Shalin, p.1
Shalin, page 1
Shalin
Book Twelve of
the Outsider series.
by
Aiden Phoenix
Copyright © 2024 Aiden Phoenix
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. Except for the purposes of making reviews or other cases permitted by copyright law.
ISBN: 9798882852374
Cover created by Aiden Phoenix.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, locations, and events are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead, locations, or events are coincidental and unintended by the author.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
Welcome to Collisa!
Collisa is a new world brimming with opportunities for adventure and growth. It is also brimming with chances for romance and fun. This is the story of Dare and the life he builds for himself with the women he meets and falls in love with.
As you can guess, it is a harem tale, with all that includes. Be aware that it features varied and explicit erotic scenes between multiple partners. It is intended to be enjoyed by adults. All characters involved in adult scenes are over the age of 18.
Prologue
Maneuvering
Dare did his best to keep his face impassive as he watched a dozen goblin men, clad in Poor quality leather, fight frantically to survive against a hulking bovid Warrior that was 10 levels higher than them and equipped with full Good quality plate.
Inwardly he was trying not to be sick.
Around him the crowd roared with every blow, especially when blood sprayed. Always from the poor goblins. The Sarov Great Arena in Sul Sarovar could hold ten thousand spectators, and for the primetime fights in the late afternoon it was packed to overflowing. A seething mass of humanity stinking of sweat, booze, and chokingly thick body odor.
The arena was, unsurprisingly, owned by the Shalin Grand Consortium. In fact, almost all businesses that dealt in booze, drugs, or flesh were, with clear monetary ties leading back to the criminal empire. Across the entire continent.
And that barely scratched the surface of its holdings. The Consortium wielded shocking influence from the shadows. Its power and wealth were so staggering that they were difficult to conceive of except in the abstract.
It owned or had a stake in tens thousands of businesses, had hundreds of thousands of hirelings and orders of magnitude more indebted or enslaved to them. It owned roughly half the assets on Shalin through direct or indirect means, and the wealth it dealt in numbered in the tens of billions of gold.
It had armies of high level thugs at its disposal, and politically had just about every ruler under its thumb, along with most of the lords and magistrates of the various kingdoms. All of it controlled from hiding, the power behind the thrones.
But like any shadow empire, the bigger it got the more it resembled an elephant hiding behind a leaf. At this stage it relied more and more on force and intimidation to protect itself, rather than secrecy. Every single one of its holdings, every single one of its agents, a point of vulnerability.
Malin Meadowbrook, the leader of the Consortium and de facto ruler of the continent, did a peerless job keeping it all managed, growing his power while keeping the existence of his organization a secret. As for the gnome himself, he was a ghost. Impossible to track down, even his touch on his various holdings so light it couldn't be seen.
Few others could have gained his level of wealth and influence without becoming a household name, and with it the attention that would make his vile dealings impossible.
The Shadow Crusade Dare led, on the other hand, had no holdings. It did no business under any name that could be recognized. Its agents moved in constant Stealth out in the field, or under random illusions to hide their identity. They left no evidence that could point to them.
Their sanctuary, the town of Independent in the Independent Territory, was protected by a raid strength Level 70 black dragon who could block scrying for hundreds of miles around her lair. It would take the combined might of the Consortium to threaten her, if they ever even discovered her existence.
And in the last extreme, the Crusade was prepared to open portals and vanish with all their people and equipment, ready to start again elsewhere.
Pragmatically speaking, the Crusade was an ant trying to tackle a titan. They couldn't come close to matching their enemy's levels, numbers, wealth, resources, or influence. But the advantage they did have was that they were a true shadow entity.
Malin's organization had countless points of vulnerability, and thanks to a year and a half of tireless spying and information gathering and sorting by Ireni, Marona, and their people, the Shadow Crusade knew of thousands of them. They could strike from the shadows at any of them at their leisure then disappear, and the Consortium would be hard pressed to defend their holdings or strike back at their attackers.
For a while, at least. With the power Malin wielded eventually he'd track them down and stomp them flat. Which was why they couldn't simply wage a war of attrition, gradually destroying the Consortium's holdings and capturing their assets.
Once their enemy knew of them, their days were numbered. Which was why they needed to make their efforts count. Strikes against key targets, capturing and interrogating people who could lead them to the Consortium's hidden and paranoid leadership.
In pursuit of that, after over three years on Collisa Dare finally set foot in an arena. Although not for entertainment; what he saw on the sands below was anything but entertaining.
But it served to show the evil he fought in stark reality, firming his resolve.
In order to bring the Consortium down they would need to dismantle all these businesses as well. Or at least assist in doing so, since they simply didn't have that sort of manpower available. The alternative, simply cutting the head off the snake, would bathe the streets of every major city and most of the smaller towns in blood as the shadow organization's leaderless lieutenants and muscle fought over the scraps.
Of course, that was getting ahead of themselves. Dare and his people were nowhere near ready to consider the aftermath of their shadow war with Malin, considering they'd yet to strike the first blow. And their victory was by no means certain.
In fact, if they made a mistake and the Consortium managed to track them down and pin them in place, the fight would be as hopeless as the one taking place on the sands below.
The Warrior gladiator toyed with the poor goblins. Using the Taunt ability on them as if they were monsters, bouncing them off his shield to send them sprawling in the sand, laughing as he hacked through them. It was obvious he was trying to avoid lethal or crippling blows, probably so they could be healed up and sent out again.
Although Dare didn't need his Adventurer's Eye to know that some of the unmoving little green forms wouldn't be getting up again. The crowd seemed to know it too, roaring their approval and screaming for the others to also be cut down.
The last goblin broke and ran, laughter and jeers chasing him as the gladiator sauntered in casual pursuit. Although once the crowd tired of the chase and began booing the Warrior Charged his tiny foe, hacking him down.
Sickened beyond words, Dare turned away and pushed through the screaming, surging crowd. He had to be careful not to send them flying with Great Power, and when several who weren't pleased at being jostled shoved and even punched him, he resisted the reflexive impulse to punch back.
At his level, flicking one of these people with a finger with harmful intent could kill them. The more powerful he got, the more careful he had to be, although thankfully the world system on Collisa made it extremely difficult to accidentally hurt someone, especially someone far weaker.
To the point that if it happened it probably wasn't an accident anymore.
These people were here for blood and cheered at death like vicious animals, but they sought refuge in the arena as an escape from lives of crippling poverty, debts they'd never get out from under, indentured servitude or even slavery. They faced degradation, suffering, and inescapable hopelessness beyond these walls, and leapt at the chance to escape their lives to see others who had it worse.
Bread and circuses, like the Roman patricians on Earth used to keep their people just content enough with their lives to not revolt.
Most of these people were under the heel of the Shalin Grand Consortium, or those who were under their heel. The architect of their suffering was the psychopath Malin Meadowbrook, who swam in an ocean of gold without a second thought for the blood soaking it.
The father of Dare's consort Marigold, who'd stolen her and Dare's son with her, Marcus, away and then tried to murder the rest of Dare's family.
The man his forces had prepared for over a year and a half to bring down.
He reached the bottom of the stands, where the crowd stood in a shoving mob trying to see the arena below. Near one corner of that area, at a spot on the railing overlooking the sands below, stood a plain, moderately finely dressed woman with raven hair.
She was guarded by a scowling female orc with reddish-brown skin bearing a slave collar and brand, who wore a full suit of plate armor and had a cudgel and whip hanging from her belt. The thrall bodyguard was Level 32, and her appearance was menacing enough to keep the crowd at bay a few feet in spite of their eagerness to see the show below.
Ireni and Koru, hiding in plain sight with Maril's illusions to hide their true appearance and levels. Same as Dare was.
He joined them at the railing, watching as healers tended the surviving goblins and laborers dragged away the bodies, probably to be tossed in some pit with the other bodies this vile place churned out. Meanwhile the Warrior strutted in a circle around the perimeter of the arena egging the crowd on, soaking in their adulation.
“They deserve better,” he murmured to his wives.
“They do,” Ireni agreed, eyes flashing with wrath. “Although for most it's the only life they've known, and they've resigned themselves to this gruesome fate being the ultimate end to their miserable lives. Some of them are captured by slavers, but most are from the breeding pens.”
“Also owned by the Consortium,” Dare growled, stomach churning with his own fury.
Zuri's mother had been consigned to the breeding pens in Kov, and was still recovering from the horrors of the place. The inhumanity of what went on there was difficult to even contemplate. And Pella had been trained as a pet and lived a degrading life serving a master's every whim, even if she'd been at least fortunate to have a good master.
Dare would've happily dismantled such vile businesses with no other motivation, but the fact that they were owned and operated by the Shalin Grand Consortium was icing on the cake.
His redheaded wife nodded grimly. “Also owned by the Consortium,” she agreed. “As are the child brothels, exotic races whorehouses, the bovid dairies, and the canid, felid, and lepid pet training farms the breeding pens also supply. All consigning those poor slaves to lives of misery and degradation.”
That was nothing new. Sul Sarovar on the western coast of Shalin had a reputation for nobility and honor, and wasn't the most corrupt of the kingdoms on the continent. That combined with the extreme distance was one of the reasons it had taken them so long for Ireni and her spies to investigate it.
But they were here now, digging for connections to the Consortium, and sadly they were finding more than a few. Even in the supposedly most goodly kingdom on the continent.
Malin's fingers dug everywhere, squeezing the downtrodden for coin and playing the powerful like puppets.
“When the time comes, we can contact our friends in Bastion to help us eliminate the vile businesses in that region,” he said through gritted teeth. “Elsewhere, especially places like this, it's going to be more difficult.”
His wife nodded grimly. “If we can eliminate Malin and the other leadership, and we have evidence we can present to the leaders of the various kingdoms and realms, they might be willing to help us.”
Koru grunted. “Or they'll take those businesses over to line their own coffers.”
Dare looked down at the bloodstains on the sand, and his knuckles whitened around the railing.
Eyes pained, Ireni stepped closer and rested a small hand on his chest. “This was an awful thing to see, my love.”
He let out a heavy breath. “But I needed to see it. To see the evil perpetrated by the enemy we face. What we're fighting against. Focused on leveling and other preparations, I've stayed insulated from it for too long while you and your spies wade through the filth, but now that we're preparing to move I can't avoid it any longer.”
He just hoped that in scouring Shalin of it, they weren't sullied themselves. They were going to have to kill a lot of people before this shadow war was done. Hundreds, thousands, perhaps more. Criminals and scum who preyed on innocents for their gain.
But still, it would be a lot of blood on his hands.
He needed to feel the suffering he was saving innocents from. The slaves they'd free from the breeding pens, arenas, and brothels. The addicts living as mindless slaves to the drug dens that exploited them. All the people living in serfdom under crippling debt they'd never be able to work their way out from under.
Collisa could be a harsh place, and Malin was the architect of a great deal of that suffering on Shalin. Including what Zuri and Pella had been through, and Se'weir and her tribe. And Zeliz's hive and their crippling wage slavery. And Linia's and Trissela's slavery, and Ireni's nightmarish childhood in a brothel.
Suffering that touched Dare's family deeply, beyond the gnome kingpin kidnapping Marigold and Marcus, destroying their home, and sending them fleeing for their lives into exile.
Small wonder Sia had declared her Shadow Crusade on Malin and the Shalin Grand Consortium, urging all her followers to defeat them.
The crowd roared as new fighters entered the arena. Apparently this was to be a more farcical fight, judging by the laughter and jeers of the spectators. It featured five scantily clad catgirls, trembling and looking about as menacing as frightened kittens, goaded by an overseer with a whip into whacking each other with heavy sticks.
Dare found nothing funny about the fight; the bruises, broken bones, and cries of pain were very real. Especially once the arena overseers seemed to tire of the unwilling gladiators' timidity and sent out chained lions to menace them, a cruel warning that if the crowd wasn't pleased with their show they'd find another way to entertain them.
He abruptly felt an unseen presence at his back, and Ireni shifted slightly as the cloth on her shoulder indented from a hand resting on it. One of her Stealthed spies giving the prearranged signal. “They're done,” she murmured to him and Koru.
That meant they'd gotten into the various offices and records rooms that held the information they were looking for, had copied any documents they'd found, and had left it all looking the same as they'd found it.
Although after what Dare had seen, he would've happily watched Misini drop a Meteor on this vile place after they'd cleared it out and freed the slaves.
He swallowed and hastily turned away, fighting the urge to fetch his bow and go on a rampage through the arena's depths and scour it of the vile slavers, trainers, overseers, and masters who profited from this atrocity. “We've got the information we need, so let's go. I've seen enough.”
The streets of Sul Sarovar were busy around the arena, but became quieter a few blocks away. They were well lit and patrolled by guards in gleaming armor and brilliant white cloth, and there was little chance of danger.
That didn't stop Dare from watching every alley and rooftop; even after a year and a half with no overt threats appearing, he didn't feel safe anywhere but in the Independent Territory under the protection of the dragon Harannia.
His consort and mother of his draconid son Astoru.
Perhaps Malin had completely forgotten about him, or had written him and his family off as fled or in hiding. But Dare wasn't about to relax his vigilance again.
He'd been unable to protect Marigold and Marcus, and had almost lost his family to a Meteor dropped by one of the gnome kingpin's enforcers. He wouldn't fail them again.
The deceptively small group reached the secluded alley they'd planned for their extraction, and Koru began casting her portal back to Independent, the town they'd built in Nia's domain.
The fading light filling the alley rippled as Seris, Selis, and Gad, Ireni's spy team for this venture, appeared. They gathered around to make their report, the fox girl twins cuddling up to Dare's sides and lovingly caressing him with their tails the entire time.
“No encounters during the mission,” Gad said tersely. “We remained undiscovered.”
Those who heard the man's tone might consider him grim and taciturn, and they'd be exactly right. He'd suffered much in his life, especially in the war against Balor. But he was brave, clever, and fiercely loyal, which was why Dare had made him leader of the Cordery Rangers' Stealth party.
He remained a party leader and led spy missions, although the number of Stealthers in their force had jumped up to over 20 and Sir Carnon led the group.
