by Wolfe Locke
A few moments later, it did.
The unworthy had returned to their task of stirring the pot, occasionally adding more meat from the slab.
Then, something sailed through the door to the king and bounced across the floor.
A finger with bits of flesh dangling.
The unworthy descended on it much like they had the rat. Fighting and punching and scratching each other in order to get to the tiny morsel that their king had bestowed upon them.
It was like watching a pack of feral dogs fight over a scrap that they had just been thrown.
It didn’t matter that they had just eaten one of their own. Their hunger, much like that of their king’s, was insatiable. They ate as if they would never have another chance to, because they actually might not.
Whatever the case, it was the distraction that John had been waiting for. He used the sound of the commotion over the finger to cover his and the woman’s dash to the wooden doors.
There, they beheld the majesty of the Gluttonous King.
Chapter 11: An Audience with Hunger
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Behold the Gluttonous King in his feasting. His ravenous hunger forever chaining him to this place, unable to hear the voices of the gods within. His is the fate of all those strong enough to survive whom lack the will and courage to go forward.
In front of them appeared what had once been a man. His features were bloated, his skin stretched and torn with tearing. He’s at least ten times my size. Rolls of fat hung over the table as wine and grease dripped from his mouth.
His massive body took up a large portion of the backside of what appeared to be a banquet hall. Most of the table was covered by the giant belly of the king. Most of his food rested not on the table but on him. Around the grotesque man was scattered the detritus of past meals. Piles of old bones and rotted portions of meat that had fallen to the ground for the unworthy to later consume.
The king sat on the floor. The only thing separating him from the cold stone was a large plush pillow that was barely wide enough to contain his massive girth.
As he sat there, eating, slurping at a giant bowl as soup and blood dribbling down his neck, John had to steady himself, lest he purge the little bit of nourishment that was left in his stomach.
The smell was abominable.
At first, the king did not realize the presence of his visitors. Then, his big beady eyes turned to them, his mouth still chewing.
“Well, what do we have here? It has been too long since the last time my food was presented to me this fresh.” The monster said.
“We are not to be your food, you foul creature.” the woman spat, clearly disgusted.
“You heard her.” John said. “Being eaten isn’t high on my list of priorities.
“Oh, I rather doubt that that is true. Everyone has their price. Everyone has something they hunger for. Don’t you hunger for freedom?” the king said displaying his gaping maw. “I’ll tell you what. If you give me the girl, I’ll let you go. I’ll even share the secret about how to reach the surface.”
As if to accentuate his point, the king held up a large meaty hand from which dangled a key between swollen fingers.
“Never before have I given this offer to my food. I’m not one to pass up a meal, as I’m sure you may guess. But I am a benevolent god. What say you? The price of a meal for freedom”
The woman looked at John with pleading eyes as if to say Please, don’t. She needn’t have done so. John had no intention of giving her up to this beast. Still, he needed to buy some time in order to think of what to do.
“What if I refuse?” John queried.
“Well,” replied the king. “That is relatively simple. I’ll kill her anyway and eat you both, though I’ll take my time with you. A leg first, then an arm, then the other leg. I can feed on you for hours.”
John doubted that this massive mound of fat could even stand up, let alone try to kill him. Still, the king spoke with confidence.
“Looks like we’re going to have to fight him.” John whispered to his companion as he held out one of his blessed axes for the woman to take.
She looked at him like he had just grown another head. “I am no fighter.” she said.
“What do you mean? Aren’t you an adventurer like me who was thrown into this dungeon?” he asked, wondering what she could do to help them out of the situation.
“No, I am- I don’t know what I am.” She muttered confused.
“Great,” John said sarcastically. “Take cover. I should be able to take him. He’s large, but that makes him slow.”
“I’m afraid that you are mistaken in that.” the king clamored.
Then he rose with an agility that John could not comprehend. He stood and stretched. His massive body shaking with each motion. Then, he launched himself at John.
John dove one way and the woman dove the other. She scrambled further into the hall, trying to take what cover she could.
John leapt back to his feet; blessed axes held at the ready. No sooner had he done so than the king was right on top of him, swinging one of those massive hands at John’s head.
John barely dodged it, and he felt the wind whip past his body like a small gale.
This creature may have been horribly fat, but he was also strong, and for some reason, he was also lightning quick.
John had intended to rely on his agility to outmaneuver the king and deal a series of blows that would eventually cripple him. Now, he saw that that was more easily said than done.
His plan still might work, but it would be more difficult than before.
John waited for the right moment. He allowed the king to get close, and when he once again lashed out with his large hands, John ducked under them and darted in close. He swung his axes and they met the flesh of the king’s leg.
The king did not stagger or cry out at the blow. He laughed. Then he kicked at John with his injured leg.
John’s reflexes kicked in and he managed to get away with only a graze to his arm, but that graze sent shockwaves throughout his whole body.
That kick had been delivered with all of the vast weight of the king.
John didn’t understand how he moved so well. His legs should have crumbled beneath the massive weight, but they didn’t only hold strong, they moved with an unnatural alacrity.
John stepped back, trying to give himself some distance.
The leg which he had struck oozed blood, but it was as if the king didn’t feel it at all.
He simply sauntered toward John, a wicked smile on his face.
“It has been such a long time since I’ve had to work for my food, but I think I’m up for the challenge, don’t you?”
There was no way that John could win. If this thing didn’t feel pain, then it didn’t matter how much John struck him, he would keep coming. All of his vital areas were protected by layers of fat, so that avenue wasn’t open to him either. There had to be another way.
The only things that were open to John were this banquet hall, and the kitchen that contained the unworthy. Either way he went, he would be faced with a nightmare that was intent on having him for dinner.
Then, a thought struck him. The unworthy had not hesitated to fall upon one of their own once it had fallen. Would they do the same to the king? But if John himself could not damage him, they how could they hope to?
The answer was quite obvious. They would need some help. The enemy of my enemy is my friend after all.
A plan had begun to emerge in John’s mind.
Chapter 12: The Ring, The Pot, and The Servants
* * *
Not my best plan, but I just need to go with it. It's not like I have a better idea, or time to think it out further.
"You know what? If you weren't so damn fat, you'd probably have caught me by now. I'm over here, not even trying to get out of your way, and you still haven't caught up." John taunted, pretending to not be out of breath. "You're going to have to be a lot
quicker if you want to have me for dinner."
The Gluttonous King's smile turned savage and predatory. "My mother did always tell me not to play with my food. Quite a shame really, I could have spent longer eating them. You'll meet the same fate."
The ground shook as the king sprinted toward John. The monster's chins and stomach wobbling awkwardly with every step. He's still fast. I can't let him catch me. Just a little further.
Even as the Gluttonous King's smile grew wider, John remained in control of the situation. He had managed while running to position himself directly in front of the wooden doors that led back into the kitchen.
Using the same technique that he had used on the minotaur’s, John further taunted the monster, drawing all of its ire and fury on itself. When the Gluttonous King thought he had for sure captured John, but John jumped out of the way, and the monster’s sheer bulk and momentum was too much for him to stop himself.
The wooden doors didn’t just crash open; they splintered, and the Gluttonous King stumbled into the large kitchen where the unworthy prepared the next meal for their lord. The inhuman creatures prostrated themselves at the sight of their Gluttonous King, believing that they had somehow incurred his wrath.
When the Gluttonous King slammed into the opposite wall, John was on him in a flash. Lashing out in an X-shaped attack with his blessed axes at the exposed soft flesh of the monster’s back.
Blood welled up from the cuts, but the king turned his neck and rose up like nothing had happened. He showed no sign of weakening after the attack.
“Didn’t you already try that? I’d have thought you would be smarter, but then again, if you were smart… you wouldn’t be here in the dungeon, would you?” The creature asked mockingly.
Honestly, all I wanted was some hot food and to sleep off the injuries of my fight on the road. “It’s already over, you just haven’t realized it yet,” John said with a half-smile.
The king stood there in the kitchen trying to maneuver its bulk to turn around and chase after John. The unworthy began to squirm, no longer completely cowed by the presence of their vile master. John noticed how the unworthy, like many a monster, had been drawn to the smell of blood. They turned, their senses fixated on the sound of how the blood dripped down the monster’s legs and back. Though the cuts didn’t affect the Gluttonous King, the bloodletting had an intense effect on the unworthy.
The monster pushed away from the table and a counter that it had been pent up against and was just about ready to come at John again when the growls started.
John smiled as the Gluttonous King looked into soulless eyes and saw only hunger reflected. He enjoyed seeing a look of fear pass over the monster’s face as the unworthy all began to advance.
They could not truly see him, but they could smell him. They could now smell the blood that seeped from his body, and they longed for it. These were no longer people. They were animals, driven by the most basic desire of the living. The most basic need.
The need to feed.
“What do you all think you’re doing?” the king said shakily as he struggled to back away from the growling unworthy. “I am your king, and I command you to strike down this insolent man who has come against me.”
The command fell on deaf ears. The unworthy had spent so much time feeding the abhorrent existence that was the Gluttonous King while they lived off of rats, bugs, and whatever scraps he deigned to give them. Now, here he was bleeding and vulnerable.
Without a word, the unworthy swarmed their king. He screamed, trying to bat them away with his heavy hands and arms, while others he seized in his oversized fists and brought up to his mouth, biting off their heads. He managed to kill more than a few, but there were too many.
They tore chunks of bloody flesh with each attack from their yellowed claws and with their bare teeth. To his credit, the king didn’t appear to be so easily defeated.
“Fine.” He roared. “You think to make a meal out of me? Let me show you how it is done.”
The king grabbed the closest unworthy, but rather than raise it to his mouth like before, his entire stomach opened, revealing rows and rows of sharp teeth in a gaping maw and tossed the unworthy in.
What followed was a fight of hunger and survival.
John was completely forgotten as the Gluttonous King and the unworthy struggled against each other. While the unworthy had numbers on their side, the king had the unnatural ability to ignore the wounds they inflicted upon him. At times, John was sure that the Gluttonous King was regenerating with each kill.
Eventually, there were only three unworthy standing against the king, who was unwavering. He bled from countless bites and scratches, but he still stood strong. John’s plan had failed. Once the last of the unworthy were dispatched, he would turn his insatiable hunger toward John.
John cast his eyes about the kitchen, searching for another way, and his eyes landed on the still-simmering pot.
It was truly massive. The whole pot was even big enough to hold something as vast as the king.
Another idea began to form in John’s mind. If he could lure the king into the pot, or at least near it, maybe he could dispatch him once and for all.
There were only two unworthy left now, and as John watched, the king delivered a blow to one of them that made its spine snap audibly. It lay on the ground, twitching.
The last unworthy, seeing that there was no hope, made the wise choice to flee. It ran into the cage and cowered in the corner, just like those who it had tormented.
Finally, the Gluttonous King turned his eyes toward John. A look of pure hate and malice reflected within.
"You. This is all your fault. I've lost my servants! Who will prepare my meals now?" The king bellowed.
"There will be no more meals for you." John said.
"Oh, I think there will be at least a couple more. First, I will tear you limb from limb, and then I will carve your flesh and eat it in strips. Then it will be the girl's turn."
The king began to amble toward John, hunger and anger burning hot in his eyes.
How am I supposed to push him into the pot? Or tip it over on him? Would that even work? I saw him take so much damage already, yet he still came on like a storm. Jack shook the thoughts from his mind. I can't allow myself to get distracted.
Then, a voice from the banquet hall called out the answer.
"His hand! Aim for the ring on his left hand!"
The voice came from the woman whom John had saved. He hadn't even noticed it before, but now John saw the ring that she was referring to. It was a band of silver that wound around the king’s finger, though the band was almost impossible to see with the bloated finger it was attached to.
“You devilish wench!” snarled the king. “Your death will be so much sweeter when the screaming starts. .”
The king's response told John all he needed to know. It must have been the ring that was giving him this unnatural ability to resist damage.
Now, he had a target. If he could get rid of that ring, he could turn the tide of this fight.
Now that the king knew his weakness was exposed, he was more defensive. He and John circled each other around the kitchen, the massive boiling pot in the center.
Finally, John launched himself at the king, his blessed axes at the ready. John was determined to end things once and for all.
The king lashed out with his right arm, the one that did not bear the ring.
John slid under the oversized arm and hopped up when he was closer, knowing that he’d get but one chance to take the ring. John slashed down with his blessed axes.
The king bellowed and savagely counterattacked with a haymaker that struck John center of the chest. John took the full force of the blow, several of his ribs snapping. He crashed into the boiling pot and sustained a burn across his back before dropping to the floor.
"You foolish man. Did you truly think you could best me? I am a god in this place. You will never leave, not even death will release you.” The king pr
omised.
John couldn’t respond with words. He was having trouble breathing through his broken ribs. Instead, he held up his hand and allowed the ring to catch the light.
The king faltered. “What? How?”
John removed the ring from the finger he had taken. I got what I needed to get. Lets see how strong you are now.
Without the ring, the king began to deflate almost immediately. The wounds that he had suffered began to take their toll, and he grew pale from blood loss.
With a final effort, the Gluttonous King staggered toward John, intent on taking him down with him. But John wasn’t having it. Even injured as he was, John saw an opportunity. He ran around the king and gave him a push. Without his ring, the king’s legs struggled to support and bear his weight. He tripped, falling forward into the massive boiling pot.
John watched with grim satisfaction as the king met his end and didn’t turn away until the monster’s screaming and thrashing stopped.
You have done well to defeat one who was consumed by their own darkness. More such challenges await you further below. The one known as the Gluttonous King was not alone in his fall from grace.
Chapter 13: She of Temperance
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Can you not smell it? Does your stomach not hunger? The ever-stewing feast that awaits you. Just have a taste, a little sip. Aren’t you hungry? Well, aren’t you? A single taste will take your pain away. Give in. Become like him.
Never. I’ll never be like him.