DREADWOLF

◈ Chapter 157:

The scythes slashed wide and Erin only avoided their touch by flapping her wings, wings that seemed to give lift completely out of proportion with their size. Dragged back unceremoniously on her rear the succubus came mere inches from being sliced to ribbons.

 

She looked down at herself, surprised to see herself whole. Then she snarled, eyes flashing with anger. 

 

"I've changed my mind, my intent was to accost you in your sleep each night, but now I'm going to cut off your arms and legs and make you my bed Rain, you'll be a limbless mattress for me to sleep on, and every day and every night I will drain you, drain you until there is nothing left and I am as a god."

 

"If you think you're capable then try." 

 

The succubus took a step forward but paused as shadows curled up around her, a cat head amongst centipedes. A look of fright passed her gaze as she looked at the stuff, clearly recalling just what it had done to her.

 

"Weak." growled Rain.

 

Erin screamed her outrage and lunged for Rain, darting around the dark, her hands reaching for his neck. 

 

Rain took an easy step back, twisted, then torqued up from his hips, a massive fist smashed into Erin's head instantly snapping her neck once again and sending her through the wall, across the street and through the building on the other side.

 

Rain stepped up to the hole in the wall and raised his arms, a horde of wolf teeth flung from his fur and streamed into the hole the succubus had made in the building opposite.

 

He tilted his head, ears twitching as he listened carefully, eyes narrowing at the dark hole across the street. He sensed nothing, although he did find the succubus had been sent through multiple interior walls. The night outside was empty and silent, the soft pitter patter of raindrops the only sign of life, the rooftops of the slums lit by the faint glow of the many coloured moon.

 

He waited.

 

Was she gone?

 

He was about to turn away when a red streak lunged up at him from the street below, freighting into his chest like an out of control carriage. The air was blown out of his lungs as his rib cage creaked dangerously, the sharp cold feeling of bone fracturing all he had time to register before he was launched through the ceiling, plaster, wood, and tile exploding around him as he went vertical, driven up by Erin's rise.

 

He came out in the thin air above Warwick's compound, having a high view of the square of buildings on top the flat roofs of the slums, then a higher view still as Erin rose. Was she trying the same drop tactic as in Lynthia? He wouldn't let her have her way.

 

Hundreds of serrated fangs and teeth rose from his fur all over his body and began travelling in every direction, turning his fur into barbed mincer for flesh.

 

He was rewarded by a scream of pain and the succubus shoving him away.

 

Which left him far up in the air well above the compound. Not good. 

 

He instantly retracted the fangs and teeth as huge owl wings bloomed from his back, not to flap but to catch the air even as he activated his Feather Fall Skill, everything and anything to reduce the impact.

 

As happened last time he couldn't actually tell if either made any difference at all as he was just too heavy and he dropped out of the sky like a lead brick.

 

BOOM!

 

His feet hit the grass of the compound square… and then simply went through it. The grass cratered below him and he exploded through the roof and into the room below, part of the original building. He had only a fraction of a second to register it however as he plummeted down into the next room, then the next, floorboards fountaining apart around his falling body.

 

In the end the only reason he managed to arrest his fall was the huge owl wings. They crashed against the floorboards in such a way that they supported his weight across a surface area as his body punched through, slowing him as he dropped through room and after room until he finally jolted to stop half way through a room's floor. Black owl wings filled the room his upper half remained in even as his legs dangled in the room below.

 

"A much better attempt than last time Rain, but I still feel it's a bit lacking."

 

He showed up to see Erin descending down the holes he had punched down through the building, tiny wings flapping gently to keep her hovering.

 

"Did you think this was everything that I could summon?"

 

Erin had time to blink before the tiger monster he had dropped into one of the floors he had passed through pounced, lunging with a feline roar at the floating succubus.

 

She hissed and tried to dive out of the way as the great black tiger lunged for, claws reaching.

 

She almost made it, but her tail fell into the tiger's teeth and with a snap a tail of red flesh was flying through the air, disintegrating as the tiger bit at it.

 

Erin flew higher, out of reach, and clucked her tongue, holding up the other half of her severed tail in one hand.

 

"This is the stuff that almost killed me when I tried to absorb it, it truly is quite troublesome."

 

"Even for a succubus?" growled Rain, dragging himself free and onto the floorboards.

 

"It wouldn't be what it is if another kind of predator could prey on it, obviously."

 

As she spoke she flicked a finger on her free hand and it transformed into a talon. She swiftly and carefully sliced off the writhing tip of her tail that was still reacting to the touch of the predation and had fresh flesh bulge out from the stump, rushing forth into a freshly grown tail.

 

"Another kind of predator? A weaker inferior predator?" said Rain, tilting his head to the side as he looked up at her. 

 

She lifted a hand in front of her face.

 

"That thing you did, with the scythes, how did it go?"

 

Her arm suddenly rippled, red flesh shivering as it moved from shoulder to her wrist, flesh moving out as the metacarpals that made up her palms bulged then ripped through the tops of her hands, bone expanding and growing, becoming a set of four bone white scythes on each hand, each scythe over two foot long, their edges scalpel sharp.

 

She examined the shapes and hummed.

 

"You can try get a rise out of me if you wish Rain, but trust that it will mean the removal of your eyes and ears and tongue as well as your limbs when I make you into my mattress. You will simply be a lump of blind flesh with a dick for me to become a succubus god with."

 

The owl wings lying across the floor suddenly disintegrated, the huge feathers reshaping into teeth that slipped together, becoming a half dozen huge sets of bone wolf teeth reminiscent of Rain's own. 

 

The snapping teeth eagerly shot up at the succubus above even as Rain sprinted for the door, smashing it aside with a brush of his arm he bounced off the wall before diving for the stairwell. What had been twice repaired now took an even harder beating, steps splintering apart as Rain stormed up before diving out on the floor below the compound.

 

There Erin erupted from the floorboards to find Rain waiting, scythe covered fist aiming for her head.

 

She twisted in mid air, flipping on end, and the scythes sliced through her feet, cutting them off at the ankles.

 

Erin howled and dove between Rain's legs, raking her own bone scythes into his thighs leaving cuts that ran red.

 

The succubus's severed feet fell against the floorboards with a heavy thud.

 

Erin stared at him from across the shadowed room, breathing heavy.

 

"Cutting your feet off seems to have bothered you. Did you quite like your feet?"

 

He stared her down as a black morass emerged from his foot and he stepped on her severed flesh, disintegrating it into pools of blood.

 

If looks could kill the stare the succubus was giving him from the shadows should have turned him to ash on the spot.

 

"It must be strange for you, as a succubus, you go around draining everything you can from your prey, but with me you simply can't do that. But, I on the other hand, can eat you just fine."

 

He took a step toward her, the half dozen floating sets of wolf teeth rising up behind him.

 

"And when I eat you I will grow just a little bit stronger, and a little bit bigger. Does that make me a succubus Erin? 

 

Another step.

 

"A succubus that preys on other succubi?"

 

Another step.

 

The sound of wriggling flesh being discarded and hitting the floorboards was his reply, then the wet slick sound of her feet regrowing.

 

"You know my sisters would find you unbelievably cute back in hell, we would fight to collar you as a pet. Our pet dog. But here and now I really really just want to kill you."

 

"That's fine, I was just playing for time.

 

"Huh?"

 

The wall behind exploded as a centipedal cat headed nightmare smashed through, it's domesticated cat head yowling its anger as centipal tentacle arms whipped through the air in a storm of death.

 

Erin fell back in alarm, scrambling away even as pincers came inches from snipping her neck. The floating wolf teeth behind Rain charged forward eager for the kill and with a scream of frustration the succubus flapped her wings to escape.

 

She shot out away from the housecat chimaera and toward the hole in the ceiling that Rain's passage had made as he fell, angling herself up to escape into the night.

 

At the very last moment she shot out her arms and legs, grabbing hold of the edges of the hole with all her might and arresting her motion, slowing her inertia hugely in a fraction of a second, muscles straining to their absolute limit, her face coming inches from the net of inch thick black centipedes that criss crossed the hole.

 

Had she hit at full speed the net would have separated her body into diced up chunks.

 

She realised it now, the entire thing had been a trap from the start, Rain perhaps even intentionally allowing her to carry him up into the air, all for this singular purpose, a trap within a trap within a trap.

 

She screamed her outrage even as the house cat chimera and the wolf teeth bore down on her, she had nowhere to go, she was done, to become mincemeat in seconds.

 

So she sacrificed her scythes.

 

Slash slash slash, her arms moved like lighting, the living bone crashing against the thin centipedes criss crossing the hole, the bone cutting them to pieces even as it disintegrated at the touch, bits of bones and then fingertips falling around her as she cut and cut until there was barely enough space and she wriggled through even as the wolf teeth crashed up against the net bulging it out behind her but unable to fit.

 

She rolled free with a gasp of fright, jumping to her feet and-

 

Rain flying tackled her from the side, exploding from the doorway entrance to the compound.

They came down rolling and roaring the succubus forming a set of talons from her severed fingers that she raked at his flesh with, strips of fur flinging away as she mauled at him.

 

With a roar of pain Rain used his over bearing strength and grabbed her arm, rising to his feet and whipping her over head to smash down upon the out door dining table turning it to splinters.

 

She coughed blood in the crater of shattered wood, staring up at him with pure hate.

 

Then he placed foot on her chest and pulled. 

 

Erin began screaming as he pulled harder and with the grizzly wet sound of flesh parting he ripped her arm from her shoulder. Stronger succubus or not Rain was still stronger.

 

The succubus shoved herself away, the flesh of her shoulder already bulging and morphing as a fresh arm started to grow.

 

She glared at it before turning to Rain.

 

"You have to sleep sometime Rain, then I'll get what I want, no matter how many times I have to do it, I'll drain you until I'm strong enough to rip you apart with my bare fucking hands!"

 

With a wet fleshy sound meat sloughed from her shoulder, fresh flesh flexing in the pitter pattering rain and blood, a brand new arm.

 

She turned and darted into the night sky, a trail of shadowy teeth trailing after her as they freed themselves from the net.

 

Rain watched her go then turned as Warwick kicked open his bedroom door, still very obviously dunk by the way he had to hold onto the doorframe

 

"What in the fuck do you think you are doing to my home!"

 

"Succubus."

 

"What are you blathering about?"

 

Rain lifted Erin's arm and waved it vaguely in his direction. The very clearly red skinned arm.

 

Warwick went deathly pale, and he sobered up on the spot.

 

"S-succubus? In the city? In Florens?!" he took a half step forward, clearly panicking, "That means it's been feeding on the population without anyone knowing, there are more people here than any town! How has no one noticed?!"

 

"She hasn't been feeding."

 

"What are you saying, of course it has, succubi rip through populations draining them to nothing just like that!" he snapped his fingers together.

 

Rain shook his head. "If she has been feeding I doubt it's been much, she has… another source."

 

"What do you mean? What source?"

 

"Me."

 

"You? You attracted it here? You put my family in danger?!"

 

A heavy black crossbow materialised in Warwick's hands, and was aimed at Rain's head.

 

But before he could speak further Velatha shoved passed him wearing a nightgown, 

 

"What are you doing?" Why are you pointing that thing at him?"

 

"That thing attracted a succubus!"

 

Rain lifted the arm to show Velatha and she gasped.

 

"You fought it? You fought it off?"

 

"She is stronger than she was, much stronger, but she can't beat me as long as she isn't using weapons, armour, or shields, she can't touch me for fear of touching my magic and she can't drain me safely like any other leveler. But even without that I can kill her with my own claws, she isn't as strong as me." 

 

"You're talking about a freaking succubus, a succubus! You need an army, or- or some elite leveler to deal with a succubus once they start growing out of control!"

 

He held the arm up, "I'll deal with her if she tries something again."

 

"Y-you, one monster thinks they can-" Warwick shook his head.

 

Velatha looked Rain over, the halo of writhing predatory darkness around him slowly seeping back into his fur, "Hey just what is this monster you've brought into our home Warwick, this isn't normal."

 

"Tch, you aren't kidding. I never would have considered letting it in had I known, but for Pickle I-" he suddenly seemed to recall who he was standing next to and his mouth clicked closed.

 

"But for Pickle what, what but for Pickle? what were you about to say?"

 

"He was about to tell you of the deal we struck."

 

Velatha turned on Rain, "Deal what deal? What is it he is hiding from me?"

 

"He agreed to hide us and in exchange Pickle would slit my throat with Lyra and together share the levels I am worth."

 

Velatha gasped and snapped around to Warwick. "You did what?!" she hissed.

 

Warwick's crossbow lowered. "Can you blame me? You know as well as I do that this thing here is worth a mountain in levels, if Pickle could kill the thing she might never need to kill another monster or ever need to go down to the dungeon for the rest of her life, she would never have to go back there."

 

"She thinks he is her friend Warwick! You want a traumatised little girl who lost her entire family in the dungeon to murder one of the few friends she has made in the world?"

 

"Its not murder! Its not murder! Its a monster! This isn't like Bean, this monster doesn't count as murder!"

 

"Do you think she even remotely understands that?! Do you think a child understands the difference?"

 

Warwick's face became grim.

 

"If the price of ensuring her an easy life is for her to kill her friend, then yes, I will make her do it, even if I have to guide the knife she holds into its throat."

 

Smack.

 

Warwick staggered as hand met face, the crossbow tumbling from his fingers onto the grass.

 

"How can you say that!? She's our daughter!" hissed Velatha. 

 

Warwick touched at his cheek, already bright red. He scowled.

 

"I care for her, that's why this needs to happen. If she kills it she will benefit immensely. Why are you siding with the monster!?"

 

Pickle suddenly ran through the door and flying tackled Warwick's weak leg. She hit him at just the right angle so that he fell and the tiny goat child scrambled on top of the fallen man, standing on his chest as she looked down at him.

 

"Never." 

 

Warwick blinked up at her in surprise.

 

"But-"

 

She slapped a small hand over his mouth and shook her head.

 

"No."

 

After a few moments of them stuck like that with raindrops falling around them Warwick let out a long sigh and brushed her hand away. He sat up, causing Pickle to fall from his chest.

 

"Fine... Pickle won't kill the monster." He glared up at Rain. "Was this your plan from the beginning? To ingratiate yourself with my daughter so that she wouldn't want to do it?"

 

"Nothing to do with me." gravelled Rain. "You just didn't think through your deal."

 

"Fluff good," scowled Pickle and kicked Warwick in the knee.

 

"Fluff…? Gods, is that why you are so fascinated with the damned monster?" Warwick let out an irritated sigh, "This leaves me with nothing, you two do realise? I allowed this insanely dangerous monster who is apparently wanted by not only the nobility but by a succubi too into my home for what? What was the point in all of this?!"

 

"Fwend." said Pickle flatly.

 

Warwick buried his face in his hands and groaned.