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*Chapter 72 - Demons vs. Undead
🕑 Added 2021-09-04 15:32:09 +0000 UTCChapter 72 – Demons vs. Undead
The wall of undead bodies collided with the two taurun first, many of the ghouls being torn in half and smashed by huge hands or ripping jaws.
Atharost let out an enormous blast of flame in combination with all of the other casters that roasted the front lines, but the magics were shortly suppressed by undead mages in the back using healing abilities and coating the foremost of their kind in elemental ice armor. Bones crunched, teeth tore and weapons clashed amidst the screams as the undead swarmed over the taurun and tried to push their way into the door - passing over the piles of their killed comrades to get to the fresh meat holed up in the city’s ruined building.
Karus’ imposing iron figure stood alongside Trey and all of the remaining armored daema warriors in a bloodbath of weapons, shields and flesh. The rogues and casters in the back shot through the gaps in the melee and through the square windows that were too small to let any of the undead fit through. Explosions, screams and the sound of metal on metal became deafening.
Notifications continued to flash into Trey’s thoughts, but he had neither the time nor the will to acknowledge them amidst the surging mass of hungry decrepit flesh coming to get him. He was already covered in blood with pieces of bodies strewn across the floor in front and behind. Talsh’Noc’Un sang through the air with blazing chaos mana rippling through undead flesh, one body after the other. His greatsword hissed and screamed with delight after every kill was made until he found himself in an all out hack-and-slash brawl directly in front of the doorway.
Deflecting a spear thrust and swinging the greatsword into an armored ghoul’s back, the sword was momentarily stuck. The seconds it took to dislodge the weapon from his enemy’s body were especially anxiety ridden with more of the undead pushing forward, but thankfully Karus and the daema soldiers covered for him by making an aggressive counter-push.
He got the sword out, and as one of the red-skinned daema fell into death - he took the spot left by the dead soldier and charged his weapon with an obliterate attack. The sword bloomed into crimson and black energy far beyond what it normally showed and made contact straight into the chest of an oncoming ghoul warrior.
The ghouls’ enraged, hungry face briefly took a turn with surprise just before the flowing chaos energy tore open his chest piece. The ghoul warrior, along with twelve others behind him, were shredded in a spray of charred body parts and debris with a small piece of the floor missing from where Trey’d followed through on the strike.
The blow had been so impactful after creating that crater that Trey’d accidentally stunned himself. Disoriented and falling back, he noticed that he’d accidentally made the doorway even bigger. He’d ripped out a piece of the wall when he’d used that attack, and to his dismay the oncoming undead had only been beaten back for a couple of seconds before the ones behind his strike capitalized on his mistake.
He gritted his teeth, head still whirling. “Fucking hell…”
Ashe caught him when he tripped over his own feet and stumbled back. The blonde demihuman let off another shot with one of her crossbows and dragged him further, screaming something at him that he couldn’t hear over the sounds of battle. She then dropped him and pulled out her two long daggers - in a blur of motion she shot forward and repeatedly skewered one of the smaller undead who’d actually been able to get through the far window. She was fast - much faster than she had been before, and Trey could certainly appreciate what that fox figurine had done for her in terms of ability after the recent transformation into demihuman. Were all demihumans that fast? He doubted it, he’d heard of their existence in passing and although he hadn’t even seen one before Ashe’s transformation he could be relatively certain that the stat boosts she’d gotten were responsible for her newfound abilities.
His thoughts were interrupted when he saw one of the taurun, a huge demon many times his size, get thrown back into the building into a crumpled heap along the outer wall. The muscular mutant staff-wielding ghoul blasted the taurun’s body one more time with a flurry of black magics, riddling the brute’s enormous frame with bloodied holes until it finally lay still. The other taurun was standing amidst a pile of corpses and being drowned by even more that followed, being pulled down to its knees by undead that crawled all over it with bite s and weapon wounds riddling its body.
The mutant ghoul, leader of the pack, beat its chest and screamed out in triumph while standing atop the first taurun laughing. It clapped a nearby comrade on the shoulder to brag before it immediately withdrew its hand and looked down at the other undead with dismay.
It was only then that Trey finally noticed that the rot and decay along their enemies was proceeding full throttle. He’d taken it for granted at first because most undead that weren’t well fed had some form of decay or exposed muscle, but these undead - many dozens of them - had pieces of their flesh falling off every couple seconds. A cheek here, a finger there, necrosis was spreading between the ghouls insanely fast with some of them who hadn’t even made it to the front lines of combat yet falling over in weakened dying states.
That’s when the notifications in his head became all the more clearer, and everything made sense.
“Your minio Rivia Ahst has increased her Pestilence skill by 1 level.”
“Your minio Rivia Ahst has increased her Pestilence skill by 1 level. Your minion Rivia Ahst has increased her overall level by 1.”
“Your minio Rivia Ahst has increased her Pestilence skill by 1 level.”
“Your minio Rivia Ahst has increased her Pestilence skill by 1 level.”
Pestilence^ (Dark Miracle) - Level 18
- Disease afflicts your opponent, causing rot at an accelerated rate. Very painful.
- Reduces HP and SP equally.
- Upgrade 1> Pestilence spreads to those who come into contact with an afflicted target as long as the caster deems them enemies
Holy shit. Trey legitimately had no idea it would work like THIS. The skill perk she’d received just earlier that day allowed her pestilence to spread by touch, and these hundreds of ghouls that had attacked were clumped up - literally climbing over one another to try and get at their kills. He’d thought it would maybe only spread from the original target, but he was very wrong. This perk was far better than that - it spread from target to target and didn’t stop going. Trey watched as the affliction spread through the sea of bodies like wildfire, his minion’s one single miracle wreaking absolute havoc and slowly tearing their bodies apart with decay.
He shot Rivia a glance - the sadistic yet beautiful culn priestess was still casting healing spells and an occasional pestilence when time permitted to speed up the necrosis of the oncoming horde. Rivia was already level 21, she’d gained 3 overall levels in a matter of minutes… and her level was not yet done climbing.
The ground suddenly rumbled. A burst of rock and dirt showered the back lines of the undead where the casters and archers were, revealing Gorthomal’s enormous armored wyrm. The demon drove through the unsuspecting squishies and successfully executed a surprise attack from underneath their very feat - killing well over ten of them in seconds with its violent thrashing and tearing, and then proceeding to eat one undead after another as the screaming ghouls ran to get away from the creature. The harpies soon joined it and worked with the larger creature to cut down the damage dealers.
Now the fight was on even terms. The undead had finally brought down both taurun as well as some imps and daema, but their advance had been halted and they were having a hard time getting through the choke point into the building. Collecting himself and forcing himself to get up despite the dizzy spell he still had going on, Trey began to chaos balls into the packed crowds through the near window. Sithis meanwhile lashed out with shadow blades whenever the chance arose and a gap opened in the brawling of the doorway, killing three more ghouls to add to the pile of bodies that was ever growing.
Trey’s moral was beginning to build and screams of encouragement were passed around the group just as Gorthomal erected a barrier to protect himself. Trey’s eyes narrowed in confusion, but then the resultant blast that followed knocked him off his feet and backwards into Jason. Trey’s head hit the stone floor and dazed him again, this time much worse than the previous.
His eyesight began to give out and the roar of battle seemed like an eternity away, like an echo in the back of his thoughts with no real tangible feel to it.
As his world shook and spun with his bleeding temple on the floor and Talsh’Noc’Un laying out behind him on the ground, he saw the huge mutant ghoul - riddled with growing spots of necrosis - come stand at the entrance. The mutant had killed a number of its own in the blast, but it had successfully opened up the way for the rest of his kind to enter. It roared, spun its staff around and placed a phantasmal barrier just as Gorthomal rocketed two missiles of hellfire towards it. The hellfire shattered the barrier and hit the mutant full on in the chest - but the attacks had been weakened and the creature’s HP hardly dipped.
Gorthomal stepped back, one of the only ones not down on the ground and began to summon more hellfire as the mutant charged with a number of its own kind right behind it. In a flash the mutant had engaged in melee combat with the old summoner and brought him to the ground - only to be knocked off as Gorthomal threw it with brute strength directly into the ceiling overhead. The mutant bounced off to the massive amount of surprise of the others, and the old man began to shift into... something else. Spiked appendages began to sprout from Gorthomal’s spine and his muscles began to bulge and tear from his old wrinkled skin. His split jaws began to protrude forward and his four eyes blazed with a newfound power of green light.
In the meantime Trey tried to get up. He coughed and spat blood, his arms shaking under the exertion of the effort until he collapsed. His left arm seared like hot fire and he soon realized it was broken when he saw the humerus bone sticking out of his skin at an awkward jagged angle.
He then proceeded to vomit. His latest meal was sent like a projectile across the floor where more undead were hurdling over the pile of bodies to do combat with those of Trey’s group who’d managed to recover. Sithis continued to cast shadow blades while Trey was prone - sharp obsidian blades shimmering to life and disconnecting from various points across Trey’s body to slice into the oncoming enemies in a spray of black.
A blur crossed Trey’s vision and he saw his tiny primal imp slam into a nearby ghoul assassin who’d made it over the hill. The assassin wailed, dropping both daggers in surprise and trying to pry the little demon out of its chest where the long horn was imbedded while simultaneously receiving large amounts of damage from the tearing of Napoleon’s claws and a subsequent point black firebolt into the ghoul’s face.
Again Trey tried to get up on his good side despite the pain it caused him. Veins along his temple bulged and he wanted to vomit again, but he needed to move. He needed to help…
A brutal coughing fit floored him again, leaving trails of blood with it. His lungs were filling up with fluid and he could feel himself getting… heavier.
A blazing brilliant inferno of orange and red roared to life in the peripheral’s of Trey’s fading vision. Atharost had gone full tilt and was screaming profanities in the tongue of ancient demon at the remaining horde of undead as he got to his feet. Two incoming ghouls came with swords drawn to launch themselves forward at the enraged demon only to be struck down by Atharost’s power before they reached him.
Then… to Trey’s absolute horror, a long metal spear was flung from the entrance and ran Atharost straight through.
The look of surprise and horror matched Trey’s own, and the ifrit screamed to clutch at the weapon as he dropped to his knees.
The perpetrator, a heavyset ghoul warrior with a smug grin and the skin across its facing missing, stepped forward. He ignored the battle between the mutant ghoul leader and Gorthomal, ignored the clashing of other ghouls in the room with remaining daema, the drow rogues, Karus, Ashe and Jason, and went directly towards Atharost.
“Pitiful little demon!” the ghoul yelled out to draw out a huge broadsword and brandished a shield in the face of a menacing angry set of living flames. “Come and meet your maker in the face of a better man than you!”
The ghoul rushed Atharost and met a wall of flames that he passed through with ease - exiting the fires donning a new set of elemental ice armor he’d summoned.
He was a battlemage.
The ghoul swat Boxamoth’s little body aside as the tiny elemental dragon tried to wrap around its face, laughing as Boxamoth bounced off the floor with a flare of light to weakly get up again - and blocked another strike of flames with his shield. The ghoul screamed one final time, lifted its broadsword high over Atharost’s terrified face, and brought the sword down with all its might.
“NOOOO!!!” Trey screamed and unleashed a flurry of shadow blades with what remaining mana he had in a storm of black. Sharp leaf-life projectiles barraged the battlemage and left him like a stuck pincushion - but not before his attack connected. The broadsword struck true right across Atharost’s face… as a strange glow enveloped the ifrit entirely.
The blade bounced off Atharost’s body with an absolute repulsion due to Rivia’s miracle: Immortal’s Infernal Blessing, leaving Atharost in a state of shock with the ghoul battlemage dropping his sword and falling to his knees in a similar fashion directly in front of the demon. Projectiles of sharp, black, semi-ovoid blades covered the entire left side of the ghoul, sticking out through the heavier parts of his armor half-imbedded or cutting straight through the more exposed portions of his body to leave him with dozens of bleeding gaping wounds.
Rivia’s voice was heard in a commanding confident tone. “Dark Grace.”
The lantern in her left hand blazed a brilliant green and enveloped her as she walked forward, then dispersed - leaving a dome of protective energy around the battling groups that ended just at where the doorway was and blocking the advancement of further enemies.
The priestess continued forward towards the ghoul and Atharost, holding her long Alcyote’s Infernal Dagger of Sacrifice out with her right hand as the blade burst into green flames. She stopped directly behind the stunned dying battlemage, let off a malicious twisted grin, and giggled. She slowly removed the helmet, with a little effort as the shadow blades snapped off and vanished. “Die for me!”
The dagger swept down and embedded itself in the ghoul’s temple - piercing the skull straight through - out to the other side. Green flames coursed down the blade and into the ghoul’s screaming face to further travel along its dying body, causing it to convulse as she gleefully laughed. When it finally stopped convulsing and the screaming died down, she withdrew her dagger and kicked the ghoul’s corpse onto its front.
She gave Trey and then Atharost each a long look, yanked out the spear from Atharost’s gut, and began to pray as she poured a healing potion she’d taken from Jason into the ifrit’s mouth. The wound began to seal itself up from two different sources of healing simultaneously and the ifrit began to stand.
That was the last thing Trey saw before overwhelming relief overtook him and his vision completely faded into black.
***
“Trey… Get up Trey… I just want us to be friends…”
Eleknar… ugh. What did he want this time?
“Treeeyyyyyy…”
Oh for fucks sake. Couldn’t Eleknar just leave him well enough alone? His visits had been more frequent as time went on, with sleep consistently being plagued by reminiscent thoughts and urges to conduct… atrocities.
“Treeeyyyy… Let me in Trey. !!! LET ME IN!!!”
Trey sat up screaming and in a cold sweat. Disoriented and still aching all over, he looked down to his previously broken arm. It was mended and in good condition, but he didn’t have much more time to look as Rivia’s hand clamped down over his mouth to stop his wailing.
“Shhh…” Rivia shook her head as others around the room glared his way. “We can’t make noise like that. Not here.”
They sat in an enclosed area along a rocky ledge overlooking the ruined city. Starlight showed down in a blanket of twinkling dots in the sky, and a cold breeze swept over their camp to chill Trey to the bone. They’d made camp in one of the skyscrapers a little over halfway up where one of the walls had somehow blown out centuries ago, giving them a good vantage point for potential enemies coming their way. They lit no fires and huddled up next to one another in small groups, distributing blankets to keep warm.
Gorthomal gave Trey a small half-hearted wave from where he’d huddled up next to some of the Daema, then turned his attention to other things. Atharost was asleep and curled up two feet to Trey’s right. Jason and Juila were both sleeping along the stone floor to his left while Izumi and Ashe were speaking in hushed whispers together and giving Napoleon back scratches while walking this way. When they got closer, they sat down next to Rivia and Trey as Ashe wiped away a tear.
Many members of their party were missing, and Trey was keenly aware of it within seconds of looking around. “Where is everybody? How many did we lose?”
Ashe tried to reply, but her voice quivered and faltered. Izumi gave her a hug and Napoleon nestled into the crook of her arm trying to comfort her as well.
Rivia frowned and clasped her hands together while sitting indian-style on the floor. “Too many. All three harpies died. Over half of the daema are gone… along with a third of the imps. Both taurun died too. That was only Gorthomal’s losses though…”
Rivia looked to Ashe who finally controlled her urge to sob, though her eyes were squinted as the tears held back.
“Eeme’s gone.” Ashe said with a quiver to her voice. She sniffled twice and coughed softly while holding Napoleon closer to her chest. “Uhm… the ghouls… they broke through our front line in the madness. By the time I noticed it, Eeme was already dead and being eaten. Her heart had been carved out while she still lived... and the creature… the creature was chewing on it.”
Ashe’s features broke and she began to quietly sob. Her head sunk into her hands and her body shook with each breath she took.
Trey’s jaw slowly dropped and he felt a gut wrenching ache. They were only supposed to be slaves… or minions… So why did it hurt so bad to see them go? He looked over to Atharost and thought back to when Atharost had almost died in the battle. He remembered… how painful it had felt to think that his best friend here had almost died.
Best friend. Atharost was his best friend… or at least one of them. Ashe was up there too, as was Sithis. Napoleon. Izumi. He wondered how he’d react if one of them was to die and shuddered at the thought. Regardless of whether or not they were categorized as NPCs by the All Spirit, he’d still react the same way. It would break his heart to see any of them go.
“I’m… sorry.” Trey reached over and pulled Ashe into a hug, letting her cry into his shoulder as she clenched and sobbed even harder.
It took a couple minutes for Ashe to calm down, and even then she was still in a bad state of mind. She pushed him away gently and gave him a sad smile of appreciation before settling back down and pulling Napoleon up to her chest again to start rubbing his ears.
“Me me sad too… Me sorry me can’t save save.” Napoleon whimpered in a way Trey’d never heard him whimper before. The imp looked actually sad.
Trey cleared his throat to hide his own sorrows and took in a deep breath. There were still more people than that missing. “Where are the others? Where’s Karus?”
Izumi raised a hand weakly and pointed back into the dark of the tower. “He’s at the stairway. That perk you gave him, Hell’s Iron, lets him see in the dark… so he’s a good option as a lookout. Uhm… Astala is, I mean Piggy... is ok. She was attacked too, but Napoleon saved her life and Rivia was able to heal her afterwards… Rofa and Tarline ended up getting killed though.”
Trey’s eyes widened. The two drow were dead? Rofa had been the highest level of their group… though Trey knew full well level did not necessarily mean power, it certainly helped and was a gauge on combat experience. “How did it happen?”
Izumi shook her head and frowned. “Well… Tarline, the sister… she got caught in the melee and was being dragged out by one of the ghouls. She was… she was screaming for her brother to help her, and Rofa broke the line to save his sister. They both were outside when we heard them being eaten alive. Their begging screams are going to give me… nightmares, for a long time.”
Silence.
Trey swallowed hard and clarified Izumi’s claims with a frown of his own. Rofa and Tarline… their status bars were all down to 0 and grayed out. Seconds ticked away as he stared at each of them until they were dismissed from his HUD. He hadn’t really liked either one of them much, but they’d deserved better than what they’d got. Eeme… Eeme he’d definitely liked. She especially had deserved better.
Fuck.
“Are we going to die here Trey?”
Izumi’s words hit home. The girl was looking to him for confirmation that she wouldn’t be next, and all Trey could do was adamantly shake his head no.
But that was enough.
With an encouraged but still sad smile, Izumi got back up with a small wave. “I’m going to bed. I’ll see you all in the morning. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight Izumi.” Trey waved as she walked away, and let his eyes settle on the ground between his feet.
This was not how he’d intended for things to go. His other trips into Ornthas had been rough and he’d seen people die, but this was more of an expense than he’d bargained for. They hadn’t even reached the dungeon yet and they’d already lost a significant part of their force. The attack had come at them while they’d been completely exposed and they’d been set upon by superior numbers… in previous fights Trey’d always had an even hand or even the upper hand. They’d been lucky to come out alive this time.
He sat next to Ashe and Rivia in silence, watching the starlit heavens overhead. Napoleon began to snore half an hour later causing the three of them to chuckle, but still no words were spoken. In the end, Ashe ended up falling asleep right there on the ground next to him. The poor girl was utterly exhausted, mentally and physically, as well as being emotionally drained.
He had Rivia go fetch Ashe and Napoleon a blanket and then began to go through the notifications that had built up in his notifications tab over the course of the day. They’d compiled on one another so that thankfully he ended up not needing to read through one by one.
“Your minion Rivia Ahst has gained 1 level in the skill Rejuvenation, 1 level in the skill Small Blades, 9 levels in the skill Pestilence, and 6 overall combat levels.”
“Your minion Napoleon has gained 3 levels in the skill Hand to Hand Combat, 1 level in the skill Firebolt, and 2 overall combat levels.”
“Your minion Karus has gained 1 level in the skill Shields, 2 levels in the skill Axes, 1 level in the skill Goring Slash, and 2 overall combat levels.”
“Your minion Rofa has died. You have freed up 2 control slots.”
“Your minion Tarline has died. You have freed up 1 control slot.”
“You have gained 1 level in the skill Shadow Blades, 1 level in the skill Blades, 1 level in the skill Chaos Ball, and 2 overall combat levels.”
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Your minion Rivia Ahst has achieved an upgrade for her ability ‘Pestilence’ due to arriving at and surpassing level 20. Please choose one of the following as her second upgrade regarding this ability:
Pestilence^^ (Dark Miracle) - Level 21
- Disease afflicts your opponent, causing rot at an accelerated rate. Very painful.
- Reduces HP and SP equally.
- Upgrade 1> Pestilence spreads to those who come into contact with an afflicted target as long as the caster deems them enemies
- Upgrade 2> SELECT AN OPTION:
- Option 1: May simultaneously cast Pestilence on three different targets with the same miracle and DP point
- Option 2: Increased amounts of pain and damage by 10%
========================================================================
Trey paused to consider the notifications telling him of his minion’s death and shook his head sadly. Closing them out he moved on to Rivia’s page and selected option 1 to cast pestilence on three different targets simultaneously. He noticed Rivia obtained a notification of her upgrade as soon as he did this, and she nodded his way in appreciation. Then he dumped all 30 stat points from her level ups into Faith, netting her 15 divinity points (DP) for a total of 65 as well as placing all 6 of her skill points into Pestilence to bring it up to level 27.
She’d proven her worth time and again, but this last fight in particular she’d been invaluable both with offense and defense. Aside from Atharost, she was his most useful ally, and she was slowly becoming the ifrit’s equal in that regard.
He ignored the Hand to Hand Combat upgrade that Napoleon got for hitting level 10. He’d let the imp decide on which of those he wanted as the boosts were marginal at best. Trey also did a quick check on Atharost’s stats as well. It was still easy to see he’d grown some as well. That fight had netted Atharost 3 overall combat levels and his little elemental had gained 2.
Closing out all his notifications and looking out across the city again, he shook slightly when another gust of wind came his way. When he’d been knocked out it’d been daylight, so at a minimum it’d been eight hours. There was no way he was going to sleep any time soon.
With a sigh at his misfortune he motioned Rivia to come closer. When the demoness inched forward to kneel right next to him, he grabbed a fist full of her dark hair and yanked her head down to his groin. He laid back and got comfortable, then pulled his pants down with his free hand and shoved his cock into her mouth; ramming into the back of her throat as she violently gagged.
Might as well be proactive if he was going to be up at this time of night.
