Chapter 201

◈ Chapter 201:

A spear stabbed for his face and he batted it aside with a paw as a leveller slashed up his side with a sabre.  He grunted in pain and kicked out his foot taking them in the leg and eliciting a satisfying scream as it bent at a horrible angle. He hadn't time to check if they were down permanently as two others flung themselves on his back, stabbing and shanking with knives.

A spear sliced across his muzzle causing him to flinch. He snarled out and whipped around snapping the neck of one leveler on his back with the back of his paw and flinging the other one free with the motion. They crashed in the crowd surrounding him, knocking down a dozen of the thugs.

Spears were jabbed by those who had them, while those with blades darted in slashing at his flesh, using Skills to evade his claws and leaving scrawling lines of red up his body.

Each predation creature he sent at them was ruthlessly stabbed at by multiple levelers working together, scattering the thing to mist and those as the back kept taking pot shots with their bows, peppering his back with arrows.

He roared and snapped at the spears but the levellers backed away, and when he ran at them they simply scattered and he was forced to break pursuit as his lungs failed him.

The difference between fighting a handful of levelers in the arena, and fighting dozens of levelers whose profession revolved around capturing and controlling monsters was marked. There was no greed for the treasure in levels he represented here, they were purely working under order to put him down as efficiently and as safely as possible.

Feeling a lot like an animal being hunted, Rain searched for an answer. He found it in one of the steel solid steel spears that had fallen from the tower, lifting it he activated his Accurate Throw skill and hurled the thing at the nearest leveler. It looked certain to pierce through their armour and skewer them dead, but at the last possible moment the spear disintegrated into smoke.

Rain growled low, frustrated beyond belief, more so when an arrow punched a hole in his ear. He lunged for a leveler and they fled from him, forcing him to move to catch up, but his motions were far from responsive with his lungs crisped, his muscles feeling leaden even as he drew in great breaths.

He was badly injured, and he had nothing.

There was no sand to make traps, there was no weapon he could throw, the levelers were armoured and protected from his predation sneaking in, and they effectively worked together to destroy any predation that came at them.

The experience of this group was obvious… But then he would hardly be the first escaped monster that the Abattoir had to deal with, if maybe the most dangerous. He was just another of thousands of escapees over the years, just another monster of countless others, pantharas and cave bears or goblins and kobolds.

Thunk. Another arrow in his shoulder. He snarled as he brushed his paw by it, snapping the shallow embedded thing. The arrows hurt, but they weren't enough to penetrate his tough flesh properly. That at least was one thing in his favour. Kind of.

The truth was, that he had no way out of this trap. Quistis had countered everything he had.

He needed something to reach past the spears and penetrate the armour, but all of the weapons that were thrust in his face turned to smoke the moment he ripped them from their owner's hands.

There were some things the lamia couldn't disintegrate that he had learned from observing her in his cage. Flesh, black stone from the ruins, and… enchanted weapons?

He blinked as he recalled that the jade axe the minotaur had been hanging from hadn't disintegrated, it was the stone it was embedded in that had failed. Why? It was because the jade axe was enchanted, it had to be.

His head snapped around finding the rubble of the tower, bodies and steel spears scattered around it.

There. The axe lay half buried amongst the piled stone blocks.

He charged forward as best he could, the spear users backing out of his path, and those who tried to stop him found the back of his paw breaking their bodies in a single blow.

A few steps from his target and the rubble started to move, shifting and rising and to Rain's dismay the minotaur arose from the stone, a healing potion in his hand which he smashed over his chest with a grunt. His helm rose and he froze in surprise as he found Rain half running half staggering towards him.

"Monster!" came the metallic echo.

He needed that axe dammit!

As two more arrows thunk-thunked into his back he lunged for the surprised minotaur, reaching for him, reaching to grab and wrench away his weapon.

Unfortunately the minotaur wasn't going to allow it, and with a grunt he gripped the haft and slashed upwards at the reaching paw. The blade sliced into his paw, cutting deep, blood spraying.

With a cry Rain shoulder tackled the minotaur and they crashed into the pile of rubble before rolling over top, clawing and tearing at each other even as arrows continued to shower down and spears were held ready looking for an opportunity to stab.

Rain bit into the minotaur's helm, trying to rip the thing free so he could force through his predation, but the minotaur pulled a knife suddenly and stabbed in the neck.

The spears and arrows had been shallow, this, however, was deep and Rain was forced to pull back, slapping a paw to the wound, gasping in pain.

The minotaur pressed the advantage and crashed the blunt back of the axe into the other side of Rain's head, he fell to the side, scrabbling at the stone and the minotaur scrambled after, landing atop him amongst the rubble.

"Sub-sapient filth," came the metallic snarl as he gripped the knife, struggling to aim it at Rain's throat as he thrashed. "Know your death is down here and accept it already!"

He thrust, only to cry out, the blade slipping from his fingers. Rain looked over the minotaur's shoulder in surprise as Lyra appeared on top the armoured back, her black knife slipped beneath the edge of the minotaur's helm.

The minotaur bellowed in pain as blood flowed from the edge, a lot of blood, and grabbed for a frozen Lyra, taking hold of one of her hair buns and ripping her from his back as she cried out to crash to the rubble beside them.

"You backstabbing bitch! Why?! Why do this!? A rival to our business? An assassin?" his gauntlets groaned as he gripped the axe. "I should have never spoken to you, I should have killed you for just knowing of us the second I laid eyes on you." Rain could practically here the minotaur gritting his teeth. "No matter. The best time to kill an enemy is in the past, but the second best time is now, as they say."

In slow motion, Rain watched as the minotaur lifted the massive axe.

And brought it down on Lyra.

The jade blade went through her blouse, and passed through her shoulder, sinking horribly horribly deep.

This wasn't supposed to happen! They hadn't- she wasn't— NO!

Rain grabbed for the axe, slamming his paw against the handle and dashing it from the minotaur's hands, knocking it away.

Lyra looked down at the red canyon that was the edge of her shoulder.

"Oh… shit."

She collapsed, falling limp against the pile of rubble to slide down to the bottom in a scattering of stone. She shakily pressed a hand to the wound before curling up in the fetal position.

That was the last straw, and a pair of steady paws reached out and took hold of the minotaur's helmet and with one incredibly violent motion Rain twisted, muscles bulging under extreme strain.

The helmet would not come loose or even budge, clearly enchanted to keep in the correct place somehow, enchanted like the axe.

But that was not going to stop him, and with a roar he tore the enchantment asunder in a flash of jade sparks, wrenching the helmet, and the head inside, one hundred and eighty degrees, and then placing one foot against the torso he ripped the entire head from his body.

Along with pints of blood long strings of muscle and skin and tendon stretched between the bottom of the helmet to the now limp torso for a moment before Rain fully ripped the thing off. With one paw he took hold of it and hurled it at the nearest leveler, probably breaking their neck as the heavy thing impacted at speed and their head rocked back. Then taking hold of the headless corpse's hoof he swung for the nearest spear wielder smashing the corpse through them, crushing them to the ground with the enormous minotaur.

He couldn't breathe, but he didn't care, he recklessly charged the spears and smashed apart the levelers with his minotaur flail, he could no longer be stopped or stymied. A man held up his sword to block, useless, he folded like paper as the massive minotaur corpse smashed him to the ground, snapping his spine like a twig.

His vision was starting to swim but he was lost to his anger and then…

And then there was none left. The few who remained standing had fled and Rain turned looking to find he was alone, there was no one.

No one, that is, apart from the lamia who was calmly watching him. Stood there in the arena, as if she had simply been waiting for him to finish.

The lamia was tall, and wore black plate armour that covered every inch of her body, a full face helm, armour over her upper body, and even plates like scales that wrapped and shaped perfectly around her snake like lower body, all of it trimmed in gold scale, a lamia motif.

It was Quistis. And she had come to kill him.

"Tell me monster, did you feel something, when that girl nearly died? Was that anger truly for her?"

Rain stared, but then nodded. No sense denying it.

"In that case I hope it hurt, I hope you felt purest agony, I hope your guts twisted up as ice cold fear shot through you. If you did, maybe you felt a fraction of what I felt when you struck Triskian, shattering his body. He hangs on by a sliver, but I doubt he will ever be the same. You killed his Peirene and then you broke him again."

"You care for him?"

"Of course I do! He was the one who saved me from my wretched family! He's like a brother to me! And you, you hurt him. You hurt him badly. You know, I'm almost glad you are like you are, it makes it easier for me to imagine you as more than some monster. I would imagine you so because for me putting down a monster is no different than putting down a rabid dog, and I want to feel so much more than that, as I watch you die."

Rain took a step toward her.

"Don't you think we came here for a reason? You saw her, the one who sold me to you putting her life in danger to save me. Why?"

Another step.

The lamia paused. "You were planted here by— by my family?" she frowned, "But that makes no sense, I know what that girl Lyra did, why would she be working for—"

"No."

A step.

"Then why?!"

"I simply came here. To kill. And eat. You all."

The lamia seemed startled by that response, the animalistic honesty of the words were clear in Rain's tone, ringing with hunger and pure predatory intent. Which he made good on, by leaping at the lamia with a rip-snarl.

She flinched back, then thrust up her arm and a block of stone the size of a building burst from the ground launching Rain up two dozen feet.

He scrambled over the edge on all fours and lunged for the lamia below who was raising her arms, her anger rekindling into a bonfire. A spire exploded from the ground, a cluster of jagged spikes on top. Rain shot dark mass from his fur, sending it crashing into the spikes, not enough to stop them, but enough to knock his trajectory to the side. The spire blasted upward, the steep angled tiles rising up at frightening speed until it crashed into him smashing him aside.

He landed rolling on what appeared to be a bridge that hadn't been there moments before, the stone rolling and shifting as he sprung to his feet and ran wheezing down the curving ground as buildings rose either side, shooting up at crazy angles before collapsing over the bridge eager to crush him.

He stumbled as a tide of rubble caught his feet, then glanced ahead at Quistis, her arm raised high. That was his only warning as a glowing crystal the size of a castle plummeted from the ceiling. He pulled up short as the bridge cratered in front of him, the bridge bucking up a dozen feet and then falling down with the impact, crystal smashing down into the arena building, screams coming from within, countless hiding levelers crushed to death as half the arena collapsed.

He teetered at the edge for a moment before stumbling back, just in time as the castle sized crystal came rocketing back up, an entire cathedral rising from the earth, the crystal at the peak, hundreds of flying buttresses spilling from the stone one after the other before snapping and crumbling as structures grew out in a fractal of twisting blooming architecture.

Rain leapt from the crumbling bridge to a flying buttress which broke beneath his paws, he crashed onto a balcony below just as the balcony door smashed open and a flood of water blasted him through the stone railing. Falling out of control, spires and spikes rising eagerly up from the earth to skewer. He could see below the ground roiling and shifting as buildings rose and fell, uncontrolled, the lamia pushing herself to the absolute limit, reckless use of power.

He flung out a half dozen centipedes from his fur, grabbing hold of a malformed statue's limb, and just managed to shift his fall as the spires and spikes shot by. He caught sight of her standing on a slender tower then, and kicked off the cathedral wall as he hit, falling but this time with his arms outstretched he smashed into the side of the slender tower.

The tower swayed with the impact, and he dug his claws in, clinging, and then climbing, climbing frantically, snarling as he practically threw himself up the tower, foot smashing apart a window sill, claws ripping free a gargoyle, running on pure fury, vision darkening as he suffocated in his own lungs, adrenaline keeping him moving, climbing, hunting.

He burst over the edge of the tower to find Quistis waiting, waiting with a ball of smoke. The smoke shot toward his mouth, unprepared he frantically put his defences back up, ruin stone and flame, swatting at the smoke trying to keep it back as it slipped past. He succeeded, just. The smoke was prevented from invading his body once again.

He was sure he was going to have some kind of permanent damage just from all the shit his lungs and oesophagus had been through. Learning what it felt like to set fire to his lungs was knowledge he wished he hadn't acquired. His body instinctively feared anything like that ever happening again.

But then the smoke, and his reaction, had all just been a distraction to hide the true attack, and he grunted as a dozen long steel spears impaled him through limb and torso, the steel growing from the tower top like blades of rigid grass leaning out, carrying him into the air over the edge of the tower.

With that he was done. His body had reached its limit.

Quistis stared down at him, from where she stood curled upon a dais in the centre of the tower.

In the end, thought Rain, losing seemed quite inevitable. If there was ever a hard counter to an opponent who leaned on brute force like he did then Quistis was it.

She knew all that he could do and had prepared for all of it, years of experience hunting down and imprisoning monsters, keeping them in check, controlling them.

Fighting this god awful lamia was truly a one of a kind nightmare.

He wasn't sure things could get much worse.

Aaaand then the tower collapsed.

The tiny little flaw with such rampant and reckless creation of architectural mass was that the lamia hadn't had a lot of time to check for structural integrity and had gotten very sloppy.

The tower was slender and the insides were a mess of staircases to nowhere and missing support beams. It hadn't taken much, in the end, only the addition of Rain's weight hanging over the edge from a few steel spears.

The ground dropped away beneath Quistis and dragged Rain down with it as the spears impaled through him took him along for the ride.

In an act of desperation he ripped himself free and flung away from the tower, reaching for the nearby cathedral.

He crashed through a balcony and then bounced off, tumbling out of control until he hit a tiled roof sliding and tumbling down it in a wave of displaced tiles he crashed down through a flying buttress, smashed down on a roof where he desperately threw himself to the side, and then hit a mountain of rubble which he slid down to the bottom in a wash of small stones that skittered around him as he slowed to a stop in a limp heap.

Everything hurt. And he was fairly sure he'd broken his leg when he'd landed badly on the rubble.

He slowly raised his head, watching as the chaotic cathedral above him started to disintegrate, becoming smoke then gradually dissipating to nothing. His eyes drifted down and he found that he had come down in the arena, the structure of it half collapsed around the grounds, hundreds of monster corpses still stuffed up against the walls.

There were bodies strewn around in the middle too now, the levelers he had beaten to death with the minotaur, and there, there was Lyra. She was lying still, curled up on the ground with her back to him, unmoving.

He had discarded the plan when things went wrong, the plan they had hashed out on the bow of the ship.

Rain would find Quistis distract her, and then—

"You intended to use her." spoke Quistis as she approached, her long armoured tail snaking through the scattered rubble and bodies. "I saw how she fought against the chimaera, in the arena. That wool of hers is linked to a skill of some kind, along with an annoying ability to become invisible."

Rain glared up at her. Of course, it hadn't just been him she had been observing and planning around. She'd seen, she knew.

"A cute combination. But not a problem if you know about it."

She snapped her fingers and a pair of manacles formed around Lyra's ankles, tying them together with heavy chains.

She slithered closer to Rain. He wanted to move, he really did, but his body wasn't listening to him any more, he could only tremble and wheeze ragged breaths, his lungs felt like a doused fire pit twinkling with embers amongst charcoal.

She rolled her fingers, perfectly customised black plate with gold trim clinking and trinking with the motions. A sword appeared in her hand, sculpted from smoke. She glanced down at Rain and then reconsidered. The sword was replaced with a much longer spear so she didn't need to get close to the wild monster.

"I haven't decided what I will do with the sheep yet, l have very many questions for her. But for now watching you die by my hand will satiate my desire to see what you did returned tenfold," she said as she lowered the spear and carefully lined it up with Rains's throat. "If you won't let my smoke in, monster, then I will simply make a new hole for it to enter by, and then I will make your chest cavity my plaything."

She snarled as she thrust the spear.

Rain suddenly lunged into the strike, taking hold of the spear and yanking it forward. The tip scored past his neck but missed his throat, Quistis overbalanced, falling forward, unlike a species with legs she had no foot to bring forward to catch herself. Rain's paw, hidden beneath the rubble, exploded free, and what it held smashed down over the lamia's head.

Lyra's severed arm, covered in her black wool, hit home and enveloped the Lamia, billowing outward as it covered her shoulders, then down, passing by her hips and arms then snake tail. Rain grabbed hold of her armoured tail and heaved, practically throwing the lamia into the cloud of wool, grabbing then heaving until the last of her tail tip vanished inside.

"She's in!" he roared, and across the arena floor Lyra's wool slipped from black to white.

It was done.

They'd captured the insanely powerful and incredibly terrifying Quistis, trapping her in woolspace.

Rain flopped back against the rubble and almost passed out then and there.

He lifted a paw and pressed it against his head as he heard Lyra climbing to her feet and complaining about the heavy chains around her ankles, making pained sounds as she touched at her stump.

He had seen something while being pinned dangling in the air by Quistis's spears so far above the arena on the slender tower. He had seen something he truly hadn't expected to see from the sheep girl. He'd seen Lyra standing up and walking across the arena below… and then hiding her own goddamn severed arm beneath the rubble.

The fact that it was still connected to woolspace despite being detached from her body was something he had never expected either, but then he could set a small flame on any part of his predation while it was away from him, and this ability of hers was clearly somehow connected to the predation.

She'd stumbled back, and then placed herself in the exact same position and exact same curled up pose she had fallen in, and that act had made obvious what her plan was.

There was still an element of surprise to be had.

It had only required Rain making himself fall in the exact right position, and what felt like breaking his leg in the process, but he'd managed it.

The blow from the minotaur's axe, by some twist of fate, along with Lyra's desperate improvised plan using her own severed arm, had saved them.

He grinned fiercely as his vision started to fade. Darker, yet darker.

"Hey, hey! Don't pass out on me! Do you know how much freaking pain I'm in right now! Rain!"

Said Lyra, as Rain passed out.