Following the path that Poppet set for us, we hurriedly moved to the designated spot. Once we got there, we would need to wait for Pýlicles to enact his plan and give us the rope we needed to hang him.
As we walked, I grabbed the various tufts of fur and spit that clung to the walls and wiped it on my scales. While I did not know my own odor, if that elephant man was a member of Pýlicles’ elite, our ambush would fail immediately.
“What do I smell like?” I asked Squealer as I rubbed something that felt like horse hair on my body.
“Blood and something else that I can’t really label,” Squealer answered quickly. “You know when the air pressure changes before a storm and you can smell it before it rains? It’s a scent that makes my instincts flare up and say ‘run away.’ B-but it isn’t dissimilar to Pýlicles’ scent. Yours just smells stronger.”
“I see,” I replied. I sniffed myself and detected nothing. “And is this helping at all?”
“It’s taking the edge off,” Squealer replied. “Better than nothing.”
Without Poppet’s help, we would have faced great difficulty to find the correct way to the most ideal entryway. There were no direct paths to the lower tunnel. Unless one randomly backtracked and took an occasional path that rose in elevation, you would never find the right sequence of tunnels.
“What are we going to do if it’s a trap?” Squealer asked, his fur and quills bristling nervously as we got ever closer to our destination.
“We will not enter the village without first seeing our welcome party in the tunnel,” I answered plainly. “If they try to trap us in a pincer, we are at an advantage. Even if that bat is lying about the plan, I still believe them when they say that the majority of them are extremely weak. All you need to do is shoot at anyone who looks like they can shoot me.”
Squealer just nodded and began sniffing sharply as we drew ever closer in an attempt to parse out the correct odor in the mass of scents that began to waft into their noses.
We reached our destination. The tunnel fanned out to create a slightly more spacious cavern. On the other end, it narrowed again, bending around a blind corner that would lead us directly to the opening.
I moved towards the opposite end of the cavern. Digging my claws into the rocks, I clambered up the wall to perch myself directly above the tunnel entrance.
“Where should I hide?” Squealer asked, looking around for a suitable location. The cavern was bare. There weren’t even any stalagmites or any other rocky formations that he could use to conceal himself.
“Wherever you can still line up a shot,” I responded.
Squealer turned around and scurried to the direction that they came in. He settled into the shadows of the cave entrance, ready to puncture anyone that would come through the other side.
After several minutes of waiting in tense silence, I could hear voices heading down the tunnel. The bleating trumpet of Pakara’s voice heralded their approach.
“Poppet, Poppet, Poppet,” Pakara tutted, her voice dripping with a malice she did not seem capable of. “I know that Pýlicles is too magnanimous to say this, so I will say it on his behalf. How dare you be so careless as to let those savages sneak up on you? Pýlicles gave you that job because he believed you to be capable and this is how you repay that trust? You have jeopardized our Mecca, Poppet, our salvation in this sea of suffering.”
“I-I’m sorry, Pakara,” Poppet blubbered in response. “T-that lizard was much faster than I expected.”
I heard shuffling and Poppet cry out. The bat was shoved out into the cavern. They stumbled to regain their balance before standing upright. I saw their eyes meet mine for the briefest of moments, the emotion that they had been harnessing froze over before the hot wet tears broke through again.
“Do you think that sorry fixes it?” Pakara pressed, the goat’s head poking out of the opening along with the mantis-bladed man and a demon with a parakeet head. “Do you think that bowing your head will stop those syaitan from trying to ruin us all? No, failure must be met with consequences.”
“W-what are you going to d-do, P-Pakara?” Poppet asked, taking a few more steps away.
“Aw, Poppet, don’t be that way,” Pakara cooed. The trio walked ever-closer to the bat. “You know that I think of everyone in Tainaronopolis as my child. Your punishment will also be a boon to us. Now, go be a good girl and wait over there. Slow them down just a little.”
Poppet stopped her sniffling. She straightened her posture and stared down Pakara. Her eyes darted up to me a message covering my eyes.
Poppet wishes to join your Party.
“No,” she said definitively. “I’m done with all of you.”
“Oh, Poppet,” Pakara said solemnly, shaking her head like a disappointed mother. “You know I can’t let you leave with any of Pýlicles’ gifts.”
I dislodged myself from my perch. The full extension of my primed legs fired me like a clawed arrow; the scythed demon was my chosen target. None of the trio reacted to my movement until I had already taken the mantis demon face-down into the ground.
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As soon as I touched the rocks, I was already digging tooth and claw into the demon’s neck and back. Green chitin and red flesh flew from the body in a festive display that rapidly depleted HP.
“Knives!” I heard Pakara yell out followed quickly by the sound of something rapidly passing through the air.
Then, the sensation of being shot by a musket ball cracked my ribs. 20 HP disappeared in the blink of an eye. The knockback from the strike dislodged me from atop the mantis and sent me flying against the wall.
With only a small amount of health remaining on the demon, I used my [Flaying Tail] to ensure that the bleeding would kill the mantis.
“Knives, are you alright?” Pakara asked her companion.
“He got me. See you in a few,” Knives sputtered out the information, his life fully depleted.
Pakara’s rage-filled bleats filled the cave as she flung more rocks in my direction. When I moved to dodge the projectiles, a loud screeching sound gave the sensation like a butcher digging meat hooks into my ear slits. Pakara clamped both hands over her ears as the rocks were redirected by the blast. More HP was scraped off of my total, but it was preferable to taking more hits from the stoning that Pakara would have subjected me to.
Poppet closed her mouth and rushed Pakara at full speed. A flurry of sharp feathers forced the bat to stop her charge and focus her attention on the parakeet demon instead.
Pakara renewed her assault. I had to jump and tumble out of the way of the near-endless supply of rocks that she sent my way. It was difficult to find a way to close the distance on her. A rock fired at point blank would be impossible to dodge and remove too much health before facing the spider.
With a small whooshing sound, a quill that looked more like a javelin pierced Pakara’s shoulder. Squealer’s target selection made his stance on killing clear.
Pakara grabbed the quill and ripped it out of her body. Her eyes began to glow a soft red as she pointed her arms in the direction of Squealer. Then, she flicked her fingers up. But, no rocks left her hands.
“There you are, beast,” she sneered.
I felt the rumble of rock under my feet as a spike of rock formed near Squealer’s location. A yelp of pain echoed into the cavern and Squealer dashed out into the open. His body had several gashes on his torso and legs that stained his tan fur red. A flurry of quills left his back to exact his revenge.
With Pakara’s attention turned towards Squealer, I struck. I slashed my claws through the goat’s outstretched forearms. The blades scythed through the thin limbs like a fleshy carrot, leaving Pakara with a pair of bleeding stumps.
Pakara bleated in pain, but could no longer defend herself against the onslaught I unleashed upon her. For the amount of power she possessed, she did not possess much health. After an anti-climactic few slashes, Pakara’s life was extinguished. The parakeet, now outnumbered three to one, was soon to follow its comrades to a temporary death.
image [https://i.imgur.com/DTaUjhs.jpeg]
Congratulations! You are now Level 5.
Small stat boost.
Find a Portal and advance.
You have unlocked Level 3 Transformation. Please choose one of the following:
Wings, Acid Spit, Limb Regeneration.
I closed the windows. If this was anything like the last transformation, I would be in no condition to fight Pýlicles. Besides, I would much rather know what the next area looked like before I made any rash decisions.
What we had now would be enough to prevail.
“I’ll stay here and scatter the body parts,” Poppet informed me. "If we do this, it will buy us more time before they revive."
With a short nod, Squealer and I ran towards the tunnel’s exit. The chaotic sound reminiscent of a prison riot echoed off of the rocks, informing me that Poppet’s group was good for at least this much. Now that citizen was fighting citizen, Pýlicles would need to be all the more careful not to harm his own.
As soon as we emerged into Tainaronopolis, a flood of Party Requests hit my eyes like an azure flashbang. Fortunately, a [Select All] option made it so that I would not have to sort through all of it.
Your party has more than 10 members, would you like to explore more options as Party Leader?
I declined the offer and brushed the tutorial aside.
I moved through the melee. The defected villagers were far outnumbered by the loyal ones. Outside of a few strong ones, the rest were being beaten from all sides. I swung my claws as we moved, reaping HP and lives to try to level the playing field. So many of the loyalists were hopelessly weak. Just a single pass of my claws caused them to fall limply to the ground. It was the consequence of surrendering themselves to the protection of another.
A glob of webbing halted my progress. Scuttling across a nearby wall was Pýlicles. The spider glared at me with deep hatred. He pointed at me with accusation like I was in a police lineup as if identifying me would smite me.
“Wretched creatures!” Pýlicles called out with indignation. “Oh, Disciple of Eris, what type of madness have you inflicted upon my friends?”
“That is the result of your own paranoia, spider,” I replied with a wide smile. “Your inability to trust has lost the hearts of your followers. They wish to leave. Your death-“
image [https://i.imgur.com/kDCDKET.jpeg]
Squealer has left the Party
As I read the message, a whirring sound could be heard in the center of the garden. Both Pýlicles and I stopped our stand-off to look towards the Portal. The rodent man had, somehow, slithered away from our perception and stood directly under the archway. Both of his middle fingers were standing in attention to give us the road rage salute as a wide grin covered his smug face.
“Bye, you motherfuckers!” He shouted with glee, his whiskers raised triumphantly. “I hope to never see any of you again!”
“Damnable creature!” Pýlicles bellowed as he shot a web at Squealer.
The crystal activated its magic. Squealer was briefly bathed in red light and the rat dissipated before the attack passed through uselessly.
“You’ve both ruined everything!” Pýlicles screamed, hurling a glob of webbing in my direction.
I hopped out of the way as the projectile hit a few bystanders. My luxury of waiting to choose my next augment was stolen from me by Squealer’s brazen play. Quickly reviewing my options, I chose the one that I believed had the most use regardless of the next stage’s setting.
You have selected Acid Spit. Beginning Transformation.
“Oh, Squealer,” I said softly.
My mouth overflowed with blood like a crimson fountain. This pain was something I could tolerate; something more powerful stole my focus away. New glands were forming in my mouth with a rupture of flesh that grew rapidly like an aggressive cancer. Two small nozzle-like holes formed within them, ready to fire the caustic liquid within.
“You better pray I don’t find you.”