1-163 The predator

“What is so interesting?” Jaina asked as she ambled forward and passed through the archway. She stood in a vaulted room with white marble arches and fine tapestries on the wall. Across the room was a statue of a woman with long hair, gentle features, and a halo-like set of horns. She was as tall as a man and stood on a marble rock decorated with flowers. The whole thing was set into the wall with writing around the edges that glowed with a soft white light.

“Wow,” Gisley said as she fluttered into the room. “It’s a shrine to Hannah.”

“Receive the blessing of the queen of flowers by placing her namesake in the dish,” Chandice read as she looked down to see a silver bowl at Hannah's feet. “I think it wants us to put flowers in the bowl.”

“Aww, I wish we had some flowers,” Gisley pouted.

“This is amazing,” Jaina said as she looked over the likeness of Hannah. “Frank made a magic shrine out of her.”

“I wonder if there are shrines for the others?” Evlaynn asked.

“Do you think illusionary flowers would work?” Zillix asked.

Jaina had no idea but suggested he could try. The little dragon caused a bundle of blue flowers to appear before Gisley, who quickly snatched them up and ran for the bowl. Jaina laughed at how anxious the girl was to see the magic, and they all waited as the flowers were put inside.

Gisley stepped back as the bowl began to glow, and suddenly, Hannah's entire body was bathed in soft green light. She smiled as a ghostly image of Hannah bent down and gently kissed her on the forehead. The entire group was bathed in soft light for a moment as their skin glittered with magical energy. When it faded, Roric opened his interface to look at active spell effects.

“Kiss of the queen of flowers,” he read. “No plant in the dungeon will harm you, and Hannah's love will heal you. Whenever two people who share this blessing hug, they will begin to heal.”

“Wow,” Jaina said, leaning in to read the description. “Do you think she designed that?”

“I suspect this is Frank’s doing,” Chandice said.

“Breanne has told me that he is a surprisingly deep and powerful lover,” Evalynn said. “She said he has passions that run much stronger than he ever lets on.”

“Well, isn’t he full of surprises,” Jaina said as she looked over the statue of her girlfriend. “I want one of these.”

“Move on, harlot,” Chandice urged. “We aren’t here to fawn over your girlfriend.”

Jaina smiled as Roric prodded her along with his spear, pushing her toward the next hallway. Evalynn went to take the lead, but Roric shook his head, pointing to Jaina.

“You go first,” he said. “Evalynn and I will be right behind you.”

“Why Jaina?” Chandice asked with a curious expression.

“I think she will make a superior scout,” Roric replied. “Her fluid nature will make her less vulnerable to traps, and she can stun things with her charms.”

“Oh, so I am free to cut loose on seductions?” Jaina asked with a smile. Roric suggested she use it only to stall an attack until they caught up, not to indulge her sexual desires. Jaina laughed and stepped ahead, her body becoming gray as it melted into a flow of ooze.

“I love watching her do that,” Gisley said as Jaina washed down the tunnel, rushing ahead to find danger.

“It's hard to believe that's her true form,” Evalynn added as she followed with her glaive in hand. They trailed in Jaina's wake, noting that the floor was stripped clean in her passing as her corrosive form ate away the grim. It created a path for them to follow, knowing easily where Jaina had turned at an intersection or entered a room. They caught up to her at a doorway partially eaten away at the bottom, indicating that Jaina had gone in.

“She’s really dangerous now,” Chandice said as Evalynn tested the door.

“She has intentionally added points to her corrosive touch,” Roric replied as the door slowly opened to reveal a room decorated like a mausoleum. There were stone coffins along the wall and several piles of partially dissolved bones. It became clear to the group that Jaina had encountered some skeletons but decided to kill them herself and move on. All she left behind were the acid-pitted bones and some incidental coins as their treasure.

“She killed them all before we even caught up,” Gisley commented.

“You need to explain to her what being a scout means,” Evalynn laughed as they passed through the chamber.

“I think this is kind of fun,” Idris said. “I like being surprised to see what she leaves behind.”

“I am sure she will wait if she encounters something dangerous,” Chandice said as they arrived at another door that was eaten away at the bottom. “This is low-level trash, so she's just clearing it.”

They agreed and moved on, passing down a short hall to an intersection with two paths. To their surprise, there was a collection of coins on the floor, arranged to create an arrow pointing to the right. Roric commented on her clever use of the coins, and they moved on, finding two partially digested zombies in the hall. It ended at an archway beyond which was a round room with several large clay pots tipped over. One was still rolling slowly across the floor as seven more zombies lay in heaps around the center of the space.

“She’s a killing machine,” Idris laughed.

“I haven’t even sensed her take a wound,” Roric said as they paused to pick through the room and collect some minor treasure.

“These things probably don’t know what hit them,” Chandice said. “She flows up from beneath their feet and dissolves them.”

“She is scary,” Zillix commented. “I didn’t realize she was so dangerous.”

“She wasn't always this dangerous,” Gisley commented. “In her lower levels, she didn't have much offensive power. All she had were claws.”

“Jaina has grown in power,” Roric said as he sniffed the air. “This is why I think she makes an excellent scout. She can ambush like nobody else can and hide in plain sight.”

“She could be in the room with us right now, and we would likely not even realize it,” Chandice laughed.

“She’s not,” Roric said with a sniff of the air. “But she’s not far ahead.”

“It must be wonderful having such a sharp sense of smell,” Evalynn commented as she opened the next broken door. Behind it was a wide hall with flanking pillars decorated in garish blues and white. Markings on the pillars read that this was the hall of the waking dead and to tread carefully if you wished to pass.

“Traps?” Chandice asked as they peered into the long room lit by invisible sources.

“I suspect,” Roric agreed, then sniffed the air. “Jaina?”

“I'm here,” a familiar voice called as a pillar of gray ooze rose from the floor. “And this place is littered with pit traps.” The form took a humanoid shape and, in seconds, snapped into the beautiful woman they knew as Jaina.

“You forgot your clothes,” Chandice commented as Jaina's glory was displayed.

“No, I didn't,” Jaina teased with a sultry smile. “And I can help you get across the space. All the pits are no bigger than five feet across, so I will bridge them with my body, and you can walk over them.”

Roric nodded in approval as he considered how well this team would work in a world dungeon. They were taking shape and putting their skills to use. However, Zillix offered a better solution, stating that he could make an illusion solid enough to bridge such a small gap.

“Hmm, but that requires you to use mana?” Jaina asked, causing the little dragon to nod. “Well then, we should keep that in mind, but save your power for now. I can do it with no loss of power.”

“I could fly us over them on a magical disk,” Gisley reminded as she unfurled her wings.

“Again, that takes mana,” Jaina said as her form became fluid again. “I can easily get us across with no loss in strength.” She melted into a liquid lump and flowed forward, then became a solid white stone mass. “This is the first one,” Jaina said from no apparent source. “Cross over, and I will move on to the next one.”

Evalynn led the way, and one by one, they crossed over. Jaina then flowed to a new spot and became a temporary floor, carrying them across the room as they conversed. Roric applauded her for clearing the trash, and Jaina said she was just trying to speed things up. She knew those undead wouldn't be worth their effort so she removed them. Chandice cited that she could summon a swarm of demon bugs and flood a room with small biting beasties to deal with low-level trash.

Roric wanted to experiment with it so he asked Jaina to wait at the next pack of monsters. Jaina smiled and flowed off down the next tunnel, and they followed a minute later. Once again, she left an arrow of coins at an intersection and followed down an arched tunnel to a series of three doors. Jaina was leaning against the wall by one with a smile. She reported that the room contained five zombies standing around a small metal box. There was a dead player inside as well, a warrior by the looks of him.

Chandice went to the door and lifted her staff to begin her spell as Evalynn prepared to open it. She began the chant, and Evalynn threw it wide just as a dozen cat-sized insects-like creatures poured out of a flaming circle that appeared in the air. They flooded into the room, making a chittering wail as their black bodies burst into flames.

“Oh, they burn,” Jaina said in alarm as a tapestry on the wall suddenly caught fire.

“I didn’t think about that,” Chandice admitted as they watched the zombies go down in a torrent of fire and bites.

Smoke began to choke their lungs and burn their eyes as the stagnant dungeon air barely moved. Gisley called on a spell that created a glittering wind to help disperse the smoke as the little creatures suddenly burst into balls of fire and vanished.

“They don’t last long,” Evalynn said as she coughed in the aftermath.

“Only a minute,” Chandice admitted. “But if I spend points on it, I can summon more and make it last a full five minutes.”

“Not a very good spell to use in a confined space,” Idris said as she waved her hand to clear the air. “But that fire will have its uses. There are lots of things that don't like fire, and a swarm of burning bugs racing at them will be very useful.”

Roric coughed in agreement as they hovered over the metal box to see a lock. Jaina reached down with her hand and grabbed it, her skin becoming acidic and slowly eating the metal away. It took a few minutes to dissolve the full lock but Gisley laughed that Jaina was useful for everything.

“It's good to feel useful for a change,” Jaina agreed. “When Roric and I first started, all I was good for was giving him buffs. He used to fuck me and leave me sleeping in the grass while he went off to fight.”

“Times have changed,” Evalynn said as she rubbed Jaina’s back. “You are a far deadlier evolution of yourself.”

Roric opened the box to reveal a small assortment of coins and a few pinkish potions. Chandice drew her wand and identified them as lesser potions of regeneration. There were three in all, so he handed one to Gisley, one to Chandice, and one to Idris. They then checked the adventurer to discover he was quite well equipped with a full pack of dungeon exploring gear, including ropes, hooks, torches, oil, holy water, and three magical coins enchanted with a continual light spell.

“What do you think he used these for?” Gisley asked as she held up a glowing coin.

“He probably threw them ahead of himself to illuminate a dark area,” Chandice said as she picked up his sword. “The sword is enchanted as well. It has the minor holy effect to increase damage against undead.”

“So he came here equipped for the dungeon,” Jaina said. “Holy water and a sword to boost his damage to undead.”

“But five zombies killed him?” Evalynn asked as she turned the body over to see a human man. “He’s nobody I know.”

“I have seen him around the jade harem,” Gisley said. “He likes to flirt with the girls but usually has another player with him. A man in loose black wraps, kind of like a mummy. You never see his face, only his dark eyes.”

“Some kind of rogue?” Jaina asked as Evalynn shrugged.

“If he was, he didn’t accompany his friend down here,” Chandice remarked. “He wouldn’t have left the body behind.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Roric said as he pointed to the man’s throat. They all leaned over to see it was cut far too cleanly to be an attack from a zombie. It meant that somebody with a sharp blade had made the attack and left him to rot in the dungeon.

“Huh,” Jaina said as they leaned back. “So his friend turned on him?”

“Let's move on,” Roric said as he sniffed the air. “Keep an eye out for any indication of a second person passing. This kill is relatively recent, and his partner might still be here someplace.”

Jaina nodded and melted away, flowing into the next tunnel as the others decided to collect the fallen man's gear and carry it away. Gisley summoned a magic disk, and they piled it on, intent on returning it if they found him. Roric and Evalynn walked side by side with weapons at the ready as they followed the clean trail Jaina left behind. The tunnels were still magically lit in this part of Frank's dungeon, so they didn't bother with light sources. Still, he had the three coins in his pouch as he decided it was a particularly clever tactic to have a light source he could throw. The tunnel passed down a long hall with several wooden doors. Jaina stood at one just ahead, silently motioning them to come forward.

“What have you found?” Roric asked as he peered into a small room. It was decorated like a bedroom with an old molding bed, a wardrobe, and a table. Two zombies lay dead on the floor, both as if they had been hacked apart.

“I had nothing to do with this,” Jaina said. “I found them this way.”

Roric stepped in and sniffed the air, picking up three distinct scents aside from the dust and decay of the dungeon. “There are two others,” Roric said. “The scent isn't old either. I would say no more than an hour.”

“So they came down here as a trio?” Idris asked.

“Is this the direction they came from?” Evalynn asked as she gestured to the door they had come through. “Maybe they did this before killing the man in the other room?”

Roric wasn't sure, nor was there a way to be sure. He wasn't even sure this was important as there could be a dozen reasons why that man was killed. Perhaps he tried to steal from his companions, or they fought over a treasure, or he was just plain reckless. Whatever the case, they were likely over an hour gone and not worth his attention. Still, he cautioned Jaina to be wary of the other players and urged her to press on, checking the other rooms for signs of their passage.

Jaina executed the task perfectly, flowing with careless ease down the tunnels. Sometimes, she slipped under doors; other times, she ate through them, but in all cases, she investigated every room. They found four more battle sites where undead lay in heaps, and the treasures were gone. Somebody had definitely passed through this area, but they hadn't come in the way he had. Still, they found a couple of rooms with undead still shuffling about and quickly dispatched them before taking their loot.

A few hours later, Jaina returned to report she had found a stairwell down and led them around several bends to dusty stone steps. The tunnel below was pitch black, and Roric had to command his weapon to glow to provide light. They could see steps in the dust with the illumination, indicating that somebody had used the stairs before them. By his count, there were five different tracks, but it was hard to tell as somebody had disturbed the dust significantly.

Jaina melted and flowed down the steps, with the rest of the group following along. Zillix helped with light by creating dancing orbs that glowed brightly and followed the party down the tunnels. They arrived at a passage that went left and right, and the tracks seemed to separate. Three went to the left, and he assumed two had gone right, but so had Jaina, whose fluid form had cleaned the dust away.

“Why do I feel on edge?” Chandice asked as she peered down the tunnel. “Something feels off about this place.”

“It's the presence of other players,” Roric suggested. “We know they killed one of their own and then came down here. Now we are wondering if they are safe to encounter.”

“They may have killed him for good reasons,” Gisley suggested, waving her antenna in the air. “Umm, I sense something.”

“You sense something down here?” Roric asked in surprise.

“It's a fey mind,” Gisley said. “Another fairy or fey creature is nearby.”

“And it gets more interesting,” Evalynn said as she went to follow Jaina's path.

“Can you sense which direction they are in?” Roric asked as Gisley turned slightly and pointed down the path with the three tracks.

“Jaina went the other way,” Chandice said. “We can’t turn away, or we might get separated.”

“No, we can’t,” Roric agreed and motioned Evalynn to proceed after Jaina. He felt a sense of foreboding as they pressed down the tunnel littered with stones and the occasional bone. Jaina's path stuck to the center of the passage, leaving a clean, slick surface behind. Chandice joked that they should lease her out as a cleaning service and drew a few laughs from the others.

Roric sniffed the air and listened intently as they approached an intersection, allowing them to go straight or turn to the left and right. A body lay slumped against the wall straight ahead. A woman in tattered robes with one hand cleanly cut off.

“Sheesh, this party had some bad luck,” Chandice said as Roric squatted down to riffle through her pockets.

“She's been picked clean,” Roric said after he found nothing. “She has no pack or pouches, and even her pockets have been looted. Somebody didn't want to leave anything behind.”

“Why are her robes shredded?” Zillix asked as he fluttered to the ground beside her. “She looks like she was mauled by something with sharp claws.”

“A ghoul, perhaps?” Idris offered as she shrugged.

Roric wasn't so sure this had been a ghoul attack. Some of the cuts were unusually deep and, in most cases, were single lines, more in keeping with a weapon. Something short and sharp used to slash at her and, of course, cleanly sever her hand.

“Where did Jaina go?” Chandice asked as she looked up and down the tunnels. “Why wasn’t she waiting for us here?”

Roric began to wonder that, too, and quickly doubled back to the intersection. “She went this way,” he said, gesturing to the clear path in the dust with his spear. Chandice asked why she ignored a body and ran ahead causing Roric to wonder the same thing. She also failed to leave behind an indicator of her choice of direction, but maybe she assumed they could follow her trail. He bid Evalynn to pick up the pace and catch up, driving them on at a slow run. He felt concerned that something strange was going on down here and didn't want Jaina getting too far ahead.

They rounded a sharp corner to look down a hall with several doors. Two of them were open, but one was torn from the hinges and thrown into the hall. Jaina's path went to the nearest two doors, but they had no idea which room she was in.

Roric and Evalynn crept to the opening and looked inside to see a scene of carnage. Seven player bodies lay strewn about the room, cut down from obvious weapon attacks. The smell of fresh blood struck Roric, and he noticed some of the players were still bleeding out.

“Stay alert!” he commanded as he leveled his weapon. “This battle is minutes old at best.”

“Battle with what?” Chandice whispered. “There’s no monsters in this room.”

“Where is Jaina?” Gisley asked as she began to worry. Roric wondered that, too, and even dared to call out her name, hoping she was close enough to hear.

Something shifted on the ceiling, and Roric looked up at the last second to see a gray mass spilling down. It splashed to the floor and then mounded up, taking a female shape as it became Jaina.

“Keep your voice down,” Jaina whispered as she looked warily at the door. “Did you see it?”

“See what?” Evalynn asked as she moved closer to the door.

“That thing,” Jaina said. “Skin black as midnight and four arms, each with a short sword or hooked dagger. It had them cornered in here and was cutting them to ribbons.”

“It was a humanoid?” Roric asked as he struggled not to smell the blood.

“More insect,” Jaina replied. “It had a segmented antenna and big eyes on the sides of its head. It kind of resembled a praying mantis.”

“Nothing outside the door,” Evalynn said as she looked into the hall.

“So you saw it fighting?” Roric asked as he turned about, expecting the creature to attack from the shadows at any moment.

“I heard it in the next room,” Jaina said. “I flowed to the door and saw it fighting five players. I ran back to this room, but so did the players. They fled here as I hid on the ceiling to avoid being accidentally stepped on. That thing came out of thin air and just started taking them apart. It never spoke or made a noise as it struck with cold precision. Its weapons are magical, too. They glow with a red light.”

“So we have a rogue player hunting other players for sport?” Evalynn asked.

“Should we go back to the surface?” Gisley asked nervously.

“I wonder,” Roric replied as he stared at Gisley. “Could this be the creature you are detecting?”

“I guess it could,” Gisley said nervously. “It doesn't sound like a fey creature, but the antenna detection isn't limited to that. I guess I could be picking up an insect's mental activity.”

“She can sense him?” Jaina asked with a start.

“We don't know,” Roric replied and explained how Gisley could sense the presence of something related to the fey. But her detection placed it in the other direction, away from this carnage.”

“I don't mean to be alarming, but this butcher didn't loot any of the bodies,” Idris cut in. “It looted the others, so now I wonder if it didn't have time because it knew we were coming.”

Roric's ears went up as he turned to the only door. Evalynn was still soundly at watch, guarding the only way in, but Jaina had said the creature appeared out of thin air. He sniffed for an unfamiliar scent, but the number of bodies in the room made it difficult to pick out any one person.

“Chandice, send your rogue into stealth and put him in the hall,” Roric commanded. “Zillix, how long can you remain invisible?”

“Hours,” he replied. “I can make us all invisible for ten minutes or so.”

“Just hide yourself for now and stay close to Idris,” Roric suggested. He then turned to Gisley and bid her to focus on the sensation. He wanted to know the second it felt like it was drawing near. Jaina was also sent into the hall, but this time, she was to go slow and not get out of sight of the party. Roric didn't even look at the bodies as they slowly crept back into the hall and moved to the next door. He peered inside to see Jaina had resumed her human form and was kneeling beside a body.

“What is it?” Roric asked as he stepped closer. His eyes widened when Jaina pointed to the woman's rear, where a silver paw print glittered in the light.

“A harem girl,” Chandice gasped. “What is she doing down here?”

“I think I know her,” Evalynn said as she looked over the nearly white-skinned woman. “Liandra, a snow valkrel.”

“Oh, I know her too,” Jaina said as she shook her head and rolled the body over to reveal a dozen deep stab wounds.

“Something is going on here,” Chandice said. “Harem girls don’t wander the dungeons as part of other parties.”

“No, this would have to be an all-harem girl group, or something else was going on,” Roric said as he looked at two men who were also dead. One was an orc of some kind, the other a type of forest sprite with bark-like skin.

“Why was a harem girl traveling with a group of men?” Idris asked as they surveyed the scene.

Roric didn't have an answer, nor did he care for the scene of a scantly clad harem girl hacked to bits by the dark insect-like man. Whoever this player was, he was deadly enough to take on large numbers and run them down like sheep to the slaughter. He fished through the harem girls' silks to find she had nothing of significance. Even if Rajeen had given her permission to adventure, she wouldn't have gone into the dungeon in her slave silks. Something was very out of place about all of this, and now he worried for his family.

“We are getting out,” Roric said, turning for the door. “I want to report this to Rajeen and alert her to what is going on.” He commanded Jaina to retrace their steps with Chandice's rogue devil close behind in stealth. Zillix was still invisible, padding along on the ground to act as a surprise of their own should they encounter the insect man. Evalynn suggested they check the last door that was torn free and thrown into the tunnel before they go. Roric wanted out as fast as possible, but he couldn't deny that it would help if they had more to go on. He sent Jaina ahead and followed moments behind, only to hear her scream from inside the room.

Evalynn was through the door first, with Roric only seconds behind. He came to a dead stop to see Jaina lying in the center of the room, pointing to the wall. Three severed heads were nailed to the wall while their lifeless bodies lay in a heap to one side. All three were women, and all had the word slut written across their foreheads.

“Somebody doesn’t like harem girls,” Idris said.

“So she didn’t come alone,” Chandice said as she gestured to the pile. “They all have the paw print.”

“But why are they in slave silks?” Jaina asked. “They wouldn’t have gone on a dungeon raid in silks and a collar.”

“She’s right,” Evalynn said. “Something very wrong is going on here.”

“That’s Stariel,” Gisley said as she pointed to a head. “Hannah loves her.”

“Why hasn't Rajeen detected their deaths?” Evalynn asked. “They are in her collars; she must know by now.”

Roric wondered the same thing as he could tell when one of his girls was in danger. Surely, Rajeen had the same power and knew her girls were suddenly dying. On a thought, he turned to Chandice and had her detect magic. Chandice drew her wand and worked the spell, causing the slave collars to glow.

“They are all suppressed somehow,” Chandice said. “I can't tell for sure what is affecting them, but I am willing to bet it rendered them invisible to Rajeen.”

“Somebody is hunting harem girls?” Jaina asked as she wiped her eyes. “Who would do something like this?”

“We have to get out,” Roric said, pulling Jaina to her feet. “We go straight to the exit and then run for the palace.” He paused to wave his spear, summoning two hyena hunting dogs to his side, which he put to follow them as a rear guard. Now they moved as a tight pack, every sound turning their head. Somebody with significant skill was in the tunnels hunting harem girls, and somehow, he was luring them in unprepared. He began to wonder if he was abducting them from the surface and stashing them in the tunnels to use for sport. Whatever the case, the other masters needed to know, and they needed to know now.

“Wait,” Gisley cried as they headed past the last door.

“What is it?” Roric asked as he turned to see the frightened look on her face.

“The fey presence,” Gisley said. “It was just ahead of us, but now it’s gone.”

“Gone how?” Chandice asked as she tightened her grip on her staff.

“I don’t know,” Gisley replied. “I felt it coming then it just vanished.”

Roric turned back to the tunnel to peer into the darkness. He thought he saw a distant flicker of light, but a moment later, there was a blackness before him followed by the slashing of blades. He heard Jaina cry out as the pain ran through his body, and two large faceted eyes glared at him with hatred.