Chapter 150 – Floor 13: Part 11

As the army marched further north and the tribes of Demi-Beasts were driven back or destroyed, the evidence of their centuries of atrocities was uncovered.

Vast pits of human bones, huts and structures covered in leather made of skin and entire markets displaying their ‘goods’ were revealed to the army. But worse than that, there were human slaves being herded like cattle, raised to be slaughtered for food or worked until they died of exhaustion.

Daphne had thought the Demi-Beasts were merely barbaric, but the things she saw were sadistic and cruel. She hadn’t been the only one to empty her stomach on the roadside as they liberated another camp of human survivors.

They found humans that had been raised in captivity their entire lives. There was not much the army could do except send them to the wall for the garrisoned troops to take care of.

The things they found fueled their rage and hatred toward the Demi-Beasts, and by the time October came to an end, they had liberated a large portion of the north. But, just as they thought their campaign was coming to an end, they were met with their greatest challenge yet.

An enormous force of Demi-Beasts occupied the rolling green hills in front of them. All the Demi-Beasts tribes of the north had gathered their warriors for a final attack on the human army. Tens of thousands of demi-beasts from dozens of different tribes had put aside their differences to face this threat.

On the human side were the remaining forces that equalled the Demi-Beasts in strength. They had significant losses on their march north but also gained additional Aether. In a straight battle with no other factors, it was hard to say which side would come out on top after today’s clash.

But there were beings on the field that could tip the balance in either direction.

The humans had Prince Aiden, a formidable force whose legend grew after every victory. Already, people in Londinium and throughout Anglia were calling him the ‘Red Prince of the North’ after his endless slaughter of the Demi-Beasts that had plagued humanity for centuries.

He killed the champions and strongest members of each of the Demi-Beast tribes without apparent effort and never took a wound.

But the Demi-Beasts had a guardian of their own.

An immense figure stood in front of the Demi-Beast army. Fifteen feet tall, its skin was a grey-green, and muscles bulged under the layer of furs and magical steel armour it wore. Humanoid, the creature had large tusks protruding from its lower, and its long, black hair was gathered in the back of its head in a warrior’s topknot.

This was an ancestral beast, the last one remaining in Anglia. An Ancient Ogre, Rath, it had been responsible for killing or driving off the other Ancestral Beasts from the north and claiming the territory for itself.

All the Demi-Beast tribes paid tribute to Rath in order to live here, paying in human slaves and precious minerals. His children were arrayed behind him, Ogres that only reached his chest but shared his skin colour and features.

It was said that Rath had been born from the Earth when humans were still living in caves. There had been conflict between him and the Romans, whose military might and magical learnings had been responsible for driving him out of Greece, then Germania, until he fled to Anglia.

Rath bore a scar on his right cheek that ran from just under his eye to his lip. It pulled his face into a permanent scowl. Arthur gave Rath that scar when they fought in front of the wall before Rath retreated to the north to hide.

There was a powerful force of mana around Rath, and Daphne shivered in fear as the Ancestral Beast, the creator of an entire race of monsters, stepped forward and shouted. His voice echoed off the hills around him, and the ground rumbled at his words.

“Humans! Behold and despair! I will rip you apart and feed you to my children! Some will be slaves, and you will pray to your gods for the release of death!” Rath yelled. He reached up to his back with his right hand and gripped a hilt that protruded above his shoulder.

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The sword he wielded was more of a slab of hard iron than an actual blade. Dull and rusty, it was a dozen feet long and six feet wide. When he swung it through the air, it created a gale that destroyed the ground around him and sent dirt flying into the air.

“Rath! Rath! Rath! Rath!” The Demi-Beasts chanted.

They banged their weapons on shields or stomped their feet onto the ground rhythmically. Rath seemed to draw on their cheers and devotion. Aether gathered around his feet, and a blue haze formed. Clouds obscured the formerly bright midday sun.

Daphne felt restricted, and her mana turned sluggish in her body, and she refused her call. The force Rath emitted throughout the human army caused them to weaken and lose heart. They were on the edge of breaking.

At this point, a lone figure emerged from the line of humans. Riding a horse as dark as night, Prince Aiden moved toward the army of Demi-Beasts. He was unaffected by the swirling miasma of Aether that Rath had gathered, and the forceful mana the Ancient Ogre possessed tried unsuccessfully to oppress him.

Aiden drew his sword and raised it high above him. A streak of white light streaked skyward, cutting apart the oppressive atmosphere. The clouds retreated, and the sun once again shone overhead.

As soon as Excalibur was drawn, Daphne felt like she could breathe again. A weight lifted off her shoulders, and her sluggish mana began to cycle quickly inside her chest.

Rath grunted at the display of power, and he once again shouted across the distance.

“Human, you have a decent level of strength. It is a pity that you have met me this day and will not survive. Perhaps you will have better luck in your next life.” Rath said.

The Ogre leapt from his position on the distance hill. His prodigious strength allowed him to sail through the air, and he landed in front of Aiden in a tremendous crash. His feet buried into the ground and left cracks in the earth as they raised a cloud of dust.

Aiden’s response was to merely climb down from his horse and send Midnight back into its ‘statue’ form before pocketing it. The magical Horse could anticipate his desires, but he still wasn’t a skilled enough rider to fight from horseback.

His feet were firmly planted on the ground, and Aiden raised Excalibur high into the air with both hands. Daphne watched the mana swirl around him for a moment, drawing on what was inside his body and the ambient mana around him before gathering it onto the edge of the blade.

The attack was quicker than Daphne expected. Aiden slashed down with the blade, and a streak of white light shot out from the sword. It swept across the ground, carving a track into the grass and dirt as it shot toward Rath.

The Ogre could barely respond by blocking the light with its own massive blade. The muscles on its arms bulged as Rath struggled to repel it. With a roar of anger and effort, he heaved upwards, and the white energy Aiden had struck with shot skyward, splitting the few remaining clouds above before dissipating.

Rath panted with exertion. He was surprised by how powerful the human’s attack was. It was nearly on the level of Arthur’s strike that had scarred his face. Who was this human that dared enter his territory?

“Hahaha! You have my respect, human! Striking with your strongest attack at the very start of the battle was cunning, but it was useless. I am the Ancient Ogre, Rath! Earthborn and Mountain Strong!” Rath yelled.

But Aiden ignored him. He was looking down at the sword in his hand with a clear expression of disgust. Daphne strained her ears to hear what Aiden was saying. He seemed to be cursing on the blade.

“That’s it? You piece of garbage! With that much of my mana, you should have been able to do more than that! I knew swords were useless!” Aiden muttered, shaking the sword in his hand.

“Screw it. We’ll do this the normal way.” Aiden finished. Looking up at the laughing Ogre, Aiden grinned.

“Alter Self: Heavy Bones.” His feet sunk into the ground a bit more as the weight of his bones tripled. Getting used to the weight, Aiden spoke again.

“Alter Self: Thick Skin.” Small scales covered Aiden’s face and hands. The ridges made him look like he was covered in scars.

“Alter Self: Augmented Strength.” Aiden’s muscles bulged grotesquely, and his biceps and legs doubled in size before retracting. Even through his armour, Daphne could see that he was more muscular and ‘dense’ than he was before.

Having spoken his Blessings and gone through the required physical changes, Aiden leapt through the air similarly to Rath. He reached the still laughing Ogre in an instant, with both hands gripping his sword and raised overhead.

Rath’s laughter cut off abruptly, and he raised his sword which was nearly double the size of the tiny Aiden and lashed out with its dull steel edge. Daphne expected Aiden to be sent flying; the weight and proportions of the two warriors were on a completely different scale.

To her shock, the Ogre was pushed backwards. A web of cracks spread out from Rath’s blade when the weapons met with a deafening ‘clang.’

The battle that followed would stay with Daphne and everyone who watched it for the rest of their lives. Aiden was unstoppable. Strong and agile, he dominated Rath. When the Ogre fell onto the ground, dead, after only a few minutes of fighting, both sides of the battlefield stared in stunned silence.

The momentum of the conflict that followed was completely against the Demi-Beasts. They had witnessed an Ancestral Beast, the closest thing these creatures had to a god, fall before their eyes. When the war was over, and the north was free, Aiden’s name began to spread beyond the shores of Anglia.

For Mathew, the battle that followed was unimportant. It was the sound that he heard when Rath fell that had all of his attention.

‘Ding!’