Wave: 2

Time: 13 days, 20 hours, 37 minutes, 23 seconds

Kal panted as he pulled himself over onto the top of one of the huge spires dotted around the dome, the screeching cries of at least another hundred demons below him. He had been right about the difficulty of his journey to the next conduit. It had been three days since he had left the haven and he had barely stopped at all during that time.

Every moment was a fighting run, his only moments of respite were the few minutes he got between the last roaming horde and the next. Most were garghound nobles supported by squads of their other variants or with mounted kuroxet slaughterers but eventually, he had run into his first royal guard since the first wave. It was as huge as he remembered them and it had caught him at a bad time.

Kalum Lesta

Status

Class:

Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]

Level:

48

Race:

Human?

Health:

1742/2370

Stamina:

233/5160

Wrath:

3789

Attributes

Strength:

474

Agility:

247

Endurance:

516

Vitality:

237

Intellect:

165

Perception:

252

Will:

572

Wisdom:

244

Available:

18

Titles

Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite, Slayer of the Strong, Endurance Elite, Strength Elite, Will Elite, Demon Slayer, Paragon of Man

Skills

Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Uncommon], Wrath Incarnate [Uncommon], Abyssal Consumption [Rare], Flames of Wrath[Uncommon] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Intent [Rare] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Apathy [Rare] [Soul Forged], Edge of Malice [Common] [Soul Forged]

Race

Birthright: Confined

He was getting tired and had barely finished dealing with a particularly large shaped one that had managed to corner him as he was trying to recover when the royal guard struck. It was far quicker than he had expected as it struck from above, biting into his torso with its huge more before throwing him into the nearest spire.

Its strength was easily high enough to overcome his endurance and leave him with the most severe wound he had suffered since his fight with the shadow. Kal would have retaliated but his stamina was just too low for a prolonged fight and had quickly scaled the spire in the hopes the royal guard would struggle to follow.

He rolled to his feet and tried to catch his breath and let his stamina recover. It ticked up slower than he would have liked but the sound of crumbling stone made him look over the edge of the spire. Below he could see the huge form of the royal guard charging up the side of the spire, its body seeming to blur with radiant heat as it ran. Each of its paws sunk into the stone of the spire slightly as the stone became instantly molten at its touch.

Its eyes flashed as it saw him and Kal felt his face suddenly warm making him stagger back in surprise. It didn’t hurt but he could tell his face would have burned off instantly if it wasn’t for his fire resistance.

The royal guard would reach the top in a few seconds, also less than ideal but nothing about his time in this place was ideal so Kal just waited while he got a few second's worth of stamina back.

[Garghound Royal Guard | Abyssal Spawn 62]

The moment the royal guard reached the top of the spire it didn’t hesitate and rushed him immediately, its flashing in a quick rhythm making Kal’s entire body warm as it approached. Kal raised both of his weapons to block the coming attack but in surprising response the garghound spun an instant before its bite landed, passing its gaze off his weapons and swinging its flaming tail towards him on the side he wielded the dark serpent's fang.

Kal was expecting to block the strike but as the garghound’s gaze fell up the fang originally sturdy fang darkened and shattered like glass and the garghound’s flaming tail slammed it Kal’s unprotected side. Kal gasped, his breath leaving him and several of his ribs cracked as he was launched off his feet.

Health:

1442/2370

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Stamina:

283/5160

Wrath:

3789

Kal bounced once before he tumbled over the edge of the spire barely grabbing hold of the edge, his broken ribs screaming at him as threw himself back over the edge with his free arm and activated Wrathful Regeneration and Slayer’s Intent as he saw the royal guard growl and pounce towards him again.

[Entities Marked: Garghound Royal Guard | Hostile]

The moment the royal guard was marked Kal was bombarded with at least a dozen flashes of increasing heat all over his body as it approached, it was more of a distraction than any so Kal was able to bring up his guard this time, barely blocking the blow.

A deafening clap sounded as Kal’s sword and the garghound’s tail clashed and to Kal’s surprise, the royal guard’s strength won out knocking him off balance. Kal recovered by pivoting and throwing his shoulder into the demon’s open side knocking it back slightly but even that wasn’t easy.

Kal needed to deal with this thing quickly so he didn’t hesitate in activating Wrath Incarnate as he followed through with his shoulder check into a heavy chop with his sword. Edge of Malice was still active from his fight with the gorefiend so his sword bit into the the tough scales of the royal guard but even with his amplified strength the stroke was nowhere near lethal. Blood sprayed but the royal guard simply growled and battered his sword aside with a shrug of its shoulders and buried its fangs into his thigh.

Kal snarled as a large chunk was torn away from his thigh, tearing his pants and making his leg weaken suddenly. His regeneration quickly refocused on the most severe wound but Kal didn’t care as his wrath pushed him to repay the injury in kind by grabbing hold of the royal guard’s neck as it backed away with his flesh and plunging his sword into its back.

More dark blood sprayed but just as Kal’s thigh began to heal over with pink scared flesh so did the royal guards' impalement smooth over with dark unscaled skin. Another series of giving and receiving messy wounds followed as Kal blocked every other blow while dealing some in return.

[Entities Marked: Garghound Royal Guard | Enraged]

Between them the sense of his birthright clashing with the weaker but just as savage killing intent of the royal guard began to grow more in time, the rhythm of the royal guard’s anger moving more in line with the rhythm of Kal’s birthright deep within.

Health:

1232/2370

Stamina:

193/5160

Wrath:

1120

The battle had barely started and it had already fallen into savagery, the two of them roared as they tore flesh from bone. Only Kal’s Wrath Incarnate gave him the edge. Each clash was a close thing, a chunk from Kal’s forearm and a piercing chest wound on the royal guard. A crushing blow to Kal’s chest, a lanced eye to the royal guard.

Health:

673/2370

Stamina:

98/5160

Wrath:

210

As Kal’s attacks became more lethargic, so did the royal guard's. Kal’s body was still in good enough shape, the injuries were definitely accumulating quickly but his stamina was the main issue. The royal guard had the opposite problem, its regeneration was clearly starting to slow causing its more debilitating wounds to stay but it had the energy to continue fighting.

Kal’s wrath bottomed out as the combination of his regeneration and his Wrath Incarnate weren’t sustainable together with only the wrath generated by Slayer’s Intent, meaning Kal had lost his edge. The two of them continued to exchange blows, each with much less speed behind them but just as much brutal damage.

Health:

332/2370

Stamina:

31/5160

Wrath:

0

Kal continued to activate Wrathful Regeneration every time he had enough wrath to use, but he was exhausted, the royal guard’s bites, claws, and tail strikes were a constant drain on his stamina. Blood covered the top of the spire that stood easily six hundred feet towards the roof of the dome, some of it dark, almost black, and some of it bright crimson but either way every inch of it was slick with the stuff.

His limbs near failure Kal ignored the royal guard’s next bite allowing it to clamp down around his chest, its long fangs piercing deeply into his chest. Kal dropped his Wrathful Regeneration and used the last of his wrath to activate Wrath Incarnate for one last blow, slamming his once again blunt sword into the demon’s throat.

He must have lucked out as the blade pierced the scales easily enough and the demon reared back throwing Kal to the side, his chest pumping blood to add to the already slick spire.

Health:

109/2370

Stamina:

0/5160

Wrath:

0

Wrath Incarnate had dropped the moment Kal hit the ground but he dragged himself to his feet and watched the royal guard fall onto its back also spurting blood as the sword lodged in its throat came free. It scrambled to its feet but Kal noticed its struggle to lift its large head and glared at him with its burning eyes.

Fuck! Kal had hoped that would be the end of it but either way, he prepared himself and tried to stabilize his panting breaths. Kal stepped forward, his eyes focused on the royal guard as blood oozed down his chest and onto the stone beneath his feet- churning gore- a jolt of pain washed over Kal as he felt something on the back of his neck.

Kal’s face twisted against his will as the pain continued- skies of the lost above seas of blood and islands of the discarded.

Kal froze, suddenly confused. He thought he heard someone laughing, no focus Kal. He looked at the royal guard expecting it to already be charging towards him but instead, it hadn’t moved. It hadn’t just failed to move it was leaning away from him, in the way a scared dog turned away and lowered its head and in the next instant, the royal guard had leaped over the edge and was gone.

He didn’t bother to sit, Kal just let himself fall to the ground facing the top of the dome.

“That, was, fucking, close,” Kal panted, still completely out of breath. He couldn’t just rest even though he wanted to. Kal needed to start siphoning immediately to start the healing of his chest wounds. Slayer’s Intent had failed the moment the royal guard fled, meaning he had lost his only source of wrath.

He didn’t waste time getting enough to heal himself completely instead opting for some gnarly scaring to quickly stabilize himself. Kal simply lay there for the next half an hour while his stamina recovered. Even after it had reached its maximum he didn’t feel rested at all, bottoming out his stamina was clearly draining in more ways than one.

Health:

404/2370

Stamina:

5160/5160

Wrath:

0

Kal’s health was still low but the cry of a nearby pack of sky hunters forced him to get back to his feet and retrieve his sword. As expected it hadn’t taken the next pack long to find him. Killing a few would do wonders for his recovery but now more than ever he needed to be careful. The last thing he needed was to be ambushed by another royal guard, especially since there were more of them around.

One was hard enough but two would be deadly. He was lucky to survive this encounter with the surprisingly strong demon. The thing was significantly stronger than even the shadow, its speed and strength matched his own and its regeneration and endurance were almost as good as his. Kal had even lost the dark serpent fang that had proven so useful over the last week in the trial.

All that and Kal hadn’t even managed to kill it. Kal muttered a few choice words under his breath and drew a rock from his cloak, he couldn’t coat it in fire but it would do well enough on its own to wound one of the incoming sky hunters.