Chapter 196

◈ Chapter 196:

Aolis.

Rain turned to see the elf with his parents, both of whom had their wolf-styled helmets closed, standing armoured in plate engraved with golden words of litany such as 'Light' 'Purity' The elf made his bid, and no one bid against him. It was a small bid compared to what had gone before, but the fear of facing Rain stayed other's hands, unwilling to put money down against what was now seen as a very difficult to fight monster.

He won the auction with a fierce grin on his face.

Three metal armoured boots came down on the stone railing, and the trio were stepping over in the exact same mirrored motion, dropping down in the exact same motion, landing with a thump at the exact same time, rising to stand in the same motion.

The small part of Rain that was still human was becoming quite angry. It hated this elf for what it had done to the mermaid, the mermaid who truly thought she was human, the one who had touched him and had appeared…

Rain himself wanted him to die for troubling Opal…

He decided to make the first move.

"You killed that leveler, the one that was part monster."

Aolis blinked, surprised that he was getting addressed so directly and immediately by the monster.

"I may or may not have," he said, his reply measured.

It could have been any of the three of them, their armour was identical and their heights the same. The armour was all Rain had seen of the killer… but he could just tell by the elf's tone that he had killed Bastial… and he had relished it.

He tilted his head.

"But aren't you part monster too? With your mother loving big fat troll cock? And the smell… By the way there's this stuff called cleaning potion, it can really help with bathing, I highly recommend it."

Aolis's face flushed, his gauntleted hand creaking as he white knuckle gripped his sword. His parents raised their swords either side of him, the motions perfectly in sync.

"Hearing this nonsense from that insolent leveler is one thing, but from a sub-sapient monster is quite another. I will cut you apart and have what remains of you stitched into a fur coat."

"I… don't think wearing a coat will hide the smell if that's your plan."

"Desist!"

"I mean, really, covering it up won't hide it at all. You're wearing armour now and I can smell you from all the way over here."

"BE QUIET!"

"You could come down to the dungeon, with the rest of our monster kind. I know a few pig monsters who probably wouldn't mind your smell." Rain dramatically scented the air, wrinkling his nose then making an expression of distaste. "Then again, maybe not."

"WILL YOU SHUT UP!" screamed the elf, his eyes becoming bloodshot. With a strangled scream he launched himself forward, his helm clacking down as he moved. His parents seemed caught by surprise by the suddenness of the attack and a moment later charged after him.

For all his preening and hot headedness the elf was fast, very fast, and he shot across the sand at a full sprint, the armour more like a second skin to him than heavy plate. The blade engraved with the word 'Virtue' in gold up its length whipped out, readying to be driven into Rain's guts.

Rain for his part widened his stance, lowered his body into a crouch, readying.

The highly and meticulously polished silver knight charged forward… and stepped into a hole that hadn't been there a moment before.

With a cry he fell forward, arms flailing, desperately trying to regain his balance, only to see a massive black furred fist uppercutting around from below, a fist the size of an anvil.

Rain grunted as he put all the muscle he could behind the blow, a truly staggering amount of force, enough to shatter stone.

His fist impacted with the helmeted head and crushed the steel wolf muzzle flat before brutally snapping back the head. The enchanted and engraved steel helm hissed and flickered as it was broken.

The elf went flipping end over end before crashing to the ground in a plume of sand.

They lay still.

Then a faint female groan came from the form.

Female?

Rain blinked in surprise and then turned to see the other two identical knights.

"What have you done!" bellowed an older voice, turning and facing the other knight, clearly outraged.

"It used a trick, it had to be done, I am more valuable than mother. Our family's future is with me!" came Aolis's voice.

Rain's brow rose. Glancing between the groaning knight lying limp on the sand, and the knight that had spoken.

More Skills that he didn't understand. Aolis had somehow changed places with his mother, switching out himself inside the armour with her.

Didn't matter. He would crush them all anyway.

He took a step toward the pair, and they turned back to him. Wolf styled steel helms like wolf pups in comparison to him. Fakes. A farce.

"Forget what just happened." snapped Aolis. "Remember the black rope that came from the sandstorm? It can do more than its letting on. Watch the ground and mind your step. It's doing… something. Tricks, of some kind."

"I'm not doing anything, you're just a fucking idiot who tripped over his own fat feet." said Rain taking a step closer.

"It— It also seems to really like goading its opponents," ground out Aolis from behind tightly clenched teeth, the tip of his sword wavering as he trembled with anger.

"We will have words about what you did later, but for now…" said the father.

He raised his sword in perfect sync with Aolis and the blades touched. After a moment the lettering engraved up each blade started to glow with a cold white light. Rain watched the blades warily. He felt instinctively that getting cut by these swords would be an immensely bad idea, just looking at the way they glowed in an almost clinical way made him want to shudder, more like scalpels than swords, designed to split flesh like jelly, razor blades.

They were a threat he couldn't ignore.

He strode forward suddenly, paw flicking out in a gesture of command. The sand exploded beneath the two knights' feet, a cloud of dust bursting upward as a pair of arm thick centipedes pounced. One centipede clamped down successfully on Aolis, its pincers gripping hold of the gauntlet that held his sword.

The father smacked the centipede that went for him aside with the back of a steel fist and thrust with an expert double front step, aiming to skewer Rain as he came for them, stabbing cleanly under arm.

Unfortunate for him that Rain had set the largest trap yet just in front of him. The father cried out as his footing fell out from under him and he sank into the sand up to his waist.

With monumental effort Aolis wrenched his sword forward, half dragging the centipede latched onto his wrist from the sand. He charged up behind his father and held the blade over his head, a defensive posture.

But the other centipede, casually brushed aside, hadn't left. It formed a knotted tangle and whipped itself at the Elf's back so hard that it half disintegrated into mist.

The dark crashed into steel and Aolis was sent stumbling forward to collide with his sunken father. With a yell of dismay he tipped over the top of him, legs kicking as the sword was knocked from his hand, cutting through the remaining centipede as he flipped entirely over onto his back.

One leg didn't hit sand however. Rain's long arm came down and snatched his foot, ripping him from the earth in one sudden motion and bringing his arm back and then up. He swung Aolis around his head like a metal flail.

It was a strategy, of a sort. Rain wasn't wearing armour that could stop what he suspected were very lethal Skill enhanced blades, so he couldn't get too close, and he had no weapon himself that could break their plate armour, his predation only really worked on flesh.

So he had made a weapon.

Aolis.

The elf open mouth screamed as he hurtled through the air and came down with a brutal hammer blow on his trapped father, the sound of armour crashing against armour was like a cupboard of metal plates had been upended on the stone floor. The noise was unbelievable, screeching and twisting metal and flying sparks as the two bodies collided with staggering speed.

The father was slammed flat back against the sand as the son was used as a makeshift club against him, dents and damage interrupting engraved litany and carefully made enchantments in a cascade of chromatic sparks and screeching steel.

Aiolis's voice cut off just as the two knights collided, the impact apparently knocking him unconscious. Rain drew him back as the father weakly raised an arm to defend, CRASH! Again they collided. Steel hitting steel at frightening speed, the living flesh inside unable to hold up.

Rain was about to draw the knight flail back for the third time when out of nowhere pure agony slid into his lower back.

It was like the purest cleanest fire, designed to cauterise, and it was in his lower back, it was cutting into bone!

A flash of real animal fear suddenly shot across his mind. Recalling the dungeon in Lynthia, an axe to his spine that had left him unable to walk or move, leaving him paralysed and utterly helpless. Here that would be a death sentence.

He roared in a mix of panic and pain and twisted, the blade slicing side on into him, deep, slicing apart his flesh, but moving away from his spine and out, the bone left only partially cut by the infinitely sharp blade.

His knight flail whipped around at terrifying speed and smashing side on into the one who had stabbed him. It was the one with the crumpled and crushed helmet, moving easily now, as if they hadn't been knocked flat by his fist just moments earlier.

The two sets of armour collided with a steely boom and the knight who had stabbed him in the back was launched sideways as though fired from a highly strung ballista, flung across the arena and smashing into the arena wall, cratering the stonework, their body partially jammed inside as they hung down limp.

Rain glanced between the impacted knight and the one he held dangling in his paw. Aolis, he had switched again, the one he now held was the mother, still unconscious. He hadn't realised it could happen so quick, and just as the thought crossed his mind the father lunged from beneath and stabbed up, the sizzling razor blade dipping slightly into his stomach before he jerked back with a cry of pain, kicking the arm away.

Aolis once more! He'd switched armour before hitting the wall! Rain's fist came down like a hammer, uncaring, he just wanted to break this one, to prevent the damned elf from switching over and over.

His paw crashed into the breast plate with a shriek of metal and tearing claws and in that same moment the dangling knight in his paw plucked a knife from their belt.

Rain caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and with a roar of frustration he threw himself to the sand rolling and grabbing for them. The knife stabbing into his paw as his paw engulfed the arm and then in one savage snarling motion he bit into and ripped the knight's entire arm from his body, like tearing apart a doll with his teeth. A spray of blood spat across the sand from the separated steel.

There was a scream from the armour, and this time, for the first time, it sounded like Aolis.

Rain landed fully on top of the elf, paws clawing and tearing, trying to rip apart the armour, the armour that was covered in engravings of litany, engravings which were now glowing brighter and brighter and brighter, a shrill metallic whine rising and rising and—

With an earth shattering BOOM! an explosion went off and Rain was tossed up into the air, tumbling freely as the concussion wave made him black out.

He crashed to the sand bodily, limp, and lay still for a dozen seconds before letting out a pained groan. He blinked, there was blood in his eyes, and he could taste coppery-iron in his mouth. His whole body felt like someone had taken a meat tenderiser and gone to town pounding every inch of his flesh. His head was worst of all, everything felt like fog, his mind a cloud of pain, a ringing in his ears that seemed to pierce down to his brain.

What the hell had that elf done?!

Shakily rising to all fours he raised his head, head wobbling from side to side, drool and blood hanging from his mouth.

A limb lay nearby, but not the one he had torn off, a leg. The arm he had taken lay elsewhere.

His eyes followed the mess of blood trailed across the sand. There was the rest of them, very badly injured, faintly moving where they lay limp, their leg entirely missing. it looked very much like they were dying judging by the amount of blood openly pouring from the armour.

Aolis had blown himself up for this?

He coughed blood as he struggled with the thought, fumbling, trying to work out what it meant.

Was Quistis about to kill him?