As the city began to stir from its nightly stupor many pairs of eyes peeked through the shutters meeting the copper badge dangling from Iris's neck. She carefully placed her feet on the scrap wood panels laid down on the soggy dirt following the examples of the locals, avoiding a plunge into the murky puddles. When in the Capital, do as humans do. A long-forgotten voice of her youth whispered in Iris's ear as she stepped onto a rock allowing a party of humans to walk past her. With a wet burble, a puddle of greenish water seeped out of the sponge-like ground around her.
The elf had never seen people living in such conditions in her travels. Each house looked sick, with plaster that flaked off like old skin or deep cracks caused by the shifting ground packed full of sticks and mud.
The elf recalled the report she read, the sighting happened near a local market. All of the streets were caked in half-frozen mud which resembled raw dough were decorated with small wooden signs hung high above the street level advertising the shops which for Iris's keen eye looked exactly the same as the residential buildings next to them.
"Boss, boss show them the thing!" An excited voice emerged over the common clatter as Iris entered a slightly broader street, packed full of stalls overflowing from the buildings on both sides leaving a thin strip of free space for people to walk through.
"Alright, alright I can say it again before we start making rounds," A burly man wearing a great coat with many patches said as he scratched his beard. "Last night I met face-to-face with a monster your mommies were too scared to tell stories when you were all still pissing under your skirts. The beast, I tell you, was bigger than the shacks around you with scales as shiny as platinum and eyes that glowed in the dark like embers ready to devour my soul!
There I was, walking through the market only the sound of my heart to keep me company, when out of nowhere, I heard scraping behind me. I turned and there it was emerging from the sewers releasing the most foul smell you can imagine. A walking dragon standing on two feet turned toward me, claws like adamantine daggers! Now, I know you are calling me a liar in those empty heads of yours when I say this but I stood when most people would have ran. The beast lunged at me, teeth bared but I was faster, nibbling like a rat under your foot. I darted to the side and ripped the plank before splashing over the monster's head sending splinters everywhere.
It clawed at the mushy road as I pulled out my dagger and reached for the spike at the top of its spine. I was ready to pull its guts out when the monster did something to me and freed itself from my hold before scurrying away." The man boasted as he showed off the minor scratches on his hands and face. The proud smile he wore seemed only to deepen as the younger men around him seemed unconvinced. "Look at this, it's a scrap of the monster's very skin. Look how shiny and green it is. I tell you this is only the beginning, next month I will have its skull too." He reached into a pouch and pulled out a sizeable sheet of emerald scales connected with a thin white membrane.
Upon flashing his trophy the people around the Boss gawked at him like children watching candies through a store window.
"Where did you see that monster?" Iris crossed her hands as she pushed through the small crowd. The man was the last person reported to have spotted the monster but after hearing his story and the impossibility of a monster that large fitting through the opening to the sewers she doubted if he would tell her the truth about what he saw in front of so many people around.
"Who the fuck are you?" In an instant, the tone of the man changed into a dangerous bark.
"I'm an adventurer tasked with eliminating the monster you just spoke of." The risen didn't like how the humans closed rank around her but if she could get the information she came here for, it would ease her search.
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"Look how the Guild sends rookies to their deaths. You're here for another reason." The bearded man's eyes twitched as they scanned the undead from top to bottom before moving to humans around him. "Which one of you told them about today's job?" The man shouted angrily causing the many rough-looking people to look at each other like children being told to tell an adult the truth.
"Nobody knew we were collecting protection today until you called us here." A person wearing a mask, rogue to Iris's eyes eventually said.
"I'm here to kill a monster, no one sent me here." Iris spoke up twisting her spear and catching the sun on its black surface.
"Wait, you're an elf. I bet that whore running the food stand called you on us. You're her sister, mother or something? Hmmm."
A great frown appeared on the elven face as she didn't like how others began to hide their hands as the shorter man with a black beard continued to speak.
"You're going to be a nice bonus. But not before-" Iris tilted her body as the man lunged at her throat, using her free hand to accelerate the bandit's head toward the wall.
Experience points.
The elf recalled Kia's angelic voice as she stared coldly at the man with blood pouring down from a crooked nose. The girl had a talent for describing things in a brutishly straightforward way but the man had still breath in his lungs as he scurried away while holding his nose.
"Get her! Look at what she had done! I'm going to kill you." The leader of this rabble shouted causing humans unaffiliated with the group to flee in all directions.
"Great." The elf bit her lip as she regretted not smashing the guy's head the first time and routing his gang before it escalated.
With the shaft of her spear, she shoved the scum away giving space her weapon needed. With one swift move, the tip of her weapon drove through a man's chest before being violently ripped out as she swung it over her head cleaving a man's arm off. Like a pack of dogs, the humans stayed in a circle around the towering undead hoplite barking out profanities as they hesitated to share the faith of their comrade screaming on the floor.
Without stopping, the black serrated edge of her spear dove toward the humans. Sparks erupted into the air as the rogue crossed his daggers pushing the spear upward. With inhuman speed, the undead pulled the spear back before aiming lower and thrusting her deadly weapon.
His weapons were still above his head, the bandit bucked twisting his leg. Iris's spear grazed the back of the rogue, tasting his ichor before plunging into the thigh of a brute behind him. A dull thunk emerged as the spear hit and dug into the femur causing the pink bone marrow to ooze from the wound mixing with the blood and mud in the puddle below. Iris twisted the shaft and the blade tore free from the bone, splashing crimson blood on the walls as she spun around.
The rogue and another brigand charged Iris hoping to overwhelm her. Iris felt the bloody edge of a butcher knife slice at her clothes as she rapidly swept the spear sideways, catching one of the attackers across the face. The ruinic weapon glowing faintly with purple light, cleaved through skin, cartilage, and bone, leaving a torn gash from cheek to ear, and the man staggered back, blood pouring down his face in thick rivulets, his screams muffled by his own ruined mouth.
"Die monster!" The rogue screamed as his weapons began to glow with a poisonous green glow.
Letting go of the spear, Iris ducked toward the lunging human. One dagger ran across her spine unable to pierce the ancient hide of her jacket but the human managed to redirect his second knife and began to furiously stab her armpit.
"Mother..." The high-pitched voice escaped the rogue's lips as cold tendrils caressed his body avoiding the bloody clawed hand which had impaled his chest.
With a splash the body of the rogue hit the ever soggy dirt before Iris kicked the body of the bandit, freeing her weapon acting like a cork and stopper on a bottle of fine red wine.
"I'm sorry I get it, please don't-" The human who had started it all began to wade through the carnage as he crawled on the ground with a strange chain weapon with an undersized pickaxe head at the end dragged earth with it before freeing itself as a button on his belt gave way.
"Mana Missle." A dart of pure white mana shimmered into existence at the tip of Iris's palm before striking the man in the head.
"Run! Run she is a mage!" The rest of the gang members began to flee for their lives, disappearing in the maze of streets leaving Iris alone at the entrance of the market surrounded by a macabre sight.
Annoyed and with a gaze that could kill, Iris dug through the man's pockets, grabbing the sheet of scaly skin before looting the more valuable-looking weapons off the humans and moving on with carelessness for life appropriate for the undead. Not wanting to deal with whatever authority policed the slums, Iris lifted the heavy metal lid to the sewers and descended the ladder.
"Hmmmm," The risen hummed thoughtfully as she found herself in a tunnel resembling more the rain cave she and Shiro fought the fire spirit in than the sewer tunnels she usually explored these days. "Kia said I should be able to learn any spell." She said aloud unfurling the scrap of monstrous hide as through the misty air she witnessed the tunnel branching off into three separate directions.
The fabric of the hoplite's clothes grew darker as Iris stopped, raising her right hand above her head before closing her eyes, plunging into the deep recesses of the mind.