DD 302 Ch 26

“Oh good, they’re resting,” Des said as we found the other demons’ group.

They hadn’t been where Lady Frey initially sent me, but [Eyes of Wisdom] made tracking them easy enough. I found them sheltered against a dungeon wall. Strange stones were scattered around the perimeter, giving off a faint light, so faint I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t stared long enough looking for tripwires.

“So we’ll go with the resting plan,” Penny said, crouching beside us. “Seems only fair.”

“They’ve got two on watch,” I murmured. [Eyes of Wisdom] highlighted the tank, a round dark shape in the back, inside what was a large tent. Then I asked the ability where the healer was, which showed me that there was one healer. That added up to one healer and one DPS on watch.

I looked back at my party. “I’ll go first,” I told them. I did one more check to locate the incubus; he was sleeping in the tent.

We were on floor fifty-six, which meant they might be a few levels higher than us, but the advantage of surprise would likely make that difference irrelevant, especially with how lax they were being with their security.

I crept forward until we were close enough that the faint light from the stones brushed the edges of my boots.

Whatever they were, I assumed they were alarms. I braced myself and activated [Shadow Ambush].

I burst from the shadows and came up behind the healer, clamping a hand over his mouth as [Sword of Omens] lashed out and stunned the nearby DPS for five seconds. It was a powerful ability, but the cooldown was long.

The DPS had an ethereal sword through his chest and couldn’t do more than watch as I dismantled the healer.

In those five seconds, a dagger appeared in my hand and repeatedly stabbed the healer like a very dangerous jack hammer.

The rest of my party wasn’t idle while I worked to take down the guards as quietly as possible. Des and Felin slung a few spells that were as quiet as a whisper while they debuffed the two lookouts. Even Penny spread a chilling fog around their camp.

Unfortunately, Charlotte’s offensive abilities were all gales of wind and storms that would wake the whole camp, so she held back.

Hand still over the healer’s mouth, I felt their blood warming my chest as my dagger rhythmically punched holes in them.

They tried to fight, but Des had already stacked several debuffs on them making their struggle futile. My knife found their throat to silence them, though that didn’t kill them even as a healer. Their constitution was incredibly high.

A slit throat wasn’t enough, but it turned their smothered screams into a far quieter gurgle as I realized they were not long for this world and pushed them aside for Des, Felin and blood lose to claim them in short order.

I switched to attacking the DPS as the [Sword of Omens] ended, pouncing on them. I covered their mouth as my dagger went to work.

The healer had enough strength left to try and heal himself.

I ripped that magic away with [Absorb]. Then an idea occurred to me. Portal took a few seconds to open, a poor option in steady combat, but I had an opportunity here. I opened a portal beside me, wrestled the DPS through, and landed them out the other side where Penny waited. 

Her greatsword swung off her shoulder and smashed into them, knocking them down and pinning them beneath a layer of frost.

They let out a weak shout, a desperate plea to wake the rest of their party in the tent.

I snapped the portal closed and dusted off my hands as I turned back to the healer.

The healer stared, stunned, at the sight of their DPS being yanked through a portal and well out of reach.

“Sorry. This isn’t personal. Lady Frey ordered this.” I shrugged.

The healer slammed his staff into the ground to make noise, but I dumped my abilities into him and ground him down to zero, leaving him a bleeding mess on the floor.

“Good work,” I whispered, glancing over my shoulder at my party twenty feet away on the other side of the faintly glowing stones.

Des flashed a big thumbs-up. That was a good enough indicator to me. I assumed they were fine on their end. The DPS was nowhere to be seen now, besides some flecks of blood on Penny’s boots.

I slipped up to the tent, pausing a moment to figure out how to open it quietly. After a minute of fumbling with it, I got lucky: someone inside opened the tent.

“Say, how—” was all the newcomer managed to say before I punched him hard in the throat, dragged him out, and shoved him through another portal, taking a few cuts for my efforts.

Perhaps I was being judgmental, but based on his bulk, I assumed it was the tank. It would take a while to break through his defenses, and that was a better task for the rest of my party.

I caught the tent before it resealed itself and slipped inside to find two forms: one just rousing, and the other, an incubus, still dead asleep. The one waking realized something was off just from my silhouette. Two pairs of daggers flashed in her four arms as she jumped to her feet, still in the buff and clearly having shared a bedroll with the incubus.

“Jif up!” she shouted at the top of her lungs as I attacked.

Four arms might seem better than two, but I found it easy enough to predict the angles of her attacks. Each arm worked within its own quadrant, barely moving outside of it, which left me to do my best to swing hard enough that I could deflect two blades with each swing of my own.

Behind her, the incubus struggled in his bedroll, pulling out a staff and beginning to buff her. “Where are the others?” he shouted.

I slipped past the four-armed demon’s guard with a Triple Breach.

She blocked two, but the third struck her square in the chest, blowing a nasty hole clean through her, penetrating every defense she had at that moment. She staggered back, coughing blood, then surged forward with twice the effort.

I rolled off her and switched to the incubus. The wound I’d just made was already mending from a glow in his hand. Healers were always top priority for kill lists. That was simply logic.

I used the incubus’s own body as a shield to block the woman’s path, forcing her to fight over and around him as I worked my blades along his body.

He tried to get out of her way, but it was a fumbling mess as he got his legs tangled up in the sleeping roll and panicked several times over. The incubus tried to stumble away, then eventually just curled himself into a ball, trying to be small while the other demon fought over him.

I chuckled, using [Elemental Shield] to block her for a split second before dipping down and driving my entire weight behind a gut stab into the incubus. I used those moves to hide the fact that I left a small [Shadow Arm] attached with [Mana Drain] active as I stepped back to face the four-armed demon again.

“Fight me, you coward!” she yelled at me, eyes glowing red.

I felt the pull of a Taunt, forcing my vision to tunnel onto her. I couldn’t even glance back at the incubus. Though, nothing prevented my [Shadow Arm] from continuing to siphon him dry.

It seemed I’d made a mistake. She was clearly the tank, and an aggressive one at that. Four daggers flashing with relentless speed. I could see the appeal: each arm controlled its own zone, constantly overlapping pressure.

Realizing she was the better defensive fighter, I leaned fully into offense, not giving her a moment to strike back. Sparks of our blades illuminated the inside of the tent, followed by the purple crackle of Liminal Speed lightning dancing along my arms.

“He’s got a devil-damned trial ability! Jif, you need to heal me!” she barked.

“He’s supposed to become a king?” I asked with a bold laugh, locking blades with her and blowing her a kiss. “Why don’t you just step aside? Maybe I’ll make room for you.” Every demon I’d met so far lived by the deals they made.

I tried to make the deal, but the demon only snarled and launched an ability. Red Xs shot through the air as she slashed in coordinated two-by-two strokes. I knocked one set aside as it tore through the tent behind us, then had to pull up [Elemental Shield] again to block the second. They just kept coming.

“Fat load of good making deals will do you!” she snapped, swinging wildly. Every stroke left a red afterimage that chased me like flying blades.

The incubus had gotten to his feet, cowering behind her with his hand pressed to her back and pumping her full of magic.

Her speed increased, and she let out a storm of flashing arcs that poured from her daggers and chased me through the air.

I blocked several before activating [Shadow Ambush] now that it was off cooldown, appearing behind the incubus, delivering a few quick stabs, and refreshing my [Liminal Speed].

He squealed and rolled back into a ball again as she stepped over him, now seeming larger, her body expanding with each exchange and making it harder for me to get at the incubus.

I almost thought about calling my group for help, but my pride held me back. I wanted Lady Frey to see what I could do, and I certainly wasn’t done yet.

Even though she was getting bigger and faster, my [Liminal Speed] stacks were slowly pulling me ahead. I danced around her, carving lacerations along her limbs while keeping one eye, mentally, at least, on how low the incubus’s mana would go.

In the dark and in the chaos of this fight, no one had noticed the [Shadow Arm] latched onto him and draining his mana.

I used Penny’s frost armor to give myself a little extra protection and went all in against the four-armed tank, knowing this was a losing confrontation.

A few moments later, That was until the incubus’s mana got low enough. Instead of protecting myself, I gave as good as I got, forcing the incubus to burn his mana to keep the tank alive.

“Ha, you’re in too deep. I’m going to wear you out and grind you to dust! How dare you attack the future king of your people!” she spat at me.

“Maybe I don’t want him to be my king,” I shrugged, slipping her next attack and moving past her, only for my outstretched hand to nearly reach the incubus. At the last second, his place swapped with the four-armed tank, and [Mana Implosion] rolled off my fingertips into the wrong target.

The tank grimaced as the bead inside her chest drew all of her mana in and, when there was nothing left, began reaching for her health. She grunted, but it was clear she was going to weather it.

I glared at her, upset my attack had been foiled, before realizing it didn’t actually matter. I shrugged and let [Sword of Omen] now off cooldown, punch into the incubus, stopping him cold from healing her up and went all out to build my stacks of [Liminal Speed] crackling down my arms as I whaled on the four-armed demoness in front of me.

The second the incubus came out of the stun from [Sword of Omen], I stomped and sent a ripple of [Earth Stomp] underneath both of them, stopping him from healing the bloody and flagging tank.

[Mana Implosion] had been meant for the healer, but even with the wrong target it still dealt plenty of damage. It would be enough for me to take her down, as long as I could keep the incubus from throwing out any more heals.

“Damn it, heal me!” she roared in frustration.

“Don’t you just hate it when they shout for heals?” I said to the incubus as I bloodied his tank and lover while he was unable to help.

“What I really don’t like,” he sniffed, sticking his nose in the air, “is demons who don’t know their place.” More magic was building in his hands, this time with a look of arrogance on his face.

“Oh, well that’s good. I certainly know mine.”

He almost got a heal out, only for me to rip it away with [Absorb] and immediately turn the stolen spell on myself.

“Thanks,” I winked at his dumbfounded expression.

The four-armed demon had grown significantly and let out a roar as her skin hardened, turning to a red stone that my dagger skipped off of. But that did nothing for all of the blood she was still losing.

“I’m going to beat your face in,” she growled.

“Kinky,” I teased, and then froze the world for both of them with Liminal Space. I had no intention of letting this continue any longer.

In that space they were both frozen and I ripped the tank apart, all four arms were on the floor before I canceled my ability.

Only for the incubus to cast a successful heal… and hit a corpse.

I turned back to him, grinning and no doubt covered in blood. “Your turn.” I held up a pair of knives, ready to get to work.

Only to feel Lady Frey’s stone beckon to me. I was sorely tempted to ignore it. However, I had a feeling that wouldn’t end well.

I paused, holding a finger up. “One moment, please.” I held the stone out.

The Incubus for his part actually paused with wide eyes. Though he probably knew that we was done for if I tried. His entire party was gone and a healer against me might be able to make it a long, painful fight. But he’d never win.

“Yes, I do apologize, Lady Frey, but I am a little busy right now,” I said, ignoring the images trying to sear themselves into the back of my eyes and instead staying focused on the man in front of me, incase he got bold.

“Yes, well,” Lady Frey purred, “I had a particular proposition that you may be able to offer the incubus in front of you.”

“Would you rather I just hand him the stone?” I asked, doing my best not to sound annoyed.

“Oh, no need for that,” Lady Frey said quickly. “I have no interest in bargaining with him. However, he does have a family who would pay a considerable sum to have him returned to them, more whole than not.”

“And here I thought I was killing people, Lady Frey.” I sighed. “I’m sorry, but I don’t do kidnappings. If you don’t mind, I’ll stick to the original mission.” Part of that was to just put my foot down on her changing something up mid mission.

“Oh, well, I suppose I can’t fault you there, Ken. And it’s not important enough for me to sweeten the deal.” She wiggled her fingers, as if the incubus could see her. “Toodles. So sorry it didn’t work out.”

I turned to the incubus and simply activated [Mana Implosion] a second time. This time, there was no one to block me and the incubus clearly didn’t have enough mana left to satisfy the skill. Instead, it took from his health, ripping him apart from the inside before blowing him across the interior of the tent.

Lady Frey was still connected, chuckling in the back of my mind. “Oh, you’ve got a temper on you.”

“I wouldn’t call it a temper,” I said. “Just a dislike for frivolity. I came here to kill and I’m here to kill. As I told you, I’m an assassin. And please even if you want to talk mid-job don’t change the requirements on me. A mission is accepted for its entirety, not as a starting point.” I gave her my full attention and a glare to go with it.

“Duly noted,” she said, with the kind of smile that I didn’t trust one bit. “Now, if you do me a favor and give me some of his things, I’ll take those as proof of death because… there isn’t much else. And good job, Ken. I was very impressed with how quickly you worked.”

Lady Frey purred her admiration, and I did my best not to roll my eyes. I didn’t need anyone to tell me I was good at this particular job.