Dragons, Decay, and Too Many Legs 4 (Patreon)

I arrived at the place bright n’ early. I wasn’t normally a morning person, but it’s amazing what having a pretty, nubile asian waifu will do for helping you wake up. Whistling a tune as I entered the meeting hall, I gave a nod to Ass, who looked like he wanted to flip me off. Yao Ming was in his chair, looking like an Asian Conan. If he had a shirt. And pants. And without the sword. Okay, so he didn’t look much like Conan.

“Do I need to send a body bag?” were the first words out of Yao Ming’s mouth.

The question took the wind out of my sails, “What? No, that’d be such a waste. That’s not what you do with live-in maids!”

The raised eyebrow from Yao Ming was the only reaction I paid attention to, but I heard mutterings from the others in the room.

“Very well. I will have an assignment for you in a few days. In the meantime, you will require a more suitable uniform. Kano!” one of the mooks to the side gave a small start before bowing to Yao Ming. “You will work with Ophioc on his uniform. I expect it to be finished by the end of the week.”

“Yes, Lung-dono,” the bowing mook said, before turning to me. “If you will follow me.”

With a shrug, I followed the mook that looked nothing like a certain cyborg. He took me to a suit shop, and led me into the back before turning back to me.

“Lose the shirt and jeans, I’m going to need your measurements,” he said as he grabbed a measuring tape, small notepad, and pencil.

I thought about making a dinner first joke, but decided against it. As I stood there in my boxers, he started taking a bunch of measurements while asking questions.

“What sort of movement range do you need? Do you know of any way your powers might react to different materials? Do you expect to have a growth spurt in the future?” stuff like that.

I answered to the best of my ability: as much as possible, the fewer synthetic materials the better, and unlikely. I spent what felt like hours standing there being used as a doll to be posed in specific positions, before he was satisfied and I could put my clothes back on. I was told to come back in three days for a test fitting, and then I was outta there.

The next few days were rather peaceful. Kaede got used to both cleaning the apartment and several pleasurable positions. My favorite was the time she was in the kitchen doing dishes, and I just flipped her dress up over her ass and fucked her like a bitch in heat. The moans she made as I buried myself in her, mm-mmm!

That’s not to say the only thing I did with her involved my penis in her vagina. Or mouth. I also did a little bit of digging to see what had happened to her mom. She was now working in one of the ABB’s brothels, and while I didn’t do anything, I couldn’t help but consider purchasing the mother’s services in the future for a little oyakodon.

More than that, I also did some reading up on the version of Earth Bet and Brockton Bay specifically I found myself in. By and large, the big stuff all seemed to be more or less what I expected, it was in the small details that tripped me up. For starters, either there were a lot more capes than in the original story, or Wildbow was a hack who couldn’t count. Point was, there were a fucking shit load more capes than I’d thought there were.

In addition to the roughly fifty capes between the various gangs and organizations, there were just over a hundred ‘Cowls’ in the city that hired out their powers to different groups. The two I’d encountered the other night, Talbot and Whiteout, were known for being regularly hired by the Empire, but even the heroes hired them a time or two. Some of the powers I read seemed interesting, but I could see why they weren’t major players. By and large, they were all smaller scale, street level type powers.

Still, I was eventually called to try out the uniform that Mook had made, and I admit I was extremely curious what I’d end up with.

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“I look like an off brand Sub-Zero,” I noted as I looked in the mirror.

The uniform was basically the Mortal Kombat ninja outfit but in dark, forest green. Still, the whole ensemble felt comfortable, I was able to move without it restricting anything, and I had the feeling that I’d be able to Wild Shape with it on easily. Plus it fit the whole ‘Asian’ aesthetic, something which everything I’d thought of wouldn’t. The best costume I’d been able to think of was the 1800s mountain frontiersman getup or a black robe.

Another perk for working for Yao Ming: I didn’t have to pay a dime for the costume. The man really knew how to provide some damn good incentives.

“If you’re satisfied, Lung-dono wishes to speak to you,” Mook said as he had a number of extras boxed up and sent to the apartment.

“Can do, same place as before, right?” I asked for clarification.

Fifteen minutes later, I was in front of Yao Ming, as he stood and motioned for me to follow him. He led me to a map of the city, with certain parts of it highlighted in different colors.

Pointing to the green highlighted area, he said, “This is the territory that is indisputably ours. The red is that of the Empire, while the blue are the drug runners that call themselves merchants. Recently both the Empire and Merchants have been trying to push into our territory. You already repelled one such incursion, now you will go on the offensive.

“The Empire has their borders under careful surveillance, so instead you will plan and launch a strike against the Merchants. You have until the first of January to do so.”

“Understood, I’m assuming that there’s certain types of targets that you’d prefer?” I asked, examining the map of the city. Of the major gangs, the ABB were the ones closest to the Docks, but the mass of colors covering it told me that they weren’t under any one group’s control.

We went over the overarching details, but by and large, the assault was entirely mine to plan and command. I felt like this was a test. It probably was. In the end, I was given access to the information on about a dozen safehouses, drug labs, and other such hidiholes, along with a dozen gangsters to utilize for my attack. Including Ass.

So with my collection of information and just under a week to plan out and execute an attack on another gang, I went home and even passed up the opportunity to pound Kaede through the mattress. This was too big a deal. If she took it upon herself to give me a shoulder rub as I looked over the data, I certainly wasn’t going to complain.

After three days, I had my target picked. A warehouse that the Merchants used as a storage location for nearly two dozen of their smaller labs. There’d be a fairly large number of guards, but from the information I’d been provided I figured that at least half of those guards were skimming off the top of the merchandise. I contacted Ass, who then got the rest of the men I was given command over. Unless I was mistaken, there shouldn’t be any powered folks at the lab, so they were mostly there to make sure that no one did anything stupid like torch the block while trying to kill me.

The lab was on the edge of the docks, and I arrived shortly before Ass and the others pulled up in a couple trucks. Me-damn, I’m so glad I made Torrent a god of speed.

“What took you so long?” I quipped as Ass got out of the car, rolling his eyes as he did.

“Us mere mortals have to make do with internal combustion engines, not legs that let us run like a squirrel on crack,” he snarked as the rest of the guys got out of the trucks and readied their weapons.

“Squirrel? My voice is nearly high pitched enough to be a squirrel.”

“Don’t we have a job to do?”

“Oh fine, spoil my fun. Okay, here’s the plan: I’ll scout ahead, then once I know how many there are I’ll come back out and get you guys. Then we’ll go in, kick their shit so hard they’ll be coughing shoelaces for at least a month, grab the goods, then head home. That work for you?”

The guys nodded, more than happy to let the cape go in first. Rolling my neck, I took a deep breath before uttering the needed words, “Be−rindan un−l¯æd ræt.”

Shrinking down to the form of a rat, I scurried up the drain pipe before crawling in through a cracked window. Let’s see, two guys in front of a couple bunsen burners that looked like they were swiped from a highschool chemistry class. Three distinct voices in another room, so at least five.

Checking the room the three voices were coming from, I amended my count to three and squashed the surge of jealousy. That TV and sound system was better than any I’d seen outside a movie theatre! Oh, I was definitely swiping those when we looted the place. Not to figure out where they kept the money.

Ground floor was cleared, no moolah down here, just the three guys and the big ass TV and perfect sound system that was absolutely going to be mine once we were done kicking their asses. Up to the second floor. Master bedroom empty, the bathroom just had some hideous bitch out like a light in the bathtub, a couple empty syringes on the floor next to her making me wonder if she was even alive or not. Didn’t care enough to get within grabbing range to find out. So four druggies so far, would I even need to call in Ass and the othe…

My thought trailed off as I inspected the last room. Two druggies, neither one looking like they’d so much as seen a bar of soap in far too long. That wasn’t what brought me to a stop. It was what they were doing. On a table between them, there was a bird. It was feebly flopped on the table away from the men who were plucking out wing feathers one at a time, and from the distorted angle and pus I could see, its wing was broken and infected on top of the torture that these scum were putting it through.

Right, fuck the plan. These two are dead. The woman in the bathroom, if she wasn’t dead already she soon would be. The men downstairs? They’re going to be fertilizer. Shifting back to my humanoid form, I called forth the inner fire that burned within me, all sound cutting out. I didn’t want to be interrupted.

I felt an increase in the spores leaking out of my pores or carried on my breath as I stomped towards the men. One hand lashed out, a burst of dark, deathly energies carried through the spores that coated my hand as I delivered a knife strike to the first man’s neck, collapsing his windpipe before turning my gaze to the other man. My free hand snapped out, fingers wrapping around his neck as I channelled the purview of my Domain, the Ember blazing in my fungal core, straight into his body. I watched with dispassionate satisfaction as his neck rotted clean through, his head dropping to the floor as mushrooms sprouted from both parts of his severed neck.

Turning back to the weak bird, I could tell just by looking at it that it was dying. My one healing spell that I’d be able to cast before it died wasn’t enough to purge the infection, or heal the broken wing. Sighing in frustration, I considered my options. The only thing that I could think of that would save it…

Nodding at my decision made, I carefully picked the sick patient up, their beak weakly snapping at me. The zone of silence was still up, so I couldn’t reassure it, but as soon as I cleared the twenty foot sphere I started whispering comforting noises. There’d be a lot of death, but so long as I could save this fellow, I’d be satisfied.

The woman died quickly, her neck snapped in her sleep. The one watching TV? Given the same treatment as the second of the torturers. The wannabe chefs? Throats caved in. Security was pitiful here, not a single one of them heard me coming even after I’d left the zone of silence.

Looking over the arrayed corpses, I snarled before shoving as many spores into each body as I could, forcing them to grow far faster than they would otherwise. Skin split as mushrooms and other spore-spreaders erupted from within the bodies. The action left me drained, but I gave a satisfied nod before leaving the lab.

The dozen men waiting all gave me weird looks as I approached, Ass speaking up, “From the fact you’re walking out I’m guessing there aren’t any left for us?”

“There were six in total, one too busy watching tv, one unconscious in a bathtub, two making drugs, and the last two sick fucks were torturing this bird,” I answered, channelling a little bit of healing magic into them to make sure they held on.

“… y’know, most people wouldn’t hold a fucking vulture like it was a pet cat.”

I glared at Ass, my Embers burning under my skin. The men all flinched back, unable to meet my gaze. I jerked my head towards the lab, reminding them about the rest of the job. They took the offered out, racing into the building to loot everything of value that wasn’t nailed down.

Holding back a snarl, I waited impatiently for them to finish, focusing on keeping the wounded vulture alive long enough for me to properly treat it. I didn’t have any spells, but there was something from the original Ophioc that would let me give the bird a new lease on life. Soon enough, the lab was sacked, and we were heading back to one of the main facilities the ABB used to catalog the loot gained on raids such as this.

As the rest of the men unloaded the cash and other bounties of a successful job, I pulled Ass aside, I need you to head to my apartment and bring me the carton from my mushroom garden labeled sâwolhord.”

He gave me a funny look, but nodded and went to get it. In the meantime, I secured an empty room and the contents of three ashtrays that were close to overflowing. I’d be performing my first ritual, and it was to save a broken and tortured vulture.