“If I can chop him up,” Lucas said, gesturing at the Dwarf, “then what’s to say I can’t chop you up? What’s to say I won’t? You’re currently only alive because I am letting you live, and I’m only letting you live because you’re going to be useful to me.”

“But . . . there will be more food?” Saba'a quickly shifted the topic back to gains, absolutely ignoring the overly-dramatic, villainous flare that Lucas was going for.

“Yes, two meals, at the very least. If you listen to what I say and work hard, there will be many more to come,” Lucas promised.

Saba'a turned her whole body, staring directly at Jason. “Fine,” she acquiesced. “I don’t care what you’re demanding. Just keep the food coming.”

“In that case,” Lucas replied, looking over at Nick, “feed Gunter to the spider.”

“Why me? Come on, now . . . This isn’t funny,” Gunter whined. “Why did you help us if you were just going to betray us? Was this all your scheme? This is sic—” His voice was cut off as the spider coated his face with webbing. The Dwarf’s entire body was wrapped little by little, and then he was slowly pulled across the floor toward the monster’s waiting mouth.

Bonnie turned away, most likely as she remembered what it was like to be in his position, but Lucas couldn’t. He had to watch this. After having watched Bonnie hack off Jason’s leg twice and having made it through those blood-curdling screams, he knew that he had the stomach for it. This was the role he had to play. He had to be the villain. I’m going to be seeing a lot more people die soon . . .

The crunching of Gunter’s bones and the odd gushing, smacking sound as Saba’a ripped his flesh apart and mashed it together in her maw set a grim backdrop to Lucas’s thoughts. He had often died in the past himself, but watching someone die right in front of him in such a gruesome manner was night-and-day different from anything that he had experienced or even witnessed via online video.

NPC Gunter has died within your party. He will not respawn. All quests related to Gunter will automatically fail. Those who knew that he went with you will now believe you are responsible for his death.

A new NPC has been created in Hesse.

The spider’s mandibles opened wide and folded out like small arms getting ready to hug someone. “The other one?” she hissed.

“Bonnie, cut off his head first,” Lucas instructed. The merc happily complied, bringing her saw up to the Dwarf’s throat. “Then feed her the rest of the body.”

“But the brains . . .” the spider complained, causing Bonnie to pause after barely breaking skin. “They’re some of the tastiest parts.”

“Fine. Scoop out his brains for our wannabe zombie-spider as well.”