Chapter 139: Like a lizard

At the same time, Naread bolted in the opposite direction, scuttling on his many legs with a gleeful shout of, "You can try, fat lizard bitch! But first, you will have to catch me!"

For a moment, Marianna looked torn between whom to chase, but when a moment later my head hit an invisible wall in the air, I realised she was casting a spell. On the opposite end of the cave, Naread suffered the same fate, but with more hurt—his body was heavier, and his head wasn't as soft and elastic as mine.

"I said nobody leaves," Marianna growled. There was smoke coming out of her nostrils—literally. "Voren, put the treasures you stole down, or I will force them out of you. Or…" Her long mouth curved into the semblance of a toothy grin. "I have a better idea. You two seemed to have found a common ground at least for some time. I half-expected that, honestly. Naread just never could keep his mouth shut." She rolled her eyes. "I wanted to look at you two fighting, and now I think I can!"

'Pest, what is that wall?' I asked inwardly, while studying it with blind sight. It was visible in it, but just barely. I could see the shape of it—a thin but strong as stone membrane that covered the way to the treasury from floor to the ceiling. When I touched it with my orichalcum-covered hand, it seemed to soften just a little, but didn't dissolve.

'Looks like a force wall. High-level spell. Before you ask—I can't break it.' Pest's voice trembled slightly. 'I really hope you have a way to get out without killing anyone here directly! Or maybe this Naread does, but I wouldn't bet on it.'

"What do you mean, Marianna?" Naread flicked the tip of his tail back and forth nervously. "It was just a joke, an innocent joke! There's no need to be so angry. Isn't it boring to live on the mountain all alone, lying in your lair for days on end, only going out to hunt? Hey, you should be thankful to me for doing stuff to break that boredom! From the first day we met, even. But no, you had to be such a bitch about it, to tell me to shut my mouth, to steal and burn my food, to just make my life insufferable! Wasn't that enough for you?"

"Well, maybe if you listened for once and did keep your mouth shut, I would've considered it, but you had to run it all the time. Even now. I should silence you with magic before you talk me to death." Marianna huffed a blast of hot air. "I hope Voren kills you this time around."

Well, Naread was useful, at least in keeping her distracted by his chatter. I didn't spend this time doing nothing—as quietly as it was possible I morphed into a coil o was eating my way through the stone and under the edge of the force wall. It would've been faster to do this with my claws, but also louder, and I didn't want Marianna to look in my direction right now.

"He's not that stupid. Why would he try to kill me? Why would I try to kill him? I don't know what you thought up, but forget about it! Just let us go. Admit that you have lost! You can forget about apologising, though. I wouldn't expect something that big from you, Marianna."

"How? Simple. Come here, bug!" Marianna darted forward towards the staggered from surprise Naread. Despite her size and the sick state her host no doubt was in, she was fast on her feet. In a moment, Naread's body was pinned under her front claws.

"Let me go! Let me goooo!" he shouted, wriggling around. In a moment, his body first burst into flames, then sizzled with sparkles of electricity, then covered with long spikes, neither of which seemed to hurt him. Marianna shrugged them off as well and turned towards me. "Now you- where do you think you are going, Voren?"

I was half-way through the hole under the force wall by the time her words reached me. Well, I knew very well where I was going. Away! I pushed myself forward as fast as I could and was only a moment too late. The force wall lengthened, cutting off the way I dug out, and with it—a third of my body.

A cry of pain flew from my lips. "Aaaargh! I swear, I will kill you! I could've died, dammit!" The pain, though, didn't stop me from morphing out wings and flying away on them, even as the tail I left behind dissolved into a formless puddle.

"What? You slime…" Marianna grit her teeth. "Stop where you are!"

She must've prepared another spell, but I wasn't staying to try it out on myself. Like an arrow, I darted into the treasury and up to the light holes. With my current size, I could go through them with ease. The hardest part was to not drop the sword that, together with the ring, I still kept in my body.

"Ha-ha-ha! Not bad, Voren, not bad! Show that arrogant asshole how things are done!" Naread shouted from behind me. "She needs to be taught that her place isn't above, it's down below with the rest of us. Don't you, Marianna? How's that for a lesson? Don't humans say about that something about shooting at two birds and catching none? Well, that's you! Serves you right!"

I didn't hear Marianna's response, because by that time I was too far outside. My HP was down to only a third. I couldn't say that I lost anything vitally important, except for body mass, but I needed that body mass to function well. The pain dulled, but in its place came weakness. Still, I couldn't dawdle.

Marianna and Naread were together right now. If I wanted to deal with them once and for all, this was the best time.