by Tamryn Tamer
Madam Gardenia leaned in and buried her face in his neck as he wrapped his free hand around Erena’s slender waist. The petite fox-woman leaned back and the music stopped.
An awkward silence took over the room and Frost became acutely aware of the eyes focused on the trio. The other dancers had cleared out a significant chunk of the floor for him and the women and found themselves unable to look away. He could feel the eyes of not only the diners on the ground floor, but also the diners on the balconies. Even the humans on the highest balcony were staring.
“This is awkward,” Frost chuckled.
“Let it be awkward my darling,” Madam Gardenia said while cupping his face in her hands. She leaned up and kissed him. The silence in the room was broken by a handful of snide comments about how disgusting they were.
“Whoo!” Jasmine shouted while clapping her hands and whistling loudly to cover the rude remarks.
“Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!” Zinnia roared while banging her fist on the table.
“Beautiful!” Iris shouted while clapping loudly. “Not fair! Not fair! Not fair!
The break in silence caused the first and second floor of the establishment to break out in applause and whistles that drowned out the boos and rude comments from the humans on the top floor. Frost chuckled nervously as he performed a playful bow and turned to return to his table with the fox women.
“Oi,” a glass shattered on the floor behind him silencing the crowd. A drunk patron on the second balcony laughed as they watched demihumans move to avoid the shards. They clearly weren’t pleased that their comments were drowned out by a bunch of demihumans. “We paid good money to be here! We shouldn’t be subjected to that fucking perversion! You going to pay for ruining our night your disgusting acts you fucking animals?”
Several other large men laughed with the irritated man and threw their bottles down as more demihumans scurried off the floor to avoid the debris.
“The fucking audacity of these Kina cunts,” another shouted. “Just because a god thinks of them as pets the fucking fox-bitches think they’re as good as humans.”
“What do you have to say for yourselves, you mangy bitches?” a man bellowed. “Why don’t you apologize for ruining our night with that disgusting act?”
“Want to come down here and say that?” Jasmine said as she grabbed a bottle and launched it up at the man. Another man pushed the first aside and caught the bottle with ease and tossed it back down onto the floor. “You have something to say, cowards?”
“Wasn’t talking to you, mongrel,” the man that caught the bottle said. Frost scanned him and he was a level thirty-eight fighter. Several other men took positions on the railing and Frost realized that they were all wearing matching blue coats with silver bow emblems sewn into them. Most of them were between thirty-five and forty-five and they were armed. “Stay out of this you flea-infested cunt.”
“No!” Zinnia roared while slamming her glass on the table. “You stay out of it, you lice infested ass blister!”
“Yah!” Iris said while ducking behind the drunk Durra. “What we do is none of your business!”
“How about I come down there and chop off your ears you shit-eating vermin!”
“Please, everybody,” a blonde Durra in an unnaturally provocative chef’s coat shouted as she came rushing out of the kitchen. Other staffers rushed out behind her with brooms and several large Durra males formed a protective circle around the chef and her workers. None of them were high enough level to make a difference if a fight actually broke out. “Please calm down! We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and if you have a complaint, we’ll be happy to hear…”
“Shut the fuck up bitch! If you want to talk to your fucking betters you should get down on all fours like the dog you are!” one of the drunk men on the balcony shouted as he grabbed a plate from a nearby table and whipped it at her. “Can’t believe we were considering being a supplier for this fucking barn!”
“This is stupid,” Frost said, dashing past the bodyguards in a blink and catching the plate. “If you’re looking for a fight at least have the decency to take it outside!”
“Sir…” the Durra chef backed away from him.
“You’re pretty fast spellblade,” the drunk level forty-five said as he pulled out a curved sword and jumped over the rail. He landed on the dance floor with a deafening thud. The workers and their Durra bodyguards quickly backed away from the man as four more jumped down to join him. Others in their group opted to take the stairs and a few spellcasters positioned themselves to watch the action from up top.
“Lord Sebastian,” Madam Gardenia said calmly from the edge of the dance floor. “Why don’t we simply pay for ruining their evening? Surely it would be a better solution than this. You have an important meeting tomorrow.”
“Fuck that!” Jasmine shouted. “Fuck them up!”
“Yeah!” Zinnia yelled in agreement.
“Lady Bloodtail is right,” Erena said, attempting to keep a steady tone as she trembled with rage. “If we ruined these lords’ night, we should simply reimburse them.”
“What about my reimbursement?” Frost asked, ignoring the objections of his dates. “He ruined my evening.”
“My lord!” Madam Gardenia snapped. “We both know that your evening is not ruined. We will retire and I’m sure you’ll find ways to enjoy yourself.”
“I’d be willing to forgive you for ruining our evening,” the level forty-five said with an evil grin. “As long as you reimburse us…but you and your animals will also need to get on your hands and knees to apologize.”
“Sirs,” Erena said politely. “I’m afraid you’re making a grave mistake…”
“Nobody’s talking to you fucking beasts!” one of the drunk men pulled out a large axe while the others pulled out a combination of swords and hatchets. “Just keep your mouth shut while your betters are fucking talking.”
“Can’t wait for the new king to take the throne,” a man chuckled. “Then we can go back to chaining up these fucking beasts.”
“My lords please,” the chef pleaded. “We’ll happily comp all of your meals and serv…”
“We told you to shut the fuck up,” one of the men said, whipping the hatchet at the Durra. Frost raised his hand and created a small barrier, stopping the axe mid-flight. The man scanned him and smiled. “A spellblade, huh?”
“Any of you ever had one of those moments where you wished you could go five minutes back in time and make a different decision?” Frost asked as he reached into one of the enchanted pockets of his pants. After a second of searching, he pulled out a pair of steel strike enhancers that Renna developed. She called them punchies but Frost knew them as kubatons and his were crafted from wyvern bones and wrapped in bloodsteel. “Well, I can assure you that five minutes from now you’ll regret not walking away.”
“Right,” the man chuckled. “I’m just shaking in my boots! A level forty spellblade! I get it, noble types all think because you graduate from some academy and learn a special class like spellblade that they are better than everybody else. But the real world isn’t as soft as your academy. You’re about to find that out unless you get on your knees and kiss our fucking feet.”
“I gave you a chance,” Frost said, secretly happy that the men didn’t walk away.
Maybe it was the alcohol, but he wanted to kill them, badly. At the same time, he knew that killing them would draw a lot of unwanted attention and could negatively impact on him getting his permit. He’d have to settle for crippling them.
“Yeah,” the man said while preparing to attack. “After we’re done with you and your girls, you’re going to wish you got on your hands and knees and…”
Frost dashed in front of him and delivered a flaming right fist to his stomach before he could finish his sentence. He followed up with a stone reinforced left hook knocking out several of the man’s teeth and shattering his open jaw. As the man started to fall to the ground Frost ducked and leaned to the right before d
elivering another flaming right to the man’s eyeball, knocking him back upright. Before any of his comrades could respond Frost had delivered six subsequent punches to the man’s face turning it into a bloody and burnt mess.
“Wha…”
Frost dashed to the left, keeping himself low as he twisted his body. His fist crashed against the chest of the next drunkard. He pulled it back as he felt the man’s bones crack and break. The hatchet-wielding man dropped his weapon and stood paralyzed for a second as Frost delivered a series of magically-infused lefts and rights to his rib cage. He wanted to break every bone inside of the man without killing him. He finished with an uppercut and he felt the crunch of the man’s teeth cracking as he followed through.
“Holy fuck,” a man said as he turned to flee. Frost dashed forward so fast it probably appeared like a blink. He knew he wasn’t moving like a level forty and he didn’t care. He wanted to punish the men.
They had their chance to flee and now he was hunting them. Lessons needed to be learned. He smashed his earth-infused left first into the man’s kidney and less than a second later his right landed in the other. The man’s body arched as he screamed in pain and Frost grabbed the man’s neck, pulling him backward as he lifted his knee into the man’s spine. As the man lifted off the ground, Frost removed his knee and delivered another powerful left right into the man’s face, sending him directly into the ground.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” a man shouted.
Others shouted similar profanities as they came down to the floor to aid their bosses. If they moved to assist their friends, Frost left them alone. But every one of them that came at him was mercilessly dealt with as Frost destroyed their bodies, crushing their heads, their ribs, and their backs. More and more bodies piled up as men coughing up blood desperately tried to crawl away from him.
“He’s a fucking monster,” a man cried. His friend dragged him off the dance floor leaving a trail of blood. The man’s legs were shattered and the bones jutted from both his thighs and his shins.
“Get them out of here! Don’t attack him!”
Some of the men realized that Frost was only attacking those that were attacking him and focused on getting their friends out of the building. If they rushed them to a priest or physician, they might be able to prevent permanent damage, although it would be expensive. Others weren’t as smart.
“Fucker,” a man said while swinging a steel club at him. Frost ducked under the club and delivered a rocky left to the man’s rib cage followed by a fiery uppercut. Frost ignited one of his black wyvern-leather boots as he lifted his leg in the air and brought it down, devastating the man’s chest.
“Now!” the spellcasters on the second floor said as they amassed a large unstable ball of flame. He recognized the mid-level fire spell, Raging Blaze. It had a greater size and intensity than the basic fireball spell but it wasn’t accurate. It was more suitable for burning down a village than it was for killing an opponent.
“Fucking idiots,” Frost growled as he realized the damage the spell could do to the surroundings. He funneled mental energy through a complex series of wind and water runes and raised his hand in the air. “Water Vortex!”
A funnel of wind and water appeared above Frost’s hand and sucked in the unstable mass of flames before it could do any damage to the other patrons or the surroundings. Once the fire was dealt with, Frost created several translucent barrier platforms and leapt between them until he reached the balcony. He grabbed the spellcasters by their collars and pulled them over the railing, sending them crashing into the floor below.
Frost looked around the balcony to make sure there weren’t any other casters hiding and then leapt back down to the ground floor.
“Somebody, get the guards!”
“And tell them what?” another one snapped as they helped two bloody men limp toward the exit. “What do you think happens to us if the guards come?”
“We’ll tell them we were def…”
“There are fucking witnesses you idiot…”
“They’re fucking animals…”
“Fuck!” another shouted.
Frost watched and waited as the broken men were dragged out of the club by their friends. After about ten minutes Frost slipped his punchies into his pockets and let out an exhausted sigh. He looked around the restaurant and it seemed that half the patrons had cleared out while the other half were a combination of entertained and frightened.
“E-excuse me my lord,” the chef said as she approached him from behind. “I-I’m going to have to…”
“Ask me to leave,” Frost nodded as he stared at the blood and debris stained floors. Several teeth and a few small bone-fragments were scattered all over the dance floor. “I understand. I’m sorry about the mess and I’m happy to pay for any damages I caused.”
“You have no reason to apologize my lord,” the Durra said while bowing her head. “You weren’t bothering anybody. I should have known better than to host a company that’s outwardly hostile toward my clientele. It was my mistake. Of course, we’ll take care of your dinner and…”
“I’m going to have to insist on paying,” Frost said firmly while staring at the nervous Durra and her defenders. “I probably went a little overboard there.”
“You think?” Madam Gardenia said while glaring at him. “You think you may have gone a little overboard there? What’s the first clue? The pile of broken teeth that they’re going to have to sweep up?”
“Don’t you go yelling at him!” Jasmine said while guzzling down her own self-made mixture of liquor and juice. “You didn’t complain when he nearly killed that noble in Blackwater for insulting you! Don’t think we haven’t heard about that!”
“Yah!” Zinnia said, nearly falling as she rose from her seat. “He didn’t even use his sword! He was going easy on them!”
“Let’s go home!” Iris drunkenly whined. “I want to thank Heral…ord Sebastian! I’ll even let him put it anywhere! Whoo!”
“You always let him put it anywhere,” Jasmine teased while grabbing Jasmine’s ears. “Where’s he going to put it, your ears?”
“Ouch! I meant my butt! My butt!” Iris whined.
“I’ll talk to you later,” Madam Gardenia said while glaring at Frost. She was trying to be serious but he could tell she was holding back a smile. She stomped toward the girls and began ripping the alcohol from their hands while smacking them on the head.
“Boo!” Zinnia shouted. “Boo! Madam No-fun! Boo!”
“Ha!” Jasmine laughed. “Madam No fun!”
“It’s not…hic…fair!” Iris said while attempting to hide what appeared to be a bottle of tomato juice mixed with liquor. “Jas-mine…hic…already drank hers so I should get to...hic…drink mine!”
“Fine!” Madam Gardenia growled. “But not until we get home!”
“How much covers everything?” Frost asked the Florenne chef while staring at their table full of food and the mess.
“Um,” she looked at Frost’s waitresses who quickly rushed over with an itemized bill of the meal. The dog-eared woman’s eyes went wide as she stared at the tab. “How did you…I mean…my lord. Your total for the food and beverages comes to two thousand and forty-six rel. As for the other…”
“Will five thousand cover it?” Frost asked.
“That’s far too much…” the woman said as Frost pulled a handful of large rel coins out and placed them in her hand. “My lord…”
“I wager those assholes didn’t pay their tab either,” Frost sighed. “How much did they owe?”
“Please don’t worry about that,” the chef said politely. “This was all my fault. I should have never allowed them to dine here. I’m ashamed of my decision but I had hoped to impress them with my restaurant so that they could become our vendor since our current one won’t be renewing their contract with us.”
“I’ve been hearing a lot about that,” Frost said. He would have loved to discuss what the specific items the woman needed were but there w
ere still too many variables. “I hope that things work out for you. And once again, I’m sorry about causing so much trouble.”
“You were no trouble at all my lord,” she said quietly. “Please, feel free to come back another night.”
“Thanks,” Frost said. “We’ll see how long I’m in the city.”
“Let’s stop at another bar on the way home!” Jasmine said cheerfully.
“Yeah…hic!” Iris agreed while leaning on Zinnia.
“We can go to one of the glow rooms!” Zinnia said cheerfully.
“We’re going home,” Madam Gardenia said. “Lord Sebastian needs a good night’s sleep.”
“Sleep? Ha!” Jasmine laughed. “More like a good fucking!”
“Keep it down you loudmouthed harlot,” Madam Gardenia said while tugging on Jasmin’s orange hair. She glared at Frost. “What in the world have you done to her?”
“Me?” Frost chuckled. “She was like that when you gave her to me.”
“Why did you do that?” Erena asked as she took his arm.
“Because I wanted to,” Frost answered. “I always just do what I want.”
“Always?” Erena looked up at him, her glossy blue eyes shimmering as she flashed him an impish smile. “Because I get the feeling you’ve been holding back with me.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself Periwinkle,” Madam Gardenia said while latching onto his other arm.
“You’re the one that enlisted me to help you entice your lord away from those three,” Erena said, pointing at the three drunk beastwomen leaning on each other as they stumbled home. “Are you saying you no longer want my help?”
“I didn’t need help,” Madam Gardenia said defensively. “I suggested it might be fun to captivate him.”
“Did we?” Erena asked while looking up at him. “Captivate you?”
“Absolutely,” Frost chuckled. “But did I captivate you?”
“You’ll have your answer to that once we get back to the Ivory Lounge,” Erena said. “Lord Sebastian.”