The place reeked of expired beer, one that carried such a pungent smell it almost made the inhabitants puke. The place had windows, shutters actually, ones that radiated in the evening light and cascaded just a hint of the moon on the floor.
Rhett was dazed and tired, and also angry. He remained silent, and with his stern face and angry demeanor he looked at the place in disgust. The others didn't bother to speak to him, they remained silent, thinking upon their fate.
Opposite Rhett were swords, big, large things, made of steel actually, that radiated lightly. The radiation was mainly because of the light coming from the shutters.
Ash spat on the ground and sighed loudly.
"You've made a mistake now m'lord", he said.
Rhett was silent, he tried to stroke his beardless chin but couldn't because of the chains on his hands and so he just looked downwards, his face almost expressionless, it only carried a touch of guilt, one that didn't quite show.
"If only you had listened to me and we had gone to another place for refuge instead of here, we'd be in a different situation right now.
Rhett sighed.
Ash didn't relent, he instead pestered on.
"You should next time, learn to take advice from-".
"The dragons!", exclaimed Rhett.
Haicor almost laughed at that.
"Well, tomorrow you'll be taking advice alright",She added with a chuckle.
Ash giggled in a manly manner and Rhett had to, he didn't quite know if he was forcing it but it seemed like it, smiled.
They were chained in a circle, their backs facing each other backs and their faces out of reach from their eyes.
Rhett suddenly wriggled his legs, it was chained but not so much, one could say it was loosely chained and there was a chance of wriggling one's legs out of it. Rhett continued forward wriggling until he flung the boots that encased his legs out of it, his bare feet showing which granted him relief as the soft breeze that blew around touched it and gave him a sort of comfort.
Ash and Haicor stretched their necks backwards and couldn't quite see what he was doing but they caught a glimpse and smiling they made no verbal comments.
Rhett, his boots gone, wriggled his waist and that tilted Ash and Haicor into a brief, loud laughter.
"What the heck are you going?", Haicor said amidst the laughter.
Rhett ignored her voice and gave it no reply and that made Ash not to speak at all, he wouldn't like a snub.
The wriggling of Rhett became more vociferous( if that's the right word) and that made his slayer pen to fall down. He briskly used his toes to catch it and struggled it into his mouth, biting the end. Suddenly his stats appeared in the crystal block letters.
NAME: KING RHETT
RANK: DRAGON SLAYER
Slayer hub: Level 2/10
[XP - 300]
[XP needed to Next level: 600]
Abilities: [PORTAL ASCENDER, GAZE KILLER]
Artifacts - [PORTAL COIN]
Rhett smiled as his stats slowly faded.
"Slaying that god slayer must have added more XP to me. So I guess I made the great decision of slaying him. I mean, I have 200 added XP", Rhett said with a smile.
Haicor exclaimed: "Whoo..ooo!". She tried to accompany the exclamation with the raising of her hands but the chains, as she expected, resisted her.
"But it didn't show when you slayed him", Ash said.
Rhett smiled. "Yeah, perhaps I was too busy to check and it just didn't pop out".
"What do you plan on doing tomorrow m'lord?, it's just evening and soon it'll be nighttime, we've got to act fast because I know vongarth, he will slay us all!", Ash said.
Rhett smiled and cogitated on his chances of escape and his chances of leveling up by slaying the ember dragon.
"I will slay the dragon!", he finally blurted.
Ash and Haicor exchanged shocked glances, one they did with a bit of difficulty though.
"But…, but…, but-", Ash stuttered.
"Give king vongarth the rank of immortal, yeah, yeah, I know, but now he will not attain that rank, instead I will", Rhett said.
Ash's face was a worried one. "You can not attain the immortal rank, for you to attain it, you ought to have attained all the slayer's rank".
"Then what will slaying the ember dragon and possessing its spirit gem give me?".
"Another rank I guess, we'll see".
Rhett got silent and looked at the shutters, it was nighttime now, a half moon in the sky. Where he was now wasn't cozy at all and it gave him great discomfort. So they were going to sleep standing up?, it was going to be torture!.
He closed his eyes and calculated his chances of him going against the bidding of King vongarth the next day. Of course if his plan failed he was going to die but that was not the thought now, his thought should be how to unfrock his childishness and his softness and inhabit a tough spirit, even though it was just for tomorrow.
A loud snore soon interrupted his thoughts, the ones that followed sounded like chunters and it disrupted his thoughts. He sighed and forced a look backwards only to see that it was Ash. Haicor was already dozing and with a tender voice, he said to her:
"Goodnight".
She replied with a nod and a smile, one that he saw was just a covering of her pain and discomfort.
"Don't worry Haicor, tomorrow, I'll slay the damn dragon, harness the damn spirit gem and get us the hell out of here!".
Rhett didn't know if Haicor heard his last words because she was already sleeping and snoring like a baby.
She looked cute to him and he felt pity for her. Well, that only bolstered him to be pertinacious, he had, now, decided that he was going to slay the damn dragon, harness its spirit gem, level up and then raze the damn hunters village.
And he wasn't going to go against his word.