Cherry pummelled down onto Zeeke’s shield with his war hammer, each strike sending the tank lower into the ground and he nailing him down. Each swing was deflected back and each time he swung it around sending it right back making use of the deflection momentum with both hands. Zeeke slowly fell back as all he could do was hide behind his shield.
All around them battle raged as Dezol fought Esfelt, the legionaries fought with new fervour having been freed and armed. In a frenzy they attacked while roaring out in challenge against the soldiers who’s will to fight had long been broken. Each minute Esfeltian soldiers turned tail and ran decreasing their numbers along with the ones being slain.
Goblins had long left the wall and either joined the fight by sneaking around combatants and mercilessly stabbing them in the back or ran around the camp stealing whatever they could get their green hands on.
Before long Zeeke was the last one standing, and already crumbling along with his shield. Cherry ended his relentless assault and kicked into the shield hard, sending Zeeke flying back a few feet. As he lay on the cold snow Zeeke groaned from the impact, his massive shield still lay on top of him and his sword had disappeared somewhere into the white.
Cherry stomped down onto the shield forcing Zeeke deeper into the snow “You’re slimier than Kyll and a selfish bastard to boot. Seriously man what the hell is wrong with you? Do you still think this is a damn game?”
Zeeke stared up at the giant with wide fearful eyes “I-I don’t…”
Cherry rolled his eyes “Ah you’re just a coward…right…” he reached down and grabbed the shield with both hands and pulled up. Pulling up Zeeke along with it briefly before he let go and fell back down into the snow. Cherry threw the shield aside and snorted as Zeeke covered himself with his arms “Ah what am I gonna do with you?” asked Cherry with a smirk before glancing over at his Warhammer “Yeah that.”
Cherry heaved his Warhammer up before crashing it down onto the Zeeke crushing the adventurer in one single bash, leaving behind a dissipating mess of armour and pulped flesh. He smirked wider before turning to the gathering Dezol as they awkwardly glanced around at the cheering goblins.
“Yeah you just got saved by goblins and no you are never living this down.” Said Kyle as he approached “So how about you gather up whatever gear you can, burn this camp down and get moving? We got a war to end and you all got your pride to regain!” He announced with a grin.
The Dezol glanced at each other before raising their weapons up into the sky and cheered at the challenge.
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Karnage sighed in relief as the Esfeltian cavalry and Avian squadrons retreated towards the mountains, their mages and artillery were decimated by the bandit’s assault from behind and most of their numbers killed from having no fire support to help their hit and run tactics allowing her and the adventurers time to prepare for them.
Zaahr caught up with her as the adventurers and Dezol cheered around them at the enemy’s retreat “We did it..” she mumbled in disbelief.
Karnage chuckled and glanced back as the small army of bandits approached them “We had help.”
Woody stretched his arms around as he approached along with Death, Seren and two bandits at the lead of the rest “Woohooo! Now that was a blast!”
“Meh wasn’t bad.” said Shirley with a bored expression as she checked her knives.
Karnage glanced around looking slightly disappointed “What are you doing here?” she asked the three adventurers.
“Looked like you were in a bind, figured you could use some back up.” replied Seren with a smirk.
“But…” Karnage wasn’t sure how to answer.
Death shrugged in response “See it as we owed you one for before, so don’t sweat it but don’t keep counting on it either. Anyway we’re not ones for wasting away a good opportunity either, can’t have the alliance keep these ugly bargaining chips.”
One of the Dezol officers, the female Castanic walked up to join them “Don’t push it kid, this ugly chip might just chip something off.”
Seren snorted while Death waved his hands ahead of himself “Annyywayy, do you all got any plans for what to do next?”
“We planned to head for Helix?” responded Zaahr.
“Well better change your plans then, as I said we’re not ones to waste an opportunity.” Said Death with a grin.
“What do you mean?...” Karnage asked with a brow raised in question.
“The others should be already moving ahead, if we don’t hurry up we’ll never catch up.” Said Jacky as he appeared out of nowhere coated in blood.
“Cheerful as usual Jack.” Replied Death with a chuckle.
“So you do know each other?...” asked Zaahr as she glared at Jacky.
Jacky snorted “More like I work for these bastards.”
“Hey now don’t put it like that!” exclaimed Woody.
“Alright chill guys, back to the point.” Death jumped back in “The others have broken out the second group of soldiers at old Frosty, they’ll be moving ahead of us so we gotta catch up.”
“Okay wait wait.” Karnage stepped forward shaking her head and waving for him to stop “Where exactly are we moving to? What are you planning?”
“Where do you go after crushing the enemy lines and entering their territory?” asked Death as he waited for an answer, seeing nobody responded he sighed “Their base, come on guys it’s strategy 101.” He then added with disappointment.
“Eslet? How are we supposed to get there? Swim?” asked the Imp Dezol officer.
Death sighed in exasperation “Does nobody remember the damn portal we opened? You know the one at New Ruk? That’s now at Kaledd?”
“Isn’t it too small?...And completely at the wrong location?” asked Silent, one of Apok’s members.
Death shrugged “Let me worry about that.”
“So we’re just going to march there?” asked Karnage.
“No…No we don’t…We can take the portal at Frosthold to Kaledd and I expect you can then change the location again?” asked Zaahr.
Death pointed both indexes at her “Exactly, we’ll meet up with the other Dezol at Frosthold then take the portal to Kaledd. From then on leave the rest to us.”
Karnage nodded “We’ll follow but only if you can convince me of something.” She announced while glancing back at Regina who had just joined them, Dherik was nowhere to be seen.
“And what’s that?” asked Woody as he scratched his horn.
“What is your end game?” Karnage asked with a dead serious expression.
Seren, Death and Woody glanced at each other as Jacky pulled out his VCD “Best to ask the man himself.” He said while handing her the device.
Karnage looked into the device and her eyes widened in surprise “That’s…”
“Sup.” Responded Birse from the other side “I’m sure just seeing all this makes you understand; We’re done with the foreplay.”
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Kaledd outskirts
Kyle came out from the portal as it swirled and twirled reality behind him, Lilior flew out moments later with her wings returned to normal. He looked around from under his cloak, many adventurers and citizens of Esfelt eyed Lilior curiously but most looked away undisturbed.
That is until her legs changed and shifted into a long white scaled snake’s tail that wrapped around Kyle’s waist. Lilior flew up and pulled Kyle up with her as she flew away from the town, heading towards the sea to the east.
They flew over the swamp as Kyle watched a couple carefree adventurers engaging with some of it’s inhabitants, a small party of four fighting two swamp Trolls. He chuckled at the insanity of it all, that is what he wanted to do when he came to this insane world, to explore and experience it.
Lilior glanced down at him with worry “Is everything alright master?”
“Yeah…” replied Kyle as they reached the sea “Just reminiscing, what we could have been, what we could be doing right now. We could have abandoned this world to it’s idiocy, ignored it all and did literally anything else.”
“But?...” asked Lilior noticing his tone.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“But that wouldn’t be fun now would it?” he exclaimed with a grin as they approached the island capital Eslet “This country…No this alliance, a joke in it’s entirety. Corrupt and indecisive.”
“Master, griffon riders.” Pointed out Lilior as a squad of twelve approached them from the island.
“Let’s fix this world Lilior, let’s clean up the mess these idiots made. They might have wasted their second chance at life, but damn me if I am.” Said Kyle as he summoned two [Gatling Slime]s, unaffecting Lilior’s magical flight.
“Halt! End your flight pattern now and declare your business!” announced the griffon squad leader.
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Author: Bad pun warning…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb4kmEcg0fA
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Kyle took aim with both weapons and grinned maniacally “I’m a hunter and it’s Griffon season.” Starting up each weapon’s spin he began to fire, following the griffon’s direction of flight he scattered the squad while injuring two from the unexpected attack.
Lilior flew straight while evading the massive beastial birds that lunged at her from every direction, their long golden claws half her own current height. Raising her right hand she summoned slime as it elongated and formed her longbow, in her left an arrow appeared and she took aim while spinning aside as a Griffon swiped down.
Her wings shifted to long metallic tentacles that seemed to keep the consistency of slime, they grabbed hold of the arrow‘s back and string aiding her in pulling the massive weapon. Evading the Griffon’s attack she continued to turn and following it’s flight path ahead, she fired letting the arrow fly straight into the Griffon’s left side as it flew in a curve.
Kyle spun with her with his arms held up to either side firing away at any that got into his line of fire, his rapid flurry of projectiles slower than Lilior’s powerful arrow but strong enough to intercept the flying beasts.
With three Griffons shot down by Lilior and four having their wings or body shredded by Kyle, twelve quickly turned to five and with another arrow from Lilior they fell to four. The riders that remained formed up in groups of two and together flew around them making use of their stronger flight, Lilior continued to fly towards the city.
Suddenly the remaining Griffons turned and flew directly at them using evasive manoeuvres, they flew erratically to evade being shot out of the air. Kyle raised both weapons at them as they approached and loaded both gun’s barrels to the brink, he smirked as they got closer, closer and closer before Lilior fired her arrow.
The two Griffons at the front evaded the arrow to the sides leaving the actual attack to the ones behind them, yet Kyle expected this already. He fired his weapons using them as [Slime Scattershot]s, the (Corrosive Rounds) engulfing the two Griffons in a spreading shot. Most of the projectiles missed due to the range but all it took was for one or two to hit as the Griffons screeched in agony as the acid easily ate through their skin and flesh.
The two Griffons abandoned their assault and went out of control from their riders, turning around and flying back towards the military district.
“Down we go!” announced Lilior as she leaned forward and flew almost straight down with a slight curve forwards, heading towards the city’s entrance below. She leaned up and flew over the docks before releasing Kyle letting him land with a slight tumble, she then leaned up and spun around with arrow ready.
Two Griffons were still on their tail and she aimed to the right of the Griffon to the right as they descended towards her, she fired and the Griffon instinctively turned left to evade moving closer to it’s companion. A sudden flurry of projectiles tore through the last to riders as Kyle shot at them from below. The Griffons and their riders crashed into the pavement between the docks and the city gate.
“Master, more company.” Said Lilior as she flew to his side while staring at the city’s gate, several dozen guards were heading towards them.
“It’s alright.” Said Kyle as he spun around to meet them, releasing both weapons he grinned wickedly as they approached.
The guards surrounded them entirely, pole-blades held up at them and crossbows aimed at them. One guard who wore a greatly decorated uniform approached closer, a male human within his 30s with jet black short hair and brown eyes. “An adventurer and a Fae? What brings you to our humble capital from the mainland?” he asked while glancing over at the dissipating Griffons and rider, one having survived the crash.
Kyle met the guard’s calm stare, it seemed like he was used to crazy shit like this happening all the time. Kyle chuckled as he glanced back “Lilior?”
The guards tensed at his voice as Lilior’s wings suddenly expanded out in a wave of green-blue slime, it engulfed any bolt they fired before expanding to engulf the guards themselves while Lilior’s entire body turned to slime. Entirely shifting she held the guards away, tied up and gagged “They are dealt with master.” She announced with a slimy smile.
Kyle nodded in gratitude as he pulled out a pair of three VCDs, each runic circle etched differently than before. All three devices were on but nothing was shown inside, they were different from the rest. He stared down at the objects briefly before slime formed out of his left shoulder and entangled around them, the tentacle held all three up ahead of Kyle as he concentrated.
He stared down at his right hand as he clenched it into a fist “I wonder why It didn’t want me using this ability.” He thought back to the Nogitsune and it’s lies, trying to see through it’s words he couldn’t tell what was true and what wasn’t. Kyle closed his eyes and promised himself (“When this is all over…I need to know more, what I am, what I can do. Who my people are.”)
He looked up and at the three objects held up by blue slime, he took a deep breath and concentrated all his remaining mana and Spirit into his right hand then chanted “Reality shall bend to my will, the veil breaks at my touch. Dimensional Force!” he felt his power being imbued with more mana as the environmental energy around him moved to his words and empowered his spell, quickly he raised his arm and punched forwards with all he had.
Kyle shattered each object as reality seemed to crack around his attack, a blinding light escaped the cracks forcing Kyle to cover his eyes and he stepped out of the way. The three objects were sucked into the cracks before the cracks themselves condensed into a tiny reflective orb, suddenly the orb expanded several hundred times reaching ten meters in diameter.
The orb began to bubble and separate while changing colour, three orbs now hovered in a triangular formation ahead of Kyle. One crimson red with swirling black energy, one entirely blue and the third white with swirling silver.
Each of these were portals, taking to and from somewhere else. Lilior stared at the portals curiously as the guards she still kept entangled with slime stared in confusion, which turned to absolute horror as some began to appear out of the portals.
Out of the red came Lucifer followed by Legion and Lilith, behind them came out several dozens of Dezol warriors along with Birse.
Out of the blue came Cornelius followed by dozens of other mages, Ch and Sparta.
Out of the white came the Dusk blade bandits, Dezol soldiers who joined behind Lucifer and the other Devils followed by a stream of adventurers including Cherry, Steph, Death, Seren, Woody, Skill, Jacky, Karnage, Zaahr, Regina, Dherik and a few other guild leaders.
The Docks quickly became packed as citizens watched from the corners in fear and confusion, guards that had just arrived stared at the scene in just as much confusion.
Birse approached Cornelius “I believe it best you lead the way? The people trust you here.” He urged on the mage.
Cornelius chuckled “Indeed they do, although I am not so sure for how much longer.” He gestured at a few mages behind him and they followed leaving the rest behind.
“Let’s go then.” Said Birse as he followed after the mage guild masters with his entire guild following behind him, Lilior released the guards and shrunk to her Fairy size before taking up her usual perch between Kyle’s ears.
“This is still crazy.” Said Karnage as she also along with the other guild leaders and Zaahr followed after them, leaving the entire army behind.
Lucifer chuckled as he alone followed the unexpected assortment of allies, leaving Lilith and Legion to tend to his soldiers.
Shirley’s expression paled as she watched the Devil King leisurely walk with the mage guild masters, she blinked out of her daze and followed after them along with her four personal guards.
The group walked through the street between the Housing and Merchant’s districts moving towards the next gate into the Noble’s district. Everyone, being merchants, children, guards and adventurers stopped what they were doing to watch the group move through, as they approached the gate a sudden platoon of cloaked individuals blocked their path.
The cloaks differed between white, black, red, brown, blue and purple, warriors from each of the six churches. The representatives of each stepped closer and lowered their hoods, “Traitors, you shall not pass.” declared High priestess Jean Lumin, the representative of the church of light and day.
Cornelius snorted “Traitors to whom? We do what we do for the people, the mage guilds never cared for the power struggle between you fools and the military but this ends today. You have taken things too far Jean, it is you who are the traitors here.” He gestured with his staff at each representative “Selling out to the Empire, that is what you planned wasn’t it?” he exclaimed for everyone watching to hear.
Several of the representatives faltered at the accusation, the High priestess of water in general stepped forward “Lies! Why would any of our temples aid those murderous heretics!?”
Followed by the High priest of fire “Have you come to throw baseless accusations Magus?”
Cornelius sighed in relief “At least, not all of you are corrupt. And if you want facts, well here you go.” He raised his staff towards them making the cloaked figures behind them flinch and enter a defensive stance. Cornelius smirked as mana flowed out of his staff’s crystal and formed a sphere of greenish energy high up in between them “Et dices Ostende” he chanted and the sphere’s colour changed to show somewhere else.
The sphere showed the inside of a mansion from someone’s moving perspective, they glanced around to see several Elven guards escorting them and two others.
“Is that?...Nolin!?” exclaimed the new representative of the church of dark and night, a middle aged woman with long pitch black hair and silver eyes.
“An illusion I presume?” asked the representative of the church of stone.
“Nolin was entrusted to Light and Stone to secure.” Stated the representative of Fire as he glanced around at his companions.
The representative of lightning approached the sphere as electricity surged around his feet, he hovered up to it and touched it’s surface “This is a simple vision spell, did you truly replace someone’s eyeball with a crystal?” he asked Cornelius before realising who he was talking to “Of course you would…”
The cloaked warriors seemed to abandon their stances as they glanced at their leaders and each other, the representative of fire smirked in amusement “Well then, that just happened.” As he suddenly raised his right hand with palm open towards Jean. The representative of light flinched and tried to form a barrier between them but the man was too fast as a pillar of flame erupted from her feet and engulfed her entirely.
“Enough has been presented, I find Jean Lumin, Nolin Kastello and Kaiser Fen accused of high treason.” He then exclaimed as the pillar of fire dissipated leaving behind a charred corpse on the ground.
Kaiser, the representative of stone glanced around as the other representatives turned to face him “What is…what is wrong with you all!? Will you truly side with these mangled messes of nature and their sympathizers!?” he gestured at Lucifer and the rest.
Suddenly a dark aura pressed down onto Kaiser forcing him to the ground, Lucifer chuckled wickedly as he approached the man forced into a kneel. He loomed over him as Kaiser looked up in absolute horror, he had lost control of his entire body and was unable to move or even look away.
Lucifer crouched down and forced Kaiser to follow with his eyes, he stared straight into them briefly before raising his right hand open in a claw between them. Everyone tensed as they watched the scene unable or not wanting to interfere, Devil Kings were known among the Esfeltians as ruthless soul eaters and nobody wanted to fall at that fate.
Lucifer clenched his hand into a fist as a sudden boom echoed through the city, his smirk turned into a grin as he spoke “I believe that was your luxurious manor, wasn’t it?”. Kaiser passed out and Lucifer released him of his aura with a disappointed expression “No fun.” He murmured while stepping away.
“So, will you step aside now or?...” Lucifer left the sentence unfinished as he grinned at the assortment of fighters, slowly the representatives moved aside as their follows awkwardly stumbled out of the Devil King’s path.
Lucifer snickered “This is why, I should have taken the lead.” He explained with a shrug while leisurely strolling through the gate “I swear it’s like you people have forgotten what a Devil King is, I’m just standing there unnoticed and then I’m even insulted! Who ever said we were made from nature!?” He mumbled to himself while walking ahead.
Everyone briefly stared awkwardly at the Devil before following after him.