Chương 17

In a far corner of a dead galaxy, a general crushed the cup in his hand. He had just taken a ping. The boss creature was dead — the one he had worked so hard to slip past the AI. To get it through, Skullthrax had nerfed a long list of undead qualities. He had made up for that with the location: a place nobody could walk into and work out in time — or so he had thought. The System AI had trimmed his proposal, of course. He had still been sure. His underlings had assured him.

A monster of a boss on the first floor, then shuttled to the second, where it would kill everybody. That plan was dead now. Skullthrax did not have the details of what happened yet. He would have the name of the culprit soon enough. Whoever had done this would pay for the interference. He would see to it that they'd never survive the rest of the tutorial. I fell on my ass, tired out of my mind now that the adrenaline had fully drained from my body.

I ignored the notifications and just lay back on the floor, closing my eyes.

"I need a fucking nap," I muttered.

"And another promotion." This time, my colleagues laughed. Then Tina said, "Oh my God, is that lion going to eat us?" My eyes popped open immediately. I had almost forgotten that I had turned a boss into my pet. I turned toward it. The tag still read the same. Well, not exactly the same. It had one small addition. Pussycat, the Noble King of the Jungle - Level 20 (Pet) I hadn't really asked Bluemont much about pets.

He had said that the chances of me managing to feed such a biscuit to any valuable creature on this floor were near zero. In fact, the only reason I had managed to feed this giant lion the biscuit was the fact that it had been on the verge of dying. Otherwise, I would have most likely died against this terrifying creature. It was almost as if the System AI itself had laid it out for me.

Just looking at it, I could tell that even if I threw a spear and activated Judgment of Raziel, this behemoth might very well not even get a scratch from it.

"So," I said, looking at the lion, "um, sit, I guess?" The creature looked at me and almost seemed to raise an eyebrow.

"Pardon?" The lion suddenly spoke in a deep voice with a British accent.

"Holy— He can talk," Tina said.

"Oh my God, that's so cute," Hailey added. Marcus and Lucas just gave a wide berth to the creature.

"You talk," I said, more of a question than a statement.

"Of course I do," the creature replied.

"And, Master, I would like for you to refer to me by my proper title."

"Sure," I said, not willing to test the limits of the loyalty of a Level 20 boss pet.

"Although — not Master. Please."

"You dislike it." The lion considered me for a moment.

"Then, Sir John."

"I can live with that."

"I am King Pussycat." I looked at the lion and rubbed my eyes.

"Yeah, about that name — sorry, I was really in a hurry, and I think we should change it."

"A name given cannot be taken. More importantly, Sir John, I think you solved my greatest plight."

"Your what, sorry?" I asked.

"Arrogance plagued me, and arrogance led me to battle with these filthy creatures. Despite my powers, they managed to poison me and bring me here. My arrogance was my ruin. By giving me such a name, you reminded me, Sir John, that true greatness does not come from a shiny mane, nor from my titles. It comes from our actions. Your fearless fight against this plague showed me that my path to redemption shall be marked by a new baptism under the name of King Pussycat."

I didn't say anything in response, because my brain, for whatever reason, had gone to the Tom and Jerry episode where a little mouse calls Tom 'Monsieur Pussycat.' And I really, really didn't want to tell this guy that his name had none of the meaning he had just given to it. You don't argue with a lion that, now that I was looking at it standing, probably stood at ten feet. This was a giant, steroid-riddled lion. So I scratched my head.

"Um, King Pussycat? I don't really know how this whole pet thing works."

"I shall explain, Sir John, but first let us leave this filthy place."

"Yeah," I said, uncertain. Then I looked at the very small door through which we had come, and then at the giant lion.

"Isn't that door a little small? How did you even fit?"

"They finished the pyramid ten hours ago. It was built with me inside." I didn't ask how it was possible that some shambling zombies had done this, because clearly there was some magic involved — and the question of how they built the fucking pyramids was still not answered even back on Earth. So I just pointed out the obvious.

"Um, King Pussycat, the door is too small. What are we gonna do? That rock looks really solid. I'm not sure I can activate my skill and blow up the wall. I don't think that's how it works."

"Fear not, Sir John. Now that I am your humble servant, I shall display one of my skills."

"One of your what?" I asked. But the giant lion jumped atop the ruined altar and said, "Friends, clear the way. I would not have you harmed." Everybody scrambled away to the opposite side of the room, and the lion, roaring so deafeningly my ears started hurting, released a— I don't know how to describe it, but it was like a flaming laser out of his mouth. It blew up the door — and, actually, the entire wall — creating a giant opening to the next room.

The entire ceiling vibrated and trembled, and for a moment I was afraid that the whole pyramid was about to collapse upon all of us.

"There you go, Sir John. Isn't that a good job?" The lion smirked.

"Yes," I said tentatively.

"Can I ask a question, just out of pure curiosity?"

"Of course, Sir John."

"Is that a skill you would have used as a boss, if we had come to kill you?" Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Yes, this is one of my skills indeed. Weakened because of our bond, now. But yes, one of my Skills."

"Oh. One of." I blinked repeatedly, and then I remembered Bluemont mentioning that bosses could do very nasty things. I think the man really underplayed just how insane that attack had been. Not even my Judgment of Raziel could do anything like it. And this was a weakened version, apparently. I started walking, and then I saw my pet lowering himself and staring at me.

"What's happening?"

"Sir John, I beg you and your friends, your noble knights, to please ride on my back. I would have never done something like this, but my new baptism has made me see the light. If I want to ascend to a higher plane, I have to abandon my old and prideful ways. To be just a means of transportation would have made me rage in the past. Now, I see how a life of service is truly the only life well-lived."

I didn't even argue at this point with the giant lion, because I was tired out of my mind and I wanted to just reach the haven, check that everybody was okay and that the zombies had indeed collapsed — and also sleep. I have to confess, at this point I was so tired, so incredibly drained of any ounce of fight, that my list of priorities was: sleep, eat something hot, check that everybody is okay. That was the list, in that specific order.

"Yeah, we should probably go. We all need to rest."

"What, Sir John? We have to fight the powers of evil. Now that I know that this scourge has not been fully eradicated yet, I will not rest until every single filthy undead is destroyed." I looked at the giant holier-than-thou lion, and all the happiness of having gained an impossibly strong mount momentarily evaporated while I thought, I just need to take a break. And so King Pussycat let us all ride on his giant back with no problem. Well — we kinda fell. The men, at least.

He seemed to be very chivalrous with the ladies, whereas the men, who sat further away from the mane, were sort of risking a fall every time he took a sharp twist. The ladies, who were grabbing onto the mane, just laughed and praised King Pussycat, who seemed to take delight in the praise and listen to only them. This guy is still a vain, arrogant lion, I thought. But that beam of power — that laser — that was something else. My inventory was a junkyard.

Teeth, hides, fangs, claws, things I had no name for — dozens of alphas' worth of it, all of it dragged out of a tomb. Whatever we could do with that at a Crafting Haven would be very interesting. The group was ecstatic. We had just pulled off a feat none of us had believed ourselves capable of.

"Oh, man. I have to say," Lucas groaned, "I didn't think we were gonna make it. This was insane. Taking all those monsters off the walls — it was so hard. And this new dude." Lucas patted the lion.

"You're so cool, man."

"Thank you, Sir Lucas." King Pussycat had taken the time to learn all the names. We came across a few groups of horned zebras, and Lucas said, "King Pussycat, could you show us your skill again?" I could physically hear the lion grin.

"Of course, Sir Lucas." That's how we got sidetracked. As soon as the lion shot the gigantic beam from his mouth, everybody whooped.

"Oh my God, that's so cool!" Hailey shouted.

"Whoo! We're the best!" I was happy as well. Tired, but happy. This was a celebration that we really needed. Our moods were riding high when we finally saw the Large Haven, led to it by a special giant blue arrow that had appeared with the quest.

"I bet they're going to throw us a giant party after what we did," Tina said. She was probably right, considering what we had accomplished. It was reasonable to expect them to be amazed. I caught myself thinking it. Okay. Let's not have this go to our heads. But deep inside, I felt it too. Man, we're so cool. We just saved all these people. We had also picked up a massive lion that shot giant beams from his mouth. Not exactly something you saw every day. All our high spirits were given a cold shower by the corpses.

As we approached, I saw what I could only describe as a sea of death. The number of zombies outside the large stone wall was staggering. They were piled on top of each other by the dozen. In several spots the piles rose so high I could not see past them.

"Holy shit," Marcus said under his breath.

"I didn't think so many people had…"

"Yeah," I muttered.

"This is insane." None of us knew how to react. It still felt good that we had saved people. That so many had survived. Even so, I wondered — how had the zombies killed so many? I caught some evaluations as we drew closer. Most of these people had scored below D at the entrance test. They wouldn't have gotten great equipment. So how had they put up such a fight? Zombies were not that scary once you removed the fear factor. But this many? You would get tired just swinging at them. There were still people outside.

Some of them clutched dead bodies and cried while cradling them in their arms. A few sat on the ground, caked in mud and blood, staring in a catatonic state at the horizon. Most of the people out there were gathering the corpses. I heard a whistle. I still had my Sphere of Intuition open, and I saw an arrow whiz toward us — just as Tina was saying, "I wonder if our presence will cheer them up." King Pussycat swatted the arrow away with ease.

By the gates, I found the shooter — one of the crying warriors, who had been bent over a much younger man's body. Another man tackled him and pinned his arms.

"Hey!" I shouted. The one doing the restraining turned toward us.

"Go away." What? I turned toward my teammates, trying to understand if they had caught something I hadn't. They looked back at me with the same confusion. In the distance, two horned zebras came running at us. Before I could say a word, King Pussycat shot a massive beam over his shoulder and vaporized them both. Good intentions. And yet everybody flinched away. Some hauled corpses onto their backs and hurried toward the haven.

"Did I not perform admirably, Sir John?" the lion asked quietly.

"I don't get it," I muttered. Okay. Let me try something.

"Hey, guys — this is a pet. Don't worry. He's on our side. Don't be afraid." The few who had stayed looked at me with hate. One of them came closer, shouting, "How dare you show your face here?"

"Sorry — I'm really not getting what's happening," I said.

"Why are you so mad? We just killed the boss."

"And you took your damn time."

"We took our damn time? Do you know how hard it was?" I frowned.

"Yeah, we saw it. The system gave us a good show of you sitting on your ass on that sarcophagus instead of killing the boss."

"What are you talking about?" I dismounted from King Pussycat.

"I sat on that damn sarcophagus for half a minute — to figure out how to save you." The man's eyes were bloodshot.

"My wife died. And then you came prancing back with that damn lion, all happy that you'd gotten yourselves a bastard pet." I had no idea what to say. The man walked away. In his place came another, who said, "I would like to thank you. Whatever happened — the only reason my son is alive is you. Thank you. Every one of you." I shook the man's hand, awkward, and then he left too. Right when I was about to lose my mind over all of it, a woman came out of the stone gate.

I was still confused about what exactly the stream had shown them. They had seen us with the lion too — seen us celebrating with King Pussycat. I could see how that would not give the best impression. Which made me wonder: why the hell was the stream showing that at all? It made sense to show us killing the boss. It was a big event. But then you would expect what we had been expecting. Gratitude. Instead, the woman who came toward us was tall, with a bob cut, her hair bloodied.

There were still splatters of rotten blood and flesh all over her clothes and her face. The worst I had seen out of all these people. Two holsters hung at her hips. The strange, oversized guns in them hung open. Empty. And above her head: two S's and one F. Weird, I thought. The F was in Cooperation.

"John O'Donnell," she said, looking at me.

"Um. Yes?" I frowned.

"I'm a little confused. I really don't want to offend anybody here, but I don't know what's happening." I feared she would be hostile like everybody else. Instead she said, "Please avoid using those attacks from your pet."

"Okay," I said. Behind me, King Pussycat heard that and looked sad. While she spoke she had drifted — a step here, a half turn there — until she stood between the lion and the gate. She looked past me at him for a long moment.

"It does what you say?"

"Yeah. He's a pet. He's got a character on him, but so far, he has behaved. He's a highly intelligent creature. Perhaps more intelligent than me."

"Perhaps, Sir John?" the lion said, confused. The woman did not look amused, and I felt awkward.

"May I ask your name?"

"I'm Alice. You can bring everyone inside. Even your pet. These are orders from our leader. If anything happens because of your pet, though—" She looked at me meaningfully.

"Of course. Of course."

"Follow me, please." I gestured to the group. They didn't look happy. Honestly, I was a little pissed myself. I wasn't expecting a parade. But goddammit, at least a thank-you. Or — you know what? I didn't even need a thank-you. Just don't shoot me with a damn arrow. Alice brought us toward five stone houses. Small — very small — but each had a bed, a little kitchenette, and a bathroom. Hailey and Tina took one together. Lucas and Marcus took two separate ones.

Then Alice said to me, "Our leader would like to talk to you." Several armed people had shadowed us the whole way. A few of them, hearing that, muttered, "Why does the Father want to talk to these bastards? Why couldn't we have gotten Langdon? Or Bryce?" Father? I thought. As in an actual father? Or a priest?

"Your lion — tell it to sleep in the stock pen. There's one right beside your own house." I looked at King Pussycat. He nodded wisely.

"I shall humble myself. This is another great lesson for me." Then he went off. But I caught a little flicker of disappointment on his face.