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*Chapter 80 - Another Attempt at Summoning
🕑 Added 2021-09-04 20:12:14 +0000 UTCChapter 80 - Another Attempt at Summoning
Izumi tried to keep a low profile so that she may better surprise her grumpy old forgemaster Jagla, but the dwarf was no fool and Izumi looked rather unique. For one, she was Japanese… there weren’t many that looked like her even without the outfit she had one. For two, the outfit she wore was ludicrous by normal standards. Styled steampunk with the top hat, goggles, pistol, backpack cannon and satchel - she was very out of the ordinary.
The hammering of the dwarf sounded over the rain and the storm, only stopping for Jagla to wave her down as she approached the forge. “I see ya got some new gear, lass. I hope you enjoyed your trip.”
The dwarf went back to his work, hammering away at a piece of hot iron. Sparks flew with each strike, a familiar and welcome sight for Izumi. This forge was at the far corner of the Fost compound and the roofing here was shoddy at best. Water leaked through the cracks and onto the guild hall’s floor, but it didn’t flood thanks to the drains they’d built just for these occasions. Apparently, the drain system had been less expensive than just patching the damn rooftop. Go figure.
Izumi drew her hood back and stepped in from the rain that had managed to get in. Amidst a clap of thunder she unlatched her backpack and set it on a workbench, stepping back so Jagla could get a good look at it.
The dwarf paused, identified it, then took another few swings at the hot iron. Placing the metal in water to cool, the dwarf took off his gloves and came over to examine the Ripper Cannon.
“This is old Ornthas tech… You found this?” Jagla hesitantly unlatched the hinge of the cannon’s shaft, swinging it around from travel to firing mode. He took a look at the metal backpack, seeing all the bullets inside and shook it for good measure. “Have you tested it out?”
Izumi grinned, nodding and folding her arms proudly in front of her. “We’ve tested it on trees. One bullet tore through two of them before the third stopped it.”
He was impressed. Jagla inspected the cannon again, then took a look at her pistol. “Mind if I see it?”
Izumi handed him the pistol, and as he was looking the handheld weapon over - she brought out the leatherbound book of schematics she’d found. She pulled out four of them, the ones Jagla would find most useful, and pushed them over the workbench towards her mentor.
Schematic: Ripper Cannon
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Requirements: None
Durability: 10/10
Special: Learn how to build Ripper Cannons
Schematic: Ripper Pistol
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Requirements: None
Durability: 10/10
Special: Learn how to build Ripper Pistols
Schematic: Bladed Lotus Trap
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Requirements: None
Durability: 10/10
Special: Learn how to build Bladed Lotus Traps
Schematic: Spring Loaded Shrapnel Bomb
Item Tier: (10) Epic
Requirements: None
Durability: 10/10
Special: Learn how to build Loaded Shrapnel Bombs
“These were once enchanted schematics… They were able to give me instantaneous learning of how to build these objects after an hour of continuous study on each one.” Izumi smiled upon seeing the old grumpy dwarf gawk. “I’ve already learned how to build the items they teach about, and even though the schematics are no longer enchanted they can still be learned from if you study the paper just like any normal schematic. I thought you’d want them… so they’re a gift. From me to you, for all you’ve taught me.”
Jagla the dwarf sputtered something under his breath, looked around frantically and quickly tucked the four schematics away in a drawer that he immediately locked with a key from his waist. He shot her a look. “Nobody knows about these, right lass?”
She scratched her head, slightly confused. “... None other than me. Even my friends don’t know I’ve given those to you.”
“Good. Keep it that way.” Jagla snorted, but looked rather pleased as he seated himself on a bench. He patted the wood, motioning for her to follow his example. “You gave me a great gift lass. I’d rather not have people know, lest I be marked for murder and theft.”
Izumi nodded in understanding and sat down beside her mentor. She stretched her muscles out and watched as the rain trickled down into the compound from the rooftop above, now sincerely appreciating why Jagla had his own roof built directly over the forge. “We’re heading out soon.”
“Oh? For where? Didn’t ya just get back?” Jagla frowned and folded his thick hairy arms. “How am I supposed to teach ya when you’re gone all the time, eh?”
Izumi couldn’t disagree with that logic. “It’ll be for a demon summoning, and then a local raid on another group here in Teretog. I shouldn’t be gone long… one to three days maybe. Just depends.”
Jagla clarified with a snarl. “Ya mean if you don’t go on and die.”
Again, she couldn’t refute his logic. She let out an exasperated sigh and her shoulders slumped forward as another roar of thunder boomed overhead. “Yeah. I know. Wana help me make a couple?”
“A couple of what?”
Izumi grinned. “The shrapnel bombs of course!”
Jagla scowled and unlocked the drawer he’d just put the schematics in. Flipping through and finding the one she was talking about, he let out a chuckle. “This sucker’s gona be mean. You sure you won’t blow yourself up?”
Izumi scoffed and threw up her hands to either side. “Give me some credit! Do you want to help me or not?”
***
It was still raining when they left, and Trey’d given both Piggy and Juila specific instructions to try and acquire information regarding the details of the other brothels here in town. The downpour had turned into a drizzle, but neither Trey nor Ashe cared much because the temperature of the water was thankfully lukewarm. They pulled their hoods over their eyes to keep their vision somewhat clear and exited the guild compound with Karus, Izumi, Napoleon, Rivia, and Atharost in tow. It was the entirety of their main fighting force now, and Trey was taking Ashe’s words to heart so they could grow their posse a little more.
Especially after having just lost all the thralls he’d bought back at the cult… that’d been a hard hit to take.
They took a sharp right out the front door of the Fost Guild’s compound and waved at the guards as the door shut behind, then headed straight into the forest. The guild compound was on the western outskirts of Teretog and provided an easy access point into the small island’s jungle.
They trudged onwards, through the mud and underbrush making their way through the rain. The sun peeked through the dark clouds overhead just briefly to shimmer across the falling raindrops, creating a cascade of light before disappearing again and obscuring the world in darkness.
Trey swatted at a branch in his way and came to a stop in a large clearing dozens of yards across. Trees had been felled here likely not more than a month ago, and it made it an easy spot to choose for their ritualistic summonings to proceed.
He clapped his hands together and rubbed them about, the rain glistening across his bare chest and then sliding down his black pants, down his dark leather boots to the muddy ground. He took another look around into the trees, peering out from beneath his hood where his obsidian horns were sticking out from his forehead. Satisfied that no one else was around, he began to plan things out.
“My summoning circle isn’t that great. This’ll probably take more than a couple tries… and the demons I summon likely aren’t going to be too strong, but it’s no guarantee. We also brought some animals to sacrifice as bait to speed up the process.” He gestured to the rabbits they had strung up, squirming across Atharost’s back. “When we finally get one, we’ll each need to do our part. Rivia, you’re on support as usual. Izumi you monitor the HP of what we’re fighting with those goggles of yours so we don’t accidentally kill it. Karus - you’re tanking if the creature gets out of my bindings, better put that shield to use. Napoleon, use your fear and curse burdens as much as possible as the rest of us handle the damage. Hey Atharost, where’s Boxamoth?”
The ifrit folded his arms and shook his head. “Boxamoth’s HP was slowly whittling away in the rain, so he’s residing within me for now.”
Fair enough. Trey supposed he shouldn’t be surprised considering how small the little fire elemental was.
“Alright… let’s begin.”
Least Summoning Circle (Dark) - Level N/A
- The most basic of summoning circles with a low intensity magic signature that usually (but not always) attracts the weaker denizens of the infernal realms. This broad spectrum spell enables you to communicate with the infernal realms of Hell, Oblivion, and the Void, but offers no protection whatsoever from the creatures you summon. You are able to increase the chance for a random target to appear by using double the mana and circling the center pentagram.
He willed the spell to activate, and a swirling vortex of dark mana poured out from his limbs before it condensed, turning from black-green into crimson lights that drew out the needed symbols. A central pentagram came first, then a series of demonic runes surrounding it - Five runes were located at each of the points of the pentagram, and two outer circles each with smaller runes lining them encircled the center. Moving images, shapes, and mana forms flickered about the pentagram at random in orange and red hues.
A prompt describing the needed chant appeared for Trey to read aloud: “Primordius o va Hellethe o va Voidethe o va Oblivethe. Nekataktra Uvumas.”
The prompt disappeared after speaking the words of summoning, and the pentagram pulsed red energy along the ground. Ashe took one of the rabbits from Athrost, and the little creature wiggled about to let out a yelp as she cut its throat. Then, throwing the little dying animal onto the pentagram, they waited.
And they waited some more.
Then the pentagram pulsed a final time and faded away.
“Fuck.” Trey shook his head in dismay, cursing to himself again silently. “Alright let’s go again.”
The steps for summoning were repeated again, and again, and again, until the fifth try finally yielded results almost an hour later. The demon that stepped forth was somewhat of an oddity, but nevertheless was within their grasp for obtaining it.
Name: Oblivion Toad
Race: Oblivion Toad, Demon/Beast
Class: Consumer
Level: 39
HP: ???
MP: ???
SP: ???
DP: 0/0
It was the size of a large pickup truck. Two yellow eyes on either side of the body rested under a series of curved brown spikes that trailed down from its snout all across its back on the dorsal side. Thick, red, heavy scales coated everywhere that the spikes didn’t, and large claws were present at the ends of its feet.
“It has 400 total HP!” Izumi called out from the woods, hiding behind a tree but peering out and keeping her pistol at the ready. The goggles she had on not only kept out the rain, but did exactly what they’d said they’d do. The little red HP bar floating overhead of the demon toad was easy enough for her to read even from a distance.
The creature blinked a couple times and oriented itself amidst the drizzle, ignoring the rabbit and its soul while trying to find out where the voice had come from just in time to see the chaos chains whipping around as they pierced its body.
The toad let out a pained high pitched croak, spraying acid from its mouth in shock and surprise up to twenty feet away as a total of four spiked chaos chains pierced and wrapped around it, securing it to its position while chaos energy sparked and burned at its flesh. A burden curse from Napoleon took hold to weaken it as well, and the toad’s struggling became less apparent immediately. The acid that the creature continued to spew out as it flailed melted away the ground and tree stumps, leaving little pockets of smoldering ground scattered across the clearing and testifying that they should all stay very far out of the creature’s path if they wanted to retain their body parts.
Izumi called out again as the others watched on from the cover of the jungle. “237/400 HP! It took a real hit, and the HP is continuing to decline with the passive chain damage - be careful not to kill it!”
As she yelled out the words to overcome the sound of the stormy weather, the creature focused in on her position. Taking aim and narrowing its yellow eyes- it turned its head and opened its mouth. This time, instead of a short-ranged wide area-of-effect acid spray, a long fleshy tongue lashed out and cleared the 30 yard distance between it and Izumi in an instant. Izumi screamed as the tree she was hiding behind splintered and sprayed wooden fragments everywhere. The attack had just barely missed, and her eyes widened to settle on the barbed spiked tongue that remained lodged in the tree only a foot away from where her head had been a second ago. Then she shakily looked back to where the tongue led – into the gaping toad maw that could easily fit her inside many times over. The musculature strained as it tried to free its long tongue from the wood and it croaked in rage as crossbow bolts from Ashe began to bounce off its armored hide.
A fireblast from Atharost turned that rage into pain again and it began flailing even harder as the HP dropped.
“HP is at 169/400!” Izumi shrieked, getting up and running away just as the tree caved in against the pull of the barbed tongue. The top half of the tree flew into the air by a few feet and crashed into the ground, and the toad recoiled from the force at which its own tongue came slamming back into its throat.
Ashe was swearing at how useless her weapons were against this creature with her back to a tree, reloading another bolt into one of her crossbows. Having realized its resilience to physical attacks, she could either aim for the eyes, attack when its mouth was open for the fleshy innards, or sit this one completely out.
Her decision on what to do was cut short when Trey’s face morphed into demon-form and he unleashed a blast of hellfire from his devil’s jaws.
A shrill high pitched croak much harsher than all the others filled their ears as it turned into a wail.
“35/400 HP! It’s dying, hurry!”
Izumi’s yell of encouragement spurred Trey into action. He leapt forward from his spot behind the creature and rushed ahead, eager to capture this beast for himself. His tail whipped forward and wrapped itself around the toad’s back leg, the smoldering creature stumbled and fell with a tug and was still unable to move much anyways considering the chaos chains embedded and wrapped around its body.
Placing a hand on its extended hind leg and gripping hard, Trey willed the subjugation contract to appear.
A prompt appeared in Trey’s vision. “You have offered a minion contract to this Oblivion Toad. Because you have beaten it into submission, it has the option of a painless death and immediate transfer of his soul into the void. Be aware, if the Oblivion Toad does not accept this offer within ten minutes the offer will expire and the potential servant will die.”
The toad’s large yellow eyes on the left side of its face were widened in fright and anger, focusing in on Trey as the All Spirit’s words flooded their minds. Its HP was ticking down by the second and it was bleeding out along with burn damage, but despite the rage it felt… self preservation kicked in.
The mechanical feminine voice again graced Trey’s thoughts. “Oblivion Toad has accepted your pact. Two of your minion control limit slots have been filled.”
The toad let out a low prolonged croak, and seconds later the page for his new minion popped up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simplified Status Page
Name: Oblivion Toad
Race: Oblivion Toad, Demon/Beast
Class: Consumer
Level: 39
HP: 22/400
MP: 100/100
SP: 101/274
DP: 0/0
Skills: Assassination^^^^ (lvl. 45), Barbed Tongue^^^^ (lvl. 42), Sneak^^^ (lvl. 38),
Acid Spray^^^ (lvl. 30), Consumer: Gluttony^ (Sacred Art)(lvl. 12), Claws (lvl. 8)
Traits: Water Breathing, Innate Camouflage Manipulation, Armoured, Trey Bon’s Minion
Magical Attributes: None
Opinion of you: Unsatisfied and Angry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“YESSSSS!!!!” He pumped his hands into the air victoriously and did a brief happy dance to the satisfaction and amusement of the others. Then, concentrating on the toad’s abilities the screen popped up a more detailed description of each.
Assassination - Level 45
- *Adds bonuses and critical strikes while unseen by your opponent.
- Upgrade 1> Critical strike chance doubled when attacking from underwater
- Upgrade 2> Critical strike damage +22%
- Upgrade 3> +4% chance to stun upon critical strike
- Upgrade 4> +8% effectiveness to all stealth related abilities
Barbed Tongue - Level 42
- *Governed by dexterity and strength, the ability to manipulate your tongue for battle.
- Upgrade 1> Barbs cause an additional 0.1% bleed damage per second over time
- Upgrade 2> Tongue receives +52 generalized defense bonus
- Upgrade 3> Grow an additional spike out the tip for greater penetration
- Upgrade 4> Secrete acid from the barbs when they lodge in an enemy for
additional damage over time
Sneak - Level 38
- Upgrade 1> Gain 2% chameleon when sneaking
- Upgrade 2> Critical strike chance +5% while sneaking
- Upgrade 3> Footsteps gain +9% silence bonus while sneaking
Acid Spray - Level 30
- *Spray venomous acid from the glands in your mouth at your enemies. Causes significant damage over time and chemical burns.
- Upgrade 1> Increase acid burn damage over time by +20 seconds
- Upgrade 2> Acid is now able to melt through things much faster
- Upgrade 3> The rest of your body is now entirely immune to your own acid
Consumer: Gluttony (Sacred Art) - Level 12
- *Increases your bite power and the ability to expand your stomach. Low cooldown.
- Upgrade 1> Your bite damage is increased by +7%
He nearly squealed with delight - but didn’t, because his friends would have made fun of him. Other than Big Cow Daddy, his minotaur who he’d only owned for a couple weeks before an untimely death at the hands of pirates, this was the best he’d yielded from his summoning circle. This was a huge win, and it had only taken an hour to get it! Previous attempts had failed miserably, but it appeared a steady dedication to keep trying had paid off.
“Rivia, heal it.”
The culn priestess stepped out from behind the trees along with Karus and began to utter a Dark rejuvenation miracle, and Trey came forward to speed up the process by popping a cork on a healing potion he’d brought and pouring it into the open mouth of the toad. He really didn’t want it dying of blood loss.
The chaos chains were dismissed, and the oblivion toad slumped to the bloodstained charred ground with labored breathing as its wounds began to slowly seal up.
Rivia continued to channel her miracle by muttering the necessary prayer as Karus came up and hardily laughed, slapping Trey on the back. “Good lad! That’s a nice catch!”
Izumi was a little shaken due to the close call, but even she wore a smile of triumph. Tapping her goggles and giggling, she was obviously very proud that she’d been useful this time around. “These are so neat!”
“That they are.” Trey winked her way and her smile broadened. He was glad she’d found a niche to fill, for her sake more than anything else. The truth was that without her he likely would have killed it by accident or wouldn’t have done enough before one of them got hurt. Those goggles were a real boon.
His eyes shifted back to the truck-sized toad and narrowed at the look of contempt it held for him, staring him down as its breathing normalized and the HP climbed.
However, he was unphased by the toad’s disapproving judgement. “Your name… will be Toady!”
Not very original, that was for damn sure. The name got a couple of eye rolls but the All Spirit’s message notifying him of the change distracted him enough not to care. Toady took up 2 slots, clarifying that the All Spirit considered the toad to be almost equal to Trey in combat strength while being either neutral or in the negative category for opinion of its master, and this seriously surprised him considering how easily it had been to force it into submission. Surely Atharost was far stronger than this thing and he took up less… then again, Atharost likely only took up 1 slot because of the ‘Very Friendly’ attitude towards Trey. Less willpower was required for those who didn’t actively oppose the master’s will.
Also, Trey did have a lot of help. Napoleon’s curse had brought down its strength significantly and it’d still almost killed Izumi due to their carelessness. On top of that it seemed like this creature had a very high resistance to physical attacks based on Ashe’s bolts bouncing off the scaled skin like it was nothing.
He took a moment to really hone in on what made Toady… Toady. If the All Spirit considered this creature that dangerous, he wanted to know why. To his relief, it only took him a couple minutes to figure out: Toady was an ambush predator, and it had been caught out of its element due to the summoning.
The camouflage ability it had was nearly a complete chameleon, and the water breathing made him think this creature was likely more adapted to deep swamps or rivers than on land. Given the way its tongue had taken out that tree from so far away, he was relatively sure it could even go farther - making it a long ranged attack.
“Wowwwww… yo look at this!” Trey snapped his fingers and pointed to Toady. “Blend into your surroundings! Turn into a boulder or something. I want to see it!”
In an instant, Toady’s red and brown body began to shift colors. The spikes along its back flattened down against its skin. The huge demon-beast hybrid let its skin fade in and out until the colors matched that of a grey boulder with what appeared to be green moss covering the back of it if one didn’t look too close. Even its eyes shifted colors to blend in and after a minute of changing it truly looked like a large moss covered rock.
Everyone was seriously impressed.
“Whoa!” Ashe poked the huge creature’s belly incredulously. “This is neat! He’s like an assassin toad!”
“It certainly appears that way…” Trey scrunched his eyebrows and snapped another order. “Toady, run as fast as you can to the wood’s edge and back.”
The boulder suddenly began to move at a fast waddle, panting with an open mouth as it trudged along on its four clawed toad feet. It was significantly slower than any athlete could run, but could likely keep up with a very out of shape adult who’d been a couch potato for a couple years. Best guess was 8 miles per hour? When the toad came back and plopped back onto the ground in minor amounts of exhaustion, Trey and the others couldn’t help but snicker at how slow it was considering the strenuous effort it was putting in.
“Yeah it’s definitely an ambush predator, there’s no way this thing could survive by running things down. Still, it’ll definitely be useful. I can see many different ways to put it into play… I’ll just have to be more strategic using it.”
Trey felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around to look at Atharost who then pointed to the ground.
“Master… something’s wrong with the summoning circle.”
Trey raised an eyebrow and followed the ifrit’s finger. Atharost was right. Not only was the summoning circle and pentagram still there, but it was… shuddering. Usually the pentagram vanished after the demon was summoned, but that had been minutes ago now. Why was it still here?
And why were the lights going in and out?
“Uh… that’s strange.” Trey stared at it a while longer when it suddenly bloomed into light again, reacting as another body began to materialize above it. “Everyone get back! Something else is coming through!”
Immediately everyone dispersed to their original spots, only this time they had Toady with them. Trey positioned his brand new minion on the outskirts nearby where he was hidden and commanded it to blend in again. The toad turned into a boulder look-alike just like it’d done a minute ago - and Trey got ready, slightly nervous because he’d never had a double summon before.
He didn’t have long to wait and see what was going on though. Within seconds: not only one body appeared, but three.
They were all minotaurs. He’d already fought a bunch of them back in Oblivion and he’d owned one himself for a short time, so it didn’t take much to recognize them even before they’d fully formed. All three of them were heavily muscled, much bigger than the previous ones he’d seen, and… fighting one another. Specifically, there were two brown ones that were working together to take down a slightly larger black one. The black minotaur had sleek, bloodied fur with numerous cuts covering its body. It wore a loincloth just like the others but also had a large crude warhammer made of steel it used to fend off attacks, while the others had axes and were taking swipes at him from different sides.
None of them even seemed to notice that they’d been transported to a new world, and if they did notice they certainly didn’t care.
Roaring as an axe embedded itself partway into its right pectoral muscle, the larger black minotaur grabbed the handle to keep it in place and took out the other’s left kneecap with a sickening crunch. It then ducked under the other opponent’s swing and flung its muscular neck to the side to impale the second enemy with both its horns. Activating a sacred art with a red aura encompassing the beast, his strength increased dramatically.
The impaled enemy shrieked and was flipped up over the black minotaur’s head with minimal effort, sliding off the horns and landing in a bloodied mess behind the others before getting back up.
Trey watched them continue to battle it out, the two sides even despite the unfair number advantage against the one with black fur.
“We should attack when they are all wounded…” Atharost whispered from the tree line as they continued to observe the fight. “We can take all three of them.”
Trey was thinking the exact same thing. Everyone was waiting on his command, and he was already anticipating the mental trigger that would send his minions surrounding the clearing into action.
He couldn’t get a read on all of them, but they were all far more impressive than the ones Trey’d battled against himself. Their stats, levels, and fighting ability were all obviously higher, and their sizes made Trey wonder if they were another breed of minotaur or simply just got the better end of the genetic pool. Minotaurs were already large, but these three were giants and easily stood over Atharost and Karus in height.
Another bovine shriek, this time from the black minotaur, signaled Trey’s time to spring. One of the axe wielding brown demons had side-swiped an axe into the base of their enemy’s hoof and completely dislocated the huge foot from the shin bone. It screamed in triumph as the black minotaur fell backwards in a cry of dismay and curses in the demonic tongue, but it did not beg as his enemy glowered over him with an obviously broken kneecap and favoring one leg itself.
Instead, it lay back defiantly baring its teeth at the one who’d felled it. When the axe took another plunge downwards, it closed its eyes and waited for the killing blow to end its life.
“Now.”
The mental command sent them all into simultaneous action. Rivia’s miracle imbued the black minotaur with temporary immortality just as the axe strike landed against an aura of orange flickering light. The axe bounced off harmlessly to the astonishment of all three of the large bovine demons as the one who was still standing took a crossbow bolt and three fireballs to the chest – felling it to the ground and causing it to roar out a scream. Napoleon’s curse of burden was cast one after the other on all of them in turn. Chaos chains blasted from various points in space surrounding them and wrapped around their arms, legs and necks to secure them from moving.
However, the one with the most HP and who’d just been felled by the projectiles managed to get up with a roar and tear out of his bindings. The others were both too far gone, bleeding out on the ground with both stamina and health significantly depleted, but this monstrosity still had it in him even with a broken knee to charge out towards his new enemies. Every step the monster took caused a sloshing crunch as the knee joint continued to collapse in on itself and it even stumbled partway through the charge, but caught itself with its arms before getting back up and launching itself towards Ashe.
In a blur of movement, Toady’s barbed tongue slammed into the minotaur mid-air and encircled around the minotaur’s waist – spinning it around and then pulling the screaming creature back towards the boulder-turned gigantic toad. The minotaur was too big to fit inside Toady’s mouth, but the toad’s jaws clamped down anyways and held it there partially inside and unable to move while the barbs of the tongue grated against flesh and ribcage.
After another minute of futile struggling, they were sure the minotaurs were successfully bound. Trey cautiously walked into the clearing and came up to stand above the two on the ground, each demon breathing heavily and staying limp from the battle they’d undertaken.
He looked from one, to the other, and then back to the one in Toady’s mouth.
[Ancient Demon] “Hello ladies. How are we doing this fine summer day? Or… is it still spring?”
Both demons widened their eyes as Trey spoke the words, and it was the black-furred one that eventually managed to speak. [Ancient Demon] “How does a lowly ape human know our tongue?”
Trey slammed his foot into the minotaur’s face, but it did a lot less damage and had less impact than Trey’d hoped. If anything it made him look weak because the monster hardly budged. Considering how much higher level they were, it didn’t surprise him that much. Still, his ego was hurt and the blush that came from his failed intimidation tactic was obvious.
Atharost made up for it though by bursting into an inferno beside his master and lowering himself just before the largest minotaur’s snout with a sadistic grin. [Ancient Demon] “Insult my master again and I’ll have your guts roasted and eaten. Listen well, cow, for I do not bluff.”
A mild amount of what Trey thought was respect came upon the brute after seeing Atharost. No doubt it had to do with the hierarchy of demon tribes. Atharost was an ifrit, a rare and feared breed of demon that demanded respect from an inferior type of monster like a minotaur.
The brute snorted and relaxed a bit, wincing because of the pain in its chest and foot. [Ancient Demon] “What do you want with us? You interrupted our battle… for what? Hurry little human… we are dying. If one of you are able to heal us, by spell, miracle or potion… I would forever be indebted to you.”
[Ancient Demon] “Like you were indebted to our CLAN!?” roared the other brown minotaur curled up on the ground not far off. It looked at the black one with hate in its eyes and a snarl, muscles tensing against the mana infused chaos chains as they burned away at its skin. “You deserve NO sympathy! You deserve nothing but DEATH!”
The black demon gave his enemy a disgusted glance but then winced again, his breathing becoming more labored. He said no more until Trey bent down and extended a hand to touch the huge bicep that was easily the size of Trey’s entire chest.
Trey’s smile widened as the All Spirit’s message crossed over into the minotaur’s mind. “I interrupted you because I wanted all three of you alive. I am your new master now… and you can call me Trey.”
