(So I thoguht about, yeah.... uhh... adding a bit of comedy at the end. If you like it say so, if not (If that is the majority) say so too and I will stop. So just let me know in the comments below... RHYME MASTER. *Cough* Enjoy!)
(Oh and... Tell me how to make a poll, please. The question would be: School Ark, yes or no? I would implement it after he gathered some fame as an adventurer. So for now; enjoy, again!)
“M-M-MONSTER!“. The surrounding people screamed upon seeing Argant's figure.
In the midst of the cratar stood a blood red figure. Clad in ruby armor. His helmet had only two small openings to showcase two red orbs that shone with the intensity of stars, creating the illusion as if the surroundings were drowned in blood.
The orbs scanned the onlookers carefully and then rested on the man standing in the front, Arlarn.
His wrinkled face turned serious upon seeing the red demon before him and he took a fighting stance.
“A-Argant is- is that you?“. Silana asked in a weak voice. The intensed bloodlust told her animalistic instincts to escape with all her might, but she was sure the scent of the demon confronting them was the same scent of Argant.
Upon hearing his name the orbs looked directly at Silana. The helmet openned up at the mouth section and revealed a hellish grin, sharp teeth and a blackened tongue. The corners of Argant's mouth ripped and even more blood started to spurt out of his bloody maw. Foul gases leaked out of Argant's half openned mouth, a smell of dead and corpses filled the area.
His body was in a critical condition because of the curses he placed on himself and yet the bloodlust forced his body to fight and kill.
Silana jerked up when she saw the terrific grin and smelt the dreadful stench, she and many other more animal like demons started to lose consciousness, their minds already gave up surviving.
Argant liked his brittle lips and looked at Silana as if she was his next meal.
Arlarn positioned himself between Silana and Argant's piercing gaze.
Seeing his view on his prey being blocked a low growl escaped Argant's throat.
Not waiting another second Arlarn started to chant a magic spell. The grass started to sway and nearby trees started to crook and move around wildly. Roots sprang forth from the ground and coiled around each other.
“Yggdrasil's right Branch.“. The roots started to glow in a warm green and brown light. When the lightshow was over a huge tree golem stood before Arlarn. Around eight meters tall with fists the size of cars and strength to smash the ground open, the golem began to move towards Argant. It was fairly slow because it had to root itself in place before taking another step, but contrary to its movement speed its attack speed was far greater.
A giant fist flew like a meteor towards Argant's direction but Argant just stood there, unmoving at first but his mouth was moving under the red helmet.
“Wither!“,“Blood Thorns!“. 'Two magics at once!', the people were stupified, to chant two magic spells at the same time needed a huge amount of concentration.
Black mist started to tear its way into the oncoming fist, deteriorating the wooden golem in the process. But the fist had already a high momentum and the mist had no means to slow it down.
A wooden fist crashed down on the ground. The people were looking expectantly at the scene.
Thousand spikes of blood erupted underneath Argant's armor and formed a red defensive net right between him and the fist.
Upon contact with the red net the already rotted fist crumbled and shattered into wooden splinters. Unlucky for Argant though was, that his dark magic was currently surpressed by a large margin meaning that the core of the golem was still intact.
Around the floating green orb another layer of roots started to form and create the golem anew.
Even in his bererker state Argant still understood that he could not withstand a battle of endurance. So instead of trying to defend against the monster of a tree he decided to go head on against Arlarn.
Using his, by blood magic augmented, legs he shot forward like a viper. In but a few short seconds he traveled the fifteen meter distance, all the while dodging the giant fists of the golem.
Gathering his blood at the 'gloves' of the red armor they quickly formed into two giant claws.
The air howled and the ground shock beneath Argant, witnesses to his imense power boost. His claws blurred and shot down like a red lightning, ten times faster than a human could hope to perceive, but only a tad to fast for a demon.
Using his own inherited stronger body Arlarn dodged the two claws, which insted of halving him only cut of his left arm and a greedy portion of his flank.
“Nature's grace.“. In no time at all Arlarn chanted a healing spell on himself. Like the golem many roots made of flesh started to form his lost body parts from scratch until he was fully recovered.
Argant clicked his tongue, he was hoping he could simply kill his opponent and then take home his prey. Thinking again about the apetizing women he started to droll a thick mixture of saliva, blood and even some pieces of rotten flesh.
Arlarn directed his golem to attack once again only to find the red demon dodge all his attacks or straight out block them.
“Minions of Dionaea.“. Another bnch of roots started to gather over the ground, this time though they formed at least tens of smaller golems.
These golems were completely different from the first giant golem. They had no hard bark but were instead made up of smooth vines and their heads were those of venus flytraps.
The venus golems gurgled some wierd noises and started to shot their vines towards Argant. They numbered five and each of them shot at least six vines.
Being unable to dodge them all Argant decided to simply cut them down but to the disadvantage of Aragant he could not cut all of them down.
Argant was now anchored to the ground and had to endure the flurry of punches by the giant golem behind him.
The first punches could still be blocked but after he was spit on with acids by the venus golems he could no longer maintain his defense up.
In an last attempt to break free he used every bit of wind essence to unleash a wild storm of sharp wind blades.
His attack had a great effect and freed him from the vines although it was to late.
Feeling an intense pain in his left side he was pummeled tens of meters away, skipping on the ground like a stone over the water and finishing his flight in a brick wall.
The blood that was maintaining a makeshift prothesis of his right arm quickly lossened its cohesiveness and splashed on the ground with a sickening sound.
Seeing the stump Silana was now indeed assured that the demon Arlarn was fighting was Argant. She was happy that nothing to bad happened to him, but seeing his state of mind and body her happiness quickly died down.
Argant was on death's door.
Arlarn moved his golem over to Argant's position and it quickly followed up with another flurry of attacks.
The little black snake that was determined to let its master die to its wish could not longer hold still. It was watching this whole fight after inflicting serious wounds on its master and as well as honoring its masters wish to die here. But the little snake could not endure it any longer, to see its master being beaten down to a pulp.
The snake slither along the ground until it reached Arlarn. Sinking its black fangs deep into Arlarn's calf the snake injected its cursed venom.
The golem that was supposed to attack Argant stopped midway its punch and started to tremble slightly and then crumble to dust, the venus golems started to turn into harmless vines as well.
Arlarn howled in pain as black dots started to spread from the location where the little snake bit him.
“Nature's grace! Nature's grace! ...!“. Arlarn used a chain of regeneration spells until the black dots started to disappear as well as the pain.
He turned towards the snake and with his sheer will a pair of sharp roots impaled the little snake. Luckily the snake was made of maic so as long as its master was alive it would not fear death ever, though it did disappear.
Arlarn looked up to the place where Argant landed only to find him not being there anymore.
A moment later a blood clad fist appeared in his field of vision, it contained enough power to pulverize his head and he could not block as his hands were massaging his calf at the moment. Arlarn closed his eyes to await death, a death which never came.
Instead of seeing the red fist he saw a pair of dark blue horns. Strenok stood right before Arlarn, blocking Argant's fist with a wide simple iron broadsword. Well it was not as simple as one saw at first. Bright blue streaks of lightning licked over the sword and burned the ground.
His formerly red horns also turned dark blue because of the released lightning element in his body.
“Hmph!“. Strenok only harrumphed as he blocked the onslaught of the one armed Argant.
With a streak of blue light Strenok reappeared behind Argant and slashed downwards, chopping depply into his back.
While falling over Arlarn chanted another spell. “Lotus spear!“. A large whitish root shot out of the ground and impaled Argant, penetrating through his armor like a hot knife through butter. The spear stood out of Argant's cleaved back and started to form into large white flower petals, which in turn formed into a jade white prison around Argant.
“Cries of war!“. Before the petals closed Argant off completely he uttered out those few words, vomiting an incredibly large amout of blood on the ground afterwards.
The puddle of blood started to vibrate and soon enough dozens of pairs of arms started to stretch out of the puddle, gripping onto the ground those arms heaved out dozens of red abominations.
The ghouls roared madly and started to attack Arlarn, while a few of them distracted Strenok, they were not incredibly strong but enough to deal with a mage based person like Arlarn.
Sadly Arlarn did not have his sturdy body for nothing. He redirected the ghouls sluggish attacks and send out one punch after the other. His mana pool was nearly depleted but it was still enough to form some quick foot shackles on the ghouls to impede their movements.
Argant tried his best to free himself from the lotus prison but it did not budge to any of his attacks.
One could hear Argant's bones breaking and organs rupturing as he continued to bang on the prison. If this continues on he will most certainly die, is what Silana thought.
She regained consciousness midway in the fight, her brain seemingly noticed that there is yet no imminent danger.
She could not understand what made her worry so much about Argant. After all he was nothing more than a stranger to her, his prowess was indeed amazing but not in such heights that she would feel such admiration and affection towards him. So what was it that made her gravitate towards Argant? Most likely her animal instincts could 'feel' his hidden might and placed him in the spot of – what we know amongst animals – the alpha. Or it was the fear of the Alpha's wrath, forcing her into submission. Anyway, the alpha is coveted by its females and so is Argant.
What Silana was doing was worrying about her future as Argant's potential mating partner.
Upon realising her own thoughts Silana blushed from ear to ear. She didn't even know Argant, nor has she seen his face and yet she was so strongly attracted towards him. She felt like a bitch in heat, a shameless woman.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Though what was now even more important was Argant being killed right now.
Inside the lotus prison countless sharp roots started to stab through Argant's armor. Argant's gaze was filled with murderous intent at Arlarn and Strenok.
“Pah! Don't look at me like that you beast!“. Arlarn said while spitting on the ground. The ghouls were already completely destroyed and now his body was covered in sweat and blood, not the most appealing combination.
Strenok was currently gathering his ki in his arms for a final lethal attack.
Lightning sapped underneath Strenok skin and his muscles tensed up, causing his hairs to stand on edge.
Instead of a slash he lunged forward and pierced right through the prison and Argant's body. The lightning shot out of the massive blade, which seemed unfitting for such a swift attack, and roasted Argant's body beneath the armor, causing black smoke to soar up through the small puncture in the lotus prison.
“RAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!“. A primal roar escaped Argant's clenched teeth, a roar of a dying beast.
The lightning continued to sap for nearly a minute before it finally stopped. The lotus cage turned into simple flower petals and Argant's lifeless body fell with a flop on the ground.
The blood that formed the armor was quickly losing its firmness and started to flow down from Argant's body like a crimson river.
“NOOOO!“. Silana screamed with teary eyes and sprinted towards Argant's corpse. His body was a complete mess, bones protruded from every part of his body and his orifices were bleeding profusely, additionaly his flesh was rotten by curses and completely punctured. Only the head was in a half decent state.
“Mmmmhm....“. The onlookers ,and particularly Silana, gasped in surprise as they heard a low moan from the conceived dead Argant.
The blood in the surrounding area; be it Arlarn's, Strenok's or Argant's, started to move towards Argant's body.
Once the blood gathered it started to mend Argant's wounds, be it internally or externally. Only the curses, which dimmed down considerably, tormented Argant's recovering body.
Silana moved her head closer to Argant and shock him a few times with her hands. Arlarn and Strenok eyed Argant carefully. “Uhm... Silana I think it would be better to stand clear of it.“. Arlarn advised but Silana stubbornly refused and shock Argant's body the entire time.
After a few minutes Argant's body started to move, or rather tremble slightly. It would have gone unnoticed but Silana was to close to him and Strenok and Arlarn kept their watchful gaze.
When the trembles turned into twitches Silana's group became cautious as well. Eroina quickly equipped her fire staff and both elf warriors took on a fighting stance, the twins Lana and Lara prepared their healing spells as well.
Argant's head moved to the left, the face that was kissing the ground now looked directly at Silana. It was a young face, of a teen at most, although it had some rough edges already.
His eyes were astonishingly beautiful with their golden glimmer and the mysterious black tinge and white cross like pupil. Silana found herself becoming engrossed with this pair of enigmatic eyes.
The eyes held a certain warmth in them but a few seconds later this warmth turned into bloodlust. The former golden luster turned into a defiled red and shone like the sinister lanterns of the netherworld's ferryman.
Silana instinctively backed up but Argant's arms grasped at her firmly. Argant pulled her back with only slight resistance from Silana.
Strenok immediately swung his sword downwards and Arlarn summoned roots to bound Argant. Silana's group prepared as well. The clerics buffed up the warriors, which in turn dashed forward, and Eroina prepared her fire style magic but was yet to execute it, because of the high risk of hurting Silana.
Alas Strenok and Arlarn were to slow. A barrier of red light and bits of black mist defended against Strenok's attack, while the roots were simply ignored. Silana was to close to Argant that the roots could still make a difference.
The barrier shattered immediately but still withstood that one strike, leaving enough time for Argant to do whatever he had in mind.
Argant completely blacked out the two elves, they were to slow after all.
“W-What are you doing?!“. Silana asked while wriggling around in Argant's tight embrace.
Argant just eyed her carefully before flashing his sharpened canines. In a swift motion his teeth found their target and sunk into Silana's neck, piercing all the way down to her jugular.
“He is a vampire?!“. The people shouted, it was indeed rare to see a vampire as long as you are not within their immediate territory.
“Hiiii!“. Silana screamed in more surprise than pain and tried to free herself from Argant. What amde her even more afraid were the greedy gulping noises and the warm feeling running down her neck, which turned slowly into a cold numbness.
Strenok tried to jump onto Argant to free Silana but with the new blood reserves Argant's armor rebuild and started to shot out crimson spears towards the surrounding people, keeping them on distance.
After a minute of greedy sucking Silana's face was gone from tanned to pale. Her breathing was rough and her eyes were covered in haze. Her body hung down weakly, in a small puddle of her own blood.
Argant let loose on Silana and shot his ehad back in an exaggerated manner. His mouth openned and closed multiple times until he let free a deafening roar.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!“. Those who were asleep inside of the village were now wide awake, their instincts telling them something dangerous is coming.
Every bit of blood in the entire village and even further started to circle around over Argant, forming a small bubble in the end.
A unbearable pain befell Argant and he clenched his teeth until they started to crack. Unlike the drop above him another drop in a darker shade of red escaped between Argant's teeth and infused into the blood orb.
The orb shuddered slightly and small ripples of red spread over the globe. Like an earthquake the crimson orb started to tremble and shuder to the extreme, radiating red light in the process.
When the trembling stopped an eerie silence filled the air. The radiated light surged back into the orb and small cracks started to appear within.
The orb split apart with the sound of worlds breaking to smitherness.
Roars of mighty beasts rang out from the orb, as if the orb in itself was a giant monster. And then finally the orb crumble to pieces.
Red snow started to cover the ground but the people were still looking towards were the orb had been.
In mid-air was a giant warhammer. The warhammer shone in red light while at the same time devouring the light in its vicinity.
The head was made of blood red metal and densly covered by restlessly looking eyes which weeped dark reddish drops. The hilt was made of an abstract red wood and had two grips, one between head and handle and one at the bottom; the hilt was covered in a dense dark red muckus and had pulsating red lines flow from the bottom to the head where they sprouted out like spikes.
(This dual handle thing, those that now mh might now it. Just google deviljho or alatreon hammer, both have a grip between head and handle and at the bottom, as well as a connecting piece at the back of the hammer for further stabilisation. The hammer I described is top heavy and leaned to the front, much like the former mentioned hammers. AHHH just google it dammit.)
Might poured out from every inch of massive war machine.
The droplets of blood started to form chains, descending downwards and slowly closing in on Argant.
Argant was till in his prayer like position and the chains started to stab into his skin and flesh. The chains pulled Argant's body upward like believers on the Last Judgment.
(Please don't go all like: 'UHHH you insulted my religion!', or stuff.)
The warhammer high in the air started to melt the moment it touched Argant's body.
The liquified metal droped onto Argant's face, causing another series of inhuman cries, and carved its way through his skin. Miraculously the metal only burned its way through Argant's skin and stopped halfway through. The metal was in a matter of seconds cooled down and looked now more like a red tribal tattoo, running down from the right half of his face to his right arm stump.
Argant's eyes returned to their original colorful combination of gold, black and white. His body fell back down on the earth, gravity turned to its normal state and the warhammer and the enormous masses of blood seemingly were absorbed by Argant.
The smell of blood quickly disappeared adn the village returned to its former calmness.
One week passed since then.
My eyelids were once again heavy, I was fatigued and my body ached all over. I used up my bits of remaining energy to force my eyes open. I was lying in a neat room, from what I could see there was only a wooden desk and its respective wooden chair, above was a medium sized window – open at the time –.
The room was lit by the first rays of the morning sun. The room seemed to ooze warmth and happiness but that was way to much for my sensitive eyes and mind right now, just to much colour and light.
Thus I moved the white bed sheets further over my head. The bed was just too comfortable, it was fairly large and would fit at least three people. It was the only luxurious piece of furniture in this otherwise rustic room.
Just thinking for a few minutes made my head dizzy, so I snuggled deeper into the soft bed. The bed shook a bit in response to my snuggling. Suddenly I heard a low snoring from my right side. I was completely startled, was my tensed body just making things up?
Cold sweat ran down my forehead. I had neither my mask nor hood on I normally used, that meant any person could distinguish me now as a human, or so I thought for the moment.
I turned my head left, deciding to ignore whatever I might have heard or might have not. 'If I can't see it, it doesn't exist', was my reasoning.
But sadly I could not choose to ignore it any longer as the sound became faintly louder and it was obvious coming from my right.
Now that I think back, I don't even know how I didn't notice her... Well I was pretty woozy at that time.
When I turned to the right a beautiful face greeted me, just a few inches away from my own face. It was a tanned beauty. She had dark red lips and a slight button nose, which looked extremely cute, and short black hair. Her body was currently covered by the blankets.
I eyed the beauty before me carefully, afraid of waking her up with my mere gaze – a pretty lecherous gaze if I might say so –.
Her lips were trembling slightly and after I felt a pull on my body and suddenly got closer to her the trembling lips turned into a satisfied smile.
I lifted the bed sheets once again and this time I understood why my body felt so extreme immobile. Two clawed hands were gripping thightly onto my body while a long toned leg was currently rubbing my crotch.
I was simply.... confused. Who was this beauty? Why was she sharing a bed with me and using me as a body pillow? Will she notice the tent between my legs? What has the future in store for me? Please stop rubbing... ahh~.
Only time will tell.