Gryff Boxset

by Sloss, Marcus

  The kitsune nodded rapidly and she said, “Yes sir.”

  “Maybe we can get you a cheaper one, and have you work on trade routes. My advisors keep saying portals are not the only way to trade,” The rhinorc said in a huffing snort.

  I was still in shock. Words failed to reach my lips. I wrapped my head around the enemies of another place reaching a common ground to achieve mutual goals. This was a bit much to comprehend.

  “The plant said for me to have this?” I said and grew concerned. My eyes were unfocused and I was confused. “You obviously want this a secret.”

  “No shit, to both,” he gave another snort, this one angrier. Air erupted from his long gray snout that sent misting gross fluids. “You confound me with your stupidity at times Gryff. You are a warrior. You need to travel to start sowing discord and mayhem. This is your first target.”

  A paper was produced from his robes and I walked over to him. My toes had feeling in them again and I was finally warm. I was super excited to use this familiar and was conflicted if it should go in me or Nicole. When the paper was in my hand I stood there reading it.

  “You don’t need to burn it or anything, quit hovering over me you ape.”

  “Ah, I missed you Warg. Not.”

  “What is it?” Zoey asked and I handed her the paper. “A battle to the death between the last dwarves of Prox vs the Inquisitor’s insectoids. I don’t get it.”

  “Gryff needs to pretend to be the fabled harbinger of doom the big two painted him as. They cannot admit they lied to the universe and that he is real. He will be shunned as a false imposter even when he wins. This will let me move about freely and build those who believe the lie to be true,” Warg said with a smile.

  “Sure, and then they will try to have me killed, like a lot. I get the dwarves being worth the risk but why not wear a mask and give them doubt?” I asked and Rina chuckled.

  “Told you Warg. Wear the mask Gryff. Warg merely wants to see the big two scramble to cover their lies. Our company is called the TruthSayers. So we can proclaim you as a true harbinger but you are right. If you want to succeed I do not think this is the best reveal. Then again there is merit in Wargs plans. If you wear a mask or concealed helmed you will have some questioning about who fought valiantly for the last free dwarven… Sorry dwarfs of Prox.” Rina said with a smile of victory. I could see Warg wanting to snatch her and Rina retreated to the opposite seat as him. I figured the seat tag was a game of theirs. “The second paper behind that is the ownership paperwork for the dwarves. They were a few gold for the lot as they were considered a pox. Might want to clear it with the local leader before you haul them back.”

  “Speaking of getting back here. How does this orb for the blimp work?” I asked while picking it up off the couch. Divine as well. Damn. “Do I just wish to be somewhere and snap?”

  Rina laughed at my joke that Zoey did not get. Warg shrugged with indifference. I could tell he was done with conversing because he got up and left. Rina came and sat beside me and I felt Zoey tense. I patted her shoulder. There was very little threat from Rina, at least in my mind.

  “You find me pretty don’t you?” She asked and I rolled my eyes and bonked my head to the back of Zoey’s.

  “You are so beautiful it hurts to look at you,” Zoey said saving me. “I know you did bad things and I want to do bad things to that fine body of yours.”

  Rina purred and ducked her head down. Zoey was petting her and I moved a few cushions away. When Warg returned with a fresh drink he downed it at the sight of the elvath being sweet to Rina. He yanked her off the couch and tossed her into the chair in a mediocre show of restraint.

  “I worked eons to break her, do not be so nice that I must torture her again,” Warg said and Zoey blanched. “Are you going to free the last of the dwarfs?”

  “I don't know how to get there or when this event is from now, and no idea how to get back here? So maybe, once I get things organized. I need a new helmet and what can I expect in the arena for competition?” I said and then glanced back out to the gated wall not even a thousand feet away. “And I want to get levels from inside there.”

  “What dungeon is this?” Warg asked.

  “Emperor of trolls under a thousand,” I replied and Warg scoffed. “Can you solo it?”

  “Definitely with the right orb rotation. I could use the corrosive breath that Leviath dropped after I challenged the Emperor to a duel. Once he is defeated all his buddies lose moral and a defense buff of courage.” A new loud belch echoed in the small chamber and Zoey scrunched her face at the smell. He farted and then laughed very heartily. “Ah, vine juice is the best minus the gas. I am sure you have something you can kill the boss with. He shoots a slow reloading crossbow with a rope. If he hits you with it you die. If he misses close the distance. Then he fights like a slow kid with mental issues since he only ever needs to use a crossbow.”

  “And if the emperor is wearing a robe, then what?”

  “Why would he be different? These bosses never change unless you shift roaming bosses…” He studied me and then sighed. “Fine, I will clear it with you. Rina has been begging for levels and promising double handies with swallowing at the end. Which is a weak spot of mine in this body. I get tired of fucking ugly ogres to get my jollies. Some blood and guts should cheer up my mood. Half the lounging lards below are my troops waiting for three quick stomps if violence started up here. They love new rotation bosses. Oh, you get slim to fuck all of the loot from the boss. The rest is yours. The slim part is him dropping a chest of gold coins. Not worth the time to convert at a bank or store in a vault. Not for me and mine anyway. The moment we leave this booth you say nothing about that box and when we get outside you stash it privately somewhere without my troops seeing you do so.”

  “Wait are you serious?” Rina said and she stood. Her tail twirled excitedly.

  “Yes dear, I can reward you for good behavior better than a stinking elvath,” Warg said and Rina backed up to him slowly with her tail finding his hand. He yanked her in and she snuggled into the bruiser. “Alright, let's go kill an upgraded Emperor. First one is always the best. If they go to lay down let them. I don't want to spend six hours massacring trolls.”

  CHAPTER 18

  There was a fun fact I learned when we arrived in the main bar room. Everyone that was not staff and had been lounging about - they were with Warg. There must have been thirty of them and suddenly they were brandishing weapons and moving with intent. I bet the King knew and he never said a word. This illustrated how much pressure the top guilds and companies had. I walked down the stairs to the first floor warehouse and back out into the chilly snow. I went behind our cave and spawned my chest.

  “Toss it in Zoey,” I said and then changed my mind. I pushed the chest over and dumped out all our loot. “Hand the blimp and the atmosphere portal over.”

  Zoey handed me my items and I returned my knocked over chest to my body. I then willed it out of my core with a mental yank. The pieces shattered to the ground from inside to outside of me. My mind reflected at how odd the situation was as I stared at the wooden remnants. I then tossed the blimp into my core and the orb for moving it. This was the safest place they both could be and I felt controlling the blimp myself was my best choice. The commotion brought the attention of one curious Dib. I glanced down at all the loot piled with spare wood that had been inside my box that was spilled across the compacted snow.

  “Dib come help. Zoey spawn your box, please. Start lobbing orbs in while the TruthSayers organize. All the loot must go into Zoey’s box. Red’s Team on me!” I shouted and my team rounded the lip of the cave in a trickle of ones and twos. “Leave the wood and get all the valuables into a chest. If you have space spawn your containers. We need to hurry. I have a feeling the enemy emperor is going to die and then there will be a large surrender everyone can benefit from. So we need to scoop this up now.”

  We all rushed as fast as we could. Mysti
wanted to know what happened while I was tossing orbs into a chest. I told her she would simply have to wait until later. While I worked I noticed there were also three new members who responded to my call; King Ptera, Frooska, and Garataur. They all helped and soon we were running to catch up to the TruthSayers’ company. I had halted all side chatter and a briefer was waiting for us to arrive. My ragtag group looked oddly similar to Warg’s team; in a sense, both were full of all sorts of creatures wanting to do battle.

  “I am Atrax. I watched the dungeon on our way down. I mainly work as a reconnaissance scout. There are roughly eleven thousand trolls behind this wall,” Atrax said. The briefer had to be a harpy. He had delicate handsome features like a stunning elvath but with wings. His eyes smoldered with intensity and I saw Mysti and Zoey side chatting about his looks. “Approximately four thousand are women, children, and the grizzled veterans teaching the others. I saw a large number of troll shamans. They are in the main army that is comprised of jarl line trolls, skirmishing gnolls on wolves, and ranged trolls for backline. A few hundred ogres were the other oddity. This dungeon has morphed, which is why none of us high floored ascended are bitching about bringing this fight.”

  The King raised his hand and Atrax paused to let him speak.

  “I have a company coming up from the south right now. Ten minutes tops until they arrive,” King Ptera said hoping to stall.

  I walked over to Ossa and when I was close I lightly said, “Light a fire here, nice and big.”

  When she went to work Atrax decided to wait to brief everyone again. He called a break and to get warm by the fire. I saw the harpy shoot into the air to verify what the King said. The harpy wings were powerful bursts instead of a constant flap flying. When he reached high enough he glided back down horizontally.

  “Are you upset you are in the background on this one?” Nicole said as we walked over to the fire Ossa had roaring. The rest of the team gathered around and left space for the others to join us. “I figured Warg would be an elv. Sorry I was so jaded earlier. In all my years this is one of the last things I expected; us to team up with the enemy. Perception missed this eventuality.”

  “Nicole you are not alone in feeling disturbed by the turn of events. They fully believe the plant to be telling the truth and honestly, I think this benefits us,” I said with a small frown. “As to being the guy in the back on standby, no. Family matters more than self-indulgence in grandeur and it matters more than a strict ethics code.”

  “Going into bed figuratively with the enemy,” Nicole said while stepping on her toes and pulling me down to whisper in my ear, “Not literally Gryff. If you want to sex a kitsune even I will join you. Just not that kitsune. Monster girls give me a new perspective on sexual adventure.”

  “Deal! And exactly how I feel lately. Not sure if it is this universe bending my mind or if I am changing on my own,” I said and Nicole blushed with a light giggle. Who knew a furry tail could make a girl decide to swing both ways?

  We held some small side chatter and I noticed some of both teams interact. Mostly everyone stuck to those they knew. Captain Osgral arrived with his troops at a slight jog. There was another mix of monster creatures with a sprinkling of humans. I wondered what the human ratio was as I had not seen very many.

  “Can you hear me?” Atrax asked as he picked himself up into the air a dozen feet. There were confirmations from the back of the new troops that they could. King Ptera waved the troops to the fire and Osgral begrudgingly motioned his soldiers to the warmth. “We challenge the Emperor. The moment the Emperor dies his solemn guards will enrage. Which would be the ogres. They have to die next. Then we have to eliminate the next solidifying force which is probably the shamans. The mounted gnolls will wait to flank when our armies collide. Which we won't because there should be no melee. Spread out and kill at range…”

  “If by some miracle the trolls do not surrender and make it to our line then those melee dealers will tank as the ranged fallback. Highly unlikely but you never know. The TruthSayers are recruiting, now is a good time for a tryout. Anyone want to try to solo the Emperor? He has a rule in which no summons are allowed during the duel. Mages normally kill him regardless of which form he is in. Have to be agile though as he is deadly in all versions. We have the ability to bring you back and so does this lowbie group.”

  I glanced around at the King’s troops and saw none raise their hands. I was itching to put a hand in the air. I really wanted to raise my arm.

  “You tall human, with the elvath, you’re up,” I saw Atrax was pointing at me.

  My arm was in the air. How did this happen? I wanted to blame someone else but I knew it was me. So much for back seating the fight. I looked at my metal spear and then saw an ogre from the TruthSayers holding a glowing massive double headed axe. The same kind I had back home. I walked over to the ogre and held out my hand. He went to nudge me away with his boot and I dodged his kick with enhanced physical superiority.

  “Let me borrow it, Warg tell your peon to hand me his axe,” I said and there were gasps.

  “Take the weapon from…”

  “No.” King Petra said with a booming voice. “No violence between universe citizens on my planet. We do not even have arenas. Obey the laws and remember where you are.”

  I huffed and the ogre chuckled.

  “I saw your eyes light up big human. You will fall over with this as even I find it burdensome. I will let you try but give me something in case you damage it. That pretty staff the elvath is holding will do,” the ogre said with a light chuckle. He laughed a little less when Nicole raced over and handed him the legendary staff. “I thought you would refuse. This greataxe is a family heirloom and I cherish it. I will honor my word though and again I warn you it is heavy even for me.”

  “Maybe you should get stronger,” I quipped and Nicole snickered at my joke. The ogre rolled his eyes and handed me the greataxe. He was not joking, it was insanely heavy. “Thanks. How does this work?”

  “The axe?” The ogre asked with a stupid look on his face to reflect my stupid question.

  I shook my head no and huffed a big exhaust of frosted breath.

  “How do I challenge the Emperor?”

  Atrax flew beside me. “You go to the gate and declare your intent to challenge with your profile name and level.”

  “Profile name?”

  Atrax looked at me dumbfoundedly. Then he shot a gaze at Warg who was hysterically laughing. The rhinorc was patting his belly joyfully at Atrax’s displeasure and my basic questions.

  “Why the fuck am I explaining shit to this human that children know?”

  “God,” I said and he shut up. All the laughter ended with that one word.

  “Excuse me, we were not informed another esteemed was here on this planet. None venture this far,” Atrax’s tone shifted to a politeness I had not expected.

  “I think this one is itching at me to reveal myself. How do I see my profile name?”

  “You have it blocked. As a scout, I have the ability to view it with my identification orb. Merely will your core to be viewed…” Atrax paused when I did as he said.

  His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to say something and thought better of it. Instead, the harpy flew over to Warg and a bubble was provided from Rina. Huh, neat you could have a silence orb but then I realized it was probably an air shield. They argued intensely for a few minutes. Warg was indifferent to Atrax as he fumed. Warg tired of Atrax’s attitude and silenced him with a deadly glare. The air bubble disappeared and Warg walked over. He snatched the greataxe out of my hand and approached the gate.

  “I. Warg, God, and leader of TruthSayers, at level seventy three thousand and twelve, hereby challenge the Emperor behind these gates to a duel to the death! He may state his terms.” The god blared at the closed gates.

  The ogre pressed Nicole’s staff into my back until I accepted it. I grumpily walked back to the fire. Atrax flew away from me giving
me distance. I willed his permission away from seeing my profile. My inner itch to figure out what it said went away when Rina intercepted me before I could reach Nicole. A bubble surrounded us and she squirmed at my proximity.

  “Uh… Never show anyone your profile. The creator made your profile the worst thing possible, probably why you have a cover you never realized. You are Gryff the Harbinger of Chaos. A series of stats show your raw strength, agility, and stamina. Well, then it shows your orbs and when your orbs are applied. Two things, Atrax saw the divine blimp which he was not supposed to. Atrax is related to Warg or else he would be dead. And he handled the reveal well which means he will probably survive, but I bet he is nervous right now. The second thing is, he saw your stats with your divine orb. You are more powerful at your current level than Warg. By a lot, which is saying volumes on your abilities to actually cause chaos. Anyway, never will that away again. Oh neat, the doors are opening. We all have to hurry in,” Rina said and then dropped the bubble.

  The mighty gates opened and the right side snapped ice off the hinges that cascaded with a tinkling to the ground. The doors groaned as they magically opened and pushed back snow.

  “Hurry inside!” King Ptera commanded since Atrax went silent.

  I handed Nicole her staff who thanked me. As I walked for the gates Cyrene shimmied up beside me.

  “I wanted to see you kill the Emperor,” she declared with a pout.

  I picked up a jog to enter the doors in time. The doors were still opening so I was not too concerned. Everyone who wanted to make it in did so. Only a few of Warg’s troops remained outside but that seemed intentional and probably for a good reason.

  “Maybe next time when it is just us, I think he spawns every time now,” I said to Cyrene while keeping my words short.

  A lot was happening in front of us as the troll nation inside scurried about to adjust for our arrival. There were massive wooden buildings deep within the clearing we stood in. Archer towers skylined the immense opening as thousands of tents protruded from the ground. There were numerous wells, fires, and communal structures. A grand pavilion was nestled against the mountain wall in the back of the clearing. An open space of a few thousand feet separated us from the nearest trolls.