Chapter 39 of 78 · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

Chapter 39 — Prepotente Town Number Four

Book: The Butcher's Masquerade · Part: The Unhinged Child · Previous: Chapter 38 — Edict · Next: Chapter 40 — Kapitan Whiskers · Floor: Floor 6 — The Hunting Grounds · Series: the series

Opening

“I kinda feel bad for that guy.

Summary

'I kinda feel bad for that guy.' Carl's father's voice: 'Knowing all that stuff rots you from the inside out. It doesn't affect people like us.' Dryads now attack on sight and a Diwata-worshipping mayor turns the guards too, their monkeys throwing rocks like the third floor's lemurs. Samantha is found under a log; she enjoyed the torture. A day of grinding level-40 whip crackers, poison-immune, Donut to 45, Carl at 56; two more Ursine towns taken — Ferdinand Peak and Nipton, Donut killing one mayor and Carl the other — and Mordecai attached to Nipton, complaining about its shops. No hunter contact anywhere: word of the Dark Hive has made the rest value their lives. Nobody has seen Lucia; Mordecai thinks her escape put her across the map, once a floor. What eats at Carl: 'You killed the wrong one', someone invisible beside her, points, a papa; nobody on the panel knew anything about 'the nature of her existence'; and she still has to be put down. Donut's confidence is a front he decides to leave alone — she knows how lucky she was and will not say it. A town walled by a Jericho Bush, thousands of level-10 vines that dislike people named Josh and ska; the vines at the north gate dead, no guards, no traffic, and a smell like the train car Katia rode on the front of. Entering Prepotente Town Number Four. Samantha rolls in and reports corpses more than a day old — 'I HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MANY CORPSES SINCE IT WAS ALGOS' TURN TO HOST GAME NIGHT' — chomped Ursine and pink feathers, a few bears hiding in windows. The dungeon cleans up after itself; when it does not, it is on purpose. 'Fodera – Level 40 Ursine Lamplighter. Killed by Big Tina.' Zev: Odette's interview with Carl, Donut and Beatrice has tunnelled and the Hive business has everyone watching; something to discuss in person. An Ottawa Senators bar with a Daniel Alfredsson photograph, and a bear's claw still embedded in the doorframe over a pool of dried blood.

Characters

• Carl — Two towns taken; Edict's words stuck in his head; an ominous feeling about a quest.
• Princess Donut — Level 45; knows how lucky she was and will not say it.
• Samantha — Under a log; faster every day; gore angels.
• Mordecai — 'I'm starting to feel a little obsolete'; transcribe the automaton book.
• Prepotente — Named a town Number Four and lost it to a dinosaur.
• Miriam Dom — Not on the map; asleep by day, Carl guesses.
• Big Tina — Killed the lamplighter and everyone else.
• Zev — Odette's interview with Carl, Donut and Beatrice has tunnelled; something to discuss in person.
• Lucia Mar — Unseen since; 'the nature of her existence' matters.

Locations

• Prepotente Town Number Four — Walled by a Jericho Bush; a clocktower, two temples, streets of chili-coloured gore.
• Ferdinand Peak and Nipton — Two Ursine towns taken in a day, as religious as the first.

Motifs

• The mongoliensis — Big Tina's second massacre; corpses left as a sign.
• Quests — The Recital will not be ignored.
• The gods — Diwata's dryads and their mayors.
• The hunters — Retreating everywhere after the Hive.
• The Chains of Leadership — Three towns on the collar now.