Chapter 104 (Patreon)

Chapter 104

Elder Bren let out a deep sigh and one of his wives scurried over to the door, letting in a fuming Elder Preen.  The old man was obviously disheveled from some kind of physical confrontation, with dirtied robes and a bleeding scratch along his right cheek.  He stomped inside but quickly stopped upon seeing Riven sitting on the couch, flushing in anger and pointing an accusing finger Riven’s way.  “His BITCH succubus attacked me!  That DEMON attacked me!  We cannot have these MONSTERS living amongst us! I will not stand for it!”

Behind him Athela’s barking laugh echoed amongst the trees, and Riven could see Fay standing defensively in front of Genua, Ethel’s mother.  The succubus had her wings spread out, layers of unholy mists radiating from her hands threateningly, shielding the elf woman from a trio of three men with Ethel holding her little sister Len’s hand and yelling something at them in an obvious display of anger.

“They’ve got to go!  NOW!”  Elder preen raged, shaking there in the doorway while Elder Bren eyed him with exhaustion and disappointment.

Elder Bren stood up, gripped his staff and walked forward to meet the other village elder.  He poked Elder Preen in the chest with the butt of his staff and frowned upwards.  “If the other elders were still alive to witness your pettiness, they’d be sincerely concerned about your mental state and abuse of power - Elder Preen.”

“Abuse of power!?”

“That’s right.  You only want them to leave because you wish to take Ethel and Genua for your own, given your unhealthy obsession with them recently I’d even say you’ve become rather unhinged in your attempts to force yourself on them.  I can only imagine how Farrod feels about it, because he certainly knows.”  Elder Bren nodded solemnly, putting the staff back down against the hardwood floor with a light thud.  “And don’t try to deny it.  I will not go into specifics about what it is you have or have not been doing, but I am senior to you and have more of a say.  This is final, and I have the support of the entire village in doing it.   Not only do they support this vampire for what he did, but for what he is going to do.”

Elder Preen snarled and wiped away a drop of blood that trickled down his cheek.  “I have every right to take them!  They are living in my house and their patriarch owes me!  I even paid them a dowry for their daughter!”

“A debt that has been paid many times over with the actions of this young man, or by the actions you so cruelly enforce on Genua because of her husband’s gambling habits.  It is true that they owe you a great deal, and that is the only reason I am allowing your behavior to continue as is.” Elder Bren stated coolly.  “As for their daughter, I will personally repay you for the dowry you placed on Ethel’s behalf.”

“You can’t do that!”

“I can and I will.  There will be no arguing about it further, unless you wish to go fight the greenskins yourself.”  Elder Bren cocked his head to one side speculatively.  “Do you wish to go kill them yourself?  If you can, I will seriously reconsider handing Genua’s daughter over to Riven as a thrall.  By all means, you may try.”

The taller elf snarled again, showing his teeth and taking an aggressive step forward.  “You are a traitor to our kind, Elder Bren, for allowing this to happen.”

“Strong words from one who never joined the great hunt.  I mean truly, are you daft?  This vampire could kill you in an instant and you sit here harassing his property to be along with one of his minions?  You’ve lost your mind to jealousy.  Bullying Farrod with your rank or followers is one thing, he cares little for the family he has even if you do greatly insult him by pursuing his wife and daughter.  But what you’re doing now is madness.”

At this, Elder Preen grew an even brighter red with anger.  Despite his quivering rage, he did take a step back with a hesitant glare directed Riven’s way.  Then he shot a look over his shoulder at his three cronies that were still harassing Fay, Ethel and Genua - and took a moment to calm down.  “Alright, fine.  If the vampire dies trying to exterminate the greenskins, I keep the woman for my own.”

Elder Bren shrugged.  “That was the original plan anyways.  If the vampire cannot hold up his end of the bargain, you may have her and even her mother for yourself.  Genua has no husband who is willing to stand up for his own kin, so he is not a man worthy of the woman he is bound to.  If this vampire fails, we will banish Farrod and allow you to indulge yourself with your pursuits of his family.  This is a fair deal, is it not enough to keep you calm?”

Riven scratched his head in a state of shock, listening to the absurd exchange while these two old guys bargained in deals with women like they were trading cards or collectable items.  They were another man’s family for god’s sake and they acted like Ethel or her family had no say in what would happen to them.  It was disgusting.  It didn’t sit well with Riven at all.

“If I do this…” Riven cut in with a raised hand and a cleared throat.  “You’ll be forgiving Ethel’s family of their debts entirely.”

Elder Bren blinked and stared back at the younger man, while Elder Preen’s face fell into a glowering, angry frown.

“I will not take no for an answer.” Riven stated flatly, rising up to his full height to challenge the simmering old pervert who looked like he wanted to lunge at Riven’s throat.

Riven could only wish he would.

“Done.” Elder Bren stated with an abrupt wave of his hand.  “I agree to your demand, if you do this I will pay off all of her family’s debts too.”

The standoff didn’t last much longer.  Elder Preen didn’t even acknowledge Riven when he made his exit and called out to whoever it was that was harassing the women outside. The three men, all adult elves with blonde or silver hair, joined him moments later while making rude remarks about Genua on their way out.

“Elder Bren.” Riven calmly said while standing up to his full height and stretching.

The old man turned warily back to him with an exhausted sigh.  “Yes, Riven?”

Riven gestured after the other elder who was walking back through the village under the starlight.  “I just wanted to say that I appreciate your hospitality, I truly do.  I don’t intend to cause any trouble and will do my very best to help you.  However, I saw one of his henchmen almost strike my minion, Fay, while they argued out there.  I don’t know what was being said or why, but if that’d happened I’d have laid his guts out on the grass without thinking twice or losing any sleep over it.  And that’s only if Fay didn’t melt them into a necrotic pile of goo first.  I’m surprised she didn’t already, and it shows significant restraint on her part.  Please relay that message to him and those buffoons so that there aren’t any unfortunate deaths in the future.  I may be calm now, but I wouldn’t be if he or his people ever struck anyone I care about; and my familiars take a very keen liking to eating people.”

Elder Bren paled slightly and gave a nervous laugh.  “Of course!”

From the shadows of the room above and up the stairs, Athela’s slim, pitch-black figure dropped down with absolute silence and trot over to the old elf - nearly giving the elder and his two wives a heart attack in the process when she made herself known.

“I’d been hoping he’d do something stupid.”  Athela pouted, frowning and folding her arms in front of her.  “I was wanting to dismember something ever since our fight with the orcs.  Oh well!  Off we go Riven, come on!”

Athela’s lithe form evaporated in a blur of motion and she ran out the door.  Riven was close on her heels, and soon Elder Bren was alone with his wives on the bottom floor of his house.

***

Genua’s face was bruised where she’d been hit hard by Elder Preen’s backhand slap.  She’d been struck after finally telling him and his henchmen ‘no,’ and that’d been all it’d taken for him to fly into a rage.  He’d screamed at her and beaten her rather badly, leaving other bruises all over her body that were easy enough to see to anyone looking.  Apparently he’d been stopped by Fay when she’d come upon the scene.  When she’d then struck him back, he’d almost tried to fight them when he realized the odds were significantly in Fay’s favor.  The succubus may be utility oriented, but she could still kill.  Azmoth had lost his temper and nearly ripped him apart right then, with Athela in the background watching silently at a distance to see whether or not she was needed.

Nevertheless, Elder Preen had followed Genua when she’d run off to find Ethel, harassing her the entire time while Fay followed too and requested that Azmoth stay behind to watch Len.  Riven had literally just woken up earlier that night and despite his half joke about this reminding him of a Jerry Springer episode - he could safely say that it really was just as bad or maybe even worse.

And what was all this talk about Farrod not standing up for his family?  Riven had been under the impression that the man hadn’t known.  But he KNEW!?  And he let it HAPPEN!?  Riven was utterly baffled by the revelation.  Just… Just why?  He had so many questions, and so few answers.

Meanwhile Ethel was in an absolute rage, swearing under hushed words and cursing the old man while trying to simultaneously console her crying mother all the way to their house; where Len was curled up in a corner and whimpering after seeing her mother being savagely beaten by the elder.

Fay opened the door for the two elf women, passed Azmoth, walking Ethel’s family inside Genua’s room and ushering in the little girl Len before shutting the door behind them all.

Fay immediately whirled around, snarled and baring her fangs with rage evident in her expression.  She clenched her fists and stomped over to Riven, black wings flaring, while pointing up a finger directly at his face as if to accuse him of something.  “If that man EVER touches them again, I want you to slit his throat.  OK!?”

“That was the plan.” Riven confirmed with a nod, shooting a concerned look at the door to Genua’s room where Ethel’s mother was still sobbing.  “I didn’t realize what we were getting into here.  Thanks for standing up for them by the way, I’m proud of you for doing that.”

Fay acknowledged his remark with a snort, but otherwise remained outwardly livid.

“And what’s that, exactly?  That you thought you were getting into?” Athela asked while sitting in an oaken chair to the side of the room, steepling her fingers in front of her.  “What’s this all about?  We just saw Genua get her ass beat by some old guy and that’s all we know.”

Fay was still fuming, literally shaking while stomping back and forth across the front room of the small cabin.  “We’re gone for just a couple hours to explore and THIS happens!  Utterly ridiculous!  If I’d been here earlier to see what she told me happened I’d have fucking cut that guy’s balls off!  The prick and his friends were-”

Riven cut her off with a wave of his hand, putting it gently onto her shoulders with a soft but firm squeeze.  He was genuinely surprised Fay seemed to care this much about people she didn’t know, which he was pretty sure was very uncharacteristic of demons.  Thus he was becoming more and more curious about her backstory.

“I know.”

“THEN-”
“The situation is under control.  He won’t do it again, or else we really will kill him.”  Riven smiled softly and Fay’s fuming rage began to decline.

The blue succubus nodded in agreement, then turned back to another of the chairs in the front room and sat down.  Her wings folded in, black eyes blinked rapidly, she pushed her hands up through her white locks of hair and let out a shuddering, angry groan.  “Fine.  It’s a deal then.  So like Athela said - what exactly IS going on?  What were you and Elder Bren talking about for so long?”

“I’d like to know too.” Dr. Brass stated firmly, adjusting his glasses over the white coat he still wore.

Riven gave them all a suspicious snort, then took a seat next to himself alongside Athela.  “It’s… an unexpected turn of events.  How do I put this…”

“Master.” Azmoth’s deep, demonic voice cut through the laughter like a hot iron through sliced bread.  “I do not mean interrupt.  But what we do now?  World quests… One pertain to you.”

Immediately the room was filled with awkward silence at the abrupt change of subject, and the vampires all shared looks with one another.  Athela was studying all of them carefully, obviously having the same thoughts as Azmoth but not saying a word while Riven contemplated this.

Eventually Riven leaned forward to rest his chin on his hands.  “Yeah.  Chalgathi is apparently one of the apocalypse beasts the world quest mentions, so that answers one of my curiosities.  My log says I should be getting another quest update from it soon now that the world quests are active.  As for the other ones… who knows.”

Riven thoughtfully pondered these new developments, then rested his hands on the table between Athela and himself.  “Alright sensei.  You’ve been my guiding light this entire time, what do you think I should do about it?”

“What do you mean, what should you do about it?  Idiot!”  Athela karate chopped Riven on the dome of his head.  “Get out there and get a new dragon pet or sacrifice it to get a new supercharged weapon!  Seems pretty simple to me!  AND YOU BETTER NOT FAIL!  I’M NOT GOING BACK TO THE NETHER REALMS!”

Athela gave him another trio of karate chops for emphasis, but leaned over with a cackle and blew into his ear.  “I have faith in you Riven.  You’ll be fine,and you have all of us to help you.  Regardless, I think you should focus more on the quest to annihilate the orcs and goblins before you worry about these world quests, those can wait for a bit.  5 years to be precise.”

“The goblins and orcs be good practice for succubus too.” Azmoth said, his sentence structure becoming slightly better as time went on.  He gestured over at Fay with one of his clawed, smoldering hands.  “She need the experience and levels.  Perhaps you could try to teach her one of your abilities before end the greenskin menace?”

Riven straightened his posture.  Teach Fay one of his skills?  He looked the succubus over, silently evaluating his options.  “That’s… actually a really good idea Azmoth.”

“If it works.”  Athela gave Azmoth a skeptical frowned and sat onto a nearby chair, crossing her long black legs.  “I doubt I’ll ever see anyone have as much success as you did, though Fay probably could work at it a while and eventually get there.  I have a hard time believing she or anyone else will actively teach themselves an ability without the help of the system as fast as you did, Riven.”

To this, Riven frowned.  “Well we don’t have an immediate time limit on this quest so I think I’ll at least begin to try and teach her something.  And… oh, shit.  Perhaps Fay should start teaching me her curse magic?  That’d be interesting.  I’ll think on it for now.  Maybe I can teach Fay one of my abilities from the unholy pillar.  What about you Athela?  Would you like to learn some spells?  What about Riftwalk?  It’s a good movement ability to add to your already fast-paced fighting style.”

The demoness frowned slightly and shook her head.  She placed a hand on Riven’s knee and gave a thank-filled squeeze.  “I appreciate it, but I likely cannot.  My affinity for Shadow is very poor, but any Blood and Unholy I’d be able to make use of.  Demons are usually stuck in their assigned pillars from birth, unless we get racial evolutions or incredibly lucky.  Just as Azmoth has the Infernal and Unholy pillars as his baseline, I have Blood and Unholy pillars for mine.  I doubt I’ll be able to learn any abilities besides Blood and Unholy ones.”

“Oh… Well let’s go over some blood abilities later then.  Perhaps they’ll be of use to you!”

“Perhaps, but most of your blood abilities use mana.  I am an assassin-type shapeshifter that hasn’t even gotten ahold of her shapeshifting abilities yet.  Shapeshifting requires stamina as well, as do my other abilities which are martial arts, and so my time would be better spent learning to perfect my shapeshifting instead of learning spells I wouldn’t be able to use effectively because my intelligence stat is so low.  I fully intend to invest in a speed and dexterity build too, so I don’t intend to change it up just for a few skills.  Thank you though, it means a lot that you’d care enough to ask.”

Athela gave him a blinding smile and leaned into his shoulder with a loud burp.  “I appreciate it.  By the way, if you’re feeling hungry the goblins are tethered in a makeshift cage on the opposite side of the village.  They’ve had their hands and feet cut off with the stumps burned so they can’t run.  Just in case you need to feed.”

Riven nodded in appreciation for the information, but then went back to thinking on his abilities.  The only unholy spell he had was ‘wretched snare’.  He already knew Azmoth wouldn’t want it because of the same reasons Athela gave for not wanting to use spells, but he thought he’d ask anyways.  At the very least it was the polite thing to do, and he didn’t want Azmoth thinking Riven wasn’t considering him.  “Alright Azmoth, Athela might not want spells but do you?  I have one that I could teach you, it’s called ‘Wretched Snare’ and it’s in the unholy pillar category.”

The large armored demon flicked his tail to the right, apparently amused by the offer.  “I’m alright.  Magical aptitude is very low, even fire breath considered infernal martial art, part of my body.  If you find unholy martial art instead, I take that.  Thank you, Riven.”

“Just making sure!”

The mood lifted over the next couple of minutes.  Jokes and laughter in small quantities were exchanged, and Riven was tossed a piece of cooked warg meat Azmoth had harvested from a body earlier that day while out on the hunt.  Azmoth went outside to watch the perimeter of the house in case anyone by the name of Lord Preen came by to bother them again, and all was well with the world until Riven had an epiphany.

“Oh, I just realized.”  Riven swallowed the last of his dried warg meat, stood to his feet and started for the wooden door where Genua’s room was located. “I never told them that I’d agreed to Elder Bren’s terms, or that I’d changed them up.  They’re about to be debt free if I have a say in all this.”