This world sucked!

The locals had bound Victor to an olive tree with heavy chains under the faint moonlight. Around twenty werewolves had gathered to observe the sacrifice, while a squid-like humanoid held the ceremony, chittering incantations while wielding a scepter. Victor guessed the Moon Man worshippers were a relative minority in the community.

Unfortunately, the majority had given Victor the silent treatment.

“Brother, is that smart?” Chocolatine asked her brother, one of the few who did argue against the adventurer’s capture. “He is the dragon’s chief of staff, and that one is angry already…”

“He burnt our previous home, sis,” Croissant pointed out. Unlike his sister, he had shapeshifted in a monstrous, car-sized black wolf, glaring at Victor with seething hatred.

“Yes, which is why I don’t want him to burn our current one.”

“I’m sure Victor was just following orders,” Savoureuse tried to argue with the cultists, although that wasn’t the passionate defense Victor had hoped for. “Do not blame the follower, blame the leader.”

Croissant sneered back. “I asked the adventurer guild after the dragon devastated our home, and they confirmed the ‘human partner’ led the dragon in the first place.”

“But Vainqueur burned the forest on his own!” Victor protested.

“You still led him there!” Croissant snapped back.

“He burned my house!” another werewolf complained in the crowd.

“I watched all my livestock die!”

Savoureuse gave Victor a sympathetic gaze. “I’m sorry, Vic. I tried. I would have fought to release you if my life wasn't in danger.”

Victor shrugged. It was more than he expected.

The Moon Man’s priest finished the incantation, and a beam of light descended from the skies. With a brilliant flash, a horrible insult against nature manifested in front of Victor, a bus-sized hybrid of a dragon and a squid, with no eyes and only squirmy skin. Its countless tentacles thrashed around, tossing away some of the werewolf cultists.

The mere sight of the creature gave Victor a headache.

Charisma check successful! [Madness] negated!