CHAPTER 6 – SHIT EATS HEAVY AND OFTEN

Labyrinth of the Shade – The Lagoon

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The War Queen sat on her throne, such as it was, a heavy worry upon her scaly brow. Osiena still wasn’t back from her scouting foray. She was tempted to grab War Captain Putrari, who’d stayed back at Osiena’s demand, and go find her friend, and her Son. It had already been several hours and with each ticking moment her stress and worry escalated. She knew it was not seemly for her to care about a male child or to show emotions towards a potential rival female as if she was her clutch mate but she couldn’t help it. She’d always pushed against convention and the traditions of the Troglodyte Society. She believed it was outdated and would be the blade at their throats leading to deep ocean tombs sooner rather than later and for the most part, already had.

She had been on the verge of being outcast when her Sister had gone to the Tutorial to attempt to salvage their territory from the Naga aggression. Her Sister failed and Sleshra used the opportunity to kill her two major adversaries for the empty throne or to be more direct and bluntly honest, she had her two war Captains kill them. In their society that was how it was done. It would be considered poor taste if she had dirtied her own hands and made her look weak in the remaining elder’s eyes.

There was so much that needed to change if they were to survive but none of it would matter if they did not first kill this Scion who’d done something to irritate the Holy System. That it was the same Scion that had killed her sister as told to her by the initial quest the System had given her formed a kismet bond between her and the prey, a blessings or an omen, yet to be seen. She let out an involuntary growl. The time for waiting was done. Society taboos aside she would not lose her child nor her best friend.

From that decision to her clawed feet finding ground, scaled hand grabbing her Soul-Bound trident, a screeching hiss came from Putrari outside the hut. That was a warning angry hiss.

She was out the opening of the hut with a violent hiss off her own tongue, trident ready to take blood and ready to cast her [Primal Blood of the Beast] which would amplify her Agility and Strength for a short burst. It wasn’t enemies though that greeted her. It was Osiena dragging her son, wounded, blood seeping from several gashes, the biggest, a heavily charred back leg, so burnt he was literally pulling it along by sheer momentum, a dead useless thing. Her friend wasn’t much better, a wound bleeding heavily off her left arm, what looked like a deep cut.

The War Queen hissed at the dumb founded Putrari who was just staring. Immediately she used one of her two Abilities that helped allies.

She was a rare support Martial/Spiritual class. She could certainly fight easily enough with her wicked two-handed bearded axe in her hands and was cruel and vicious in a fight but the reason she had been so pivitol to the War Queen’s plans was her two System gifted Primal Abilities that boosted those around her, a rare sight in the Primal Soul-Pillar. She was more useful when she was Bronze Ranked and the two Abilities had gained some extra features but even in Copper the base of its utility was still front and center. She watched her Captain focus, primal runes flashing on her arms and face in reddish orange glory then the same runes appear on both her Son and friend. Both immediately looked better. The Ability boosted their Body and Health regeneration and lasted a full minute or two in her current Rank.

When she’d been in Bronze it would last an entire battle but such was existence under the umbrella of the Holy System. She waited a moment for the Ability to take effect and heal them up a bit, snapping on her jaws and split tongue to find out who and what did this to them and how?

Directionless anger was something her Sister would have done however and she was not her Sister. She had faith and trust in Osiena which was not something her people were known for, treachery a form of sport and built into their entire societal structure just another self destructive blade their race cut away their own lives with. Only a moment later Osiena left her Son to himself almost fully healed. He would need the full length of the Ability to find his way back to full health but would suffice as is. Her friend came and bent a knee head down to her Queen.

“Forgive me Queen. I have failed and lost two of our males. May the great Slageesh chew my entrails for eternity.”

The Great Slageesh, an absentee God and horrible Father. Legend says he created our race to impress the Gods of the Draconic Empire and was sorely disappointed with not only his creation but the response from the powerful Multi-Versal Faction. It was a traditional response from someone who failed in their society. The War Queen finally lost her patience with tradition, her friend, and this hunt. It was all slipping through her claws and her life was on a thread over the abyss.

“Enough War Captain!!! Tell me what happened!!!! Did the prey do this to you?!!!”

Her oldest friend and War Captain looked up and the War Queen saw not only shame but anger, violence upon a precipice.

“We did as you asked and scouted. There were ambush creatures called Night Rats that were troublesome. We ran into a pack of them two long swims from here. We killed the vermin but the two lost males were slightly injured. According to the intent of your wishes I decided to come back so we could head out in force. I deemed this mission too important and seeing that there were dangerous fauna in the hunting grounds it would be best to do so. That’s when we were ambushed by another hunting party.”

At this she raised her eyes, death in the flint of her eyes. One word slid from her forked tongue.

“Demons”

***

Labyrinth of the Shade – The Demon Pit

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Bashek was irritated as he stepped back into the Pit, once again slamming his massive spiked mace in the already demolished war table. This time he left it there. Vord stayed outside with the two remaining scouts, guarding against encroachment. They’d lost Buzil in the scrap with the fish lizards. They were not planning on the battle. They had just killed two swarms of the infernal shadow rats which were proving an irritating nuisance. They weren’t very threatening as they’d been using Buzil and his heavy plate to fish the rodents out of the dark. They were too weak in their physical attacks to do anything against the heavy infernal steel. The others would take them apart. The ambush creatures were worthless if they couldn’t overwhelm their prey with their initial strike.

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Then it went as it usually went when Vord was in the vicinity of potential violence. Vord caught sight of the fish lizards and did what he did, attacked immediately. He was a simple demon, sometimes too simple. The War Lord would have liked to have retreated and had one of the scouts track them to their base then gone at it strategically. It was usually why in normal circumstances he didn’t unleash Vord until it was time to shed blood. It was what it was and would be.

They lost another soldier but put two of the enemy into the ground and put enough hurt on the remaining two they ran like pups to their Momma. That was when he himself had entered onto the field and almost killed the young mutt with the blade causing the female to intervene. She wasn’t his match but was a highly skilled combatant with her two-pronged spear and net. The net had been what allowed them to escape, wrapping him up long enough to effect their escape. Of course Vord wanted to pursue and it took he himself stepping in and slapping the Demon to get him to listen to orders. Once Vord tasted blood it was difficult to get him to stop until every threat was unmoving and bereft of life. His penchant for violence was usually a very useful tool.

He gritted his fangs and was tempted to pick up his oldest friend, the mace given to him by the old grizzled warrior who’d raised him. It had been the old bastard’s own in his youth. It was still the greatest gift he’d ever received. The old man had taken in him and Vord for no other reason than he’d been bored of life, too long in the tooth to still walk the ravines of battle but still young enough to pass some knowledge to two hungry orphans who liked to scrap. It had changed the entire trajectory of their lives and Bashek wanted to do it again here. None of these squabbles with the other hunting packs would get them anywhere and would only make their true quarry much more difficult to corner and kill.

It was a quandary as he had a feeling at the fish lizards would be in the way to getting to the target and neither of his so called scouts were truly rogue types. The Infernal Soul-Pillar a true rogue type build was rare. It was more about bombast and killing and blood and damage and direct conflict. Not that there weren’t a few specialists that went down that road but weren’t anywhere as sneaky as say those of the Umbral Pillar or even the Moon Pillar which were probably the most uber focused on such. Every Pillar had its strengths and weaknesses. The System was big on balance.

Decisions, decisions. Vord finally slinked in, head down, knowing he’d gone against what his life-long friend and Lord would have of him. He also knew their bond was too long on the road for him anything to change. They always knew they would live and die together, as it should be and always had been for two orphans of the eternal war between Demon Lords.

Lord Bashek Gulrok of the Fortress City of Damanse of the planet Ulle of the greater Empire of the Abyss made a decision that would either see them to glory or to a forgotten memory and another notch to the System’s ever hungry blade.

“Gird the others my Old Friend. We go to war. We either kill everything in front of us or we end.”

Vord slammed the butt end of his pike into the ground then rang it against his shield several times a blood thirsty grin painting his lips his other free hand holding his vicious gutting thick bladed knife he loved so much. Bashek joined his friend in the rising battle frenzy pulling his beloved spiked mace up out of the shattered stone.

***

Labyrinth of the Shade – The Bastion

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What was the System thinking? Why would it send them here to hunt a fool who it wanted killed but then fill the place with aggressive and powerful beasts? And more importantly who led them here? Was it the man they were here to kill or one of the other groups the System directly said would be competing for the prize?

They’d lost three to the damnable Barghests. He and his wife had to intervene to make sure none of the others were killed when in the Sanctum, they should not have. If their subordinates couldn’t kill simple beasts they would have been punished severely. The Sanctum was not a place for the weak. Here, in these bleak caverns with their forces so depleted and the goal slipping to just this side of unattainable, that was not an avenue they could take. Even still, the Grand Inquisitor found it a wasteful mentality. A tool should not be shed till it was broken.

Two were lost in the first few seconds and nothing would have saved them. The Fear Ability the beasts seem to emit through their caterwauling was effective and even with him breaking the enchantment quickly it still left the Blessed Soldiers frozen a few feet from an entire pack of the creatures, including their Alpha. His breaking of the enchantment and the instant feedback to the originators was not enough to save their lives. The creatures in the short moments of the overall conflict seemed to have a high tolerance for pain. They’d both had their throats torn out.

Once I’Sari and he had entered the fray the Light Priestess L’Nasa had already thrown up a light shield to protect herself while maintaining her orb illuminating the cavern, and his most brutal Blessed, B’Sa F’Lurin, had already killed one of the Barghest with his two-handed greatsword lit with the flames of the sun, the creature, a smoldering corpse at his feet right next to his two friends still bleeding bodies.

The fight had been brutal and the Alpha Barghest had managed to kill the Light Priestess while he and his wife had been engaged by the rest of the pack. Blessed F’Lurin had tried to protect her but the beast was Iron Ranked and far too much for him. The Alpha had shattered her protective shield within seconds and tore her entire head off in one bite. The Creature had not come away unscathed though. It had taken severe burns and cuts from F’Lurin and his blade than even more grievous wounds from his wife and her holy blade while he had killed the last of the beast’s pack. It had fled then but not before it had inflicted heavy losses to the High Inquisitor’s squad. Three dead was a decimating strike to their goal.

So now he sat, contemplating a strategy that would see them attain that which they came for. If the option to retreat was on the table he would be tempted to take it but unfortunately that was not how the System nor the Sanctum worked, especially for a High Inquisitor, Second in Command of what was shaping up to the most important Sub-Sector in the Multi-Verse. This newly Integrated planet, Erebus, for the first time in living memory was attracting the attention of not only the most powerful Factions in the Multi-Verse but Gods and some rumor even the Primordials themselves.

The Old Ones hadn’t stirred from their home dimensions in longer than memory can grasp and even if but a rumor with no truth it sparked the embers of a hunger for the newly Integrated world across the Multi-Verse into a raging bonfire. And now a pivotal move within the diadem of the Sanctums taking of the prize was in the lap of one Grand Inquisitor. He’d already been told failure would be death here or when he returned.

T’Shek V’Bors was not a man to act rashly. There was a reason he had always put extra Attribute points into his Intelligence when not being slotted to Will and Faith and it was that Intellect that would find a path as it always had. His wife placed a bloody hand upon his shoulder from behind leaning into his ear, her voice, a whisper of song singing melodies to his soul.

“Trust in our fate Husband. We, together, are inevitable.”

His fingers slid to hers as he leaned back into her massive comforting frame.