Chapter 104: Chapter 104

 

◈ Chapter 104:

Rain stared at the spot Opal had just been, his body unmoving, uncomprehending. It had only taken a moment, she was there and then she was just gone, struck down, vanished. It had happened so suddenly that he half wondered if he had hallucinated it.

 

Then the reality of his situation made itself known, swarming blood crazed Orcs on every side burying him in bodies. A howling mob, a mindless ravening horde, hundreds made mad with greed for levels, taunted by Rain and his actions into a frenzied animalistic state. The crush only knew one thing; there was a monster to kill and power to take. 

 

Rain lost sight of the sun beneath the stabbing punching kicking Orcs, the bright blue of the sky replaced with a desperate struggle in the dark, each motion a vicious attempt to kill the monster beneath and claim the leveling for themselves.

 

The problem was, the monster fought back.

 

Rain’s teeth enclosed an Orc’s throat and with a savage motion he ripped her windpipe out. Even as that happened his shadow paws independently squirmed their way through the pile, stop starting as they were sometimes blocked by armour or weapons, other times slicing through exposed limbs, disembowelling, decapitating. A dark mirror to his real paws which reached out and crushed throats, grabbing, fighting, even as his body started to fail, the onslaught of weapons and Skills and fists causing flesh to break down and disintegrate. It didn't matter how tough his body was, the sheer number of wounds he was taking on would cause anything to falter.

 

A longsword found his belly and was forced through his flesh, piercing his guts, the Orc who wielded it literally foaming at the mouth with bloodlust, his eyes gone crimson with berserk rage, screaming his success, his glory.

 

Rain hardly noticed, not because it didn't hurt, but because it didn't stand out amongst the agony of the dozen other blades already sticking from him.

 

A massive flesh and blood paw flashed out and enclosed the Orc’s head, and then with a terrible strength it crushed the Orc’s head to pulp, bursting it like a watermelon. A wash of blood adding to the many streams of the stuff that wound their way through the struggling mountain of bodies. 

 

Rain snarled, a deep animalistic sound, a predator pushed to the limit, backed into a corner, surrounded by those that would kill it. He thrashed, struggling desperately just to survive, to escape the weight of thousands and thousands of pounds of Orc crushing down on him, intent on ending his life before he even had a chance to look for Opal. 

 

Opal could be dead or dying right now and there was nothing he could do about it trapped below these hundreds of levelers. The thought sent white hot flashes of searing emotion across his mind and he opened his jaws wide, wider, his teeth juddering, his punctured lungs refusing to cooperate, he forced them to work through sheer bloody will and a ragged mess of a roar slipped from his throat, weaker, far far weaker than his best, but with this many living beings this close by and on this many sides? 

 

The shockwave that was released instantly killed those touching him, their orifices gushing blood as their bodies ruptured. Those just behind lost their hearing and bled openly, dying still, just more slowly, the ruin of their insides a sea of internal bleeding.

 

Rain pushed aside those dead and dying around him and squirmed forward amongst the crush. It seemed like he’d made no difference at all, there was just always more, the sight of the sky no nearer as he was still buried beneath the hundreds and hundreds of Orcs. 

 

An Orc wearing an eyepatch bellowed directly into his face, spittle flying everywhere. His fist enclosed a brutal looking knife but his arm trapped between two other Orcs, unable to drag it nearer to stab Rain. But then the Orcs shifted and the eyepatch Orc found a gap, forcing the heavy knife nearer, not caring who he was cutting through on the way. Skills flashed to life around the metal in a blur of blue sparks.

 

The Orc was determined to kill him.

 

So Rain bit his face off. 

 

The Orcish mass in some small part faltered as the faceless dead Orc slipped back amongst the writhing bodies, a shudder running through the mountain, like a ripple from a pebble dropped into a pool of water.

 

At first Rain thought he had killed some highly revered Orc, but then the seething berserk rage came on once more, as though the mob wasn’t aware of what had just happened. 

 

Between furious frantic killing just to survive each moment a small worm of reason ensconced at the back of his mind began to work. He was a ball of instinct with no time to think, but still, the worm worked, and when he killed a second Orc wearing an eyepatch, just like the first, and the shudder happened again, the worm paid attention. 

 

He doubted a normal monster would have noticed or understood what was happening. But he had been a human being once, a leveler in his past life, and with that the worm recognised there was something here, levelers with the ability to buff other levelers. Uncommon, but not unheard of. 

 

The next blade that was stabbed into his flesh got stuck, failing to pierce his body, the one who wielded it no longer strong enough to injure him.

 

He realised now, he had wildly overestimated this vast horde of Orcs. In truth most were likely less than level twenty, and most of those in the teens, upper low levelers and lower mid levelers. He had thought most of them in the twenties due to how strong they were, but he had been wrong, the insane berserker strength they possessed was due to the eyepatch wearing Orcs and was not their own.

 

A motion caught his eye and he spotted another eyepatch amongst the press. With a snarl he lunged for them, claws digging into their face, the eyepatch shifting revealing a coppery metal eyeball beneath set with Orcish runes. He tore the Orc apart in moments. The other Orcs flinched and this time he felt it, their incredible power slipping slightly. 

 

The worm understood.

 

When he’d enraged the crowd of Orcs he had also angered those with Skills that affected other levelers, a small number of support Classes. They’d used those Skills liberally and the Orcs had attacked. The mob effect had pushed their blood lust to greater heights and in turn caused the buffing Orcs to use their Skills again and again, a reinforcing feedback loop that he was only now breaking.

 

Some of the very low leveled began to struggle, the sheer weight of the great mountain of Orc’s pressing down from above beyond what they could handle with their unbuffed strength. They started to suffocate, unable to draw in breath, their lungs not strong enough to expand under the press.

 

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The trouble was, that made things worse. Orcs did not respond particularly well to being crushed alive.

 

The ones struggling became significantly more violent, stabbing and cutting and kicking and punching at everything in reach in a blind panic. The Orcs who were hit lashed out on instinct, attacking back. 

 

Before long many of the Orcs around him were in their own private battles. What was chaos descended into utter mayhem as the crush of Orcs became a blood bath. 

 

Rain took advantage. Every spot where raging Orcs fought one another was a weak spot and he ruthlessly exploited it, working his way in and swiftly through them before they knew what was happening.

 

One spot, two, three, another eye patch Orc, the strength of the Orcs lowering still.

 

The mountain of Orcs descended into an even greater berserker state as the fighting spread, Orcs either getting themselves killed in their attempts to kill Rain as soon as possible or getting themselves killed fighting the Orcs freaking out around them.

 

Rain’s presence moved throughout it all and the mountain of Orc becoming flooded with rivers of gore that poured between bodies turning green skin to red.

 

As he went he searched for Opal, with every moment becoming more frantic, more desperate, his motions becoming wild as frustration drove him over the edge. 

 

Every motion was a killing blow now, the weakened Orcs couldn't contain him anymore and he tore through the mountain, unstoppable, like some force of nature, ripping and tearing, a berserk state of his own descending as frustration in failing to find Opal gave way to despair and then rage, pure white hot rage, a wild predator taking vengeance having been injured and made to suffer. He bit and tore, teeth flashing, claws rending, a wolf let loose upon a flock of sheep, a fluffle of bunnies, a crowd of conceited prey.

 

Half an hour ticked by under the hundreds and hundred of Orcs, a claustrophobic hell of nothing but brutal fighting in the dark.

 

But then his head popped free and the dark sea of gore he was trapped in was replaced by the bright blue of a beautiful summers day, fluffy white clouds drifting across the sky far above.

 

He blinked, the light stinging his eyes... or perhaps that was the blood, it had gotten everywhere.

 

Looking around he realised that he had found his way up above and his head was poking from between the corpses of two particularly large Orcs. He also realised that what had been a mountain of levelers was now more of a lake, the sloping pit that Rugnor had created with his hammer blow filling up with the remains of the Orcs as they had been massacred, spreading out and filling it. It wasn’t so much that he had managed to climb to the surface but that the surface had dropped down to him.

 

Dazed, he labourously pulled himself over one of the large Orcs, emerging fully out into the light. The pain of his many many injuries made themselves known as his fury faded and he was nearly overwhelmed then and there.

 

Barely able to keep up on all fours, his arms shaking, he looked around trying to find something, some sign that Opal still lived. 

 

There was nothing but the twisted broken remains of the dead Orcs. He let out a low groan and closed his eyes. She was supposed to have escaped the arena, what had happened? Why had she thrown herself back into the fray like that?

 

“Opal… Why, why did you do it...”

 

“PaThetic w-wolf, n-now thEse insufferable l-levers are deaLt with it is time, time yoU were made to sufffffeerr and suffferrrr and suffferrrrrr-”

 

Rain turned his head to find the Harpy Queen approaching on unsteady legs.

 

She was… not doing well. Her body was shredded, huge gaping holes in the dark that continually spewed mist, one of her wings was just gone, a good third of her head and face cleaved away. If she were flesh and blood she would have been dead several times over.

 

She continued to approach, footing unsteady on the corpses, like a drunk stumbling from clawed foot to clawed foot she came closer, closer. It was clear her presence was the reason why there were no living Orcs left on the surface, and likely the reason why none had escaped.

 

“-And I remeeeember thAt one, oPal, yOu cried her Name tHen too, I remember, that onE you had with you, the one who stabbed mE in the back, one of tHe little regular Gobbos, not a haLf, not anything, a dirty little Peasant dariNg to attack Royalty.” The remaining two thirds of her head tilted to the side in a disturbing manner, “Don't you woRry I’ll have my ReveNge on her tOo, after I’ve sliced you into riBboNs and diCed your organs, I’ll Do the same, no, woRse, I’ll keep Her aLive through it-

 

Rain’s paws shot forward and he snapped the Harpy Queen’s neck with one violent twist of her head. The Queen collapsed on top of the Orc bodies like a puppet that had had its strings cut.

 

He stared at the thing that was the Harpy Queen, his breath fast and heavy, hairs rising on the back of his neck.

 

“I LEaRned I canNot die noW wOlf, no maaaatter how tHe levElers cHopPed And staBbed and cut mE they coullld nooot stop meeee from rending them to pieecesss,” came a low twisted gurgle of a voice as the Queen began to rise, her head lying across her chest.

 

He lurched back in disgust, then at last, gathering his senses, he willed the Queen to dissipate. The darkness misted and the still gurgling talking Queen vanished into a cloud of black that drifted back into his fur. He eyed where the dark entered back into his body, a disquiet and deep unease settling over him. 

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