Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 11 - Death of a harem - Part Two {Rewrite}

Roasting fish on skewers by the fire, I was pleased by the amount of enjoyment Toofy seemed to gain from the rather simple activity. Toofy had proven a natural at cleaning and gutting the fish. Not that I should have expected any different.

Toofy was sitting on my lap as we both tended the fire and rotated the fish to try and cook them evenly. We had already Cooked around twenty or so and the trio of Daemonlings was busy pulling off every scrap of flesh and depositing them in a small woven basket for dinner later. Gric, Qreet and Dar were eating as much as they were storing, but that was fine too. Besides reducing the chances of someone choking on a fishbone, it was mostly busy work so I could keep an eye on them.

The three of them had been steadily growing and were now around two feet tall. Rather interestingly, hair had begun to grow on their heads as well. I hadn’t noticed it before, but Qreet and Dar only had two horns each compared to Gric’s three, and I wondered if the number of horns has something to do with their ability to manipulate mana. It was an interesting coincidence that he had hatched first, while Qreet and Dar hatched later, but it was still possible that it was precisely that, a coincidence.

I was distracted from my musings by the return of Clarice, Emelia and Tobi.

Although Clarice was in high spirits, both Emelia and Tobi looked somewhat subdued.

Hopping off of Thunder Thighs, Clarice energetically rushed over with a big grin on her face, “You will never guess what happened!”

“Clarice!” Emelia cried angrily, rushing up behind Clarice and shoving her hard.

Narrowing her eyes slyly at Emelia, Clarice’s grin turned predatory, “Then you tell him,” she insisted.

Emelia froze like a rabbit caught in oncoming headlights.

“Just stop it!” Tobi growled, glowering at Clarice as he stomped over to join them.

“Make me then?” Clarice goaded, making it painfully obvious that this was what she had wanted to begin with.

Tobi growled with anger. Fists trembling, he glared at Clarice for a few tense seconds before deflating slightly and shifting his attention to Emelia instead. “Let’s go,” he said coolly, taking her hand and motioning his head back towards the entrance to the Grove.

Emelia was a little surprised but nodded, taking firm hold of Tobi’s hand in return as they both briskly walked away.

Clarice chuckled, “Figured that would do it,” she crowed triumphantly.

“Is there a particular reason you were riling them up?” I asked Clarice, unimpressed with her deliberately agitating our teammates.

Clarice leaned down conspiratorially, “The best reason,” she replied cheerily while dragging over the overburdened sled.

“Which is?” I asked patiently, doing my best not to lose my temper.

Clarice grinned a little wider and winked, “Helping a sister out, of course! Emelia is so stressed out over a bunch of things that she barely says a word anymore!” She grunted and pulled a croc carcass off the sled, “So, I figured since Tobi was so obviously into her, that I would rile’em up a little and let nature take its course! Brilliant huh?!” Clarice demanded, evidently proud of herself.

Wait...

It took me a moment to figure out what Clarice had intended, “You are manipulating them to-” I covered Toofy’s ears protectively, “-have sex to improve Emelia’s mood?!” I demanded incredulously.

Clarice shrugged and nodded, “Basically, yeah. I mean, Tobi’s a bit of a wimp, but he seems like a decent guy.”

“Clarice...” I just couldn’t find the words.

“What?” Clarice demanded, sawing into the croc’s neck with her butchering knife.

“You...You can’t just manipulate people into relationships like that!” I insisted, feeling sorry for Tobi and Emelia.

“Nah, pretty sure I can,” Clarice boasted, “And I just did! You’d be surprised how well people bond over a common enemy if given half the chance,” she grinned wickedly.

“...” I let go of Toofy’s ears and rubbed at my brow to ward off a migraine, “No, I meant that you shouldn’t do it,” I clarified.

“Why?” Clarice demanded, yanking out the mess of croc guts and dumping them in a basket, although curiously stowing away the intestines in another. “Look, Tim, we all have needs and no offence, the selection around here isn’t great.”

“What?...” My hands instinctively covered Toofy’s ears again, migraine be damned.

Clarice shifted a little uncomfortably as she peeled the skin off the croc, “Well...you’re a great guy and all, but...you’re still a monster...” She glanced over at me with a sympathetic expression, “Humans and monsters don’t mix. Just know that it isn’t personal, yeah?” Clarice explained in a surprisingly gentle tone.

“Don’t mix?” I asked, sensing there was more to it than face value and wanting to distract myself from the minor blow to my ego.

Clarice shifted uncomfortably, “There are rumours amongst the whores that work the arena and fighting pits, of expecting mothers just dropping dead or miscarrying the near fully grown child after a few days...” She shuddered and returned to her grisly work. “So it’s nothing personal. Just, don’t expect any human girl to risk going through that, you know?”

“Yeah,” I agreed, feeling a little sick, avoiding romantic entanglements with humans seemed like a pretty high priority now. “Nadine doesn’t like me that way either, right?” I asked, feeling a little worried.

Clarice shook her head, “I don’t think so. She’s easily the smartest person I know, so there is no way she doesn’t know about it.”

I sighed in relief. Alright, new Settlement Law, no breeding with humans.

[Tim’s Settlement Law: All breeding with {Humans} is prohibited.]

Toofy and Clarice both stiffened.

Clarice stopped what she was doing and gave me an incredulous look, “That’s a little mean spirited don’t you think?” She demanded angrily.

Whenever I created or altered a Settlement Law, a status alert would be sent to everyone inside the Settlement’s territory. Similarly, the laws would be displayed to everyone entering the Settlement’s territory as well.

Flushing with embarrassment, I concentrated to try and rectify the mistake.

[Tim’s Settlement Law: All breeding between {Humans} and {Monsters} is prohibited.]

“I swear it wasn’t on purpose,” I apologised. Although, since the system worked off of intent, perhaps the blow to my ego earlier had been greater than I was willing to admit.

Clarice narrowed her eyes at me, forked her index and middle finger on her left hand and motioned between her eyes and my own before returning to skinning the croc.

Awkwardly removing my hands from Toofy’s ears I did my best to avoid her curious but all too intelligent stare.

I spent the rest of the evening composing and altering laws for the Settlement. It was trickier than I had expected it to be, given that the system should have been very literally intuitive. So in the end I was forced to make more laws than I wanted, just to make sure certain contingencies were accounted for.

Defining theft was particularly tricky since we had no established form of trading. Defining sexual assault was not a pleasant half-hour either and resulted in a particularly awkward but necessary series of explanations for Toofy and by extension, the audience of Daemonlings.

As a result, dinner was a rather subdued affair and no one really felt up to talking much. Well, everyone but Toofy, who was very keen on getting everyone’s opinion on her roasted fish.

Retiring to bed, I had assumed the Daemonlings would just sleep with myself and Toofy, apparently, that was not going to be the case. Gric and Dar curled up on the bed with Tobi and Shady in one room, while Qreet joined Nadine, Emelia and Clarice in their room.

Hana rather nervously crawled into bed alongside Toofy and myself, and I didn’t have the heart to shoo her out, so that was that.

Waking up early the next morning, I was surprised to find that Hana and Toofy were missing. A little worried, despite the protections afforded by the Settlement, I quickly got up and pulled on my tunic. Quickly glancing into the other two rooms to make sure they aren't there, I headed downstairs.

Partway down, I was relieved to see Hana and Toofy chatting away as freshly skewered meat was roasting by the fire.

“No, that's not what I meant-” Hana suddenly stiffened and grew silent as she saw me descending the last few steps.

“Hana like Tim?” Toofy asked curiously, narrowing her eyes momentarily before noticing me as well. “Tim! Breakfast!” Toofy excitedly jumped to her feet, raced over, took hold of my hand and began pulling me towards the campfire. “Toofy make. Toofy give Tim breakfast!” She declared proudly.

Sitting down, I gratefully accepted the skewered meat, “Thanks Toofy,” I pulled off a chunk with my teeth and chewed it experimentally. Surprisingly, even though I was fairly certain it was meat from one of those six-legged crocs, it tasted of fish. It could use some salt, but it wasn’t half bad, “This tastes really good,” I complimented Toofy and tousled her hair.

Toofy grinned and bounced a little in excitement, “Toofy like cooking,” she agreed excitedly, “Toofy like making tasty foods!”

I smiled and pulled her onto my lap, offering her a bite of my skewer.

Toofy tore off a sizable chunk and chewed on it happily.

All the while Hana had been watching us intently. “Could...Could I try some?” She asked nervously.

Noticing the numerous skewers roasting by the fire, I figured that they probably weren’t cooked yet. “Alright,” I agreed amiably, I was not very hungry anyway, so I could wait.

Hana sat herself down on my lap opposite Toofy and opened her mouth expectantly.

I hadn’t expected that. I Offered Hana the skewer a little awkwardly since I had to swap it to my other hand first.

Just like Toofy, Hana took a big bite of the meat and set to determinedly chewing, eyeing Toofy in a way I could only interpret as competitive.

Something suddenly clicked and I began feeling far more awkward. Hoping I was just being paranoid, I decided to test the waters so to speak. “So Toofy, what were you and Hana talking about earlier?” I asked with feigned innocence.

Toofy looked thoughtful for a moment before realising what I was referring to, “Oh!” She hopped up and cupped her hands around my ear, “Hana thinks Toofy and Tim mates,” she giggled quietly, “Hana like Tim,” Toofy insisted, comically wiggling her eyebrows and puckering her lips.

Apparently having heard everything, Hana stiffened and blushed, refusing to look either of us in the eye.

So it is as I feared...

“Ah, Hana, I’m sorry,” I apologised awkwardly, “But, you are just too young and-”

“I’m twenty-three summers old!” Hana shouted, trembling and glaring angrily at Toofy. “Nadine said that my size would put you off, that it is too child-like,” she hissed bitterly, “But that’s okay!” She turned her attention to me and stared intensely into my eyes, positively twitching with desperate manic energy “I will grow! I am close to evolving! You will see!” Hana stumbled to her feet and rushed up the stairs and into the storage room of the treefort.

“Uh oh...” Toofy cringed sheepishly.

“Watch the fire Toofy and stay away from the fountain! I am going to go make sure Hana is alright” I explained hurriedly as I got to my feet.

Toofy nodded solemnly, “Toofy do!”

Rushing up the stairs to the storeroom, I found Hana stuffing her face with food.

“Hana, are you alright?” I asked cautiously.

Swallowing down a mouthful of food, Hana was about to reply but smiled broadly instead.

A black status alert popped up in front of my eyes.

[{Overseer Hana - Corrupted Dryad Sapling} is evolving.]

Corrupted?

Hana began growing in real time, steadily gaining more than a foot in height. The rate of growth slowed but didn’t stop entirely and Hana began stuffing more food into her mouth.

“Hana...You don’t need to do this,” I insisted gently.

Hana paused but didn’t look like she believed me.

“The whole physical, intellectual and emotional disparity in monsters is a mess, I think I get that,” I explained sympathetically, “You are probably thinking that rushing to change your appearance will suddenly change everything right?”

Hana nodded hesitantly.

“Well, it probably won’t,” I admitted wryly, “Objectively, Clarice, Nadine and Emelia are all attractive young women around my own age, but I am not romantically interested in any of them and it appears to be mutual,” I explained a bit more flippantly than I felt.

Hana visibly deflated, “Oh...” She mumbled, looking quite embarrassed. But after a few moments she seemed to grow rather determined, “Why?” Hana asked pointedly.

“Er, why what?” I asked nervously.

“Why don’t you find them attractive?” Hana demanded determinedly.

I shrunk back towards the doorway, “I guess I just don’t,” I replied lamely.

Hana narrowed her eyes sceptically, “Is it because they don’t have giant breasts or buttocks?” She demanded accusingly.

“N-no!” I replied hastily, mortified at having this argument with what looked like an eleven-year-old, “Look, I was just trying to check on you to make sure you don’t do anything rash alright? Suddenly growing three feet won’t really improve my opinion of you Hana.”

Hana deflated dejectedly.

“I mean, you’re pretty damned amazing already. Why would a few feet change that?” I insisted, trying to buoy up her confidence a little while not making it dependent on romantic implications. As if I didn't already have enough trouble establishing boundaries with Toofy. “Just look at everything you managed to build here, in just a single day!”

“Really?” Hana asked uncertainly, “You aren’t just saying that to make me feel better?”

“I really mean it,” I insisted, “Just grow at your own pace alright?”

“Alright,” Hana smiled, putting down the basket of dried fish flakes.

Moving to head back downstairs I noticed Nadine just slightly further up and could tell that she had been listening in. Without a door, it would have been hard not to.

Nadine gave me an approving nod before slipping into the storage room, hopefully to have a talk with Hana.

It wasn’t until I reached the campfire again that I remembered Nadine already played a part in this melodrama and realised that leaving her alone with Hana again may not be the best idea. Unfortunately, I was already too late and the pair of them were now chatting quietly to one another as they slowly came down the stairs.

“Tim?” Nadine asked politely.

“Yeah?” I replied warily, taking note of the obvious solidarity between the pair.

“Hana has been working really hard to make all of this, wouldn’t you agree?” Nadine asked with a painfully obvious leading question.

“Yes,” I agreed, knowing there was no way out short of sprinting away and hoping Hana didn’t seal the entrance to the Grove. Judging by the intense expectant look Hana was giving me, I really couldn’t rule out the possibility of that happening.

“And you meant what you said about her height, right?” Nadine continued in the same leading tone.

“Yes,” I agreed again, feeling the noose tighten around my neck.

“Then it is only fair you prove it by taking her on a date right?” Nadine and Hana’s eyes gave off a predatory intensity as she asked the question.

“Y-” I almost said it but caught myself at the last millisecond, “-how and where?” I spluttered instead, congratulating myself on the save, even if it was neither graceful nor tactful.

Nadine didn’t skip a beat, “Why at the town fountain of course!” She insisted with a broad grin, “It’s a very common date location for new young couples.”

“...” My brain was drawing a blank.

“You're both artists, of a kind, so I am sure you will have a great deal to talk about,” Nadine pressed aggressively.

“.....” Come on! Think! I don’t want to be that creep who dates girls who look way underage!

“Or are you really that shallow?” Nadine suggested snidely, raising her eyebrow evocatively.

Damnit...

“Fine...” I agreed.

Nadine and Hana turned to one another and shared a victorious grin.

“But!” I added firmly, “Only after the Settlement is finished being built.” If they were going to play dirty, then so was I, “And to be clear. This is not the town fountain, it is far too small and deep. Children could easily drown in it,” I stated firmly.

Nadine was slightly taken aback, while Hana only looked more determined.

“Fine!” Hana agreed, smiling determinedly, “It’s a date!”

Confident I had bought myself at least a little time, I sighed in relief and nodded.

Snatching up a pair of skewers, Hana gave one to Nadine and dragged her out of the Grove.

“What’s date?” Toofy asked curiously.

Damnit...

After awkwardly explaining what a date is and what the general point was of taking someone on one, I decided to exercise for a bit to try and burn off some of my nervous energy. The prospect of dating someone who looked underage was really driving my anxiety through the roof. I had meant everything I said to Hana earlier, it was just that I had a lifetime of social conditioning to contend with as well.

Being friends with a kid? Sure, not particularly advisable in most situations given Earth’s infinite number of highly publicised degenerates, but still possible. Dating a kid? NO. It was such a cringe worthy trope in fiction and fantasy settings. It made little difference if the person in question was actually five-thousand years old but looked twelve. At the end of the day it meant you were attracted to someone with the appearance of a twelve year old.

Why did I have to intervene?!

“Looking a little rough,” Clarice commented, “Something on your mind?”

“I don’t wanna be a creep who dates people who look like kids!” I groaned without thinking.

“Wait a minute! What?!” Clarice demanded, suddenly all ears, “Toofy or Hana?!” She demanded.

I looked at Clarice in disgust, “Hana, obviously...”

“Fuck!” Clarice swore and kicked at one of the nearby lilies, “I owe Nadine five silver...”

I stared incredulously at her for a moment, “You girls are monsters...”

Clarice rolled her eyes, “Really? I’m meant to be such a bad person because I thought there ‘might’ have been something more to your whole selfless devotion and self-sacrifice?” She demanded, clearly insulted, “Really?”

“YES,” I insisted, “They are basically kids!”

Clarice just shook her head, “You really don’t see it do you?” She asked warily.

“See what?” I demanded, feeling a stress headache coming on.

“Toofy isn’t a kid. I mean, Nadine and I aren’t sure exactly how old she is, but she definitely isn’t a kid,” Clarice stated candidly, “At the least, she has to be around the equivalent of a teenager, that much is obvious.”

“...it is?” I asked quietly, now suspecting what I was going to hear and dreading it.

Clarice gave me a funny look, “You mean to say, that after literally bathing her, you didn’t notice?”

I blushed and tried to force down my embarrassment, “I was making active attempts to avoid looking at anything!” I insisted.

“Riiight,” Clarice agreed sceptically.

“It’s true!” I insisted adamantly.

“Well, then, I guess you will just have to take our word for it” Clarice stated with a shrug, making it clear that she didn’t really believe me, but wouldn’t fight over it further.

Hang on...

“Is that why Nadine was helping Hana to pressure me into going on a date?!” I demanded, now feeling quite angry.

“WHAT?!” Clarice demanded, evidently somehow more upset than I was.

“They ambushed me a short while ago,” I explained a little bitterly.

“Oh, hells no!” Clarice stormed off towards the entrance of the Grove.

I felt a little better that someone was finally taking my side, but only for a moment as I soon realised that Clarice was probably more upset about losing the bet than my feelings.

After a short while, Clarice and Nadine returned, still embroiled in the middle of a heated argument.

“We agreed that there would be no interference!” Clarice growled angrily.

“No, we did not!” Nadine insisted, “You suggested it and I said no.”

Clarice scowled darkly for a moment before grinning wickedly, “Tim’s pretty pissed at you y’know, thought betting on relationships is ‘monstrous’.”

Nadine frowned and glanced uncertainly in my direction, “Well, you did it too!”

Clarice shrugged, “At least I was honest with him about it and didn't try to play monster matchmaker.”

Nadine glared angrily at Clarice, “Well, at least Hana actually has those feelings! Any idiot can see Toofy considers Tim as a father or brother!”

“So?!” Clarice deflected, playing the contrarian, “Loads of girls are into that sort of thing!”

Nadine stared open-mouthed at Clarice, “WHAT?!” She demanded.

Realising she may have gone a little too far, Clarice tried to backpedal, figuratively and literally, “Well, what I meant was-”

“You're fucking sick Clarice!” Nadine shook her head in disgust, “You mean you made the bet knowing their relationship already?!”

Clarice bolted, “Gotta take a shit!” She called over her shoulder, “Don’t wait up!”

Even though Clarice had evidently lost the argument, I still had the distinct impression that I was the one who had lost overall.

Nadine took a few minutes to calm down before coming over to try and explain herself. “Okay, I know it looks bad, but Hana really does seem to like you, in a romantic sense I mean,” she insisted, “I didn’t know that before making the bet and I kind of thought Clarice was joking.”

I chose not to interrupt so I could see where this was going.

“More importantly, Hana is having a much worse go of it than she is letting on,” Nadine explained cautiously, “At the moment, she is distracting herself with work and to a lesser degree a little bit of a crush she has on you.” She sighed and appeared far more concerned than I had initially given her credit for, “After what happened to her, it’s obvious that she is going to start falling apart if she doesn’t start processing it in a more healthy way. What happened earlier was a telling sign of how fragile she is right now. Hana needs time to heal, and I think you can give her that,” Nadine explained, looking quite concerned but also expecting me to give an answer.

“So you want me to be her pretend boyfriend?” I asked warily.

Nadine shook her head, “No, I want you to take the relationship seriously,” she insisted, “As much as Hana needs you, you need her more.”

I frowned but Nadine hastily began talking again before I could say anything.

“It's obvious that you are unhappy,” Nadine observed, “You treat Toofy like she is your only positive emotional outlet...and it isn’t healthy, for you or for her.” She shifted somewhat uncomfortably, “I still remember the look in your eyes when they had Toofy locked away, you had given up. Not just on rescuing her, on possibly escaping. You gave up on everything and were waiting to die.”

I met Nadine’s gaze but said nothing. After all, she was right and we both knew it.

“I don’t want to diminish any of the things you did, but it’s obvious that most of your bravery stems from thinking that you’re expendable and readily replaceable. Emotionally balanced people don’t think like that,” Nadine explained, “You have been using taking care of Toofy as an excuse to care about yourself, even if it is just a little bit. So I want you to seriously reconsider giving Hana a chance. If you need to find excuses to care about yourself, excuses to justify living, then why not love? You both need each other and even if your relationship does not work out romantically, I am sure that you will both be able to support one another as good friends.”

Nadine literally just gave me a speech on the value of love and friendship.

I snorted quietly and shook my head. As an adult, I had never seriously considered the possibility of being part of a romantic relationship. To put it bluntly, I had always considered myself to be too ugly. After all, it was the reason every girl I had ever asked out had given for their refusal, before the polite ones excused themselves or the meaner ones began ridiculing me.

So now that I had the prospect of a relationship in front of me, why wasn’t I leaping at the chance?

“Fine,” I agreed. I already agreed to the date with Hana, so it wasn’t like this changed much.

Besides, being emotionally available wouldn’t kill me...probably.

*****

Kai surveyed the canvas for his latest masterpiece and was filled with excitement. The quaint classical architecture of the relatively small town was going to suit his purposes perfectly. Located deep within a taiga forest on a large open river, the town would stand a decent chance of repelling his attack under normal circumstances.

However, Kai had no intentions of fighting fair. No, in order to realise his childhood dreams, Kai was decidedly against anything that could be remotely considered as ‘fair’. Rubbing his hands together in anticipation, Kai made a finger gun with his hand, aimed it at the town gate, and fired, “Pew.”

The town’s invisible protective barrier flickered into being, deep cracks webbing against its surface from the point of metaphorical impact since there was no actual projectile. With the barrier compromised, Kai gathered energy into his right fist, moulding and shaping it with the power of his imagination, before lobbing it towards the town gates.

Even though the pair of armoured guards saw it coming, neither of them managed to run away in time before the beach-ball-sized orb of fire smashed into the ground and detonated. The resulting explosion ripped the stone gateway apart and sent the gates flying.

Knowing that this would be more than sufficient to announce his presence, Kai playfully prepared another and began slowly walking towards the town. If he was lucky, the hero would come and find him, if not, well...Kai would have to find him instead.

It was a curious thing in Kai’s experience, every small town he had managed to find had a hero, someone who would rush out to fight him to the bitter end. Sometimes they even had two! The heroes were the most fun to fight and so long as Kai held back just enough, the fun would last quite a while. It was a shame more people weren't like that though.

Lobbing the pair of fireballs over the walls, Kai waited expectantly for the screaming to begin and was not disappointed. Within a few moments, cries of pain, confusion and terror could be heard from within the town and looking through the open expanse where the gate had once stood, Kai could see people running too and fro

Nodding in greeting to the pair of charred corpses that had been smashed against the town wall, he generously donated a small portion of mana to regift them a semblance of life. The pair of guards staggered to their feet and fell into position behind Kai, awaiting his orders.

“Stop anyone who tries to escape,” Kai ordered, keeping it simple so they were less likely to be distracted. The Ash Guard, as he liked to call them, would drain his MP to cast their spells, but it was of little consequence. So long as they killed even half the people that they attacked, Kai would be able to recoup the mana.

Walking down the main street of the town, Kai was beginning to wonder why no one had tried to stop him yet. Feeling a little putout, he glared angrily at a young woman who was rushing past, and nothing...

“Hrm...” Kai stopped and rubbed his non-existent chin, then he felt it. Sighing wryly, Kai tore away the piece of ashen sackcloth he had tied around his helmet. He had forgotten he was wearing it.

A young man rushing down the street caught sight of Kai and came to an abrupt and sudden halt.

Feeling the waves of fear emanating from him, Kai decided to let him go. It was better in the early stages to let the townsfolk gather others and form some semblance of resistance, it was much more fun this way.

Continuing his leisurely stroll towards the centre of the town, Kai could practically taste the mana wafting off the powerful magic item the locals believed to be so cleverly hidden beneath the biggest building in town. Normally they would have been right, but there was precious little that was normal regarding Kai.

*Twing.*

Sighing and shaking his head, Kai looked up at the thoroughly surprised archer that was hiding on a nearby rooftop. Waggling his finger at him, Kai considered letting him go with a warning, but then he thought better of it. Since a hero had not shown themself yet, he figured that it might be about time for him to become a little more proactive.

Preparing another fireball, Kai lazily lobbed it in the cowardly archer’s general direction. If it hit, great! If not, well that was fine too. Unlike most other towns he had visited, Kai was surprised by the disturbing absence of EXP he should have been receiving. It had taken him a while to notice, but now that he had, it was all Kai could really think about. Perhaps it was as he had feared, maybe he had finally out-levelled this stage of the game.

That was a little sad in a way. Kai had never played such a brutally realistic yet fantastical game before, especially one that let him be whoever he wanted. Heroes were so boring and Kai loved that this game allowed him to play the role of a villain. He was still working on ideas for a villain name, but none of them had really felt right or was already taken. The last thing Kai wanted was to find out that people were laughing at him because of a stupid name choice.

It did remind him of that one lucky NPC who got away by glitching into non-existence, the first bug Kai had encountered in the otherwise flawlessly immersive game experience. She had kept screaming the destroyer this and the destroyer that. It was kind of on the nose, so to speak, but it did sum up rather well what Kai was all about. But a name like that had to be already taken right? It was such a low hanging fruit that there was no way it wasn’t already taken. But what if it isn’t? Wouldn’t it be kind of cool to pick a name provided to him by the game itself? It’s kind of like unlocking a rare title.

“Screw it. If anyone’s watching my stream, shut the fuck up or I’ll burn your house down!” Kai threatened, giving fair warning to any stream snipers and trolls. “Status, name change, The Destroyer!”

If his avatar could smile, Kai would be positively beaming right now. This had to be one of the perks of super-secret Alpha testing, all the cool names were still available!

*Twing*

Another arrow ricocheted off his helmet, but Kai was far too good a mood to care. “You get one more!” He called out in warning, “Then I start taking it personally!”

Unsurprisingly, the archer seemed to have decided against taking another shot.

“Definitely not a hero,” Kai muttered, shaking his head as he continued walking towards the large building. A casual ‘off the cuff’ death threat would not deter a real hero.

Facing no real resistance, but wanting to firmly establish his new name and title, Kai, The Destroyer, passed the time by casually throwing smaller fireballs into buildings as he passed. Some had people inside and he felt the pleasurable rush of mana flooding into him, others had been abandoned or were otherwise empty and he ignored them.

Thankfully, a real semblance of resistance seemed to have formed up ahead, barring his path to the large building and the powerful magic item within.

Five young men and women, presumedly of some interesting blend of classes, had taken a stand on the road ahead. Well...Two of them were technically standing on the roofs of nearby buildings, but that’s semantics and Kai didn’t really care. What mattered was he had found his hero, and perhaps more besides.

“WHO DARES STAND AGAINST, THE DESTROYER!!!” Kai roared menacingly, really hamming it up for anyone who might be watching. In his opinion, if you weren't overacting, then it wasn’t worth doing the whole villain and hero schtick in the first place.

The woman standing at the front of their formation, in gleaming plate and mail, with a cool looking shield and honestly, rather boring looking spear, took a defiant step forward. “I am Katarina VanDyne and I will put a stop to your butchery foul monster!” She cried back, although her voice was muffled somewhat by her helm.

Kai was excited. It was always more interesting to fight a real heroine! Her look was fantastic too! Her shield had a real coat of arms on it and everything!

Katarina gave a nod to her companions and the three of them on the ground, rushed towards him.

One of the pair left behind, another archer, fired three arrows at Kai in rapid succession.

*Twing Twang Twing*

Amazingly, all three arrows made it through Kai’s open-faced helmet, although they were promptly incinerated. Kai disliked his body becoming stiff from built-up junk and would have to remember to clean his boots out later. Even so, Kai was super impressed, this archer was easily the best he had seen so far. He hadn’t even used any mana on those attacks either, it was all skill.

Noticing the large amount of mana being formed by the young woman on the opposite rooftop, Kai felt annoyed. He didn’t like fighting other spellcasters, it was too risky.

Gathering and condensing mana in his fist, Kai threw a small baseball-sized orb of fire onto the roof of the building. Upon making contact with the roof, the globe erupted like a water balloon and spilled fire everywhere.

The young woman screamed and tumbled off the roof into the pooling fire below.

“ALL SHALL BURN!!!” Kai crowed triumphantly, even if the woman hadn’t died just quite yet, she would soon enough. Giving the hero and her companions time to readjust and compose themselves, he took a closer look at the archer.

Surprisingly, the archer was on the move, but not running away as Kai had half expected, instead, the archer was sprinting across the rooftops towards him!

“Yes!” Kai knew that there had to be more than one hero for a town this large.

*Twing, Twing, Twang, Twing.*

The archer kept firing arrows at Kai as he ran, even though they were far less accurate, every one of them still landed a hit.

Curious to see what the archer’s ‘big play’ would be, Kai conjured a wall of fire that would stall Katarina and her two other party members.

“YOU DARE FACE ME?!” Kai roared, hoping that the archer had a comeback or one-liner prepared.

“Can’t do that!” The archer called out, rather disappointingly as he dropped his bow and threw something at Kai’s head.

Seeing that it was a glass vial, and not wanting to risk an unknown fluid making contact with his body, Kai prepared to incinerate both it and its contents.

“Because you don’t have one!” The archer yelled, rolling for cover on the other side of the rooftop.

Kai let the attack through on principle.

The vial shattered against the left side of Kai’s helmet and exploded, blasting him sideways through the brick wall of the adjacent building.

“That actually hurt,” Kai chuckled, clambering to his feet, stomping through the debris and back onto the street. “YOU DARE TRY TO DESTROY THE DESTROYER?!!!” He roared happily, “I’LL BURN YOU UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT!!!”

It was quiet for a moment and then a knife came flying at Kai from a different rooftop, “Figured that would be how I die!” The archer called out.

Again, Kai was going to let the attack hit on principle, wanting to see what would follow.

*Twing*

The Archer leapt across to another rooftop, throwing another knife midleap, “Since my name is Ash!”

“YES!!!” Kai roared in triumph, “FINALLY!!!!!”