by Daniel Ruth
While I was surprised, I certainly didn't care. I was going back to debating with myself when I saw another flash of movement and a small human ran towards the dog. This wasn't good since it was heading into the thick of the fight.
While the gang members weren't specifically targeting the child, they were somewhat crazed and even their fellow members were occasionally hit with not so friendly fire. I intercepted two hits that might have been lethal with tiny force fields before I simply shook my head and bubbled the small human and dog completely.
The little one continued forward and bounced off the wall, falling back on its butt. I stifled a chuckle. That never got old. The dog likewise bounced off the invisible field but it wasn't nearly as funny.
I was surprised that no one noticed. The fighting continued and even the nearest shifters didn't register the newest additions. As the minutes passed the force fields got dimmer and dimmer from the glancing attacks.
"What a bunch of idiots," I sighed. I wasn't sure what it would take to get their attention. Whatever it was I was going to have to do it soon or they would pop the bubbles simply from a steady stream of clumsy wild strikes.
I took inspiration from my favorite surly special forces officer. I changed into a hybrid bear. Mostly humanoid, with fur and claws. A bearish snout and teeth were also needed for the well-dressed werebear. I would have gone full bear but I just couldn't get around the restriction of the rune.
Standing up, I was just about to leap down when the ledge I was standing on gave way. Tumbling down to the street below I cursed the builders. This would never have happened in Arc. It took Faramond a full powered supernaturally backed strike to blow me through a few walls of permacrete back there.
I was still grumbling to myself as I landed in a shower of rubble. Although I landed on my butt the sheer size of an eighteen-foot-tall bear shifter landing in their midst put an instant halt to their brawling. I saw a few of them lose their balance and fall from the tremor caused by the landing. I had a brief moment to be thankful the street didn't collapse and dump me into the sewer.
Not one to miss my cue I stood up as quickly as I could. I am not sure how that could possibly come across as not an accident but there is something to be said for shock and awe. I roared as I reared to my full height and stretched out my pawish hands with their eight inches of clawed glory.
"Argh, do you have permission to brawl like a pile of rabid rats," I growled out. The crowd around me backed up.
"Who the hell do you think you are," a large wolf, eight feet at the shoulders growled as it shifted into a hybrid form. That was possibly the largest wolf form I had seen, my own excepting. He looked like a dire wolf. I hadn't thought dire wolf shifters were an actual thing.
"I'm the Arbitrator," I growled loudly back. "I'm the one that gets called in when idiots like you create problems!"
The people looked at each other with a mixture of puzzlement and fear. I was blatantly ripping off what little I knew of shifter society and namedropping some positions I heard of from Conrad. I wasn't sure what to do if this world had deviated from my own earth analog.
"What the hell are you doing in America?" the largest hyena hybrid spat out. "Since when do the European packs interfere with the states?"
I smiled to myself. Ah good, they gave me a clue. The gangs cringed a bit from my bared fangs. Yes, among the animals, exposed teeth is a threat.
"They do unless people from the younger generation are so out of control that they start picking fights with the government supported superheroes! You fools blow your identity here and you blow it everywhere. Do you think the world is going to believe shifters only exist in New York? You all piddled on the floor and I'm here to clean up after you!"
"You old fossils should go back under the rocks you crawled from," the hyena leader growled. "The leopards were the ones that outed us! Do you think we can just go back to the way things were? Humans already know! The 'heroes' are already hunting us. It's time to come out into the open and claim our own territory!"
"Leopards," I snorted skeptically. "You expect me to believe the cats let go of..." I paused as I thought what the shifters call this whole hiding thing. For a brief moment, I regretted not giving a damn about shifter society. Falling back on my movie nights with Jeremy I continued. "...the 'masquerade'? The cats are barely organized into packs. Giving them directions is like herding..."
I stopped in mid-speech. It occurred to me that yes, the cats, leopards specifically, are indeed terrible pack members. However, we did have a rogue demon lord who happens to be a Rakshasa. In their natural demon form, they are cat headed humanoids.
"What's he staring at," I heard a whisper from the crowd. "Do you think he had an aneurysm?"
"You a friggin idiot," another replied. "Shifters don't have no aneurysms. He's probably just mental."
"So, the European packs are stepping in," I said absently. "If it's true that we can't hide anymore, then we will manage how we are outed."
"We disagree," growled the wolf. The hyena pack leader growled in agreement, causing several of the pack members on both sides to look towards him in startlement.
"We seem to have reached an impasse," I muttered. My mind was mostly on the possibility of another demon nest. "You can either change your mind or I beat you until you change your mind."
"Is this an official challenge," the wolf leader asked. He looked somewhat nervous. This was understandable, as large as he was, I completely dwarfed him.
"If that is what it takes to get you to fall in line," I nodded, finally focusing my attention back on him. "I don't want to waste too much time so you can all come at me if you like." I was a little vague on the actual mechanics of the challenge. Did I fight the leader, the entire pack or everyone in a single pack member one at a time?
To hide my ignorance, I chose to give them this option. He would be a moron to think he could take me on in single combat. It was also true that I didn't want to waste my time.
"We accept," the hyena leader spat out. With a commanding growl, the entire group pounced on me. The wolf pack was on me a moment later.
Within seconds I had hyenas and oversized wolves hanging from my limbs. I won't lie, it stung. Like really painful bee stings. Since I couldn't form my normal force field, I chose to go with the tactic of periodically healing myself. This was actually a pretty crappy tactic. Even with my inherent healing and psionic healing, it was simply a better idea not to take damage.
I grabbed one furry form after another and carefully squeezed my hands on its limbs, 'gently' crushing them in a manner that it would take hours to heal. To thin out the herd I threw most of them down the street.
And by this, I mean way down the street. A mere fall wouldn't hurt them but being thrown two blocks, rolling another block before coming to a stop, put the fear of me into their hearts. Several sat up and simply shook in fear as they stared back at where I was fighting. Some slunk away, however, most reluctantly made their way back... slowly.
Either way, this gave me time to deal with the remainder. I carefully crushed their limbs one at a time. A few months ago, I had gotten into my first fight with some werewolves and accidentally killed a few. Shifters are supernatural creatures but unless you’re a werebear or tiger you'll find yourself on the lower combat range compared to many supernatural entities.
Thump after thump shook the ground like miniature earthquakes. A few blocks away, where the creatures were landing, car alarms triggered one after another as the impacts set them off. Several of the parked cars were unlucky enough to be in the way of a shifter as it landed and rolled away uncontrollably. These were either shoved backwards several feet, flipped over or outright sent tumbling themselves.
The two packs tried to coordinate. They did a decent job of it too. After a few minutes, they used the tried and true method of hamstringing and crippling larger foes before attacking a foes vitals.
The problem was that I wasn't a bear, an antelope, moose or even an elephant. My
true form was a dragon. No matter what form I wore my skin was my armor. Even piercing my skin, my muscles, tendons, and viscera weren't much softer. My bones were even harder.
They had as much chance of taking me down as I had of taking down a demon lord. Without cheating I mean. The group was finally thinning when I felt the ground shift and the group of us fell in a pile through the road. And then the aroma began.
"Oh my god the smell," one pack member moaned, before impressively retreating in a single bound. The others similarly followed soon afterward. Soon I was alone in a pit full of waste products.
I decreased my weight a bit and leaped up and out of the hole into the sewer. I noticed in passing that it was pretty much where I had landed when I had fallen from the building. Shoddy construction all around.
"Well come on," I waved towards them from the edge of the opening. It was disgusting and I was absolutely cringing inside but I could hold it all in until after the fight.
"I'm not biting into that," one wolf said as he transformed back into a nearly naked male.
"Me either," a hyena said. He must have been one of the ones walking back from where I threw them because he wasn't covered in feces.
"We can still take him," exhorted the lead wolf. "We can't let the pricks back east disrespect us!"
"Let it go Joe," the hyena leader suggested. "Look at him. He's barely bleeding and the wounds he had are already healed."
"We're all covered in shit," a wolf hybrid moaned. "It was only our teeth that did as much damage as that."
I looked on in surprise as they argued. Who knew that being matted in waste was such a deterrent for shifters?
"You," I pointed to a clean werewolf who was just making his way back. "Go check to see if she's okay. I'd do it myself, but I don't think it would be sanitary." I dismissed the last remains of the force bubble around the child as I pointed.
"Harry," the wolf leader said in shock. "What the hell are you doing here. You're supposed to be in bed. As in not even in the neighborhood!"
Now that we weren't in combat, I could see the child was wearing jeans and a small leather jacket with a silhouette of a red wolf on it. I still couldn't tell if it was a male or female. The child ran over and grabbed the dog and hugged it. The runt was a male? Who knew?
"Like you're supposed to be out either," it pouted.
"You’re the little brother, so you do what you're told or I beat your ass till its red as a tomato," he sneered. "Simon, take him back to my house. Make sure he don't leave."
As I watched them walk away Joe and the hyena leader approached me.
"I accept the Arbitrator's judgment," they reluctantly grunted in an eerie chorus.
"Did you two practice that?" I asked offhandedly. I shrank down to my human form. They didn't blink at this, however, their eyes widened when they saw my clothes crawl over my form. "Never mind. Let's go somewhere with a shower."
"There's an abandoned apartment we use a few blocks over," Joe reluctantly volunteered. "Cacklers aren't allowed."
"Up yours and your mothers too," spat the hyena.
"I won," I replied. "You do what I say or I stomp you all again." It was oddly refreshing to have things reduced to this sort of simplicity. "We need to talk, so he comes. Get used to having other shifters in your territory. You’re the first I've contacted so it's your honor to host me."
This would make housing so much easier. A temporary base until I could get another identity. Speaking of which. "I will also need a new identity. We'll use your underworld contacts to get me one. Make sure it exists electronically."
"What the hell?" asked Joe. "You think I'm a criminal or something? How the hell would I know how to get a fake ID."
I stood looking at him blankly for a moment. All of my expectations shattered. I muttered, "Worst gang leader ever."
I had completely forgotten that shifters had enhanced senses. "Hey, we banded together to defend our territory from dickheads that think they can just walk all over us," he spat at me while looking at his hyena counterpart.
"Mewling babes," replied the hyena. "You're lucky the Arbitrator's here or I'd kick your ass out of this city. Don't worry Arbitrator, the Cacklers know what the hell we're doing, unlike the dim Direwolves."
Congratulations on being a decent thug, I thought to myself as I shook my head. The two gang leaders argued back and forth like a dysfunctional married couple all the way back to my new base.
Chapter 19
The apartment wasn't far. That was the good news. The rest of the news wasn't so great.
"Is this condemned," I half asked, half stated as I walked into the building. This wasn't just an old part of the city, it was seriously neglected. Not only was the paint peeling, so was some of the actual wall. I would have tested it with a finger but I didn't want to get dirty. This was with me covered in shit.
"I expected worse," Jim said with snark. "Since the Direwolves are so half-assed, this is a step up."
"Shut the fuck up, Cackler," spat Joe. "We started off as a pack. It's only when you animals got out of control that we had to change how we did things! At least we aren't a band of crappy little thugs!"
"Enough," I said mildly. I didn't want to be caught between two squabbling teens. "It will do for tonight. Tomorrow, while Jim gets me an identity, we'll have some... fixes... done."
I looked at Joe's worried face and continued. "I'll pay. Find out who owns the building. If I have to pay for it to be fixed, I may as well own it."
We reached the top, at the fifth floor. Fortunately, I had reduced my weight back to a normal human's. The floor still creaked threateningly and in a few places the steps had actually rotted through. I wasn't sure if my Repair spell would work on something broken so long ago but I think I could strengthen the foundation and remaining structure. If I couldn't I may as well raze the place and go find a better location.
Thinking of changing into a mini Godzilla and burning it with my nonradioactive breath brought a smile to my face. I might look a little lumpy with the rune restrictions but it would be fun anyway. The gang members around me shifted uncomfortably at my expression.
The apartment was as bad as I expected. Joe said it was the best in the building. It was still pretty horrible. No intact paint, stained walls, warped wood, holes galore.
"Does it have running water?"
"Of course, it does," defended the wolf leader. "Most of the electricity works too."
I looked at the chipped, bare ceramic bases hanging from the ceiling and the others nailed to the wall with the wiring exposed. Well, at least I wouldn't have to worry about my aura damaging the fixtures. Primitive devices didn't care. The worst that would happen would be the lights dimming and wavering again. It was actually one of the few details they got right in the horror films.
"Alright, leave me be," I told them. "Come back tomorrow at noon. Bring lots of food."
"Er... I don't..." Joe stuttered in embarrassment.
"Little dogboy don't have the dough for new clothes, let alone eating out," the hyena leader mocked. "I'll take care of it."
"Okay, out then," I gestured to the door. "We'll talk about things tomorrow."
I heard them stomp down the stairs, still bickering. One of them wasn't careful and their foot went through a hole in the steps. I had no enhanced hearing and I still heard them clattering around well into the street.
Once I was alone, I looked at myself and the room in disgust. The robe, even in its shapeshifted form was self-cleaning. I was not.
I suppressed a bout of shivering and went into a Cleaning frenzy. I was first. Fortunately, feces weren't anywhere as resistant as dragon blood. It not only got me in a single spell but a good ten feet around me. Five more Cleans and the apartment was bearable if still broken down. Stains, mold, and dirt vanished under my mighty magics.
Then I went into a round of Repair spells. This gave rather haphazard results. Some lighting fixtures righted themselves and seated themselves flush to the wall. Others ha
d the wiring and insulation restored but remained hanging. I could see wood rot vanish but holes in the wall remained.
I don't think it was exactly random but dependent on how much of the original material was there. Only small portions were restored if anything significant was missing, but if things were simply smashed or broken it did a fair job of restoring them.
The ragged drapes weren't affected but I got to try out the Mend Fabric cantrip out. It worked surprisingly well. I can't say they looked new, however, it would be fair to say they looked lightly used. No holes and not faded too badly. I also used it on the furniture and it did wonders for the lining and padding.
By the time I was done, an hour had gone by and late evening had changed into almost early morning. My mana reserves were almost completely drained but I could sit on the dilapidated couches or chairs without cringing.
It did confirm it might be worth hiring a contractor and that the building may be salvageable if I was willing to invest the energy in repairing it first. However, unless I was willing to sink a tremendous amount of magic into the building it wasn't going to be possible. I had a lot of magic and a single apartment with three rooms had almost done me in.
I would have to see if a ley line was nearby. I had seen a few approaching the city and it should be dark enough to see one fairly easily. My senses tingled slightly as I stretched them out. A good sign.
I opened a window and stepped out onto the fire escape. I cast Repair on it first. I was learning. Growing wings, I flew to the roof. The first thing I did was to take a small anchor shard and rest it on top of one of the various protrusions on the roof.
This would give me a decent place to teleport back to if I was in deadly danger and didn't mind agonizing pain on the magnitude of being processed through a blender and poured into a black hole. I would have put it in a more concealed area but after blowing a hole through my last apartment I thought I would limit the possible damage. I looked over to where the headless Statue of Liberty was. I hadn't confirmed it was collateral damage from me but I had my suspicions. Well, I did what I could.