RD 3 Ch 49

Chapter 49

I stabbed my blood blade into one of the onyx serpents, looking around to see the rest of my forces finishing up their own battles.

The whole Mul Branova had been working together to take on monsters far higher in level and strength than they were individually. The most interesting aspect of this instance to me was that several of the monsters we faced had higher ranks than any rank we had started with in the instance. That was, at least to me, an anomaly. 

“Water?” Simone asked, tossing me a bottle.

I ripped the cap off and chugged the thing as the plastic crinkled as I drained it before tossing it into my spatial ring.

"We’re making good work of this," I said to the group around me.

In the instance thus far, the monsters came in rather large groups. The singular onyx serpent I had taken down was paired with another twenty weaker monsters. 

Circe shrugged, coming up next to me. “Doesn't matter. If everything you said before tracks, then we need to hurry up. There won't be any time to waste." Circe wasn't going to let go of my extended absence anytime soon.

I couldn’t agree more. "Alright, let's keep moving." I waved my sword forward for the rest of the group. "Onward, we have plenty more monsters to kill, get your loot and get moving." 

Something caught on the edge of my vision, and I turned sharply to see a possessed monster racing away.

I shouted, pointing towards the escaping demon.

Nyx had no problem picking out her target and firing arrows that weaved between the trees, only to land on the fleeing wolf, turning parts of it to stone. Despite Nyx's lower half being that of a serpent, it didn't affect her speed. Her tail whipped back and forth, propelling her through the forest faster than many of the initiated could run.

The wolf didn't stand a chance, especially with part of its haunches turned to stone.

Nyx pounced on the monster, her serpent hair snapping forward, poisoning and entangling it before ripping the creature off the ground. "It's not very strong," Nyx chuckled, holding a full grown wolf-like monster up with her hair. 

I slung my sword over my shoulder and strode over, meeting her halfway. "It doesn't matter if the demon's strong. The only good demon is a dead demon." I stared at the wolf, stabbing my blood blade into the dirt, and leaned on it as I locked eyes with the demon.

"Who do we have here?" My own eyes glowed gold, but I didn't recognize the name. Most importantly, it wasn't General Zaydelin. 

The wolf spoke, startling Nyx. "They just made me scout," he whined. "They told me to run around and find people, then report back locations.”

“You were one of the workers in the vault, weren't you?" I asked.

The wolf's head bobbed up and down. 

"Yes. Yes, I was. Just a grunt. Not a warrior. Not a general. Not the boss." The demon replied.

"Interesting you would mention those," I grinned wider. "You wouldn't happen to know where Boss or General Zaydelin are, would you?" 

"No." The wolf's face was easily readable. It went slack, and he couldn't look me in the eyes. "No, I have no idea where anyone is," he said quickly. 

"And who told you to scout?" I pushed.

"The others," he perked up, clearly lying. 

"You're lying," I grabbed his neck by the scruff and brought my face close to his muzzle. "We can do this the easy way, in which you simply talk. Or, we can do it the hard way, in which I rip your soul from your body and then interrogate it inside of my soul space."

That last part was a lie. Doing that to a demon was incredibly difficult. We didn't have the time or resources, but the threat was effective.

"But, I'll tell you, please don't rip my soul out," he whined. 

"Alright, I'll let you off the hook," I released his scruff and he fell out of Nyx’s hair.

Neither of us were afraid of him trying to run. I would be able to catch him quite easily if needed. 

"Look, the boss told me--" he stuttered and regained his voice. "He took a couple of us that hadn't been hiding in the office. And he took us to another room within the vault. It dumped us out here." 

"So you've been with the boss the whole time?" I asked. 

"No, no. The boss is busy with his own thing. My only job is to scout and then come back and tell him where more adventurers are located. I swear, I'm just a harmless grunt." The grin on the lupine face wasn't exactly helping his case. 

"Who else is in your group?" I asked.

"A swordsman! He's really scary," the wolf continued to ramble. "And then one of General Zaydelin's soul fragments."

Perhaps if I could get my hands on one piece of the general, I could find the others. That plan solidified in my mind, as the inscriptions I would need to use burned themselves into my mental landscape. 

The wolf whimpered, putting on a good show.

"Can you show us the way back?" I gestured for both of them to get moving.

"Yeah, yeah, I can follow him right back." He sniffed the air as if trying to find some familiar scent, then began retracing his steps.

I turned back to the rest of our group, glancing over to see that they had all finished another group of monsters and were waiting on me.

When we started to follow the wolf, they came with me.

I gestured to Merlin. "Do me a favor. This demon is going to lead us back to where the demons should be. If there's a fragment of General Zaydelin, I need you to lock it down. Everything else, you can leave it up to us to handle."

Merlin nodded. "Do you know how many fragments he has out there?" She asked.

"Not a clue. But rest assured we're going to find them." 

The possessed wolf was actually decently fast. Running on four legs and the monster's body made it move swiftly through the forest, despite its low stats. We made  quick work of heading through the forest, only for the wolf to stop. 

"It's up ahead." He pointed with his nose in that direction. There was a sharp drop in the forest floor before it wrapped around a large hill. It wasn't exactly a perfect shelter, but it was better than staying on the flat forest floor. 

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" I asked the demon as he tried to slink away. 

There's some that might be polite enough to let this demon live. After all, he did guide me to his fellows. But there is no such thing as a good demon, or even one that you could tame and work with.

His head and body lay separately on the forest floor behind me as I moved forward.

"Let's go to the top of that hill." I pointed as the leaders caught up to me. None of them even glanced at the wolf.

I wasn't sure what the demon camp might have in store, but it was best to bring the full group along and apply as much pressure as we could.

Circe joined me as I crept to the top of the hill, only to see an array of no less than a hundred possessed creatures moving back and forth in a crude camp. There were a handful of possessed humans, but most of them were the strongest amongst those that I could see, and sitting to the side more like supervisors than grunts.

The others, the weaker demons, all seemed to be stuck in a variety of monsters, using their snouts and mouths to manipulate pieces of wood as they tried to build a camp.

"Looks pretty straightforward," I said, staring down the hill.

"Ah yes, straightforward. Just a hundred demons." Circe rolled her eyes.

"What, are a hundred too many for you?" I mocked, giving her a little lip back. "We'll throw our lower ranks at them. I think one for one, we have a significant advantage. Merlin will be looking for General Zaydelin if he is among those below." I pointed at Circe. "I want you to take the biggest, baddest demon you can find and just bash their head in. If it helps, pretend they're me."

Circe chuckled. "Now Bran, I don't want to beat you. I just want to lock you up in the basement with enough chains that you'll never get away. Perhaps I could do like the nymphs of myth and trap you in an illusion of love."

"I'd prefer it if you didn't," I said, keeping my face neutral. "But if you wish to try, you can see just how badly that plays out for you."

Once again, Circe scowled at me. "Do you know how many men would happily submit to that option?” 

“And how many of those men would you turn down in a heartbeat?" I stared back at her. "If I don't miss my guess, Circe, you like a challenge. Like that one.” I raised a hand and gestured down the hill before meeting Simone's eyes with the rest of the group waiting below and nodded.

“We aren’t done yet.” Circe grumbled. “But there might be more important things to do than flirt with a rock.”

Despite not being together all that long, Simone instantly knew what I wanted and began organizing the Mul Branova. They squared up to launch themselves around the hill.

“Maybe later.” I told Circe before nodding again to Simone to start the battle off in earnest.

I leapt off the hill, charging straight into the Demons' Camp.

Down amongst everything they were building, were several structures that were already complete. If Boss or General Zaydelin were present, I would bet everything that they were already situated comfortably inside a building. Demons were the type, especially a Demon General like Zaydelin, to take the first creature comforter for themselves rather than show any true leadership skill.

At least for me, that saved me time finding them.

I slammed down into the shack, crashing through a wall amid roars and shouts of the demon camp.

A demon even had the gall to rush into the crude structure, as I came barely through the wall. "Boss! We have intruders!" The monkey jumped up and down.

"Wow, I can't imagine that," a Demon said with a stiff voice, though I realized it wasn't Boss that he spoke to.

No, instead, it was General Zaydelin, and he was a rather weak body of a demon grunt. He spoke dryly, turning to face me just as the subordinate reported it. "Would you mind stepping out for just a minute, so he could report your arrival ahead of you? It would just really mean the world to me if we gave this one a second chance."

I answered by summoning a Blood Blade, only for General Zaydelin to turn to the Demon that had rushed in.

"Sorry, I don't deal with incompetence." In a smooth motion, he ripped the monkey's heart out. Before feasting on the demon's soul, and claiming the experience for the kill.

Instantly, I could tell General Zaydelinn's fragment had grown significantly stronger by consuming that other demon. There was a sense of his power bubbling up. My best guess was that he had managed to heal himself, in a sense, by creating more copies of that fragment, allowing that fragment of his soul to multiply with the energy he had just consumed from the other demon.

"I'll apologize, Bran," General Zaydelin said to me. "I was hoping our next encounter could be a little more climactic. You know, let me recover, come back, defeat you handedly, and then have you bow and beg for me to spare you and your family as I devour your soul, take your body, and all those lovely powers that go with it." He gestured towards me, a giant grin on his face. "What do you say? Wait for the climactic one? I promise, one of my fragments will manage to make it happen." General Zaydelin grinned.

"It's a shame you're exactly who I was looking for.” I was confident in defeating him as he was, but I was wary of tricks he could use to escape.

“Oh, it's rare for someone to come looking for me. Most who do usually end up dead, or they're strong enough to order me around, of which you are not." The General smiled.

Fire exploded on one side of the structure as the fighting outside continued to rage. The building was quick to catch as flame licked at the rough wood. 

"Really?" The general clicked his tongue. "I had people working hard on these, now you've come and destroyed them." He didn't really seem that upset.

Then again, I wouldn't really be upset if someone blew up a shanty like this.

"Hmm, what do you think you're doing? Trying to build a home?" I mocked.

"You may not approve," he said, looking at me, "but one of the first things you should always do when in unfamiliar territory is make a base of operation." He shrugged. "Besides, it also keeps the lower levels a little busier. You give them something to do. They're always happier that way."

I knew he was stalling for time, and the reason became apparent a moment later, as the demon-possessing Volker's body came rushing in, his sword ablaze with red light.

Zaydelin's face split into a giant grin as the now-demon rather than demonic swordmaster came after me.

His demon transformation had already progressed significantly since I last saw him. A large plate of purple chitin expanded over one of his shoulders, while his one remaining arm had elongated, wrapped in the same chitin, though designed like an armored gauntlet.

"General, the demon camp, we will be overrun.”

“I just need you to stall as long as you can," Zaydelin grinned. "I'll finish up my end now."

The tricky Demon General melted into the floor as a puddle of shadows and before I could launch myself after him. The one-armed demon swordmaster came at me with surprising speed and power. My Blood Blade clashed against his, and my hand went numb from his strength.