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The Dwarf kicked at Rain’s limp foot and laughed. “Oh my you have caused a fuss. I’ve never seen an Inquisitor as pissed as you made ours, she was practically spitting acid!”

“She sent you?”

“Of course. Although she did ask for you to be taken alive, and I quote: ‘Get me that monster so I can skin it alive and wear its fur while I draw and quarter what remains.’ Town was like a kicked beehive let me tell yah. Well, no sense dawdling.” She hefted the axe. “I was going to take you alive but after that display I think it safer you come as a corpse. You can thank me in hell.”

Rain’s eyes widened in surprise, but he wasn't looking at the Dwarf. The Elf-sheep had suddenly materialized out of the air just behind her. What was this? The Elf-sheep had betrayed him?

The Dwarf noticed his look and tried to turn but before she could the Elf-sheep stabbed a black blade into the side of her neck with an anguished cry. The Dwarf’s mouth opened to scream but she could only gurgle as blood flooded her mouth.

The Elf-sheep stepped back with a horrified expression at what she had done, her eyes snapped to Rain who was staring at her and her legs nearly buckled underneath her. With a yelp she turned and vanished into thin air.

The Dwarf was wobbling but still up, her hands scrabbling at her belt. Rain suddenly recognised that the glass bottle she was desperately trying to remove was a healing potion. He swiftly leaned back and pawed the skull sitting atop the throne. 

“G-get off of me you damned dog! I- no stooop!”

With one swift motion he threw the skull and just as the Dwarf managed to get the potion free from her belt the skull struck it. It was knocked from her fingers and flew across the room to shatter on the stone. The skull bounced up against a pillar with a crack and the last flickering dancing green of undeath whisped out of existence. The skull rolled to a stop, still and quiet.

The Dwarf stared at him in silent fury but even as she did her legs buckled beneath her and she toppled backwards. She was dead before she hit the ground.

Rain let out a rattling breath but then his head snapped around as Opal rushed past, another black clad leveler chasing her, this one a Human.

The Goblin turned and her cutlass swung up to deflect a sword stroke from the leveler. She was clearly outmatched, she was just a small monster and he a powerful leveler, the cutlass was nearly blown from her fingers with the strike and her arm was wrenched around brutally just from the colliding metal. She held him back only by the skin of her teeth, even as he watched her legs buckled, going weak at the knees. The Goblin somehow used her unreliable legs to her advantage and dipped below the Human’s blade, letting it whistle over head. She backpedaled, desperately trying to stay up as her legs failed her. It was going to happen again, the same as when she was kidnapped by slavers, falling at the worst possible moment.

“Save her!” he roared, but no one answered. He searched around for something to throw, but nothing was in reach. He could only watch as Opal desperately parried using her two swords, each blow nearly her death.

A Kobold crawled from the mound of undead at that point. He looked around surreptitiously and then ran toward one of the doors. The chain ran out and with a squawk he fell on his tail as it yanked on his neck. He scrambled to his feet and tried to pull the chain free from the undead but it was caught underneath something. He looked around fretfully and spotted Opal as she was backed up against one of the pillars. The Kobold clawed at his face and then with a miserable cry he ran toward them and leapt on the leveler’s back. The leveler cried out and tried to grab at the Kobold biting and clawing at him.

Opal didn't hesitate and she plunged her rapier through the leveler’s chest and into his heart.

The leveler dropped to the ground, the Kobold still attacking him.

“You can stop. It’s over,” she said, breathing hard, her hands on her wobbling knees.

The Kobold slumped on the dead leveler’s back.

“Oh gods why me,” he moaned.

Opal looked around at Rain and her eyes widened. Rain couldn't blame her, he was sitting in a slowly growing puddle of his own blood.

She rushed over to him.

“Wh-what happened!”

Rain nodded at the Dwarf. “Assassin, like the one that attacked you. From the Inquisitor.”

Opal made an unhappy face as she fretfully looked over his wounds.

Rain simply snorted, trying his best to ignore her worry. With difficulty he pushed himself backwards using his paws so that his back rested against the foot of the stone throne.

“They must have been following us for a while, looking for a moment of weakness to attack. Attacking something while it’s distracted or weakened is a plan we would try, but this time it was used against us.”

Opal’s hands clenched into fists. “I’ll kill that Inquisitor for this.” She suddenly seemed to realise just how far gone Rain was as he coughed and blood flecked from his lips. She turned on the Dwarf and quickly began stripping her, efficiently removing her clothes until she was butt naked. She then dragged her over to Rain’s side. He weakly gripped the Dwarf and brought her to his mouth where he bit off her head, not bothering to start with her extremities. 

“Tough. Chewy. Guess that’s to be expected from a Dwarf.” 

He quickly devoured the rest of her, only requiring two dozen or so bites to completely swallow all of her down. While he ate Opal dragged over the Human and stripped him too. The Human quickly followed the Dwarf into his gullet as the Dwarf was digesting. He expected there to be at least some growth from having eaten two likely quite high levelers but he was disappointed by what turned out to be next to nothing, his body too heavily focused on healing to do anything else.

He checked his wounds and to his relief the bleeding had stopped although he was still in bad shape. 

His eyes wandered over to where the healing potion had been thrown and broken. Could there be...?

He pointed at the shattered glass. “Opal, can you check that glass, it is, well was, a healing potion.”

A little hope lifted Opal’s brow and she scampered over to the glass and crouched over it. 

“There- There’s a tiny bit in a curved piece of the glass!”

“Good, bring it here.”

The Goblin reverently lifted the little piece of glass, careful not to let a single drip fall.

She carried it over to him and delicately put it to his lips, tipping it back. The sip of remaining liquid landed on his tongue and Rain swallowed.

They both checked his wounds. Gradually, slowly, they started to visibly heal, then the healing seemed to slow down, the sip of healing potion limited in what it could do with so much damage and his body being so large.

“It’s not enough!” fretted Opal worriedly checking him over.

She rushed over to the pile of undead and dragged free an undead Goblin corpse. 

Rain eyed it dubiously. 

“You need to heal better, you got to eat this!”

She shoved the body into his paws.

Rain looked over the inedible looking corpse. It looked absolutely terrible, but it was true he needed food.

He hesitantly raised one of its arms and tore it off.

“Eurgh! It tastes like bitter jerky marinated in garbage!”

He made a face but managed to force it down and then started on the rest. Three bites in he started to slow and then come to a stop. He looked down at his stomach and grimaced.

“I… I think I’m going to be si- BLEURGHH!”

Bits of partially digested undead splattered against the floor as Rain heaved up the Goblin. 

He spat the taste from his mouth and wiped his tongue with his paw.

“Gods that was disgusting. Can’t eat undead. Noted. Bottom of the food ranking you go.”

Opal dropped the corpse she was dragging over with the help of the Kobold and gave him a hopeless look.

“I’ll live Opal, I just need to sleep, and I’ll heal.” He left his worries and doubts unsaid as there was nothing else to do but hope the worst of his injuries would fix themselves.

The Kobold stared at Rain warily, it wasn't hard to see that he was hoping Rain would drop dead.

Rain glared back at him and the Kobold flinched.

“Why did you help Opal?”

“Because I am an honourable Kobold, I see a monster in need and it tugs at my heartstrings, I could not leave such an injustice alone.”

Rain narrowed his eyes. “Why did you help Opal?”

The Kobold swallowed and looked away. “Because I can help the team! I’m all in with you guys!”

Rain snarled and the Kobold took a step back in fright.

“Okay! Okay! Fine. It’s because had the levelers won then I would have been nothing but an experience snack for them, dead where I stood. Levelers don't let monsters live without reason, I was either definitely dead with them or maybe going to die with you lunati- uh, very nice monsters!”

Rain nodded in satisfaction.

“What’s your name?”

The Kobold blinked at him in surprise. “Y-you want to know my name? Really?”

Rain nodded.

The Kobold coughed into his fist and cleared his throat. “Rixquintalios’alos the third, third in line for the noble house of Salamansos’firilianaranse. Esteemed giant rat hunter, famed amongst my peers!”

“...I’m not pronouncing that. Your name is now Red.”

“Wha- You can't change my name!”

“Your name is Red.”

“Nuooo! That’s not even a real name! That’s the name of a child's toy!”

“Red.”

“-But!”

Rain loomed at him, which was impressive given he was slumped against the throne still.

The Kobold whimpered and looked at his feet. “My name is Red.”

Opal slapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks for saving my ass Red.”

The Kobold stumbled forward under the slap and made a pained face.

“That’s... you’re welcome...”

Rain snorted then turned to look around the hall. He narrowed his eyes.

“I know you're here, watching, listening. Show yourself.”

The hall remained still.

“You did what you did for a reason, Don't Leave Me Waiting.”

Standing half behind a pillar the Elf-sheep suddenly became visible, her face pale and her legs visibly trembling.

“H-hi...It’s, uhm, me...again.”

“You saved my life.”

“...And m-murdered a leveler, oh g-gods, what have I done…” 

“You did what you felt you needed to do, though I would like to know why.”

The Elf-sheep seemed to gather herself, as though building up toward a speech she had been going over and over in her head.

“I came because I want your protection, and to ‘join’-”

“It’s yours.”

“-I feel I have a lot to offer your, uh, band. I am out of contract and a free agent, I have a very particular set of skill- wait what did you say?”

“I said you have it. I watched you from the forest as you left the Half-goblin tribe. You can turn yourself and others invisible. I want that.”

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“O-oh.” She seemed to relax a little. “You know I had thought of quite a lot to persuade you, it was really good and very persuasive.”

“Well you can still tell me if you wish.”

The Elf-sheep sighed. “The moments kinda passed but you should know I’m not doing this out of the kindness of my heart.”

“I know, otherwise you wouldn't have said protection.”

She nodded. “I might have gotten in a speck of trouble.”

“A speck large enough to throw yourself on the mercy of a monster? Some speck.”

“Ahaha, yes. Well, uhm, you know that pregnant Lamia you freed who wanted to bridge the divide between monsters and levelers? Wellll I kinda have a bounty on my head for her murder.”

“You didn’t murder her did you. If you had you wouldn't have been as bothered by what you just did.”

“...No... I was framed by her horrible husband.” She held out her hand and a black bladed knife appeared out of thin air in it. “Framed and handed a cursed item I cannot get rid of.”

Opal spat. “Levelers. Backstabbing rats. Why should we keep her around? She’s just as likely to betray us as the leveler that betrayed her.”

“She did save my life…”

The Elf-sheep scowled. “You think I want to be here?! My Class is called Rescuer! I rescue levelers who get into trouble in Dungeons, from monsters, monsters like you lot!” 

“Well now you can rescue monsters.”

The Elf-sheep groaned and put her head in her hands. “Did I really make the right choice?” She peeked between her fingers. “You know there's over a hundred levelers looking for you right? I should have known it was you from the start, you took the Inquisitor’s arm didn’t you?”

Opal held up the longsword with a grin. “Took her sword too!”

“Of course you did, things couldn't get any better could they.”

Opal scowled. “Why do you even want protection? You’ve got invisibility, you can just scuttle away like a rat!”

“I can't leave and I have a very fragile kind of invisibility. The only reason those two assassins didn't know to look was because they hadn't heard the news yet. If you know to look and have the right tools or skills it’s not hard to see me.”

“See! She’s useless!” said Opal triumphantly.

The Elf-sheep opened her mouth to protest but Rain held up a paw. 

“It’s fine. Tell me, none of your skills let you see others who are invisible right?”

“No, I can maybe get a feeling someone with invisibility as fragile as mine is nearby, I’m part Elf, but someone high level? Not very likely.”

Rain nodded. “That’s… not good. We need to change the situation, either we find some way to see the invisible… or we leave the dungeon, go where they aren’t.

Opal turned on him in surprise, even the Kobold looked surprised.

“What!” said Opal. “We can’t leave!”

“Sooner or later at least some of those levelers are going to find us and if they are in large groups we aren't going to win. If there are any more assassin types all they have to do is get lucky as we have no way of seeing them. The simple answer is to go where they are not without them knowing, that way they spend their time scouring the dungeon looking for something that is already gone.”

“B-but!”

“It will be fine Opal, it’s safer on the surface normally, away from a dungeon swarming with levelers? Definitely so.”

The Goblin gave him an offended look, as though she couldn't believe he was considering this.

“I’m sorry, It’s a nice idea, but it’s not going to work,” said Lyra “The Inquisitor, she put the dungeon in lockdown, nothing and nobody can leave or enter, it’s literally impossible.”

“Are you sure?”

“I saw it myself, I went to check the entrance before I found you. We can’t leave.”

Opal scuffed the ground with the ball of her foot. “Why don't you just take one of the other ways out?”

The Elf-sheep blinked at her. “What are you talking about? There are no other ways, dungeons only have one way out, obviously.”

“Hmphh, you're so cocky and arrogant, typical leveler. I have something you don’t sheep girl, I have memories, memories of Gobbos in past lives, I know there are other ways out of this dungeon because Gobbo scouts used them in the past.”

Rain and Lyra stared at the Goblin.

“Dungeon m-monsters can leave a dungeon whenever they w-want?” said Lyra, a little childhood fear creeping into her voice.

Opal crossed her arms. “It’s a secret Gobbo route, for special Gobbos. Like me.”

“You can show us the way out Opal? A way to avoid the lockdown and leave all the levelers hunting me hunting ghosts instead?”

“Well yeah, that’s what you want right? That’s easy.”

“I can’t believe this, how can there be another way out that levelers don't know about, we have mages that use magic to look for that kind of stuff!”

“Levelers are all drooling nasty morons, it’s really not that surprising they’d miss a clever Gobbo thing like that.” said Opal, lifting her head at Lyra and looking down her nose at her.

“I’ll believe it when I see it. It seems far more likely you had a weird dream and are confusing it with ancestral memory.”

Opal stuck her tongue out at Lyra. “Hmph, suit yourself, get ready to eat crow though.” She turned away and joined Red in sorting through the undead.

“What’s your name Elfy-sheep thing?” said Rain.

She wrinkled her nose in annoyance. “It’s Lyra, and I’m not half sheep, I’m half-Elf half-Woollie. My father was an Elf, my mother a Woollie, and please keep the jokes about sheep to yourself, and the ones about Elves sleeping with anything on two legs.”

“My name is Rain. The angry Goblin is called Opal.”

“I’m not angry!” seethed Opal.

“I need you to come here Lyra.”

Lyra eyed him and then nodded, she took a step from behind the pillar, her legs trembling out of control. She took another step and nearly fell over. She looked down at her shaking sheep legs in frustration.

“I hope spending time around you cures me of this. This is quite humiliating.”

She slapped her thighs twice and drew in a deep breath then took another step forward, this time it was a little better and she made her way over to Rain, though still occasionally having to stop to gather herself.

She eyed Rain warily. 

“You’ve gotten bigger since last time I saw you, you- you, you’re growing when you eat aren't you? That’s why you ate that entire tribe!” Her voice quavered as she spoke.

Rain gave her a full wolf fanged smile.

Lyra shivered.

Rain brought up one of his massive paws and held it out to her. 

“I can’t move, my spine is broken. I am healing quickly, thanks to the healing potion, but I can’t move until then. You need to make me invisible so others can't find me while I rest.”

Lyra eyed the paw. “I-I can do that, though my mana won't last forever, a few hours before I need to rest or drink a mana potion if we’re staying still.”

“That’s fine. That should hopefully be enough.” He beckoned her with his claws.

She looked at his paw and visibly gulped then extended her trembling hand forward. It came to rest over one of his paw pads, his digits were large enough that each digit was as thick as her wrist and had she tried to wrap her fingers around one it might not have reached.

“Oh, oh, your paws are warm. Uhm, o-okay, I’m going to do it in, three, two, one.”

She finished and Rain waited to see what would happen. He blinked, nothing had happened. He looked down at his body, it was the same? No, it was not the same, his fur seemed like it was suddenly darker, as though shadowed. The room was already quite dark despite his night vision but there was a difference. He looked over at the nervous looking sheep girl, her bright white fur was distinctly darker, the effect much more obvious. It was as though less light was illuminating her body.

He turned hearing a gasp and saw the Kobold looking nervously in his direction, his mouth hanging open.

“Oh g-gods, are you telling me this hellish nightmare monster can turn invisible now!?!?” he looked faint. “I don’t think I’m going to have a good night's sleep ever again.”

Opal tried to sneer at him but she couldn't stop a grin from breaking over her face. “Hunting should be easy peazy now. Lots and lots of food and growth and getting bigger and bigger!”

“They can’t hear us but if you shout as hard as you can it will break the invisibility, sudden movements or running too, or attacking. I hope you weren't expecting something better, sorry, I’m not that high leveled,” said Lyra eyeing the pleased Goblin.

“It’s fine. You should sit.”

“I- I should?”

“Yes, I’m going to sleep. I don't think you want to hold my arm up for hours, no?”

“Uh, right.”

She awkwardly sat on the flagstone beside the throne and crossed her legs. Rain lowered his paw into her lap, the size of it near filling it. She looked down at the giant paw she was holding, the bloodstained claws a reminder of what this monster was. She shivered and bit her lip.

“Try to relax.”

“It’s just, you know, you’re…”

“Intimidating?”

She nodded.

“I’m on your side now. Whatever you feel about me you now have against those who are after you. I’m between them and you.”

“I feel like I’ve caught the tiger’s tail and I can’t let go.”

“Well you aren't wrong.” He grinned wolfishly.

She gave him a despairing look.

“You deal with the cards you are dealt. It’s just how it is.”

Rain closed his eyes and made himself as comfortable as was reasonable considering where he lay.

“I’m going to make my cards grow however,” he murmured.

He felt her hand stiffen for a moment before relaxing. He fell asleep listening to her breathing and Opal and Red arguing.

 

p.s

 

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