I killed a former friend struggling with addiction. Fister warned me, but I focused on completing a quest, and it doomed Flank town. I might as well have burned the whole place down myself. To top it off, even though King was dead, his addiction would outlive him by centuries.

That ring of power he made was gone, but it wouldn’t remain hidden forever. I didn’t know how it all happened. Were the elders of the Blue Bloods always traitors or merely opportunists. First, they dealt with King to keep their plans a secret. Now they had King’s power in the form of a ring. It would grow with every wearer until the ring was finally destroyed.

For years after King’s death, I took a stance limiting my advancement through the system alone and consolidated my power.

…

I awoke to a sore body and a snoring Kale. Light peered in through the window while cool air slipped in through a series of vents placed along with the house. The events of the day before were catching up to me, along with the sweet scent of decay.

King’s clones hadn’t melted or evaporated after the fight. Tons upon tons of rotten flesh had baked under the desert sun for a full day. I clutched my nose in disgust. The sewers at least had been cleaned by King. This was just terrible. It filled the room from the vents cooling the house, and I was damn sure Kale couldn’t smell it. This was my enhanced senses giving me the middle finger.

After really getting a whiff of the battle’s decaying aftermath, I was awake. My stomach rumbled, and I had to take a piss. A shower wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Unfortunately, the city wasn’t the only thing that smelled.

I stood up on legs shakier than a newborn chick. But not like the ones who get their feet sliced off when the poop pan was taken out. Those poor bastards were put down.

No, my legs felt like my first morning after football practice. With the way my legs felt, it could be days before I was back at full strength. That didn’t make me weak by any stretch of the imagination. I was still just as strong as before, just sore and slow because of it. I’d worked my body too hard for too long. Rest was what I needed now more than anything.

After taking care of my business, I took my phone out to see a flood of messages from my brother Blue. So instead of reading all of them, I called.

“Finally, have you prepared to counter what that bitch is saying about you. This is bad, Red; if you aren’t ready to fight this, then other users will band together to hunt you down.” Blue said.

I was tired, hungry, and more than a little out of it. After spotting a lamia-sized chair, I fell into it and started looking over Blue’s texts. They were primarily screenshots of pictures and videos of my fight against King. Whoever uploaded them had edited them well to show friendly fire wherever they could. Just by looking, it was hard to tell who controlled the clone army. To an outside observer, it could easily be misconstrued. The problem is I didn’t have any counter-evidence. I was busy fighting for my life.

“Damn, this looks bad,” I said.

“No, really, this could ruin your image to every user on the planet. You have to find that bitch and make her take it down. If she runs back to the Acura Isles, you won’t ever find her.” Blue said.

I yawned and stretched. My original plan had been to get out of here before the next major fight started. But, while single-handedly fighting off an invading army of golems might sound like fun, I wasn’t interested.

In less than a week, I had increased my power by multiple realms. Taking on an army of golems was possible for me, but I didn’t want to fight for some time. Despite how my blood sang for war, I knew I wasn’t very sane right now. So getting out of dodge while the getting was good was the right call. Even if I had to endure a shit reputation, it was; Reddit people would forget in a few days.

“Blue, I just single-handedly stopped the utter destruction of this city, and now an army is about to overrun it. Even if I stayed and videoed witnesses of my actions, who would believe me. A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth puts its pants on. If a few users come looking for trouble, then I’ll send them packing. If they saw the videos, then they know I’m a force to be reckoned with.” I said.

Blue sighed. “I’ll give a statement and leave it at that then. Just try to stay out of the spotlight until this blows over. Her videos have thousands of upvotes already. So of all the apps, the system had to carry over, why Reddit?” Blue said.

“Well, by all the white power and swastikas on the feed, I don’t think Reddit isn’t moderated anymore,” I said.

While those commenters were downvoted to hell, it did make me feel a little better. So, what if a bunch of randos attacked me. I’d crush them. Speaking up for myself might just add fuel to the fire. Killing Ito Rin wasn’t the best idea either. It would look like I was silencing a witness. She’d become a martyr, and the attacks would be even worse.

A knock at the door shook me from my thoughts. Kale woke up just before a group of armed minotaurs opened the door. They looked between us before nodding.

“Governor Salithe has ordered your presence to discuss the state of the city. By law stated in article 4 of ownership and responsibility, your presence is also a necessity.” A familiar minotaur said. While his armor was different, he smelled like one of the three.

“Sure, just grant my mistress a few minutes to prepare herself. Has the validity of the invading army been determined?” I asked.

“That knowledge is classified slave; how do you know it.” One of the minotaurs demanded.

“I was there when it was used to break our spirits. Where were you? I only remember seeing your captain.” I said. The captain met my gaze, and I nodded to him.

“They were unable to make it; few could cross the safety of their barricades into the madness of the final push.” The captain said. “I’m Captain Jakun of the Vigilhide herd.” The minotaur bowed low. “It was an honor to fight by your side. Tell me the name of the man who saved our city from the flesh mage and the traitors.” Jakun said.

“I am Red my family sold me into slavery, so I won’t give their name to my deed,” I said.

“My wife will calf any day now, and I have struggled to find the right name for my first son. So in your honor, I’ll name him Red after you.” Jakun said. The other minotaurs were frozen in shock.

“Captain, we didn’t know. How could we have guessed this slave was the one?” One of the minotaur guards said.

“What about the other two? Did they survive as well? The end of the battle was chaotic.” I said.

“My brother Eraru died as a warrior fighting to hold the line as the clones rushed the mages. Viasen, my cousin by blood, lives, but I couldn’t stop one of the clones from taking his leg to my shame. With what few magic engineers remaining split working on the wards and the communication tower, it will be some time before he can commission a prosthetic.” Jakun said.

“I’m sorry, I did what….”

“I know I don’t blame you even if some do. First, you broke our sieges and allowed us to form an organized threat to the enemy. Then you did the impossible and defeated the enemy.” The minotaur nodded. “But don’t expect many to feel the same way I do. Not all the Blue Bloods fled, and those that survived are using what remains of their political capital to find a scapegoat.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I guess it's true what they say everything is politics,” I muttered.

Kale came up behind me and placed a hesitant hand on my shoulder. “I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but your punishment is my own. Even though I could have stopped you, I let you defend the city.” Kale said.

The city was a mess. Corpses were piled determined by species making some piles much larger than others. Clouds of carrion flies darkened the sky as they infested bodies left on rooftops, trapped in buildings, and suffocated some still living. Some runic circles kept the flies at bay, but those small protections didn't matter, with many bodies littering the streets. The cool air I attributed to the city was nowhere to be found. We were stuck in the charnel pit the city had become. Whole buildings littered the streets moved slowly by large iron machines. Of the hundreds of thousands who once lived in the city, I could see a thousand.

We traveled between two half-collapsed buildings leaning on each other and turned into a holy house. Hundreds of lamias bowed in worship of a statue of a prominent lamia. Unfortunately, none of my memories told me who this object of worship was or who she could be.

“Is this really where the meeting is taking place?” I asked.

Kale spoke up. “No, Salithe would lose all support of the Slither Clan if she tried something so vulgar. Lady Theisea of the Coil Clan despises politics even to this day. She’s even killed some of her apprentices for forming cliches to vet new apprentices. So under the roof of Theisea, none would dare conduct such an insult.” I nodded at the explanation.

Oh, it sounded stupid; everything could be construed as politics in some way. But it might be simpler than that. If I was powerful enough to forbid politics, I might try it.

We left the holy house and came upon an estate. Statues of Lamia posing in the nude greeted us, along with a few burly minotaur guards. They only nodded at the captain before letting us in.

A glasses-wearing lamia with black held up in a bun greeted us with a smile and a slight bow. Her eyes were a bright green, dark as emeralds. She was ready for a fight from her steel breastplate to the banded plate flowing down her tail. Small sharp blades extended from the sides of her armor enough for me to imagine the state of any prey wrapped in her embrace. In her hands were a massive staff glowing with runes. As if to a heartbeat, they glowed brightly before dimming. On the side of her staff was a bar to guide whatever enchantment the staff contained for greater accuracy.

“You know the ba-bump staff was banned by the human lands. So if you’re captured with it, all rights to a prisoner of war are rescinded.” Jakun pointed out.

“Why would something like that be banned?” I asked.

Jakun grunted. “Every time those runes dim, their effect can be changed to allow spell changes on a battlefield. Imagine if a mage could alter their spells on the fly to deal the most damage possible. But, of course, it would make most elemental resistant armor types useless the human/dwarf armor unions wouldn’t allow it. Then there’s the handle. A steady grip on the staff and the correct timing increases its accuracy and allows the user to strike armored areas where armor is weakest. Imagine a fireball blasting fire-resistant armor in a rune gap perfectly.” The giant minotaur shivered.

I patted the man on the shoulder. Then, with a burst of speed, I appeared behind the lamia patted her armored rear. She fell over and reached down and took the staff. The lamia reacted quickly and coiled around me. Her blades did nothing to my enhanced skin, and even her constriction was more adorable than uncomfortable. All the while, I inspected the staff without making any headway in the secrets of its inner working.

The lamia struggled and squeezed with all her might as I leaned the staff against it. Finally, after a moment of fruitless constriction, she gave up and settled on glaring at me. “You could have just asked to inspect my staff.”

“This way is more fun. Maybe next time, you’ll lose the armor so I can feel your scales.” I said.

The lamia snorted. “In your dreams, you’ll only feel my scales before I crush your bones and devour you. You wouldn’t enjoy it as much as me.” She crawled off of me and reclaimed her staff. “So, you’re the ape who saved the city against the other ape who almost destroyed it. If you ask me, we’d be better off without humans altogether.” She said.

I shrugged. “Nice meeting you..” I turned to Jakun.

“Her name is Nexelia of the Slither Clan,” Jakun said.

“Nice to meet you, Nexelia. I hope you have a great rest of your day,” I said.

The lamia frowned and returned to her position at the door.

A smile spread across my face. This wasn’t so difficult after all. All I had to do was act friendly in the face of adversity and throw them off balance. That tactic would serve me well.

I didn’t take two steps inside before I saw some wall art. There were paintings of lamia on thrones, devouring humans and tossing human skulls around like baseballs. Most of the backgrounds were lakes and river caves. I guessed it was natural for those living in a desert to dream about water, and those who felt controlled by humans might paint themselves above them.

I took a few pictures, sent them to Blue for laughs, and posted them on my ancient Reddit account.

Kale grabbed my shoulder. “Why did you do that out there?” Kale asked.

Captain Jakun stopped walking and waited for my response. “I wanted to see what would throw a predator like a lamia off balance. We are walking into a viper’s nest with few allies. So it's best to see what shakes them up early.

We stepped through a set of double doors a pillow chamber. Sitting on a pedestal was a golden-skinned lamia with long purple hair that extended down to a set of massive breasts. The slits of inverted nipples peeked out from between the curtains of ebony, giving the eye just enough to see to imagine. Down below the lamia’s stomach was a sex slit of epic proportions. Golden jewelry covered her body, framing the woman’s greatest assets.

Below the pillows was a literal nest of vipers. The mass of hissing slithering reptiles was bound to get on my nerves. I was tempted to fireball them just to erase an annoyance.

To me, at that moment, it seemed as easy as swatting a fly. But, of course, I could always use intimidation tactics as an opening.

“You’re taking them out, or I’ll destroy them,” I said.

Saithe's raised a brow before raising a hand and flicking away some of the hair covering her breasts. “What did you say to me, human?” The lamia hissed.

A fireball appeared in my hand, aimed down at the vipers below. “What was that I couldn’t hear you over the hundreds of snakes slithering between us. I’ll take care of them; just give me a minute.” One of the minotaurs seemed ready to stop me, only for a look from their captain to stop them. Saithe saw it too.

She turned her head to the side, and I wondered if she really couldn’t hear me. Maybe killing the snakes would be more of a service than a flex of my power. The lamia guards looked nervous as hell. One whispered something to another, and the message was carried back to Salithe.

“Agreed, since the vipers have entered their mating season, the amount of noise they create is unacceptable. So we will retire to my study.” I blinked at her and turned my head to the side.

One of the guards started to whisper to each other. “Our lady governor graciously requests that you adjourn to her private study for a more intimate conversation.” The lamia said with a blush.

I nodded to the large lamia. “Well, tell governor Salithe that I agree to join her there,” I said. The message was quickly carried back. The governor raised and both eyebrows before staring back at me.

“This way, please honored guests the manor is easy to get lost in.” One of the lamia guards said.

“So, this is the reason why meetings aren’t held here during the summer. Interesting, I would have never guessed.” Jakun said.

We wasted no time leaving the pit of snakes for a quiet corner office, unlike the majestic pillow chamber with a viper pit. The office looked lived in. Instead of a luxurious pillow, there was a massive lamia-made chair bolted to the ground. We waited for a half-hour for Salithe to arrive.

She had changed her dress quite a bit. Instead of wearing nothing but gold jewelry, she dressed much more modestly. A tight, form-fitting dress with a conservative chest covering left everything to the imagination and my memories. The dress extended down her tail ending with billowy ruffles. Small pink flower-adorned the dress adding to the extravagance. Where she found flowers in a desert to just waste on her dress, I didn’t know.

The governor looked me over for a long time before nodding. “I apologize for our earlier accommodations. It was not my intention to drown out each other’s words with the sounds of mating snakes. Unfortunately, there are few reasons to meet in that chamber during the summer months. And everyone who meets there claims that it feels like a meeting chamber from the old Slither Clan epics.” Finally, the lamia governor calmed down. “Being a governor isn’t hard. I mostly just sign off on commissions and hand out grants to magic engineers. We haven’t had a war in nearly a century. Even the last dark lord mostly left us alone. Our communication tower is down and likely won’t be operational for some time, despite that this city won’t fall easily to a siege. If we can warn the nearest city and hold out for reinforcements, we can make it. Unfortunately, their scouts are in the area, and we can’t afford to send out enough men to survive their ambushes and warn the next town. So I want you to leave here with my daughter and warn Bridle.”