RD 5 Ch 11

I wasn't the only one moving to the edge of the fortress. The rest of Tarel's people were as well, each of them panting and red-eyed. Their tears had quickly dried and turned into rage, directly aimed at the demons. Their grief told me Tarel had been a good man and a fine leader. When this was done, I would honor him.

For now though, I needed their anger to forge them into a troop of soldiers that wouldn’t break at the first blow from the demon army below.

I held my sword high, the tip gleaming in the sun, only for the gleam to die as dark clouds rolled across the horizon and over the mountains. It was almost as if the world disapproved me using Tarel’s death this way.

More than a few heads snapped in that direction as the heavy shadows tried to dim our mood. However, I couldn’t allow that to happen. These people needed a push.

"For Tarel!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. “He was as fine a man as any of us could hope to fight alongside. He was a father, a friend and a leader. Demons, those demons took him from us.” I pointed my sword out at the demonic army to give them an enemy and then drive it home. “He wasn’t alone they’ve ravaged this world taking countless friends, family and loves from us. The only way to stop them is to have the system reclaim their corpses.”

A few men threw curses about their dead dogs. I kept my weapon up, continuing to shout. “For that, and for them, we fight today to win, again!”

The men around me began to stir, energy building among them. It having been done before was something to give them courage. Now I just needed to seal the deal.

"Fuck the demons! For Tarel!" I roared at the top of my lungs.

The soldiers let loose their bellies full of anger and despair, crying out a thousand times louder than I could have prepared myself for. "Fuck the demons! For Tarel!" 

I watched as the morale gauge rocketed forwards. Men clambered on the walls, frothing to get down there and take their own score of demon heads. I had half a mind to encourage it, but the way the demons were coming at the corner of the fortress was suboptimal for us. If I had put my forces down on the ground, they'd be shoved back up against the corner and split in two.

But I did not have time for indecision.

"Men, man the south wall. Those of you able and willing, take the field." I yelled and led that group, leaping from the wall of the fortress. If we took the field and pushed south, we'd have the demons pressed against the hills and squeeze them along the south wall. Should we need to retreat, we could slide back to the southern wall for support, using the corner tower as a battery to assist those of us on the ground. 

As soon as my feet touched down, I was not alone. Dozens, then well over a hundred men joined me, taking the open field in front of the fort. The western side was where we had repelled demons time and time again. As soon as we touched down, those demons that had balled up between the hill and the fortress began to rush towards us in a mad dash, a hunger for human souls and more hosts.

"When this is over," Kal said, standing by my side, "we're going to make a shrine to Tarel out of demon skulls." 

I smirked. Now on that I could agree with Kal, even though we all knew the system was going to reclaim their bodies as soon as they died.

The roar of the demon army charging towards us was met by the soldiers, both sides locked in a competition of who could be louder. That only lasted until the forces collided, and the shouting went silent, replaced by the clamor of armor and the clang of steel as weapons began to collide all the way up and down the line. 

My own section was no exception. A Bloodiron Blade formed in my hand as I cut down the pitiful demon that was matched up against me.

I severed body parts with a few casual flicks of my blade, the front line being nothing but fodder, even as I saw larger forms of juggernauts or the winged demon that had challenged me to a champion's duel earlier. 

And while we took the demons on, more and more poured out from the hills that we had left behind. The constant flow got to the point that I was squinting strangely at the hills, wondering if there was an inexhaustible source or if we’d been hoodwinked and a second army had been hiding in the hills. It wouldn't be the first time that demons had used strange strategies to confuse us.

However, I couldn't dwell on my thoughts for long. A large demon wielding a maul crashed through the line beside me. I had to shift my focus to cutting the demon's limbs, reducing his ability to breach my own line as easily as he had done so far.

I knew that the role of individually powerful members of the army was always to ensure that other problematic forces were swiftly matched and removed.

The massive demon succumbed quickly to the strokes of my blade. I let the Bloodiron Blade leave behind fragments that blossomed into the thorns of Sanguine Locking. Tearing into the demon's side, the ability was enough to bring him to a stumbling halt.

Once the demon was slowed, the men could then swarm and flow over the demon like a plague of locusts. Each and every one of them was viscious. Yet, despite their individual inability to match the giant demon, together they were able to slowly tear him down once he'd been immobilized.

One soldier stabbed their sword into the demon's shoulder while another wound up hammering the pommel with a maul. The scene reminded me of a sculptor carving a marble bust with a chisel only this version was far more gruesome.

I chuckled at the thought, but let it pass. I had far more important things to focus on, like ripping through the enemies before me. 

In the same way that the large demon had become a threat to my forces, my own job was to pose the same threat to the demons. And so, I mowed through them, slashing and effectively ripping many apart. I used charge to rush through the crowds and a Crimson Barrier to block lines of sight. I had one goal. I needed to be as big, and hopefully as terrifying, as possible.

And I was apparently affective. While I was plowing through, working towards the officers in the back, I got a rude awakening as a blur shot into me.

The quick demon was little more than a four-foot-tall robed figure what little of his skin was exposed was tightly wrapped in dark bandages. His eyes were little more than two glowing red orbs.

On instinct, I blocked, barely saving my neck. Whatever this demon was, it packed a punch like none of the others I'd encountered thus far. I skidded back after receiving the blow, taking the measure of my new opponent.

The demon shifted on his feet, cracking his neck one way and then the other while watching me cautiously. I used Soul Gaze on the demon, then realized I might be facing the leader of the enemy forces.

[Name: Mal’godox

Level: 682

Class: General of Dispair

Status: Angry, calculating

Strength: 3472

Agility: 7821

Vitality: 5982

Intelligence: 8653

Spirit: 6496

Skills:

Quick Movement S

Aura of Dispair SS

…]

The new demon before me was impressive for a variety of reasons, the last but certainly not the least among them being the power exuded by his stats. My eyes raked through the list of abilities, stopping on the second and growing concerned.

If morale was giving my men and me such a massive boost, I could only assume that the aura of despair would rapidly affect it. Even now, a quick glance at the morale gauge showed it was dropping steadily.

I was unsure if that was a result of the demon's aura or the ongoing battle. Either way, there was no need to test the waters. Destroying this demon would be a great boon for me in many ways.

After our brief stare-off, the second I leaned the slightest bit forward, the enemy general disappeared from his spot as if a ghost drifting through the battlefield for me.

There wasn’t time to go through the entire list of his abilities, I’d have to figure out what I could on the fly.

The demon slipped past, slicing into my own army. He spun, a tattered cloak billowing out behind him and his form shifting as if he was nothing but bandages and cloak.

I growled in frustration, chasing after him only for the quick bastard to slip away before I could reach him every time. Even when I got so close that I thought my sword would bite his flesh, he disappeared like a wraith and immediately appeared twenty yards away, already working to kill more of my men. To say I was frustrated would be a profound understatement.

But rather than give in to that and continue a futile chase, I turned back to the main forces of the demon army and decided to make myself impossible to ignore.

Amongst the battlefield with blood spilling in every direction, I was in my element and activated Bloodrage Ascension. Ribbons of blood, human and demon alike, pulled themselves from the battlefield and stabbed into my back like a macabre pair of wings. As my body swelled and my regeneration struggled to keep my skin stitched back together. I transformed into a bleeding giant who was also soaking up the blood of the battlefield, swelling with every drop and massively increasing my stats. My Bloodiron Blade had transformed alongside me, becoming big enough that the first sweep of my blade carried a Sanguine Slash and killed no less than a dozen demons with the arcing red attack.

I let out a roar that shook the battlefield and the demons' morale as I began cleaving through them, carving a line through the battlefield straight towards the hills. It had the effect of cutting off the continued reinforcements from the demons.

My own forces, though momentarily shocked by my transformation, rallied by activating their own powerful and life-saving abilities. They crushed the demons in front of them and, in a surge, began crushing the front line that had no one to reinforce them.

The infuriatingly quick demon general couldn't let me continue. He appeared in a flutter of tattered black cloth with a black bandaged, wrapped face. His curved short sword growing in my vision as he trust the tip straight for my eyes.

I twisted faster than he was expecting, lifting my chin and catching his blade with my teeth.

This stopped him long enough for one of my fists to fly up and connect with his chest, sending him flying and his blade scraping itself from my teeth. The uncomfortable sensation made my teeth itch, but that hardly mattered.

I punted a demon that had tried to encroach on me, sending it careening through the demon army and knocking several more down in the process.

My soldiers dove on those demons with axe and sword like ravenous beasts, ripping them to shreds with the same lack of mercy that the demons had shown us. They were fighting for Tarel for their loved ones and for the man beside them. Nothing would stop them short of the death of every demon on the field.