Chapter 36 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 36 — Swole

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Unhinged Child · Previous: Chapter 35 — Ballroom Blitz · Next: Chapter 37 — The rainbow bridge · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

I pushed Bomo out the door into the Zockau saferoom where he’d post his note and wait for

Summary

Bomo goes to Zockau with the note. Florin, in the corner: 'The bitch lives, correct?' 'Good.' — and leaves. The guild is in the space: Katia, Elle, Imani, Bautista, Louis, Firas, Gwen, Tran, Britney on Firas's lap; 'This is my family now.' Elle, level 51, a brown streak in her white hair, her wedding ring on a chain because her fingers shrank, a drink Louis watches like a dog: Chris is with Li Jun and Li Na (Chris burrows, Li Na turns to smoke); Eva has joined Team Cichociemni, named for Polish special forces, none of them Polish 'anymore', who killed their leader for refusing to be murderers; the Popovs had them cornered before the con took them away for two days; Katia turned the whole circus around to help Carl and the Twister was attacked by pterodactyls. Bautista has five hundred beanies left and a refresher kit, and he and Tran are swashbucklers with a team bonus; Katia's hand rests on his shoulder. Louis's move: thrown armour auto-equips on Katia, so a giant breastplate dropped from the Twister could make her bigger — 'Unless the item misses or doesn’t hit right, and then she’s crushed and dead,' Britney says; Katia, by chat: he cried alone over the Dream hunting him and fears being thrown out of the guild. Thirty achievements: Uprooted, oddly unzippy — 'Hope you remember how you did it' — for moving a rooted boss; Bisected!, a Silver Lucky Bastard box, for teleporting into a door and being spared by administrative action; Desecrated! and Temple Defiler! — the shrine of Diwata's temple shattered by his own flesh, a Gold Apostate Box, 'when a shrine is destroyed improperly, the god loses some of their power, and all of the other gods can see this'; That's not how you use arrows, dumbass; It itches when I pee! — a bronze condom; This little piggy made a boom boom!, the AI groaning for five seconds over the foot that kicked the bomb. Donut's box for casting Fireball indoors is a vocal coach's booth with a hologram named Lover Illiana; her singing is level four. Fifty-two trophies, 637,000 gold, the shrine beeping. The Apostate Box is a tattoo: a flaming ball of snakes on the upper arm, one snake curling into the spiderweb — Enemy of the Church, Diwata: her adherents attack on sight outside a Club Vanquisher, 50 per cent damage against them as an Emberus adherent, 'Don't let Diwata see you. Ever', removable only by killing her or cutting off the arm. Mordecai: a minor nature goddess like a low-rent Apito, an antlered mossy squirrel who impregnates herself, eats the offspring and builds cities from her dung; some dryads worship her. Two patches — flaming arrows in an eagle's claw; a bomb in Spanish blackwork on Spider Reaper silk — and Donut's expertise solves the third floor's Scutelliphily potion: the love of small shields, says Britney, the Latin and Greek, to a room that stares. Base strength 100 brings back the zero zone, where he was pretty sure he had lost every upgrade, every enhanced stat and his reading of Syndicate Standard: 'It’s not real.' Carl's arms swell; the upgrade choice is Swole (level-up strength points doubled), Prison Bitch or Stepson (kicks inflict Ouch); Donut wants the feet; he takes Swole. 'The silence in my mind roared […] The sink is running.' Home, for an hour.

Characters

• Carl — Family; an apostate's tattoo; a hundred strength and the wrong choice, maybe.
• Princess Donut — A vocal coach; Spanish blackwork; the love of small shields.
• Florin — 'Good.'
• Elle McGibbons — Level 51; a wedding ring on a chain; a flood of news.
• Katia Grim — A hand on Bautista's shoulder; sews the patches.
• Daniel Bautista — Five hundred beanies and a refresher kit; a swashbuckler with Tran.
• Louis and Firas — Louis's Voltron plan; he cried alone.
• Britney Proskurina — Etymology from Firas's lap.
• Mordecai — On Diwata; recommends Swole.
• Imani — Present, quiet.
• Eva Sigrid — With Team Cichociemni.
• Chris — Burrows; with Li Jun and Li Na.
• Li Na — Turns to smoke; 'freaks me the fuck out.'

Locations

• The Royal Palace of Princess Donut — The whole guild in it; a vocal booth; the shrine beeping.

Motifs

• Achievements — Uprooted, Bisected!, Temple Defiler!, a condom, a groan.
• The gods — Diwata's shrine broken; an Enemy of the Church; a god humiliated before the others.
• The patch jacket — Twelve flaming arrows; a blackwork bomb; Scutelliphily explained.
• Race and class — Strength 100: Swole, Prison Bitch or Stepson.
• The river in Carl's head — 'The sink is running'
• The hunting trophies — Fifty-two.