Azaria 30

Chapter 30: PARTY!

Lance

The party made, err, allowed me to hunt with them. I supposed they wanted to see what I was made of, likely to decide how they were going to make money off me. Either way, I was able to gain a few monster parts that I would have to hope offered the resistance that I came here searching for.

In other news, I found out why the parties were monopolizing this dungeon. The plant I had harvested turned out to be the prime ingredient to one of the most popular drugs on the market. In other words, I was not only in debt. I was in debt to a criminal organization. Needless to say, I wasn’t having a good time.

“Alright, little mouse. You’re free to go. Remember, three days or the next conversation we have will be, well, less than pleasant.”

I nodded to the woman that turned out to be the leader. The fact they never once asked my name, made me think they knew I was wearing an illusion. I could only grind my teeth as they walked away. Thankfully, I could deal with this problem as myself after tomorrow. I had to get ready for a party.

~~~

Walking towards the house that was likely illuminated enough to be seen from space, and music loud enough that most of the city could hear it, I adjusted my dress. I had gone out of my comfort zone to be as provocative as possible, while still maintaining a semblance of class. My goal was to get Kyle to take me to the dungeon, but to stay out of the bed.

Once inside, I saw people that should have been behind bars or on death row according to the news. People from all levels of the criminal underworld surrounded me. There were already people that were drunk and were trying to get some tail. My heightened senses allowed me to spot the overly horny ones and avoid them. I had only one goal tonight and I didn’t have time to afford these other idiots.

I grabbed a drink from one of the tables and carefully gave it a sniff. I couldn’t decide whether or not I should be surprised that it was laced with something. I quietly used Harvest and saw the entire table light up in various colors. Kyle apparently liked to use the more exotic ingredients for his guests.

I upended the glass into my mouth then used harvest to absorb it. At the rate I was going, my body would be a poison factory. No matter, everything to push the end game. I went ahead and drank a few more causing the bartender to give me a worried look. He must know what was in them then. 

“I couldn’t help it. They’re so delicious,” I said handing the seventh empty glass back to him. 

“You’re… You’re still able to talk?”

“Huh? Its just wine, right?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, ma’am. Sorry. Ignore that.” 

I chuckled then made my way around the party. After a few minutes, I found what I was looking for in the form of a VIP section. I tapped the bouncer on the arm and gave him my best puppy dog eyes. “Do you mind if I hang out in there?” The guard gave me a look over. I grinned and grabbed his hand and placed it on my chest as I moved up next to him. “Pretty please.”

I felt a few strong grabs as the man gained a grin. “Fine. Go on.”

“Yay! Thank you!” I said trying to act like a ditzy drunk. He smacked my ass as I walked past, and I sped up trying to act embarrassed. Having never done that before, I wasn’t sure I played it off right, but only the guard was watching me and he only had eyes for my ass.

Successfully in the VIP section, I was taken aback by how much money it would have cost to create this temple of sin. There was nothing short of an orgy happening in one corner and a virtual mountain of drugs sat in another. I found my target sitting with three women around him with his goons on either side of the pile with a few women each themselves. 

I was wondering how I was going to approach that when I heard mine name, or rather Erica’s name being called. Turning towards the sound, I saw the woman from Station 39. I gulped then made my way over to her. 

“Hello again little mouse. Fancy running into you again.”

“Yay me.” I said having lost all my energy. Depending on how this went, there was no way I would be able to get near Kyle tonight. 

She bent over and placed her mouth right next to me ear. “Your chest sure has swelled out nicely mister Lance. How’d you manage it? Plastic surgery?” I jerked back with horror. The red from my battle lust started to dye my vision. I would not be going out without a fight. “Calm your tits. I want to help you.”

“Help me?” I had to cough to remove the growl from my voice. I also saw my claws had started to extend and retracted them. “Why?”

“Because I hate that brat!” She pounded back her drink then made a small gesture. “Look around you. All this is someone else’s achievements, but that fucker took the credit for it. I will not stand by while my…” she cleared her throat. “Sorry. Let’s just say the issue is close to home.”

“Okay. Say I believe you. How are you going to help me?”

“I assume you have a plan. Tell me what you need help with and I’ll see what I can do.”

“For now I just need him to agree to challenge the new dungeon, station sixty-four, and to let me be part of it.”

She gave me a grin that I wouldn’t ever want to be the target of. “Leave it to me.”

She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the cesspool of lust that was the area around Kyle. He looked like he had just finished for the moment and sat with a drink using the women as a bed of sorts. “Ah. Erica and Susan. A pleasure. I would offer to entertain you, but I’m a little spent at the moment.”

“No worries Kyle. We had other things we’d like to discuss with you, a bit more business related.”

“Business?” He asked and I noticed he wasn’t too thrilled about that. Fine. Go ahead.” 

“You know how Erica’s party was wiped out the day before right?” Kyle nodded. “She wants to get revenge, but from the reports on the dungeon and her own telling, it would be hard without someone of your skill. You do rival Neo.” 

The last comment brought a smile to his face. From what I understood no one matched Neo, but that was beside the point. Kyle was running on alcohol and sex. He would be much easier to manipulate right now. “Yes. I hate that we lost to the boss!” I said with anger to add to the show.

“I had planned to conquer the new dungeon here soon. It might be hard to get in for the next couple days. The Elite are moving due to some issues.”

“Issues?” Susan asked.

“Yes. I’m not sure of the truth of the matter so don’t bother asking.” Kyle tapped his chin in thought. It might have been the first time, however, he didn’t look like an idiot that thought with only his penis. He gave us a grin then turned to me. “I’ll get us in tomorrow. Meet me at the dungeon at three after noon. You’ll get your revenge and I’ll get one up on Neo.” We didn’t get much chance to talk after that. One of Kyle’s goons came over and whispered something in his ear. “Sorry, ladies. I would love to spend more time with you, but I have other… business to attend to.” 

He got dressed and soon looked like he was about to head into a meeting. Susan and I nodded and moved away from the seating area, the women that had been attending him being escorted out much more forcibly. As Susan and I left, I saw someone I never expected to see in a place like this. Hell, she supposedly didn’t ever leave the house. 

I almost blew the entire thing until I took in the situation. She was obviously here under her own power. Several men that radiated more power than even Kyle and his goons walked with her. She was dressed in a suit, and looked almost five years older since the last time I saw her.

“Shinigami. A pleasure to have you in my home.” That was the last thing I heard before we were forced out of the VIP section. 

“Susan. Do you know who that was?” I asked trying to control my emotions.

“The Shinigami, part of the Kings Syndicate. There area rumors that she is the head, but they haven’t been confirmed. I would do your best to stay away from her. She can kill you with a look.” 

“Seriously?” Of course, I knew that. I even knew how unless she was hiding that from me too. I took a deep breath and decided I would investigate this after I dealt with Kyle. The goal was in sight, I just needed to focus on scoring.

~~

The next arrived and I found myself outside of Azaria’s dungeon with Kyle’s party. Flashbacks to a few weeks ago of when I went to the dungeon with his party as his harvester flashing through my mind. I shook my head and looked around. I noticed that there were a lot of people from the association around.

There was some of the monitoring equipment that was used to check the aether level of the dungeon and the area around it. There more agents surrounding the station than I had ever seen around a single dungeon since the dungeons came into being. I hoped there wasn’t something wrong with her. 

I didn’t have much time to worry about her though. Kyle was raring to go on the dungeon dive. I could only assume it had something to do with the the fact conquering this dungeon would somehow give him something against Neo. The fact that Neo was somehow involved with the dungeon also raised my mental eyebrow. There were a lot of things I needed to check up on once I was free of my revenge, like the fact that my little sister was apparently the boss of a crime group. 

I just rubbed my eyes and looked ahead. Not even beginning to wonder how someone such as myself with zero connections might achieve any of that, I needed to survive today to begin with. Just the thought that I might finally be able to stab the man that ruined my life made it hard for me to control my claws.

“Anything the reports might have left out, Erica dear?” Kyle asked as we stood in front of the manor entrance. I had been through it enough that it almost felt like home by this point.

“Not much. Just that the traps like to change. As the first boss is a unicorn, but given how it recently lost to that one party it might have changed how it fights.”

“Yes. I read about what they did. Not that I have to worry about that,” Kyle said with a grin. I couldn’t tell if he really took his telekinetic abilities for granted or he was just that confident in himself. Probably a bit of both.

We made our way into the dungeon and just like the last time I dived with them, Kyle’s party, or rather Kyle made easy work of the first floor. If he couldn’t out right crush the enemy, he could easily hold it in place for one of his goons to tear it apart. I prayed that we weren’t irritating Azaria too much with his methods.

While they were taking care of the Starburst, I quickly grabbed the doll Azaria gave me. Kyle was quite enjoying torturing the unicorn as it struggled against his telekinesis. The other men were having some trouble getting near him to deal a fatal blow. I stepped back a few inches and placed the doll in my collar. With a glance, I was confident that no one saw me.

“Azaria. This is my target. Think you can help me on the next floor? I just need a moment,” I whispered.

“That’s the guy? Too much hair gel. Yeah, I’ll figure something out.”

During the brief exchange, one of Kyle’s goons launched several arrows into the unicorn. While most went right through the plush, one took him in the eye and he collapsed to the side. The next five minutes was spent with us watching Kyle tear the unicorn apart slowly enough to keep him alive, or whatever it was that the toys were.

“I don’t see why this dungeon has been giving everyone so much trouble. I guess I’m just that much better than everyone else.”

The four men mutely nodded, while I voiced my agreement as enthusiastically as I could muster. I must have done a decent job with the praise as he looked quite proud of himself. I needed him to get down to the next floor and deep enough that he couldn’t run when I went to strike. As long as it was empty words, I would say as many as needed.

An amulet dropped from the boss. We wouldn’t know what it did until we got it appraised by someone with the appropriate talent, but it was no doubt a reward. I was sure Kyle would have taken it instantly had it not been a rainbow over a cloud design. He handed it to me wordlessly.

We made our way down to the next floor. This was the first time I had gone this deep and while I knew it was a cave system from the person that managed to escape. I still wasn’t sure what to expect, considering Azaria leaned toward cute with her creations. I wasn’t disappointed. 

Where one might expect gray stone from a natural cave system, the walls had been painted pink. There were cute decorations on the walls and lining parts of the floor. In some sections, it looked like a child had played around with some chalk. It didn’t feel like something Azaria had done though, so I figured it might have been one of her toys. 

Keeping my eyes open for whatever Azaria might have set up, we made our way deeper into the floor. The survivor from the last party claimed the bear monster had appeared soon after they arrived at the floor. It had already been a few minutes and we hadn’t seen a single one of the toys.

“Think it was a party feud gone wrong?” One of Kyle’s goons asked as after another five minutes or so.

“Can’t say it would be the first time, but I have a feeling that’s not the case with this,” Kyle replied with a smirk.

We soon found ourselves in a large circular room that had several paths that we could take. One of the goons raised his hand for us to come to a stop. It was the first time that he had done anything other than kill a toy since we came in. 

“What is it?” I asked unable to help myself.

“Time for some fun,” whispered the Azaria doll.

From each of the tunnels, even the one we had just come from, two teddy bears each entered the intersection. Once they were fully in the cave, the paths closed with a bang. It was the first time that Kyle actually looked nervous. I supposed that even his ability had a limit to how many targets it could be used on at once.The teddy bears all extended their arms like they wanted a hug and started moving toward us.

“What do we do boss? According to the woman, they attacked it when it transformed.” 

“You can give it a hug if you want!” Kyle shouted. Then pointed his hand at the closest bear to himself. It floated in the air and I saw part of it twist as if someone was trying to pull the head off. It wasn’t having that, and started to expand before our eyes, Kyle’s telekinetic ability having less and less affect on it. It was still made out of fabric and was able to stretch with the pull.

Like a chain affect, all the bears in the room started to explode into nothing short of full on grizzly bears. I grinned as I knew my time had finally come. While the bears charged the various goons, I moved over to Kyle and his main bodyguard. They were freaking out as four of the bears charged them.

I got behind the main bodyguard and pulled my cleaver from my storage. Hefting the weapon above my head, I brought it straight down on the bodyguard. The wicked blade carving a path through his body with little resistance until I hit a chain mail or some other armor piece under his cloths.

Yanking the weapon free, I turned to Kyle who was still preoccupied with the bears that were nearly on top of us. With a rapid glance, most of the other goons were busy fighting their own bears, which was to say they were running away from the around the room. I turned the SCALE off and placed my hand on Kyle’s shoulder, claws fully extended.

“Fancy meeting you here,” I said not hiding my malice.

“What the fuck!?” I felt his ability wash over me and grinned. The frog hearts I absorbed worked perfectly and counteracted his ability. He couldn’t use it on my person, but that wasn’t to say he couldn’t use it on things around me. Here in the dungeon, I finally had him cornered and at my mercy.

“You have no idea how much I’ve dreamed of this. I hope you’re ready to die,” I said licking my fangs for emphasis.

Blood sprayed over us as one of the bears ripped a goon in half a few feet from us. Kyle had a terrified expression that I burned into my memory. I was sure it would warm my heart in the future. With a small scream, Kyle pissed his pants. “Fuck!”

“No, not anymore.” I whipped my hand out claws leading. I easily tore his member from his body that elicited an entirely new scream. I held his face and crushed the nasty thing into a paste right in front of his eyes. One of the bears stood watching next to us and I tossed the barely recognizable object to it. It swallowed it in one bite.

“Please! I’ll do… anything! Money? Power? I can give you anything you want!”

“Power? I have that now,” I said clenching my fist to emphasize my claws that now dripped with blood. “Money might be nice,” I started and he smiled with a sliver of hope, “but with my power I think money will be the least of my problems.” I lanced my hand down and stabbed his thigh. “Time for some fun.”