Chapter 21: Ranyai the Butcher

Weapons in hand we approached the riverside thicket from which our dubious-ally had flown, it was definitely the place, 12 neatly skinned human heads were arrayed outside of a hole that seemed to be as much burrow as cave. The heads were still red with blood and by some quirk of their anatomy or demonic intervention their magically altered eyes were still in the sockets. "Demon Hunters. This must be an entire team of them, slaughtered by their quarry no doubt." Victoria was barely speaking above a whisper, staring intently at the fleshless, staring skulls that stood silent watch over their killer's den.

I stepped up to go first into the 4 foot wide hole, my candle illuminating rough-hewn walls of dirt and stone that led down at a similarly steep angle to the other two caves I'd explored. Caves seemed very predicable here, either that or I'd only been into the more comfortable ones. Luna snorted at me, "I'm going first shrapnel-head, you're not up to 100 percent, besides, I need to check for traps, and I think Vicky wouldn't mind walking behind you for once." She winked at her blushing bookworm of a sister. Luna caught my gaze and shrugged innocently. "What, she'll get a nice view of you from back there." Luna really was an incorrigible flirt, constantly showing off her body in the tight leather armour she wore and making lewd comments about me wanting her sister and vice versa as we had journeyed through the forest. At first I'd thought she and I might have a connection but that had disappeared the moment I met Victoria and I didn't think Luna had ever had any real interest in me beyond the teasing and flirting she indulged in as a way to rebel against her formal upbringing.

I knew she could see the spark of interest between me and her sister though and she very clearly enjoyed making her sister squirm over what had started as sibling teasing. Thats all it had been at first, Luna nudging her sister and talking to her about the rugged magic-wielding stranger in the shabby coat who had been horrifically burnt trying to kill wolves and now possessed a bunch of cool scars that she should totally ask to see. But after Victoria and I had gotten to know each other a little and had a few conversations that had left her out Luna had realised with some surprise that the infatuation she joked about was now beginning to seem a genuine thing.

I put my racing thoughts away and fell into place behind Luna as she slowly but confidently descended into the cave below with Victoria bringing up the rear while I tried not to look at Luna's. I know I said I liked Victoria, but I was a red-blooded man and her sister was very happy to show off for just about anyone so it was difficult not to look.

The sloping tunnel flattened out and unlike the first two caves I'd entered this one was already lit, floating orbs of glowing liquid that looked suspiciously like blood gave off a crimson light from just below the ceiling as we cautiously advanced. Not cautiously enough though as a creaky voice echoed weakly to us from deeper in the tunnel.

"Merrilax, back already are you? Worthless whore of the Bloody Wasteland, why must you disappoint me so deeply. I swear, If I've told you once, then I've told you a dozen times, you must bring me the noble so that I can call the hells close enough to open the door."

We didnt answer and the creaky voice went up an octave in annoyance. "Need I remind you how terribly you've suffered already due to your incompetence. In fact, if you don't step up soon then I may begin to suspect a malicious motivation from you oh Merrilax of the Bloody-Wastes." The voice was rambling, occasionally interspersed with coughing and choking noises. "Fine then, stay where you are and I'll go get some of my less-lethal tools and we'll have another Motivational session shall we?"

We heard the shuffling of feet and continued creeping forwards the entire time the voice was echoing back at us. Luna held up a hand for us to halt, mimed cutting a throat and then moved forwards while we stayed in place. We'd discussed this, if Luna thought she could sneak up on the Carnifect and get off a sneak attack then she'd try it with Victoria and I waiting in the wings to provide covering fire. Carnifect's were dangerous beings but in its weakened state It could be the equivalent of only a 2nd level summoner or necromancer. That was Victoria's diagnosis based on our description of the skin wolves and how quickly they'd burned to death anyway. All of that meant we could take the thing if we got to it before it recovered too much power and if Luna got the first hit it wouldn't even be particularly difficult.

We waited for several heart-pounding moments to see what would happen, listening for any sign of how things were going, at first we heard nothing but then muffled sound came back to us, it seemed to be a man's voice, a very muffled scream that cut off as quickly as it started. We crept forwards, unsure what was going on but neither of us willing to risk waiting any longer now that something was happening.

We crept breathlessly around a bend in the tunnel and the cave opened up to show us the Butcher's Workshop, animal carcasses, butchered human corpses and shattered bone was deliberately arranged throughout a chamber the size of a medium apartment,

Near the centre of this shop of horrors I saw that Luna was crouched over a man who had been tied up on his stomach with his ankles bound to his neck by a taut piece of rope. In my world the Mafia had supposedly executed men this way, unless the victim kept their legs raised up the weight of their legs would slowly strangulate them. This forced a constant struggle for survival ending only when the will to live or endurance of the victim failed. Luna had crept over to the man, made herself obvious to him and was now cutting him free.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

The man was Balthazar, the cowardly caster who had been part of the failed dungeon raid, I remembered his attempt to help Luna though, so he was no more cowardly than anyone else. He had just done what he'd had to do in order to stay alive. Obviously, he hadn't made it very far after leaving the dungeon, something had brought him down here and now he lay bound and kept alive only by those same survival-instincts and will to live that had caused him to abandon his friends beneath the earth only a couple of days previous. Luna sliced the last of his bonds and he whimpered audibly as he got to his feet but I saw his old whiskery jaw set determinedly and his eyes harden as he crouched low and faced the back of the cavern, apparently that was where the Carnifect had gotten off to.

I was relieved to see the old man hadn't been de-jointed, maimed or otherwise crippled by the Carnifect and only partially surprised to see him working his hands free of aches and pains, attempting to run through the motions of his offensive spells. I recalled what Luna and the rest of her family had told me about the difference between a profession and a class. Balthazar had a high spellcasting skill, various adjacent skills and a series of boosts from his profession levels but he would need to be triple the level we were in order to stand a chance against one of us in a fair fight. I tried to examine him the same way I examined tools and party members, unlike myself Balthazar's stats were not set to private.

Name: Balthazar Black. Profession: Mage Profession Level:14 Hp 10/26 Mana: 45

Highest skill: Spellcasting 42 [Journeyman]

That seemed impressive, especially considering the average unlevelled civilian only had 7 to 12 hitpoints and Professions, even combat professions were so much weaker than class levels. I wondered what my own Mana was, I just knew how much mana got drained from my bar whenever I cast a spell, less and less drain every time I levelled told me it was increasing but I didn't know by how much until I focused on that conundrum and received my answer: Int x level= 40 mana. Well, that was simple, explained why I could cast 4 times as much as I could at first level too.

The sound of the demon moving from chamber to chamber had been a shuffle only a minute ago, now it was the sound of deliberate and measured steps coming back towards us. We all tensed up, knowing there was little point in hiding now that we'd rescued the old mage and instead preparing our weapons, standing ready for whatever was coming. That something turned out to be Ranyai the Butcher's voice, echoing clearly though still croakily from the red-lit dark.

"You dare release my materials before I have had my special moment with them?"

I wished I had another of those shrapnel candles, the last one had hurt me bad but if I could throw one around the corner... no, even if I had one the force accompanying the shrapnel might have caused a cave-in. I lit both of my blue candles, apparently the Carnifect was immune to poison due to the time it spent around rotten meat and resistant to fire due to its demonic nature. So it was my hope that lightning would prove effective where my other spell-candles would not.

The speaker sniffed the air then, it was a long-drawn-out inhalation accompanied by the clacking of ancient yet powerful jaws. "You carry the scent of my bumbling soldier, the demon I was dragged here alongside. But you have so much more with you as well, I smell the noble blood that pounds in your frightened hearts and, oh my, you brought a sister as well. Both of you are nobles and... adventurers in both practice and in heart instead of mere rulers with titles. Oh my, my soldier has outdone herself hasn't she."

Ranyai the butcher came forwards then, still obscured by rock but casting out the shadow of mighty and gnarled hands that had brought the cleaver to bear against the corpses that were set up production-line style around his cave. "And a man, blood of... blood of a traveller. A soul whose butchery and dissection could sing louder than any amongst my legion or indeed any of the legions bound to Azathor. You are the true prize here, the one who will elevate the 87th Infernal Legion to one of the grandest amongst our humble layer of the Hells."

He had the advantage of time and positioning, I was hurt and both of my item's abilities were on cooldown so I wouldn't charge into a blind corner to take him on, Luna wasn't a frontline fighter and even with her Father's protective ring neither was Victoria. Balthazar looked at the three of us and saw the problem. "No scrappy brawler type here eh? That sucks."

Howls, screeches and the scrambling of claws echoed down from above, wolves and Shadelocks seemed to be closing in on the cave, coming to assist their foul master. I supposed it was a good thing the demonic mutations had made those monsters diurnal because otherwise they might have already been waiting down here for us instead of out flesh-collecting and I didn't even want to think about how that would have gone. I tried to gather the courage to charge stupidly into pain and probable death for the second time in as many hours but before I could give myself the push to do it Ranyai spoke once more. This time the creaking old man's voice had a smugness and resonance to it.

"I wasn't expecting company, but no matter, why don't you introduce yourself to our new guests Flayclaw?"

That didn't sound like a bluff, the four of us practically ran for the chamber in which the butcher was hiding but we were too slow and metal chains clanged to the stone floor, echoing with a slow finality as something came pushing slowly out of the aperture in front of us.

Balthazar, Victoria, Luna and I gave it everything we had, Arrows, Flames, Alternating bolts of lightning and a stream of high velocity magic missiles all ripped into the bulk of the creature that emerged.

Then it sprang and everything went to shit.