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Chapter 15

The group of Kobolds began to coalesce around their leader, a taller than average green and red Kobold wearing a gold chain necklace and carrying a wide-bladed cutlass.

He held up his sword, "On me! On me! Can't you see it's wounded! It is ours to kill!"

The other Kobolds roared and held their weapons aloft. The nearest Kobold to the snake charged right at it with a spear and actually managed to pierce its scale. The furious snake snapped around as soon as it felt pain and the Kobold managed only one terrified look before a terrible pink mouth engulfed his upper body, swallowed, lifted and gulped the Kobold down. A bulge slowly sunk down the snake's neck joining five other bulges that ran the length of its body which Rain realised were the other five other Kobolds missing from the twenty Opal had expected.

The leader ignored this and busily arranged his Kobolds into a shield formation, a line of seven Kobolds carrying heavy plank shields while a line of seven more behind them held spears that poked between the shields. "Slow forward!" cried the leader and the shield line moved.

The snake hissed in anger and snapped at the air in front of them, trying to get at the Kobolds but fearing the sharp spears that tracked its face.

The wall neared and the snake backed up hissing and spitting as the sharp spears jabbed at its scales. The leader Kobold dived between the shields and with a twisting slash carved a jagged line up the snake's side. The snake screamed and lurched backwards, its coiled body oscillating and forming up to wrap around itself protectively.

The motion shifted and brushed the sands aside revealing smooth white and round objects hidden beneath. Eggs. The snake realised what it had done and moved its body to protect the eggs, but the spears came on relentlessly. With blind fear in its eyes the snake roared once more and seemingly having decided it had no better option it dived at the shield wall, risking everything in an act of protective desperation. One, two, three spears punctured deep into the snake's body, but it made it through! It crashed down on the shields with a roar of victory instantly crushing three of the Kobolds below its weight. Its coiled body swept through the sand like a whip, once, twice, three times, an unstoppable force fueled by pure outrage. Kobolds tumbled before its scales, smashed aside with broken bones.

The Kobold leader roared and flames exploded from his open mouth in a cone that washed up against the snake and engulfing part of its body in fire. The snake thrashed in pain and tried to escape the flame but the Kobold tracked its body with his head blackening and crisping its scales in a huge swathe.

It seemed like the snake was done for but the leader Kobold was clearly starting to struggle. His expression was strained and his brow furrowed in concentration, reddening with effort. Suddenly he choked and the flame winked out. He looked on in horror as the blackened but still perfectly mobile and increasingly angry snake roared and lunged for him.

The Kobold deflected the scything teeth with his cutlass and on the back foot he retreated as the snake repeatedly snapped and bit at him looking to end him before he could breathe fire once again. The leader backed up against a particularly large boulder and was left with nowhere to flee as the snake cornered him.

"For blood and riches!" howled the Kobold as he went for one last desperate gambit, diving under the snake's swift jaw and raising his cutlass to stab up into its soft underbelly. Unfortunately, the snake saw it coming and twisted from his reach. Its head whipped around and its teeth took him in the side. Blood splattered across the white sand and the Kobold, minus his leg and a good chunk of his side, was tossed against the large boulder where he slumped to the ground leaving a bloody smear. The snake hissed in triumph and reared up above the Kobold, gloating in its well-earned victory. The Kobold spat blood and raised his sword from where he lay in the sand, the tip of his blade wobbling as it pointed at the serpent.

"I hope you choke on me you shitty snake, I-"

A shadow dropped from the top of the boulder and landed on top the snake's neck at the base of its skull. A grizzly crunch met the Kobold's ears and the snake thrashed in panic. Another crunch, the snake screamed in agony. One more bone splintering sound and the snake went lip and fell to the ground like wet rope.

A black-furred monster pulled its head from the bucket sized hole it had made in the snake's neck, shards of spine dropping from its muzzle. Blood washed down its front and hung in grizzly strands from its teeth. The Kobold looked into its yellow eyes and saw a hunger unlike anything he had ever known, a beastly greedy hunger that knew no limits.

His eyes drifted to his soldiers groaning in the sand, nursing broken or shattered bones or crawling away.

"G-get away!" He called blood burbling up with every word. A number of the Kobolds looked up. "R-Run you fools! Flee! It's something- something worse! Run for your lives!"

A flicker of green at his side and a knife appeared at his throat.

"They're already dead, they just don't know it yet. They are all going in my wolfies belly, every last one. Save your breath for the gods."

The Kobold could only watch in dismay as the evil wolf thing went from injured Kobold to injured Kobold and extinguished their life with a snap of his jaws. They could do nothing, even as they realised what was happening and tried to crawl or limp away the wolf simply pounced on them and ended their lives. There was no honour here, only death.

"Y-you could have let them live..."

The Goblin ignored him and joined the wolf thing, helping it strip the bodies of his soldiers. The Kobold watched as it began to devour his people. He couldn't believe his eyes. The monster did not simply eat, it consumed. Sliding whole sections of limbs into its jaws then biting and swallowing then continuing onward into the torso, its teeth scissoring through scale and flesh, making whole chunks of his soldiers disappear with casual ease. The monster's stomach bulged with his people. Surely the beast had to stop soon, which it did, and then it sat. The Kobold watched, with rising dismay, as the stomach of the wolf thing trembled and then began to shrink down flat.

"What fresh horror has this dungeon wrought upon us," he murmured as his eyes slowly drifted shut and darkness bloomed.

Chapter 16

Opal looked at the Kobold leader's body slumped against the boulder and tilted her head.

"That one was dangerous. Glad the big snake took him out. If he had won against it then it might have been better for us to just leave."

Rain looked up from where he was shoving the last of a Kobold leg down his maw. His teeth crushed its claws and he swallowed and let out a belch. He wiped his mouth.

"Spicy. Oh, the leader? Yeah, he was pretty impressive. Fire breath is something I would like to avoid, because, you know, flammable fur." He gestured vaguely at his body.

"Kobold's don't normally breathe fire, that's only the second time I've seen it."

"I guess he was just an unusual breed of Kobold then."

The Goblin gave him a curious look. "Breed? I'm not sure what you mean, Kobolds are born all the same, that Kobold evolved."

"Evolved? What is evolved?" said Rain, raising an eyebrow.

"Gods your old slave masters really taught you nothing about monsters huh. It's simple, sometimes something happens that triggers a monster into evolving to a better form. You already met an evolved monster, the overgrown Gobbo that my old Chief castrated, he was a kind of HobGobbo which is a better Gobbo."

"Oh?... Wait, wait, hold on, does that mean you could evolve too!?"

"...Yes... But I don't know what would make that happen. I wouldn't want to chase it either, we used to mock evolution chasers in the tribe, they would all without fail get themselves killed having gotten nothing."

"Interesting. I wonder if it works like leveling, kill monsters, or maybe in a monster's case kill levelers, and then evolve."

Opal shrugged. "I don't know. I knew of Gobbos who had done lots of that but nothing happened. Even My old tribe's Chief, he killed tons of things, but he never evolved, which frustrated him, not even the Witch Gobbo knew why."

"Well, maybe the chance to evolve is hereditary."

"It's never had any rhyme or reason that my tribe noticed. I just know that it's rare and always makes a monster stronger."

"Stronger hmm. That leader Kobold looked almost noble fighting that snake, that was more than strength," said Rain picking a scale from his teeth.

"Eh, It's not like he came here for good reasons, not that Kobolds ever do anything good if they can help it." She pointed at the clutch of eggs that had been uncovered during the fight. "Kobolds love snake eggs and they take crazy risks to get at them. They must have stumbled upon the snake guarding its nest, and the leader wanted its eggs bad enough that he got himself and every Kobold with him killed for his greediness."

Rain grinned at that. "He did, and now everything is mine."

He turned back to the pile of stripped Kobold bodies and went back to eating. The delicious spice of the creatures made his mouth water and he eagerly tore into them, bones and all. If he were much larger he would have liked to have eaten them like the snake, but since he was not he contented himself with taking large bites at a time. Kobold was reaffirming its position near the top of his list. Still, he didn't hesitate to leave a Kobold tail to the side, he knew Opal liked them.

He was pushing how much he could digest at once, filling his stomach and compressing it down. When he'd first eaten Kobold he'd only managed one at a time, now he was taking in one and a half or more before needing to digest. He liked to push it because more inside of him meant he would grow more in one go. He liked that feeling of growth more than he felt he could describe in words.

The pile of fourteen Kobolds quickly diminished beneath his slavering jaws and endless hunger and soon he was reaching for the last of them. He pushed himself and managed to stuff inside the last two Kobolds as one. Opal didn't miss the opportunity and fell to her knees practically hugging him, her breath coming in little gasps. His toes curled and uncurled and he stretched his arms above his head as his stomach growled and began to shrink down. His body began to grow in mass and height, bones creaking and popping, skin stretching over swelling muscle. He groaned and Opal let out an accidental moan as his stomach vanished and his feet pushed against the sand, his legs growing in length shifting Opal with them.

He'd gained inches from eating the fourteen Kobolds, far better than any crappy mushrooms.

Opal clutched at the fur on his pecs and looked up at him.

"W-we're not done y-yet."

Her eyes tracked to the massive body of the snake.

"Eggs first, I've never had a snake egg before. Go and get them for me."

"R-right."

After a moment to prepare herself she slid from his body and climbed to her feet. She wiped a little drool from her lip with the back of her hand.

She busied herself digging out the white eggs from the sand one by one. There were a lot, more than expected, nearly twenty of the things. She pulled them free and slowly lined them up by Rain. Each was roughly the size of a melon and she had to roll them across the sand due to their surprising weight.

Rain pulled the first one over as she worked. White, with a hard shell with a little give. He held out a claw and poked a hole in the top then held it up and let the yellow yolk pour into his mouth.

"Hmm. Not awful. Slimy. Kinda tasteless."

Rain made a face suddenly recalling the blandness of the mushroom monsters and put the shell down.

Opal rolled the last of the eggs over. "Let me try and cook one before you eat anymore."

She swiftly pulled out a pan and dropped an egg into it. She then threw down a root thing she had taken from a mushroom monster as well as some twigs and branches from the bottom of her rucksack as well as fluffy tinder she had taken from a lake reed. She knocked together a flint and steel and the tinder caught and then with a whumpf so did the mushroom root as it burst into flame and began burning furiously.

Ten minutes later she hooked out the egg and rolled it over to Rain. He picked it up, bouncing it from paw to paw due to the heat and then tried to poke a hole in the top. He managed it, but nothing came out.

"It's solidified you silly wolf."

Rain grunted then dropped it back in the sand where he rapidly tore off the shell revealing the soft white interior. He scented the fresh steaming eggwhite, his eyes slowly widening at how enticing it smelled. He tore into it, devouring it to the yolk, then pausing as he took in the savoury eggy flavour. It didn't take long to scarf the rest down and he was left licking the inside of the shell.

"It's good. Rich. Normally I prefer food raw but this is better cooked."

"I've seen Kobolds eat eggs raw but never snake eggs, I figured there must be a reason."

She piled up a few more of the eggs over the fire and then rushed around the sandy clearing digging up bits of very dry and very old dead wood which she tossed on the pile. Quickly enough Rain had more eggs incoming and he happily ripped them apart and licked the shells clean.

He found he could manage a lot of the things before he had to wait and digest them so it only took a few rounds to entirely polish off the eggs. Each time Opal came up and lay on top of him, feeling his body grow beneath herself.

After a little time spent basking in the afterglow of a big meal, Rain sat up and shifted the Goblin off his chest.

"I'm still really really hungry, and having that snake so near is not helping." He licked his lips as he eyed the great beast then getting his feet underneath him he stood.

"Yes! Eat the snake! You can grow so much from it, bigger and bigger!" said the Goblin, her eyes sparkling as she looked up at his new height, inches taller than before. She grabbed him by the paw and excitedly led him to the end of the snake.

Rain picked up the tail and put the tip in his mouth. Opal helped hold it up in the air and he pushed the thing into his maw and bit down and chewed. The scales of the snake had a shockingly lemon fresh crisp taste to them, and the interior a lush and juicy umami beef flavour, totally different from anything he had expected but a strangely brilliant combination that he instantly relished. He eagerly tore into it, two feet of snake, three feet, four. He shoved forward eager to fit more inside and rapidly reached six foot along its tail. The snake's body was getting thicker by this point and Rain's jaws had to spread wide to take it in, he didn't stop though as his stomach expanded. Opal was trying her best to push the snake toward his mouth but it was becoming too much for her. Fortunately rain could rely on his own strength and helped haul more toward his teeth.

He slowed as he reached the limit of what he could eat in one go.

"M-more!" said the Goblin, her hands shaking as she tried to hold the weight of the snake's tail up.

Rain shook his head and closed his eyes unable to speak with so much snake filling his mouth. He furrowed his brow, readying to break off, then opened his eyes in surprise as he felt his stomach rumble to life and begin to digest. He groaned as he felt growth stutter start then stop, as though it was being delayed and banked up, as though it were unable to begin working on his body because he was still eating.

Instead of stopping and just letting the growth happen however he let his instinctual hunger drive him and pushed forward, managing to rip and bite another foot of snake inside himself, pushing out his shrinking stomach again.

"A-are you digesting as you eat?" said the Goblin, as another foot of snake pushed into the wolf's mouth.

Rain ignored her and focused on eating. He was digesting as fast as he could bite and push the snake meat down his throat by now, and he hurried to press forward even as he felt the potential growth amassing, waiting to get to work. Fifteen feet up the snake he came across the first bulge a Kobold made in the snake's body. He eyed it and grimaced. No time to waste. He bit down on the snake, swallowed, then dove on the encased Kobold, unwilling to let his digestion end. He succeeded and managed to rip through and shove enough of the spicy meat down his gullet that his gut was kept busy and his tastebuds excited at the variation in flavour. The snake was stripped away and the Kobold inside was eaten limb by limb, even the head was taken apart. With a slightly crazed look in his eye Rain threw himself onto the rest of the snake using his claws to help rend it apart and shovel its meat into his mouth all while gulping down everything he could fit his teeth around and bite down on.

He didn't stop, his hunger just kept rising and rising and he drove forward eager to sate himself. The second Kobold's body met its fate beneath his jaws and then the third and the fourth, by this point the snake's body was a few feet wide and he had to slow down just due to the increased mass he needed to cover. He could feel his jaws tiring as he went, making the speed with which he ate a little less. It was a marathon, but one he couldn't tear himself away from, his hunger demanded more, always more. All the while the growth banked up and up inside, it had an almost real weight to it, eager to crash down on his body.

He finished the fifth embedded Kobold and moved on up to the head of the snake. Bone didn't stand a chance beneath his teeth and crumbled and splintered under the pressure so that when he hit the boniest part of the snake, the skull, it didn't slow him at all. He bit ragged chunks from it, rapidly working his way through the head until he was left with nothing but the tongue and snout, and then that was gone too. He collapsed to the ground knocking Opal aside and writhed as the massive surge of banked up growth rolled through him. It felt like a morning stretch multiplied by a thousand, almost painfully so. He clawed at the sand and his back arched as his bones grew, muscle expanded, teeth lengthened, his very blood felt like it was heating up and rushing through his veins, his skin stretching over his broadening shoulders, longer limbs, larger paws, his claws extending outward, until with a final rough surge it ended and he collapsed limply on the ground and immediately passed out.

He awoke a few minutes later to find Opal sitting on his chest and poking at his nose.

"Urghh," he groaned. "Why did I do that?"

He noted his voice was a little deeper. The more he grew the deeper it got, and after the snake noticeably so.

"Dunno. Guess you were hungrier than you realised."

"I feel exhausted."

"Well, you did grow a lot."

Rain rubbed at his face. "I'm not surprised. I just ate an entire fifty-foot snake plus five Kobolds."

"Yes. Yes you did." said Opal biting her lip.

Rain pushed the Goblin off his chest and tiredly clambered to his feet. The Goblin had to crane her neck to look up at him now as the top of her head didn't even reach the bottom of his pecs. He estimated he was well over 6 foot, maybe 6 foot 5 inches, a significant jump from when he had left the Goblin camp, over a foot taller.

She placed her hands flat on his abs and admired their difference in size.

"W-we should find m-more," she stammered her voice coming out wobbly.

"You're more insatiable than I am. No, no more for the moment, I feel like I fell down a hill and hit every rock on the way down, twice."

"Beast, I hope you die!" came a strained voice from behind.

The pair turned to see that the leader Kobold was still alive somehow, though he was surrounded by an alarmingly large pool of blood.

"Oooh, and we don't even have to go far for your next meal!"

The Kobold spat blood to his side. "I'll curse you on the way down your gullet beast. I hope I poison you."

"You're dying." said Rain, looking at the missing leg of the Kobold and the chunk torn from his side.

"Really? Brilliant observation wolf- whatever you are. You'd make a good detective."

Opal held up her knife. "I'm going to end you, you miserable shitty Kobold."

Rain put a large paw on her shoulder to stop her however.

"Do you have any enemies?"

"What?" said the Kobold momentarily confused, although that could have been the blood loss.

"Anyone you want to suffer, people you want vengeance on? I'm still going to eat you, but your fight with that snake impressed me, so if you tell me where I can find your enemies I might find I happen to cross their path and eat them too."

The Kobold barked out a long laugh that ended in a wince as he shifted his injury.

"Hilarious. The beast thinks he isn't my enemy. I would wish that you eat yourself but I don't think you will do that sad to say. Fine. I have no enemy inside of my tribe that I would risk a monster like you going anywhere near my tribe. But outside, yes, always. Before we found this clutch of magnificent snake eggs and our unfortunate meeting with their owner we were tracking a team of levelers, bastards that often raid us, kill my people, and worse. We lost track of them and the trail had gone cold, but maybe you'll come across them. If they haven't left already they will most likely be encamped at the goat shaped rock, that way" He lifted a shaky arm and pointed with his cutlass before it fell from his feeble grip and impacted with the sand. "They are led by a skilled and tall leveler with black hair and a sword. Bite his face off for me will you? Preferably while you are dying with a sword in your gut."

Rain lunged forward and grabbed the Kobold around the neck.

"Tall, black hair? Did you hear of his name? Was it Brax?!"

The Kobold smiled, showing his bloody teeth, and then spat blood over Rain's face.

Rain reeled back as it splashed across his eyes and hurriedly wiped it away only to find the Kobold leader had expired and lay still as stone.

Chapter 17

The Goblin swung her new cutlass experimentally and admired her new gold necklace as they walked.

Rain worked a green scale free from his teeth with a claw. The Kobold leader had possessed a much tougher body to chew on than the other Kobolds, another sign that it would have been a bad idea to fight him when he was unwounded.

"Rock shaped like a goat?" muttered Rain, turning over what the Kobold had said.

"Yeah, I sometimes went there when scouting for the tribe. A lot of the time it would have levelers camped by it so it was dangerous. They like the spot for some reason, I guess it's a convenient safe place near the stairs to a higher floor of the dungeon." She shrugged and pointed with her new cutlass. "It's right there, follow me."

She led the way through a crack in the wall and they shuffled through until they came out on a shelf of rock overlooking a vast cavern which had in the centre what seemed a monolithic upright cuboid rock formation. The formation had apparently been carved in some distant time past as the top quarter was loosely shaped like a goat's head. A cluster of trees grew on top of the rock formation draping greenery down its side.

The rest of the cavern was relatively barren with only a number of rocks spread sparsely around the sands, as such it was easy to see the campfire and rising pillar of smoke at the base of the formation.

"Oh shit, they really are there," exclaimed Opal.

"We don't know if it's the same group that the Kobold mentioned, we need to get closer."

They climbed down from the shelf and wandered into the cavern proper. It didn't make for good cover and the pair were wary with how they approached and carefully hid from sight.

The campfire as it came into view was surrounded by more people than any single adventuring team Rain had ever known. It wasn't until they got closer that he realised why that was. A number of Goblins and Kobolds were chained around the edge of the camp while a skinny HobGoblin oversaw them.

The actual adventuring team sat around the fire. A tall Elf with black hair, an even taller female Orc who looked to be nearly seven foot tall, and beside her a Human woman. The woman had wavy blonde hair and wore form fitting hunting leathers under a loose cloak, a staff lay by her side.

"I know why you want this Brax person, he was one of your old slavers, wasn't he?" Opal nodded at the Elf.

"No. I have no idea who that Elf is. But the woman, that's Eliza. I don't know why she is with a shady group like this but that isn't going to stop me from killing her."

"Well you aren't getting at her like this surrounded by her allies."

Rain gnawed on his lip. "We should get closer, maybe if we hear their plans we can figure something out."

They crept to the edge of the camp, maybe too close, a chained Goblin spotted Rain and he froze unsure what to do until Opal raised her finger to her lip in a shushing motion and the Goblin quite deliberately looked away from them. Rain hurried to get out of sight behind a boulder.

"Lucky. That Gobbo could have called out."

"Maybe we can free the Goblins without being noticed and then when they are chasing them down I get Eliza."

"I'm not sure I'd be able to get near without being noticed to free them, you definitely can't."

Rain frowned but remained quiet to listen. Voices drifted over and they peeked around the stone.

"Here, Eliza, warm my meat."

"No! I'm not that kind of mage! How many times have I told you, I don't do fire. If you want it warmed stick it down your pants you stupid Orc."

"Bwahahah! Ola, quit being a tease, you'll just get slapped down again."

"Not my fault she has a stick up her arse and can't take a joke," the Orc grumbled.

"Hey, relax, we got a good haul, plenty of throwaway slaves we can sell off. Just think of the money."

"Eurgh, don't say that. I feel dirty enough working with you two."

"You'll change your tune with a fat stack of coin in your hands, don't you worry."

"No way! I wouldn't be doing this if I weren't in so much debt for buying this stupid staff. Soon as we're done we're parting ways."

"Ola here said something similar back in the day and now she's my reliable partner in business."

The Orc nodded. "Honour and all that is bullshit. Strength is the only virtue, everything else is meaningless, you know that, it's the same with leveling. The strong stand on the weak and relish every moment of it. Someone ten levels above you can lean on you, someone twenty levels above you can take everything you own and make you their bitch and you won't be able to do a thing about it. Same shit we do with these level-less monsters. You can think of them as level one if you like, it's not our fault they are so weak."

"Oh... I knew someone who was level one... as an adult."

"Really? Bet they got squashed like a bug hah!"

"It... It wasn't like that."

"But they were squashed in the end no? You see my point."

"Oih! Your high and mighty levelernesses!"

The Orc narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "What is it Hob?"

The weedling voice that had spoken up belonged to the skinny HobGoblin who had been walking amongst the slaves and seeing to their chains.

He held up a Goblin by the scruff. "This one says we got a Gobbo stalker. Probly followed us from that little tribe we raided."

"Oh?," said the Elf. He rose from sitting and unsheathed a rapier at his side. Wind seemed to come from nowhere and blew out the tail of his coat dramatically. "An after dinner hunt to settle the stomach, I'll enjoy this."

He began to slowly float into the air.

"Hey, don't piss off and leave me alone with the Human," growled the Orc standing and heaving up what appeared to be an actual fullsized blacksmiths anvil on the end of a squared steel rod partly wrapped in cloth for grip.

"Fine, but it's none of my concern if you can't keep up."

As his eyes turned outward and scanned the area Opal and Rain panicked.

"What do we do?!" hissed Opal.

"I don't know, that Orc looks strong enough to snap me over her knee, and I don't even know what that Elf is capable of."

"We run, we gotta run."

Rain nodded. "No choice, it's our only shot." He looked down at her legs. "You're okay to do that right? You've got your strength back?"

"Yes, yes, I've been fine for ages now, worry about yourself," she said, stretching her legs as though readying for a race.

"Alright, on one. Two. Three!"

They bolted from behind the rock and fled back to where they had entered into the cavern.

"There! I see the Goblin! And something else! What the fuck is that? Ola, care!"

The Elf swooped through the air quickly gaining on them and Rain glanced behind to see the Orc was sprinting from the camp, her muscular legs pounding the ground like pistons, each step causing an explosion of sand behind her.

Fortunately their entry point was nearing, a crack In the cavern wall on a slightly raised shelf of stone.

Lightning exploded to one side and Rain yelped as speckles of molten sand rained over him.

"Missed! Damn it! Stay still so I can shoot you Goblin girl!" came a scornful voice from above.

"Leave some for me you stupid Elf!" bellowed a voice further behind.

Rain zigzagged hoping to avoid being hit, but no more attacks came and he succesfully made it to the rock shelf and scrambled up its side to the crack. It was only then he turned and realised Opal wasn't with him. She was far behind, half running on shaky legs, half jogging, as he watched she weakly sunk to the ground before getting control of herself and rising to run again.

The Elf was casually floating above looking down at her with amusement. She ran, but the end was inevitable. The Elf flourished his hand and the Goblin was slammed into the ground as though buffeted by a gale force wind. As she hit the sand the Orc stomped up behind them.

"There, gotcha."

"What is that?" said the Orc staring at Rain. "Is it drenched in blood? It's like some kind of bipedal wolf thing."

"I'm not sure. It's like no monster I've seen or heard off before and I've come across quite a number."

"Some kind of leveler, an intelligent higher species that's not well known? Most levelers are bipedal."

"Doubt it, it looks feral. Just look at its eyes, there's something wrong with it. Unsettling." The Elf shivered despite himself.

"Bet I could take it."

"Don't be stupid Ola. It's a complete unknown. There are old slavers and there are bold slavers, but there are no old bold slavers. You know that."

"Hmpph. Fuck that noise. Hey, black and bloody! Come get some!"

"Shh! Don't provoke it!"

Ola held up a thick finger at him. "Listen closely Elf. Go find a pair of rocks about the size of my fist, get that stupid scarf you wear, tie those rocks up, and then dangle them from your crotch. Hopefully that will inspire you to grow a pair."

The Elf shot a bolt of lightning beside the Orc causing her to yelp and drop her anvil hammer.

"Stop being a fool. This is a Dungeon not an Orcish brawling house."

The Orc glowered at the floating Elf. "Fuck you!"

The Elf ignored her and drifted down to the ground beside Opal. He produced a steel collar from his coat and snapped it around her neck. Rain could only watch, frozen in place. His instincts were screaming at him to run and leap at the Elf and kill him but his reason earned in his previous life warred back in a panic telling him he stood no chance at all against someone high level enough to freaking fly and someone who could wield what must have been an entire four or five hundred pound anvil as a hammer.

"I won't be a slave!" screamed Opal clutching at the collar. Her eyes caught Rain's for a moment and that one look alone was enough to communicate all of her intent. She had said 'slave' to tell him that she would not die immediately and not to risk himself yet. She had said 'won't' because she intended to escape at some point in the future, he need only follow and wait for the opportunity to help.

He grit his teeth until it felt like they would crack. He wanted Opal back. He had never expected to feel so covetous and possessive over the Goblin. She was his. He managed to control himself with difficulty and then forced himself to move to the shadowed crack in the cavern wall. With one last glance behind he disappeared inside.

Chapter 18

Opal yelped as the HobGoblin smacked her to the ground. Her gold necklace was in one of his fists and her cutlass was at his hip.

"Why are you doing this? Why help the levelers?" said Opal rubbing her cheek.

The HobGoblin shrugged. "It's a life. That us Gobbos are shit to each other makes it easy."

"We can escape, rise up, get freedom."

The HobGoblin picked his nose. "Nah. I'm here cause I get paid. How do you think these clueless adventurers even find Gobbo tribes." He jabbed a thumb into his chest, still picking his nose.

"But they see you as nothing! Just experience for levels!"

"A Hob like me ain't worth shit in experience to those high levelers. I got more value than that as a guide and tracker. Economics innit."

Opal sighed, disappointed that he wasn't going to be persuaded. Not that she expected him to be, if he were then the other enslaved Goblins would have escaped by now.

The levelers that the HobGoblin served were busy packing up, the Elf had decided he didn't want to sleep with Rain nearby. Opal considered that a wise move.

Already the Goblins and Kobolds were being shuffled into a line by the Hob, each chained to the next slave in line. Opal was near the end, a chain connected to her collar. The Elf flew around the camp keeping a lookout as the Orc and Eliza packed the last of their stuff away. It all fit in an overly large duffel bag which the Orc swung over one shoulder. Opal eyed her bulging biceps, the Orc really was astonishingly strong. She would need to be killed in her sleep if they were to have a chance.

The procession of slaves set out with the Orc at the head with a chain in the same fist that gripped her hammer. She tugged on it and the row of two dozen slaves stumbled into motion.

"I still think you're overblowing things," grumbled the orc.

"Yes I agree, what on earth did you see that spooked you enough to want to decamp?" said Eliza.

"It's just risk management. You see a monster you've never seen nor heard of before and it's covered from tip to toe in blood, enough blood that it didn't come from one creature alone, well, you get the fuck out of town."

"That does sound worrying."

"Pshaw. It's just some monster. I could break it like a toy."

The Elf drifted by in the air, his posture as though he were on an invisible couch with his ankle rocking on one knee and his hands behind his head.

"I do wish you would learn from our peers' frequent premature demise Ola. There is a reason that we are still going when so many quite respectable slavers have perished."

"Yeah, it's because I'm strong as fuck."

The Elf covered his face with one hand and shook his head.

"No, my dear Orc. It's because we don't take risks. We don't go after the truly dangerous monsters and we don't push our luck."

Eliza raised her hand. "But aren't the dangerous monsters more valuable?"

"Yeah, what she said. Who's to say that black furred fucker wasn't worth a million gold?"

"Let me put it this way. The slaver that goes after the truly dangerous monsters dies within a year. The slaver that goes after the less dangerous monsters, but doesn't make as much, lives, and over time they come to own a fortune multiple times the size the risk taker ever had. It's all about playing the long game. Economics."

The Orc grumbled but didn't protest, irritably pulling on the slaves' chain as they left the goat head cavern.

They soon came to the base of a great stair that led between floors of the dungeon. A massive thing made by some unknown civilization eons ago, forty feet wide, with two or three hundred steps going upward and vanishing into the dark, and this was just one floor.

"Right you Goblin and Kobold fucks, try to keep your feet in order. If one of you falls make sure you catch them. Last time we led slaves out of here they all fell down like dominoes after the one at the front slipped over. I dragged the lot of them to the top on their asses. Two of them died on the way. You've been warned."

The slaves looking nervous formed into a relatively straight line behind the Orc as she took to the stairs. They followed meekly after her.

Opal eyed the surroundings and wasn't surprised to see a dark shadow disappear behind a rock. They had a stalker.

She elbowed the Goblin next to her and hissed at them. The forlorn looking Goblin looked up.

"Hey," she said, "I got someone on the outside looking to break us free. They're strong, if we give them an opportunity they can kill any one of those leveler assholes as long as it's a surprise attack."

The Goblin stared at Opal. "...Why are you so clean?"

Opal scowled and avoided looking her in the eye.

"I... fell in a lake. Listen, forget that, I've got someone who can help who isn't in chains."

"Our whole tribe was crushed just by the Orc. What chance does one lone Gobbo stand."

"He isn't a Gobbo, and he took down my old tribe alone, including our witch Goblin and HobGobbo."

The Goblin gave her a funny look. "Why is he with you now then?"

"Would you pick teaming up with the dying remains of a Gobbo tribe or the one who beat them but is open to help?"

"Fair. I guess."

"Anyway, the thing I wanted to ask is, well, you lot have been here longer than me, surely you've got something? An escape plan?

The Goblin shrugged. "Not really. But the Kobolds? Yeah, maybe." The Goblin kicked the Kobold in front of them in the tail. She turned around with a scowl.

"What do you want you stinky unwashed Goblin?"

The Goblin grinned back at her. "This one says she's got a friend on the outside."

The Kobold eyed Opal suspiciously, clearly noting how clean Opal was and raising an eyebrow. "Why did you have a Kobold cutlass and necklace when you got here?"

Uh oh "Oh, that, right. If you really want to know me and my friend came across a dying Kobold leader. The Kobold had found a giant snake's nest and tried to kill the snake and take the eggs but the snake and the Kobold only managed to kill each other after a great battle. The Kobold impressed my friend so much with his courage that he offered him a boon before his death. He told us to kill this leveler team he said was raiding his tribe. It didn't really go as planned since I'm here and the team isn't dead." Mostly true, but I don't think she's gonna buy it.

"Why would you tell me that? That sounds completely unbelievable." She was silent for a moment. "This Kobold, did he have green and red scales?"

"Yeah, that's the one, he could breathe fire too."

"Grexin that pompous scaly asshole, I knew I recognized that cutlass, of course he would get himself killed greeding for sneggs. Alright fine, that's atleast a little believable."

"Well, have you got a plan?"

The Kobold sneered.

"She reckons her friend can kill one of the levelers if it's a sneak attack. Says he took on her old tribe alone and won," said the Goblin.

The Kobold eyed Opal. "Well you came to complete that boon so I suppose you have motivation you otherwise would not." She hesitated and then opened her mouth showing a crude solid gold key hidden beneath her tongue.

Opal blinked. "How?"

"It's gold isn't it. Soft. I had a gold coin and now I have a key because I shaped it with my teeth."

"Wow, that's actually legitimately impressive. It works?"

The Kobold seemed pleased and nodded. "Already tested it. Just waiting for them to sleep."

The line had made it up to the top of the stair by this point and they stumbled onto flat ground. Opal took a moment to peer back down and spotted a black tail sliding behind a pillar on one side of the stair.

The levelers were conversing up ahead and after a moment the Orc sighed and pulled on the chain once more.

"One more floor so the princess can sleep easy."

The slaves groaned but trudged after the Orc as they made their way over to a second giant stair and began to ascend.

Sometime later they crossed onto the next floor and the elf led them through a number of dark caves until they came to one that was dimly lit by veins of crystal running through the walls. The Elf had the Orc and Eliza make camp and soon they were as they had started, tents, fire, and slaves chained to iron stakes that the Orc rammed into the ground with her hammer.

About an hour later the levelers crawled into their tents and fell asleep. A few hours after that a shadow crept into the cave. Out of the gloom a pair of unsettling yellow eyes approached. Opal had to put a hand over the mouth of the nearest Goblin as they saw Rain and tried to cry out.

"It's a friend. They'll help us escape," she whispered.

The Goblin slowly nodded but looked scared as the shadowy beast moved nearer and then looked like they were going to wet themselves when Rain grinned at Opal.

Opal put a hand on her collar. "I've got something for this. Hangon."

She turned to the Kobold with the key who was watching Rain warily.

"Well?"

"What is that monster?" She shook her head. "Nevermind, not now." She plucked the key from under her tongue and unlocked her collar then passed it to Opal who did the same, then to the next Goblin in the line and so on, swiftly freeing more and more.

"Hey, whatchu doing?" came a nasaly voice. It was the HobGoblin who had been crouched near the tents and distractedly carving a bit of wood.

The Goblins and Kobolds froze.

Chapter 19

"Go!" cried Opal.

Rain burst into motion and his legs powered him across the camp in one fluid leap. He landed on the Hob and smashed him to the ground where his teeth came down on the unfortunate Hob's neck. With one savage motion he tore out his throat, literally ripping it from his body.

Opal rushed up beside him as the sound of disturbed sleep started to emanate from the tents.

"They're waking!" she whisper hissed.

Rain swung between the three tents unsure what to do. He made a decision and sprung on the nearest. Ripping through the side he came down on its sleeping occupant teeth first, viciously biting down with the intent to kill as fast as possible. He had one split second look at a terrified Elf who had woken up to see Rain's blood covered head sticking through the wall of his tent and then his maw descended on the Elf's face and savagely tore it off in a fountain of gore, along with a good portion of his skull and brain leaving behind a horrifying ruin.

A furious roar came from the tent next door and the Orc charged through the side of her tent crashing directly into the tent Rain was in. A muscular shoulder rammed into him and he went flying from the canvas with a yelp and slammed into the cave's wall before slumping down. The Orc roared once more and ripped apart the tent covering her with her bare hands. She swung around looking for what she had shoulder checked but completely missed Rain who blended into the shadows. Instead she was distracted by the recently freed Kobolds and Goblins running around in a panic.

"You fucking shits! What did you do to my Elf!? I'm going to kill you allll!!!"

She stomped back to her tent and ripped it apart then pulled her massive anvil hammer free, hefting it easily. She turned and brought it down on a Goblin. The Goblin exploded under the sheer force of it, spraying blood and skin and mashing everything solid that was left into the ground.

She torqued and spun the hammer around herself causing it to obliterate two Kobolds and catapulting part of them across the cave at extreme speed where they pulped against a wall.

She strode forward swinging at targets as Eliza crawled from her tent and used her staff to climb to her feet. She looked around wide-eyed at the chaos and brought the staff up. Water boiled from a chunk of azurite on its tip and four water orbs began floating around her, each nearly a foot in diameter. She swung her staff and they began gliding forward, homing in on escaped slaves. Once they reached a target they engulfed the unfortunate victim's head and clung in place as they desperately thrashed around trying to move the unbreathable ball of fluid. Most hadn't been quick enough to hold their breath and were rapidly drowning.

She suddenly flinched and turned, holding her staff up as a set of teeth leapt from the shadows. Paws grabbed her staff and the teeth came down on it, instantly snapping the staff in two. She let go and the black furred monster flung the two halves aside.

She stumbled backwards in fright as it came on.

"Do you recognize me Eliza? I climbed out of hell for you, but look at the monster I've become." He spread his paws wide, bits of Elf gore dripping from his snarling muzzle.

"W-what?!"

"Let me give you a clue. Me, you, Lira, Adlen, Myra, and Brax all went to do a little power leveling. Then you all stabbed me in the back and tortured me to death for fun."

Her mouth flapped open, working up and down as she tried to find words.

"Rain!?"

"Yes! You threw me away like trash, and for that, I am going to kill you."

"W-wait! Please! I didn't mean it! I said as much, I said, I said it was a mistake! I felt bad about it!"

"After you gleefully gutted me like a fish Eliza."

Eliza's face went from pleading to scowling anger in an instant, as though a switch had been flipped.

"Oh go fuck yourself Rain. You turned into a monster? Yeah, that would be fitting. I'll ensure it's a short lived experience."

She lifted her hands into the air and the water orbs rushed back toward her in a dizzying orbit. They met and merged forming one massive two foot wide ball of water with a splash. She flung her hands forward and it rocketed at Rain, he tried to dodge but it homed in on him and engulfed his shoulders and head.

"We threw your worthless ass in the lake so I think this is a fitting end for your second death!" She giggled as she held out her palms keeping the huge ball of water over Rain as he stumbled about hopelessly swinging at the yielding liquid. Air bubbled up from his mouth as he panicked, he tried to reach for Eliza but to no avail, she simply backed away and kept him submerged.

"I'm going to skin you and sell your pelt so you will have at last found a way to contribute a little value to our town Rain. Choke and fill your lungs and di- wait, what are you doing?"

Rain had stopped moving and was standing still with his mouth open wide. Eliza blinked and stared at him.

"Are you... are you trying to drink it? You can't be serious. Pffaahaha!"

Rain met her eyes through the watery orb and the corners of his mouth curled. Then he began to swallow. The water rushed inward as though sucked in by a whirlpool and the orb rapidly diminished, within seconds shrinking down to a foot across and then vanishing down the wolf's throat. He belched and patted his stomach.

"Nice try. But it was never going to work."

"N-no!" She wrenched her hands to the side trying to affect the water trapped inside of him, but Rain simply set his feet and used his superior strength to override her globular control of the mass of water.

He belched again. "Urff, never drank water like that. Oh, here we go." He rested a paw on his stomach as it rapidly shrank down to nothing and returned to flat. "Was wondering if that would work, too bad there's no growth though."

Eliza stared at his flattened abdomen. "What? Wh-where, did it go!?" She moved her hands trying to shift the now non-existent water.

"Oh is that all you've got? Guess this is going to end quicker than I like. Oh well. Time to eat you."

He stepped toward her causing her to back away in fear.

"H-hey, hold on, you can't be serious. You're just some level-less freak, you can't eat me!"

"I'm going to bite your legs off and splinter your bones Eliza, I'm going to make you watch me eat you alive bit by bit, your fingers, your toes, your limbs, you will beg me to kill you."

Eliza's eyes went wide. "No! No! You can't! R-rain! I'll do anything, what do you want? Money? P-power leveling?"

"Power leveling? Is that a joke?" He snorted. "No. Karma caught up Eliza. This is the end."

Her knees shook as she backed up against the cavern wall, unable to take her eyes off Rain's own yellow eyes she scrabbled blindly behind herself, desperate for an escape.

"Rain! Look out!" cried a Goblin voice and Rain dropped to the ground as the Orc's anvil hammer flew through the air having been hurled, sailing just past where his torso had been. It struck the wall next to Eliza and fractured it from top to bottom with an ear splitting boom. Huge sheets of rock sloughed off and toppled to the ground. Eliza screamed and threw her arms over her head as she was peppered with high velocity splinters of stone.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck this!" She grabbed at her side and ripped off a water skin attached to her belt. She frantically pulled the cap free and upended it on the ground squeezing it out as fast as possible. Rain looked up in surprise from where he lay prone. She slammed her hands together in a strange hand seal and began breathlessly and rapidly chanting. The puddle of fluid she stood in began to faintly glow and then to Rain's utter outrage she began to sink into it, her legs quickly disappearing. He scrambled to his feet and lunged at her, arm extended, paw reaching, he grabbed a fist full of her hair and heaved back causing her to scream. Rain underestimated his own strength however and that the pool had an unstoppable grip on her and a good third of her long blonde hair was ripped from her scalp leaving an angry red welt behind. She screamed again and slapped her hands down over her bleeding head. A tearful face shot him a look of pure withering hatred.

As she dipped below the puddle's surface Rain could only watch as her lips formed words with no sound, carefully directed at him. 'I liked what I did'. She vanished below and the water stopped glowing and became normal unmagical water once more.

Rain stood there with a chunk of bloody blonde hair held limply in his paw. His whole body trembled with rage. 'I liked what I did'. She had enjoyed gutting him. Her pretences were always just that, a facade, she'd never had an ounce of kindness in her. She was as twisted as Myra or Brax or any of the others. Demons without the outward appearance of Demons.

He snarled and flung her hair to the ground. He spun around looking for something to take his growing fury out on, just in time as a heavy Orc fist was flying toward his head. He shifted aside as it whistled past, actually brushing by his fur. He dove out of the way of the charging Orc and scrambled to keep his feet under him.

Ola stumbled to a stop having missed and almost lost her balance.

She turned with a massive grin on her face and her eyes gleaming with excitement.

"It's you! You bloody black furred fucker! You've come to fight me!"

Rain ignored her words and lunged at her, arms outstretched, eyes wild with rage.

"Woah there!" said the Orc as claws reached for her muscular neck. A massive green fist came up and grabbed one of his arms by the forearm but not before his other claws managed to lacerate her skin sending a sheet of blood washing down the side of her neck.

"Savage fucker aren't you. Strong too. I'm gonna enjoy beating you to a pulp."

She swung her arm out, holding Rain up in the air and away from herself as he struggled. She then shook him back and forth so violently that it caused Rain to be momentarily stunned.

"Aww does the little monsty not like it when he gets pushed around?"

Rain's yellow eyes stared her down. "I'm going to make you regret that."

The Orc blinked in surprise. "Oh, you can tal-AAARGHHG!!!"

She screamed as Rain lunged up and bit one of her fingers holding him clean off. The Orc instinctually threw him aside, sending him tumbling and rolling across the ground.

"You piece of shit! Look what you've done to me!" cried the Orc holding up a bleeding stump where her index finger once was.

Rain crawled to his feet and rolled his jaw. He then opened his mouth and quite deliberately showed the Orc her dismembered finger resting there.

"H-hey, give that back, there's healers that can reattach shit like this. Good monster, just hand it here."

Rain swiftly diced the finger with his teeth and swallowed the chunks. Blood dripped from his mouth as he gave her his most predatory grin.

"FUUUUCKK YOOU!" roared the Orc and she lunged for her anvil hammer where it lay, grabbed it up, swung it over her head, and hurtled toward Rain.

Rain was caught unprepared by her explosive speed and cut a close dodge, the hammer came down, but it was a bluff and she caught it halfway through the arc. She set her hips and legs and twisted her body torquing into a side swing, it just glanced off Rain's side, he could practically hear his ribs creak as they deformed under the brushed weight of the anvil. He was sent rolling, his limbs flailing as he went down.

"I've got you now you finger eating fuck head!" crowed the Orc as she strode forward and swung the anvil hammer down on him from above like an unstoppable meteor.

Rain tried to get up in time, desperately trying to get his feet under him quickly enough to have time to get out of the way. Too late. Only one choice left. He reached out his paws above his head, and he caught the anvil. BOOM! The pressure wave blew through him and the stone floor fractured as his feet were pushed down with unfathomable energy. His bones screamed and he could physically feel his muscles shredding apart under the immense weighted momentum he was desperately trying to hold back. His claws dug into stone and rock sheared and shattered in a widening circle around him as he struggled to keep from being crushed. The anvil kept on crashing down and down onto his shoulders. He roared and blood flecked from his mouth and the very air trembled with the noise. But, he held. The anvil stopped still on his shoulder, the hammer had nearly broken him, and his legs shook like leaves in the wind. But, he held.

The Orc stared at him stunned.

"Well. That's a first."

She kicked him in the chest.

Rain stumbled backwards helpless to watch as the Orc heaved her anvil hammer around in a full body swing and hundreds of pounds of metal came at him, he couldn't even lift his ruined arms to stop it. The hammer freighted into him. His arm dangling by his side took it first and it shattered instantly, breaking up and down its length. Then his ribcage behind caved in, snapping ribs like twigs. The blow took him off his feet and the force of it sent him flying across the cavern to slam into the cavern wall where stone fractured and flesh tore before he crashed to the floor in a heap.

Rain tried desperately to cling to consciousness as the heavy boots of the Orc approached.

"HAHAHA! Almost had me going for a second you fuck. You're done now though, it's a small miracle you're still breathing. I think I'll mount your head on the wall as my trophy. You're bodies a mess so ain't much salvaging that yeah?"

Rain ignored her and pushed himself back up against the wall, then with immense effort he pushed upward with his legs, managing to stand, leaning against the stone for support, his back leaving a bloody smear in its wake, his arms useless at his sides.

"Oh the fire in you. Shame Elfy died, woulda done him good to see someone with a pair."

Every breath Rain took was pain.

"You..." he whispered.

The Orc stepped closer to hear.

"You've got green on you."

She tilted her head not understanding and Opal slipped her knife around the Orc's throat and slashed at her muscular neck. The blade penetrated, but shallow, the Orc yelped and a hand came up to grab at the Goblin riding her back, but she was already gone, only a cut to match the previous one Rain had made with his claws left in her wake.

Rain leapt on the opportunity and heaved himself away from the wall. His jaws opened wide and his teeth fell on the forearm of the arm carrying the hammer and bit down like an unstoppable guillotine. Skin, fat, muscle, all split apart, teeth met bone and sheared through them such was his do or die strength. The hammer crashed to the ground with a green hand and part of an arm still clutching it.

"WHAT!?" screamed the Orc staring at her severed stump in horror. Rain stumbled forward blood sheeting from his maw, his eyes intense and wild. The Orc panicked and grabbed at his face with her other hand trying to keep him away. SNAP. Half her fingers vanished down Rain's throat. BITE. Her hand was inside his mouth and rapidly disappearing. She tried to pull away but his jaws would not let go and each bite made more of her vanish behind those hungry greedy teeth, already he was working his way toward her elbow.

She screamed wordlessly and smashed her head down on the wolf in a wild headbutt. It worked, stopping Rain long enough for her to pull her arm free.

She turned and ran, long legs shoving her forward, one step, two- A weight clamped down on her ankle and she tripped and fell. She turned and looked down in fright to see the black furred thing had thrown itself and managed to catch her in its jaws once more. It crunched down and severed her foot. Then it began to eat its way up her shin. She screamed and bellowed in fear and her other foot came down to kick at the wolf. CRUNCH. The teeth bit at that foot too, shearing through her boot and right through to flesh and bone. She could only watch as it continued to eat her alive bit by bit, using its legs to shove itself forward as its arms were broken. It was consuming her from the feet upward.

She screamed herself hoarse and tried to crawl away, the stumps of her arms fruitlessly dragging against the ground as she hyperventilated.

"Stop! P-please! Oh gods!"

Rain didn't hear her. He was no longer conscious and his body was working of its own accord.

Her muscular thighs soon went inside the beast, then her hips, then her abs and stomach.

Her vision was getting dark and she stared up at the cavern ceiling unseeing.

"The Elf was right... He was right damn him. There's always something... something out there... something worse than a nightmare..."

Her eyes fluttered shut as implacable teeth met her rib cage and devoured her.