Greed God chapter 107 (Patreon)

February 10th 2016 Gemworld 6:00 PM EDT

I'd  honestly expected the big boss to be...bigger. Or more bosslike. Or  just more impressive in general because I honestly wasn't seeing it. The  guy was youngish, probably only a bit older than me, six feet at the  most, and kind of thin. His green hair was tousled in that kind of  careless way that makes it clear he spent at least an hour on it, though  I wasn't exactly sure how that worked in a fantasy world. Did they have  gel here? Regardless, his stupid goateed mouth (which was black for  some reason and not green despite his hair obviously being natural) was  set in a scowl of challenge, and he was clearly itching to fight me. I  gave him a quick appraisal.

[Appraisal function  activated. Treasure detected. Malcolm MacDougal- F ranked Scion of  Emerald. The bastard son of a minor Emerald noble, Malcolm was born with  a higher than average concentration of the Emerald bloodline. Despite  this, he lacked the power of any legitimate Emerald heirs and was cast  aside by his father's wife. Feeling sympathy for his illegitimate son,  Malcolm's father arranged a place for him in the Emerald Edge, where  most of the nobles unloaded their bastard offspring, and through  ruthlessness and cunning, Malcolm eventually rose the position of  leader.]

Huh. I'd known he was F ranked, but I  hadn't expected that to come with so much baggage. I'd gotten most of  this from Barbie's breakdown on the situation as she knew it, but still,  it was impressive he'd managed to get to the top of this snake pit.  Unfortunately, Malcolm was exactly the kind of ambitious go getter I DID  NOT want working for me. Ambition is fine when it's tempered by  pragmatism, but the ceaseless drive to get to the top is the worst possible quality someone like me can see in an employee. I wasn't absolutely certain I had no choice but to kill him, but hell, better safe than sorry.

With me standing on a big ass table and being easily several inches taller to  start with, Malcolm didn't have a chance of coming across as more  imposing. Surprisingly though, he didn't try. He raised an eyebrow  imperiously at me. "Are you worthy?" I had to admit. I was impressed. The sheer disdain in his tone was almost palpable. It was the smart move too, I'd put him on the back foot, pushed the impetus to him, and most  people would have taken the bait, but by tossing the issue back my way,  he made it my job to prove I was good enough to fight him rather than  the opposite.

Unfortunately for him, I was much better at this game than he was. I hopped down from the table with a grin, spreading my hands to show I was unarmed. "Does it matter?" His raised  eyebrow furrowed in confusion, clearly not seeing where I was going with  this. Good. I turned the the crowd of bandits, I did so love to play to  an audience. "Does it matter who I am? I don't know how bandits work  here, but where I'm from, a leader has to be willing to defend his  position at a moments notice. If one of you decided to challenge him,  would he get away with claiming you had to meet some standard before  he'd agree?"

The bandits looked contemplative, and also  slightly amused, presumably because they were in the middle of dinner  and were enjoying the entertainment, so I kept going. "Unless I'm wrong  about how you do things. As far as I know bandits choose their leaders  from among the strongest. Or is a coincidence this kid in charge of you  happens to have the most power here? I say I have more power." I turned  to him with a grin. "Whether I'm worthy or not will be decided by who  lives and who dies."

His eyes narrowed. The little brat  was pretty sharp, but I'd been literally raised to handle people, especially groups of them. Business was a battlefield, and the old man  gave me all the weapons I needed to succeed. Just because I hadn't  really gotten into my role when I was younger didn't mean I didn't  listen. Some jumped up little nobody had a long way to go before he was  in a position to out bullshit someone like me. I did a lot of things  well, but the thing I did better than anyone else was talk.

I  could see him realize he was boxed in. Tricks aside I was right. My  strength was what was in question here, and I would obviously be proving  that in battle. Once I'd pinned him down any further sophistry would  just make him look like he was floundering and weaken his position.  Since he wasn't an idiot he decided to just cut his losses. He stood  regally, or at least as regally as someone in his early twenties really  can, which honestly wasn't that regally except by comparison, and  gestured outside. "Then shall we take this outdoors? I'd hate to ruin  the dining hall while I'm killing you."

He sounded damn  confident in himself. Of course being an F ranker I could imagine why,  he had plenty of warriors around but hadn't seen anyone close to his own  level. He was complacent. But I wasn't. Being F ranked might put him in  my weight class but it didn't mean I knew his tricks. My only real  advantage was all the loot I'd grabbed from the treasury. I had several  powerful weapons if I needed them, and he had no idea. Still, I was  definitely going to have to keep my eyes peeled for tricks.

I  followed him outside, impressed he was willing to show me his back, but  I didn't take the bait. He would definitely have something set up for  that and breaking the sanctity of the duel would give him a reason to  have everyone dogpile me. While I was sure I could take them I'd have to  murder several of my potential experimental subjects, which I was not  going to do if I had a choice.

We stepped out into the  clearing in front of the fortress, all the bandits following, still  holding beaten metal plates covered in food they were snacking on even  as they trailed behind. Finally we reached a spot about a dozen yards  from the front entrance (we'd come out a side door off the main gate,  which I assumed they didn't want to raise for no reason) and Malcolm  came to a stop, grinning at me cockily. I didn't like his grin. I DID  like the possibility of slapping it off his stupid smug face though, so I  figured I'd let him babble.

As expected, he took up a  dramatic pose (points for style, negative points for dragging things  out) and began to speak. "I imagine you aren't familiar with the Emerald  bloodline or our magics." I sighed internally. Great. A monologue.  Which meant he had some sort of annoying ace up his sleeve. No one ever  monologues before a fair fight. You only monologue before you deliver  someone a righteous ass kicking. "Since you've clearly come from far  away, allow me to be the first to welcome you to the Emerald Dominion."  There was a thump.

At first I thought it was an earthquake  and that he had some kind of geokinesis, but then a few seconds later  there was another thump. The leaves on the trees shook like a candle  flame in a windstorm, and I finally figured out what was going on. My  internal sigh became an external one as another thump sounded. Something  was walking. Something fucking huge. Malcolm clearly knew I'd realized  it too, because he was grinning like a loon, even as the shaking became  more and more pronounced.

I saw the trees jerk a little  way off and a cloud of birds streaked off into the air in fright. They  were followed by more birds as the shaking trees got closer and closer,  forming an obvious path, and I was able to easily tell how immense the  asshole in the trees was but the way the trees were shuddering. Maybe  not an exact size, but whatever was coming was huge. Finally the shaking  grew close enough to reach the edge of the forest, and a pair of  massive trees were shoved aside to make way for an absolutely colossal  form as it emerged from the foliage.

Malcolm grinned even  wider, so wide I was honestly worried his face may split. "Bear witness  challenger, to the fabled empathic animal control of the Emerald  bloodline." The form has been in shadow, but it finally emerged, bright  sunlight draped over...fur. Lots of fur. A very specific and obvious  pattern of fur that I had not been expecting. Malcolm gloated maniacally  as a fucking panda bear emerged from the woods, lumbering on its back  legs and big enough to lay down lengthwise in an olympic swimming pool  and touch both ends if it stretched out its arms.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Thunk-  F rank Giant Panda. A normal panda Malcolm found as a cub and slowly  imbued with Emerald magic, Thunk is absolutely loyal to his master.  Surprisingly easily frightened by anything that can actually manage to  hurt him, he is also prone to playing dead when threatened.]

I  just blinked. At the giant panda. Just...standing there. I ignored what  I suspected was a terrible pun (bear witness was too on the nose to be  an accidental slip of the tongue) and looked at Malcolm. He was smiling  smugly at me, and honestly I didn't blame him. A giant ass bear was a  hell of a trump card, even if it was a panda. Still, it was F rank, so I  was pretty sure I could handle it. Malcolm's smug expression was pretty  short lived, because he wasn't the only one that could be intimidating.

I  shifted into my wyrmkin form. The antlers emerged from my head and the  scales washed over my skin as I felt my claws emerge from my fingers.  Lightning played over my body as the storm inside me raged over my skin,  mixing and combining with my mantle of raiden into an even more potent  defense, or at least a more obvious one. I grinned at the Emerald  lordling, and I let him get a good look at my razor sharp teeth, perfect  for tearing into flesh and snapping bone, as I took a step toward him.

He  inched back, clearly not at all comfortable with the turn the situation  had taken. To my surprise the bear backed up too. I made a mental note  of that. I'd prefer to keep the bear. It was kind of awesome, and I'd  never been an animal abuser. People were dicks, but animals were pretty  cool. I'd still eat them obviously, but I was perfectly fine letting  random farm workers do the actual killing. Plus I heard bear meat tasted  like shit anyway.

Regardless, I  was hoping to put down the noble and add the bear to my collection.  Worst case I could just have Waylon show it who was boss. His full sized  terror croc form was also huge, and probably way stronger. I turned to  Malcolm, ready to end things. I was curious what he was going to do.  He'd shown himself to be slightly competent, so I wondered if seeing me  draconic features would be enough to shake his confidence.

Which  was why I was absolutely floored when he stared at me in absolute  terror for about thirty seconds before throwing up his hands. "Nope. I  surrender. I don't want any of this nonsense. I'm not fighting a  dragonkin." I...froze. I didn't know what to do. I had absolutely no  plan for how to handle this situation. I'd been about to kill him but  now...I didn't have any idea. What the fuck had just happened? I turned  to see the rest of the bandits all kneeling, clearly offering their  supplication. I was pretty sure I had missed something here.