Chapter 32 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 32 — King Rust arrives

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 31 — Drop troopers; Tripper · Next: Chapter 33 — Parlay · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

“I agree. You need to destroy the bait shop,” Mordecai said.

Summary

Mordecai: destroy the bait shop now, before someone drops a nuke through the Reaver door and turns everyone inside to mince; the only reason they have not is that 'that orc out there wants to take you on himself.' The northern army fills the horizon half a kilometre from camp — orcs, slimes, Reavers, elves on zebras, basher trolls (explosives experts), gnolls, sai rhinos, camels with shoulder missiles — tens of thousands, the Bone Clan's thousand in black back-flags with a silver skull, polearms not guns, glinting as the virtual sun rises. 'Well, we're absolutely fucked, aren't we?' 'You know, you coming here was supposed to instill us with hope.' 'We just didn't want you to be lonely, mate.' The orc on the hippo-yak in feathered opalescent armour is not Prince Stalwart: Donut's Targeting, now in her tiara, and Victory's 'Well I'll be fucked raw with a Soother sausage' identify King Rust himself, father of Maestro and Stalwart, up from the eighteenth floor at the last minute, listed as war chief not warlord, not in Faction Wars since he was a prince; 'I wonder if he's sober.' Donut's Size-Up: level 78, a whip, Gonk the swamp yak, dozens of spells from level one to fifteen including Protective Shell at 15, Tripper and Puddle Jumper — 'What a copydog.' Tipid: a Ring of Divine Suffering for the stats and levels, and a Necklace of Indelible Woe, from the same collection, which trades one of your spells for one of a killed crawler's five best; the factions agreed to stop using it because 'combatants were farming crawlers'. Rosetta 'has some history with him'; Tipid will tell her. Florin has stalled the armour column, led a charge that killed a tank and rerouted the rest into a minefield. In the guildhall: the hangar needs a five-million standalone access point; a third, mobile anti-air gun that can be turned on infantry; Donut ordering banners from the bopca and pulling rank on Rosetta ('I am the general, and you are the colonel'), maturing outside and regressing inside, Carl notes, and needing a talk. Justice Light asked to be infected with slugpox to make more sluggalos and was refused; something horrific in his shopkeeper years took his wing and left him muttering and sewing folded paper; Tipid and Rosetta are protective of him. He needs nothing from Carl's tables anymore: 'I have contingencies heaped upon contingencies. Have faith in the process. Danger lives in what they can't see.' Donut in chat: 'ARE WE SURE WE TRUST THIS GUY?' 'I trust him with my life.' 'YOU'RE TRUSTING HIM WITH MORE THAN THAT.' The decision: collapse the shack's front so it can be repaired only in an emergency, and guard it — Fix potions and Emergency Repair scrolls exist. Blood bars are biting the support staff; Justice Light, level 65 on trap credit, has no such problem. Boomer: King Rust is approaching alone; Victory: he asks for a registered parlay. 'KIBBEN, WE NEED YOU. FAST. GET THE HOWDAH READY.'

Characters

• King Rust — The Skull Empire's king, up from the eighteenth floor in parade feathers, a ring and a necklace.
• Princess Donut — Size-Up on a king; banners made; pulls rank on a colonel.
• Rosetta Thagra — Has history with Rust; told, and shows nothing.
• Justice Light — Sews folded paper; 'Danger lives in what they can't see.'
• Tipid — 'We just didn't want you to be lonely, mate.'
• Baroness Victory — Surprised by her brother-in-law.
• Florin — Kills a tank and jams a column into a minefield.
• Mordecai — Destroy the bait shop now.

Locations

• The FUPA — A horizon of enemies; a guildhall emptying its supplies into the castle.

Motifs

• The Ring of Divine Suffering — Rust wears one; the Necklace of Indelible Woe is its worse sibling.
• The Skull Empire — The king himself, and a thousand of his clan among tens of thousands.
• The blood bar — Support staff starving in the saferoom; a trap master fed by his traps.
• Safe rooms — The bait shop to be collapsed and guarded.