The Great Worm Lich

George had a major change of expression, he became speechless. Eventually, he managed to force himself to speak, “I actually meant to use Big Gavin’s connection when I said business. You know, he knows many people. Since he’s well-connected, we thought we could…”

“Tell me what business you’re talking about, George?” Raby said while raising his voice expressionlessly. At that moment, Zhang Lisheng who was standing aside took the initiative to speak, “I’m looking to buy a batch of cheap raw meat. George told me that he has a connection in Queens, so here we are.”

Raby seemed to have only noticed the skinny Asian young man next to George at the moment. He took a good look at Zhang Lisheng and asked, “You’re Chinese?”

“I’m from China.”

“I thought so. Only you Chinese are so cautious to get this irrelevant little man to look out when you talk business.”

“It’s better to be safe than sorry. Moreover, being young doesn’t mean we have no wisdom,” Zhang Lisheng did not explain and said while pretending to be profound with a smile.

“Hahaha, you’re right little guy. I’m young too. You’re a funny guy, do you know that? Unfortunately, you found the wrong middle man.”

Zhang Lisheng said nothing while wearing a smile.

“How much ‘stuff’ do you need?”

“I only need one to two tonnes each transaction.”

“Sh*t, I thought you’re talking big. But small business is better than no business. I happened to know that Colby has the ‘stuff’ that you need at Dodd’s warehouse. I’ll bring you guys there now.”

George shook off Raby’s hand hard and shouted, “Listen, Raby. We’re not idiots, we’re not going with you!”

“I’m afraid you’ve got no choice, George,” Raby revealed a sly smile as he said, “You put your hand in your pocket pretending to be holding a gun, it seems like you haven’t learned anything these two years. Your friend too, it’s surprising that he does the same silly thing as you did. Is New York’s gun control so strict now that even a Chinese triad couldn’t get a pistol? Alright, let’s not beat around the bush. There’s only one person-in-charge here, that person’s me. You guys will do whatever I said. Now I’m saying follow me.”

As soon as he was done speaking, he glanced at his underlings. The remaining four black young men surrounded Zhang Lisheng and George, forcing them to follow behind Raby and walked towards to alley that was even more secluded. There were drawings of skulls or grimaces embellished with blood on the wall occasionally, while the autumn wind blew the trash. There were also words such as ‘dropdead’ that was a couple of meters high was written on the wall too. Over 20 minutes later, they arrived at a ruined area that had no people.

Raby stopped before a heavy shutter door filled with rusty stains. His nose twitched as he said wearing a smile, “We’re here.”

“Listen, Raby, whatever happened in the past has nothing to do with my friend…”

“George, I said, we’re here,” Raby said while hardly pulling the shutter up with his two underlings as he smiled cunningly. A terrible stench came out of it. It was a huge and crude warehouse, the walls had badly painted cement on them; There were feces and dirt all over the floor, there were many broken and filthy mattresses scattered all around; The only light source was the few square windows on the high ceiling.

“There seems to be nothing of what I’m looking for here,” Zhang Lisheng stepped into the warehouse and said after looking around.

“There’ll be raw meat that you’re looking for very soon. Perhaps there won’t be as much as what you want, but it’ll much fresher than you imagined,” Raby said while smiling cunningly after kicking George into the warehouse. Zhang Lisheng retreated a few steps back quietly and took a good look at Raby and his strong underlings. He smiled with no clear intention while saying softly, “Actually, 600 to 700 pounds would be enough,” He turned around suddenly and ran deep into the dark warehouse.

Nobody stopped him from running, Raby spoke while laughing behind, “Run, kid. Unfortunately, there’s only one exit in this warehouse.”

Hearing Raby’s mad laugh, George who fell on the floor from the kick spat a mouthful of blood and said while panting, “Raby, we grew up together. I don’t get why do you hate me so much and now you’re trying to…”

“Don’t get it? You don’t get it?” Raby fiercely kicked George a few times with all his might while looking down on him. He only spoke ferociously when George squirmed his body like a cooked prawn while shaking, “You should’ve known this day would come when you turned me to the police back then.”

“I — I — I’ve said this before, it wasn’t me who put you in juvenile court. I-I’ve explained a couple of times. Moreover, you were only given 50 hours of community service. Sh*t, Big Gavin’s said back then…”

“Big Gavin’s dead,” Raby said coldly, “My brother Rocco’s in charge now. Also, George, it’s not about the 50 hours of community service, it’s about my dignity.” His underling hardly pulled down the warehouse’s shutter, as Raby was speaking. Following the disappearance of the last sunlight, the stench in the warehouse which was now closed became worse.

In the blurry darkness, Raby pointed a pistol at George’s head and said, “We don’t have to do all this if this happens at night. I’m sorry for the trouble, George. I’ll send you to where you’re supposed to be…”

George who was unwilling to wait for his death sat up on his side all of the sudden and attempted to grab the pistol in Raby’s hand. However, the black young man aside kicked the back of his head who was wearing a pair of leather boots. He passed out. Seeing that George passed out on the floor, Raby asked the black man who knocked him out while smiling, “Duke, do you think we should wake this fella up by pissing on him before we send him to god or should we show him mercy by shooting his head directly?”

“That’s up to you, Boss Raby. We still have a banana brat to play with, after killing this kid. Eh, what’s that sound, it seems…”A long tongue filled with mucus extended in the dark, tying the arm of the black hunk who was asking the question with a gun in his hand. Subsequently, the huge tongue pulled agilely, tearing the arm apart. The tongue then rolled back into the dark.

“It seems like there was a strong wind blowing…” As the attack was extremely fast, the black hunk only saw his arm detaching from his body at a blur. He said that in confusion but his question soon turned into moaning, “O-oh shit! F*ck! M-my arm’s gone, my arm…” As he groaned devastatingly, the huge tongue came out of the dark again and held onto his head. It pulled him into the dark entirely.

“W-w-what’s that…”

“Stop asking what that monster is, you idiot. Fire quick,” Raby was the first to snap back to his senses. He lifted the gun and pointed at the direction where the huge tongue appeared. He pulled the trigger without holding back. In the midst of shooting, the huge tongue tore Raby’s hand that was shooting when it showed the third time. It ate his hand.

Although Raby’s underlings were cruel, they were only ten to 20 years old and they had little experience, to begin with. They lost their minds when the unknown man-eating monster attacked Raby despite their shots, while fresh, warm blood splashed on their bodies like a fountain.

They shrieked in fear and gave up fighting. They turned around and dashed towards the rusty shutter with an attempt to escape. Unfortunately, the shutter was heavy, it was difficult to pull it open right away. During the delay, a huge tongue appeared out of the dark a few times and ripped their limbs apart. It had also ripped their hope to live from them.

As everyone lost the ability to fight back, the attacker had finally shown himself in the midst of the devastating moan. It was a toad that was three meters tall, it was so big that it looked like an SUV. There were a few wounds with thick, black blood on its skin. It hopped right out with the Chinese young man who came with George for the ‘business’ was sitting on it.

“Its — It’s you…” Raby shrieked with blood and dirt. Zhang Lisheng sat on Mountoad’s head and stopped the witchcraft incantation. He said calmly, “It’s me, Mr. Raby. I came to Queens to buy raw meat to fill this ‘pet’ of mine that has a big appetite. He’s such a big-eater, that I can’t afford to feed it if I were to buy meat the usual way…”

“You — You — You’re a devil — Satan — Satan’s worshipper…”

“No, according to our Chinese way of saying it, ‘You don’t mean to harm others, but others can mean to harm you’. Everything happened because I’m forced to do it,” Zhang Lisheng began chanting witchcraft incantation as he spoke. As the ‘psh shh…’ sound went on, Mountoad opened its gigantic mouth below its head and ate a tall, strong black man that was lying on the floor while moaning.

“N-n-n-no…”

“Oh my god — Oh my god — Oh my god…”

“You’re going to hell, you monster, you’re going to hell…”

Watching the gigantic toad eating their partner that was shrieking with its saliva all over the place, the remaining gangsters moaned and cursed even louder now. Zhang Lisheng devoured all of the grave negative emotions that they were showing, giving a boost in the wizard power in his blood at the speed that he could feel clearly.

After a while of cursing, Raby suddenly realized that what he was doing could not help him to get out of his situation at all while looking at Zhang Lisheng who was sitting on the monster’s head while he lied on the filthy floor. He thought that if he would trigger the enemy that was like a devil, even more, he would experience a horrible death.

“Alright sir, okay sir, I admit that I’m the one at fault. Look, even if your pet ate all of us, it would only be full for a while. Spare my life and I’ll guarantee to provide it with meat for the rest of its life. I suppose people like you aren’t afraid that I would take revenge, am I right? Of course, I’ll dare not take revenge on Satan’s worshipper as well, it’ll be a greater benefit for you to spare my life.”

Zhang Lisheng ignored Raby’s plead, but the situation did not intensify. Raby felt luck was on his side now, “I apologize to you, my sincere apology sir. What do you want? Money, drugs, women o-or all of the needs that your ‘pet’ require such as a massive amount of meat. I could compensate you whatever you want, anything you want…”

Naturally, the negative emotion that was coming out of Raby had a great drop since he had hope now. Zhang Lisheng jumped off lightly as Mountoad that he was controlling held its head down from the drop of negative emotion. He said, “You’ve already compensated me, Mr. Raby.”

“I — I’ve compensated you?”

“Yes,” Zhang Lisheng walked to Raby and looked at the tall, fat black man who was speaking in pride not long ago. He stepped hard on his severed arm wound and said softly, “I only need three things from you – Pain, fear and… despair!”

“Ahh…”