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Path to Prosperity - B3 Chapter 37
🕑 Added 2024-12-04 11:00:07 +0000 UTCOnce his mind was cleared and the Succubus’ bewitching powers stopped working, Percy realized what must have happened.
She, or one of her victims, must have used something similar to the shadow step teleportation to separate me from the rest of the group.
“I am not your type? How dare a cretin like you utter such nonsense?!” Beth, the Succubus, screamed at the top of her lungs.
Either you’re a narcissist or a hypocrite. I don’t care. You brought me here, separated me from my people, and allowed me to deal with myself alone. That wasn’t nice.
“The Beast King wasn’t here yet. He is in a different hall, isn’t he?” Percy asked, ignoring Beth’s outburst.
His eyes flicked to the masses of Demons spread across the large hall, beads of sweat trickling down his temples.
“Your furry friend is being taken care of. Don’t you worry about that,” Beth hissed, “You better pay attention to your well-being!”
As the Succubus’ words escaped her lips, Demonic Essence stirred within her. At first, Percy expected Beth to use her Succubus’ powers again, but he was far off with that. She controlled the shadows around Percy’s feet to release shadowy spikes from the ground.
She gained more powers from the Devil than the Thyrx. That is…bad
Percy winced and lightly kicked the ground to escape the shadow spikes that would have pierced his ankles. He landed on the spikes’ flat sides a moment later and crushed them at once.
Fast and hard to perceive, but not very durable. That is doable. I guess.
Beth’s tongue clicked, and a second barrage of shadow spikes burst from the ground. This time, however, Percy was prepared. His mana was spread out in thin layers to scan the ground around him, and he saw the Demonic Essence seeping into the shadows thanks to his Augmentation. Percy instinctively summoned [Cyromancy] to freeze the ground around him.
The shadow spikes burst through the thin layer of ice but slowed down and turned glacial blue before reaching Percy’s ankles. The shadow spikes froze mid-way and crumbled without inflicting any harm.
“You!! Stop avoiding my attacks!” The Succubus screamed, which earned her a scornful stare from Percy.
“Are you dumb? The Devil should have improved your intelligence rather than granting you new power.”
Beth’s expression darkened, and she rumbled something, but it was in a language Percy couldn’t understand. She raised her arms and released a wave of Demonic Essence into the surroundings. The Demons in the hall stirred and turned to glance at the Succubus, who pointed at Percy.
“Kill him for me, and you might get lucky tonight!” She commanded, her purple eyes glowing dangerously.
A lot has gone wrong with that idiotic Demoness. Unfortunately, there are even dumber creatures in this cavern system.
Percy lamented inwardly as the Demons, Lesser, and Elite, turned to eye Percy. They would obviously attack him sooner or later, but he’d rather fight them one by one or in small groups instead. That wasn’t going to happen. The masses charged at him simultaneously.
“This is going to be fun,” Percy winced, changing his stance subtly. He summoned the Gnoll Warlord and retrieved the bladed arms of the Greater Demon he’d killed before. The Thyrx’s bladed arms may not be perfect, but the Thyrx was a powerful Greater Demon, each part of his body tempered to the extreme. It was at the Evolved Tier, and thus the Greater Demon’s bladed arms were much better suited for the Gnoll Warlord as the toothpick-like Silvron Sword Artifact.
“It might not be an Artifact, but this is better than nothing,” Percy apologized to the Gnoll Warlord as it reached for the Thyrx’s bladed arms. It tightly grasped the handles and elbow and swung the bladed arms around. The bladed arm was far from perfect, but [Master of the Blade] worked wonders again. The bladed arms were also blades and thus included in the miraculous powers of the Augmentation.
Percy’s change shifted subtly again as the Gnoll Warlord roared. His blood boiled, and his mana churned as he clutched the Syreablade tightly. Shadow spikes burst from the ground again. This time, however, they struck the Gnoll Warlord. Hyean, already activated [Berserl], felt several stings but didn’t care too much. His hide was stronger than the norm, and [Berserk] further enhanced his physical durability while suppressing his pain receptors. The Gnoll Warlord barely felt anything and walked forward with a lithe gati.
The shadow spikes shattered just like that, their sharp ends still stuck in the Gnoll Warlord’s legs.
That’s better than nothing, I guess
Percy retrieved an Ego-enhanced Mana Potion, one of his strongest ones, removed the cork, and downed it. The potion had yet to jump into full effect when the masses of Demons reached them.
There had to be hundreds, but Percy pulled back. He retreated into the much narrower cavern tunnel with the Gnoll Warlord, though Hyean retreated only reluctantly to fight small batches of Demons at a time. The ‘narrow’ cavern tunnel was still close to five meters wide, but no more than five Demons could charge at them at a time without disrupting each other. Yet, that was exactly what they did. The Lesser Demons were already not as intelligent as the remaining Demons, but they acted like mindless beasts under the influence of the Succubus’ charm.
They charged at Percy and the Gnoll Warlord next to each other, shoving their brethren aside, hoping to reach their enemies first. Percy released a barrage of [Cyromancy] icicles, piercing several Lesser Demons in the chest and the eyes, killing them on the spot.
The dead Lesser Demons stumbled and crashed to the ground, disrupting the flow of Demons. The Demons right behind the bodies were caught by surprise and fell over the collapsing Demons. They couldn’t even defend themselves as Percy used [Cyromancy] again. This time, however, Percy summoned a low-hanging spike wall with impeccable timing. The demons fell right into the spike wall.
They were impaled and transformed into easy targets, which the Gnoll Warlord took care of. Several heads flung through the air before more icicles whizzed past the summoned Monster, ending the lives of another half a dozen Lesser Demons.
Percy licked his lips as more and more interfaces popped up, but he held back. Covering the ground in corpses and forming small piles was one of his greatest advantages. Even the Elite Demons struggled to cross the corpse-covered ground, especially with [Cyromancy] spikes jutting from the ground now and then.
The Succubus’ charm influenced the Elites, but it wasn’t potent enough to disrupt their combat awareness. They saw the spikes jutting from the ground next to their brethren’s corpses and slowed down to protect their feet from getting impaled. The same couldn’t be said about the Lesser Demons, though. They were victims of the Succubus charm and the lethality of ‘friendly fire.’ Some Lesser Demons pushed each other into the spikes and spike walls, Percy guessed those instances were accidents, but they amused him nonetheless, but there were also times they injured each other intentionally to breach the spike walls by using their brethren as jumping pads.
But they didn’t survive long either. If anything, the Lesser Demons were the easiest to take care of. After applying [Cyromany] a few times and taking out a few nasty Elites with barrages of larger icicles, even some ice blocks and blades conjured from ice, Percy didn’t have much work to do. The entrance to the cavern hall was half covered, restraining the flood of Demons even more than expected.
Shadowy tendrils shoved aside piles of Demons to make space for the masses of Demons, but after Percy froze the piles of Demons together, even that didn’t work easily anymore. Some Demons might be small and agile but heavier than Percy. Multiplied by a few dozen times, you’d have to pull several hundred kilos to retrieve the Demon piles to make space.
There are 109 interfaces, but hundreds of Demons are in the hall. There is a lot more left to deal with.
Percy licked his lips.
If I slow down now, Hyean can kill most Demons while I save up mana to deal with the Succubus.
That sounded like a plan. It was simple but effective.
Exactly what Percy wanted.
***
Time slowed down, and Percy could hardly believe it when he found himself bored to death fighting the Lesser and Elite Demons. His strategy was enough to effortlessly kill Lesser Demons – there was no need to waste any more mana after forming the piles of frozen corpses and ice spike walls – but even the Elite Demons died faster than expected. Even without using [Berserk], the Gnoll Warlord was strong enough to deal with the Elite Demons fairly easily.
As long as no more than a duo of Elite Demons attacked him at the same time, Hyean would kill them within five moves without sustaining a single scratch.
Percy ensured the Gnoll Warlord would never have to fight more than three Elite Demons, at first, until Hyean started using [Berserk] at times to crush three to four Elite Demons without getting injured.
He had been hoping to fight a few Greater Demons, but the only Greater Demon in the hall seemed to be the Succubus, Beth. That was a great disappointment, resulting in his boredom. Beth teleported to his back once, but she rushed back with her shadow step ability when both Percy and the Gnoll Warlock flicked around, [Berserk], and [Master of the Blade] unleashed to their fullest.
If the Succubus had been a physical monstrosity, Percy would have been afraid to fight her after hundreds of Demons died, but that wasn’t the case. She had a powerful charm and nice abilities granted by Devil’s Touch, but Percy wasn’t afraid of them. Conjuring shadows and transforming them into solid and high-velocity attacks was interesting, but since they were fragile, it wasn’t too much trouble to take care of.
The Gnoll Warlord was exhausted, which was why Percy de-summoned Hyean when the flow of Demons decreased. He used [Hawk Eyes] and walked across the masses of dead Demons to peek outside.
There he saw the Succubus. Her expression was dark, her features grim and filled with fury.
“Did you enjoy that?” Percy chuckled, “To think you would let the Demons charge into their deaths just like that.”
He tilted his head and called upon the Abomination.
“That was stupid.”
A moment later, the Abomination gushed out of him.
