Incursion Empire Ch. 23

Twenty-Three 

“I’ve always heard you overgrown lizards were egotistical bastards. It’s good to see that the rumors were true in this case,” Dane taunted, knife held low as they circled each other. Gabe snorted softly from the slits on his muzzle like face, hot air blowing across Dane’s face.

“I will eat your heart and sacrifice your pathetic core to my sponsor. None shall remember you,” Gabe hissed. Claws sliced apart the air in front of him, Dane threw himself back as fast as he could. Something icy touched his face, running down his cheek as he backed up. A moment later it was hot and pain burned as Dane slowly reached up to touch the trickle of blood that leaked down towards his lips. 

Gabe smiled and licked at the blood on his claws. The forked tongue slid between the claws with dexterous ease as the wide, fang, smiled widened.

“I shall enjoy eating you,” Gabe hissed. The dragonkin straightened up, towering even taller than he had been. 

“I’m stringy. Probably get stuck in your teeth,” Dane said back to him. Gabe stopped for a second, eyes bewildered. Dane slashed, the sacrificial dagger parting scales with ease. Blood flowed out the wound on the Aleg-Kinuun’s wrist, dripping to the ground. 

Gabe leaned back and hissed in anger this time. It was at best a scratch on the monstrous creature, nothing more than a nuisance. It was enough to get the runes to begin glowing along the edge of the dagger. Gabe frowned as he saw that, the burning runes giving him pause. 

Dane lunged, slashing downward to peel at its quadriceps. Gabe jerked his leg back and slashed with his opposite hand. Claws tugged at his shoulder, but Dane managed to feed the blade more dragon blood. Gabe jerked back, a growl rumbling loudly through his chest. 

“No more quips?” Dane asked. Blood soaked through Gabe’s robes as the dagger grew brighter and brighter. The smile was gone now as the other warlock lowered his shoulders and tucked his chin toward his chest. A glow filled Gabe’s mouth, red-orange flames flickering inside of the dragonkin’s maw. Flame burned the air in between them, a small gout of intense fire that burned the air between them.

Dane threw himself into a roll, popping to his feet to slash at the creature’s heel. Warlock blade split the dragonkin’s tendons with ease, the big monster staggering as he screamed in anger. Claws split the air above Dane’s head, but he rolled to the side, watching in joy as Gabe tried to follow and failed. 

“Heel tendon hurts. Hard to walk without one,” Dane said as he moved to Gabe’s weak side. The dragonkin tried to follow him, but Dane moved too quickly and Gabe overbalanced, falling as his leg gave out. Dane struck even as Gabe fell, his dagger piercing in through the trapezius muscle and into his throat. Rune exploded with light, heat filling the pommel as blood soaked the ground. The bigger warlock gave a garbled cry, swiping weakly at Dane. 

“You know, I thought that’d be a lot harder,” Tolic said as he floated over. Dane held the quickly weakening Gabe down, pinning him to the cold forest floor as the blood drained out of him. 

“You stood there and watched me do everything,” Dane snarled. His own blood was thundering, filled with adrenaline as he kept the Aleg-Kinuun pinned to the ground. Even with death reaching its clammy hands up to drag Gabe down, the dragonkin fought. 

Warlock Core Sacrificed 

Upgrade Bloodline?

“Huh?” Dane stared stupidly at the floating alert as he slumped to the side. He felt wrung out, exhausted by the ongoing fight. New level alerts were in his eyesight, but he dismissed them as he focused on the newest alert. 

Pop! The sound of displaced air made Dane look over and wasn’t surprised to see Mel standing there, looking down apathetically at Gabe’s still corpse. He was surprised to see the second demon standing next to her. 

This one was short, squat, and toadlike. It had a massive crimson throat that glowed with light. Monstrous, yellow eyes stared down at the slain warlock with disdain. When the demon spoke it was in a bassy rumble that vibrated Dane’s bones. Even Tolic winced and floated a few feet away from the demon.

“It seems our bet has been decided. Your victory [Redacted].” 

“Do not say my name in front of the mortal, Belleth. I have no desire to be summoned by him,” Mel said. When the toad demon had spoken her name it had been whisked from his mind faster than he could comprehend it. 

“Hey, Mel,” Dane said. He slowly stood up and walked over to her, drenched in the blood of the competition. She shot him a feral grin as the other demon disappeared as fast as it had arrived.

“Good work. The rewards for that will be joyous to spend,” Mel said, her voice not reflecting the words at all. She spoke in her constant flat tone that offered no hints toward her true mood. 

“I came to congratulate you. And to rub Belleth’s face in his own defeat. Now, you have acquired a warlock core. You can either, foolishly, use this as a regular sacrifice, or you can use it to advance your bloodline.” 

“What will happen when I advance my bloodline?” Dane asked. He kept a wary eye out on their surroundings, but the forest around them had grown supernaturally quiet. 

“A boost in your base stats. At your current dilution rate and how weak your bloodline is, it should only require the single warlock core. As you gain in strength, you will need to find actual demons of your bloodline to strengthen yourself. This works for now though.” 

Dane went to click on the option, but Mel held up a single, slender finger to stop him.

“Wait one moment. You will want to hold off on that if you wish to earn the title for this area. Now, to fulfill our contract, one item,” she said and as she spoke a thick, black leather book with silver lettering appeared in her hand without warning. 

“When you reach your next leveling milestone, the skill, Summoning, will be available. If you wish to earn the class skill, I suggest you get back on top of that hill and keep killing. The competition is wide open now.” Mel handed off the book to him and disappeared as fast as she had come. 

“I wonder how much attention she’s actually paying us,” Tolic said as he drifted closer. Dane was staring at the book and his levels. He wasn’t there yet and he needed to get to the top of the hill and keep killing monsters.

“What the hell should I do with the book?” Dane asked. He didn’t have a personal inventory space to stow the book. 

“Throw it in a tree. I doubt the monsters will care,” Tolic said. He was looking at Gabe and prodding the dead dragonkin. 

“Would it be weird to take his body? I don’t know how much juice is left in him before he falls apart. You also severed that tendon, hmmm….” the spirit trailed off as he looked at the crumpled form. 

“We’ll find you a new body. Come on, I’m near the top of the list, but  not quite there yet. We kill enough of these creatures and we can get you upgraded again,” Dane said, bribing his summoned spirit. Tolic clapped his lower arms while spinning on a dime to start toward the hill.

“I will say, the recent levels have been underwhelming. But I think if we hit five or ten I will see a boost, just like you,” Tolic said. The two of them started back up the hill and toward the bloodstained ground.

“Oh yeah, like what?” 

“No idea. Maybe something that will help me interact with the physical world? That’d be neat. I can brain people myself instead of waiting on your inexpert help,” Tolic said. 

“I’m excited about summoning something else. Preferably something that doesn’t talk.”