Shane had been hunting the Demons for the last month. Gathering intelligence ever since the first fight when enough time had passed that the slowdown rate that Jupiter, Odin, and Dagda had enacted allowed the minutes in the real world for the quest system to come online and show him the quest for this dungeon.
Quest dungeon for Shane Barton
Stop the siege of the City 0/1
Kill the four Commanders of the demon army 0/4
Kill the General of the demon army 0/1
Kill the ArchDemon 0/1
Hidden optional objective uncovered 0/2
Shane had moved around the outskirts and killed as many demons as he could without raising an alarm. Gathering supplies and Intel from those he slew. Less than a day into the siege he found out while moving the children that had hidden in the house of the first fight that the interior wall of the city was very capable of withstanding the siege. So that means it should only fall to either treachery and sabotage or an overwhelming force or power coming to bare. Shane had talked to the Knight Commander at the wall when he had gotten the kids into the inner city. Traded what he had seen for what information the Commander had. They had set up a Schedule to meet at the inner wall for information trading once the Commander realized that Shane wasn’t coming into the inner city. The day after that meeting Shane had moved on some information the Commander supplied and attacked an isolated supply depot for the demons. Killing six demons in that fight plus a demon quartermaster Shane had thought that the depot was odd that no crates or boxes were anywhere around till he searched the bodies and found 2 spatial rings that held the entire depot inside them on the quartermaster. Shane followed the papers held in those rings to the next supply depot and collapsed 80% of the demon supply chain over the last month.
Shane was just following what his grandfather always told him about war and that attrition killed more soldiers than bullets ever had. The Last supply depots lead had brought him to this area on the Northeastern side of the city outside the walls. According to the paperwork this was the command site for 1 of the 4 commanders of the demon army. Shane was squeezed into a hold 20 feet up in a tree overlooking the camp. He would of waited for midnight but in the month he had be stalking the supply chain the sun had never risen and the moon never moved. Shane looked over his status screen and grinned at the gains he had made in the last month.
Shane Barton
Level 15
Class: Shadow of Mars
Health 500/500
Stamina 500/500
Mana 700/700
Str 50 Dex 140
Con 50 End 40
Int 140 Wis 26
Via 50 Chr 18
It had been a profitable month looking at his stats he also noticed that every 5 levels he gained the choice of another skill in which to use. At 5 he had picked Shadows charge which allowed him to shoot a shadow of him out as the enemy struck the shadow passing through it he would replace the shadow in a teleport movement and strike at the now open defense of his target. At 10 he had picked Mark of the Ferryman and that allowed him to place an invisible mark of his target that allowed him to follow the target with his mind knowing where they were as long as the mark held. Then at 15 which was a day ago he had picked Jupiter’s Judgment he hadn’t had the occasion to use it yet but the description had been, Call down Jupiter’s Judgment on you foes causing massive damage to the target and moderate damage to all in targets area except those deemed worth by Lord Jupiter.
As much confidence Shane had toward what his task were there was the same amount of question also. Why were the Demons so committed to this siege? What had started this war? And many others were running through his head. The killings were not bothering Shane but his mind just found the whole thing illogical. This is a time when he really needed his brothers. He was good at fighting and thinking through problems but the motives of others were where he was weakest and he knew it. Trying to track back in his past to figure out when that had become a weakness or the start of it he thought back to the time when the wreck had happened and to his life after. His mind had become consumed by rage and grief. He had felt powerless and couldn’t change what happened and he blamed God at the time. The littlest thing could light the fire of his anger back then. He remember watching four senior football players picking and hazing a freshman band student and then the feeling of teachers and couches pulling him off of one of the seniors whom he was in the process of rearranging his facial features.
Roland had been slightly upset with him about that. He had gotten into a argument with him that night over it and almost came to blows when Papaw had gotten in between them and broke it up. After that papaw had taken Shane to an old Marine war buddy of his named Colman and had Colman start training Shane in martial arts. It sounded like a bad idea even to Shane at the time when his grandfather had described Colman’s art as a battlefield martial art. Shane had thought yeah teach the kid with anger issue how to break bones and use weapons that should work out great. But to Shane’s surprise it had helped with his anger to almost miracle proportions. It took a lot for him to lose his anger now and even then he hadn’t been black out anger in almost 7 years now. Weapon training now that was paying big time in the last month.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
He was waiting on Fulton to come back from scouting the camp. Having found this camp and this hiding spot Shane figured he would try a tactical strike on the commander and see if he could kill him without alerting the guards walking around. The guard’s pattern of marching was to close together at the moment having just changed shift. Shane knew this after watching the change of guard earlier right after he had arrived but with the lack of other movement he figured that it was getting close to bedtime in the camps routine. The camp was made up of around 6 tents with a central large command tent. Fulton was scouting to find the commander and to wait till the commander went to sleep. With the guards that just got relieved Shane estimated about 12-15 enemies were in this camp. That was another difference between his enemies and him since the night before the integration Shane hadn’t slept. And talking to Fulton he had a feeling his brothers hadn’t either. Fulton stated that because the gods had chosen him and his brother to represent them and be their champions a perk or side effect of that was the their regen rates of all three, health, Mana, and stamina were highly elevated to what normal humans will be after the tutorial and also that they can be sustained on magic only. Only getting tired when they depleted their mana and stamina bars and because their bodies were now driven by magic no waste was created even if they did eat and drink. But the main point to be pulled from that conversation at this moment was Shane no longer needed to sleep.
After about a hour or more Fulton finally came back, “Sir the commander is not a Demonkin but is a actual demon. He will not need sleep any more than you will sir. He is currently in the command tent with an aid. They are trying to figure out what happened to their quartermaster and supplies. I think it is safe to say that disposing of the body turned out to be a very good idea.” Fulton reported.
“Alright then what is your advice on how we should proceed on the attack?” Shane asked the shadow
“I think that the fight with the commander will probably be very noticeable. Actual demons are notoriously hard to put down fast unless the level and skill difference is significantly higher. My advice would be to take out the guard quietly and then commence the attack on the demon. With only 6 guards on duty at the moment and 4 of which are at stationary post the likelihood of success should be skewed in your favor sir.” Fulton stated in his monotone telepathic voice
“Ok so Ill stalk the pacing guard on this side of the camp first then move to the nearest posted guards and work our way through them. Did you see anything out of the ordinary in the camp?” Shane confirmed then asked
“No sir none that I could see that is.” Fulton said
With that Shane climbed out of the tree he was in keeping to the deep shadows and started stalking toward the camp. He moved cautiously and kept his eyes and ears open and alert seeing the guard moving around one of the outer most tents about to head his way Shane scanned the area in the path of guard and spotted two wagons close to each other but far enough away that if a grunt escaped it shouldn’t alert anyone. Creeping into position for the ambush Shane fixed himself on the bed of the wagon with the tarp that covered whatever was in the rest of the bed blocked out his body. Having activated the skill when he spotted his target he could feel the Mark of the Ferryman moving his way. The demonkin guard was medium height and sturdy build with red skin and black ram horns. The guard moved right passed him without knowing Death was near. As soon as the guard moved by him Shane moved left hand covering the guards mouth and the right-hand holding the blood red dagger slammed into the side of the guards’ ripping forward and leaving only the spine to hold the head to the body. In a fountain of blood no sound escaped. Shane dragged the body to the wagon and placed it under the tarp with the cargo. Moving back to the shadows Shane moved to the nearest posted guard which was to his left. Placing the mark on the guard when he came into view the guard was look out from the camp and not in.
Shane moved stealthily up to the guard till he was within striking range and then repeated the marine sentry kill method as before. Hiding the body under some nearby crates he stalked to the next target in the camp. Four more times this scenario played out with the same result each time. Once the last of the guards fell to his blade he took a quick breather close to the command tent and verified that no alarm had been raised yet.
“Fulton where in the tent is the commander and where is the aid?” Shane telepathically asked the shadow.
He saw Fulton move into the tent under one of the walls and after around thirty seconds Fulton returned and stated “The aid has her back to the wall we are closest to and the commander is looking at a map in the center with his back to us as well.”
With that knowledge Shane moved forward to the side of the tent and sensing the aid on the other side of the wall slashed down with his gladius and once the wall had parted from the cut jumped through as the commander and the aid tuned towards him. Slamming his pommel stone into the forehead of the aid he seen her eye roll into the back of her head and paid her no more thought as he focus on the commander. Without giving him time to raise an alarm Shane charged the Demon and slashed with his gladius intending to cut the demon from his left shoulder to right hip. The demon responded by raising a Black blade up to deflect the strike. A second blade came towards Shane’s head from the right hand of the demon and Shane raised his dagger to pass the blade over his head as he brought his right hand weapon into a horizontal slash at the knees of the demon. The demon stepped back and answered with a a strike towards his left shoulder. After several strike exchanges Shane was able to score a minor hit on the left shoulder with a strike. A booted foot came up and drove into Shane’s chest lifting him off the ground and shooting him back several feet. Breathing through the pain of the broken ribs Shane activated Shadow Charge and what appeared to be Shane charged forward in the blink of an eye toward the Demon as soon as the shadow form got close the demon drove his left hand blade into the hip of the shadow figure and withdrew. The second phase of the skill activated and Shane drove his gladius into the demon’s lung when he reappeared where the shadow had been. Without warning the demon drove his second blade into Shane’s stomach pain exploded in Shane’s mind.
“You almost hurt me there human. Now I will flay your skin and use it to cover my chair” the demon laughed into Shane’s face.
“Behold the Judgment of the King of the Sky” Shane answered back
Everything went white as soon as he activated the last skill he got. The top of the tent burned away in an instant as a lightning bolt slamed into the two impaled enemies. The Lightning bolt washed Shane body clean of any damage as the will of Lord Jupiter empowered his Chosen. The Demon was not holding up so well as his skin boiled instantly. The demons eyes melted the muscles and tendons were seared. One instant the Demon had the upper hand and the next the Judgment of Jupiter snuffed out the demon essence and sent him back to the hell that spawned him. As soon as the lightning bolt cleared Shane ran and grabbed the aid and throw her over his should and ran clear of the camp before the remaining guards woke up.
[You have slain Demon Commander lvl 1]
[Ding you have reached level 16]