Chapter 190

◈ Chapter 190:

The crowd murmured as they looked down at the beheaded panthara, its corpse motionless in that quiet stillness of the dead, almost eerie, or rather very eerie, as its decapitated head grinned up at them.

The worried murmuring rose, becoming a low grumbling susurration and Triskian stepped up beside Quistis, keeping his voice low.

"We should step in before we start getting people asking to leave."

Quistis nodded and spoke aloud to the crowd.

"It would seem that we have a winner in Thademus, and one extremely dead Panthara."

"Like hell that was— That wasn't normal!" came a voice.

"It spoke! They aren't supposed to do that!" came another.

Then Ravoure finally found his voice again. "This is outrageous, did you hear what that thing said? Did you see where it looked! What have you brought down here with us all!? I demand explanation!"

Quistis frowned.

"We would hardly have our reputation for fast and massive levelling if we did not acquire rare and powerful monsters. The panthara merely acknowledged the danger that this wolf monster presents. If any of you are even a little insightful you will grasp that the wolf is valuable, a treasure box of loot, a fortune in levels waiting to be snatched up."

The crowd stared at her blankly and then looked at the gore coated wolf monster sitting cross legged in its cage. This at least seemed to create interest, but there was still a thread of uncertainty running through them. Panthara were not supposed to speak, and what it had said…

Quistis seemed to catch this and raised her hand. A small cuboid object appeared held in her fingers. It looked like an elongated dice, marked with spiralling silver and gold.

"But if it makes you feel more comfortable about our back up measures."

In the pit below the Panthara's corpse twitched, and then a moment later dozens of steel spikes thrust out from its body, needle thin things that seemed to grow from its fur.

Rain realised that he was looking at dozens of large enchanted heart pins that had been implanted throughout the Panthara, each of them made to elongate or move once triggered, impaling every organ in its body.

If the panthara was dead before it was several times deader now.

Rain counted himself more than a little lucky that Quistis considered her smoke enough, and hadn't delayed the event to do that to him too after taking him from his cage.

Then again, it wasn't like Quistis couldn't do the exact same thing to him but a hundred times worse. Thousands of growing steel needles exploding outward from his lungs, tearing his chest to ribbons.

This seemed to calm the crowd's nerves. Something of the finality of it muting their worry.

Thadeus glared down at the panthara's corpse and then spat a phlegmy blob of spittle onto its furred side before turning and striding away. He didn't even have to ask, smoke formed up before him creating a ramp which he took back up to his box before it dissipated behind him.

As he strode up he bellowed over his shoulder. "Fix your fucking sand!" at Quistis.

A little calm came over the place, returning to its previous more greed driven atmosphere as the guests settled back in, the disturbing words of the panthara passed into memory and soon new large monsters were being dragged out and paddles raised. The chance for levels could never be overlooked.

Rain noticed that the bidding had taken on a new form with these new monsters.

Combined bidding.

Dozens of the Abattoir's employees were running back and forth between boxes, running messages between guests. This would result in the reverse of the paddle being shown and a combined bid being placed. Two or sometimes three or four levelers at once, sharing both the cost between themselves and the level gain.

Some of the monsters were stronger or more threatening looking than those that had gone before true, but not all. It was like the audience had been rattled by the strange Panthara, leery of fighting alone, even the elf and his family. Rain watched Aolis go down and kill some great cave bear, his family coming with him. All three of them wore helms styled like wolves, hunting and worrying the bear until they had brought it low. Rain found his hackles instinctively rising with irritation as he watched them dart around like mice in the masks of a predator.

Eventually though, it seemed the Abattoir had run out of monsters to slay, at least large monsters. There were no more cages to be dragged up and tipped into the corpse strewn and gore soaked pit.

He half wondered if it was he who was going to be put down there next, but then the sounds of shouting and yelling and growling and snarling came from behind, and many many voices raised in distress.

He turned to see a line of monsters behind his cage, smaller monsters, all crushed up against a long strung out net in front of them, acting like a fenced pen to keep them in. A net that was moving in his direction as those who worked for the abattoir lifted and moved the thing at either end. Hundreds of monsters, kobolds and goblins and piscine and rat people and more were pressed up against it, all evolved in some rare or interesting way.

For a moment he caught sight of a bundle of white wings tipped in pink, the harpy, and by her, struggling to fight off an overweight kobold, was the fanged goblin. They almost seemed to be working together in the moment he caught sight of them. That is before they once more vanished behind the churning crowd.

And right at the front, clinging onto the net, her eyes wide and fearful, was the small blue kobold girl from the stacked cages, the one he had asked for directions.

"One of our more popular features for our honoured guests. Welcome to the monster Buffet!" cried Triskian.

The net abruptly collapsed, terrified monsters roughly shoving at each other finally breaking it down and a tidal wave of monsters poured free, rolling across the sand and over each other. The front row was trampled underfoot by those behind, stampeding toward Rain and then around him, a good eight foot gap kept between them and his cage, the flow parting around him like water around a rock, afraid of coming within arms reach in case he reached through the bars.

By the time the monsters at the front realised there was a drop it was too late, those at the back were too panicked to stop, and Rain watched as a waterfall of colourful monsters poured into the arena below either side of him. Those not fast enough to scramble away were landed on by those falling behind. Screams rose into the air as limbs and ribs were broken under the crush.

In moments nearly three hundred monsters were spreading out across the arena, scattering like tossed seeds amongst the dead.

Rain looked behind to see a dozen monsters lying on the sand. Most of them were unmoving, trampled to death, and those who worked for the abattoir moved in behind them, a wall of men with spears.

The blue kobold girl was there, trampled, her arm clearly broken, snapped and bent at a horrible angle part way down her upper arm. He watched as she slowly lifted her head, a nasty cut on her forehead causing blood to run into her eye.

One of the men kicked a trampled goblin. And then finding it unmoving stabbed his spear through its chest. A death rattle escaped the goblin's mouth. The goblin had been pretending to be dead.

The kobold glanced behind in dismay at this and began struggling forward,

Shunk. Another dead monster. Step. Step. Came the line.

She managed to stagger to her feet after a monumental effort, face a grimace of pain, although Rain knew this one still didn't stand a chance. Her leg was hurt, and she could only limp. Her broken arm hung at her side, clutched at with the other. One eye closed as it was filled with blood.

She glanced behind, frantic now as a crawling monster was stabbed in the back. The men continued to walk toward her.

She was dead dead dead. Dead if she stayed. Dead if she went down into the pit.

He should let her die here. A snack for later perhaps.

She looked around, frantic, eyes darting from the raucous crowd to Quistis and Triskian who weren't even looking in her direction, then back to the men walking behind. No help there.

Finally her eyes fell on Rain, in some kind of mad desperate last hope. Eyes begging.

"P-please…"

Rain blinked in surprise. He hadn't thought any monster would be desperate enough to come to him for help considering he looked like he'd just got done happily butchering just as many monsters as had passed him by.

A tall man approached behind, spear raised, about to stab.

And then behind him one of the men tripped with a cry, face-planting into the sand.

The one pacing the blue kobold paused to turn and see, glancing back, then resuming his attention.

The kobold hurried past the cage as the man resumed pacing. It was only a moment, but it had given her the time she needed.

She gave an uncertain look at Rain, half wondering, but Rain ignored her.

She reached the edge of the pit and fell down just as the spear nearly skewered her in the back. The man made a tutting sound as his spear thrust missed and turned back to check through the remaining fallen.

The blue kobold came down in the pit and landed awkwardly, crying out as her injured leg hit the blood slick sands. She fell to the ground, head lowered in pain. But then formed fists with her claws.

She rose to her clawed feet.

Before her swarmed hundreds of monsters. Pure and total chaos. Most were running around like panicking headless chickens. Many hunched down amongst the corpses of the massive monsters that had gone before, hoping to use their bodies as some kind of defence. Others tried to hide, although in the pit there was little to conceal them from the eyes of those above.

Rain leaned forward in his cage, watching carefully.

"Anyone is free to join in after the bell," spoke Triskian, smiling warmly at the crowd. "Simply pay the fee to your box attendant and drop down. The usual rules apply, if Quistis prevents a lethal attack we will see you removed. No refunds. The inexperienced and new to the Abattoir are very welcome, all shall have safety guaranteed. Think of this as a way to sample what we offer on a smaller scale before making a larger purchase. It is also quite enjoyable sport, as you can see these smaller monsters flee like rabbits before us hunters, us wolves."

Wolves? Rain made internal scoffing sounds.

He did wonder about the guarantee though, was it even possible to keep so many safe? Nonetheless Quistis seemed to be preparing for some incredible level of focus, uncorking and then drinking several potions that most likely aided with concentration and perhaps triggering a few Skills in preparation to moderate and supervise the buffet.

Conversation went around, some levelers looking down at the panicking monsters with curiosity, others limbering up and stretching, preparation before joining the slaughter.

A woman hurried up and whispered in Triskian's ear. The drake nodded his head.

"It seems we are ready to begin."

He picked up the hammer that Quistis had discarded, the lamia now instead using the scaffolding that held the bronze bell as something to lean on as she focused on the pit with narrow eyed intensity.

He struck the bell.

The sound rang out and levelers started to climb down into the pit, nearly three dozen of them.

Most of the monsters took fright seeing this, and a handful of those were still capable of flying. Rain watched as three harpies shot up into the air, beating their wings furiously as they fled. They made it barely a dozen meters before the vast snake lunged out from where it lay curled atop the stands, opening its mouth and swallowing them whole in a few snaps. No more monsters tried to fly after that.

Rain quickly scanned through the scattered monsters looking for wings or fangs. He found what he was looking for and watched as a kobold covered in strange white spines tried to get at the many winged harpy and was knocked back by a back handed fist from the fanged goblin.

The pair seemed to be holding their own against the other panicking monsters, unexpectedly working together, but then a bald man wearing well fitted leathers appeared, a mace held in one hand.

He approached unseen, expression clearly indicating his intent, and the mace whipped forward, about to crash into the back of the fanged goblin's head, cratering her skull. But the man suddenly cried out in pain before he could connect, stumbling forward and missing wildly. He nearly fell then and there, barely managing to wobble and stand on one foot, which said something of his dexterity or Skills. He looked down aghast to see that the heel of his left boot had been sliced off. Something had cut clean through the leather and blood poured from the hole. A chunk of heel flesh half the size of a fist lay on the sands just behind him.

He wobbled and then hopped around, just in time to see a flash of green drop into a shadow.

He blinked and then awkwardly hopped forward, crouching on his one good leg and reaching down for his cut off flesh.

A foot hit him square in the ass and he went sprawling, diving head first in a massive puddle of blood and entrails that poured from the eviscerated belly of a cave bear.

Furious, and now coated in gore, the man rolled over, looking to see who had done such a thing. But there was no one there, even the harpy and fanged goblin had fled.

After a moment he seemed to realise that he was no longer holding his piece of foot and looked at the mess of bear entrails he was sitting in.

He glumly started sorting through the gore trying to find his missing heel so it could hopefully be reattached.

As he fumbled in the red, the fanged goblin turned from peeking over the corpse of the giant golden scaled mermaid she was hiding behind and faced the harpy.

"What the hell is with the freaking teleporting preggers gobbo?" she whispered.

"How the hell should I know? and why isn't your evolution as useful as that!?" whisper-hissed back the harpy.

A beast-like monster suddenly scrambled over the mermaid's scales, shoving the fanged goblin out of the way with a cry of fright as he fled.

Behind came a young woman with frizzy hair, an axe in her hand and grim look on her face, blood spattered up her arms. Her eyes widened as she found the fanged goblin and she made a sudden swing for her, Skill empowered axe blade swinging in to cut the goblin girl's head clean from her body.

In a jerk of desperate motion a white wing dove between, and the axe haft struck it side on. The wing broke under the impact, thin bones snapping. But the blade was halted, lost in a cloud of feathers and far too many wings.

The fanged goblin leapt at the leveler, forming a fist and slugged her across the face.

The leveler let out a grunt of surprise and toppled backwards from the dead mermaid, a thin string of blood arcing from her broken nose.

"Thanks," muttered the goblin.

The harpy froze at the word. "Uh, right… We should uh, uh, get moving."

The two of them dashed away from the mermaid to the corpse of the great panthara, which many of the levelers seemed to be unconsciously avoiding.

Rain watched the young woman with frizzy hair topple back off the mermaid, nose spurting blood. A green and black horned kobold had apparently been watching carefully because he suddenly dived toward her. His horn, which was a tiny thing, suddenly shot outward, becoming a foot long black needle which as he skidded beneath became perfectly positioned to skewer her through the neck. The kobold clearly hoped that she would spear herself on the thing with her own body weight.

But before she could land the sand exploded from underneath the kobold, a mass of smoke forming a marble block which encased him entirely. On top of the block a set of large silken cushions appeared and caught the young woman's fall. She looked down startled, then frowned up at Quistis.

Behind her the great snake eased down, and its long tongue slipped around her waist. In moments she was being lifted into the air, her arms crossed even as she rose, lips pouting as she was deposited back in her box.

Back below the green and black kobold was set free from his marble tomb, taking in a great gasp of breath.

Although only for a moment, as a well dressed lapine who had been waiting stabbed him through the chest with a long sword, killing him instantly. A casual act, one of many casual kills the lapine had made as he strolled around the arena.

A kind of hobgoblin missing his arm ran past screaming and the lapine turned with a lazy smirk and made to bisect the monster. Before the blade could snap out however a black sickle struck from the shadow of the mermaid's corpse and scythed through his ankle, severing the limb, which on a Lapine was a good third of his leg.

The lapine screamed, falling to the ground and clutching at his stump in blind agony. Wild eyes darted to the side and found a goblin in the shadow of the mermaid.

He had fallen right by her, and she held a black sickle in her hand.

It would be so easy to bring it down on his neck, killing him.

Instead she hesitated, glancing up and to the side. The lamia couldn't see her from her position up on the edge of the pit where she hid in the shadow of the mermaid, but could she still see the fallen lapine a little further from it? She licked her lip.

Then seemingly deciding it wasn't worth the risk she leaned over and to the lapine's utter open mouthed horror began methodically cutting up his severed foot into lots of tiny little pieces right in front of him.

Rain watched this all, frowning. The giant centipede that lay just below the lapine only had to close its pincers and he would instantly die if he attacked Opal.

But breaking Quistis's guarantee and revealing what he could do wasn't something he wanted. It would bring too many disadvantages.

He understood on a basic level that Opal was very unhappy with what was happening, and he couldn't exactly blame her considering what was being done to the monsters, but watching her court death while he couldn't leave his cage was driving him more than a little crazy. If things went on like this then… He wasn't sure what he would do. The giant snakes and centipedes under the sand chasing her around the arena couldn't always reach her in time if she got into trouble.

He watched the buffet with almost as much focus as Quistis.

As that was happening the blue kobold girl had kept to the walls, limping pitifully as she did her best to keep away from any attention as best she could. At least she'd managed to clear the blood from her eye.

But it wasn't to last. A beast-like monster was chased nearby by a pair of levelers, killed against the wall, and she was forced to hurriedly limp away, eyes round and afraid.

She struggled behind a large cave bear's corpse out of view and stopped. Then she slowly, painfully, got down onto her knees. Her clawed hand moved from her broken arm with a wince and she began shakily pawing at the sand, dipping her claws and pulling back, trying to scoop sand away from the bear's corpse.

It didn't seem like she was getting anywhere fast, and it would surely be hours before she could make enough space to hide in, but then to her surprise the sand seemed to just fall away, a void opening up beneath her claws, a space large enough for her to hide in. It was like there had always been a space there and she had simply uncovered it.

She silently thanked the dragon gods for this small blessing of unexpected luck, a small chance to escape this nightmarish place, this pit of slaughter and carnage and screaming death.

She eased forward to climb down into it when the tip of a steel blade touched at her throat.

She froze.

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed dryly. "Please don't do it," the kobold managed to squeak out.

The tip of the blade twitched at the words and the kobold looked up to find Bastial looking down at her.

"Please…"

Bastial scowled. "Stop saying that. You sound like her."

Bastial had already recovered from her injuries fighting the mermaid, although the way she moved her arm seemed a little awkward and uneasy. Not a perfect heal.

The kobold simply looked at her, eyes wide, pleading, then she glanced down at the hole. The meaning was obvious. Allow her to live, and to hide.

Bastial hesitated, her hand shifting on the sweat slick grip of her sword. There was a certain uncertainty that hadn't been there before. As though her ruthless determination had been broken by the mermaid.

"Injured… Aren't worth much anyway…"

The kobold dared not hope.

The sword tip slowly, miraculously, dipped away from the kobold's neck, then jerked suddenly.

A blade plunged through Bastial's chest, a long steel blade with the word 'Virtue' engraved in gold up its length, now made a slick, metallic, red.

Bastial, her back arched, looked down in disbelief at the length of steel sprouting from her ribs. She drew in a choked breath that became more of a sucking bloody gurgle.

And then the sword was hauled free and Bastial collapsed to the sands. The kobold looked at her in frozen shock, a monster watching her die, and the last thing Bastial saw before darkness took her.