The barrage continued without stopping, Health Qi venting at tremendous speed under the assault as elemental energies raged over the Tremendous Monuga. He tried to get back up, clawing and ripping at the stone walls with blunt fingers, trying to get a handhold that would take his weight, and failing as the stone crumbled beneath his grip.

  He faltered, raising his hands to take the impacts of the arrows, but that didn’t stop the venting of Health Qi, only where the pain was at and continued. It would buy him only seconds when his Health Qi faded and his arms froze solid and were blasted apart at the same moment, moments before its skull would do the same.

  “” he finally called out in ultimate despair, falling into a crouch, his three-fingered hands clutching its skull.

  I blinked in utter surprise that I could actually understand it. “HOLD!” I called out.

  Probably thirty seconds from disposing of this brute which was the terror of all of Osteth, the group still stopped firing immediately, looking at me in surprise, even Princess Kristie.

  “It just surrendered,” I said into the sudden quiet, staring at it.

  It was Brown. The Alignment of an animal, of a territorial being whose thoughts didn’t move much past instinct, with no higher thoughts whatsoever. Defend territory, eat, maybe find a mate, fight to protect itself and its lands that it had claimed. Really, nothing higher than filling its belly.

  I didn’t know monuga, because monugas didn’t really talk with anyone. Even Kris didn’t talk with them. She just beat the crap out of them until they got the message that messing with her was the wrong thing to do. Monugas fought or ran away from a fight, that was it. They didn’t talk with other species, and I wasn’t going to shadow one around to figure out their language and what it consisted of.

  The fact this Tremendous Monuga actually had something of a language and my Permanent Tongues could pick up on it was kind of impressive.

  “Monugas don’t surrender,” the Mick said firmly, although his face was probably as weird as my own.

  The Elemental Kickers on my spells slowly puffed out on its flesh, one by one. It kept its hands up above it… but now they were actually showing frostbite and burns on them.

  It was at one percent. If we resumed pummeling it, it would be dead in seconds.

  Her Whiskers of the Wild Tat rippled up on Princess Kristie’s face in predatory cuteness. “Why?” she called back in a feral purr. “Monugas do not surrender. It is kill or be killed.”

  “,” was the somehow despairing rumble from below. “”

  “You’ve been seen to eat our kind, Tim. Kind of weird to be talking with your food, isn’t it?” she shot right back, clearly not happy at this development.

  “,” was its only mournful reply.

  Kristie glared down at the cowering, towering brute, hands still raised pitifully to defend itself from the barrage that would kill it, looking rather pathetic now, instead of defiant to the end.

  “Well, fuck,” she said, looking really annoyed. “I was really, really looking forward to seeing if we could make a Girdle of Tremendous Monuga Strength…”

  “That be a thing?” The Mick was a little wide-eyed at the idea, and turned a calculating look back at the massive creature below.

  “Won’t know now.” Kristie was clearly annoyed, and the Mick threw up his hands in mock outrage. “Ryin.”

  “Yes?”

  “How many Eaters do you think this big fellow could eat?”

  I blinked, just like everyone else. “In the end? Probably all of them.”

  “How many hugely oversized cows?”

  “Huh.” I looked down at him. “He’d need help, and probably vivus. I wouldn’t want to be touching the meat of those things.”

  “And could a Ring of Sustenance take care of his food needs?”

  I just looked down at the three-eyed titan, kind of peeking up at us. “You’re talking caloric needs at least fifty times that of a normal human, and that’s with Jotun Stature effects taking up a huge amount of the load. It would take a high-end version of Sustaining… but yes, it could be done.”

  “And something like a Girdle of Perfection?”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Probably have to kill those Aurochs for the leather, but sure.”

  “Gotta keep ‘em fed in the meantime,” the Mick sighed, reconciling himself to not throwing around cottage-sized boulders. “And can’t have him running around before his appetite is satisfied. Can’t go to the Isle of Ruin… he’s big, but an Eater horde will still take him down.”

  “If he was armored up?” Kris asked, and the Mick blinked.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Ye’d make up a suit of armor big enough for him to wear?” He smacked his own head as she started to smile. “Well, of course ye would, why am I askin’?” he mumbled to himself. “He’s going to eat as much as a whole company. How do ye want t’ handle that?”

  “We have whole warehouses full of extra food, but there is a short-term solution. Didn’t we find out just last night that there might be another Merchant NPC around?”

  I blinked. “Ulgrim’s nephew on Aphus Lassel?”

  “That’s the one. We can buy all the food he needs and more in the short term. As for his behavior and wandering around, can we Geas him?”

  “Of course, but he’s so big that he can hold off the negative effects of disobedience a long time.”

  “Combined with some positive reinforcement? What’s his Color?”

  “He’s Brown,” I admitted.

  She stared down at him a bit longer. “Aren’t the gromnies of this place utter savages until they become dragons or something? Why do I have the feeling the Tremendous Monugas might be the same thing… except there are no other TM’s around to teach this fellow different?”

  “Borelean has been handling all the stuff with the Viridian Rise, and the gromnatross dragons there don’t venture outside the Rise and the Deru Tree. But you are correct, they have no hostility innate to any living, natural creatures. They loathe the shades and the undead, however, and are deeply skeptical of the virindi.”

  “None o’ the stories about the gromnatrosses ever call ‘em aggressive an’ conquering types. They were a sacred animal to many o’ the Empyreans. Not so much to the undead Falatacot, o’ course,” the Mick mused. “But the records we found indicate there were gromnatrosses here when the Empyreans first arrived, and there’s no records that the monugas were ever NOT here. They’ve been on Dereth longer then the Ruschk, although nobody thinks the Rushck started here.”

  “What do we need to do this?” Kris asked me directly.

  “Go to Briggs for the pyreal to make the Ring, and you’ll need it for the armor, too. I can handle the Geas right now, and even make him some manna that will take the edge off of his appetite, we needn’t go find Ketnan right now.” I glanced at the Mick. “Haven’t we found a few more stacks worth of MMD’s recently?”

  “Aye, some o’ the old Mansions we didn’t get ta earlier had some they recovered, although we’ve kept it quiet,” the Mick admitted calmly. “Didn’t see much need fer ‘em, as it were. Nice to have some as a backup…”

  “A merchant who could cough up a few years worth of supplies would be another good find,” Kris sighed. “How long are we going to need to keep him down there?”

  “No use bringing him out while he’s hungry. I’ll take care of that and the Geas.” I stepped forward over the pit, looking down at the Tremendous Monuga… which Kris had just sort of named Tim, I supposed.

  “I am not food,” I told the Tremendous Monuga, his three vertical eyes locked on me. “If you strike me at all, we will kill you immediately. If you have surrendered, lower your hands and prove your sincerity.”

  There was a moment of hesitation as the great brute stared at me, but then he slowly and carefully lowered his frozen and burned arms, exposing himself to all of our sights.

  He probably wasn’t clever enough to come up with a hostage play, but he didn’t know I could just Blink out of his grip, and when that happened, he was immediately going to die.

  I walked down on a spiral towards him, making it totally plain to him that I was walking on the air, he had no way to do that.

  There was a twitch as I entered his actual reach, but he held himself in control, and just kept watching as I descended into the pit until I was standing on the air, my Cloudstepping Sandals misting and keeping me there as I faced him across less than sixty feet of space.

  “We take our promises seriously. If you have surrendered, that means you have given yourself into our custody, and we may treat you as a prisoner, and you will obey our orders until such time as you have earned your freedom.

  “That also means that we are in charge of your care and your feeding. Do you agree to this continued surrender?” I asked him formally.

  He stared at me again, licking his lips once, and I distinctly heard the massive rumble of his gut eating at him.

  “,” he confirmed reluctantly, bowing his head slowly, ashamed of his own weakness.

  The Geas took hold. He might be able to resist it, but he would know when he was being disobedient. “We will address you as Tim.” His Assay wasn’t indicating a name for him, perhaps unsurprising. His lesser fellows probably called him the equivalent of ‘the biggest and strongest one.’ “Tim, extend your hands out like this.” I put them together and held them out like an offering.

  Carefully and a bit suspiciously, he did so, reaching them out towards me. I stepped up to the edge of them, and Cast a Create Godfood for him.

  I was partial to Aru’s apples. A Very Good Apple taller than I was materialized in his hands, prompting all three of his eyes to bulge in shock to behold what was in his grasp.

  “Go ahead and eat it, Tim. It should take care of all of your hunger.”

  He brought it up to his head closer to examine it, still in disbelief. He of course recognized an apple, he’d just never seen one so big… or looking so absolutely delicious.

  With another rumble from his stomach, he jammed it into his mouth. I noted he had an omnivorous set of dentistry, not too much different from our own, and he bit and sucked and made a noise of absolute bliss as all three of his eyes closed in absolute joy at the taste exploding in his mouth.

  Technically, it probably wasn’t enough mass to satisfy him, but Godfood of sufficient size could satisfy anything, even if it wasn’t a fruit-eater. That apple he was holding could satisfy hundreds of creatures, and was certainly enough to work for him, and then some.

  He slobbered and chewed and ate the whole thing, as it had no seeds to be wary of or anything. The only way it could hurt him was if he hit himself in the eye with it.

  When he was done, he actually leaned back against the wall of the pit and slid down into a crouch.

  “,” he said with obvious relief. “”

  “I will return tomorrow with another Really Good Apple for you. Or maybe an Orange. We will see.”

  He just grunted, closed his triple-stacked eyes, and looking suddenly like a very tired savage brute, went to sleep right in front of me.

  I only waited a moment, but the change in breathing and heart rate indicated a complete lack of subterfuge.

  I ascended back to the lip of the pit and stepped away.

  “I’m not going to waste anyone’s time. I will leave a minor Summoned Guardian here to warn me of any intruders, and put a wall around the pit to make sure nothing wanders into it.” The Seal Focus came up under my feet, and was Energized with a few dozen mana. “This mission is successful. Where to, Highness?” I asked.

  “Mayoi. We’ve all got things to do, and my work starts there. Go get the Primus up and on his feet. I’ll get the Ring to you between the other stuff Briggs and I will be working on.” She looked at the Mick. “Get a Lived-Line connection to the Tusker Island. If you want to do some exploring and testing the ground there, that’s fine.”

  He just nodded. “Done, Highness.”

  A minute later, Tim the Tremendous Monuga was dozing alone inside a walled pit, and we were away from there.

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