Derek smiled, relishing his newfound strength. The thrill of invincibility and the hunger for more blood spurred him onward. His drive for more power, more combat, and more blood drove him forward. Without hesitation, he was up on his feet, shooting across town, his feet pounding the pavement as his bloodlust guided his every step. He didn’t even bother pulling a weapon for the few opponents that stood in his way. Derek’s fists pummeled through skulls and ruptured organs with brutal efficiency, leaving a trail of broken bodies in his wake as his feet pounded through the streets, heedless of any speed limits.
He missed a turn, slamming into a cinderblock building and crashing through it without slowing down. The sheer power coursing through his veins was exhilarating, yet it carried a weight—an ever-present reminder of the monstrous force he was becoming. He still wanted more. More blood, more power. He had a mission, and that was to carve a bloody swath through Alaska to save his unborn child. Nothing would stop him, certainly not some god forsaken monsters.
Upon reaching the power plant, he grinned as his eyes locked onto the gravel and lightning monstrosity and a wicked grin grew on his face. He poured on the speed like a freight train. Ravager’s Fury activated. His muscles roiled with power as his feet thundered across the parking lot.
With full force, he crashed into the monstrosity, shattering it into a shower of gravel and lightning. Asphalt rubble exploded everywhere. The golem hadn’t even had time to realize it was under attack before its body started splashing across the power plant. He turned, his eyes constantly searching as he leapt on the creature. His hands acting as shovels as he dug through its body, searching. Lightning rolled over through his body, but his Fury protected him from the pain.
It tried attacking Derek with the full force of its significant might, but it was like a toddler trying to protect itself from an adult. Derek ignored it as he swam in the gravel, searching for the core. He submerged himself in it. The golem’s body tried electrocuting him and grinding him into a paste, but his magic shield prevented it. A blast of Water Wave erupted from Derek’s body, causing asphalt to explode around him as a torrent of water spilled around Derek in every direction washing away the golem’s asphalt body leaving only a ball of lightning with a few pebbles of asphalt in the golem’s body.
A yellow and blue orb appeared in the midst of the golem’s body. It glowed and pulsed with power as it moved through the body in an attempt to protect itself. Derek grinned as his hand wrapped around the orb. Lightning coursed into his hand as he ripped it from the electricity monster’s metaphysical body. The monster’s body collapsed as it was freed. Squeezing his hand he crushed it with all his might.
As the orb exploded, dispersing electricity into the atmosphere, he muttered, “Seriously, so boring.”
Without missing a beat, Derek flashed across the city, his body a blur as he sought and annihilated every monster in his path. Each fallen foe was a step closer to his ultimate goal, but a part of him wondered if there would ever be an end to the carnage.
He didn’t have to try hard in his search. Goblins came running as he made himself known. It must be the Goblin Slayer title. Orcs weren’t much different, but they didn’t try to kill him in blind aggression. Trolls were too stupid, even the ones covered in armor he found in the train yard. He covered every piece of ground he could cover going from north to south without paying much attention to where he was going.
A trail of corpses covered the city as the sun moved across the sky. Derek only left a path of bloody corpses and ransacked stores in his wake as he crossed the devastated city. As he was moving back south across the city, he found a new type of monster in a dense residential neighborhood near the mountains.
A towering creature emerged from the collapsed remains of a town house, a human arm protruding from its wide, bloodstained mouth, being ground by uneven razor-like teeth. As it stepped forward, the wall crumbled further under its weight. Siding and structural rubble bounced off its tough skin that stretched over a muscular frame. In one massive hand, it gripped a crude club, seemingly torn from a tree, while the other carried an unfortunate man, the owner of the arm, screaming out in pain. The beast’s deep-set eyes, a murky brown, flickered with a blend of malice and hunger as it surveyed its surroundings, looking for its next meal before even finishing the first one.
The man that was being held by the creature fought with a futile resistance as he tried to free himself. The giant didn’t even concern itself with the feeble human’s protests. Derek shot across the distance, the soles of his feet pounding both his boots and the sidewalk into submission. The creature turned toward him and flung the man toward him. The screaming man missed by a large margin and tumbled across the lawn. He screamed as several bones broke and blood pooled in the grass. Derek’s eyes flickered with anger at the senseless cruelty, fueling his resolve as he closed in on the creature.
Derek ducked under a wild swing, his sword slicing deep into the creature’s thick leg muscles, sending a spray of blood as the blade skirted across the bone. The creature roared and swung his club toward him again in a wild haymaker, but Derek was already gone. Derek vanished from the creature’s sight, reappearing behind it. He plunged his blade into its back, driving the tip straight through its heart.
It collapsed to the ground as Derek pulled his blade free. Derek had fallen for this trick before and his sword was already swinging, cleaving the creature’s head from its body.
As Derek’s awareness of nonthreatening events came back, the man’s screaming returned. He was curled into a ball, clutching his shoulder where the arm and his shoulder muscle had been ripped free. He approached the man, who looked up at the blood covered Derek in fear. Then he fell silent as he collapsed, probably in shock from the blood loss and pain.
Derek checked the man’s body, but he was practically dead. There wasn’t anything that Derek could do for him. His healing wouldn’t do anything, and if he tried to take him somewhere, he would bleed out before they made it. With a grimace and a muttered apology, Derek ending the poor man’s suffering, a small part of his humanity flickering in the darkness of his rage.
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Derek stood, his anger and focus boiling, keeping hold of his emotions. He blared his air horn for a while, attracting every monster within a quarter mile. Hordes of monsters ran through the neighborhood, monsters of every type and some he hadn’t seen before, some kind of red-skinned goblin looking creature. The slaughter begun as dozens of the large giant-like creatures and hundreds of goblins rushed toward him. Derek’s eyes caught people’s eyes watching from the upper floors as their eyes watch him with fear. The air horn vanished into his bracelet as a minotaur’s axe appeared in place of the sword.
Elemental lightning and fire swirled around him as the horde charged. Derek spun into action, his axe cleaving through goblins and orcs with deadly precision. Activating all his abilities. The horde visibly shuttered at the bloodlust emanating off Derek. The new magical mantle ability in concert with his own elemental attacks turned the frontline into a corpse pile. His Draconic Reflex sent his adrenaline and reaction speed into overdrive. The axe twirled and swirled, carving through monster after monster. Goblins, both the green and the red kind, died with the orcs in one swing, trolls died after being beheaded, minotaur fell after several attacks each. The irony of their blood being spilled with their own weapon was not lost on them.
Too bad Ravager’s Fury couldn’t be used since he used it on the lightning golem. The new giant-like monsters were more challenging that the minotaur. Their tough skin and durable bones were more than Derek could handle in a few attacks. Derek kept moving as he carved a bloody scar down the urban street. A never-ending flood of monsters trying to kill and eat him, throwing themselves on his blade, only adding to his personal strength.
His new found abilities faded quickly, but the damage had been done to the horde. The bloodlust aura didn’t directly affect the battle, but it caused the weakest goblins to turn and run as they realized the horde couldn’t stop him. With the cannon fodder gone, the battle was decided, and the horde realized it as they started to flee. The more determined minotaur and the giant-like creatures didn’t. They fought to the bitter end. Their end. They died a bloody, gruesome death as their bodies were chopped apart.
The gore-covered double-headed battle axe rested against Derek’s boot as he surveyed the carnage, his own bruised and battered body a testament to the fierce battle. The battlefield was littered with the remains of fleeing orcs and trolls, blood flowing like rivers into the storm drains. It was like a gory slasher film as blood ran in rivers snaking into storm drains.
Taking stock of himself, he looked down at his own beaten and bruised body. A shoulder plate was missing, his chest plate was nearly turned into scrap metal, two belts were completely missing and one boot was ripped into rags.
Derek started looting the bodies, tossing weapons and armor pieces into his storage device. Meanwhile, he cast healing magic on his body, removing the cuts, scrapes, and bruises. It wouldn’t heal anything other than that, but it was enough to help soothe the post-battle adrenaline damage.
As Derek collected his spoils, people cautiously emerged from their homes. Neighbors, families, and friends—survivors who had lost loved ones and seen only death—gathered in the street, many clutching firearms. Unlike them, Derek had long since abandoned his own firearm now that he was bulletproof.
“Who are you, demon?” A particularly brave man asked.
Derek, covered in blood and gore, looked demonic with his horns and scales. He cast a spell, summoning water to wash away the blood. Derek wiped the bloody water from his face with a shop cloth designed specifically for this use. He tossed the bloody rag to the ground while scanning his surroundings.
“I’m an evolved human. Call me what you will, but I fight for survival, just like you,” Derek answered briefly as he picked up an orc’s sword and stored it away.
“Why are you here?” “What are you doing?” “Did you come to save us?” “Can you protect us?” Questions echoed all around him and he only kept looting until they fell silent.
Derek finished looting and turned to the gathered crowd. “I’m not here to save you. You should save yourselves. I only bring death.”
“The ogres come from the mountain. They come down every day looking for people to eat.” A woman said pointed toward the mountain.
Derek nodded, his eyes hardening as he made his decision. “Then that’s where I’m headed next.”
With a final glance at the desperate faces around him, he turned toward the mountain and started walking. Questions followed him, but he ignored them all. He wasn’t a savior; he was a killer. A monster slayer. The fine line between monster slayer and monster blurred with every step he took, feeling like the demon people called him was present.
Congratulations:
Over the course of sixty-eight battles: You have killed 314 goblins, 84 hobgoblins, 1 level four human, 241 orcs, 187 trolls, 92 minotaur, and 1 lightning golem, and 18 ogres.
With the death of members of the Collective, their slayer obtains experience based on their strength and credits in their possession. You have ownership rights of all possessions of killed individuals; you are required to collect them on your own.
Rewards:
101,829 experience
110,265 credits
Lightning Golem Core
Congratulations:
You have gained 5 levels and reached level 27.
+5 stat point
+1 milestone point
Congratulations:
You have received the title: Orc Slayer (rank 4), Troll Slayer (rank 2), Hobgoblin Slayer (rank 1) and Minotaur Slayer (rank 1)
For killing: 1000 orcs, 200 trolls, 50 hobgoblins, and 50 minotaur
Orc Slayer: You are a known enemy of orcs everywhere. Warning: Your reputation precedes you. Nearby orcs will actively seek you out for revenge.
Troll Slayer: You are a known enemy of trolls everywhere. Warning: Your reputation precedes you.
Hobgoblin Slayer: You are a known enemy of hobgoblins everywhere. Warning: Your reputation precedes you.
Minotaur Slayer: You are a known enemy of minotaur everywhere. Warning: Your reputation precedes you.
Rewards:
+12 stat point
Derek whistled as he saw the new stat points and he distributed a half into physical and the rest into magical. He knew he should be putting more points into magical, but he really enjoyed hitting things. Maybe when he has time, he could sit down and figure out exactly how many points he needed in magical to get to Marie’s 4:3 ratio. Without saving the new milestone point, he used it on his Magical Capacity.
Milestone Ability
Elemental Rage:
Invoke the primal essence of a chosen element, melding with its power to temporarily become a living embodiment of that elemental force. While in this heightened state, your chosen element doesn’t merely assist — it becomes an extension of your very being, transforming your rage into potent elemental attacks. During this convergence, all other active magical effects are nullified, ensuring the undivided potency of the selected element. Lasts for 30 seconds, can be used once every 12 hours.