Gula Invidia: Black Market (VIII): Arriving At The Pit

  --- Booker H. Freeman ---

  “Alright, by my count we should be getting close to the Pit’s station.” V announced after about fifteen minutes.

  “Does that mean I can get down now…?” Beez’el asked from where Booker was still holding him in the air, both facing a wall. “My legs are starting to feel weird as shit…”

  “Mm… I guess…” V reluctantly sighed, her voice tinged with amusement.

  “Wonderful!” Booker grinned, dropping the male Inferni and promptly spinning on his heels to face the girls after both had finished making their preparations for infiltrating the Pit.

  (Lust: Finally! I was getting so bored…)

  (Wrath: Now, now, patience is an important talent.)

  (Gluttony: Waiting for the right moment to strike.)

  (Sloth: And leaving yourself with too much time to think…)

  (Pride: No such thing!)

  “So, um, how exactly are we doing this?” Lydia asked, now that everyone was starting to move. “I mean, you said something about us sneaking on to hitch a ride so are we going to have to sneak up the tracks or something?”

  V considered it for a moment as she made her way to the cart door. “Something like that. You mind Smiles?”

  Not minding at all, he pulled the cart door open revealing the dark moving walls of the underground rails, illuminated by the faint lights given off of the Inferni’s strange black squares.

  “Rough, but not too bad.” V nodded, before glancing at him and Lydia. “Don’t think the kid can make the jump, you?”

  “Jump?!” Lydia repeated.

  He glanced at the moving rail.

  (Wrath: We should be able to take it.)

  (Gluttony: If not we can walk it off.)

  (Lust: Either way, you’ll probably want to keep a grip on Lydia.)

  “It’s doable.” He assured V, picking Lydia up and tucking her under his arm.

  “Wait! What’s happening?!”

  “Nothing to worry about!” He assured his ward with a smile and a pat atop her head as he took a stand next to the stretching Inferni.

  A flash of lights and sound briefly illuminated a colorful station that the train quickly passed by.

  “Ooh, actually I think that was us!” Beez’el admitted, sticking his head out to check. “Yep, that was our stop! Move it bitches!” With that final declaration the Inferni jumped out of the car door.

  “What?” Lydia blinked, before watching as V quickly followed after the Imp. “Oh no! No! No! No!!!”

  (Gluttony: Yes, yes, yes!)

  Ignoring her he leapt off the cart, aiming for the brick wall across the tracks, before giving into instinct. His hand shifting into a claw and digging into the brickwork to bleed his momentum, as he took the brunt of Lydia’s upon his side.

  Once he slowed enough, he pushed off with his claws, ripping them out of the brickwork and launching himself closer to where their Inferni companions had landed.

  Upon landing on the ground, he rolled his shoulders, shaking off the influence of his wilder side and quickly spotting both V and Beez’el a bit further down the tracks and getting their bearings.

  Stepping between the two he gently set a shivering Lydia down, before putting on a proper smile as the rest of his party got their bearings.

  “Shit, I think I see something mo- Oh, shit!” Beez’el screamed once the light from his little black box flashed on illuminating Booker’s face.

  Beez’el leapt back before shaking his head. “Shit! You are not someone to bump into at night…”

  (Gluttony: But we are what goes bump in the night~)

  He couldn’t help but chuckle at the Imp’s reaction before turning his attention back to V and Lydia. “And you ladies? How are you handling our landing?”

  “Just… just give me a second…” Lydia answered, still hunched over despite offering a weak thumbs up.

  “Think I chipped a nail, but nothing that I can’t fix with a file.” V confessed, while examining her claws.

  “Ugh, hate when that happens.” Beez’el grimaced, quick to check his own nails.

  (Gluttony: Especially when it pulls on the quick…)

  (Pride: Isn’t that always a risk when using claws?)

  (Gluttony: Not when your flesh heals faster than it can tear.)

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  (Wrath: Especially if you reinforce the muscles around the nail at the same time.)

  (Pride: Interesting… And now I’m curious about the biological differences of our claws from an Inferni’s.)

  (Sloth: Focus. We’ve got a job to finish, then we can mess around.)

  With that reminder, he glanced down the tracks noticing something faintly moving through the dark. “The station should be that way, yes?”

  “Yeah, think I can see the lights from it still so we aren’t too far out, but…” V (hideously) frowned, her eyes narrowing into the dark. “Beez, Imps got better vision than Cubi, you see something moving out there?”

  Beez’el’s eyes seemed to faintly glow as he spun his light further down the tracks. “I’m seeing something but I’m can’t get a lock on-” With an ear piercing screech a bundle of fur, fangs, and claws leapt at the light.

  (Gluttony: Got it.)

  His hand shot out, catching the oversized rat, his claws digging into its flesh and slowly killing it as he examined the beast that really did look like a rat with red and black fur. Small bone ridges protruding from its spine, and a maw full of fangs nipping at his flesh.

  With a squeeze he forced the little beast to let him go, before giving it a taste of its own medicine and biting its head off.

  A shiver of power ran down his spine as he felt a sudden rush into his soul, one so very similar to the one he got whenever he killed someone or gathered Sin. (Curious…)

  He spat out what was in his mouth, the bones getting stuck in his teeth, before taking a bite out of his prey and considering the taste.

  (Gluttony: Not sweet enough. Beast wasn’t ripe, too bland.)

  There was still a faint trickle when he swallowed, but nothing quite like what he’d gotten from dealing with those hooligans for the ladies of the night earlier. Nothing to make it worth the flavor, or work of picking the bones out of his teeth. Which is why he simply tossed it to the side.

  It was then that he noticed the rest of his party staring at him.

  “Yes?” He smiled with just a touch of confusion.

  For whatever reason all three of his companions shivered, before Beez’el informed him that, “You are one creepy fucker you know that?”

  “Whatever do you mean?” He was legitimately curious. (I’m not doing anything that odd am I?)

  (Gluttony: No.)

  (Envy: Yes.)

  (Lust: Just keep being yourself.)

  “That doesn’t matter.” V answered with a shake of her head. “The sooner I get you three into the Pit the sooner I can forget about this whole mess. Hopefully that rat was the only beast we’ll find down here.”

  As they started down towards the station he could vaguely make out the echoing bass of thumping music so very similar to that of the club V worked at, steadily growing louder with every step they took. Until reaching a crescendo just short of deafening as they came to the station proper, and with it a set of concrete stairs leading onto the station platform.

  While they could easily hear the Pit’s music, and make out the lights coming from within it, their actual access was blocked off by a wooden barricade of sorts. One that was covered in glowing paint and that he could vaguely see tendrils of smoke curling over the ledge of.

  (Envy: Don’t be fooled, the paint is a cover for a number of defensive spells that would slow us down for a fair while.)

  (Sloth: Don’t suppose we could just jump over it.)

  (Envy: No, I’m seeing some kind of motion based cutting spell if we try that.)

  (Sloth: Shame, would've made things easier.)

  In front of this defensive structure were a number of guards clearly there to prevent any intrusions, whether due to its would-be patrons or Hellbeasts worse than the one they’d encountered, he could not tell.

  (Greed: If it was just to ward off bad customers they wouldn’t be paying for so much security.)

  V took a deep breath before letting it out. “Alright, let me handle getting us in.”

  With that the female Inferni put on a clearly fake smile -making her look far less appealing than the wicked smirk she’d almost defaulted to before this- before making her way towards the guards next to the entrance.

  “Ugh, hate watching this shit.” Beez’el groaned, arms crossed in front of his chest and eyes anywhere other than V. “Hate the way people treat Cubi.”

  “What do you mean?” Lydia (concerningly) frowned.

  “Everyone treats Cubi like they’re bubbly idiots that can be talked into an easy fuck.” Beez’el explained with a frustrated look, as if he was thinking of how best to kill the man V was half hanging off of. “Most learn how to make it work for them, and hey I can respect the hustle, but… it just sucks… Especially since other Inferni started treating them the same way.”

  “Yes… It is rather distasteful.” He agreed, noting how the guard had opened the door for V who was now gesturing towards the rest of their little party. “If you’d like we could just kill them all and walk through the front door?”

  (Gluttony: We’d enjoy it~)

  “Ha!” Beez’el laughed, before putting on a wistful grin. “I wish… Even if you are a Contractor I don’t like me or mini-bitch’s odds of getting past this many guys.”

  “Fair enough.” He shrugged, eyes drifting over the guards and wondering how many he could kill before reinforcements arrived.

  Idly he noticed V begin to clap while hopping in place before kissing the guard on the cheek and running over.

  The moment she returned to their group she lost her smile and for once he didn’t overly care. “Alright, I’ve got us in, and I lucked out in the guards not calling that creep. Apparently, his whole ‘get you in’ shit was him just trying to get in my pants. Reading between the lines, they’ve no issue letting women in and if you tell them you’re here to join the fights they’ll let you in too Smiles.”

  “Fantastic.” He smiled, glad this had worked out easy enough as they made their way back to the door in a group, V’s smile this time only half faked.

  As they neared the guard, a large muscular man with fangs and a vaguely canine appearance gave him a once over, “You the one who wants to fight?”

  “That’s correct my good sir!” He nodded with a smile.

  For some reason the man’s eyes narrowed as he gave him another once over. “I know you from somewhere?”

  He blinked before honestly answering. “Not that I can recall?”

  “Um, he competed in some of the Assassin’s Games a while back, was pretty big for a minute.” Lydia offered when their staredown began to drag on a bit.

  “Ah, that might be it.” He realized, not actually sure how well known that would make his face.

  (Pride: Unless they stamped our face on posters in promotion of the games?)

  (Lust: We would put on a killer performance~)

  “Oh, someone from the games?” The bouncer gave him a considering nod. “You know the boss just might like that. If you put on a good enough show he might even bring out his best fighter, make tonight a real event.”

  “That sounds simply delightful.” He grinned, sure that ripping the ‘best fighter’ limb from limb would be more than enough to get him an invite to meet his target.

  (Gluttony: Someone to sharpen our claws on.)

  (Sloth: Or someone to tire us out before we reach the target.)

  With that settled the bouncer opened the door for them, a cloud of smoke blinding them to the depths of the Pit they were entering.

  Patreon Thanks

  Remember: The first split party choice will be next chapter, with Booker entering the Fight Pit and Beez’el and Lydia going off to find the prisoners.

  Just occurred to me (and really should’ve asked this last chapter): Did Lydia change into her Dark Kit Suit, or her Survivor’s Hoodie?