NOVEL FROG 154 - Favored Foe
I stood, slightly bewildered by the scene in front of me. The outpost that had promised us safety was lit by a raging fire. Smoke billowed into the sky. Figures danced and laughed amongst themselves.
“Max? Max?”
My head turned to the side to see Ren there. “Yeah?”
“You’re dissociating again, and your hand is already bleeding.”
I frowned and lifted them up. Hadn’t even been casting any spells, and yet she was right. Was sweating too - but that might be the residual heat of the inferno before us. As we stood there, white gloves began to form over my extended hands.
Power 52%.
“This is potentially bad.” I ran my tongue across dry lips and looked back into her bright blue eyes. Some worry in there. Valid.
Other than making myself a spectacle and wowing audiences, there was one other thing that caused my Guardian-granted Power meter to rocket. It had done so against Syther, the one eyed demon that I had killed when I abandoned the Party.
But the sheer amount of demons here was… staggering, in comparison. They must be System-created, but how and where from? Was this some kind of invasion event? Did someone put them here? Why wasn’t I currently tearing the miserable fucks limb from limb?
I gasped for as if I had been holding my breath. Everything was dull to me except for the horned figures illuminated to the fires and the throbbing adrenaline giving my brain a heavy-handed prompt to get the violence started.
It was only natural. Half of me had been a Demon Hunter - my very vocation was destroying these abominations in Hell itself. Despite my affinity for them and being affable with my own demonic summons, any outside my control just disgusted me and prompted me to act.
Power 76%.
“We have to kill the demons,” I said.
Ren squeezed my arm, taking me out of my focus slightly. “I know there’s no holding you back, just be safe. We fight together.”
I looked her in the face and smiled. Glad that they wouldn’t try to talk me out of this compulsion - as I’d only go and do it without them, anyway. My greatest weakness, in a way, aside from the self-styled need to break my skull open on every new bit of terrain I came across.
“Tanya, Quinn.” I flexed my fingers, the power dying to escape and be brought into reality. “Keep an eye on our backs. This could be a trap.”
They probably acknowledged, but I was already stepping towards the outpost. In my hand, two cards. Two Ice imps summoned on my right. Roger’s card at the ready, but two purple cards twirled around my hand as I walked down the cobbled road.
Interestingly enough, the outpost itself either hadn’t been burning long, or wasn’t being allowed to collapse from the constant fire. Gave more weight to this being a scripted event, or it could be… demonic flames.
The Monsters themselves were nothing like my summonable companions. Around the same height as me, but with androgenous toned bodies. Tough red skin, black horns, and piercing yellow eyes. Certainly more of a cliche look than a giant rabbit, but that just made them all the more detestable.
As soon as the first one turned and locked eyes with me, my adrenaline spiked and it was go time. Two cards of purple light, amongst five other mundane ones, shot out like a shrapnel blast. The demon’s sword came up to deflect one, while the second carved through his shoulder. Behind him, a second demon went to move in, but his head exploded with radiant light as Ren placed a bullet between his eyes.
Now that certainly shook the hornet's nest. As two more cards bloomed into life, I took stock of the outpost. The buildings formed a rough circle. The center of the space between them housed a large fountain that was full of burning wood. Five more groups of three to five demons, no sign of any normal System-created living or dead.
With a mental gesture, my Imps fired off their magic. Two groups nearer the back received a gleaming bolt of ice each, impaling one but slowing the rest in an area. Would give us more breathing space while we-
The air crackled as something flashed its way toward me.
Wolf slid out to the forefront and took the attack, a sheen of light amber running across him.
I snarled at the grinning demon a little further back. “Ren, focus on the casters.”
“On it.” She crouched down and the sound of the bolt moving told me one demon was about to have their smile wiped away.
Onto my shoulder, a white dove landed. What an interesting idea. I sent one of my Imps away to replace with a hell-dove and had it perch on the elf’s shoulder. Wolf had decent magic resist, but I didn’t want him to be a punch-bag while he dealt with all the melee demons.
Especially as they were my kills.
While the bear roared and powered into combat on the right, I swerved to the left. Magic cards circling me, a duo of purple arcs as I spun a spear into my hands. Ren blew a caster away. Two ran at me with their dark-metal swords. Things became fluid as lighting arced around my body. Blocked the first strike, the second dulled, but sent me stumbling back. Flourished the spear to delay them as my cards continually darted around them, cutting and moving away.
Enough to make the first one lag. My spear found his face. Other demon went to swing for me, but then I had vanished. Invisible. Pulled my cards down into the top of his skull and reappeared. I stepped back, narrowly avoiding the downward strike of a large warhammer wielded by a larger demon. It struck the cobbled road, breaking apart stone.
I put my foot on the head of the weapon and gave him a wink. Switched places with Ren, and she shot straight through his neck, before we switched back again and I rammed the spear up through his lower jaw.
Dropped Roger’s card on the demon as I turned to see who was next.
From this peak, I surveyed the show. We had chewed through half of them already. Wolf and my Imp taking the bulk of the demons down piece by piece while Ren eradicated high profile targets. Quinn and Tanya offering support from the back - the fixer had even started to douse the flames of the first structures with one of his skills.
All in all, this was rather pleasant. If you ignored the pressure in my head that felt like my own horns wanted to sprout, and the figurative warning light blinking away as my Power bar neared filling to the brim…
I dropped down in front of my cannon as it blasted me with confetti. Part of me wanted to hit
Second confetti shot and energy surged through me like I had suddenly become drunk. Power 100%. No Domain, though. These demons didn’t deserve to see me at my best. Waves of anger rippled through me as I moved, but couldn’t focus. A slideshow of picturesque scenes. I moved between one deathblow to the next, as if my brain only cared about seeing the last pained look in their eyes before I destroyed them.
Which was… true, in all honesty.
My feet took me to a wavering standstill, and I felt somewhat more sober. Brain took a while to settle down while I stared at the last corpse I had created.
“You alright, Boss?”
I turned my head back to see Roger inhabiting the larger foe, his purple eyes raised in questioning. I realized that I was soaked through with blood. Some of it my own, but mostly not. “I think so.”
Turning fully, I regarded the carnage I had left in my wake. Lifted up my hands to see that the white gloves had now left me. As Quinn continued to extinguish the burning properties, the rest of my unfortunate companions came over.
“First off,” Ren began, “that switching thing was amazing. We really need to workshop that more.”
“Agreed.” I nodded along.
“Secondly, are you actually okay? You went a little feral there, but you seem lucid enough now.”
I checked my mind for any defects - any unexpected ones. Mostly likely the Power had gotten frustrated I hadn’t brought my Domain into being, and the resulting tantrum was the energy being dissipated in turning me into an unrelenting demon-murdering machine. None remained, so my purpose was fulfilled.
“Well, either my brains about to rocket out of my nose, or I’m just fine.”
The grimace on her face told me that she wasn’t too sure either option was palatable.
“How’s Quinn, Tanya? Anything else to report?” I would have stepped closer to the elf, but given the state of my outfit, I didn’t want to get her covered in demon blood. It was all for me.
“Still under the weather, but I think giving him the task of putting the fires out has kept his mind busy enough.” She smiled and looked back at the man doing just that, her gaze lingering on him for a few seconds before she turned back to me. “Didn’t spot anything suspicious behind us.”
“Likelihood of finding a house with a bath that doesn’t smell like charcoal and sin?”
Wolf cleared his throat and spoke up. “This one doesn’t look harmed.”
We looked over at the one he was gesturing to. He was right - but rather than relief, it just made me furrow my brow. I turned in a slow circle, eyeing up all the structures in the outpost.
It was the only one unblemished. Pristine, in fact, even though its neighbors were scorched and smoldering. I raised an eye to Ren, and she lifted her rifle to her shoulder.
“Could just be a Quest thing,” Tanya offered.
“Could be,” I responded, but my mind was elsewhere. So were my feet, as I found myself creeping toward the unmarked building as if it could sprout legs and attack us…
Shouldn’t put that out into the world.
It even felt mundane as I stood before the closed entrance. No magic auras or weird feelings my arcane knowledge might prickle at. No sense of foreboding doom - but just the same, there wasn’t a good feeling either. A true neutral house.
The muzzle of Ren’s rifle rested gently on my shoulder so she could shoot past me if something hostile appeared when I flung open the door.
“You realize I’ll be deaf for a week if you fire that there?” My eye twitched in anticipation.
“Just don’t listen to it.”
I exhaled through my nose. “I’m not sure my selective hearing is that profound.”
“Could have fooled me,” she murmured.
Didn’t hear what she said as cogs were clicking around in my mind. More rules needed breaking, I was sure. My hand went inside my jacket, and I brought out another hell-dove.
Eyes went over to Roger, as he was prodding at one of the dead demons. He caught my gaze and smiled sheepishly - odd in the figure he was puppeteering. “Thought I might know some of these assholes, but nope!”
“No matter, come over here. We’re going to try something new.”