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They were about to leave behind the crowd when the red headed Elf who had tried to force a power leveling contract on Lyra pushed and shoved his way free from the throng. He stepped in front of the sheep girl spreading his arms, forcing her to a stop. 

“Hey!” he exclaimed, before lowering his voice to a whisper and getting closer. “You know I can help get you out of this. That monster, I figured it out, it’s threatening you right? Forcing you to stay by its side, it's the only thing that makes sense, there's no way you could control it when you are even lower level than me. Just say the word and I can whisk you away, no more scary wolf monster or nasty little Goblins, I promise.”

“Uhm, I want to be here, I- I think? I think I do? Would you mind moving? I’m uh, trying to get by.”

“You need to listen to me. You have less levels than I do, you know, and I know that you need to do what's best for you. It’s best for your safety that you don’t stay with that thing. You should come to my home where you’ll be safe.”

Lyra was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable especially with the way he was looking at her. 

“I- I need to stay with Fitz, for my safety. You don't want to get involved with my problems, it won’t turn out well for you.”

The Elf gave her an assuring smile and put his hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I am wealthy and strong enough that I can protect you from anything. Just say the word.”

Lyra looked at the hand holding her and furrowed her brow.

“I’m not looking to- no, I said no, get your hand off of me.”

“But-”

The Elf was cut off however by a massive paw wrapping around his hip. He blinked down at it, not quite understanding what had just happened. To his shock the paw suddenly shifted, gripping onto him and hauling him up, quickly accelerating away from the ground and full body flinging him into the air. The Elf cried out as he was physically launched skyward, and then grunted as he came crashing down on the nearest rooftop, three stories off the ground. He scrambled around on the angled top on all fours, desperately scrabbling at the tile to stop from falling and slipping off the edge of the roof.

A crowd of faces looked up at him but the one who had thrown him wasn’t even looking in his direction, just walking away with the unconscious leveler slung over his shoulder.

“H-hey! You can't just put me up here and leave me!” screamed the Elf, shaking his fist. Rain ignored him, that a full adult Elf had just been picked up and chucked on a roof seemingly a complete non-concern to him. The crowd didn’t think it was such a small matter however and were staring bug eyed between wolf monster and suddenly vertically positioned Elf.

Lyra hurried to catch up to Rain.

“Y-you didn't need to do that!”

“You would rather I killed him?” 

“No! I- I could have handled it…”

“I’m not waiting. I got what I wanted, and maybe a little more.” He glanced back at the damaged rune on the outer wall. No one seemed to have realised the enchantment had been destroyed, although he supposed someone would come along who understood what the damaged rune meant at some point. “And now we are leaving. Come.”

Lyra hurried behind as Rain turned down an alley and the crowd disappeared from view. He wasn’t reducing his stride for the girls and they had to practically jog to keep up with Rain, an obnoxious metallic racket coming from Opal’s pack as they made haste.

It didn't take long with Rain’s detailed knowledge of the town’s back alleys and soon they were approaching the gate they had entered through. The traffic was far greater this time and Rain’s sudden emergence onto the street caused abrupt chaos. A number of people fled seeing him and more dramatically several horses pulling carts went into a full blind panic, rearing up and braying in fear, backing up the carts they were pulling until they either collided with other carts or ran into buildings. Furious red faced merchants shouted and fought desperately to keep things under control as Rain passed. They did not have a lot of success. Horses did not like giant wolf monsters.

Rain avoided them as best he could. He really just wanted to get outside, kill Adlen, and eat. He was sure he was going to start eating horses if he waited much longer, as it was he made a beeline to the gate. Fortunately the same guard as last time was there, although he looked significantly less happy with the situation if that were possible.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Wait, what are you doing with that man? You, you can't just come in here and kidnap someone! Are you insane!?"

Lyra paused by him. “We acquired this man by law of dueling, all above board and quite reasonable I assure you. Nothing to worry about.”

“A monster is walking away with a wounded leveler on his shoulder in broad daylight, of course there's something to be bloody worried about!”

“For you perhaps, you did after all explicitly endorse this business endeavour, albeit a particularly aggressive endeavour. I wonder how your boss will feel about your responsibility in this? Taking bribes that caused such an issue, tsk tsk.”

The guard’s face dropped. “N-no! You wouldn't dare!”

“Wouldn't I? This is just business after all mister guard guy, and we paid you handsomely for your cooperation,” said ruthless business sheep Lyra.

“B-business?”

“Business!” Said Opal, giving the guard a double thumbs up as she passed.

A number of extremely angry merchants were fast approaching the guard, clearly on a warpath, and before the guard could interfere further he was swamped by yelling and shouting people.

Rain carried Adlen a ways into the woods, far away from prying eyes, privacy to eat and find some kind of closure for his deep seated trauma at long last. He flipped Adlen off his shoulder and dropped him by a tree. The leveler was clearly heavily injured; his wounds harsh, broken bones all over his body. He wasn't waking up anytime soon.

 

Lyra looks between Rain and the leveler, not a little dismay sinking in. Was she really about to let him kill this man right in front of her? He was a leveler just like her of course, that mattered, but then he had done a terrible thing to Rain, killing him and turning him into a monster, a fate that most levelers would consider far far far worse than death.

And what of her hand in this? She had been instrumental in getting this leveler into Rain’s claws. She was culpable as anything for what was about to happen.

She breathed out, steadying herself. This, this wasn't that unusual, in her city levelers killed each other often enough, whether out of greed or from a wrong. This Adlen person deserved it more than most, what he was doing to that woman in the market, well, for at least one person Adlen's sudden disappearance would mean nothing but good.

Still, she didn't like it, Rain was a monster, and that made him killing Adlen rather than a leveler ten times worse. She wasn't sure how or why, it just felt that way, it just did. A lifetime of ingrained social constructs would not be so easily changed despite her new experience with monsters.

With all that had happened… She felt lost and alone and deeply confused.

Lyra tried to imagine herself years from now. Would she still be a fugitive to a powerful and vindictive lord with vast connections and unlimited funds? Forever looking over her shoulder for opportunistic bounty hunters? Would she forever be reliant on this monster to keep her safe from the wrath of the noble? It was so far away, it was almost impossible to imagine.

Would she be alone or would there be a special person next to her?

She glanced at Rain. Him? Was she stuck with him forever? A monster? What a terrible fate! Always together, keeping her safe with his massive dominating bod- With his powerful embr- and his large- 

Lyra paused, she needed to get her mind out of the gutter. She was as bad as that red headed Elf!

As she was busy navel gazing, Rain had set Adlen down and Opal had begun pulling his clothing from his body as Rain sat cross legged and waited patiently.

Things continued like this for a time, in tense silence, until abruptly Opal’s pack spoke up.

"I want to make a deal."

Opal paused. “Did you say something Boner?”

“Stop calling me that! And yes, I have something to say to your brute of a master. It's important.”

Rain who had been watching narrowed his eyes but then nodded his head.

Opal pulled off her pack, setting it on the ground then fussed with it until she pulled Vash free, a spill of coins coming with him.

She turned the skull toward Rain, its flame eyes dancing as he was moved.

“I want to make a deal. I have important information relevant to your endeavours, of that I am absolutely certain. I wish to trade telling you this information for your word that you will not destroy me.”

Rain furrowed his brow at the skull. “How would I know this information is worth it before giving you my word?”

“I realise it is a difficult deal to make but I have no other leverage. You may negotiate down.”

“Give me the information or I will eat you right now.”

“No. And you won't get it like that, I hold the high ground here when it comes to possession of this information,” said the skull, its flame eyes looking at Rain cooly.

“Erm, perhaps a promise not to destroy you as long you don't go against our interests in any way shape or form?” said Lyra.

Vash seemed to consider this. “Hmm. Fine. I suppose that is acceptable. Do you agree on this wolf?”

Rain stared down the skull but eventually he relented. “...Yes.”

“Very well. The information. Lira, that Halfling you take issue with, it is not a Halfling.”

“...What are you talking about?”

“I am saying that it is a creature wearing the skin of a Halfling to deceive the people of that town. I do not know what creature it is, you will have to divine that for yourself, but just know that it is not as it appears, it is something else, it is acting and it is successfully fooling all of you. Only I am able to see the truth of it, as I saw the truth of that sword, below the surface Lira is not a leveler but something else.”

Rain stared at Vash. That couldn't possibly be true could it? Something was wearing Lira's skin as clothing? Pretending to be her? Or, wait, had Lira ever even existed? Had she always been a fake person? Had the thing wearing her been the one to help kill him?

There was no way... But then his instincts had quite clearly been telling him something was wrong with the Halfling, very wrong. Could the reason that she had chosen to go along with his pretence of being a leveler in fact be because Lira herself was a monster pretending to be a leveler?

He wasn't sure, this was a problem in a lot of ways. Lira was suddenly a completely unknown threat instead of just being a below average leveler.

“I believe that information is more than enough for your word,” said the skull, eyeing him carefully.

Rain reluctantly agreed with that statement. “...fine you have it.”

He gnawed on a claw distractedly. His plans were suddenly made a little more complicated..

“M-maybe you sh-should question him!”

He paused and turned to Lyra.

“You don't know anything right? Maybe this guy will be able to tell you, uhm, and about the others you are after too?

Rain did not like hearing that, mostly because she had a good point. His stomach growling painfully didn't help either, he was ravenous.

He hesitated, reason doing furious battle with his desires. 

Reason eventually won and he grabbed hold of the half naked man by the wrist and began dragging him through the woods to the mansion.