Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

183. Who to Trust?

The guild had transformed into a killing room when the city changed. Vera made the call to stay out of their way and Wendy, who was orchestrating the event offered to protect them. Vera's response was that they'd be poor heroes if they had to be coddled. Besides the very fact that the whole city was a dungeon and they were now on the opposite side of the equation thrilled the Hero Party and they wanted to take advantage of it.

They went with Wendy's blessing.

The landscape of the City was completely different. Moments earlier, the eerie stillness of the city was disquieting. Now the energy that filled the city as the ground moved below them was enthralling. The hustle and bustle of the bloodlust filled the battle-madness of the city was intoxicating as the warriors, citizens, and predators chased back and forth.

The streets became even more labyrinthian as sections of road turned into steps as tall as a full-grown man. Which was no trouble for the excited members of the city who traversed the mountainous climb to the castle with the grace of mountain goats.

The trees and canopy stretched high above them and lit up as the enemy dragons tried to infiltrate the upper city. One poor dragon was caught in the webs of a couple of Arachne. He tumbled out of the sky as the Arachne strangled him.

They crashed near the hero party with a loud crash and thrashed wildly. It breathed fire in every direction.

"Shut its mouth before it burns the webbing!" one of the Arachne warriors on the dragons back shouted at the other.

Two armored figures sprouted out of the ground, they had hoods over their faces and glowed with floating stones around them. Which identified them as earth elemental wraiths. They teamed up and caught the dragon's head and held its mouth closed while the other Arachne tied it shut.

"Don't just stand there like jabbering apes, help us put this thing down!" one of the Arachne called at the Hero Party. "Plenty more where this thing came from." He said pointing one of his legs up at the flame filled canopy as fire Elementals and joined the fight with the dragons.

The Hero Party didn't hesitate as they closed in on the dragon and dispatched it.

Shortly after the dragon was confirmed dead, Dryads popped out of the woodworks and began dismantling the corpse with agonizing brutality yet precise dexterity. It was like watching a butcher slice apart a whole cow. Cleaning, skinning, disemboweling, sectioning hunks of meat or entire limbs and then slimes showed up on cue and cleaned up the blood. In less than ten minutes the earth elementals where straightening up the block and the only thing that remained of the dragon was the memory.

These kinds of scenes were taking place all over the city.

"So, this is the City of Peril." Juliette marveled.

"No." A figure dropped to the ground near them as silently as a shadow. "This is something new, Cal has really one-upped himself this time." She walked forward out of the shadows to reveal the slight form of a beautiful Silver-haired elf.

"Fauna..." Seamus said taking a reflexive step backwards. He flashed back to their first meeting, the night where she killed his men with the merciless swiftness of a professional outside of his league.

"Auntie Fauna! What are you doing here?" Ophelia exclaimed excitedly. She ran to greet her, but Vera caught her shoulder.

"Don't be so cold. Cal told me to keep an eye out for you. I've prepared a 'kill box' just for you guys to set up shop in." Fauna smiled pleasantly and pointed her thumb off in a direction.