Flying through the air I realize I may have underestimated my strength again. Originally I wanted to land right behind the shadow demons so I would have time to prepare myself as they surrounded me. Now it looks like I may overshoot them completely.

Since I have no ability to let me change direction while in the air all I can really do is ride it out. It feels a lot like those dreams you get of falling forever even though it is only seconds. As I get closer to the ground I realize I am not quite going to clear the shadow demons.

So I get ready for the impact, I bend my knees and spread my arms out, I plan to use two of the demons to cushion my landing. I will hit them with my arms first to absorb some of the momentum then hit with my feet and try to roll. I am keeping my knees bent because I remember soldiers always did that in movies when landing with a parachute.

It goes mostly to plan, I hit the two shadow demons on the shoulder with my hands, and I feel their shoulder bones crumble. Then my feet hit the ground and I push myself into a forward roll, I roll four times before I come to a stop. I end up about halfway between the shadow demons and the controlled soldiers.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Safe Fall has progressed to level 2!

Safe Fall

Level 2

You take 10% less damage from falling.

'Huh! I forgot I even had that skill! Oh, right, I got it when I was thrown into the pit.'

Once I get to my feet I turn to face the shadow demons who are all staring at me in shock. Except the two who helped me land, they are writhing on the ground in pain. Before they can recover I charge towards them and leap again, landing in the middle of them.

Before they can start attacking me I imagine the largest soulscape I can. Then I look around trying to mark all two thousand of the shadow demons. I want to drag all of them into the soulscape when I create it so I hold off for a minute until they crowd closer to me.

'Create Soulscape!'

As the soulscape forms I quickly look around and do a headcount, it looks like I only missed a hundred or so. We are all standing in a bowl shaped valley on the very edge of my soulscape, and as soon as I imagine it I am standing atop a mountain on the opposite side of the soulscape. Before the shadow demons can react I imagine the weapon I will use to kill them all.

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Then I sit back on a comfy chair atop my mountain and watch the mushroom cloud in the distance. I feel a sudden pain that seems to come from everywhere. Was the blast so powerful it damaged my soul?

If so I can't use this attack too often, I don't know how much damage my soul can take or how long it might take to heal. If Drog were to see this he would probably try to run away from me, but I will have to ask him about soul damage. Magic is cool and all but it is nothing compared to the terrifying weapons my world created.

'End Soulscape!'

Core Upgrade Progress: 40% +10 DP

Core Upgrade Progress: 50% +10 DP

Core Upgrade Progress: 60% +10 DP

Core Upgrade Progress: 70% +10 DP

Core Upgrade Progress: 80% +10 DP

Core Upgrade Progress: 90% +10 DP

Core Upgrade Progress: 100%

Congratulations! Core Upgrade completed! You are now rank five!

Rank 5: DP +100 HP +200 Zap evolves into Lightning Aura!

Core Upgrade Progress: 10% +10 DP

Core Upgrade Progress: 20% +10 DP

Core Upgrade Progress: 30% +10 DP

'Almost two thousand shadow demons got me a rank plus some, even though they were all such low rank. Now I should be able to deal with the rank five quite easily.'

As soon as I open my eyes I see nothing but drifting ash all around me. The corpses occupied by all the demons have turned to ash in an instant. Those few shadow demons that I missed immediately run away from me in terror.

'Drog, all those are all yours!'

Drog 'Yes, master!'

As I look around for the rank five I realize I made a slight miscalculation. The rank five as expected is coming straight for me, what I didn't expect is all the controlled soldiers are also coming. The entire enemy army has turned around to charge at me.

The soldiers will take a minute to get to me since they are on foot, but the rank five is charging at me on a warhorse. I barely get Blitz up in time to parry the rank five's attack, my feet sink into the ground and cracks radiate from them. That hit is the hardest one I have ever blocked, my hands are slightly numb.

The shadow demon wasn't prepared for me to parry and as the warhorse passes me the demon loses his seat and falls to the ground. Now we are both on foot, but with the soldiers charging at me I have a time limit. The rebels have charged out of the forest and are rushing at the controlled soldiers but they won't get here in time.

'Summon Bones!'

"Bones! Attack those soldiers! Buy me as much time as you can!"

As I parry the demon's next attack, Bones rushes to attack the soldiers. The demon is just as strong as I am but not stronger so I am able to block his attacks. He is using a two-handed sword that is about the same length as Blitz but much heavier.

The body he is possessing is tall for a human but still not as tall as I am. So I have the advantage in leverage whereas he has the advantage in weapon weight. Over the next few parries I let the demon push me back intentionally until his back is facing the soldiers.

Now at least they won't be coming up behind me, but the demon is almost my equal, this won't be a quick fight. Or at least he is my equal in strength, but that is still more than I was expecting. I guess rank five and above are different from those below, I will have to be more careful in the future.

As I parry the next attack I set my footing and as he draws back to attack again I use the slash form. He manages to parry part of it but the second strike leaves a big gash in his chest. I guess demons don't really need to learn swordsmanship for the most part.