261 Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-One – Party’s Over, Back to Work (1/2)
I ran back to the others, as they weren't too far away, and the fighting was still ongoing.
It was ongoing very, very bloodily. My exultation at finally fighting Hagmom had been blowing through the Markspace with singing glory.
My fury at her getting away had blown through it like a crescendo of howling rage, and everything fighting here was absolutely freaking berserk, just a tool for my to vent my wrath upon everything in there way.
I dove right into the slaughter as all the drak could only reel in disbelief at what they were fighting, and die. Die. DIE ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!
---
”That's a new look for you. Eau de Sama the Butcher?” Briggs asked, not giving me any emotional support at all. I knifed an elbow into his ribs, and he grunted in mock pain.
I was absolutely covered in gore, because it made me feel better for the moment. It looked like I took a bath in a dragon's innards, and the smell could make eyes water at ten paces.
”I feel like being miserable. Don't bug me while I stew.” I walked over to a pool of water burning with vivic flames, sat down in it, and began to glower.
The area about me emptied rather quickly. I didn't fight the unwhite flames as they stole up me to eat away the blood and body parts, and anyways, the lads had a lot of salvage work to do, along with disposing of other drak that hadn't heard the news still incoming.
But the urgency had vanished with the berserker rage. While we still had shit left to do, the Glory Award had come down and given everyone a Warlord's alternative to hearty sex, blessing everyone with the knowledge that DAMN, slaughtering for a Good Cause was a really cool thing. Even the Three Kings were a little rocked by the sensation.
Helped with the soul-deep exhaustion and bone-aching stress of coming out of a berserker state lasting nearly an hour. If they hadn't been ExLites or possessed of Con's of 40 (hey there, little sisters, Briggs, sorry about that), they'd basically be dead.
That Wyrm was dead, and all his goodies earmarked for King Ivory, who had a lot of ground to make up on the personal equipment side of things. Elder Arg berated him for disdaining such items, especially when Void Brothers were walking by with Zehn Slot Weapons that made him very wary, indeed.
King Ivory agreed that a set of Mire Wyrm Barding would look very attractive thereafter. The ignominious fate of being skinned to become armor for its conqueror soon began, while a Jar was devoted to containing the Wyrm's blood.
All told, its carcass was probably worth a hundred goldweight in materials and power comps, and various fractions of that value were enjoyed by all the other dead dragons in the area. The sheer amount of blood going to pulled off and burned for comps was immense.
Alas for the mountains of goldweight we'd lost on the way here... yeah, that was gonna bum me for a while. The Land was so greedy...
The apes were feasting on dragon flesh despite being nominal vegetarians, truly an enjoyable occurrence for them. Given their appetites, the carcasses weren't going to last too long, and they were all interested in some dragonhide armor, not much liking metal armor if they could avoid it.
Me, I had to think. There was so much stuff I had to finish personally, and then other stuff we had to finish up. Hagmom had gotten away for now, but there was so much stuff left to do which we could still address.
I certainly wasn't planning on leaving before True Dawn. But that didn't mean I needed to drag everyone else around. After all, destruction of this place was inevitable.
So, it was time to talk.
-----
We couldn't 'take a day off', because we were being constantly bugged by stuff being drawn from hundreds of miles away to kill us. That was okay, everyone wanted some Karma, more comps, and the eats were appreciated. There was enough to keep everyone busy if we spread out.
Wayfair was still constrained by zones, but there was a much, much larger area she could teleport through freely now, and there's nothing like an unlimited teleporter for mass scouting services over large areas. In a very short time, The Map around us was filled in, clusters of enemies noted, and strike teams moving off in all directions to harvest them.
She was getting to Travel, and naturally loving it.
The angelic vohr played spell support, while mixed teams of apes, berserkers, Ironblood, and dwarves were sent this way and that. The vohr were more there for emergencies than anything, giving some missile support and extra scouting in the meantime, but the physical power of the troops was generally equal to the task. Griffons and dragons sought out other fliers to head off problems, moved back and forth to support against larger forces, and generally everyone kept pretty busy as we headed back to the Empire Zone.
The Brothers dispersed, some concentrating on finding and hunting down Hags. AA stayed with us, ready to finish the job of driving the Wake all the way to the Hole.
The girls went out with the Kings, who were determined to reclaim some of their power and majesty by dint of earning a LOT more Class Levels. My Hellpuppies accompanied King Grey, naturally enough. King Gold was hunting with the berserkers, of course, while King Ivory had a howdah whipped up and all the gnomes and hyn were hooting and shooting from atop him in a bristling cluster of missile fire, working with King Grey as they rolled across the landscape, killing anything dumb enough to get in their way.
----
”Elder Arg.”
The massive silverhide looked at me respectfully as I plopped down on his shoulder. The fact I was talking to him in person meant I wanted a bit of privacy, and the couple apes hanging around found other places to chew down drak meat into their full tummies.
His grunt asked me what was up.
”Two things. One, I need your help on a special project. Two projects, actually. One is metallurgy, the other is making a Sword.”
He huffed slyly. ”Yeah, we've got the quintessence, that was the toughest thing. We can make some orichalcum. Fuzzy's been wanting his ultimate armor, so getting enough raw metal for that is a thing. But, it's a Fifteen Ranks thing with Alchemy to make, so, not something we can do without help.”