Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 15 - Wrestling with emotions - Part Two {Rewrite}

I had thought that using a spear would be a smart decision. Increasing the distance I could strike at an enemy before they had the chance to return the favour had seemed like an obvious choice. Unfortunately, it seemed to require far more skill and practice than I had realised. It also required more hand-eye coordination than I could muster, so I felt few regrets in swapping back to the cruder morningstar.

Stripping off my tunic and leaving it in my bedroom, I sought out Hana again and had her make a couple of blunted copies as well as rough approximations of the axes the Deep Orc’s use, and some serviceable shields. Carrying the equipment to the training grounds, I brought the Surgeons along as well.

Choosing one of the larger Deep Orc’s to spar with, I took a shield and blunted morningstar, then squared up against my opponent. Adding him to my party, for the sake of fairness, I gave a rough outline of the conditions of the bout. No aiming for the head or groyne, making a mental note for Hana to make helmets and cups, being knocked down was worth three points, a strike on your limbs or body was worth one point and if you reached ten points, you lost the round.

The Deep Orc warrior excitedly agreed and our match began. I lost less than three minutes later. I was playing far too defensively and had allowed my opponent to control the entire momentum of the fight. To say nothing of the difference in skill, I had barely attempted to strike him more than twice.

I lost the next fifteen matches as well, but I was slowly getting the hang of it. There was a bigger problem than being overly defensive. I was trying to be more agile than the weapon required and both my offence and defence were suffering for it.

Forgoing the shield entirely for the next few bouts, I started making real progress on brute-forcing through my opponent’s defence. By the late evening, I felt like I was ready to start using the shield again, but had to call things off there since I couldn’t see nearly well enough in the dark to reliably abide by the rules.

Over the next few days, I fell into a routine of increasingly intensive exercise and sparring. I was improving little by little with each bout, but the most noticeable change I saw in myself was the drastic reduction in my hesitation towards aggressive strategy.

Technically, I still hadn’t won a bout yet, but that was partly due to the nature of the rules I established. To put it bluntly, I was a much larger target, which made me easier to hit. Even though I was hit more often, it was actually my opponents that had to keep tagging in and out between bouts because of how hard I was hitting them.

The Deep Orc synergy for Contempt, combined with my own Racial Ability Thick Hide, was ensuring that only the hardest hits actually did any lingering damage.

That didn’t mean I wanted to change or get rid of the rules, far from it. While acclimating to being hit as a part of combat was important, I didn’t want to become too comfortable with it either. The large scars on my shin and calf were a testament to the fact that things could still hurt me and I needed to be wary of that fact.

An interesting development was how others were adopting the same rules for sparring with minor adaptations here and there to suit their own needs. The brawlers assigned points for different areas struck and lifted the ban on striking the head, for obvious reasons. The wrestlers were incredibly happy to learn of the official rules and were roughly abiding by those. Meanwhile, sparring with blunted weapons provided by Hana had become quite popular, particularly since the Surgeons were egging people on.

Even though the sparring matches didn’t provide EXP normally, I had decided it would be worth the expense to create a repeatable sparring quest. Contrary to my expectations, the rewards were not particularly small. I had forgotten about the possible rank disparity between combatants and had underestimated how much EXP the Labyrinth deemed appropriate for the relatively non-lethal quest objectives.

As close as I had been able to determine, if both opponents were the same rank, same Class tier and level, the winner would earn five EXP. However, for each rank difference, the base EXP would increase by five. Similarly, every difference in level would add another ten EXP. If the winner only had a Basic Class and their opponent had an Advanced Class, the total Exp would be doubled.

Needless to say, the huge stockpiles of EXP generated through Eminence began to be whittled away by the opportunistic fervour of those participating in the sparring matches. Although it did guarantee I had no shortage of sparring partners. As both a much higher-tiered monster and possessing a higher tier Class, defeating me in a sparring match generated a great deal of EXP.

Surprisingly though, Lash had kept her distance and I was grateful for it. The training was already hard enough without hot flashes of anxiety to go with it.

Taking a short break, I gave some more thought to Lash’s candidacy for promotion to Underlord. According to Gric, she had proven a driven student of his improvised lessons for learning the written form of the Daemons language and was making decent headway in reading and recognising smaller words.

Lash had apparently been seeking Gric out every evening for personal tutoring since she was busy instructing others during the day and couldn’t attend the classes Gric was holding for Sanctuary’s growing number of children.

It did raise another question though.

Should I help Lash unlock a Leadership Class so she could take a Rulership Class like myself and Gric?

On paper, the answer was simple. Lash having a Rulership Class, even if it was the same as mine, would only make Sanctuary stronger, even if her personal combat capabilities dipped somewhat.

Unfortunately, there were only two Leadership Classes I knew how to unlock, Taskmaster and Slaver...

Both were somewhat problematic. Even though I had gotten the Ogre Warchief Rulership Class, I could just as easily see the Labyrinth making Lash a Deep Orc Dominator, or something cringy like that. Even though the Slavery mechanics seemed pretty broken, the prospect of Enslaving people was still abhorrent to me.

But it did give me another idea...

I had been wondering for a long time how Nadine, Clarice, Emelia and Tobi had first unlocked their Classes. There almost certainly had to be a trick to it, something incredibly counterintuitive or otherwise implausible that prevented adventurers and monsters from accidentally unlocking the Basic Classes through simple repetition.

It made a sort of sense that Nadine’s Enchanter Class was primarily derived from academic theory and would be incredibly difficult to unintentionally unlock. But Clarice’s Swordsman Class seemed to be on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Surely there were enough trainers and teachers for sword training that unlocking the class would be dead-easy and even acquired as adventurers became more proficient with their equipment?

But that didn’t seem to be the case either. There had to be a special trick to it, or Lash and the other Deep Orc’s would all be Axemen or something.

Hang on.

I thought back to how I had unlocked my first Class. Emelia had promoted me to Taskmaster after capturing Toofy. But I hadn’t received a status alert. I didn’t remember seeing it when I first looked at my status screen either, but parts of it had been unavailable to me at the time, so it may have been there and I wouldn’t have known. However, I could feel I was on the right track.

Nadine hadn’t mentioned receiving an alert for unlocking Taskmaster, although I might be misremembering, but I distinctly remembered seeing Taskmaster on her list of unlocked Classes after using the Enslavement ability on her. That had to be it. Being Enslaved and meeting the right stat requirements unlocked Taskmaster while using an Enslavement Collar and successfully Enslaving another person then unlocked Slaver.

The Guild probably only needed advanced forms of the Classes to tutor or otherwise instruct the prospective adventurers in the basic tier of those same Classes. Mentoring was already an obvious component of the other Classes I had witnessed being unlocked, so it sort of made sense. I still felt like I was missing something, but it was the closest I had come to determine the method in the madness.

No matter how I looked at it, it definitely seemed like I had somehow bypassed certain rules or restrictions. After all, even though I didn’t have any of those Advanced Classes unlocked at the time, I was still able to teach and unlock Classes for others.

So I wondered if there were other Classes I might be able to unlock, with the right technical skill and know-how. Removing the Slave collar from around my neck, I had an incredibly stupid idea.

What if I could unlock the Monster Tamer class?

Enslaving Toofy had unlocked the Slaver Class, so presumably, if I used the Slave collar on a wild monster, I would unlock the Monster Tamer Class, right?

Hrm.

Then why didn’t I unlock it when I took Shady from Tobi?

Thinking on the problem for a few minutes, the best answer I could come up with was that it didn’t count with Shady because either he was willing or far too tame already. Shady was obviously Tobi’s pet, so it stood to reason that he would be at least partially domesticated.

Letting out a deep sigh, I knew there was really only one way to test my theory. Slipping the collar off my neck and stowing it in my pocket, I gathered some rope from the storeroom and headed out into the swamp.

Normally, I would have gathered some help, but there were already hunting parties out and about in the general vicinity, so I figured it would be fine.

Making my way towards the closest hunting party, I explained what I wanted to try and do and ignored the awed and incredulous looks they gave me in return. Tagging along, I was waiting for the ideal target.

By my approximations, I needed a Rank one Swamp Lurker. Anything larger and the Slave Collar wouldn’t fit, as is, it wasn’t a sure thing anyway.

After waiting close to a couple of hours, my opportunity had finally arrived. Roughly six feet from the tip of its snout to the end of its tail, the Swamp Lurker was pretty average by crocodile standards. With the hunting party hanging back in reserve I took deep steadying breaths while watching the Swamp Lurker slowly make its way over from the nearby body of water.

Knowing that crocodiles and alligators had weak jaw strength for opening their jaws, my plan was to try and pin its mouth shut while one of the hunters bound it shut with the rope I brought. Once its mouth was bound shut, I would then be able to secure the Slave Collar and test my theory.

As expected, the Swamp Lurker surged out of the water and charged at its closest target.

Ready for it and having gotten a great deal of wrestling practice in the past few days for exercise, I deftly ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding the Swamp Lurker’s jaws as they slammed shut an inch from my shin.

*Thump*

I bodily slammed down on the Swamp Lurker from the side, pinning its body down with my body weight while scooping its lower jaw upwards with my right forearm. Feeling the tension in the Swamp Lurker’s spine, I maintained the pressure and slowly shifted myself into a sitting position while couching the croc’s throat in my elbow.

The Swamp Lurker kept trying to wriggle and squirm its way free, but I was just too heavy for it.

Holding its jaws tightly together with my left hand, I quickly added my right hand as well, very nearly puncturing the poor creature's hide as I struggled to maintain a firm hold on its wet scales. “Bring the rope!” I barked, making sure to keep the croc’s head pointing upwards to give my assistant the benefit of an enlarged blind spot.

The Serpent-Kin hunter rushed forward and slipped the prepared slipknot over the Swamp Lurker’s mouth and pulled the noose tight. Then for good measure, she tightly looped the rope another four times before tying it off and grappling the beast's jaws with both arms. Hugging it tight to her chest, it gave me the chance to retrieve the collar and begin cinching it around the croc’s neck.

As if sensing what we were trying to do, the Swamp Lurker began bucking about in earnest. However, the hunter refused to let go, and I was far too heavy for it to dislodge.

Pulling the leather strap tight, I barely managed to feed the farthest hole into the buckle and thumb the pin through the catch. Pushing my other thumb onto the small sharp spike to mark the tag with my blood, I was relieved when all at once, the Swamp Lurker stopped resisting.

A short deluge of status alerts filtered in front of my eyes.

[Bond Successful: Applying Enslaved Status and Effects]

[You have qualified to unlock the {Monster Tamer} Basic Class.]

[You have qualified to unlock the {Beast Trainer} Advanced Class.]

[You have qualified to unlock the {Wrangler} Advanced Class.]

Grinning in triumph I blinked away the status alerts and was surprised to see that the hunter who had assisted me looked positively ecstatic. “You unlocked one or more classes as well?” I asked rhetorically, knowing that the Serpent-Kin language wasn’t sufficient to allow reading the Status information.

The hunter nodded, “Yess Lord, I ssee two boxsess!” she hissed excitedly.

Oh wow, I hadn’t expected that. “What is your name?” I asked, having forgotten it in all the excitement and looking for her information.

“My name is Prittra, Lord,” She replied excitedly, most likely guessing why I was asking.

“Prittra...Prittra...” I mumbled while scanning through the hundreds of statuses. “Here we go,” I skipped through the other information to see what Prittra had unlocked.

[Class Qualifications: Monster Tamer, Beast Trainer. ]

It was admittedly about what I had expected, but it was still rather exciting that we had both unlocked Classes at the same time. I briefly wondered if Prittra would have unlocked the wrangler if she knew wrestling techniques, or if she had been excluded because I had been the one to pin the Swamp Lurker. Putting those thoughts aside, I decided it would be best to inform Prittra of her choices. “You have unlocked both the Basic Class Monster Tamer and the Advanced Class Beast Trainer. Monster Tamer Lets you tame wild monsters like this Swamp Lurker, and I assume Beast Trainer is a more sophisticated version of the same.”

Prittra was positively thrumming with excitement, “Which sshould I choosse Lord?” She asked a little nervously.

Well, that was the question, wasn’t it?

Technically, I already knew what Monster Tamer was generally capable of. It was like a less specialised Slaver class, near as I could tell from the book Nadine had read for me. Considering how I really didn’t want that mess causing problems in Sanctuary, the relative unknowns of Beast Trainer sounded more preferable.

“I think you should take Beast Trainer ,” I suggested, “But it is your choice. However, be aware that I have no tolerance for Enslaving other residents of Sanctuary or other monsters of relative intelligence.” I didn’t have the time to debate sapience and sentience right now, so that would have to do.

Prittra nodded eagerly, “How do I do that Lord?”

I explained the process and a few moments later I could see her status information had changed.

Prittra had gained one extra point of Willpower and five additional MP, which was interesting since both Slaver and Taskmaster got HP instead. Skimming past the stats and Racial Abilities I was rather impressed by the starting Class Abilities.

[(Class Ability: Tame Beast): Dominate the mind of a Beast and establish yourself as their Master. Requires a willing target or a contest of (Willpower) against a target with {Bloodied} Condition. Cannot be used on Humanoids. Maximum number of Tamed Beasts is determined by {Willpower} (0:2)]

[(Class Ability: Command): Issue commands to your Tamed Beasts. Disobeying your direct commands requires a contest of (Willpower). Degree of failure will result in pain being administered until the command is obeyed or the command is rescinded.]

[(Class Ability: Bestial Vigour): Expend MP to increase the {Toughness} and {Strength} of your Tamed Beasts for a short time. {Presence} increases the duration of the effect.]

Reading aloud the Class abilities for Prittra and the other Serpent-Kins’ benefit, I wondered if the Deep Orcs would regret being so hasty in their choices. Then again, the available selections for Beast monsters in the immediate vicinity wasn’t great.

“If you want, we should be able to transfer ownership of this Swamp Lurker,” I suggested, “At the moment it belongs to me, but if you concentrate on using the Tame Beast ability, I should be able to let you take it.”

Prittra gulped and nodded determinedly, “Alright,” she agreed, apparently so nervous she forgot to mention my title, not that I was complaining.

[Warning: Bond has been forcefully attempted against Swamp Luker. Accept? (Y/N) ]

“Accept,” I agreed and removed the Slave Collar. Carefully and somewhat shakily getting to my feet, I moved away from Prittra and her new pet croc. I may have been imagining things, but it seemed like the Swamp Lurker was glaring at me vindictively.

As the high of my success began to fade, I wondered if perhaps I was celebrating too soon. I had just unlocked three more potential Classes, but we only had one Slave collar on hand. So even assuming those who wanted the Class paired up, we would only be able to train two people at a time after finding a suitable sized croc to try it on. Worse than that, it had taken some real doing to get the collar on, so I wasn’t even confident the Serpent-Kin would be able to manage it on their own.

Well, there was something else I wanted to try, which keyed into my theory for unlocking the other Classes.

I would need to see if Prittra using her Tame Beast ability would generate the unlock for any of her hunting companions. I wasn’t optimistic, but there was a chance that so long as they otherwise replicated everything but the Slave Collar, that it would work.

With that plan in mind, I explained what I expected of the hunting party and secured another pair of volunteers. One of them would serve as a distraction, while the other tried pinning it down.

Unfortunately, we didn't manage to find another Swamp Lurker until late in the evening, and it was far too risky to try something that dangerous in the failing light. Even so, the hunting party was in high spirits. Most of them had not been particularly keen on Clarice’s teaching methods and were worried they would not be able to secure a Combat Class otherwise.

Returning to Sanctuary, I was still rather pleased by what we had accomplished. Particularly since now I had a method to teach Lash a Leadership Class that wouldn’t involve enslaving anyone to do it. At the very least, Lash should be able to help the Serpent-Kin unlock the Beast Tamer Advanced Class. Even if the Advanced Class itself doesn’t need to be present, I could at least rely on lash to be able to draw and close the Slave Collar.

Prittra and her Swamp Lurker were getting a great deal of attention by the cooking fires, particularly from Toofy.

“Ahhhh,” Toofy opened her mouth wide, imitating the Swamp Lurker as she threw another chunk of meat into its mouth.

*Thunk**Thunk**Thunk*

The Swamp Luker snapped its jaws and pulled back its head to better swallow the food.

Toofy waved to Ril and animatedly pointed at her own mouth.

Ril nodded and threw a piece of meat underarm into Toofy’s mouth.

“Nyom nyom nyom,“ Toofy gnashed her teeth repeatedly then threw back her head to swallow. “Heeheehee,” She flashed Ril a grin, “Ril’s turn!”

Ril opened her mouth wide and waited.

After watching the girls play their little game for a half-hour or so, I decided that I had procrastinated long enough and went looking for Lash. Unsurprisingly, she was still on the training field, but it was just her and two other Deep Orcs fighting a three-way spar. It was an interesting change to the dynamic of the fight, and I wondered if it was an attempt at replicating the chaos of a real battle or if it was just an attempt to generate more EXP.

Sitting down nearby, I watched the fight play out.

Lash seemed to be testing her limits because despite putting up a good fight, she was still the first to be eliminated. The other two Deep Orc’s had ganged up on her almost exclusively until she reached ten points and was eliminated.

Not that Lash seemed to mind. She spent her downtime stretching and intensely watching the ensuing fight.

For good reason.

The two remaining Deep Orcs kicked it up another level once Lash was eliminated, their strikes coming faster and hitting far harder than earlier. Most of their attacks were deftly parried or avoided by rolling their hips or pivoting to side angle a blow.

It was obvious that I had made a mistake in just assuming Lash was the strongest of the Deep Orcs just because she was the largest and had spoken for them. The two sparring Deep Orcs obviously had hard-earned skill and were making the most of their new Class Abilities.

After about ten minutes of a rather dizzying back and forth, one of the pair began to tire and their opponent began landing hits on their armour, announcing each scored point with a resounding clang. They weren’t playing around either, the axe blows looked like they could cleave unprotected limbs right off.

It was about the same time that Lash seemed to have noticed me watching the bout and made her way over and stared expectantly at me, waiting patiently to see what I wanted.

Explaining that I had found a way to unlock three more Classes, I waited to gauge Lash’s reaction before informing her of my intent to promote her to Underlord.

“Monster Tamer, Beast Trainer, they make the soulless fight for you?” Lash asked inquisitively.

I nodded, “The Beasts tamed with the Class Ability fight like loyal companions, and I think you can make them loyal over time.”

Lash thought about this for a moment and nodded, “Loyalty is better than Slavery.”

On Earth, the argument could probably be made that these were one and the same in regards to the Taming Class Ability. But the most important difference was that, unlike the humanoid monsters, the Beasts seemed single-mindedly compelled to attack humanoids and certain other targets on sight. Which domestication made otherwise impossible, the ‘taming’ mechanics seemed significantly more humane. In a sense, it gave the Beasts a choice they otherwise lacked.

I was rather confused by how easy it was to keep my head around Lash at the moment, and the only reason I could think of for it was that she hadn’t removed her helmet.

Well...that and most of her body was covered by iron plates.

“I was thinking about promoting you to Underlord,” I explained, “If we can unlock the Monster Tamer Class for you, then I am quite sure it will then unlock access to a Rulership Class like myself and Gric. What do you think?”

Lash just stared at me silently for a while. She remained silent long enough that the sparring match ended and the pair of Deep Orcs made their way over to see what was going on. “You want me to serve as Underlord?” Lash asked, “Same as Gric? She added.

I nodded.

Lash returned to quietly contemplating the question.

Meanwhile, the two other Deep Orcs seemed to be taken aback and briefly turned their visored helmets towards one another.

Lash nodded and knelt down on one knee, lowering her head, “I accept,” she pronounced determinedly.

Realising that she was expecting the promotion here and now, I cleared my throat and did my best to sound important. “By the power vested in me, by me, I hereby raise Lash to the position of Underlord.”

[Settlement Alert {Sanctuary}: {Lash - Deep Orc} has been promoted to Underlord.]

The Status Alert had very likely been sent to everyone within Sanctuary, but I wondered if Ushu and the others had received it as well despite the distance. Granted it had been four days already, but I had the general impression that these kinds of alerts were intended to be a big deal and notify EVERYONE within the faction.

Raising herself up off the ground, Lash removed her helmet and I immediately felt the sudden spike in my anxiety as she stared at me with her intense luminous eyes, “I won’t fail you!” Lash promised determinedly.

I nodded and tried to look far more confident than I felt. “We can head out tomorrow morning to unlock the required Classes, alright?”.

“As you will,” Lash agreed with a barely restrained grin.

Giving the three of them a perfunctory nod, I began making my way back to the Grove to go to bed. Shaking off my lingering nerves, I let out a deep sigh. Things had gone better than I expected, and it was good to know I could get through a conversation with Lash without devolving into a babbling wreck.

Hana was waiting for me by the Grove fountain and got up when she saw me coming, “I finished the Hatchery if you want to come to take a look?” She motioned to the far side of the Grove to the huge barrow den she had grown over the past couple of days.

“Sure,” I was actually rather curious to see what Hana had done. The walls, windows and roof hadn’t really taken her much time at all, so the extra time had to have gone somewhere special.

Entering the barrow, it was more or less the same as most of the others, with a few notable exceptions. Hana had made dozens of cradles from branches connected to the barrows' walls. Looking closely I could see a very faint green aura pulsing off of the branches. “Is that what I think it is?” I asked excitedly.

Hana smiled tiredly and nodded, “The cradles should help eggs hatch much faster and relieve some of the hatchlings' initial aggressive tendencies.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” I asked curiously, taking a closer look at the cradle noticing a distinctly familiar sensation.

“I have been observing the hatchlings as much as I can,” Hana began to explain, running her hands lovingly over a nearby cradle. “They crave food and mana in equal measure, but they are too young and lack self-control. Using violence to get what they want, it’s not all that surprising,” she snorted quietly and shook her head. “It was actually one of the Daemons that helped explain it for me. They are power-obsessed and all, true, but they were born quite recently and still remember what it was like.”

It was weird to me that a statement like that was to be considered part of my new normal. “Which Daemon did you ask?” I inquired curiously.

“The small one that tags along with your little Toofy,...” Hana stopped to think for a moment, “Ril, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

“Oddly clever that one,” Hana mused with a smirk.

“How so?” I mean Ril was no cleverer than any of the other Daemons I had observed.

Cuter? Sure, but more clever or cunning? I wasn’t really convinced.

“She has been bathing in the Grove fountain every day. Sometimes for hours, ”Hana observed, as if that were a telling sign of intelligence.

“Sorry, I think you lost me there Hana. What’s so special about hanging out in the fountain?” I asked a little dubiously.

Hana gave me an amused smirk and then smiled, “Have you forgotten what the Grove does?” She asked with a hint of amusement in her voice.

I furrowed my brow for a moment, “It’s a mana-well right? The special trees draw mana up from underground and disperse it into the air.”

“Right,” Hana nodded, “But the water from deep below already has mana saturated in it as well, and the high level of ambient mana stops it from dispersing.”

Suddenly a few things began to make sense, “Wait, you don't mean?...”

Hana smiled and nodded, “Bathing in the Grove fountain, drinking its waters, infuses your body with its mana. The process is normally considerably slower than consuming manastones, but it seems that the Daemonling figured out a shortcut. She filters the mana from the water just by breathing.”

“What about mana addiction?” I groaned, recalling how I had encouraged Ril to swim in the first place.

Hana shrugged, “She shows no signs of anything you described to me after your..hrm, experience. In fact, she is far less obsessed than the other Daemons are regarding their manastone consumption. Every other Daemon takes their allotted manastone the literal moment they are allowed,” She snorted quietly and shook her head, “I have seen your Toofy and Ril playing some sort of game with them instead.”

I shook my head and tried to get my head around it. “This is why taking that manastone felt so familiar. I had already been drinking and bathing in that water.”

Hana nodded, “Its effects would be incredibly weak, but given you can see mana, it probably isn’t too unreasonable to assume you are somewhat sensitive to it as well.”

I knew Hana was just trying to be supportive, but the prospect of being more sensitive to mana, and therefore more susceptible to addiction, was not a pleasant one. Trying to look past my own problem for a minute I tried to think of the ramifications for Ril. “So swimming in the fountain isn’t bad for her?” I wanted to clear on this, it was too important.

“She will be fine,” Hana confirmed, “In fact, she seems to be close to her next Evolution.”

“Really?” I hadn’t been paying nearly enough attention since Ril was so small. She was still shorter than Toofy for crying out loud.

Hana nodded and thoughtfully rubbed her chin, “Gric Evolved a couple of days ago, but he seems to be emphasising a different route of progression to his hatch mates.”

“What do you mean?” I asked warily, not sure I would like what I was going to hear.

Hana shrugged apologetically, “I don’t know. All I know is that he Evolved and hasn’t outwardly changed all that much compared to say Qreet or Dar.”

“That’s strange,” I agreed, making a mental note to look into it.

Perhaps Gric had just been busy?

“I thought so too,” Hana nodded, “But he has been perfectly well behaved, just like all the others.”

“Well you’ve given me a lot to think about,” I sighed ruefully, “I better head to bed though, I probably have an early start ahead of me.”

“Oh?” Hana drew closer, “What are you getting up to now? I heard that you unlocked another Class,” she prompted.

I nodded somewhat tiredly, “Three actually. Monster Tamer, Beast Trainer and Wrangler.”

“Mhm mhm,” Hana nodded agreeably, “So what about Lash?” She asked, checking her nails and feigning disinterest.

“What about Lash?” I countered.

“Oh you know, I was just wondering how things were going between the two of you,” Hana commented innocently, “They must be going pretty well if you made her an Underlord right?”

“I...” I considered lying or dancing around the truth, but what was the point? “I don’t know,” I admitted.

Hana raised an eyebrow quizzically, “What do you mean you don’t know?”

I shrugged and raised my palms exaggeratedly, “I mean, I don’t know,” I insisted.

Rolling her eyes, Hana sighed, “Do you like her?” She asked bluntly.

I felt my cheeks flush in response, “Ah, yeah, she’s nice, I guess,” I admitted evasively.

“Tim, don’t be childish,” Hana chided, “Anyone with eyes can tell you like her. Just admit it.”

My cheeks flushed even more, “Fine, HRM,” I gruffly cleared my throat, “I like her,” I admitted.

“Aaaand? What is it you like about her?” Hana asked, oddly exasperated and amused.

“I like her eyes-” I was almost immediately interrupted by a loud irritated groan from Hana.

“-It’s been like five days Tim, have you seriously not talked to her at all?!” Hana demanded incredulously.

“I’ve been busy...” I muttered defensively.

Hana gave me a pitying look, “Lash really seems to like you, you know. You should at least try to find out more about her.” She calmed down a little and let out a quiet sigh, “Is it really so hard to talk to Lash?” Hana asked.

“You have no idea,” I groaned dejectedly, “When she is around, it feels like my brain is going crazy, I can hardly string two words together at a time, let alone hold an engaging conversation.”

“Really?” This had clearly piqued Hana’s interest, “Why is that?”

I gave Hana an incredulous stare, “Because I find her incredibly attractive and...well...I don’t really have any experience with this sort of thing, okay?”

Hana’s expressions softened, “Gah, right, sorry...” She apologised, “It’s just...I think Lash could really make you happy if you gave it a real chance,” Hana insisted.

“I’ll try, okay?” I agreed.

“That’s all I’m asking,” Hana smiled wryly, “You never know just how long we have left, you know?”

“I know,” I considered the number of dangerous psychos running around the Labyrinth and had to agree.

*****

“INCOMING” The warning came a second too late and Clarice watched as a Goblin warrior was knocked off their feet and pinned to the deck by a ballista bolt.

Too busy desperately fighting off the latest wave of boarders, Clarice pushed the sight of the screaming Goblin from her mind and focused on what her father taught her. “One enemy at a time,” she muttered, sweeping her sword down through the neck of her armoured opponent.

The Deep Orc staggered, blood running down the front of their armour as they stared at Clarice in surprise.

Snapping a kick to the Deep Orc’s midsection, Clarice launched the Deep Orc off the ship and into the river.

Immediately turning her attention to the next enemy, Clarice barely managed to dodge in time as an axe whistled past her head. Snapping her attention to the source of the attack, Clarice could see an Orc easily as tall as Tim and Lash pushing himself through the desperate melee, their gaze firmly fixed on her.

“Well fuck you too!” Clarice growled and snatched up one of the fallen axes herself. Taking only a moment to get a feel for the weight and balance of the thing, she hurled it at the oncoming Deep Orc.

*Clang*

Intending to contemptuously bat the attack aside, the large Deep Orc’s parry came a moment too late, the axe impacted its chest armour with a shower of sparks as it then continued past into the melee. The large Deep Orc just stared at Clarice for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure and began stalking forwards again, “YOU!” He declared, “YOU WILL BE SACRIFICED TO BRIGHT LORD!” The Deep Orc howled as he charged.

“Shit!” Clarice swore. There were too many fallen bodies on the deck and too many ongoing melee’s to give her the room she needed to fight a larger heavily armoured opponent.

*Shwing, Twang, Thwok*

A trio of arrows raced past Clarice and into the chest of the Large Deep Orc, unfortunately, the first two ricocheted near harmlessly off its chest plate. However, the third managed to catch him in his relatively exposed neck, biting deep into the crude leather. “Thanks Tobi!” Claricce called out gratefully but didn’t take her eyes off the Deep Orc. He was wounded but far from done.

“RAGH! WEAK HUMAN FILTH!” The Deep Orc roared in anger and barrelled towards Clarice, his axe held high for an attempt at a killing blow.

Keeping her temper, Clarice waited until the last moment to roll to the side, dropping her sword in the process but sending her free and clear of the scything arc of the axe.

Unbalanced by the lack of resistance, the blood slick deck, and the rolling of the waves, the Deep Orc lurched and began flailing as he nearly fell overboard.

More or less what Clarice had expected, she charged back at the unbalanced Deep Orc and shoved him as hard as she was able.

Tumbling over the side of the ship, the large Deep Orc disappeared into the river, dragged inexorably downward by his heavy armour.

Staggering away from the low railing, Clarice snatched up her sword again and cautiously approached the ongoing melee.

The Goblin warriors were hopelessly outmatched, their crude bone armour and short metal tipped spears were no match for the hulking heavily armoured Deep Orcs. But they fought ferociously nonetheless. They still had the Deep Orcs outnumbered five to one, and despite taking some losses, the Goblins were able to distract the Deep Orcs long enough for Clarice and Tobi to try and swing things in their favour.

The boarding actions had been taking place in earnest for the past hour. The larger enemy ship was deliberately keeping its distance while deploying smaller assault craft for boarding parties. The small fleet of ships belonging to the adventurer’s Guild was tied up fighting two other similarly sized ships of their own, so they could expect no help from them either.

When Clarice had volunteered to try and find Millie, Kirk and Rose, she had not expected something like this to happen. Clarice had thought the raid on the first-floor foothold had been crazy, but this was something else entirely.

Taking a quick look to make sure the others were okay, Clarice was relieved to see that their vanguard was more or less holding and even pushing the Deep Orcs back.

Tobi and Emelia were at the far end of the ship along with Beaky, Thunder, Shady and Ushu. Nadine was below decks treating as many of the wounded as she was able, most likely chugging her way through every mana potion the Goblins had in the process.

At first, Clarice hadn’t really understood why Tim had been so willing to surrender himself to Slavery to save Toofy. She was just a Goblin after all, there were always more of them. But after living amongst the monsters, she had been slowly changing her mind.

When Ushu had insisted they personally support the Sunrock Goblins aboard the Sunstrider, Clarice had been reluctant, to say the least. The memory of the first-floor raid was still fresh in her mind and it had been hard to separate the actions of those wild Goblins from their more civilised kin.

Then Clarice had seen the terrified faces of their children...

The hold of the ship was damn near filled with the little buggers. Just like Ushu’s tribe, the Sunrock had prioritised the safety of their children first.

Looking into their little snot-nosed faces, the lingering anger and resentment she had felt changed targets. The thought of someone deliberately seeking to harm them made Clarice’s blood boil. Tim really didn’t have a choice, she now recognised the dilemma.

At what point does your inaction translate to responsibility?

Shaking her head and focusing on the battle, Clarice charged towards the closest Deep Orc. With Goblins harrying her target from all sides, she limited her attacks to thrusts at the exposed points of the armour under the arms and around the neck. Hardly the most effective use of her two-handed blade, Clarice waved the Goblins away so she could begin her attack in earnest.

Only too keen to help elsewhere, the Goblins obliged, surging into another desperate melee, their added numerical advantage bearing an already wounded Deep Orc down to the deck.

With enough room to properly use her blade without striking allies, Clarice began her own assault in earnest.

Most of Clarice’s attacks were stopped short by the Deep Orc’s iron plate armour, but not all of them.

Unlike true plate and mail, the Deep Orc design for their heavy armour prioritised outer surfaces and didn’t cover their entire bodies. They had exploitable weak points of exposed flesh at the joints, midsection and neck.

Furthermore, Clarice had the benefit of her blade being made of steel, so she was reasonably confident in being able to strike the Deep Orc’s armour accidentally without the blade snapping or being heavily damaged. Ultimately, this was what gave her the edge. Ducking back from the savage swing of the Deep Orc’s axe, Clarice leapt right back in again with a sweeping blow from above and sheared through the Deep Orc’s right elbow.

Momentarily stunned, the Deep Orc stared at the severed stump for a moment and staggered. However, rather than collapsing to the deck as Clarice had expected, the Deep Orc howled in fury and bodily rushed Nadine with such sudden momentum that she barely had time to react.

Swept up in the Deep Orc’s tackle, Clarice realised with sudden horror that they were tumbling over the side of the ship. Letting go of her sword, she desperately grasped for the railing but was too late.

Crashing into the water, Clarice felt the air forcibly eject from her lungs and barely avoided inhaling a lungful of river water. The Deep Orc was driving them downward, his sheer weight causing them to sink at an alarming speed. Viciously pummeling at the Deep Orc to try and loosen his grip, Clarice began to panic.

They were not alone in the water, dark shapes loomed below and were drawn by the ribbons of blood trailing from the Deep Orc’s arm like a beacon.

Frantically pulling a knife from her belt, Clarice began viciously stabbing at the Deep Orc’s neck. The moment she felt his grip slacken, Clarice kicked off of the Deep Orc, dropped her knife and desperately swam towards the surface. If she was lucky, Clarice would be able to reach one of the abandoned boats the Deep Orcs had been using as assault craft.

Feeling a disturbance in the water beneath her, Clarice didn’t dare look down, she would make it to the surface or she wouldn’t. Already dealing with a pounding headache and desperately needing to take a breath of air, Clarice knew she would have no chance at fighting anything without drowning anyway.

All but certain now that death was only a matter of seconds away, Clarice kicked harder, she had almost reached the surface!

Something crashed into the water beside her, but Clarice was beginning to blackout and continued struggling towards the surface. “GUH!” She desperately swallowed a lungful of air and coughed violently to expel the small amounts of river water she had swallowed by accident earlier. Feeling the turbulence in the water beneath her, Clarice desperately swam for the nearest boat with all of her remaining strength. Scrambled out of the water and onto the empty boat, her vision swimming.

Clarice couldn’t believe she had made it out alive. She felt exhilarated, more energised than ever and riding the rush of victory. She laughed in sheer glee.

She was Clarice! Most fearsome warrior on three levels! No one could best her!

A black alert appeared in front of Clarice’s eyes, and her excitement turned to ice. She stared, uncomprehendingly at the party status alert.

[Thunder has been killed by Hydra!]

Clarice fought the urge to blink, which would have dismissed the alert. She didn’t want to lose the last connection she had with Thunder. "No. No, not Thunder..."

Clarice had planned on riding that damn bird all the way to the top of the Labyrinth. They were going to be the first to see what was really up there. Riding Thunder made her feel damn near invincible. Nothing had been able to scratch them without swift and vicious reprisal.

And now Thunder was gone. Thunder had had to fight alone, because Clarice had been occupied with that damn Deep Orc.

And that bastard had brought a Hydra?

Clarice closed her eyes and got to her feet. She opened her eyes and stared out over the battle.

“CLARICE!” Someone was yelling her name, but they sounded very far away.

A dull pain blossomed in Clarice's shoulder as a bolt tore through her sodden gambeson and disappeared behind her into the river. Clarice ignored it. Only a flesh wound. Not important.

Out of the corner of her eye, Clarice spotted movement in the depths of the river. A shadow glided by, easily larger than the twenty foot boat she stood on. It was trailing the Sunstrider like a shark, ready to snap up anything -- anyone -- that fell into the water.

"I'll fucking kill you," Clarice muttered through clenched teeth. She balled her fists so tight her bones ached. "HYDRA!" She shouted at the shadow. "YOU HEAR ME? I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"