Ander huddled between several other crying children as the adults fought back against the monsters. Bolts of green flame washed over one of the guards protecting them and Ander gasped in terror as the guard dropped his flesh bubbling.
It wasn’t just that guard. Several began to stagger and fall for no reason and with every one that fell Ander’s heart sank. He was going to die.
“No! Mum will protect us. She is strong!” Ander held back tears as he looked around the fighting. Where was she?
Finding anybody while the illusionists manipulated the appearance of the fighting was difficult if you didn’t know the order’s tactics but Mum had told Ander several times that she was always where the flames were thickest. She was a battle mage after all.
Soldiers and mages continued to fall even when a monster was nowhere in sight forcing those that remained to fill the gaps and prevent the monsters from getting to them. The monsters had separated them from the main group by dropping dozens of the clawed ones right on top of them. Ander still had some blood on him from one of the soldiers who didn’t see the attack coming.
Ander could hear the roar of the outsider Leo and several explosions from Dalen rattle the path as they too tried to return to the main group. New hope rose up in Ander’s chest but it all vanished as he felt a burning sensation wash over him and saw the last of the soldiers protecting him and the other kids pale, their faces twisted in agony as they clasped at their chests.
The illusions assisting the main battle group flickered and died revealing the agonized expressions of their casters all collapsing with tormented screams.
Ander’s body burned and he could feel it reaching deeper but that was nothing compared to the chill he felt as he saw his mother’s face amongst the falling casters.
“Mum!” Ander pushed the kids clinging to him aside to run for her but before he could take a step a clawed monster with dripping fangs tore its way through the fallen fighters in front of him. Blood dripped from its claws as Ander staggered backward.
Faster than Ander could see the monster reached for him and tore him away from the other kids by the throat. The monster’s eyes glared into his as it opened its fang-filled maw.
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Kal roared as he lept back onto the platform even as his bones fought against him. Many of the demons writhing in agony still lived so their presence still affected the cost of Wrath Incarnate but he knew that wouldn’t last long.
His Wrathful Regeneration was the only thing that kept his skull from destroying his brain, the demons wouldn’t be so lucky.
As he landed on the platform he brought his sword down on the lumixet again with all his amplified strength. Vorayx seemed surprised for an instant as Kal arrived but he moved with confidence as he backhanded the strike to the side and swung his clawed hand towards Kal’s throat.
Kal threw himself to the side with the momentum of the deflection but even with the preemptive dodge Vorayx’s claws pierced the shoulder of his cuirass and carved a line through his skin, knocking him even further away than he intended.
Kal recovered instantly but Vorayx moved with such insane speed and intensity that he barely had time to raise his sword to block another lethal strike aimed at his head. The power of the strike shattered the bone platform beneath them and almost knocked Exterminator’s Regards from Kal’s grip as he was thrown away.
Vorayx chuckled as he let himself fall with the collapsing platform and Kal saw a purple-red channel flash along the demon’s right arm as he landed. Kal’s hackles rose and he turned his landing into a roll as a pillar of black bone exploded from the place he had just been before exploding, sending shards of bone in all directions.
Kal couldn’t avoid those but brought his sword up to protect his face. Most only dented his cuirass or broke against his Flesh of Iron but one pierced his left hand, ripping tendons and shattering bone.
His regeneration quickly went to work but he barely had time to register the injury before Vorayx’s fist flew from the dust cloud and slammed into his chest. Driving the wind out of him and throwing him into an aerial tumble.
The channels flashed again and another spear of bone burst from the ground this time into the air towards him like a javelin. Seeing the channels Kal was ready and spun to deflect the bone away before it exploded, killing several writhing demons.
Kal heard Vorayx grunt with what he suspected was annoyance as he landed. The horrendous pain of the demon’s bone manipulation had faded, probably because the demon’s attention had shifted to the bone spear attacks.
Health:
3312/3870
Stamina:
4142/7240
Wrath:
3421
Another flash of the Vorayx’s skill urged Kal forward into the offensive as another spear shot over his shoulder from behind. Vorayx sneered as he bashed aside Kal’s thrust but Kal kept his forward momentum and slammed his shoulder into the demon’s chest. It was like running into a mountain but Kal heard the demon grunt before it slammed its fist down to punish the reckless attack.
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Kal felt something crack even through his Flesh of Iron but he managed to keep his feet and bring his sword back around as Vorayx stepped back to slam his fit into Kal’s chest. Kal’s blade hacked into the demon's knee, throwing off its kick. The channels flashed again forcing Kal to retreat as another spear of bone burst from between his feet.
Vorayx’s intimidating presence seemed to multiply and to Kal’s killing sight he burned like the midday sun as moved before Kal had even landed from his leap and drove his knee into his chest.
Blood burst from Kal’s mouth as he felt his ribs shatter from the strike and he flew over eighty feet before he landed, shattering stone and tumbling further as his body struggled to function. He had fallen most of the way back down to the raging mana storm by the time he stopped himself.
Health:
2312/3870
Stamina:
2076/7240
Wrath:
1921
Without the need to stop his bones from tearing him apart, his regeneration got to work on his ribs as he got back to his feet and he felt Vorayx’s domineering presence reach the top of the hill.
The mana storm exploded into another series of cascading detonations and a devastating bolt of destruction tore through the space between them turning the dirt and stone to molten glass and warping the air obscuring them from each other.
This fight wasn’t going well but his last strike proved the demon could be hurt. While the storm’s detonations separated them Kal deactivated Wrath Incarnate and focused on his options. Flames of Wrath didn’t seem to affect the demon at all. It had been covering his sword from the start and it hadn’t spread to the demon at all.
Kal grimaced but had to agree with his Slayer’s Apathy state so he applied Edge of Malice to his teeth and bit down on his lip as he hacked through his fingers and applied the skill to his fingers as well. It hurt a lot more than it did last time.
Vorayx tried to leap through as the warping faded but another bolt stopped him in his tracks.
Kal couldn’t help but feel that he was missing something with Eyes of the Slayer. Seeing skill channels didn’t feel on theme.
Eyes of the Slayer [Mythic] [Spiritbound]
Divine the threads of your enemies and tear the threads of all asunder. This skill allows its user to detect the level, affinity, and skills of a target of their choice within sight. May the strength of your enemies be their downfall.
He hadn’t figured out how the affinity part worked but he suspected it was just the color of the channels. But the other spiritbound tagged feature he had must have some connection to this skill.
Unbound Will [Spirit Bound]
Reaching beyond one’s shell requires will far beyond the capabilities of a tier 1 entity but a Slayer of Fate is bound by no such rules. Forge beyond yourself, Soul Smith. Rend the threads of all, Slayer of Fate.
“Rend the threads of all…” Kal frowned as he got an idea. Its implications worried him slightly but he ignored that for now and focused his mind on his now-clawed fist. The destruction was clearing up so he didn’t have long enough for anything fancy but the ‘’wish really hard’ method when working with will constructs had worked well enough for him so far.
Instead of weaving a thread of will from his core space Kal manipulated the end point of Flames of Wrath and extended it over his Claws of Malice. A strange feeling washed over him as he finished and he received a notification but of course that was the moment the mana storm’s path of destruction changed and Vorayx sped across the space between them forcing Kal to reactivate Wrath Incarnate as they clashed again.
The stone beneath his feet cracked as he blocked Vorayx’s downward cleave before pivoting to duck the demon’s follow-up horizontal slash. Its claws still grazed his back drawing blood as scales were torn from his cuirass but Kal brought his Claws of Malice across its chest in return.
Kal was relieved when Vorayx roared in anger as blood sprayed from his chest. Kal tried to follow up with his sword but the demon’s speed made itself known again as he slapped the sword away then thrust its opposite hand’s claws for his chest. Kal grabbed the demon’s wrist as the first inch of claw dug into his chest just barely stopping the strike before it hit his heart.
Kal glanced up in time to see the demon grin and the flash of the skill channel he hoped the demon wouldn’t use again. The feeling of his bones vibrating returned tenfold and several spikes burst from his forearms and ribs instantly, despite Wrathful Regeneration still being active.
The arm he still held almost burned with purple-red light as the skill tried to overwhelm his regeneration, “It's now or never…” Kal gritted his teeth and grimaced as he felt them shift as well before dropping Exterminator’s Regards and grabbing onto Vorayx’s arm.
Vorayx laughed, and lifted Kal off his feet, making his own body weight drive the claws deeper into his chest, “Pathetic like the rest of your kind… Once you're dead I will use my new form to hunt down more of your kind…”
Kal ignored him as he focused on the altered claws on his left hand. He let go of Vorayx’s arm with his left hand and drove the claws through it.
Blood seeped from the strike but Vorayx simply chuckled, and nothing happened, “Again you show your kind's weakness. Mortals should know when to just di-” In an instant the burning channel of mana snapped like a cut rope and the demon’s entire arm started to fill with the abyssal mana. Vorayx roared in sudden agony throwing Kal to the ground hard.
“What have you done?!” Vorayx staggered as his arm began to writhe as dark bone burst from beneath his scales. The few surviving demons that were still pierced by their own skeletons whimpered and screamed from the ferocity in the lumixet’s voice but every one of them was suddenly able to move again and did what they could to flee the area.
Kal’s legs betrayed him as he tried to stand but something important must have broken when he hit the ground. He would have been pleased with the outcome of his gamble but the roaring lumixet before him grew quiet as it began to hack at its own left arm before tearing it free at the elbow.
Then it turned and its abyssal gaze bore down on him and something told him things hadn’t gotten easier…