FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 25

Rain carefully parted the large leaves of a plant he was hiding behind and peered out at the camp. The word monstrous seemed particularly apt for what he saw sitting around the campfire.

Half-goblins. But the term didn't quite represent the abomination of it.

Nearest were a pair of Lamia-goblins, large Goblins with the lower bodies of giant snakes, their flesh transitioning into green and black scale at the hip. Their broad lower bodies knotted and curled around each other in a heap.

Next to them was a male Human-goblin, taller, bearded, and with long hair, which of course was an unusual sight for a male Goblin as normally only female Goblins had hair. His hand rested on the back of a Diredog-Goblin, a creature that was singularly disturbing to look at. A large quadrupedal furless dog with two heads, except where there would normally be dog heads there was a pair of Goblin heads and where its skin would normally be black it was instead a dirty green with black markings. One of the heads gnawed on a bone while the other talked with the Human-Goblin.

Opposite from Rain and Opal and across the fire was an absolutely massive bear-like creature, a Cavebear if Rain had to guess, nine foot tall and incredibly broad. Its fur was dark green with slashes of black and its claws yellowed. Its head, framed by a large mane of fur, was goblinoid but more feral looking and elongated than any Goblin Rain knew, with oversized triangular teeth that didn't fit in its mouth and faintly glowing red eyes. Long lank black hair hung over its eyes and head in strands giving it an unsettling appearance.

A number of regular Goblins were huddled around the fire as well. They did not look particularly happy to be there.

One of the Lamia-goblins spat in the fire causing it to sputter.

"Hey," grumbled the Human-goblin. "I'm cooking on that fire."

The Lamia-goblin hiss-laughed. "Maybe it'll add flavour, gods know it needs it with your cooking."

"Looking to start something, you slippery bitch? It won't end well for you. It's not like your mother will notice another dead Lamia with the number of eggs she shits out. There's always a spare to replace you."

The Lamia-goblin flicked her forked tongue out. "You're right, mother doesn't care. But she doesn't care about most things these days, apart from where the next dozen dicks are coming from, which, by the way, is still better than your mother who can't even string two words together."

The Human-goblin held up a rusty knife. "Watch your forked tongue snake. I won't hear a word against her."

"Tch. Delusional."

"Oh do shut up," said one of the heads of the Diredog-goblin. "At least your mother can speak and has some basic reasoning ability. When I met my father he tried to eat me."

"Yeah, that's pretty rough. Not to mention the two heads thing."

The Diredog sniffed. "Ah, well, at least Clarence understands not to bite me... most of the time."

The second Goblin head on the Diredog looked up at the first with the bone still in its mouth. The Diredog-goblin's tail wagged.

"Ohh, I can't stay mad at you," said the first head affectionately.

"I miss my mother," gravelled the Cavebear-goblin, its sad eyes peeking between its lank hair.

"Your mother was a disaster. I told those idiots we needed to make stronger chains. Did they listen? Of course not. And then the damn thing escaped and killed a dozen Gobbos before running off into the dungeon."

"Yeah, well, probably for the best. You would not believe the number of Gobbos that died trying to do the deed with her."

"It's a fuckin bear, what did they expect!"

"I don't know, to not get turned into a bear snack?"

"Ah, it's just basic Gobbos who gives a shit. Look."

The second Lamia-goblin leaned over and grabbed a regular Goblin. The Goblin screamed as it was dragged up into the air but was unable to do a thing as the Lamia-goblin's jaw unhinged and then yawned unexpectedly horrifyingly wide. The Goblin was pushed inside and then disappeared from view as the Lamia noisily swallowed it down. The goblin sank downward as a large bump in the Lamia's throat then body and then tail where it came to a stop.

The Lamia burped and then glared at the regular Goblins. "Want to make a fuss?"

The regular Goblins shook their heads in fear and huddled closer to each other.

"Good. Know your betters."

"Don't bully them," gravelled the Cavebear-goblin its sad eyes turning on the Goblin eating Lamia.

"Oh not this again," said the first Lamia who had not partook of Goblin. "Look, you guys can hammer out whether it's bad to eat them or whatever, I'm going to the toilet."

The Lamia-goblin uncoiled herself from her brother and slipped over to the jungle right where Rain and Opal were hiding. The pair shuffled backwards in alarm. Luckily the Lamia missed them and glided by. Opal raised her eyebrows at Rain and he got the message. They slunk after her.

The Lamia muttered to herself and seemed to be examining trees. This went on until she came to a tree that she seemed to approve of. She looked up at it and sighed.

"Fucking leggy bastards have it so good. If only they knew how much of a pain in the tail it is to pass water with a body like this and not get any on you."

She shook her head then pulled herself up and over a low hanging branch so that her front was facing the ground and her 'hips' rested on it.

"Ah, that should be good. Oh gods, who is that, hey, I can hear you you know! Do you mind! I'm trying to go here!"

Rain walked around from behind her and looked at the awkwardly compromised Lamia-goblin hanging over the branch, her head at a height with Rains.

"Uhm. Hi. Can I, uh, help you?"

Rain pulled back his lips showing his teeth.

"Wha-

His jaws flashed through the air and he tore out her throat. The Lamia-goblin gurgled blood and her eyes rolled back as she slumped over the branch like a wet rope.

Opal rested a hand on the snake part of the Lamia's body and chewed her lip, thinking.

"I'm wondering if we didn't so much trap them in here with us but trap ourselves in here with them. That Cavebear-or whatever-goblin is huge and very strong looking. It's not too late, we could still escape."

Rain snorted. "Hell no. I came to eat and grow strong or die trying. I want the strength to punish those who wronged me. I want to frighten the arrogant and slaughter those who would try to stop me. I want the size to terrify those who I injure so that they never come back... I want to eat this entire tribe."

Opal smiled then laughed. "Well alright, you've convinced me."

They crept back to the camp where the other Half-goblin monsters rested. The remaining Lamia-goblin was busy arguing with the Cavebear-goblin and getting increasingly angry as the Cavebear-goblin was implacable.

"I've already told you, get it into your thick skull, basic Gobbos are our lessers! If they weren't then we wouldn't have been able to take over the tribe with such ease. They basically worship us for gods sake!"

"Not better. Same."

"Look at you, you're like ten times their size at least! You could roll over and kill one in your sleep! Hell, I've seen what you do when we raid Gobbo tribes. They're basically insects to you!"

"Not insects. Same. Be good."

"I am good, I-"

The Cavebear suddenly held up one claw filled paw. The group stared at her.

"Something wrong."

The Lamia-goblin was completely thrown off and could only look at her with his mouth hanging open.

"H-hey, didn't she say something like that just before her mother escaped?" said the Diredog-goblin

"What?" The Lamia looked down and blinked.

"It's just something she said. Hey, Where did your sister go? She's taking kind of a while."

"Hmpph. Not long for a Lamia, you wouldn't believe how much a pain in the tail it is to-"

The Cavebear-goblin suddenly stood up to the surprise of the group.

"Uh, what's she doing?"

"I don't know do I! Maybe she's going to check on sis."

"Would you lot calm down, I'm trying to cook here. Let the damned bear have her way." grumbled the Human-goblin.

The group watched in silence as the Cavebear-goblin strode around the fire and toward where Rain and Opal were secreted.

She delicately pushed apart the foliage and peered down.

Rain dropped on her head from the tree he had climbed and tried to bite down on her neck.

Unfortunately, he'd underestimated her. The bear whipped her head back before Rain could get a real bite on her broad neck and she flung herself down rolling onto her back. Rain looked to his side in surprise as a pair of Cavebear feet hurtled toward him and belted into his stomach with a thump. With a whoosh of released breath he was launched into the air toward the camp. He came down rolling but not stunned. He turned the roll into a half leap half flail and landed on top of the Human-goblin. The Human-goblin yelped and they both went sprawling, rolling over each other and throwing wild blind punches. Blood flew through the air, but not Rains, the Human-goblin was having difficulty harming Rain's tough body and Rain swiftly pushed home his advantages. He grabbed the Human-goblin's arms and shoved them aside, stopping him from defending himself as he ripped his face off spraying gore across the ground. The regular Goblins took one look at this and ran screaming into the jungle.

"What is that thing?! Fucking kill it you useless bear! Save him!" cried the Lamia.

The Cavebear-goblin roared and charged across the camp at Rain as the Diredog-goblin barked at him, seemingly scared of coming closer. Rain snapped at it and it whined and backed away.

"No! stop running away! Dammit Claaarence!" yelled the head of the Diredog that could speak Common to the head that could not.

Rain didn't stop to hear more but flung himself at the Cavebear and then as its massive arms capped with ten-inch claws came at him he dropped down and skidded between her legs rolling back to his feet on the other side. The Cavebear stumbled and nearly fell over herself.

Rain set his feet to launch himself at her back but suddenly coils of glossy black and green scale swept around him and looped up his body until he was entirely encased in snake body.

The Cavebear at last turned around and found the Lamia looking smug.

"Got it. See wasn't that hard, why am I always the only competent one, sigh. No idea what the fuck It is we caught but I bet it's good breeding stock. I think I should get some pretty nice privileges from the chief from this you kno-"

The Lamia suddenly froze and looked down. His mouth opened wordlessly and his eyes went round.

"Oh, Oh gods! It- It's eating me! H-help! Help!! Get it off!! Get it off me!"

The Lamia tried to uncoil itself but black furred arms and legs shot out from between the coils and held him in place as blood began to waterfall down from the gaps in his coils.

The Cavebear rushed up as the Lamia started to thrash and she tried to pull apart his tail from the black bloody shadow that was tearing the Lamia apart from the inside. The Lamia-goblin, now wild eyed and with blood pouring from his lips began to shake and desperately clutch at the bear.

"G-get it out, k-kill it!..."

The bear roared in frustration and panic as the Lamia died and she forced apart the coils only to find... nothing. Then pain hit her, and she looked down to see black fur shifting against her own dark geen and black fur, the creature had eaten its way through her stomach wall and was digging up into her body. The Cavebear staggered backward, her lank hair flying as she shook her head. Large clumsy paws came down and tried to grab the monster eating her from the insides but its body was so slippery with blood that her paws simply slicked off. She sat down with a whuff as the agony started to overwhelm her mind and she went into shock. She put a paw on her chest as she felt the grinding chewing jaws of the beast move toward her heart.

"Feels... Warm."

She slowly lowered herself to the ground as her sight started to go dark.

A few seconds later a blood drenched mass pulled itself from her stomach with a grizzly sucking sound as gore and Cavebear skin sloughed off.

Rain shook himself, cleaning off the worst of it.

"CLAARENCEE!!"

Rain looked up to see the Diredog-goblin race past with a wild eyed Opal riding on its back. She gripped its barrel with her legs and then with her cutlass held in both hands she recklessly swung at the monster's heads. Missed. Swung again, and by some fluke managed to chop into the neck of one of them.

The Diredog crashed to the ground as half its legs gave out. Opal rode it down as it slid to a stop.

The remaining head whined in confusion and pain and licked the now still and dead head that once could speak.

"Be with your sibling," said Opal as she swiftly ended its life. She sighed. "This whole tribe is just one big self-inflicted pile of nasty. The fools should have taken our ancestors' warnings about making Half-Gobbo tribes seriously."

"They seem worse than your old tribe, but you pity them?"

"Pshh. Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna kill 'em, they're bloodthirsty and aggressive and have butchered Gobbo tribes, I've seen what's left of tribes they conquered." She shivered despite herself.

Rain grunted but said nothing more. Instead he turned and grabbed the Cavebear-goblin by the upper jaw and dragged her, with difficulty, across the grass until he came upon a hole in the ground, the third exit from the cavern. He pushed the massive corpse down into it, filling it and sealing it off.

"That's the last one. There's no passage out of this cavern now, except for passage to the afterlife."

Chapter 26

"Those Gobbos that fled screaming when you killed that Human-gobbo, well, I think the tribe knows we are here now," said Opal as voices and footsteps started to reach them from the surrounding jungle.

"That's fine, they won't know what's happening yet and it's too soon to have drawn the attention of many. Just need to keep on top of them as they come," said Rain wiping blood from his nose.

Opal withdrew her rapier and scuttled under a nearby bush as Rain set his feet.

"All yours big guy."

Rain spread his paws as two Lamia-goblins exploded from the foliage followed by a dozen or so regular Goblins.

The two Lamia didn't hesitate for a moment and dived on Rain using their bodies to engulf him entirely in an attempt to squeeze him to death. If only they had seen what had happened to the last one.

Rain disappeared behind their scales as the Goblins whooped their victory. It wasn't long before the screaming started. Blood sprayed from between the Lamia's coils shocking the Goblins out of their celebration.

"Uncoil! Get it out!" cried one Lamia-goblin as the surrounding Goblins started to panic.

"I- I Can't! Gobbos! Use your weapons, stab between our coils, go damn you!"

The crowd of Goblins seized on the command and swarmed over the entwined Lamia, using their poorly made swords and knives to poke between the slipping moving coils.

It was working! More blood than ever was pouring out from between the coils! They were injuring it! Surely!

A massive paw burst from the coils and wrapped around a Goblin's head and then dragged him inside screaming. The Goblins faltered. Another Goblin was pulled inside, then another.

"D-Don't stop! You must save us! Please!" said one of the Lamia as they held the other up, blood pouring from their mouth.

The Goblins began to back away.

"What are you doing?! Stop! Don't run! Oh- oh gods it's eating through my spi-."

The Lamia slumped to the ground as the Goblins stepped back fearfully toward the trees.

A blood covered head burst from the Lamia's flesh causing the Goblins to freeze in fright. It turned on them, its yellow eyes alight with hunger, tongue running along its teeth.

"B-Beast! Run!!" squeaked one of the Goblins as with a snarl Rain bounded from the Lamia's corpses and gave chase. They fled into the jungle, the beast hot on their tails.

It leapt and landed on a Goblin crushing it into the ground and instantly snapping its back with its weight, a paw lashed out and snatched up another goblin bashing its brains out on a nearby tree. The chase continued, Goblins dropping like flies as the beast outpaced them due to its longer legs. Soon enough only three desperate Goblins remained, though not for long.

A dark shadow loomed over the slowest of the Goblins but before it could reach out something cried out from above, an ear-splitting avian screech of a sound. The black furred shadow tumbled to the ground as a pair of wings cannoned into it.

A tall naked female Goblin crashed into view, but instead of arms it had wings, and instead of Goblin legs it had the feathered legs of a bird of prey complete with oversized hooked talons made to rend flesh. It scratched and clawed at Rain as he rolled across the ground, keeping his arms up to protect his eyes. The Harpy-goblin avian screeched again and it was joined by a second. They seized on Rain's shoulders, their talons puncturing his flesh, they then furiously flapped their wings. The Harpy-goblins slowly began to rise into the air, up above the foliage, above the jungle where they were joined by more of their sisters, flapping and cawing.

"We have it sisters! We have the intruder! The prize is ours!"

"What a feral looking beast, what creature would come to be if we were to breed with it I wonder?"

"We should take it to Mother, he can be ours alone and strengthen our blood!"

"All the better. The time we take over the tribe is near! We shall look down on our lessers from above as it is meant to be!"

A large paw wrapped around the leg of one of the carrying Harpy-goblins. She looked down in surprise that the creature could still move with their claws piercing it. Normally their prey was left in agony and unable to struggle.

The paw's grip tightened and to the Harpy's shock she felt it drag her down.

"H-hey! You're not supposed to do that! We'll fall!"

Yellow eyes looked up at her with contempt and then its jaws opened and bit off her leg. She screamed and watched on in horror as her limb fell into the jungle canopy below.

"Drop it! Drop it! The mad beast is suicidal!"

"I- I can't let it go! It's got my leg! Help me sisters!!"

"Me too! Attack it! Rend its body to pieces!"

The two Harpy-goblins flapped desperately at the air trying to keep aloft as the other Harpy-goblins flocked around them, their claws outstretched and slashing at the prey. Rain's foot lashed out kicking at them and trying to keep them back, but there was only so much he could do being attacked from both sides. Growling in frustration he yanked down one of the harpies holding him up and bit through her neck letting her drop.

The Harpy-goblins cried out in anger and rushed him. His paw lashed out and wrapped around a Harpy-goblins's neck. Panicked eyes searched for help but nothing could stop his inexorable strength and the Harpy was dragged into his jaws. Claws lacerated his body but his paw reached out again, and then again. Harpy-goblins were dropping one by one. Unfortunately, the one Harpy-goblin Rain was hanging onto wasn't enough to keep him aloft and they were rapidly sinking into the treetops. A flash of green and the crash of branches and they slammed back into the jungle. Rain had one momentary sight of a second Cavebear-goblin before he and the Harpy collided with it at high speed. The three of them smashed into the ground, the Harpy's wings audibly snapping as Rain rolled on top of her, crushing her between himself and the Cavebear.

The Cavebear-goblin roared in confusion and lashed out blindly with its massive claws. One swipe took the Harpy-goblin in the head and partially beheaded her. The next swipe came on but Rain held up his paws and caught it, each paw gripping a massive ten-inch yellowed bear claw. He stumbled nearly losing his footing atop the Cavebear as the incredible strength of it slammed into him like a landslide. His feet dug into the Cavebears torso as he resisted, slowed, and then to the Cavebears surprise he managed to push back its paw. Rain took a step forward and twisted the arm of the Cavebear down forcing it into submission.

Unfortunately for Rain the monster had two paws and the other slashed up to eviscerate him. He was forced to release its paw as a set of yellow scythes whipped past his gut. He leapt backwards from its chest and landed back on the ground as it roared in fury, foam flecking from its lips. The Cavebear-goblin charged and Rain dived out of the way easily enough, the clumsy fury of the creature making it easy to predict.

The hissing of a snake tugged at his ear and he tried to turn but a moment too late, coils lashed through the air and encircled his arms and legs from paw to shoulder and foot to hip and wrapped multiple times around his waist. He stared at the coils. More than one, more than two, in fact as he looked over his shoulder he counted no less than seven Lamia-goblins behind him each using their tails to enwrap a different part of his body but far enough away from his head that he couldn't bite them. These Lamia-goblins had been informed of what he could do and had come prepared. He tried to move his arm but the grip of two Lamia heaved back keeping him trapped. He snarled and lent into it, flexing his biceps and pecs. The Lamia began to shift as they were dragged across the ground.

"He- He's too much to hold! We need more!"

To Rain's dismay two more coils looped around his arms and dragged him back into the exposed position the Lamia wanted him in.

"Hey, you! Cavebear-gobbo! Get over here and gut this beast! I'm not sure how much longer we can hold him!"

The Cavebear-goblin who had been watching narrowed its eyes and began to step forward.

"Your Mother," said Rain.

The Cavebear paused.

"Your Mother, the true Cavebear, was ashamed to have half Goblin trash for children. That's why she broke her chains and left, because she couldn't stand to look at the dogshit that had fallen out of her vagina. She hated you."

The Cavebear's eyes widened as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Then, her whole body trembling, she spread her arms and roared in blood spitting fury. Her eyes locked onto Rain and she charged.

"H-hey, Cavebear, this bastard is lying! W-wait, No! NO! STOP! STOOOOP!" screamed the Lamia as the Cavebear-goblin freighted into them at full sprint.

Rain, tangle of Lamia, and furious Cavebear crashed into each other and the hissing, howling, roaring ball smashed aside trees as it rolled through the jungle.

Blood spilled in the tangles trail as a pair of unstoppable jaws flashed through the tumult, ripping and tearing and raising shrill screams as buckets of flesh were incised and separated. Giant bear claws ripped and tore, blind to friend or foe only trying desperately to get at the slippery black shadow that squirmed between coils and Cavebear. The shadow tore from the Cavebear then dived back into the coils as the bear tried to strike it, only hitting Lamia instead. Blood and gore covered everything as the Lamia started to disintegrate under the onslaught, their bodies mauled apart by the scything claws of the bear and the tearing of the wolf.

The tangle of death slowed and the bear lost track of the wolf. Multiple holes punched in its stomach poured blood, but the mindless fury of the Cavebear kept it frantically pulling apart coils and corpses. It wasn't until it felt the weight on the back of its neck did it realise its mistake. Too late. Immense pressure, pain, then the splintering crunch of a spine, no more pain. The Cavebear-goblin flopped on top of the horrific pile of shredded Lamia.

Rain rested on all fours atop the Cavebear for a moment, breathing hard, his head bowed.

"Cutting it a bit close maybe," said a voice.

He looked up to see Opal pushing aside some foliage. Blood spattered her clothes and both her cutlass and rapier were red up to the hilt.

"Yeah, well, they figured out engulfing me in coils was a bad idea. I couldn't bite my way out, so I had to change the situation."

"By having a half-Cavebear land on you?"

Rain laughed.

"It worked didn't it?" he said, as he wiped gore from his face.

"Barely I-"

"SCRAAAWW!!"

Rain turned back to the Goblin as an actual full blooded Harpy, not a half breed, crashed through the canopy and snatched Opal up in her talons. The Harpy cackled and began to lift her into the air.

Rain scrambled down the side of the bear and stumbled to his feet shedding gore and blood with every motion.

"Opal!" roared Rain as the Harpy made it past the canopy and began to glide over the jungle.

Rain ran underneath her following in her flight path.

"Daughters of mine! I have the traitor that's spoken of! Come see!"

Rain snatched up a stone about the size of a large fist from the ground as he ran. He leant backwards stretching his arm behind him, tilting his waist, then with a savage growl he torqued, twisting his hips and using all the momentum of his run he swung his arm so hard he thought it might snap. His paw whipped around and with a crack the rock left his paw and shot up through the canopy with an explosion of leaves. The rock took the Harpy in the back of the head sending a sprinkle of blood into the air. The Harpy squawked and crashed back down through the canopy ahead of Rain. She hit the ground hard in a spray of dirt, her wing breaking beneath her as she landed atop it.

The cries of many alarmed Harpy-goblins rang through the air as he raced up to the crashed true Harpy. She was still alive, just moving groggily. Blood marked her pale naked skin and dripped from her long black hair, her red eyes were unfocused. Opal was lying near her, by some fluke having landed atop her then rolled away.

Rain pulled the stunned Goblin into his arms and checked her over. Amazingly she was unharmed. The cries of anger above the canopy were nearing so he quickly thrust her out of sight beneath the nearest bush.

The true Harpy blinked and seemed to gather herself. She tried to move her broken wing and hissed in pain, then she painfully climbed to her feet. She touched the corner of her unharmed wing to the back of her head and it came away bloody. She eyed the red smear.

"You attacked a Queen. That was a mistake. By Harpy law I will see a hole cut in your navel and your intestine hooked free, then I will watch as my daughters nail the end to a tree then chase you around it using a flaming branch until your bowels wrap round it like thread around a bobbin. You will then live like that until you begin to starve and become weak upon which time we shall force feed you our guano until your stomach bursts."

Rain wrinkled his nose and made a face of disgust. "I think I understand why levelers hate Harpies so much, you actually are the worst of what levelers say about monsters."

The Queen Harpy hissed and stepped forward. At ground level, and standing, she was at a height with Rain, much larger than any of the half harpies, with massive brown and cream wings.

"Insolence."

She strode forward then sprinted then leapt into the air feet first, her body parallel to the ground, her massive twelve-inch razor talons aimed at Rain's face.

Rain lunged forward and his paws slammed into the clawed feet of the Harpy arresting her momentum, the Queen shrieked her fury and beat her one massive wing blowing dust into the air, rippling the grass and shaking the trees. They wrestled, Rain's paws struggling to hold back the powerful kicks of the avian as her one good wing beat the air keeping her aloft. As they fought and grappled, Rain began to be pushed back from the sheer wild strength of the Queen and around them Harpy-goblins descended through the canopy.

"This cavern will be mine and every Goblin and Half-goblin will be my property! My army! You will not stop this, you cannot stop this, you cannot stop me!" roared the Queen as her talons raked at Rain's forearms.

"No," came a voice, "But I can."

The Inquisitor's longsword pierced through the back of the Queen and burst up from her stomach on the other side, bright steel coated red, a strange growth. The Queen screamed and fell to the ground as Opal scrambled back between Rain's legs and under the bush.

Rain stood over the Queen as she lay curled on the ground, one wing clutching at the sword through her gut.

"My children will avenge me beast, they are loyal."

"We'll see."

He grabbed the Queen by the throat and lifted her into the air as a dozen half Harpies surrounded them, crying out their anger.

"If you don't back off I will end her right now," growled Rain.

"What have you done to Mother!"

"Mother we can still save you, do not worry!"

"What do you want beast?"

Rain looked over the dozen half-harpies eyeing him warily.

He held up a paw and spread his digits. "For the bargain price of five of you to die beneath my teeth I will let her go."

The Queen's eyes rounded. "N-" Rain tightened his grip, cutting off her words.

"No! Fuck you wolf! Never! We will never sacrifice our own, we lo-"

The one who had spoken up paused as a Harpy-goblin wing came down on her shoulder, then on her other shoulder.

"Sorry sister but you just aren't worth much to us, you've always been weak winged. We need Mother more than we need you, she's the only one who can keep our Harpy blood from becoming diluted."

"Wha- b-but-"

The two Harpy-goblins either side of her hauled her forward, her heels digging into the ground uselessly.

"N-No! S-sisters!"

"Die for Mother."

They held her still as Rain ripped out her throat, her eyes shifting from wide eyed fear to the relaxed visage of death.

The brown haired one on the right shivered, her eyes transfixed by Rain's bloody teeth.

The one on the left spoke up. "Beast, we gave you one of our own, surely this is enough, Harpy-gobbos aren't Gobbos, we're worth so much more, even this one. Return our Mother, be reas-"

The brown haired one suddenly lunged forward, but not at Rain, instead she wrapped her wings around the one on the left and flung her into Rain's waiting jaws, instinctively he ended her life with a snap.

The rest of the Harpy-goblins stared at the one who had suddenly sacrificed her sister. She breathed in and out shakily.

"I'm- I'm not going to be one of the five to die! I want- I need to live!"

Bedlam broke out. Sister attacked sister and the air was filled with screams and talons rending and incising flesh, flashes of blood sprayed through the air to spatter down on the green leaves of the jungle. Feathers torn from wings littered the ground and small downy feathers floated through the brawl.

At last, a trio of Harpy-goblins were forced down on the ground, their sisters pinning them. Rain was fairly sure one was already dead and judging by the amount of blood on the ground the other two wouldn't last much longer.

A bedraggled sister with flecks of red covering her face and hair lank with blood turned to Rain.

"You got your bargain and then some beast," she said between heaving breaths, "Blood payment has been rendered under Harpy law. Give her to us and we'll let you leave."

Rain pushed the Queen in front of him and released her neck.

"Daughters, did you not see his eyes?" said the Queen sadly. "It was never going to end this way."

Rain grabbed the hilt of the sword sticking out her lower back and heaved the Queen forward, the blade protruding from her belly pierced the half-harpy in front skewering her. The Queen embraced her daughter as she screamed.

The remaining six Harpy-goblins roared their fury and threw themselves on Rain, anguish disfiguring their faces. Rain backed away, his arms raised to protect his face. When an opportunity arose he grabbed at their talons and hauled one toward his mouth where he swiftly ended her, one, two, three, their strength was nothing compared to the Queen and their talons could not cut far into his body.

The barrage of talons continued, lacerating his arms and causing the wolf to retreat through the jungle. He tripped over a root and rolled backwards, bursting unexpectedly from a treeline into a large grassy clearing. The last two harpies followed him howling their mindless rage and he grabbed them both from the air hauling them down to the ground. Their strength faltered below his own and he held them in place while one by one tearing out their throats.

Chapter 27

Rain stumbled to his feet exhausted, each footstep leaving a blood red mark in the grass.

He turned around looking for enemies but none appeared. He was alone. Looking up at the domed cavern ceiling overhead he realized he must be in the center of the cavern. It seemed the jungle stopped at the center and was replaced by a wide field of grass.

The clearing did not appear uninhabited. A cluster of Goblin tents was at one end verging on the tree line. At the other end was a long barn like building crudely made from wood. In the center was a cluster of wooden buildings.

He began walking toward the buildings in the center. He figured if he wanted to kill the leader of the tribe then now would likely be a good time as it seemed that what remained of the Goblins and Half-goblins were out hunting for him in the jungle.

As he neared he began to hear voices. A deeper voice along with a scratchy female voice that sounded somehow unnatural and awkward.

He slunk up to one of the buildings leaving a trail of blood in his wake and ducked to peek through one of the glassless windows.

A back faced him, a very muscular back, one leaning back in a chair. Five uneven horns protruded from its head, bull horns. A horse-like mane of hair ran down its neck.

Rain didn't have any difficulty recognizing a Minotaur when he saw one having killed and eaten one recently, though the mutated horns and angular ears poking from the sides of its head were new.

"This creature, you say it came from some lake a few floors down?" said the Goblin-minotaur with a predictably deep voice.

"Yessss. The ancestral memories are fragmented but the description fits and I know no other creature which might pass as it. I know something terrible was done at that lake. I know the ancestors dreaded a return of what was put down there," said the scratchy female voice.

Rain couldn't see much else due to the angle so the owner of the voice was out of view.

"It seems unlikely a monster would return from over a thousand years ago, still it is just another monster, nothing to worry about."

"My witch's memories say otherwise. They feared these things like no other, especially their ruler, their king. This may sound insane and beyond belief to you, and I would not speak of this knowledge to any other, but to stop these things monsters and levelers fought together on the same side."

"Bullshit. That did not happen. Not possible."

"It's true, though it is hard to imagine a situation desperate enough where that would have come about. Just speaking of such a thing would anger any monster who heard it in this era so I will not repeat this outside of this room."

"Faulty memories, it's happened before, not everything survives the generations intact."

"The most traumatic memories do, and this one scarred generations of Gobbos."

"Fine. I'll humour you. We have a resurrected, or whatever, monster from an age past running around in our cavern. Theoretically, it's pretty strong. Isn't this a good thing?"

"...I don't follow."

The Minotaur leant forward. "It's obvious, isn't it? We want strong monsters to grow our power, we capture this beast and have the regular Gobbos breed with it, they fill it with halves or themselves pop out a few halves, and they're on our side. Hell, if it's as scary as you make it out to be then we'll be unstoppable. We'll be able to take over the dungeon and then we can conquer the surface. It can all be ours, we can take everything."

The scratchy voice hissed in annoyance. "We can barely keep what we have, look what happened to the Harpy Queen, she escaped and lives on the cavern ceiling forming her own faction with her daughters, a perpetual thorn in our side forever demanding more influence. A monster like this would surely be uncontrollable and its spawn chaotic. Far from ideal."

"You don't know that. Our Cavebear half-breeds are placid, unless you do something to anger them, but no ones stupid enough to do such a thing. Besides, if it turns out to be a problem we can always just kill them. Remember the Slime-gobbo disaster? Same thing."

"Yes, I remember, and if I ever see a tentacle again it will be too soon." There was a rustling sound of movement. "This thing is not like other monsters Cairn. It is something from a more savage era when rivers of blood were the norm. A time when few tribal monsters could speak as the ancestral memories were not as developed as they are today. We would likely be doing the dungeon, no the world, a service by ensuring it does not leave our cavern alive."

"Pah, fuck the world. This is an opportunity to seize power like never before. Hell, I'll fuck a few kids into it myself if it's female."

"Bah, I've had enough of this idiotic Minotaur bravado."

There was a scuttling tapping noise and the scrape of a door. Rain slunk around the building and hid behind a poorly made crate. He peeked over the top as the front door opened, a long black spike crept from the door and hooked around it. It took a moment for Rain to realise he was looking at a gargantuan spider leg as several more thin legs slipped through the door and then the body of the creature, a terrifying spider with the top half of a Goblin sticking up where its head might have been. The monster needed to turn its body at an angle to fit its bulbous black abdomen through the door and even then it was a struggle, it got stuck and had to tug itself free. Standing on the grass the bottom of her spider torso must have been six foot off the ground such was her size.

Behind her the Half-minotaur ducked through the door. His dark green fur slashed with black rippled over thick slabs of muscle as he moved, heavy hooves impacting the ground. His face was more squashed than a Minotaur with pointier teeth and long knife ears and orange eyes. The twisted crown of horns on his head gave Rain pause, so did the fact he was massive, standing eight foot tall, larger than any Minotaur Rain had seen before.

Not just a Goblin-minotaur. He thought. An evolved Hobgoblin-minotaur?

The Spider-goblin turned to Cairn. "I'm going to cast a locating spell to see if I can pinpoint the creature and then we are going to gather our strongest, even the Harpy Queen if she can be convinced, and we are going to destroy this intruder into our tribe's home."

He sneered but remained silent. The half-spider rolled her fingers and stretched her wrists before cracking her knuckles and forming a complicated sequence of seals with her hands. A large intricate symbol on her spider abdomen began to glow blue and mist started to spill from it. She focused, deep in concentration.

Cairn scratched his balls through his loincloth. He peered around, bored. He yawned. He paused mid yawn however when his eyes alighted on a trail of red through the grass that led to the building they had just come from. He blinked and furrowed his brow.

"Hey."

"Remain quiet, this is not an easy spell and far from my usual area of expertise. I almost missed that leveler with it this morning. I need to focus."

"Hey, I see red."

"What?"

"I see red, on the grass."

The Spider-goblin paused and the mist began to dissipate. She scowled.

"Just, go look into it, I'm losing my spell with your blabbering."

The Spider-goblin closed her eyes and the mist resurged.

Cairn sighed and strolled off to investigate.

Rain backed away from the crate and returned to behind the building. He looked up. The building was crude but it did have a roof. He set his claws in the uneven wooden planking and hauled himself up until he clambered atop. Crouched low he made his way across the wooden tiles until he could peer down. The Minotaur was looking at the bloody grass while vaguely scratching his chin.

"Curious."

His eyes tracked the red following it until they came to the window Rain had hid by to listen in on them.

"Cairn! It's here! The damn thing is here!" cried a scratchy voice causing Cairn's eyes to widen.

Too late. Rain dropped from the roof like winged death, his claws outstretched and maw open ready to bite down on the Half-Minotaur's neck. At the last possible moment the Minotaur caught sight of Rain's shadow and twisted his head aside. Rain's teeth latched onto his shoulder. The Minotaur's arm swept up before he could bite deep and crashed into him. Rain was flung away from the Minotaur with a flap of his skin hanging from his front teeth and went tumbling across the grass.

The Minotaur roared his pain and jerked around to see Rain picking himself up. Blood washed down his shoulder.

"That was good, you almost got me. I can see why you've survived with a nasty bite like that. You'd just need to get up close and Bam!" The Minotaur closed his thick fingered fist in front of his chest. "Unsuspecting prey would fall like flies."

Rain grinned. "Suspecting too."

"Hmm. Too bad you're not female, I'd have liked to have some kids with teeth like that. I'll still enjoy breaking you in for the regular Gobbos however."

"I'll pass thanks."

"You won't get a choice in the matter. You won't be the first monster I've caught for the tribe, nor will you be the last."

Rain snorted. "You threaten, but I will devour you."

Cairn's nose wrinkled in annoyance.

The Spider-goblin scuttled around the building at this point and came to a stop seeing Rain, a worried look crossed her face.

"Listen, thing that came from the lake, you haven't fought anything like me before," boasted Cairn.

"We'll see. Your Harpy Queen talked big too, but she's dead now."

Cairn blinked at him and turned to the Spider-goblin.

She grit her teeth. "I do not think he is lying."

Cairn turned back to him with a snarl. "You'll regret that."

The Spider-goblin began to make seals with her hands and violet fire sparked between her fingers, then a large three foot wide violet fireball bloomed above her glowing spider abdomen and hovered in place.

Rain felt a shiver go up his spine seeing the fire. Magic fire. Rain hated magic fire. He almost lunged at the Spider-goblin but was barely able to control himself. He could feel the memories of his death crawling up his back, slithering around his neck. His breathing accelerated.

"Burn him up Lazia," said Cairn, unbuckling a pair of hatchets from his belt. They were really broad bladed axes but they appeared as hatchets in his meaty hands.

"Wiser words you have never spoken," said Lazia as she flung her hands forward. A dozen fist sized fireballs sprung from her fingers and zipped through the air. Rain threw himself out the way as they phut phut phut shot one by one into the grass sending sprays of dirt into the air. The fireballs didn't stop and Rain had to scramble out of the way as the stream chased him.

Cairn bellowed and charged toward him with hatchets raised. Rain dove and angled himself so that the Minotaur was between himself and the Spider and blocking her aim. Then he raced toward him. He dove down below the angle of the hatchets and his teeth shot toward the Minotaurs shin aiming to maim him. The Minotaur saw this however and fell forward snatching his leg up into the air and away from the slicing teeth. He rolled when he hit the ground and smoothly leapt to his feet facing Rain who was once again being bombarded, only for a moment however as Rain lunged toward Cairn once more. This time Cairn did not have momentum and he crossed his hatchets to block the hurtling wolf. Rain thrust his paws forward intending to rip the hatchets from the Minotaur's grip, his paws wrapped around the shafts just below the blades and he twisted back torquing into the ground and heaving his weight into them. The Minotaur's hooves slid across the grass but then he stabilised and heaved backwards pulling Rain off his feet to his surprise. Cairn roared and flung him to the ground where a hatchet whipped down to take Rain in the chest. Rain rolled to the side just avoiding it and reached for the Minotaur's hooves to drag them into range of his teeth but the Minotaur predicting this danced away giving the Spider-goblin line of sight.

Fire rained down as Lazia unleashed and Rain's vision was filled with violet. He scrambled out of the way but one of the fist-sized fireballs landed on his lower leg in the same spot that Myra had hit him in his previous life. He howled in pain and rolled across the grass desperately trying to slap the fire out. At last the fire died, but not in his mind, he could still see it, Myra's fire. He looked at the Spider-goblin and he saw Myra. It was happening again. No. Not like this. His heart rate spiked and his lips raised in a savage snarl that shifted into a deep bone shaking roar that sent the grass around him trembling and the air rippling.

He moved.

Feet cratered the earth as he exploded forward, yellow eyes locked on to the Spider-goblin who was backing away fearfully.

"Cairn! Stop him! Stop him!"

She spun her hands, frantically spitting out fireballs as she formed a fiery net. Cairn rushed forward, his hooves stomping the grass flat, but he was too slow and Rain outpaced him, dashing straight into the oncoming fireballs, shifting and slipping around them ever onward.

The Spider-goblin suddenly threw up her hands and a massive spectacular net of fire bloomed in front of her forming a wall between her and Rain. Unfortunately for her the net formed slightly above the ground. She hurried to manipulate it downward but Rain threw himself down and slid underneath, his momentum carrying him through. He scrambled to his feet and turned on the spider who was skittishly backing away.

"C-Cairn!!

Rain dived under the spider as she moved her hands back to throw more fire and he disappeared from her line of sight. She yelped and scuttled back, lifting her body high to try to avoid the wolf.

CRACK-SNAP!

She looked to her side wide-eyed and trembling as one of her legs fell to the ground having been bitten from her body.

"Burn! Burn damn you!"

She raised her hands into the air and the huge fire ball floating above her abdomen exploded, washing over her in a wave of violet fire. Solar flares of violet licked off her body as she was engulfed, lashing between her legs and boiling the air. The air sizzled but the Spider-goblin was unharmed, she swung her head about, desperately looking to see if she had hit Rain as the last of the violet fire wisped away.

CRACK-SNAP!

She screamed as another of her legs fell to the ground.

Cairn bellowed and charged through the dwindling net of fire that still hung in the air, burning himself in the process. Furious, the minotaur rushed to the spider, his hatchets raised. Rain ducked behind her as he moved trying to get a clear strike, Rain didn't give him one and danced between her legs as the Minotaur circled Lazia in growing frustration.

Rain suddenly grabbed one of the Spider's legs and heaved, pulling her away from the Minotaur and towards the building. Cairn bellowed again and rushed around to strike at him, Rain used the time it took from him to circle him to place his teeth once more on one of the Spider's legs. The Minotaur snarled and in desperation threw one of his hatchets, the steel hurtled through the air like a meteor toward Rain's head. Rain flinched back, surprised by the force and accuracy of the throw, barely avoiding it. The hatchet missed Rain and smashed into Lazia's leg.

SNAP!

Lazia screamed as her leg broke and her legs went out from under her. She fell. Unfortunately for Rain he was ducking back underneath at the same time and the entire weight of the Spider-goblin came crashing down on him. He slammed into the ground flat with a whuff of breath, the weight of her resting on his back.

He struggled to get free but could do nothing as heavy Minotaur hooves stomped toward his head.

"Got you, you piece of shit."

A massive meaty hand came down on his neck and he found himself being forcefully dragged from beneath the Spider. He was hauled up into the air and a pair of arms wrapped around his chest straight jacketing him to Cairn's torso, the Minotaur's arms were long enough that he could still grip Rain's neck with one hand while keeping his arms pinned. Rain struggled but found that with leverage the Minotaur's strength far outstripped the Cavebear's. He was trapped as solidly as though he were wrapped in bands of steel.

Lazia climbed to her feet with difficulty, breathing hard.

"You okay Lazia?"

"No I'm not fucking okay! My legs! My beautiful legs!"

"You'll get over it. You got spares."

The Spider-goblin made a strangled scream.

"That thing, that hateful thing, that thing needs to die!"

She lifted up a hand and it was engulfed with violet fire.

"Now hold on. I've caught it see? Literally all we need are collars and chains from the breeding pens and we have a new breeding stud."

"Fuck your stupid plan to make kids with this fucking horror Cairn."

"It's not stupid! Don't you see the potential Lazia? just think of the potential! We could conquer the dungeon! Monsters could rule the surface!"

The Spider took a step forward and her other hand ignited as well.

"Do I look like I'm thinking about goddamned potential?"

"No, but c'mon Laz, I jumped through your own fire for you."

The Spider stepped forward and Rain snarled as the fire came nearer, struggling with all his might.

"And then you broke one of my legs!"

"That was an accident!"

Rain growled and snapped at the air, pushing himself to the limit, but Cairn's grip was unwavering.

"I'm going to kill it Cairn. Hold it still."

Cairn backed away as Lazia came on.

"NO! It's mine! I caught it!"

"Let me kill it!"

Lazia lunged forward and Rain saw only Myra's fire.

He let out a snarling furious roar unlike any before. It rose up deep from within himself, deeper, as though it came from his very soul, a throbbing bass rumble that surged up like distant thunder. Rain's muscles strained against his binds, his head drew back and then thrust forward, maw yawning wide, and the sound physically collided with the air as it was unleashed, the bone-vibrating shock reverberation causing the air to shimmer outward in a shockwave, strings of blood and drool flung from his teeth as his jaws shuddered wider.

The roar built on itself, growing and booming. All grass in every direction was blown flat as waves of limitless bass flooded forth. The ground trembled and quaked beneath Cairn's hooves as though the very earth was afraid. But it didn't stop, no, it just became louder. Trees shifted in the distance, the fire in Lazia's hands was blown away, stones and dust began to drop from the cavern ceiling far above, the buildings they stood by shifted and creaked, wooden tiles crashing to the ground as they were shaken loose. And then it became even louder.

Cairn could see Lazia's lips moving but no voice reached him, it was all he could do to hold onto the wolf as it released a staggering ear numbing ripsnarl roar. Lazia was screaming silently at him now but his sight was starting to go dark around the edges. He blinked and felt fluid run from his eyes, no, not just his eyes, his ears were running too and his nose and mouth. He licked his lips, the iron taste of blood. The vibrations were so strong now that he could barely breathe, he could feel his heart struggling to beat under the pressure waves. Oh, was it the wolf? Everything was going dark. His fingers slipped from around the beast. Why did he do that? Why did he fall to his knees? Why was the dark ground rushing up toward him?

Cairn slumped to the ground with blood pouring from every orifice as the roar came to an end.

Chapter 28

In the aftermath Rain's ears were filled with nothing but high pitched ringing. His jaw and throat ached.

He was stunned enough by his own roar that it took him a moment to realise that the Spider-goblin was drunkenly moving toward him holding up Cairn's axe over her head. Blood ran from her nose and ears but she was still mobile. He struggled to move his body properly, everything felt sluggish and unresponsive. He held up his arms pitifully and the axe came down. By chance she stumbled forward as she swung and the head of the axe flew over the top of his feeble defence leaving Rain to catch the haft on his arms. Crazed eyes looked back at him, Lazia's mouth opened in a silent scream of rage revealing strange spider like mandibles amongst fine white needle like teeth. Rain grabbed the axe and hauled down on it at the same time as he pushed upward. He smashed his forehead into Lazia's face, breaking her nose with a burst of blood. She let go of the axe.

This seemed to knock her free of her mindless rage and fear momentarily crossed her gaze. Then however she seemed to commit herself to her chosen path, her jaw clenching in hard-hearted determination. Her hands snapped out multiple seals and glowing markings washed across her entire body. Violet fire bloomed above her abdomen once more, but this time it did not stop coalescing and the ball of fire continued to grow, three foot, five foot, seven foot across, the heat from the vast ball of fire was enough to scorch the grass.

Rain shielded his eyes from the growing brightness then, finally recovering some basic rationality, he began to step away, wary of the Spider's intent. The Spider matched him and came on. Rain turned tail and fled as solar flares of violet fire began to jump from the fifteen foot wide fireball. It radiated so much heat he could feel it sear his back. The Spider chased after him, fingers swiftly dancing and forming ever more seals.

Rain gripped the axe from where he had been hugging it to his chest out of sight and suddenly, without warning, twisted mid bound, his arm whipping around as he swung his all into it. The axe flung from his paw like a bolt from a crossbow and tore through the air. But Lazia was ready. A solid violet disc conjuring into place in front of her chest to block the thrown axe. Unfortunately for her, Rain wasn't aiming at her body. The axe came down on one of her legs and snapped it like a twig. Rain caught sight of a moment of open dismay on the Spider's face before she came down hard. She crashed to the ground top half first and her abdomen rose up, fireball in tow, peaked, then came plummeting down to earth like a meteor.

BOOM!

Rain desperately flung himself away, but he was still picked up and thrown by the blast like a child's toy to be sent bouncing and rolling across the grass.

He came to a halt in a heap.

Several minutes passed with him unmoving. Then with a groan he slowly lifted his head.

All that was left of Lazia was a crater in the ground.

"Crazy suicidal Goblin... Now I can't eat you..."

With difficulty, he sat up. Every part of him ached. Bruises and cuts felt like they'd been uniformly patterned over his body.

"Ow- m- e-rs"

Rain looked around to see Opal twisting a finger in her ear.

"I can't hear you, hold on."

Rain cracked his jaw and poked at his own ears. The ringing sound dropped off a little

"I said, Ow my ears. I think you scared the snot out of every Gobbo in the damned cavern. First that, whatever that roar was, and then kabooming spidey."

"She was going to blow herself up no matter what I did, she was a, uh, witch. Goblin witches don't seem to like me very much."

"And the roar? I thought the cavern was going to come down for a moment there."

Rain shrugged. "I'm not sure, I didn't know I was capable of such a thing."

Opal tapped at her chin. "Maybe it has something to do with growing. A bigger body, outsized strength, and, well, a bigger roar?"

"It was a little more than just a 'bigger roar'. I straight up killed a Minotaur with my voice alone. I think if the witch had been on top of me as well she wouldn't have survived either."

"I'll try think up some way to use that, but right now I'm going to make you hate me."

Rain tilted his head to the side and blinked. "Why's that?"

"What do you think the entire tribe is doing right now now that you've thoroughly spooked them all with all that noise and ground trembling? Yep, that's right. They're all fleeing toward the exits."

Rain groaned and rubbed a paw over his face. "Meaning that they will be trying to figure out how to get past the obstacles we made and will sooner or later succeed...."

Opal simply stood there and with her hands behind her back and rocking on her heels excitably. "Can't let food escape." She grinned. "Coming?"

Rain pressed his lips together in a line but rolled to his feet.

The Goblin led him into the jungle and they made their way back to the main entrance of the cavern. It quickly became clear that as predicted the entire remaining population of the tribe was trying to escape at once. A crowd was fighting at the entrance, unable to keep order long enough to figure out how to move the stone disc and simply throwing themselves at it and shouting their frustration. A pile of them had built up, standing on each other to haul on the wooden pegs that ran along the part of the wheel. Unfortunately for them they had not noticed the stone wedge Rain had placed below so their efforts were wasted and in fact made it impossible for the few Goblins who had noticed the problem to remove it leaving them helpless.

There were a number of Human-goblins mixed in the crowd of regular Goblins as well as three Diredog-goblins. As the pair watched cohesion started to break down. The Human-goblins lost their temper and started laying into the regular Goblins with swords and clubs, the Diredog-goblins seeing this quickly joined in. This seemed to push the terrified regular Goblins beyond all reason and weapons were unslung and used with abandon. They swarmed the surprised half Goblins and through sheer dint of numbers overwhelmed them, though not without heavy losses.

"This would have happened sooner or later. This whole tribe was a tinder trap waiting to ignite and go up in flames," said Opal.

"Mrmm, the ones in charge of all this had no idea what they were sitting on."

A dozen regular Goblins survived, many of them injured, so when Rain pushed aside the foliage and stepped into their midst it was not a terribly difficult fight. However a couple did still manage to escape into the jungle. Opal drew her cutlass and stalked after them.

Rain went on to the exit he had blocked with a tree but found no Goblins near and the tree untouched. When he came to the next exit however he found a pair of Lamia frantically trying to remove stones from the hole they had filled. Unfortunately for them they were inside the partially cleared hole and had no way to escape so that when Rain dropped on them they could do nothing but scream.

He climbed out of the hole a little more bloody than before and moved on to the last escape tunnel. Unsurprisingly it was still blocked as the Cavebear-goblin he had dragged into it was massive and impossible to move. More surprising however was a second injured Cavebear-Goblin surrounded by the remains of maybe two dozen regular Goblins which had been smashed and sliced under foot and claw in what had clearly been a desperate fight. The Cavebear-goblin hadn't escaped unscathed, the Goblins may have been weak but that hadn't prevented them from exacting a heavy toll. There were only bloody pits where the Cavebear-goblins eyes had once been. Rain could only guess what had led to the fight but judging by the footprints around the hole the new Cavebear-goblin had tried and failed to remove the body blocking it prior to the fight.

It snuffed the air as Rain neared, ears twitching, trying to locate him. He didn't give it a chance and leapt on its back and bit down, then again, and then again. The Cavebear died with barely a whimper and Rain had to take a moment to realize he had started eating it, he reluctantly managed to pull his jaws away. His stomach growled painfully in protest. He was starting to lose himself to instinct, biting so many monsters without actually eating them was sending his monstrous animal hunger into overdrive, having an effect on him he wasn't sure he could control, making him act irrationally.

Rain slipped off the Cavebear's back to the ground with a sigh. He looked back at the body and frowned, then after a moment shook his head.

"One last place to check." He rubbed the back of his paw past his lips, drool coming with it. "Gods, I feel hungry enough to eat a tribe, or three."

He reappeared back in the central clearing in which he had fought Cairn and Lazia. First he checked the Goblin tents but as he had assumed they were currently unoccupied. Then he came to the crude wooden buildings in the center, apart from the main one they seemed to contain only basic supplies, not of immediate concern.

The last building of the clearing lay at the opposite end. A long crude wooden building much larger than the others. Rain made his way over to it. He diverted toward one end as a flash of movement caught his attention. He rounded the end and blinked in surprise. A naked person stood there, her hands chained above her head to a tall wooden post.

She had the body and face of an Elf, partly, her legs were like that of some kind of bipedal sheep species, with black cloven hooves and soft and puffy white cloud like sheep fluff. The sheep like legs began about six inches down her leg from her hip, transitioning from pale skin to fluff with a particularly large puff of fluff like the tops of stockings. A small square of cloud like fluff sat above her mons and another large burst of cloud like fluff at the top of her sternum between her breasts. Her arms were encased in a sheath of white from nearly the top of her biceps to her wrists each end capped with a puff of white. It gave the impression she was wearing close fitting white sleeves with a cloud of fluff at each end.

Voluminous hair framed her head, her thick white locks framing her face. She was short for an Elf at five foot six inches. A pair of blue eyes looked back at him from a worried but resolute Elfin face.

"You- what are you? Monster? Leveler?"

Rain looked down at his blood soaked body. "Take a wild guess."

The Elf-sheep paled. "O-oh. I suppose you aren't here to rescue me then."

"No. I'm here to kill everything in this cavern."

"Hold on a moment, you can't be serious! I'm not part of this tribe! I only just got here!"

Rain tilted his head to his side. "You aren't one of the breeding stock they use to make half Goblins?"

She blushed. "No, I am most certainly not! I was caught by that wretched witch spider thing only this morning. I have nothing to do with this, so you can't kill me! I'm not part of whatever grudge you have against the Goblins!"

"Whoever said I have a grudge?"

"Then why are you doing this?"

Rain showed his teeth. "Because I want to eat you all." He took a step closer.

The Elf-sheep's eyes rounded. "What kind of- W-wait. Look, you're clearly sapient and intelligent, let's just talk this out for a sec."

"Hmm, I'm listening."

"You don't need to kill me, I'm just a low leveler, a scrub, level fourteen, I've barely begun, totally not worth it."

"Mm, I'd bet you'd taste pretty good though."

"Wha- No! Listen, there's something in that barn you need me for."

"And what would that be?"

"I'll show you. Just unchain me."

Rain narrowed his eyes. "You want me to let you go free? For nothing? Do you think I'm a fool?"

She raised her chin. "I'm serious, take me inside, you will need my help, it's not something you will want to deal with on your own."

Rain stepped forward abruptly and slammed a paw onto the post above her head causing it to shudder. He was significantly taller than the Elf-sheep and he towered over her. He snarled as he spoke. "I need nothing from you but your body. You do not get to tell me what I will or will not do."

"I'm not afraid of you! You great brute!" She gave him such a look of confident defiance that he was momentarily taken aback.

"I know what I'm about. Your intimidation does not work on me, I've faced down worse than you."

Rain gave her a curious look. "You seem to genuinely believe that, but..."

He stepped back and his gaze ran down her body to where her knees were turned inward and trembling like leaves in the wind. A line of fluid ran from her crotch to splatter on the ground.

The Elf-sheep followed his gaze and seemed to realize that she was openly wetting herself.

"Oh! Oh! I- That's not me! I'm not doing this!" She blushed furiously as liquid continued to loudly hit the ground.

"You pretty clearly are..."

"No! This is my sheep half! I- Gods, it must be some kind of inherited physical fear of whatever species you are, I swear I'm not wetting myself, it's my body reacting on its own! I- I'm not afraid of you!"

Rain snorted, then let out a small laugh, then a larger one. "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard."

"It's true! I swear! It happens sometimes, it's like ancestral memory, like tribal monsters!"

Rain paused. "Do you have any idea what species of monster I am?"

The Elf-sheep blinked. "Uh, no?"

"...Neither do I. I do know that my kind scared the shit out of a lot of monsters and levelers a long long time ago though... Maybe there is something to what you are saying."

"Wait, how do you not know what kind of monster you are?"

"Because I am the only one of my kind. I've never met or heard of another like me."

"...Well, okay, but you still definitely need me."

Rain pondered her words. He wasn't impressed with this Elf-sheep's promises, but he had to admit he found her half-fear half-bravery intriguing.

"I don't think so, but I'd like to see where you're going with this."

He grabbed the chain that rose above her hands and yanked it down, the iron pin that it was attached to came free from the wooden post with a shower of splinters and broken wood. The Elf-sheep began to sink down as her legs gave out, but with a yelp she managed to awkwardly crab walk by the puddle she'd made.

She looked up at him from a crouching position.

"This has never happened before. I disassociate myself from my legs!"

"You can't do that. They're still your legs."

"Yes I can! I declare my legs persona non grata!"

Rain opened his mouth then closed it again unsure what to say to that. Instead he pulled up on the chain, pulling her arms into the air and lifting her up to standing. Her legs wobbled dangerously but she managed to keep upright. After a moment Rain let her stand unaided, he still kept the chain hanging in his paw however.

"Show me what you want to show me. It had better be good or you'll find yourself becoming intimately familiar with my teeth."

The Elf-sheep visibly gulped and began shakily walking toward the entrance. Rain noted as she turned that above the huge fluffy ball that was her tail she had several welts across her back as though she had been whipped, the reason for being tied up outside made clear.

They passed beneath the entrance and into the shadowy interior of the breeding pens.

Chapter 29

Inside the breeding pens dried grasses covered the ground and the air stunk of musk. Muffled voices hidden by wooden walls broke the silence.

They paused at the corner of the first wall and Rain poked his head around. A pair of Goblins were arguing beside some kind of lumpy blanketed table.

"It's my turn!"

"Your turn? This is the end of the tribe. If we're all gonna die I want to go out riding dick!

"W-what! That's ridiculous! I'm on the schedule for today, look, look, my mark is on the schedule. It's clear that you haven't a leg to stand on, he's all mine. "

"Fuck the schedule, and fuck you."

The Goblin punched the other Goblin in the eye, she went reeling and sat down with a thump.

"You bitch!" said the Goblin, rubbing her eye.

The Goblin who had thrown the punch was no longer looking in her direction however and was pulling aside the sheet. A pair of stumps, legs that had been severed at the knee, were revealed, as well as a wrapping of chains, then as she pulled the sheet back further a loincloth.

She licked her lips and crawled up on top of the table.

A growl from behind made her freeze up and slowly turn around. Her eyes glanced over the corpse of the punched goblin lying on the ground and then up to the massive blood covered black wolf monster.

"Ahaha heyyyy there. Don't suppose you'd let me have a little fun before you get me? maybe?"

"No."

A paw flashed out and she was dragged into his jaws with a squeal of fear, swiftly ending her life.

Rain tugged on the chain and the Elf-sheep who had been holding onto the wall to keep herself up whimpered and tottered after him. Her entire lower body was trembling uncontrollably now and she looked near ready to keel over.

Rain walked to the far end of the table and pulled back the sheet. A pure blood Minotaur's head was revealed, his head encased in a metal frame and his jaw forced open with a metal bar. Scars marred his face and one of his eyes was missing. The good eye looked up at Rain, pleading. Rain tilted his head to the side, he didn't think anyone about to die by his jaws had ever given him that look before. He gave the Minotaur what he wanted and ripped out his throat. The look of sheer peace that crossed the Minotaur's face gave Rain a moment of pause. It was incongruous with his experience and it bothered him, prey normally did not want to die like this.

The elf-sheep appeared at his side.

"He was a Minotaur, one of the most prideful species. I think this must have been a hell tailored to his worst nightmares, poor guy."

"I assume he tried to escape more than once going by the wounds."

"Most likely. Some species do much worse than others in captivity, some better. This tribe should have been exterminated a long time ago, if only the local town ranker wasn't a lazy asshole."

"I know of him. He is on my list."

"What list is that?"

"The list where they get eaten bit by bit while still alive."

The Elf-sheep shuddered and gave him a wary glance.

"Is this what you wanted to show me? Because it's not enough to save your life."

"N-No! No, this is something else, I didn't know about this guy or what was being done to him. What I wanted to show you is further in, I think... I hope."

"Hope?"

"Know with absolute certainty to be one hundred percent factual. I have supreme confidence that it is the case with zero doubt whatsoever that it is anything other than what I know to be true."

Rain squinted at the nervous looking Elf-sheep. Then tugged on her chains and they passed through to the next partition. A pair of human women were curled up in the piles of dry grass. Rain realised that this was what the Elf-sheep had wanted to show him for they were both clearly pregnant. The pair looked up at him with fearful eyes and scrambled back.

The Elf-sheep stepped forward.

"It's okay now, everything's going to be fine."

She turned on Rain with a quietly confident look.

"See, told you, it's something you wouldn't want to deal with."

"Why."

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it. You're not going to eat pregnant people!"

Rain furrowed his brow in thought.

The Elf-sheep blinked and then worry crossed her face.

"Y-you a-aren't are y-you?"

Rain knew he was now a monster and no longer Human, it was just a fact, not that he had led a particularly normal Human life. Still, he remained at his core Human, even if he was now drenched in so much blood.

This feels like a line that Human me really doesn't want to cross. I don't want to cross it either, but I'm just so hungry, so painfully hungry, and they are just there, but they're not like bloodthirsty monsters, or even regular callous and cruel levelers, or the already dead, this is...

Conflicting emotions and powerful instincts wracked his mind and he worried the problem. He could practically hear his animalistic hunger roaring in his ear, telling him to eat! eat! eat the prey!

"H-hey, hold on, there's another reason!"

Rain looked up and blinked.

"There is?"

"Yes! There was an old fisherman who lived by a lake."

"What."

"J-just listen. The old fisherman fished everyday, he fished and fished and he ate every fish that he caught. Now the old fisherman had a brother who lived by a different lake, that fisherman did not eat all of the fish he caught and instead threw back the pregnant fish and the young fish. One day the first fisherman went to the lake and fished and found that he did not catch anything. He put his head below the water and found that the lake was empty of fish. He then starved to death while his brother lived on because the fish in his lake kept making more fish. So, you see, you need to let some fish go to keep fishing in the long run."

"Or I could go to the brother's lake and eat him and then eat his fish."

"I- I don't think fishermen eat other fishermen normally, fishermen eat fish not other fishermen."

"Hmmm."

"I-it's a metaphor uhmm." She pointed at the pregnant Humans. "They're fish, see, and the dungeon is the lake."

"Hmmmmmmm."

He abruptly strode toward the Humans and crouched down in front of them. They obviously freaked out and tried to scramble away but his paw came out and clamped down on one's wrist like a vice. He dragged her toward him.

"Fish! She's fish! You can't eat her! Sustainable fishing!"

Rain brought her hand up to his mouth. The pregnant woman was hysterically bawling her eyes out by this point. Rain paused.

"Fish... Fine."

He dropped her hand and she scrambled back into the pile of dried grass.

The Elf-sheep let out a desperately relieved sigh of relief.

Rain wasn't actually sure whether the morality of it or the consideration for 'sustainable fishing' had let him overcome his currently screaming visceral hunger. Maybe the latter had allowed the former, he couldn't say, still, this felt like a turning point in better controlling himself, one where he could have gone down a different path. The Elf-sheep had led him here.

As if remembering something he suddenly stood up and turned back to her.

"You got what you wanted, but you seem to be forgetting something."

"I, uh, am?"

"You are clearly not pregnant." His eyes came to rest on her flat stomach.

She blushed once more. "That's something I was getting to! H-hold on!" she said as Rain took a step toward her and she quailed, her legs nearly buckling under her. "I'm not pregnant, but you need me still!"

"No, I do not."

"What do you think is going to happen to these fish!"

"I do not care."

"Sustainable fishing! Sustainable fishing!!" she cried as though it were a ward against him.

"Stop saying sustainable fishing at me."

"It's true though! Just letting them go in the middle of the dungeon is not that, they wouldn't last five seconds out there, without the tribe protecting them they are all dead dead dead!"

Rain glared at her. "That is... annoyingly true. What of it?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked." She gave him a winning smile and pointed at her chest with her thumb. "Expert danger navigator and avoider of monsters, well-renowned saver of persons and items. I am your best bet, and best value, for rescuing such things from places of peril as I have the legendary and famed Rescuer Class! My prices are quite reasonable and I have excellent reviews."

"You expect me to pay you to take food away?"

"Oh no no! Sorry sorry, force of habit, this will of course be pro bono."

"Hrmm. Avoider of monsters? I don't think you are doing particularly well at that."

"Hey, that's not my fault, that stupid witch had some kind of locating spell, they swarmed me before I could do anything!"

"I saw she could do that. Well, that's not something you need to worry about any longer. There's nothing left of her but a crater in the grass."

"Good! Stupid Spider-goblin. Come on, help me break their chains."

Rain watched silently as the Elf-sheep scooped up their chains and tried to fruitlessly pull them from where they were attached to the wall. After a moment he sighed and grabbed up the chains with one paw, with a grunt he pulled them both from the wall with a shower of splinters then put the ends in the Elf-sheeps hands.

"Yours."

"Thank you, just a few more places to check now!"

Rain stepped toward the next stall as the Elf-sheep encouraged the terrified humans to their feet. They reluctantly followed, keeping the maximum distance from Rain that their chains would allow. The next stall was empty of people, although talon marks marred the walls, including a crudely made picture of a pair of wings plus a crown, below which someone had written 'Harpy Reign'. In one corner was a shattered pair of chains, in the other was a pile of discarded clothing.

The Elf-sheep wobbled over to this.

"Oh! My clothes!! My precious stylish clothes! Oh, how I have missed you!"

She quickly snatched up a pair of shorts and wiggled into them and grabbed up a jacket and a few other things. She threw a pair of blankets at the pregnant women as Rain pulled on her chain and moved onto the next stall.

He had to stop as he entered as the stall was dominated by a very large and very pregnant pure blood Lamia, a human-like upper body with red hair and a green scaled serpentine lower body.

A snake tail coiled around his stomach and pulled him forward playfully.

"Oh? What's this? Did the little Gobbos send me a new toy to play with? They could have at least cleaned you first, tch. Though these muscles, this build, ooh this isn't bad at all," said the Lamia, as she ran the tip of her tail over his body.

"If you don't remove your tail you're going to lose it snake."

"Ohoho! He's a spicy one! I likey!"

"You uh, know what I said about certain species dealing with captivity better than others..." said the Elf-sheep giving Rain the side eye.

Rain grabbed the Lamia's tail which was trying to fondle his rear and threw it aside.

The Lamia had a significantly nicer stall than the others, an actual bed was in one corner as well as several trays of different foods, also unlike the other she had clothes, nice clothes. She was still collared and chained however.

"I'm here to take you home, you don't have to stay here any longer," said the Elf-sheep.

"Ah, really? That's good I suppose. How about a little roll around in the sack first though?"

"No." said Rain.

"Aw. But we could have fun!"

"Still No."

Rain grabbed her chain and hauled it from the wall then handed it to the Elf-sheep and started to make his way out, ex-prisoners in tow.

"What about you sheepy? I can do things with my tail that would make your fluff frazzle and your toes curl."

The Elf-sheep jumped as the tip of the Lamia's tail ran up her leg.

"Erm! I-I'm okay, th-thankyou for the offer though. I'm on the job and that would count as fraternization in the workplace, sorry!"

"Blegh. You're no fun."

"Aren't you at all worried about your pregnancy?"

"Oh, this? No, Lamia have the easiest pregnancies in the world, and all the little cutie Lamia-gobbos that come out make it more than worth it."

"Uhhh..." said the Elf-sheep her eyes drifting to Rain's blood covered back.

"I'll have to say goodbye before we leave, they are so precocious and care so much for me, this really has been a wonderful experience, really broadened my horizons. I had no idea tribal monsters had become quite so civilized, why some of the things we experimented with in the bedroom would boggle the mind of Lamia high society. I will have quite the tale to tell when I return, and some rather fun demonstrations!"

"I already spoke to your offspring! They said they were happy to have a mother like you and wished you well but wouldn't be able to meet you!" blurted the Elf-sheep.

"Oh? That's sad, I wanted to say goodbye," pouted the Lamia.

"It happens," said the Elf-sheep soothingly. "Sometimes stuff comes up. Don't worry though I'm sure they will keep you in their hearts, and you know you can always send them a letter or something!"

"You think so?"

They emerged back into the light of the cavern and began walking through the grassy clearing. As they did so a red-scaled Kobold emerged from the treeline dragging a Goblin body by the arms. He pulled it across the grass and put it by a growing collection of Goblins, as of yet there were no Lamia-goblins visible to the Elf-sheeps relief.

"I didn't think you were serious about eating them all..."

"I like eating, particularly levelers." He eyed the Elf-sheep's body.

"I don't count! And hey, why don't you eat the Kobold?"

"He works for me, I doubt he's happy about it though. Opal, another, is more like my partner, a Goblin. She's more ruthless than I am, she won't like that I'm letting you go, she'd want me to eat you."

"Partner? She wants to work with you?"

"Very much so, and more than work." He gave her a wolfish grin.

"Huh. That's uh, brave... little bit reckless, just saying."

Rain gave her a flat look.

"Wolves don't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep."

Soon they were walking below the foliage of the tree line and they passed by several Harpy-goblin corpses until they passed the corpse of the Queen Harpy. She had survived a little while impaled on the Inquisitor's sword and had dragged herself over to slump against a tree before she had expired.

"Oh my, I did wonder what had happened to her. She was a terrible apartment mate you know, dreadful screeching and she kept disembowelling her sexual partners and throwing their bits over our separating wall," said the Lamia. "Terribly uptight, some people need to learn to live a little and stop chasing shadows." She shook her head. "I could have predicted an end like this, I said as much at the time."

"She was a monster, there's a reason levelers aren't huge fans of Harpies."

"Yes, yes, I know but prejudices against tribal monsters are a real thing. Most levelers don't even consider them truly sapient. I plan on speaking in favour of some kind of outreach when I get back, I see such potential, really this ancestral memory of theirs is far underestimated, it changes everything. This isn't hundreds of years ago, things are different. I can smell change on the air!"

"Uh, I'm not so sure that will go over so well..." muttered the Elf-sheep.

"Just watch darling, I have rather a lot of influence amongst Lamia."

Soon they reached the entrance and the stone disc.

Many of the bodies had been moved already but Rain still had to move one or two aside. He reached down and gripped the stone chock holding the disc in place and with a grunt pulled it free. He then set his back and heaved. With a grinding rumble the disc rolled to the side revealing the entrance cavern with the path winding through its middle.

"Oh gods, freedom!" said the Elf-sheep.

Rain growled and stepped close to her causing her to wilt and her legs to spasm in fear. He grabbed the chain manacling her wrists together and pulled her close.

"You're going back to Lynthia, meaning you'll speak to levelers. If you don't want to make it onto my list then do not speak of me."

"O-of c-course not! I take client confidentiality very seriously! My lips are sealed and welded shut one hundred percent!"

Rain gave her a searching look but he couldn't tell if she was being genuine or not. He grabbed the metal bracelets on each wrist then began to pull them apart. The short metal chain holding the bracelets together squealed as it deformed before abruptly the rings came apart with a screech leaving her arms free to move as she pleased.

She took a moment to stretch her limbs and crack her knuckles until she noticed Rain's gaze and blushed. She rushed to put on the jacket she had recovered from the breeding pens and cover up her chest.

"Ahem. Well, I shall be departing now. It was a terror meeting you, I mean uh, a pleasure. I thank you for your business and -"

Rain snarled and the Elf-sheep yelped and flinched away.

"-I -I guess we'll be going now! Goodbye!"

She hurriedly pulled on the chains of the two Humans and the Lamia and they shuffled after her through the entrance and wasted no time rushing and slithering down the path.

Opal appeared at Rain's side.

"Hey, are you really just going to let food go like that! Nasty levelers even?"

"..."

"You're just watching a load of fat juicy steaks go wandering off, you can't be serious!"

"Sustainable fishing."

"...What?"

Rain ignored the Goblin and slunk from the entrance and into the nearest tree line. He made his way after the group of four hidden from sight, not difficult as they weren't particularly fast.

They eventually made their way to the exit from the cavern where the path ended. Rain watched from the shadows.

"Gods that was close, I really thought I was dinner for a moment there. Fucking scary wolf thing, that monster is going to be a threat to the local town I just know it, hell I wouldn't be surprised if they are already aware of a monster like that."

"Oh he didn't seem so bad, we're alive aren't we?" mused the Lamia.

The Elf-sheep turned on her. "It wouldn't have been necessary had you not gone gallivanting off into the dungeon and gotten yourself kidnapped your Ladyship. You do know I came here for you yes? Your husband paid me to come and rescue you."

"Oh? Well all's well that ends well I suppose. Back to regular life as it were."

The Elf-sheep worriedly eyed her clearly pregnant belly.

"Er, sure..."

She turned to the two Humans.

"I will take you as far as safety but no more, is that okay?"

One of them nodded furiously but the other simply looked scared.

"Oh poor things, I suppose they must have had a rougher time of it, Gobbos do need a strong hand at their worst, easier for some than others."

"R-right. Well, for now let's make our way back. I need you to trust me on this part and not let go."

She managed to get the trio in a line behind her and got them to link hands. She grabbed the hand of the Lamia at the front.

"Don't be shocked, this is perfectly safe, though I'm not sure how long I can sustain it with so many, I'll need to take breaks. On three. one, two, three."

The group abruptly blinked out of existence.

Rain stared at the spot where they had been. Teleportation...? An extremely rare power, and unheard of to be viable with multiple people, it didn't really fit with how the Elf-sheep had gotten captured however. As he watched he noticed a shift of dust and dirt near the exit. He narrowed his eyes. Invisibility. And not just invisibility for oneself, but others too, not only that but possibly near full invisibility if it covered the voice and removed most tracks as he suspected, he certainly couldn't hear them speaking any longer.

He suddenly felt a lot more regretful letting her go.