was something his family had considered imperative for any truly capable adventuring team for nearly a century now, and Kai himself didn’t disagree with the assessment.

“I suppose this pretty much confirms it, huh Kai.”

“I suppose it does.” Kai decided to steer them away from that unpleasantness for the time being though.

It was always strange to see Norah in any mood that wasn’t mischievous, motherly, or angry. These sorts of things always left her withdrawn and upset though. She did her best to hide it from them, but mastery of her emotions was never something Norah had been able to claim.

Days like this were rough, and the two of them had managed to protect the others from similar incidents so far. They had gone out of their way to ensure only the two of them were involved in any special task forces related to the truly brutal incidents. It was only a matter of time before the ugliest parts of adventuring was shown to them though.

Shame Li had to encounter it so early though, Kai thought. This sort of thing had been more than enough to drive promising recruits away before and Kai couldn’t blame him if it was enough for Li too.

“Think Li will retire from adventuring after this?” He asked Norah, to get her mind off today’s gruesome task if nothing else.

“Doubt it. He’s got a fire inside. Especially lately, as the results of his training have begun to make themselves known. Don’t know what happened to him in the past, but he won’t be easy to dissuade from a life like ours.”

Norah smiled slightly as she talked. She loved each of the four younger adventurers in her own way. Her stray pups as Kai knew she thought of them. The woman would never leave the field long enough for kids of her own, and each of them was the closest thing to a child she would ever have.

“I have a feeling about that one Kai. I’ve had a feeling about all the rest too, no doubt, but there is something about Li that makes me think he’s going to surpass all of us. You, me…Djimon, Ananya, and Emiko too? We’re all happy as long as we are free to live as we please. As long as we are strong enough to always have a new adventure available.” Norah sighed happily before continuing, “Li’s after something else though. Something more. Like he’s been beat down all his life and now that he finally has a chance it’s his turn to beat up life and take it for everything it is worth. I don’t know what his final goal is, but I think he’ll meet it. The only question is if he’ll die managing it.”

“He is not ready for what is next though,” Kai said softly.

Norah laughed at that, “No. No he isn’t. And he’s going to throw a fit when we tell him. Still, he isn’t allowed to take part in what comes next.”

“Agreed. We will explain everything in the morning. Until then, take care Norah. And wake me in four hours for my shift.”

With that, he clapped Norah on the shoulder, gave her a comforting look, and headed off to his tent. In the morning, he’d tell the rest of them everything. What they were facing and why he, at least, felt they had to deal with it. Even if the danger involved meant his first instinct was to leave it to someone stronger.

#

“I believe we are dealing with a Garja’lu. It is the only thing that I feel makes sense.”

Kai’s proclamation was met with silence from the four younger adventurers. Silence followed by shocked horror spreading across three of them. Good, they remember our notes on the rarer monsters in the mountain.

Turning to Li, Kai began to explain, “A Garja’lu, often called a Stone-Eater Lion, is one of the dungeon’s rarer boss type monsters. They are supposed to only be present inside the mountain proper. They are also considered one of the most dangerous creatures you can run into in Archimedes’ Labyrinth.”

Kai watched as Li only stared blankly into space for a moment, clearly trying to remember if he had heard about this monster before. They had been briefing him about monsters present in the dungeon, but mostly only those regularly found outside the mountain and which ones he needed to be particularly careful of. Neither of which matched something as dangerous and elusive as a Garja’lu.

Just as Li had given up and opened his mouth to ask a question, Emiko finally lost her patience enough to ask a question of her own. “Why do you think one of them is the Rogue Monster? A creature that powerful would be incredibly rare to find outside its preferred habitat in the dungeon, wouldn’t it? I mean, hell, these things are considered almost as dangerous as the final boss for this dungeon, aren’t they?”

“You are not wrong. It would be an exceedingly unfortunate occurrence for the local populous. Still, evidence is lining up that not only is one of them our culprit, it has also attacked and quite possibly destroyed the Rosewater Bazaar.

To start with, the fact that we have, amazingly, been apparently following the monster’s trail of destruction. I am unsure what, exactly, is drawing it, but there is no doubt that it has been heading straight toward the bazaar for quite some ways now. I do not believe that is a coincidence. Additionally, I have three reasons I believe it is specifically a Garja’lu causing this death a mayhem.

To start with, many of the battle sights have had strange layers of stone built up on the environment. Garja’lu are known to breath a kind of dust cloud that quickly builds layers of stone over their prey’s skin, effectively petrifying them. This cloud is known to have a lessened effect on non-living things, creating something like a limestone layer on the surface of inanimate objects.

Next is their intelligence and cruelty. They are known to be, while not sentient, incredibly clever and capable of at least rudimentary planning. They are also known to be goal oriented beyond the simple acquisition of food. They seem to take pleasure in inflicting suffering on helpless victims, which means the bazaar would be a playground for one of their kind with the number of non-combat trained individuals that call it home.

Lastly, the Lapitari-.”

Djimon cursed at the mention of the small, stone lions. “Fuck. You’re right. While many of the Lapitari packs function individually, they born from the residual spirits of a Garja’lu’s prey.”

“What, exactly, does that mean?” Li asked the group cautiously.

“Garja’lu possess natural stone magic,” Emiko said, picking up the explanation. “When they kill a monster or human, some part of the residual soul – what most creatures convert into the experience for levels – is instead taken by the Garja’lu’s natural magic. They naturally produce short life span stone lion golems to aid them in fights. Using the stolen bits of soul as a motive spirit for the golems, a Lapitari is created. The Lapitari must obey the commands of a Garja’lu, but that control only reaches so far and they can only control so many. Because of that, you get plenty of Lapitari packs that aren’t under the command of a Stone-Eater Lion.”

As he looked around the group, Kai knew that the rest of the party agreed with his and Norah’s assessment. The straightening of shoulders and set jaws. Slight crinkling of fear around the eyes. A gradual focus that didn’t match their normal, carefree attitudes.

It was Ananya who broke the tense silence, “So what are we going to do Kai?”

Sighing heavily, Kai began to speak. “We have to go after it. If it is a Rogue Monster, there is no telling how long it will stay in the area before it gets bored and goes hunting more people. If it is a new wandering field boss meant to force people out of the safe zones or some other change to the dungeon, that is even worse.

Either way, we are the only group anywhere close to here who has a chance of killing one. We have a plan to fight these things, the strength to beat one, and we might still be able to save some lives.”

“Besides that,” Norah interrupted. “There is a pretty good chance that this is why the dungeon has been more dangerous lately. It directly relates to our mission to try to deal with the increasing strength of monsters in the dungeon. If killing this thing has a chance to return normalcy to the rest of the dungeon it is our duty to kill it.”

“That said,” Kai picked back up. “We are a team. If it is a Garja’lu, this will be a very dangerous fight. We have to put it to a vote. It would hurt our reputation to abandon the mission at this point and we probably won’t be able to raise the party to D- Rank for a few years. Better than dying because we were not careful enough though.”

“If we turn around now, leave the dungeon as fast a possible, we could make it to the local guild branch in four days.” Norah’s voice was calm and utterly devoid of judgement as she spoke, “They could probably put together a special task force in about a week. We’d have to give up any hope of rescue at Rosewater, but it’s unlikely the beast will move on to another hunting ground. It would definitely be safer.”

At this point Li rose his hand to get their attention, “Shouldn’t we confirm it really is a Garja’lu before we do anything else?”

The other three began to mutter between each other. Li gave them time to discuss his suggestion as he was the least knowledgeable about the situation. Norah and Kai, meanwhile, already knew where they stood and wanted to give the others time to come to their own conclusions. They would ultimately follow the decision of the other three, regardless of their own opinions. Eventually the other three stopped conferring and Djimon asked a question.

“As far as I know, Garja’lu have no enhanced senses beyond the standard enhanced hearing, smell, and night vision of most large cats. Is that true?”

“It is,” Kai acknowledged. “They are not particularly well known for even those senses. They are heavily armored, strong, smart, and possess deadly magic. Generally, they are so strong they don’t need to worry about being snuck up on.”

Getting to his feet from his seated position on a small camp seat, Djimon began to stretch, “Then I would like to try to scout out Rosewater. Like Li said, no point coming to a decision until we have a complete picture of what is happening.”

Kai was fairly sure only he caught the brief flash of pride and worry that crossed Norah’s face as she watched the four plan Djimon’s mission.

#

Running through shadows was strange, Djimon reflected. Even after so many years of practice, the sudden shift from one field of view to another was disorienting at best and required him to be able to quickly take in and adjust to any situation he found himself in when he reappeared. The actual transition was strange too. Like a half-remembered dream of floating deep in the ocean. So deep that not a single ray of light could find its way to him.

It was incredibly useful though. Thanks to his sensory power, he could see out of any defined shadow within a couple hundred feet of him. He could then use them as a gateway to jump from one place to the next. Combined with the large amount of movement training he did, very few individuals at his rank could keep up with him when he was moving at full speed.

According to what he and Kai had researched, he would also probably eventually be able to advance the spell in such a way that it let him slip through the smallest opening and allow him to take other people with him. For now, though, any serious scouting mission required him to go alone. The others simply couldn’t keep up.

The party about an entire day’s travel from the Rosewater Bazaar, but that was going everyone else’s slow pace. Alone, he could make the trip in an hour and a half. Two hours at most.

The run was fairly relaxing, all things considered. Most of the route was a safe zone, so very few monsters were actually present as he went. Of that small group, none of the monsters were a particularly hard to avoid or very intelligent. On top of that, the weather was pleasant and there was a nice breeze going.

Perhaps most importantly, he also didn’t come across any other gruesome battlegrounds.

Yesterday had definitely been one of the worst days of his adventuring career. Unfortunately, he had a sneaking suspicion that today might just be worse. He had known when he agreed to the scouting mission that he would probably come across the tortured remains of more of the monster’s victims. He just couldn’t let that be enough to stop him.

#

When he eventually arrived, Rosewater was every bit as beautiful as he had been promised. At least from a distance. A mid-sized, peaceful lake filled the center of the safezone and large gardens of red and white roses grew along the shore, filling the air with the calming sound of lapping water and relaxing scent of flowers. A large, open-air market was filled with stands built of various materials from wood to stone to colorfully dyed cloth completed what would have been a festive image. If people had been around to fill it.

Closer inspection revealed the real damage.

Two of the original five permanent buildings were collapsed, crushing a number of carts and stalls. Soot and partially burned wood or cloth showed where several large fires had destroyed swathes of the bazaar. The wall that surrounded the market had had its front gate ripped off the hinges and the mangled bars projected forlornly from the nearby lake bed.

From the front gate, a path had been smashed through the market. The trail of destruction led directly to a particularly large tent toward the center of the shops, one which none of the numerous birds that had taken up residence in the abandoned bazaar dared to approach. Stone walls had been raised around that central tent and provided only the single path in and out.

Perhaps most terrifying were the statues. At least two or three dozen beings of various races were frozen in a grim mockery of their day to day lives. Another handful were piled near the entrance to the tent. Each had been smashed open and apparently sucked clean. Not entirely unlike when someone at a lobster a small voice in the back of his head whispered beneath the internal screaming.

Apparently, the Stone-Eater Lion lived up to its name. It seemed to be using the petrification as some kind of…food storage. A preservation method so it would have easily accessible meals later.

Unfortunately, this brief view was hardly enough to call his mission finished. He was going to need to go into the bazaar proper and try to get a look at the Garja’lu. He may be even more certain than ever that they were correct in their assumption, but who knew what else he might be able to learn.

He’d need to be more careful about his shadow jumps though. Going to far or using too many was liable to set off the crude sense for mana any creature with magical abilities possessed. The Garja’lu may not be noted for its senses, but there was no sense taking undue risk. Instead, he slowly snuck his way further into the camp, using one of his other powers called Shade Form. The ability quickly drained his Ki, but in exchange made him borderline intangible and very difficult to notice with mundane senses.

Whenever he sensed movement, he would disappear into a shadow until he had identified the source or felt safe to continue. In addition to being far less noticeable to magic users, hiding in a shadow felt much less strange than teleporting between shadows. The feeling was more like being on the other side of a window from all of reality. While using that particular power, the shadow functioned as something of a door to an extradimensional space only he could access. It would only hide him visually and let him avoid being physically present, his smell and any noise could still give him away. Thankfully, Shade Form essentially eliminated those draw backs.

As he got closer, he began to hear the deep, rumbling sound of something almost like purring. As if a giant had filled a bag with rocks and begun cascading them back and forth across each other. It was intimidating in a way few things could be, speaking of a chest so large and powerful that merely breathing would rattle the bones of lesser creatures apart.

What he saw within the tent hardly changed the idea that this was a greater creature, too powerful for a mere Tavulus to interfere with.

The creature was large, easily ten feet tall at the shoulder if it was standing, and filled a massive bowl it had apparently used its magic to carve from the tile floor. Each massive limb was coated in an armor of stone and ended in sharp claws that tore into the earth as some unknown dream sent it kneading the ground beneath it. At times a massive, forked tongue would escape from between its sabertoothed jaws, hooked barbs showing how the beast removed the flesh from within the petrified shell.

A majestic mane surrounded the monster’s shoulders and head, but did not move like Djimon would expect hair to. Closer inspection showed that, as they had been told, the hairs were coated in a layer of stone, creating a powerful defense against attackers. More stone plates covered the ridge of the spine, the forehead, and anywhere else the beast could get away with reduced flexibility.

There were also two notable injuries on the creature. One of the front paws appeared healed incorrectly after being broken, the lower part of the limb noticeable angled. Additionally, the eye on the same side appeared to have been gouges out, a massive set of claw marks running from forehead to upper jaw.

Having confirmed the species of the monster and discovering the specifics of its layer, Djimon had completed his primary objective for this scouting mission. He had even been lucky enough to find some potential weaknesses to exploit in the coming fight. Now it was time to complete his secondary objective, finding any survivors and letting them know help was on the way.

#

It was in the basement of the second permanent building still standing, which turned out to be the central administration building and the largest of them all, that Djimon discovered the last survivors of Rosewater Bazaar. Three children, fifteen teenager, and forty-seven adults. Including seven adventurers from four different parties that had all been decimated by the Garja’lu.

The remaining adventurers quickly drew him to the side and began providing all the information they could. Well, most of them did. One of the men simply sat in the corner and stared into space. Djimon hoped he could find the help he needed.

As they spoke, two of them became increasingly angry. Swearing to help kill the monster that had made their life hell. Djimon tried to talk them out of it. They were only F+ rank. They would definitely die if they fought the thing. Eventually they assented. In his heart, though, he knew they were just telling him what they wanted to hear.

According to them, the Stone-Eater had first appeared nine days ago. Quickly smashing through the gate and petrifying anyone it came across. Anyone who fought it didn’t get off so luckily, and they had spent most of the first two days listening to the tortured screams of their protectors. Almost a dozen men and woman had left when they couldn’t take the screams anymore, determined to attempt a rescue for the tortured individuals left behind. As far as the remaining survivors knew, they had been killed out of hand.

From there, things had only gotten worse. More than once they had heard the screams of unsuspecting adventurers dragged back to the Bazaar by the massive predator, before being forced to listen to it play with its food for several hours. There had been several attempts by survivors to make a break for it, only to be added to the thing’s monstrous larder.

They had finally run out of food two days ago. Last night they had used the last of their water. A very, very small amount of each had been saved to keep the young children quiet, for fear they would give away the survivors’ presence. Even then, there had been more than one attempt to steal that small reserve.

The man Djimon was talking to hadn’t said what had happened to the attempted food thieves. He hadn’t asked. He was just sure he wouldn’t want to know. Desperation inevitably led to greater disregard for rules and an escalation in punishment in response.

When he told them he had to leave, they had begged him to stay. Begged him to help them. If they hadn’t needed to stay silent, he knew they would have been screaming and wailing. No matter how much he tried to reassure him that he would be back, that his party would kill the monster, they continued to beg and plead with him to help them simply escape. He couldn’t blame them for not believing him, but there was nothing else he could do. Sneaking them all out of the bazaar would be impossible.

As he headed towards the door, the survivors began making individual pleas. A woman promising riches beyond his wildest dreams if he took her out of the bazaar. A man that offered his families ancestral weapon. Another man asking Djimon to save his husband if he agreed to act as bait. It was the woman only four or five years his senior, begging him to take her three-year-old child with him that finally broke him.

Tears in his eyes he could only back away, telling her “I’m sorry, I’ll be back, I’m sorry…”

Behind him, the adventurers did their best to calm and collect the survivors.