Chapter 200

◈ Chapter 200:

Shapes moved through the dust filled air, shapes that created whirl and eddies and momentary voids of space in which living darkness could be seen, the flank of a great tiger, the flash of a centipede's tail, and where these dark shapes lunged came screams and bellows of alarm. Sometimes those were screams of pain as the dark incised into bare flesh, sometimes grunts of exertion as the predation was obliterated by the crash of a war hammer or the slash of a sword, disintegrating into mist and adding to the obscuring dust in the air.

The sounds of skirmish echoed through the arena corridors.

At the end of one corridor the dark was starting to lose, the number of levellers increasing, overwhelming the predation with sheer weight of number and use of magics. Unfortunately it was the corridor right by Rain.

Rain turned to the sheep girl standing at the prow of the broken ship. "You should hide. It would be bad if you were seen with me."

Lyra looked down at him, worry in her eyes, about to say something.

And then came the sound of running feet, many running feet, sandals and armoured boots slapping and clanking against paving as dozens of levelers charged through the roiling dust, fury on their faces.

Rain's eyes widened. "Go."

But the sheep girl was already gone, and then the levellers were on him.

With a roar a great minotaur charged right through the dust cloud, a steel helm shaped to his head and a huge jade battle axe held in both gauntleted hands which he swung without hesitation.

Rain shot predation from his fur in the same motion he dodged to the side. The unfortunate side effect of being generally larger was that there was more of him that needed to be moved out of the way to avoid an attack, and the curved blade of the jade axe just guillotined past his shoulder, a few cut hairs fluttering into the air.

At the same time the swell of unformed predation crashed against the minotaur's breastplate, making him grunt and shoving him back before it spilled up and up like a wave of death, crashing into the underside of his helm yet unable to find a way in.

The leveler seemed to realise the threat the dark presented as one gauntleted mitt slipped from the axe handle and slapped home against his chest, scattering and destroying the dark as it hit.

Rain took the opportunity of distraction, kicking out, one giant foot crashing into the minotaur's midriff, eliciting a grunt and launching him off his hooves and fully into the air. He came down amongst the dozens of leveler's behind who swarmed around him and surged forth.

As much Rain thought he might be able to take this group of furious levelers he hesitated to attack, especially because many of them were wearing armour, the ones who did not had already fallen. But more important than that was the sheer unpredictability of the situation. That thought was made firm as what appeared to be a transparent dart passed by his head, inches from hitting him in the eye and sparking off the stone ship behind. Some kind of Skill, a threat.

Retreat seemed the smarter move when so many high levelers, and well armoured levelers at that, were massed, and he reached up grabbing hold of the stone ship's edge before jumping and rolling over the top. A spinning glowing disc of light passed by just where he had been and cut deep into the stone wall nearby.

Like hell he was going to face this unpredictable lot face on. Better to pick them off in smaller groups if he could.

He let the dark mist which had been gradually flowing back to his fur free once more, a mass of writhing centipedes with a domestic cat for a head. The horror from some deepest darkest nightmare meowed happily as it flung itself off the ship's edge to attack the leveler's, or perhaps play with the mice from its perspective.

Rain didn't stop to see, he rolled down the other side, scattering a few more predation made tigers for good measure and sprinting down the arena corridor.

He didn't make it far, his steps quickly slowed, his whole body shaking as he breath became ragged, drawing in great chestfuls of air. Shit. His lungs were in a worse state than he realised, and the healing potions had done less than he hoped for. He hoped he hadn't given himself some kind of permanent lung damage in his desperation to escape being under Quistis's thumb.

He leaned against the wall, one paw clutching his chest as he tried and failed to catch his breath.

He was interrupted from behind by the sound of hooves hammering down the stone corridor like a hammer on a blacksmith's anvil.

Rain turned to find the minotaur sprinting towards him once again, the jade axe held in both hands ready to swing, a wildness was in the minotaur's motions, as if the minotaur had an almost manic need to kill him, although why that was Rain didn't know.

But more importantly, the ceiling had started to shimmer above the minotaur as he ran, and rain looked around in alarm as parts of the corridor started to change, doorways becoming solid stone, passages being blocked off as marble walls formed. With a cry he sank up to his hips into the ground, reactions too sluggish to scramble free from the untrustworthy floor or the stone which sealed around his hips as the smoke reformed.

It was Quistis. She was here.

Her voice, made loud with a Skill echoed distantly down the corridor.

"The one who kills the wolf will be given all of the gold spent today, I'm sure those of you with any wits will realise just how much that is, kill the wolf, bring its body to me, and collect your millions."

Welp. That explained the almost suicidal greed of the minotaur.

With a snarl he jerked his legs, the stone that had formed around them crumbling and breaking apart under his strength, long fractures shooting down the corridor as the minotaur flung his axe high overhead and with a bloody roar brought it down on Rain.

Rain slammed up a paw as he climbed free from the crumbling stone, catching the handle just under the axe blade.

The minotaur kicked out with his hoof as soon as the haft caught, clearly hoping to return the favour from earlier. Unfortunately for him the entire floor suddenly tipped, angling downwards, and he had to stumble to catch his feet, Rain too as he stepped free from the hole, letting go of the axe as the ground dropped beneath him.

He heard cries of alarm and his head turned to find that the crowd of leveler's who had been following behind the minotaur were having just as much trouble, crouching down and hanging on as the corridor became a steep incline.

Rain dug his claws in. If this was Quistis's idea of an attack then it was not a very good one in his opinion, he could hang on here with his claws in the stone as long as was needed and—

A roar of water unleashed came from up the corridor and his mouth fell open, head snapping around as a torrential river came down the sloping corridor, filling it wall to wall and nearly to the ceiling.

He could do nothing but hang on as the water crashed over him, flowing over and around him, fully submerging him.

He thought he could make it even then, claws digging deep into the stone. But then the stone betrayed him, the fractured surface crumbling apart, and he slipped free. With a gargled yelp he was sent head over heels rolling down the sloping water filled corridor, smashing into the minotaur and knocking him free too.

Together they went rolling and falling down with the last of the water, fists flying as they grappled before the minotaur suddenly slammed his axe down and stopped, the corner of the axe head digging into stone.

A moment later Rain realised that was probably a wise move on his part as the corridor no longer ended with the stone ship, instead it ended in a pit, and at the bottom lay the bodies of the levelers who had gone before, the dead and dying impaled on long steel spears.

As he slipped over the edge he lunged out in a moment of panic and managed to grab hold of the minotaur's dangling hoof. Grabbing hold with first the one paw and then the other before slapping up against the pit wall, dangling from the leg.

"G-get off!" bellowed the minotaur, his voice echoing from the steel helm. Rain blinked in surprise as he realised he recognised the voice. It was the minotaur from the front entrance to the abattoir, the first of the Abattoir gang they had met.

He kicked with his other leg, once twice, digging the metal shod hoof into Rain's paw. Rain growled and was about to lunge up and start climbing up him when to his and the minotaur's utter horror the stone the jade axe was embedded in collapsed into smoke.

Quistis really seemed to no longer care for anything but killing him.

The minotaur howled his betrayal as he plummeted along with Rain, who desperately flung out his paw grabbing hold of the falling minotaur and wrestled him below

The minotaur slammed down against the solid steel spears with Rain riding on top. The enchanted armour held up for a second before being punctured through, a spear piercing through the minotaur's stomach and then crashing into the back plate. Rain looked down in alarm as the metal deformed around the horrendously sharp spike, but it held despite his weight on top.

The fall had been deadly, but like this the trap could not harm him. He carefully took hold of some of the nearby steel spears and pulled himself away from the impaled minotaur, hanging from the vertical poles. The minotaur was still alive, it seemed, judging by the pained groans echoing from the armour, although he wasn't doing particularly well.

The pit wasn't completely sealed in and in fact it seemed like it had been accidentally combined with part of the arena's structure as near the bottom part a corridor had merged into it at an angle.

A few of the surviving levelers had managed to climb from the water that filled the bottom of the pit up into the merged corridor and were stumbling away.

Rain started working out how to best make his own way over too, but then the ground began to shake and to his dismay the water drained away below as the floor began to rise. The spears and dead bodies and himself with it, elevating them all from the pit at an increasing speed. The lamia wasn't content to let him be it seemed.

One of the levelers impaled yet still alive near the edge of the pit was sheared in half as the stone rose, a bloody smear being driven up the wall by the rising floor.

They rose past the sloped corridor that had dumped them in the pit and through a cloud of opaque grey smoke bursting free out in the open air. They had been extracted from the arena's interior using a tower just like the one Quistis had used to separate him from the centaur when they had fought.

Rain hung onto the spears and looked around in alarm. The arena had changed since he had last seen it, gone was the giant snake and the private boxes, instead the thing appeared almost fortified with layered walls and crenelations looking down onto the now flat marble arena floor, although the many hundreds of monster bodies were still piled up against the interior walls.

He could see groups of levelers sprinting along rooftops. Not like the clients with their wealthy clothing, but rougher wear, more practical. It was the Abattoir gang.

He didn't have time to see more however as an arched bridge growing up from outside the arena crashed into the tower he was upon and the stone blockwork shattered near the bottom, tipping and falling like a felled tree, those few still alive amongst the spears screamed as the tower collapsed.

With an earth shattering crash the tower disintegrated as it struck the ground. Blocks of stone and bent metal spears tumbling across the marble arena floor, the end of the tower collapsing into a wave of stone work tossing Rain free. He skidded across the ground before finding his feet.

He barely had a moment's respite before an arrow took him in the side, nearly making him lose his balance as he grit his teeth in pain. He looked up to see levelers leaping over the parapets as a dozen archers took aim at him. The tower had served its purpose, he'd been placed in the middle of a killing field.

Rain flung out his paw and a scattering of dark flying wolf teeth shot across the ground before diving up and around, coming down on the archers who cried out in fear fleeing for their lives.

Weak.

The ones coming for him on the ground were more of a problem, in fact those who didn't have their own armour had apparently acquired some for their own in the moments since the tower had fallen. Identical armour, all with a certain lamia motif on the breast plate.

He didn't have to guess where that had come from. Quistis was taking note of everything he did and trying to counter it. That was the problem with showing what you could do, it gave your opponent time to negate your advantages.

A voice echoed across the crenellations.

"You know what I am capable of so kill the monster or die by my hand. Please me and I will reward you with all you could desire."

Rain could already feel the ground starting to shift beneath his feet, looking to trap his legs once again.

Being cornered like this, with so many powerful levelers surrounding him with unpredictable skills? It was a goddam death sentence!