Shin exited the dungeon and vanished, cutting off Cesar’s retreat. Cesar launched a fierce assault but Shin held his pace slow with counters and the threat of another tremor. Cesar’s cutlass slashed him away as he swung his hand back, shattering a firebolt. As he saw the other three gaining, he let out a tremendous roar. The muscles and veins in his body swelled with a violent surge of aura and like a madman he charged.
Shin strained his body to its fullest extent as the form of a shug took him and still he could not weather the assault, his body started to line with cuts and gashes. Only the wild absence of skill prevented him from succumbing fully. He remained as long as he could but finally blinked away as the blade nearly carved him in two.
Cesar glanced back, his eyes filled with rage, then burst away towards the town with a roar. A hundred players with blackened eyes and blackened veins poured out of the gates and over the walls, swarming towards the party as Cesar barrelled his way through them back into the town.
“I’ll kill Cesar.” Shin said as he dashed off to the side, avoiding the eyes of the horde.
“Pull aggro.” Yen urged Donny, as a malakh found Kamala’s side.
Donny leapt forward and unleashed a taunting roar. The mad eyes of the demonic humans grew madder still, most locking their eyes and hostility on the grand knight. He leaned low with a look of exhilaration and shot forth, the impact of his charge breaking and mangling a dozen enemies.
The eyes of the horde slid to the stationery knight like ravenous zombies and lunged straight into the concussive shockwave of a Thunderstomp, crashing the first of the horde surrounding him into the others. Among them a brown haired warrior with a scar across his face more eager than any, but none of the party took notice.
The demonic humans rose quickly and were roasted alive as Yen circled Donny, casting a stream of fire. She soared away burning as many of the clustered players as she could like a dragon in the sky. Arrows and thrown weapons bounced off of her armament skill as shot a firebolt to a group of archers.
She spewed fire again, glancing around for her next target as an arrow swirling with mana broke her spell of armament and a stone maul slammed into her, knocking her out of the air and crashing along the ground, mystic armor shattering on impact. A glean flashed over her body just before a dome of vines surrounded her in layers and more lashed out from the ground at the ferocious horde.
Kamala flew towards Yen under a volley of arrows straying her course and forcing her low. As she neared the ground a demonic human sprung from the shadows and thrust a dagger in her back through the mystic armor around her. The player’s grin spread wide at the sight of blood and pain and twist the dagger just before its head was removed by the malakh.
“Donny!” Kamala shouted. The knight battling fiercely within the fray took one glance and let out another roar, drawing the horde back to him, three dozen strong.
Kamala winced as she summoned two more angels to join the knight against the swarm and cast greater buffer around herself. The vine dome opened up and brought Yen towards Kamala, resting her on an incline against her lap as she tried to wake the unconscious mage without shaking her head too much.
---
Cesar rampaged through the town he had called his for most of the stage, slowly stumbling to a stop. A sporadic lash of his arm destroyed part of a building with the last of his rage before he finally got it under control. With his mind set straight he cursed the wretched goblin. How he still could not match him after taking up the stranger’s offer and becoming this monster eluded him.
His head jolted to the side and slashed away an arrow as another struck his shoulder, lightning surging through his body from the talismans attached, stunning him for a moment. Shin blinked behind and kicked the demon’s head, the destructive power of tremor sending him crashing straight through a building. He rose to his feet, the ironclad skin around his skull he just barely managed to use cracked.
“You… I could have had everything!” He severed a wooden pillar through the afterimage of Shin. “I’ll kill you!”
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A surge of aura and rage filled Cesar once again as a heavy greatsword found his hand and he burst forth, shattering the cobblestone as Shin blitzed away. Cesar cratered the ground, tore through stone, and ran through buildings as Shin led him through the obstacles of the town in the deadly game of tag. Shin blinked away again as the monstrous demon lunged, demolishing another building.
Shin dropped down in the open street, his eyes deep and unfathomable. Cesar lunged with a mad swing and Shin twisted under it in place, his foot slamming into the demon’s jaw with a wide tremor. Cesar’s head snapped back, his jaw shattered, body leaning back in the air.
Shin’s foot found a stance perfectly, a second tremor condensing fiercely in his fist, and slammed it down into the demon’s torso. The monster crashed through two stone buildings and cratered the town walls. Blood spurt from Cesar’s mouth, as the demon slumped down.
“No… No, no no. NOOOO!” With black clawed hands he impaled his own heart and an ominous magic circle appeared beneath him. “Make me stronger! I’ll give you everything!”
Cesar’s horns grew as his body swelled. Spikes sprouted on his shoulders, elbows and knees as aura exploded around him. The blur of a greatsword grazed Shin’s visage as he blinked away. A sword infused with celestial flame pierced the strengthened demon’s back, searing its flesh and soul.
Shin leapt high off the air, just before it swung a mighty arm back that ripped through the air, casting more holy fire over it as he went. The ground shattered under Cesar’s feet as he burst up right in front of Shin, wrenching down his monstrous blade surging with aura and blackened mana.
And Shin blocked it clean on his cobalt sword, deftly angling it so the greatsword slid harmlessly down before the impact could reach him. He stepped back from another slash as the demon started to fall, and condensed a Tremor, pouring the bulk of his remaining mana until the pulsing waves grew like a violent sun in the palm of his hand. Cesar thrust his sword as Shin burst off the air, letting the demonic blade cut into his side as he slammed his fist down like thunder. Shockwaves burst in the air as Cesar cratered the ground, ripping up the stone street and destroying the buildings surrounding him.
“I could… have…” A bloodied and broken Cesar murmured.
Shin took the spatial bags from around his belt. “None of this is yours.” A white mask found his face and golden fire set the demon ablaze, his final screams of pain dissipated in the wind as the oni berserker’s body turned to ash. Shin stayed only long enough to confirm his death, then flickered back to the others.
---
Donny stood amidst a field of corpses. Cuts and bruises atop broken bones lined his body drenched in blood, his left eye slashed apart and blood draining from his severed right forearm. His lungs heaved in breath as he barely held onto consciousness. His broken body moved on its own, taking a step towards the others before his leg gave out and he slumped over.
Kamala caught him just before he hit the ground and laid him upright. Golden light enveloped Donny for a moment before she stopped, panic in her eyes betraying her stoic face. She paused for only a moment before mana surged and crackled in her hands. With a fierce expression, light burst around her.
Golden light enveloped Donny once more as she channelled her upgraded skill. Mana poured through her as she focused on the wounds within, his internal organs a mess and bones broken all over. His labored breathing started to ease but the light started to flicker and vanished.
Kamala desperately tried to cast again to no avail, consciousness starting to slip away from her at the mana fatigue. She pulled out a vial of red liquid and held it to his lips but Shin appeared beside them in an instant. Without a word he raised his hand, light bursting off his body, and Donny’s wounds began to heal once more. Donny found himself within a pitch black void, his mind slipping in and out.
“Here me, warrior.” Donny’s eyes followed the sound of the voice, his hazy vision barely making out an armored man before him with the glowing eyes of a lion. “Here me if thou art fearless. If thou crave battle. If brutality runs through thy veins! Prove yourself most worthy before the Lord of Slaughter.”
Donny’s eyes jolted open to the glare of sunlight. His right hand leaned off the ground as he sat up, taking notice of it immediately along with his eye. “Thanks.” He smiled at Kamala.
“...Shin did most of the work.”
“You would have died before I got here though.” Shin admitted casually.
“Thought you said we can’t die?” Yen pressed.
“You wouldn’t. Kamala’s here.”
Kamala’s stoic gaze lingered with just a hint of emotion. She glanced down a little, then raised her head, vigor returning to her poise.
“Blessing?”
“Yes.”
“True or Greater?”
“True…”
“We’re all talking to gods then.” Donny rose to his feet.
“You too?” Shin tilted his head in confusion.
“Nah, just a message. A quest, I guess.”
Yen glanced down to the side in silence at the talk, her expression complicated.
“Killed the boss, though right?”
“Yeah. A lot of gold.”
“Alright, that’s the first thing done. Should probably recover in the training grounds before we head back in.” Donny rose to his feet, stretching his still aching body.
“Mm.”
The party of four headed back towards their base over a trail of bodies, their hollow eyed leader darting back and forth taking anything of value.
---
A young man watched through a swirling crystal ball with snide amusement. Long brown hair combed back and sharp elven features. He balanced the crystal in his hands gazing at the boy amidst ruin and ash.
“I wish… I wish…”