Chapter 186

◈ Chapter 186:

Lyra looked down in dismay at Opal with her winning bid, she had just…

Well, maybe she should have seen this coming.

When Rain had been taken by the lamia and disappeared inside the building behind the minotaur, both she and Opal had shared a moment of silent panic. They had no real certainty if he had been taken by the Abattoir or if this was some other unsavoury gang. Nor could they know what would happen. Would he be killed? Or just enslaved?

It hadn't taken long to come to a decision, and Lyra had gone into full bribery mode. Successfully mind, since the minotaur wasn't stonewalling them anymore. She had not only gotten the information she needed from the minotaur, but also, to her surprise, gotten an invite to be part of the clientele, to actually go to the Abattoir, and bid to kill monsters.

She didn't want to, but then, what if Rain needed them? Obviously now that she knew she could go she just had to.

She'd prepared as best as possible. Disguising Opal. Slave collar. Oversized brown cloak. Then herself. The dress from the disaster of a party, cleaned. Then a big floppy hat, enough to hide from the eyes of the most suspicious.

The both of them had then turned up at the designated meeting place, an upper leveler's mansion away from the slums. There they had found the other clients. The rich, the mid to high level, and the noble. People she would count as her social circle not so long ago. Now it just felt… off. Still, her long experience moving amongst the type let her navigate the chattering horde as naturally as a fish amongst a shoal of fish.

Thankfully it was long before they were called upon, and the whole group was led down into the basement. Would the basement be where the fighting happened?

It seemed not as a number of horse drawn coaches of all things emerged from the dark. She and Opal had climbed on board with a few other clients and the coaches had creaked off, rolling into the dark and down a tunnel barely lit by an oil lantern on the coach's front. One of the other clients had been too large to fit and trotted along beside them, a simply enormous centaur with a body like a cart horse, his flank lit up by the swinging lantern.

Time passed, a lot of time, a concerning amount of time, just how far was this freaking place?

But then they had come out amongst black ruins, and the roof above became a distant thing, a vast cavern. This was… beyond anything Lyra had expected, and she looked around in wide eyed awe as Opal leaned from the coach's window to see.

They'd disembarked and had been guided by a group of rough looking humans through these strange ruins, guided toward the centre of the cavern where a great glowing crystal formation hung overhead.

As they walked the space had opened up and more humans had appeared, each of them holding enchanted electrified rods, guiding a herd of smaller monsters through the ruins, heading in the same direction as they were.

Interestingly, they all appeared to be evolved in some way, not quite normal monsters. Although it could be hard to tell sometimes if a monster was an evolved or just some unusual mix-breed.

One of the monsters suddenly broke free from the herd and rushed up to Lyra, grabbing at her dress. A hobgoblin girl with stunning bright blue eyes and a scattering of blue scales over her body, an evolved monster of some kind.

"Help me!" she whispered frantically, "You aren't like the others, I- I can tell, my m-magic lets me see into you." She swallowed, throat dry, eyes round with fear. "J-Just make me your slave, please, please, I don't want to go with them! I can see in my head what they want!"

Lyra blinked down at the hobgoblin as she came to a halt, she wanted to be made a slave as a way out of the Abattoir? It was a sign of how she had changed that Lyra suddenly found herself very much wanting to rescue the hobgoblin girl from this horrible place. This girl was just an innocent like any leveler who needed saving from danger, and she would be fulfilling her Class as a Rescuer by saving her, but also out of a genuine desire to—

Before she could finish the thought the massive centaur strode by, bodily knocking Lyra aside hard enough to bruise and almost causing her to fall, having to stagger backwards to remain upright. A centaur hoof crashed into the side of the hobgoblin and snapped her leg. She fell to the ground rolling, crying out for help, only for a moment later a massive dinner-plate sized hoof to come down on her head.

The full weight of the centaur landed on her and her head exploded like a crushed melon, brains and blood spraying across the sand, blood splattering up the hem of Opal's cloak.

The centaur paused and made an irritated sound, wiping his bloody hoof clean on the sand before moving on.

He hadn't even registered that he'd just crushed to death a living thing, to the centaur it was like he'd merely stepped on dogshit left on the side of the road.

Lyra's eyes moved from the centaur already walking away, to Opal, the small cloaked figure frozen in place, staring down at the hobgoblin's body, her head a red pulp in the sand.

Her shoulders were trembling.

"Opal," whispered Lyra.

"I'm going to kill him." she stated as a great harpy talon appeared in her hand.

Lyra grabbed hold of her before she could vanish.

"No!" she hissed, "Don't you dare! This isn't the time, so just wait, okay? You know why Rain is here don't you?!"

She could feel the goblin girl trembling under her hand, but after a moment her shoulders slumped and the talon vanished, forming a black mist that slipped back under her hood.

Not waiting to see if she would change her mind she pushed Opal forward, catching up with the line of levelers making their way through the ruins. They emerged, at last, into a sandy clearing, and to Lyra's astonishment she found herself looking at a great arena in the final moments of being constructed, great arching architecture being formed out of smoke, luxurious lounges, and spacious dining rooms, and long promenades, and many many half naked statues of levelers. Even the paved path across the sand they were walking on was decorated with them. She passed by an incredibly muscular statue of a human, his upper body like some kind of muscled demi-god, chiselled jaw like a cube, cocky smile on face, loin cloth covering what appeared to be an absurdly large package that bulged from his crotch. The statue held a spear elegantly in hand, the point stabbed through a diminutive stone panthara on the ground, one foot resting on its chest. Below this statue was written. 'The average frequent Abattoir client.'

Lyra's eye twitched. This abattoir had some… interesting marketing techniques.

It wasn't the only one. She passed by a statue of a female drake with breasts so large that they spilled from her armoured bikini as she stood with claws on hips looking wisely off into the distance like a famed and respected leader. A group of male drake statues were draped around her legs, worshipping her in clear adoration.

Similar statues were spread along the path, some more lewd than others, all showing absurdly over the top bodies and either heroic killings of monsters or the worshipping of said bodies.

She could practically feel Opal becoming more and more angry as she passed them by, shoulders tensing.

Lyra hurried her along before she did something reckless and they entered the great arena building itself, the summer like light from the crystals overhead cut off as they fell under shadow, magical lanterns casting a warmer more comfortable light through the halls and passages.

Inside they were met by servants who were busily collecting coats and hats and the like to take to the coatroom. One tried to take Lyra's hat but she brushed him away, dragging Opal aside into one of the empty side passages. There she pushed Opal down onto a marble plinth, a half naked statue of a human woman posing above, flexing her bicep.

A moment passed in silence.

"Opal…"

"I'm fine. We shouldn't be stopping. They might notice something is wrong."

"Opal…"

She jumped down from the plinth and grabbed hold of Lyra's hand through her cloak sleeve.

"Do you think it's that bad? It doesn't bother me, like, at all. Why would it bother me? It's normal."

Lyra frowned down at her, she sounded serious, but then… She let herself be pulled away and they made their way upstairs until they came to the private box they had rented out.

A gaggle of well dressed servants had accosted them as they entered their box and politely asked after their needs. The servants had written down orders, in Lyra's case some of the finer wines and cream pastries just like she liked in her old life, in Opal's case a slab of rare steak. Ten minutes later they were eating together and wondering what would happen next.

Soon the other boxes were being filled as clients drifted in, levelers making merry and enjoying themselves. Lyra couldn't help but notice Opal's head kept turning, eyeing the massive centaur who had arrived in the box across from them.

And then later, Rain had appeared, stepping into a cage in pride of place at the edge of the pit. Lyra snatched a look at him, peeking from beneath her hat. He looked extra terrifying all covered in blood. It seemed he had been busy and he looked a little larger. She almost felt sorry for those who had come here. But then she remembered the centaur and didn't feel sorry atall.

The bidding began, which was fine at first, until Opal disappeared from her side at the table. She found to her horror that the goblin girl had discovered the concept of bidding, or more specifically bidding to irritate those she didn't like.

She'd managed to stop her at first, even grabbing hold of her, but there was a bidding fire lit in the goblin girl and she couldn't be stopped. She was… freaking strong for a goblin! Lyra wasn't an offensive based class, but she still benefited from levelling, yet she found Opal pushing her arms apart, slowly overpowering her, an unthinkable thing for a mere goblin. Since when had she become this strong?! Wait, was this why she moved with such ease despite being so pregnant?

In the end Opal had escaped her arms, and with a gleeful expression she'd bid the centaur higher, making him smoulder with righteous fury that a monster had dared to take the potential levelling from him…

But then no one else had bid, and Lyra had realised in a moment of dismay that she was expected to fight that nasty looking chimaera monster in the pit.

And now….She blinked and looked up to find the same Minotaur who had stood guard at the entrance looming over her, a particular kind of smirk on his lips.

"I know you've got funds enough to pay the price, I've seen them. Now you can give 'em all here, and a load extra to oil my cogs as they say. Or, alternatively, I can start talking. Why are you here? and why do you and the wolf keep looking at each other? I really do wonder. Seems a little suspect, don't you think? The kinds of questions I get the impression you don't want to be spread about."

Lyra licked her lip. Not good.

She glanced down at the Chimaera prowling within its cage, and then up at Rain who looked to be on the verge of literally exploding.

Maybe… maybe this wouldn't be so bad. She had heard what the Lamia had said afterall. No one died here. Maybe this situation was actually salvageable. She glanced back at the minotaur. She'd simply pay the money, which would pretty much be what she had gained for selling Rain and some, then she would go down into the arena, let the monster attack her, and then the lamia would simply save her and everything would go back to how it was.

A perfect plan.

Feeling a bit better she held her forearm up and pressed it against her mouth.

"Red, you're going to need to send a shitload of gold through my forearm, it's for a bid."

She moved her forearm up and pressed it against her ear.

"What do you mean a shitload of gold?!" shrieked Red in reply from within her woolspace.

She winced at the volume of his voice. He was quite upset.

She moved her arm back to her mouth.

"You gained a lot of new gold from selling Rain, why are you complaining, It's not like you're losing anything," she hissed back. "Look, this is really important! The whole plan could fail without this, and you could lose all the gold, all of it. Just keep pushing gold through until I signal, okay?"

Ear back.

"...Fine… dragons damn you." came an incredibly grudging voice. Red genuinely sounded like he would rather crawl across broken glass naked while covered in lemon juice.

Lyra smiled and held out her arm.

The minotaur was holding a dimensional bag and he blinked in surprise as gold coins started to pour from her forearm fluff into it.

A human scribe had come along with the minotaur and he narrowed his eyes as he watched the coins fall, sometimes scribbling a note in a ledger.

The coins accelerated, forming a waterfall of the stuff. Soon enough the scribe held up his pen.

"That's the agreed price, you can stop."

The minotaur took hold of Lyra's hand and held her arm in place, letting the coins continue to fall. A greedy look on his face.

"That's enough, I can talk and stir the pot with your bosses as well you know," snapped Lyra.

She managed to tug her hand free and ended the flow of gold, leaving a rather satisfied looking minotaur, the smirk on his face broad as could be.

She glared at him. The feeling of being blackmailed just wasn't the same as the feeling of bribing someone and she almost started to haggle on instinct. But then she turned and marched across the box to the railing. In one motion she climbed over it and dropped down to the sands below. Best to get this over and done with fast. The monster looked quick so she was sure it would only be mere moments before she was being rescued and placed back in their private box.