Homemade Delight was a prosperous inn in the town Drakenbury, with a restaurant on the upper floor and a wealthy clientele. They were known for their sweets and spicy badger stew, roasted nightingale panther and many other nutrient meals made of exotic monster parts. Today wasn’t a good day for the inn, in fact, today was a very bad and unprofitable day because of a single person not allowing anyone else in the restaurant and hogging all the food for himself!

The waiters nervously ran back and forth, bringing plates after plates of food to a long table meant for ten. A giant of a man, two meters tall and almost as wide, sat at the table constantly stuffing himself without reservation. It was a sight of disgust yet oddly fascinating to watch.

The man was Valerian Hellraiser, a bandit leader and the last bounty Bones was after. Valerian was an oddity among the other leaders because he worked alone. People near him tend to get burned a lot due to his unique aptitude toward his class so he was fated to work alone, bankrupting business in more ways than one, whenever he could and whenever someone paid him to. And the reason he was in the inn today was one such gig.

None of the waiting staff, the chef or even patron had the courage to speak up. They didn’t know who their guest was, but recognized their kind - unreasonable and prone to violence. If word spread that they refused other customers because of a single guest, the future wealthy clientele would find some place else to eat. A very unfavorable position the patron of the inn found himself in and the man was of two minds if he should involve the guards to try and diffuse the situation. The hesitation on his part and the decision not to act sooner would lead to utter destruction of the restaurant ten minutes later.

Half an hour earlier, before the evening, Bones entered the town and having no other options at his disposal he once again turned to the Thief’s Guild in order to obtain the information he needed. This time, he was careful who he was talking to and who was listening, but his efforts were ultimately useless. Unbeknownst to him, Liam reached the town earlier that day and has been keeping tabs on Bones’ movements ever since he entered the town. Liam remained at a distance, just observing and for a reason.

Before being sent chasing after Bones, Jazmyne implicitly ordered him not to engage and not to get involved if the target was a man called Hellraiser. She didn’t explain herself despite Liam's inquiry on the matter but her words were like law and he would follow them through. He couldn’t help but wonder why though. Did she know him? What was their relationship? It would be the perfect moment to strike when Bones engaged the bandit leader, maybe even take out the both of them.

Her word is the law. He repeated in his head and watched Bones head in the direction of the inn. He followed after him without being noticed until Bones stopped in front of the inn and entered. Liam and his men stayed and watched from the shadows of the nearby alley. The lieutenant wasn’t sure what next course of action to take. His instructions were only up to here and it was up to him to decide what to do next. The ideas brewed in heads and he went over dozens of scenarios. All of them relied on the outcome of the fight between Bones and the bandit leader. So he waited…

Meanwhile, inside the inn, everyone’s eyes turned to Bones after entering. The eyes were that of tired, fearful men, Bones had seen plenty of time before.

“My apologies sir, the establishment is c-closed for the day. Could I ask you to come back tomorrow?“ A middle aged man, with a few strands of hair left poorly combed over a bald spot, approached and asked. The man was a patron and he looked nervous, worried and like he had thousands of thoughts jammed inside his head to process.

[Is it time for dinner yet? And wine! Bring more wine! Can’t you see my cup is empty? *tsk tsk*]

The booming voice rumbled and carried over from the upper floor. Bones glanced towards the stairs leading to the restaurant, then back to the patron and said: ”I thought the establishment was closed for the day?“

The man gave him a stiff smile and said that someone reserved the whole floor for the day. He then turned to one of the female waiters and ushered her to hurry and serve the wine. “Bring the whole bottle!“

Bones watched with a hint of pity because he knew it was about to get a lot worse from here on out.

“I understand. Since it’s like this, I’ll be quick about my business.“ Bones said and headed towards the stairs. The patron yelped in surprise and ran before Bones in order to stop him but Bones ignored his pleas, saying it’ll only take a moment.

Despondent, the patron ran past Bones and stormed up the stairs. He quickly returned down with two waiters following from behind and stopped in front of Bones again with imploring eyes, looking like he wanted to ask something but no words came out. What could he even ask? For Bones to ask his guest to leave? Kick him out? Or maybe not to destroy the restaurant?

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Bones exhaled, as if understanding his worries and said: “Just a quick bite. Don’t worry so much.“ He then sidestepped the patron and before the stairs, two figures appeared next to him, one on each side. Everyone gasped at the scene, then ran out the building in a hurry and watched the inn from the outside, waiting for something to happen.

Bones climbed the steps to the first floor and slipped into the dimly lit restaurant, the scent of roasted meat and ale filling the air. His hollow eyes scanned the hall. The establishment was very different from the ones he’s visited before. From the paintings on the walls, luxurious chairs and tables to napkins and eating utensils, everything looked expensive - a notch higher than what he was used to. On his far left he heard the revolting sounds of munching food and the gulping of wine. He looked in the direction the sounds were coming from and, over the tables, saw his target sitting at the long dining table. Bones walked over to the center of the hall where he had a clear line of sight and took a closer look at his target. The bandit leader looked entirely different from what he envisioned.

Valerian was dark skinned and bold, with long black beard reaching down and resting on a plate of food, and he had the most striking flame themed tribal tattoo going from his arms up to his neck and the head. Bones could see why the staff acted the way they did. The man’s appearance was a deterrent enough for anyone to approach him, let alone speak up against him.

What a giant blob of mass… he looked like the kind that would dine and dash - no way he’s paying for all this food. Wait, could he even run with that body?

“Are you planning on drying the restaurant's food reserves?“ Bones blurted out.

Valerian stopped chewing and looked up from his food. “Huh, are you lost?”

Bones didn’t respond. They eyed each other for a few seconds and then the bandit leader simply went back to chewing a drumstick in his hand. “More wine!“ He raised his voice.

Does he think I work here? Bones raised an eyebrow. He thought it was rather obvious by his attire that he and his golems didn’t work there. When Valerian noticed Bones wasn't moving, he leaned back on his chair and loudly belched while tapping his enormous belly. If Bones had a mouth himself, he was sure he would throw up in it a little. When he finished, Valerian leaned in over the table and narrowed his menacing eyes at Bones and his entourage.

Oh? He isn’t as carefree as he seemed to be. Is he planning on making a move? Bones had his two golems spread out and await the command to execute a pincer movement on the bounty. Valerian didn’t mind, with a big smile on his face and yellow teeth, he addressed Bones.

“Well, well, what do we have here? You don’t quite look like one of the waiters of this fine establishment! - So what are you waiting for? I made it clear that I don't want anyone else here bothering me so… are you a guest or did you come bringing trouble?“ A sly grin formed on his greasy face.

“Are you expecting trouble?” Bones replied in a heartbeat, then shook his head and approached the table. “I am not a threat”, he said, emphasizing the “I” part and not including his golems, “but I do have business with you.“ He said and sat at the table across from the bandit leader. Valerian stroked his beard and nodded, then started babbling about trivial things.

Bones quietly listened to the man talk, mostly about himself, and his senses detected their surroundings slowly changing. He took a brief glance around and saw the floor of the hall become murky with fog, like rosy plains in the morning. The strange change in the ambience was caused by Valerian himself. The skill he used made his body produce vapor that covered the ground and, what Bones failed to notice right away, after using the skill that enormous belly of his was slowly disappearing.

Bones turned back to Valerian who, while Bones wasn’t looking, stood up and spotting the same wide grin as before, kicked the table with enough force to flip it over.

“Y-you-” Bones muttered before he was abruptly cut off when the dining table slammed into him. After being pushed backwards from the impact, his body reacted before his thoughts did and after hitting the ground, he rolled to the side, avoiding getting pinned by the table.

At the same time his two golems moved. Both were roughly at the same distance from the target but Skully, the faster of the two, was the first to reach the man. When Bones looked up, he saw Valerian completely dominating his golems with one fiery move. The bandit leader loudly clapped his hands then spread them apart in one swift action. With palms raised and pointing towards the golems, he unleashed a torrent of fire that consumed everything in its path.

Thanks to the lizardman’s flexibility and innate reflexes, Skully was able to jump out of the way and avoid most of the attack, but the mere brush with the fire evaporated the hood he wore and made tatters out of his leather chest piece. The Lizardman ended back to back with the wall at the far end of the hall while Murdok was too slow to react and took the frontal attack head on. The torrent swept him off his feet, through the wall and he ended up crashing into the wall of the building on the opposite side of the street.

The continuous stream of fire didn’t stop for another few seconds despite the loud screams and yells of the onlookers on the street below. When Valerian finished casting the spell, all the extra weight on his body dissipated and a man with bulging muscles and steam coming off his smirking mouth stood in front of Bones.

“Two out, one more to go Mr. Trouble!“ The bandit leader sneered. As appalled as Bones was to see such a transformation before him, he only had one thing on his mind, and that was to escape, immediately!

Oh no… I have another Jazmyne on my hands! Bones thought and ordered Skully to get up and follow after him while thinking of distraction. At this point, anything would do and Bones decided to play it dumb. Dumb usually works!

He turned to the entrance of the restaurant and yelled: “P-patron! Get out of here!“ As expected, Valerian reflexively turned to look and the moment he did, Bones made a run for it - straight through the glass window and onto the streets where Murdok laid unmoving, face down and smoke rising from his body.

[M-murder!]

[Call the guards!]

The people shouted and started flocking to their location not realizing the approaching danger that was Valerian. Bones couldn’t properly assess the damage done, but seeing as Murdok wasn’t moving, he gathered the damage must’ve been substantial. So he extended his hand and Murdok turned into a stream of light that flew towards his hand and disappeared, safely stored in inventory.

Bones took one last look towards the broken window, where the bandit leader stood leaning on the window frame and watched him leave in amusement. Eventually the guards came, but didn’t manage to put out the fire that engulfed the inn. Upon taking witness statements, they searched through the burned remains and the surrounding streets but didn’t find any clues to the whereabouts of the man named Valerian.