Mortimer, page 30
part #6 of Everybody Loves Large Chests Series
*RRRUMBLE*
Right now, however, the mutated wardrobe didn’t have the luxury to worry about an overgrown iguana’s plans. Whoever these intruders were, they had to have some considerable power to be making this much noise. The Foundation grunts currently fighting probably needed backup, and Zilla determined that he would oblige. He wasn’t just doing it just to maintain his Facade, but because he wanted to stop them before his plans were disrupted even further. If anyone was going to ruin the Foundation, it would be him. It had to be him. He’d already had the dessert snatched from right under his nose and wasn’t about to let the same happen to the main course.
Zilla ran to the central spiral staircase, leaped over the railing, landed on the next floor down, and made his way due north. The metal corridors around here were designed for regular foot traffic, so they were much wider and taller than those down in the prison part of the complex. As he made his way forward, he joined up with a squad of twenty or so ex-soldiers already on their way to the site of the breach. They ran until they reached a giant metal door with ‘B-24’ painted on it in blocky, yellow letters.
However, the reinforcements never got the chance to unlock the sliding door and pour through it in force-
*CLANG*
-because the enemy was already making their way through it.
*CLANG CLANG*
The door shook ominously with every blow it took from the other side, causing the gathered grunts to swallow nervously.
*CLANG CLANG CLANG*
Even Zilla was taken aback by how the solid steel door was buckling with every blow, bending ever-so-slightly under the assault. But it held up all the same.
“…”
There was a sudden moment of silence so severe one could hear a fly sneeze. However, the sound that came next wasn’t some insect’s respiratory system acting up, but a woman’s voice.
“Scorching Ray!”
The center of the massive metal square began to redden with frightening speed as a beam of supernatural heat bombarded it from the other side. The bright red circle began spreading gradually until the entire bulkhead was giving off an intense reddish-yellow glow while radiating heat. Yet it still refused to buckle.
“Ground Cleaver!”
*SHLUNK*
It finally gave way when a vertical swing of an impractically large axe sliced the three-meter-tall and five-meter wide sheet of half-molten steel clean in two. The absurd entity that owned the oversized weapon kicked at the seam with all her might, causing both halves of the superheated door to swing open and crash into the metal walls on either side with an ungodly din. Once the smoke, sparks, and errant embers sent loose by this violent act subsided, Zilla and the others were able to make out three distinct figures.
One was a golden-horned demoness with bat-like wings, outrageous proportions, and flawless, light blue skin that promised an eternity of nightly pleasures. On her right, floating in the air on a pair of angelic wings, was an elf clad head-to-toe in lavishly decorated plate armor, holding a normally two-handed mace in one arm and a door-sized shield in the other. On the ground beneath them was a vertically challenged mass of violence, anger, and alcoholism seemingly only held together by her pitch-black adamantite armor. There was technically a fourth one, but stalker demons didn’t have a habit of being seen.
“Sorry to barge into yer little clubhouse uninvited, lads.”
Hilda adjusted her grip on her weapon and stepped through the molten wreckage of the cleaved door.
“But I do believe ye have something of ours!”
Part Two
“Hilda! Lichter! You’re making a huge mistake!”
The dwarven Berserker looked like she was about to rush in axe-a-swinging, but Zilla’s clear, authoritative voice gave her and her companions pause. The Foundation grunts at the scene were equally taken aback by this sudden outburst from Specimen 49, but didn’t dare interrupt. After all, they didn’t expect to suddenly find themselves staring down two obviously hostile VIPs. Worse still, all of them were dead meat should this escalate further. The same went for Zilla. He felt confident about his chances if he were to fight either of them one on one. But both at the same time while a Hero’s Skill rendered him unable to heal? His chances of victory under these conditions were somewhere between ‘zero’ and ‘fuck all.’
“Am I now?” she shot back. “So ye fellers aren’t in the business of abducting sweet young girls, are ye?”
“I don’t know what you’ve been told, but we most certainly are not!”
Well, statistically speaking, the Foundation was probably involved in more than a few ‘sweet young girl’ incidents, but it wasn’t like they were specifically targeting that demographic.
“This is a government run institution!” he continued. “What you’re doing could be considered treason! Stand down and I’m sure we can sort this out!”
“Don’t listen to him!” shouted Xera. “He’s the perpetrator we came looking for in the first place!”
Indeed, the scar-faced, one-eyed human in aged full-body leather armor was a perfect fit for the description Hilda and Lichter were given. Having been reminded of that, the one who made the next move was not the volatile Berserker, but the angelic elf.
“Enough of your lies, heathen!” he bellowed. “If you will not give us the girl’s location, then I shall beat it out of you!”
A flap of his wings sent the Paladin careening into the Foundation’s front line. He crashed into them like a boulder through a wooden fence, throwing them aside as he charged right at Zilla. The human-shaped monster threw up his right hand and unleashed a torrent of water generated by overlapping his Hydro Hand and Liquid Mimicry. It enveloped everything in front of him, stopping the angel’s charge in his tracks.
“Glacier!”
At the same time, he casted a Spell that instantly turned the conjured river to ice, blocking off the hallway and encasing the intruders. However, while certainly impressive, this tactic was little more than a stopgap.
“Inferno!”
The transparent ice glowed with a bright yellow light as Xera’s flames reduced the blockade to steam in a matter of seconds. As expected of a Job that encouraged reckless behavior, the dwarven Berserker rushed through the scalding cloud of vapors and flames swinging her axe in a wide horizontal arc. Zilla managed to back-step away from the sweeping attack, but five of his ‘comrades’ were not as lucky and were cleaved in half.
With his first attempt at buying time to escape foiled so easily, the shapeshifter resorted to more drastic measures. His head quickly transformed into the sharp-beaked, yellow-feathered head of a thunderbird and unleashed a deafening Thunderous Screech exclusive to that genus of monster. The horrifyingly sharp sound bounced off the metal confines of the access tunnel and was amplified to such a degree that everyone within it instantly buckled to their knees. At least, that’s what should have happened. To Zilla’s surprise, it had minimal effect on the intruders, even though he was suffering under the effects of his own auditory assault. The Foundation grunts were already writhing around on the ground with blood pouring out of their ears, noses, and eyes, yet that demon, dwarf, and Paladin were confidently standing on their feet. The nightmarish screech seemed to place a heavy burden on them and slow their pace, but it was nowhere near as severe as it should have been. Worse still, they were closing in, approaching the bird-headed ‘kidnapper.’
Just as he was starting to wonder what was going on, Drea suddenly decapitated Zilla from behind. He had done away with his MLG to avoid the sensory backlash, which gave the stalker the perfect opportunity to sneak around him. She had definitely learned from her last encounter, as evidenced by how she aimed for the vulnerable throat muscles on her target’s neck, rather than its rock-solid body. However, even decapitated Zilla was able to twist around, grab the demon by the neck and shoulder, and throw her into the path of the incoming VIPs. Hilda ducked under while Xera and Lichter flew over the spidery projectile, but that maneuver bought their opponent the precious few moments he needed. Using the momentum from his shoulder throw, the headless human spun around and kicked the wall on his right with his heel, sending a Basilisk’s Tectonic Shift Skill through the steel plating and into the rock and dirt beyond it. This triggered a localized earthquake that caused the metal, already weakened by the extreme temperature fluctuations and sonic vibrations, to buckle and give way. Both the tunnel and invaders were instantly buried in an incalculable amount of stone and soil.
Zilla’s new head popped out of his shoulders in the next instant, but the damage caused by that rather impressive ambush remained and the assault was far from over. He doubted any of his adversaries perished in that cave-in. If something as mundane as a couple of big rocks could kill a VIP, then there would be no need for genetically engineered bioweapons like him to exist in the first place. It was only a matter of time before the intruders dug their way through and resumed their attack, regardless of whether they were caught up in the cave-in or not. Still, it provided the monster enough time and cover to allow him to retreat and reassess his objective. The intruders’ words and actions made it clear their target wasn’t the Foundation, but Zilla himself. No matter how much he wanted his perfect revenge, he had to give up on it. Survival came first, so he decided to abandon his plans and get Honoka out of here through one of the other exits. Ideally, he would teleport the two of them to safety, but this facility had been warded against such things since it was a security issue.
As the treacherous wardrobe was making his way back to the prison sub-level, the rubble on the outer side of the cave-in exploded outwards. The violent act caused the debris to shift and the ground to rumble slightly as the rescue party came back up for air.
“Koff! Koff! Koff! Everyone alright?” Lichter asked the others.
“Aye, I’m fine,” Hilda brushed off his concerns. “Not the first time I’ve had a mountain dropped on me.”
“I am unharmed as well,” reported the succubus, who seemed completely untouched by the cave-in.
“S-S-s-same here, ktktktktktkt…”
There was, of course, no need to ask who those chittering words belonged to, nor where they were coming from. Both the Berserker and the Paladin were more or less used to having the stalker on hand by now, so they already knew that the answer to those questions was ‘Claws’ and ‘around.’
“Still, looks like yer boss’s info was spot on,” Hilda commented, brushing the dirt off her shoulders.
“Indeed,” the Paladin nodded. “I don’t think we would’ve withstood that screech if it we didn’t come prepared.”
While it wasn’t visible at a glance, all four of them had used an Elixir of Greater Suppression, which massively increased their resistance to sound-based attacks for a short while.
“It makes me wonder though,” the elf’s eyes narrowed under his helmet. “How did the Sandman know about him?”
“My master has actually been investigating this Jones Alexis for months,” Xera claimed. “He hasn’t made a move on him so far because the target was deemed too powerful, but recent events have forced his hand.”
“Heh,” chuckled the dwarf. “Did he know the part about him being a freak, too? He failed to mention that bit!”
A wry smile appeared on the succubus’s lips.
“My master is hardly all-knowing. Just the fact that he managed to discover this hideout in the first place was a small miracle.”
“Mmmm, guess I shouldn’t complain. Now then, should we get to digging? We still have ourselves a Hero to rescue.”
“Assuming the young Miss Morgana is still alive,” added Lichter with a grim expression.
“She should be. If the suspect wanted her dead, then he would’ve killed her instead of taking her in the first place,” pointed out the devious temptress. “However, we should remain wary of ambushes and trickery. My master’s intelligence on the guy suggests he's normally quite… thorough at covering his tracks. Therefore, him allowing witnesses like the Slyths to live could be interpreted as a way to lure my master into a trap.”
Xera was, as to be expected, pulling all of this conjecture out of her ass. She wanted to make sure the VIPs were completely untrusting of her target’s words, as this entire operation could fall apart if they started doubting her motives. Or, rather, the motives she presented them with.
“A fair point, but it could also be because he recognized that engaging milady Slyth in battle would be folly,” offered Lichter. “Win or lose, even I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.”
“Is she really that strong?”
“Indeed. Even if she isn’t a Ranker, one should never underestimate a follower of Axel, especially not a Monk. Disciples of War are especially troublesome in one-on-one combat. I doubt she would’ve been able to defeat the creature, but she definitely would’ve stalled it long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Besides, I doubt young Morgana would let herself be captured without at least injuring her assailant.”
“That does make a certain degree of sense. My master is grateful for the information and will take it into consideration. As such, he will deduct its value from your final bill,” added Xera with another wry smile.
“… Bill? What?”
One could practically see the dumb look on the Paladin’s face, despite his helmet’s visor being in the way.
“Well, duh!” exclaimed Hilda from the side. The dwarf was already hard at work moving rocks out of the way with her bare hands. “That guy probably went to great lengths to secure the intel he gave us. It’s only natural he’d charge for it.”
“It seems a bit… opportunistic, doesn’t it? Especially with what’s at stake,” argued the Paladin.
“Maybe, but I don’t give a damn. I’d give him every last coin I own if it meant we get our Merry Popper back.”
“Right, of course. We mustn’t lose sight of our immediate objective.”
“I’m so glad ye agree. Now quit yer yappin’ and give me a hand with this rubble! Who knows what that fuckface is up to at this very moment!”
“On it.”
As the two VIPs got busy flexing their muscles, Xera couldn’t help but let a solemn smile float onto her lips behind their backs. Even if this was one of the greatest cons she’d ever pulled off, it was only possible because of her late beloved’s efforts.
Rowana and her mother had gone out to search for Keira after she suddenly fled from the tea party. They had come poking around the site of Boxxy’s final battle as it was the most obvious cause of her behavior, but the authorities had already sealed off the area by the time they arrived. They continued to scour the surrounding slums in search of the missing red-haired beastkin, and that was when Xera made her move. She used her newly-acquired Conjure Mirage Skill to project an illusion of Jones Alexis carrying an unconscious Keira off into the back alleys. Doris instantly gave chase. While she was definitely faster than she looked, she had no chance of catching that which didn’t exist. From her perspective, Keira’s kidnapper had given her a mean look before disappearing around the corner somewhere, much to hers and Rowana’s dismay.
That little play had the desired effect, as both of them were convinced someone had taken the catgirl against her will. They instantly filed a missing person report with the city guard, who took the situation quite seriously considering who the missing person was. Of course, their investigation was doomed from the start and failed to turn up any leads. Xera and Drea waited a few days for the desperation to set in before showing up at the Slyth household to offer their services on the Sandman’s behalf. The Hero and the mercenary were sort-of-known to be on good terms, so it was hardly a stretch of the imagination to see the latter look out for the former.
From then on, it was child’s play to get the influential family’s backing and organize a ‘search and rescue’ party. Hilda was personally indebted to the Sandman from the war and had a good personal and professional relationship with Keira, so her participation was a foregone conclusion. Lichter, on the other hand, was the righteously selfless type, so while it took a little persuasion to bring him on board, it was hardly difficult to convince him to help save his late comrade’s last disciple. Especially not with Rowana desperately begging him for help with tears in her eyes. That vapid twig had her uses after all, Xera thought.
The only thing left was to lead those two gullible powerhouses to the enemy’s doorstep and have them wreak havoc until Boxxy’s murderer was dead. However, the target had proven to be every bit as tricky as Drea had said, possibly surpassing the two demons’ former master in the variety of abilities at his disposal. This blockade was obviously a diversion to cover his escape, which was something Xera could not allow. If they let him get away here, there would be no way of tracking him down and making him pay for his sins. Fortunately, even though she had taken on the appearance of a succubus, this was merely because it was a form that both Lichter and Hilda were familiar with. But Xera wasn’t just some common cum-guzzling slut
“I’ll be going on ahead,” she declared in a commanding tone. “Follow behind as quickly as you can.”
Without waiting for a response, Xera’s curvaceous figure exploded into a puff of transparent white smoke, almost like a thin fog. The gaseous substance seeped into dozens of tiny gaps in the rubble ahead, disappearing from sight in a matter of seconds.
“… Could succubi do that sort of thing?” asked Hilda after a brief pause.
“No. No they cannot,” declared Lichter, who was rather well-versed in fighting demons.
“Then how in the fook did that bint disappear like that?”
“That I cannot say, but one thing is for certain – our ‘benefactor’ has been holding out on us.”
Just as the Paladin had deduced, Xera just demonstrated something that went beyond anything a normal Warlock’s familiar should have been capable of. Then again, her master wasn’t just any Warlock. The Sandman had demonstrated an outstanding ability to command the denizens of the Beyond, earning him the moniker ‘Demon Whisperer’ in certain circles. His proficiency was clearly demonstrated by how he managed to steer two Overlords into each other on Armageddon Day. If the shady vigilante-turned-mercenary could pull that off, then it wouldn’t be strange for him to have a familiar or two that had Ranked Up and gained some strange powers in the process.
