Kal’s mind was speeding along trying to come up with a plan of attack when the shadow asked its question. Immediately memories of camp followers exploding seconds after falling into the tears came to mind. Along with that unwanted imagery, he couldn’t help but feel his mind slip to thoughts of that infinite sea of- No! He brought his mind back on track and replied, “No idea. Even if I did know I wouldn’t have any reason to tell you.”
Obviously, that wasn’t true. Kal had figured that forging his own core using the abyssal mana was likely the reason he could stay here. He could remember the pain he felt when he first arrived and anyone who had a normal core was probably killed by the abyssal mana breaching their core like it tried to do to him.
“Oh, you know. I can sense it,” the shadow’s pale face smiled, disturbingly wide showing far too many teeth.
For the first time since seeing the demon, Kal noticed it flare red suddenly as his killing sight finally detected something. It was only faint though. The shadow vanished, “You are weaker than I expected. Only level forty-one. You should not have come here mortal. Oh, your weakness tempts me so.”
The shadows spoke from all around him again as Kal spun to try and pinpoint its location, but he could not see anything even the red glow of the demon’s killing intent was gone, “What do you mean by tempting?”
“Oh I so desperately want to devour you-” the words again sounded next to his ear making him leap away but finding nothing “-your essence would be ever so sweet. Oh and the reward, yes the reward.”
“Reward?” Kal didn’t like the sound of the whole essence thing but what worried him was the reward.
“Oh the Great Lord has bestowed upon us a great quest. We are to devour you and in return, we will be granted great power. An easy task for such an unimaginable reward.”
Kal raised an eyebrow, “Then why are you wasting time speaking to me?”
“It is this trial, my master wishes for you to be delivered to him for his own purposes. My reward would be just as grand if I were able to bring you to him,” the shadow reappeared passing between several pillars as it stared at its pale hands, “but I must play my part for this trial. One must never disobey the system,” it sighed.
The shadow appeared in front of him again,” But-” Kal noticed the red aura appeared around the shadow again so he took the opportunity and activated Slayer’s Intent. The shadow froze as the skill took effect, its gaze locked on Kal and its disturbing smile swiftly changing to a frown, “What have you done!”
[Entities Marked: Seeker Shadow | Hostile]
The red glow around the shadow brightened drastically. Kal hadn’t realized the target could tell that it was marked, but clearly, it did. Kal barely had time to read the mark’s status before he suddenly fell, his head spinning as the world around him seemed to twist and shift.
He managed to right himself by using his sword piercing the ground at his feet but that left him wide open as the several lines of fiery pain just seared along his back, and then before he could even react another line carved up his chest, spraying blood into the air.
Kal's heart began to pound as he pulled his sword from the ground and swung it with all his might horizontally but met nothing but air. The shadows all around him seemed to cackle as at least a dozen duplicates of the cloaked figure stepped out from behind the surrounding pillars. All of them glowing red as their killing intent increased.
All of the shadows began to speak in unison, “I sense what is within you mortal, how could it be?”
“Fuck off!”
“I was commanded to spare you for my master’s desires, but now that you are here I have felt it. You're exquisite-”
Kal felt the first tick of generated wrath and his birthright began to flare up in his chest at the same time he felt the killing intent within the shadow increase as well taunted by Kal’s birthright.
The shadows snarled, “No! You will not live! It should have been Mine!”
Kal knew what was about to happen so he activated Wrath Incarnate and let his fear melt away into the savagery of his wrath.
The onslaught came incredibly fast, even for his amplified agility. Every strike came almost faster than he could perceive. He dodged and ducked and parried all he could but most of the attacks he was about to defend against were simply abandoned or feinted into another line of attack.
Kal was immediately covered in dozens of lacerations. His endurance was massively increased however meaning for the most part the lacerations were minor and just widespread.
He began to lash out with his sword and fang and wide sweeping arcs to try and catch the shadows one had failed to retreat in time but instead of the dull hacking sound of his blunt sword meeting flesh, it felt as if he hit nothing but open air even when he was sure the he saw the blade move through its torso.
Health:
1876/2170
Stamina:
3898/4280
Wrath:
1420
Kal flared his wrath as Flames of Wrath activated, coating himself in its crimson flame. He let the flame coat his weapons as the next onslaught of attacks came he hacked and swung his way through the shadows that seemed to appear out of nowhere to constantly strike at any opening that appeared.
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His wrath pushed him to counter each attack to wound his enemy but every attempt failed either by missing completely or simply just passing through doing nothing to stop the next attack. It was only when a deep stomach strike landed against Kal that managed to spread his flames to his attacker causing all of the shadows to suddenly vanish as a screech of pain sounded from the surrounding pillars.
Health:
1636/2170
Stamina:
3598/4280
Wrath:
765
Kal’s face twisted into a disgusted sneer as he looked at his status, his expression quickly returned to normal as he deactivated Wrath Incarnate.
The savage mindset of his birthright wasn’t working here. Even with Slayer’s Intent active, he was burning through his wrath with almost no benefit. Either way, he was too slow to stop all the attacks. No, now he needed to think. He activated his mana sight and scanned his surroundings as he carefully moved through the pillars. He didn’t bother activating Wrathful Regeneration yet since he might need the wrath for more flames.
Kal watched the next tick of wrath generation and saw that he was getting sixty-four each time. That meant the demon was probably level sixty-four if it scaled as it did with the dark serpents.
The next onslaught came as Kal was mid-stride leaving another dozen burning cuts across his back and arms. He ducked his head to reduce the chance of any one of the attacks slicing across his throat while he tried to discern where the attacks were actually coming from.
Each shadow was a perfect copy and he only got the briefest glimpse of it before they were gone again. He hadn’t even seen what it was using to attack him yet. Wait! Three more of the shadows had just swung their arms towards his chest and he had ignored them and continued to protect his neck and throat, but for some reason, they hadn’t left a mark on him. Instead, he felt even more cuts appear on his back.
They were fakes! Illusions! He spun and tried to filter out his killing sense since it still seemed to appear on duplicates as well. The sudden spin must have been a surprise as the shadows suddenly stopped attacking and Kal saw a black cloud of shadow mana dart away amongst the pillars.
Kal couldn’t hold back the smile as he concentrated on his mana sight trying to spot the slightest change. The duplicates began to charge at him again, flashing in and out of his peripheral vision but Kal simply ignored them as not a single one had any effect on the shadow mana in the air.
Now that he had found a partial solution he could feel his birthright flaring up urging him to let it free upon the shadow but Kal ignored it as he continued his search for the demon. He activated Wrathful Regeneration his health had dropped to almost sixty percent. But he also needed to burn some of his wrath before it got too high.
Health:
1376/2170
Stamina:
3498/4280
Wrath:
3342
A few seconds passed as his regeneration continued and he still hadn’t spotted the true shadow.
Health:
1451/2170
Stamina:
3573/4280
Wrath:
3039
Health:
1526/2170
Stamina:
3648/4280
Wrath:
2736
Like leaves on a breeze, Kal heard the shadows all around him whisper, “Clever, clever, mortal. Very few are able to perceive shadow mana.”
Kal didn’t bother saying anything and just continued searching for any sign of movement. There! Kal charged towards the fluctuation but before he even took a step it was like the world had suddenly flipped over and he stumbled and fell to the ground. He tried to roll to his feet but he couldn’t figure out which way was supposed to be up.
His mind began to ache just like after he had been soul-forging for hours. The spinning continued and Kal felt several more slashes along his back and chest. One went for his face but he managed to cover it in time with his hand but he lost the fang in the process.
Kal growled, it had to be some kind of mental attack. With sheer force of will Kal focused his mind and the spinning slowed and stopped but the pain in his mind increased dramatically. Like someone had just stuck a hot poker through his skull. He spread his Flames of Wrath across his body again and pretended to fail at getting to his feet.
As always the attack came from behind first but Kal was ready and spread the flame over the shadow and swung his fist as it made contact. He had been aiming for where he had expected its head to be but it had been so fast that had managed to jump away but the strike still managed to graze its chest.
The force had been enough to send the now flaming demon into a nearby pillar. It let out a harsh screech and snarl before both it and the flames vanished again.
This seeker shadow clearly had several more skills than all the other demons Kal had fought. It clearly had some kind of invisibility skill and at least one kind of illusion skill. When he had finally got a good look at the shadow he could see that it had some kind of rapier. It was quick short however and perfectly black, it was the most obvious thing visible to his mana sight. Perhaps some kind of conjured weapon?
Kal was bleeding all over and some of it was starting to get into his eyes. He had no idea how much health this damned thing had left but unless it had an insane rarity vitality couldn’t be one of its main attributes with the kind of speed it had let alone whatever attribute was needed for its mental attack skills.
No attack came for several seconds and Kal was starting to think the shadow had fled but a strange sensation caught his attention. The back of his neck had begun to heat up, not knowing what was going on, Kal spun around but found nothing so he moved his perception inward to see if there was any sign there.
He found it immediately, a small symbol similar to what he had seen inside Mara’s bunker was glowing brightly on the back of his neck. Kal could see several tiny tendrils of shadow mana squirming around in the back of his head. He went to try and remove it with his will but the moment he tried he heard a voice, “No Kal! Stop! It’s me, your dad. No!”