Kal tried to throw himself to the side with his arms but Vorayx stomped down onto his right leg snapping it easily as his eyes burned with the light of another skill activating. Kal stabbed his claws into the demon's calf but before he could do any real damage his claws were ejected as black bone plates burst from the demon’s flesh.
The black plates soon covered its body from head to toe as a purple glow began to radiate from the demon’s body as yet another skill activated. The domineering presence that radiated from Vorayx doubled again making Kal certain he had just activated an attribute boosting skill but worse yet.
Health:
1132/3870
Stamina:
732/7240
Wrath:
0
Both Wrath Incarnate and Wrathful Regeneration ended as his wrath bottomed out. Slayer’s Intent continued to generate wrath but with only one target he was only getting two hundred and ten wrath per second. Not enough to keep either of the skills active full-time.
As Vorayx’s skills fully activated Kal looked over to see the remains of the demon’s left arm and the ring still on its middle finger. Kal reached for it but before he got hold of the arm Vorayx tore him from the ground by his broken leg and glared into his eyes, “You have irritated me for the last time human. Now you will pay for your insolence.”
Kal barely had time to react before he once again found himself slammed into the ground with bone-shattering force as the demon’s amplified strength completely overwhelmed his Flesh of Iron. Ribs shattered and organs ruptured as he hit the ground. Vorayx slammed a foot into the middle of his back and Kal groaned with pain, raw without Wrath Incarnate.
Kal’s wrath continued to rise with each second before falling to the requirements of his regeneration as Vorayx continued to stomp on his spine.
Health:
874/3870
Stamina:
543/7240
Wrath:
205
Health:
674/3870
Stamina:
347/7240
Wrath:
0
His regeneration wasn’t keeping up, every blow broke his body further and the agony paralyzed him without his skills to numb it. Vorayx had stopped laughing, now he only grunted with the exertion of every bone-shattering strike.
Kal’s soul raged against his agony and he was pretty sure it was the only thing keeping him conscious. He needed to be able to think but his failing body continued to crumble every thought he conjured. If only he could ignore it all…
“Damn it.” Kal knew he would have to use it, it was just too risky. He had almost never ended the skill last time. But at this rate, he would die and so would the only friends he had.
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Vorayx grinned as he used Might of Abyss to power each of his stomps into the mortal’s broken body. The pathetic thing had injured him, him Vorayx prodigy of the 2nd Layer. It would pay before he consumed it.
He could see the mortal attempting to gather itself but it was clear its suffering was holding it back. Good. It had survived longer than he expected, its regeneration and endurance was truly remarkable for a tier-one entity.
Vorayx kicked the mortal across the ground to land on its back, its legs a limp mess. It didn’t even try to move but it kept its strange eyes on him as he raised his leg to finally end the pathetic thing.
“Marked for death… By this thing? Pathetic.”
The mortal breathed a ragged breath as Vorayx’s foot fell. Vorayx expected to hear the sweet sound of a mortal’s death scream but instead, he was taken aback by a throat-tearing roar as the mortal stared daggers at him. Then in an instant something changed. The roar ended, and where he once saw agony and pain across the human’s face now he saw… nothing.
It was like a corpse was staring back at him, it felt wrong. The mortal’s body stopped regenerating but shockingly it moved. Its left arm suddenly conjured claws again before piercing the ground and throwing its broken body away from Vorayx in a sudden burst of power.
Vorayx’s foot shattered the stone where the mortal’s body once lay helpless but now the mortal moved across the rubble of the broken mountain like its broken body meant nothing and hanging from its mouth was Vorayx’s left arm and Soul Devourer.
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The slayer heard the demon’s pointless roar of anger as he threw himself across the rubble of the dome with his arms. Regeneration was a priority but doing so without careful supervision would end Slayer’s Apathy.
Vorayx’s arm hung from his mouth but it hadn’t returned the drained attributes yet.
Health:
674/3870
Stamina:
181/7240
Wrath:
208
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His wrath climbed now that it was being drained by his regeneration but he would soon run out of stamina. The likelihood of survival once it bottomed out was practically zero.
As the slayer pivoted on a piece of rubble Vorayx slammed into the ground next to him crushing his left foot into the stone before clawing at his face. The slayer raised his sword in time to block the strike but a second strike hacked through the radial bone of his arm before stopping at the second.
Flesh of Iron prevented him from losing the limb and dropping the sword but the force of the strike still ripped him from the wall and threw him back towards the ground.
A lance of destruction shot from the mana storm detonated in the air between them giving the slayer time to arrest his momentum and activate Wrathful Regeneration for a few moments. Vertebrae slowly formed from the shattered mess but he deactivated and threw himself away again as the demon moved again.
The ground shattered where the slayer had just been as he caught the edge of a boulder before throwing himself to the next as Vorayx followed.
Health:
543/3870
Stamina:
35/7240
Wrath:
416
Nearby the valley bones shattered as the mana storm's path of destruction expanded from the confines of the fractured mountain. An array of different mana affinities exploded against each other as fragments of space threads appeared from each detonation.
Another cascade of detonation tore the air apart around them forcing Vorayx to slow as random bolts continued to separate them. The slayer activated his regeneration again and his legs slowly began to straighten. They were barely whole when he forced them to hold him as he threw himself away from a descending bolt. C
The air above him shimmered strangely and his mana sight saw a strange gathering of the broken fragments of space magic. Vorayx roared as yet another bolt of destruction slammed into the ground between them.
A notification flashed into view and the slayer felt the amulet around his neck heat up.
Planar Compass has detected the presence of an unstable gate at your location.
The explosions around him finally ceased and Vorayx’s arrived an instant later. The slayer’s legs barely functioned but he activated Wrath Incarnate for an instant to dodge the first strike and take the second on his useless arm.
The demon was just too fast to avoid completely but the slayer spent the last of his free points into agility to try and dodge the next strike. It wasn’t enough.
Health:
231/3870
Stamina:
0/7240
Wrath:
623
The demon’s claws pierced his abdomen as Flesh of Iron deactivated and all the wounds he had regenerated were undone.
Vorayx lifted him off the ground with his claws in the slayer's stomach and chuckled, “I almost thought you were about to impress me. Disappointing.”
Without the pain to slow him down the slayer hacked at the demon's face aiming for its eyes but it simply caught the sword with its other hand and then raised him higher off the ground tearing apart his stomach.
His body had failed. Even without feeling the fatigue and pain riddled through it his body simply wouldn’t respond. Then he felt it. The sensation of hundreds of entities entering his fear aura. The air above him crackled and writhed as the space mana there flickered before breaking away.
A lance of light slammed into the ground next to them and the stone shifted. Vorayx grunted as a stray bolt seared his side and the slayer grabbed hold of the demon’s wrist tore himself off it and threw himself towards the rippling air.
The moment he touched the rippling air his mind shattered as his perception warped around him. The sound of Vorayx’s roar of rage reached him as a distorted screech as he fell spinning through a strange gray space like the passage to Fyborh’s burial place.
Entities Marked: [Lumixet Vorayx | Out of Range]
Health:
87/3870
Stamina:
0/7240
Wrath:
622
Blood spurted from his chest as he fell and as it separated from him it darkened and separated into tiny black flakes before seeming to merge with the endless gray.
The slayer was forced to activate Wrathful Regeneration to stop the bleeding from his stomach wound. Slayer’s Apathy would end but keeping his shell alive was necessary to complete his purpose.
Health:
182/3870
Stamina:
0/7240
Wrath:
0
Suddenly Kal was in agony again as all the damage he had taken made itself known and the distortion of the world around him instantly disorientated him. It was like seeing through Fyborh’s eyes but far, far worse. The bleeding in his chest had stopped but the rest of his body was barely holding together.
Kal would have gasped or groaned but the severed arm jammed in his mouth made him choke instead. He almost spat it out by reflex but instead, he bit harder as the world around warped again, and a place he recognized appeared around him as he fell towards a long gray platform.
His body spine had healed enough to get his legs under him but not enough to land with any finesse so he slammed into the platform hard stabbing Exterminator’s Regards into it.
Kal spat the severed arm onto the ground while he panted and looked across the platform and his heart fell when he saw demons standing over the bodies of humans and elves. They had clearly been fighting and the screams of the dying reached him easily. He didn’t recognize any of them but he couldn’t see many with all of the demons now watching him.
“Come on Kal. Now’s not the time to take a breather…”
Health:
182/3870
Stamina:
42/7240
Wrath:
0
Fyborh had said that the abyssal mana would leech into this place and it appeared he was right.
Demons moved easily between fallen people who simply writhed in agony and with both his Eyes of the Slayer and mana sight active he could easily see why. The now atmospheric abyssal mana was moving over all of the people and tendrils of it pierced their bodies in search of their cores just like what he experienced when he first arrived in the abyss.
Their skill channels looked like they had caught fire as abyssal mana forced its way down them to reach their cores. Even those without visible injury looked pale and drawn, their eyes and ears bleeding.
They didn’t have long if Kal’s experience was anything to go by but they had even less time if the demons could simply kill them while they couldn’t fight back. A few were still fighting the few demons that had chosen to ignore his presence but every second another fell to the invasion of the abyssal mana.
Kal took one last breath before tearing his sword from the ground. Vorayx wasn’t here yet so he could only hope that he would have time to stop all of this and recover before he did.
A bonedrinker stepped out from the mass of demons and in his clawed fist was a child… Kal’s soul blazed as his eyes focused on the bone drinker and activated Slayer’s Intent.