Chương 78: Fury

Day 9 As I made my way up to the roof, I spoke to the tower.

"I hope you can hear me, or at least understand me." There was no reaction. I would need to figure out how to do this. How to properly commune. For now I could only hope.

"Those people? They are family. I don't know where my own mother is or if she even survived. Those people are the closest I've got. Don't be mad at them for taking from you, okay?" Once more, no reaction. I felt a little silly.

"This is what many people get wrong. That your worth is measured by what you can hold. But you aren't lesser for sharing what you have with others. That's the true value of wealth. What you can do with it to provide for others. As they grow stronger, they can help me more, and in turn, I can help you more." I sighed.

"This probably sounds like complete nonsense to you, but I hope you take my words to heart." I wanted to believe that I felt something. Some kind of acknowledgement.

"I think it heard you," Lucy said.

"Can you teach me how to communicate with it?"

"Absolutely not. This is some nearly entirely uncharted territory. No manual for you."

"Never read those anyway." Before I stepped out on the roof, I put a hand against the wall of the staircase.

"I'll be back soon. Promise." On the rooftop, I paused. With what little experience I had gotten after I reached level 20, I still could have reached 23 on the spot if I turned in all those task rewards. But I held onto them. Just a bit more grinding and I could get to my next Perk. I had no idea what Fate had in stock for me. The last list consisted entirely of choices that ruined my experience gain. Hopefully by now Fate would just accept that I was outscaling the rest of the Apocalypse.

Beyond all that, I was also getting close to unlocking the next level of Mind over Matter. Only eight more shapes. I dropped off the roof, and in less than a minute I arrived at the mall as a crow. This time I'd skip the bottom floor. Those traps cost me time I didn't have. After a bit of circling over the mall, I found an open skylight. It was, of course, also trapped. Spring-loaded and trip-wired. It'd shatter my bones, or try to, if I tripped that wire.

I carefully pressed through the side and made it inside, in one piece. The higher levels of the mall were mostly as they had been the last time. Buzzing with peaceful activity. Undetected, I switched into the cat and strolled through the halls of the upper level. Even when kobolds detected me, they didn't pay much attention. As much as kobolds had their traps, vermin would always be an issue—one cats helped with. I soon found the room in which the Chosen had welcomed me before.

Only that there were now far fewer people in there, and the dais that had served as their throne was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the First sat at a desk and discussed something with two female kobolds across from her. In a wide open space, the Second was guiding a handful of male kobolds and his daughter, Zi'rah, through combat drills. I wondered how much it mattered. Not all Created were created equally.

But if this particularly trained bunch fought the Blessed, would there be any difference between them and their untrained counterparts? From a spot to the side of the room, I observed their exercise for a while. Until the First noticed me.

"Eve, kin of dragon. You have returned to us," she announced. This caused a whole lot of confusion before most eyes in the room eventually settled on me. I jumped on a desk, where I canceled out of the cat shape. If this alliance were to last, I might as well show my true self. I leaned back and crossed my legs.

"I greet you, First Chosen." I nodded to Zi'rah and her dad.

"Zi'rah. Second." The confusion remained, but the fighters started lowering their weapons when neither of the Chosen showed any aggression.

"You have done as we asked you. Why do you come sneaking inside like a foe?"

"If I were a foe, I'd have stuck to the shadows until I struck from them. Last time my arrival was announced, you went through the effort of preparing a magical binding. I thought I'd spare you the trouble." The older kobold woman laughed.

"Very well. What do you want?"

"I would like to take a group of yours out to meet some unusual allies of mine. A pack of hyenas. I hope that in my absence your people can check in on them, and if this partnership is promising, they might even accompany yours when you venture out of the Mall."

"Hyenas?" the Second asked.

"Like those creatures that accompany those horrendous gnolls?"

"The very same. Their gnoll handlers have been killed, down to the last one, by us. But I grew attached to the hyenas." Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I decided to allow myself a bit of flourish and cast Alter Self to imitate the gnoll shape.

"You are many-faced, and yet you ask us to trust you with ours," the First said.

"I did as you asked me to do. I was informed that diplomacy with the other kobolds is under way. The demons in the tower are no more. I returned your daughter… And now I need her to accompany me."

"Me? Why?" Zi'rah asked.

"Because I need a woman powerful enough to challenge the strongest of the hyenas. They need to understand that you are strong enough to be respected, and they will respect no man. You, Dratz'zt, and three more volunteers." Zi'rah grinned. As a woman, it seemed like she was destined to become a caster. And yet here she was, training with the other fighters. Of course she'd love wrestling hyenas to prove her strength. But she also looked up to her father, waiting for his approval.

"I will not command anyone to join you. But any who volunteer you can have," the Second said.

"I will do my best to return them unharmed. And there will be soup. Magical soup." Zi'rah nodded.

"I will join you." I hopped off the desk and gave Zi'rah a slight bow.

"I'll meet you outside then. Bring those you trust." I turned into a crow and made my exit. For once, that went pretty smoothly. Only the Blessing was yet to reward me for my unusual approach. Outside the gate that I had entered through last time, I waited in the Dire Hyena shape. I'd need to see how Zi'rah could do against me in that shape before she'd square off with the former Matriarch. The volunteers took their sweet time to join me. But eventually the loading bay doors rolled up, revealing five kobolds.

Dratz'zt, Zi'rah, and three I couldn't remember meeting before. They didn't seem too excited to meet a dire hyena five times their size.

"Is that you?" Dratz'zt asked.

"What even are you?" Zi'rah asked.

"I'm a human," I replied through the Queen's voice.

"But this right now? This is what you'll face off against, Zi'rah." To her credit, Zi'rah hid her fear well.

"That's bigger than I thought it'd be."

"Here, all of you, eat this. It'll help." I placed a paw in front of me and put the pot with Stephen's lentil soup on the ground.

"What's that?" asked one of the other kobolds.

"Magical soup. It'll make you stronger." I also pulled out some bowls and spoons before I pulled back from the pot.

"Treat yourself." While the others did, Dratz'zt walked up to me.

"Why did you ask for me?"

"Because you are a crafty one. And whatever cozy job you caught? I bet it'd get boring."

"Boring means alive, though." The first of the others had finished his bowl.

"This slop is amazing." The kobolds weren't particularly strong or tough. If it worked the same for them as it did for the Blessed, it'd nearly double their Strength and Endurance. Zi'rah also put her bowl aside and walked around me, examining me from all sides.

"Okay. How do I beat something like you up?" she asked.

"Show me what you got." The results were mixed at best. Zi'rah was fast, she could probably do what I did and evade almost anything the former matriarch could throw at her. But she lacked mass, which was amplified in our training. I couldn't control my Dense Musculature Perk to the degree I needed, so I was basically an immovable object to the kobold. So I had to teach her about weak points and how to humiliate her opponent by exploiting those. Which was a rather painful lesson to teach, too.

She was a trained fighter and a fast learner. The others I equipped with dog treats Helene had given me. As males, they didn't need to appear dangerous, just more valuable alive than as a snack themselves. On the way over to the junkyard, I explained the purpose of this first visit and my understanding of hyena culture and society to the kobolds. We'd see if they could join them on a hunting trip and integrate into their pack structure like that.

With both species being opportunistic cowards, there should at least be some sympathies to find. As we got closer to the junkyard, my instincts started screaming at me that something was wrong. Something had happened. There was blood in the air.

"Keep up," I told the kobolds as I broke off into a run. The hyenas were still marked on my minimap, still allied, but a lot of them were clustered around the spot where I had fought the matriarch the first time I was here. That clearing in the junk where they had made their den. Among those gathered, multiple carried injuries—some of them severe. Even the matriarch limped as she approached me. At the edge of the clearing, some were gathered around one of them who had succumbed to her wounds.

From behind me came growls and a surprised shriek. The kobolds had caught up, and they weren't welcome. I shut that down with a growl of my own. We didn't have time for those games.

"Stay back and stay harmless. Feed them if they approach." I found the worst-wounded of the living, dropped out of the dire hyena shape, and knelt down by his side. His wounds smelled of gunpowder. Shrapnel-like shards of metal were embedded in his wounds. I had a pair of tweezers in my inventory, but I needed to steady my hand before I could remove the projectiles. I wasn't even sure if it was necessary, but I didn't want the wounds to close over those shards. I'd find and kill each and every one of those orcs.

But first I had to ensure that no more of my babies would succumb to their wounds. With the shrapnel removed, I administered a healing potion before I moved on to the next. Even the proud former matriarch allowed me to help her. I put on the Crown of the Laughing Queen before I found the kobolds, successfully keeping a trio of curious hyenas at bay by throwing treats at them.

"I need to go on a hunt. You didn't volunteer for this, so I don't blame you if you don't join me. But there will be loot. And maybe power." All five joined me. And then, unprompted, the former matriarch—now walking a bit more steadily after my treatment—and two other hyenas also joined me. We snuck up to the police station from behind, with me in my half-dragon shape. Its resistance against mundane weapons should limit the impact of the orc s' guns.

The plan was simple and meant to keep the others mostly out of the line of fire. I'd take point, the kobolds would only come in after I cleared the first room of orcs, and they'd search for any weapons they could use to cover my back or for smoke grenades they could use to obscure line of sight even further.

"This is a profane space, Eve," Gabriel said.

"I don't know its exact nature, but it will be aligned with sadism, power over the weak, and might-makes-right. Influences you are very susceptible to right now." Gabriel's warning had made perfect sense. Until it was washed away by a scent in the air. The air smelled of grilled meat and charred fur—hyena. White-hot fury washed away any meaning Gabriel's words had held. I stepped into the profane space, and its corruption sang to the tune of my soul.