Pocket Dungeon 4, page 29
“These women,” Kenneth continued as the apparent arbiter of this shit. “Are now yours. As is the loot brought forth by the dead men. To the victor go the spoils.”
Jesus, he was really laying it on thick. I needed to keep an eye on this guy to figure out his angle and what he really wanted from me, but for now, I needed to continue to play the part of the asshole I was pretending to be.
So I looked at the five terrified women and gestured for them to come toward me with a crook of my finger and what I hoped was a serious, demanding look on my face.
I’d have to explain later that this was all a charade and hope they believed me, but for now, I needed to look like a giant fucking asshole.
Hell, they’d probably forgive me for this charade once they learned I was willing and able to send them back to their own worlds thanks to the purple item I’d shown off at the beginning of this spectacle.
The crowd watched with rapt focus as all five of the women moved away from their dead captors’ seconds-in-command and converged on me with their heads bowed in submission.
The way they clearly were forced to behave made my blood boil, but before I could say anything else, Graves’ second lunged forward and pulled a gun from a holster on his hip.
“No!” the man shrieked as the apparent reality set in for him. “No! No! No! It was supposed to be him, not you!”
He screamed in rage, and I saw everything happening like it was in slow motion.
His finger moved like it was about to pull the trigger.
My women all leaped in front of me without hesitation, despite the fact I really didn’t want any of them taking a bullet for me, and Yasha lunged forward to grab Phantom Doomslayer from the ground like she was going to defend me with the sword.
Elaene’s mouth opened as her acid began to bubble in the back of her throat, and Liva’s hands spiked with deadly ice blades. Iris had a gun, which was equally touching, albeit slightly less impressive.
Even Monty moved to attack with a gun of his own, and I saw the red-braceleted men in the crowd surge forward to come to my aid.
But before the man could fire off his round, and before any of my women and backup could attack, something I never could have predicted happened.
From the corner of my eye, I saw something small and low to the ground move and lunge at the man.
Holy shit.
Mimic.
The chest mimic threw himself at the man with the gun far faster than I’d ever seen him move before, and he snapped open his jaws like a snake unhinging its mouth to eat.
As the crowd watched in both horror and awe, Mimic ate the man with the gun.
The sound was… disgusting, to say the least, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t imagining the sound of the man screaming all the way down as he was devoured.
Blood sprayed out as Mimic chomped and chomped with terrifying teeth, and the sound of grinding meat and bone filled the air.
No one in the warehouse seemed to breathe as Mimic chewed and chewed before finally spitting out a small pile of gold.
“He tasted bad,” Mimic said. “Don’t make me do that again.”
I tried to maintain my composure and keep the grin from splitting across my face at the sight, and the fact I finally had my fucking weird little guy back, even if he sort of sucked sometimes.
I gently nudged my way past my women, and stepped out of the way of the five cowering women in front of me to address the stunned crowd of black market men.
“Leave the warehouse,” I said. “I want time alone to look at my spoils.”
Everyone else in the warehouse seemed distinctly uncomfortable with the display they’d just witnessed, especially as Mimic began to hack and coughed up what was definitely a fully intact arm from the man he’d just eaten. Even the men explicitly on my side looked relieved to have been given the go-ahead to get the fuck out of Dodge.
“Now,” I said.
No one had to be told twice.
The mass exodus from the warehouse was surprisingly quick and efficient, and all the men bolted like bats out of hell as soon as they were given the order. Apparently, no one was willing to even look like they were trying to stand up to me.
Good.
Hopefully this helped bolster an image of me being terrifying and unforgiving.
It only took a few minutes for everyone to leave, with Kenneth leaving last and shooting me one last, knowing look before he nodded his head in a sage bow and exited.
Once again, what the fuck was that guy’s deal?
Monty stayed behind with us, and as soon as the warehouse door swung closed, he let out a heavy sigh of relief and looked over at my women.
“Hey,” he said weakly and held his hand up in a wave. “So this sucked.”
Iris snorted and shifted to slip her gun back into its holster at the small of her back.
“Understatement,” she said. “But it worked.”
“Yes,” Liva agreed as she let her icy blades melt.
“As I knew it would,” Yasha preened, but didn’t set down the sword. Instead she gave it a little twirl.
“Guys,” I said gently. “Hang on…”
I gestured for my women, and also Monty, to refrain from the small talk for a few seconds as I turned my focus to the five women still cowering in front of me. One of them, the pale woman with the angel wings, had been sprayed with blood from Mimic’s impromptu meal.
“Hey,” I said softly and held my hands up in an attempt to show that I both didn’t have any weapons and that I wasn’t going to hurt any of them. “My name’s Wes.”
The five women looked up at me slowly, and for a moment, I was taken aback by how beautiful all of them were, and then was filled with rage at how tired and worn down they all seemed.
None of them looked like they’d been getting enough to eat or sleep, and that was only the beginning of the obvious mistreatment.
The red woman’s eyes darted from me to the four women and Monty at my side, like she was finally realizing now that we were alone.
My own women realized what was going on, and it was apparent that they were instantly on board with making the former captives feel comfortable.
“I am Elaene of Atlantis,” the dark-haired woman introduced herself in a soft, soothing tone.
“Liva of Eir,” the Eirthan said.
“Yasha el-Nasir,” the fox-woman said. “My allegiances are to Wes.”
“Iris of… Ohio, I guess,” Iris added with a small smile.
As my women spoke, the previously captive women seemed to grow a little more comfortable, and some of the obvious tension surrounding them began to lessen as they stopped actually cowering, and instead looked at me with newfound curiosity.
“I’m Monty,” Monty added. “I’m not going to hurt you, either. I have a girlfriend. And also I’m not an asshole.”
There was a lingering pause, and then it was the winged woman who spoke first.
Her voice was high and melodic, and it sounded, well, angelic, while also sounding rusty from disuse.
“You trust him?” she asked, and she had an unplaceable accent that lilted around the edges as she looked at each of my women.
“With our lives,” Elaene said. “He isn’t like them.”
The them in question was obviously the other men who’d taken them, as well as the ones who’d just left the warehouse.
“He freed us from Black’s own prison,” Liva said and nodded toward Elaene.
“And rescued me from the dungeons,” Iris added.
“And saved me from a dragon wyrmling when I was injured,” Yasha said. “Wes is a noble man.”
“He also saved me,” Monty added. “For what it’s worth.”
“He’s not bad,” Mimic chimed in, and I tried not to laugh at the fact he’d inserted himself into the conversation, too.
I guessed that was better than him eating the loot that littered the ground, at least, because he’d been looking at that shit with a clear hunger I didn’t like.
“I’m not going to hurt any of you,” I said. “And I’m not going to make any of you do anything you don’t want to do. In fact, I can send all of you home if that’s what you want.”
I gestured to the Well To New Worlds where it sat by my feet on the ground.
“But I have an offer first,” I said and a sly grin spread across my face. “See, I took over this market so I could put an end to this, once and for all, and now that I have access to contacts in the other markets, I can end those, too. I can bring this whole system to its knees and make sure it never rises up again. No one else will be stolen out of a dungeon and forced into slavery.”
The women looked at me with renewed interest and little fear, which was a step in the right direction.
“You can?” the leopard-woman asked. Her voice was rasping and exotic, and it sent a shiver down my spine.
“Yes,” I said. “And I’m going a step further than that. I’m going to make sure no one else can ever abuse the power of a crystal again. So, I can send you home, or you can help me put a stop to this bullshit.”
A grin spread across my face as I felt the energy in the warehouse beginning to shift from one of terror and tension to a small, burning sense of hope, like the flickering flame of a candle. It wasn’t a wildfire yet, but it could be.
“So,” I said. “Who wants to help me end this shit once and for all?”
End of Book 4
End Notes
Thank you for reading Pocket Dungeon 4! I’ll start working on the next book as soon as this one hits 100 reviews, so please leave a review right here. Thank you!
Don’t forget about my Patreon! You’ll get advanced audio chapters (for your ears) or written chapters (for your eyes), and nude/sexy versions of my covers (for your… uhhh… well…) I also have an audiobook subscription so you can get 3-4 of my books every month at a discount along with all the other stuff. Check it out here! Or search for my name on Patreon.com.
Amazon doesn’t update readers when an author comes out with a new book unless you follow that author on the store. Make sure you click this link and then click on the follow button. Then Amazon will update you a few weeks after my next book comes out.
If you want to get notified of my books the day that they come out, make sure you follow my Facebook author page and join my Facebook fan group. If you don’t follow me on Amazon or join my Facebook page, you’ll never get alerted that the next book is out.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2023 by Eric Vall
….
Patreon
Don’t forget about my Patreon! You’ll get advanced audio chapters (for your ears) or written chapters (for your eyes), and nude/sexy versions of my covers (for your… uhhh… well…) I also have an audiobook subscription so you can get 3-4 of my books every month at a discount along with all the other stuff. Check it out here! Or search for my name on Patreon.com.
Amazon doesn’t update readers when an author comes out with a new book unless you follow that author on the store. Make sure you click this link and then click on the follow button. Then Amazon will update you a few weeks after my next book comes out.
If you want to get notified of my books the day that they come out, make sure you follow my Facebook author page and join my Facebook fan group. If you don’t follow me on Amazon or join my Facebook page, you’ll never get alerted that the next book is out.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2023 by Eric Vall
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