Page 57 of That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human
When she lunged forward, I dove under her arm before snatching a trident off a pile of gems. Then whipped around and poked her armpit with it.
“Ow!”she yelped. She snapped her head to glare at me before her eyes grew wide, her dark pupils turning into thin slits.“Put that down now! You have no idea what you have in your hands.”
“The hell I will!” I thrust the trident forward again, nearly clipping her chest before she slunk back.
Angry rumbling erupted from her throat before a stream of flames shot forth. Panicked, I held the trident up in front of my face. All at once, the magic humming in my blood came alive and surged into the cool metal of the trident. The flames parted around me as if blocked by an invisible shield. Kohara reared back in shock, and I took the opportunity to run through her legs and poke her at the base of her tail where the scales turned thin. When she leapt out of the way, I bolted toward the door.
“OW! You little shit, that hurts!”she hissed, darting after me.
“Yeah, so does being set on fire!” I called over my shoulder. Flames singed my side, causing my heart to drop into my gut. A small bit of fire caught on the side of my coat and I frantically patted it down as I turned down the hall and kept running. The dragoness burst through the doors behind me, denting the wall she crashed into. Her claws made terrible screeching sounds as they scraped against the marble flooring.
When she was nearly at my back, I flattened myself on the floor, causing her to skitter over me as she tried to stop. I shot up and jabbed my weapon at the base of her tail as hard as I could. This time, blue lightning raced up my arms and into the fork of the trident.
Kohara screeched, then jumped to her side before crashing into the dining table. She flailed among the chairs before righting herself with an angry hiss. By the time she had gotten up, I was already halfway up the steps, nearly to my destination.
“You’ll pay for that, you little snack!”
“I fucking knew they ate people.”
I threw open the doors to the bee room and ran toward the giant purple honeycombs as fast as I could. The sound of screeching claws on marble grew closer.
“Oh, this part is gonna suck so bad,” I whimpered. My hand grazed the traveler stone in my pocket, reassuring me that it was still there before I moved on to phase two. Phase two being pissing off giant venomous demon bees.
Totally fine, no pressure.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I raised the trident up, and smacked the shit out of the purple beehive. Angry buzzing erupted from the comb and I darted over to the next one and slapped that too. Then a third one for good measure.
Kohara slammed through the doors just in time to see a reckoning of bees swarm out of the hive. Her jaw fell slack, as her body coiled away.“Are you insane?”
Although phase two was going according to plan, my flight response kicked in and I couldn’t help but run away screaming from the horde of angry bees. I snatched the traveler stone from my pocket and poured as much magic into it as I could.
“No, don’t run toward me!”Kohara screamed. I tried running around her, but she turned to escape and I ended up slamming against her side. Wind picked up around us, accompanied by ferocious buzzing.
We came out on the other end of the portal in an explosion of rubble. Kohara’s dragon form was far too big for the little corner I had left the return stone in, and the surrounding walls crumbled against her hard scales. A demon bee was caught under her chin, and she reared up with a scream. A horde of demon bees flew out from around us and into the stands of the coliseum. Screams of panic broke out all along the stands as people started fleeing. The announcer in the center of the stage looked on at the chaos in horror before he too turned and ran.
Before the dragon could realize I was within squishing distance, I crawled out from underneath her and snuck toward the door leading to the gladiators’ quarters.
To my ever-changing luck, a demon bee had beat me to my destination and picked a fight with the guards. The shorter guard put up a valiant effort; however, his partner immediately dropped his lance and ran away screaming. The shorter guard looked back at his fleeing companion, which was his downfall. His shining armor did nothing to stop the giant stinger from running him through. I gasped as the demon bee retracted its stinger and flew away, leaving the guard with a gaping hole in his chest before he fell to the floor.
Welp, that’s going to add to my list of nightmares.
Kohara righted herself and shook off the rubble before whipping around to glare at me.“You!”
“Oh shit,” I turned and shoved my way through the doors. The sight that greeted me on the other side was much, much worse. The gladiators’ quarters beneath the coliseum looked more like a dark and dingy dungeon. Rows of cages lined the walls, each filled with dazed-looking demons. My body felt numb as I took in the sheer amount of them.
There was no way I had brought enough cinnamon for everyone. I ran up to the first cage and peered inside to see a large orc and a spitaur slumped inside. The orc’s dark red skin was mottled with bruises, while his hair sat in a disheveled heap that may have been a bun in a former life. The spitaur didn’t look much better. I gasped, seeing the gold and black bands on his legs. “Holy shit, it’s the tavern owner!”
To my shock, the cage was unlocked. “Right, I guess mind-controlled captives don’t do much to escape.”
I stepped inside and slowly approached the orc. “Hey, can you hear me?”
No response, not that I expected one. I leaned the trident against the wall then reached into my pocket and took out the bag of cinnamon before waving it under his nose. His lips twitched, and I raised the cinnamon closer to his nose. When his body jerked, I stepped back and did the same to the spitaur. No sooner had I backed away, the orc leapt to his feet with a snarl, causing me to stumble further back.
Wild eyes fixed on me. I held my hands up and tried to look as friendly as possible. “Welcome back. Is the curse out of your system?” I asked.
The orc rubbed a hand on his face and groaned. “Where am I? What happened?”
“You’re beneath the coliseum in Kirkwall. Though I’m not sure what happened to you. Can you tell me your name?”
