RD 2 Ch 40

Chapter 40

The waters outside the clan were filled with debris to the point that I had to dive under and swim for a while because I kept hitting wood pieces, making it hard to swim.

The docks were shredded, and several large freighters floated outside the island, likely having released a massive number of demons.

It was unlikely the demons could have gotten close to the islands without setting off alarms, but they would make a wonderful secondary wave. It was easy to fit plenty of demons and husks on one of those freighters.

The Demon Lord was going all-out to retrieve the Hell Gate Anchor. Which made sense. It was one of nine entry points to our world.

I wasn’t sure how it worked on the other end. It was possible we’d just get more demons through the existing eight or perhaps he’d lose a ninth of his army.

Flinging myself out of the water, I grabbed onto a cliff and started climbing, peeking over the edge to make sure I didn’t earn an arrow to the face for my efforts, but it seemed much of the clan had been pushed inward on the islands.

Using my spatial ring, I got dressed quickly. I wanted to look human as I rushed towards the sounds of fighting in the distance.

It seemed the demons had already won the beaches. Most of the fighting was now taking place on the central island, with scattered fights on the three main branches.

I roared as I came in behind the demon lines, a Blood Blade appearing in my hand as I chewed through a handful of demons in the back who were throwing spells over a wall of husks.

Blood from the fighting was splattered everywhere, pooling in the grout of the cobblestone streets. The bodies hadn’t lasted long, just leaving behind rivulets of blood that splashed under me with each step.

Damned demons.

I cut through several, fire splashing off me, but my resistance blunted some, while my regeneration healed through the rest.

Anger flowed through me with Blood Boil making it worse.

Demons were killing people that I knew. How many times had this happened? How many times had I been trying to prevent this?

I kicked one demon hard to the side, only to juke to the right as another appeared behind me with a dagger. My mind hadn’t even been fully aware of the attacker, but my reflexes were honed through experience.

Already twisting from dodging the dagger, I brought my body all the way around with an overhead chop. I cleaved the arm holding the dagger from his body before snapping a kick and flinging him into a demon behind him.

Demons pulled away from the line to protect those in back, in the process surrounding me.

I grinned as I reveled in the fighting. Broad swings of my sword warded some off, catching those who had overcommitted easily.

I always kept a small space around me clear, working methodically through the attacking mob.

This was the kind of battle I excelled in.

My blood flowed from the attacks and splattered as I spun and struck out at the demons around me.

Soon, I activated Sanguine Locking, and half the demons immediately surrounding me froze. I cleaved all their heads off with a full spinning strike before returning to my push through the demon army.

More claws and weapons joined the group around me, longer spears stabbing through the ranks at me.

It didn’t matter.

I was a beast in its element.

They tried to attack me all at once again, and I went into a high guard before spinning and tangling up their spears. Crimson Barrier snapped down, caging them in with me as I pulled on their weapons and ripped through their chests.

By the time Crimson Barrier shattered, I had a fist full of spears that I started hurling into the crowd.

I roared and charged the expanded ring around me.

My clothes were shredded as my Blood Blade tore into another demon.

A soothing breeze filled my muscles as someone healed me, and a barrier snapped down on my mind as a multitude of arrows rained down on me and the crowd of demons around me.

Each arrow stiffened the demons, and I took the chance to kill them when they were slowed.

There was a small thump before a pink beam ripped through one side of the demons.

My mind locked onto that beam, and the image of Simone popped up in my mind as I traced the beam and fought like an animal to reach the source.

More arrows came down on the demons around me as I waded through the battle.

At some point, a pair of soft hands grabbed my wrist and directly pulled me through before a barrier snapped down between the demons and me.

Simone kissed me passionately and sighed. “I’m happy to see you.”

“Not as much as I am to see you.” I kissed her back and turned towards the demons. “I’m here now, Simone.”

“Yes, you are,” Nyx said from her side.

In all of that fighting, I had waded into a street where the Heros Clan had set up a line of people fighting a slow retreat.

“Where are the elders?” I asked.

“Something big attacked, and they went to deal with it,” Nyx answered distractedly while firing off arrow after arrow. “It’s been a few hours. I don’t know what happened.”

That wasn’t ideal.

Rather than worry about them, I focused on the demons in front of the two ladies next to me.

Stepping back into the fray, I immediately beat back the wall of demons and gave the Heros behind me a break.

With several supports from behind, I was able to single-handedly hold back this front of demons.

They weren’t weak, but they weren’t more than infantry of the demon army—under-leveled, too. Even the demons didn’t have the resources to level up their fodder.

Those who blocked me were flung back, while those who dodged ended up impeding the one next to them. None of them had the strength to parry my attack.

Demons screamed and rushed me, but I cleared the chaff easily. When a big one tried to stop me, I just locked him down with Sanguine Locking and mowed through it.

It could have been minutes or hours—sometimes in the midst of battle it was hard to tell.

But the demons stopped coming, and I let my sword disappear before turning back to the rest of the Heros clan members behind me.

The looks were familiar.

Awe, surprise, and curiosity painted their faces as they stared back at me.

“Bran Heros,” I introduced myself. “I came for these two.” Pointing at Simone, I stepped up to her and caught her in a kiss.

Nyx leaned towards me, and I chuckled, still a little high on battle, and grabbed her waist to pull her in and kiss her on the cheek.

Her serpents danced around my head and started pecking me.

I had to carefully extract myself from them as a few tried to wrap around me. This wasn’t just to say hello to them, it was to let the rest know that I’d protect these two fiercely.

Nyx was blushing all the way to her ears. “Yeah. He came for us both.”

I checked Simone. She looked ecstatic at me kissing Nyx. I was glad she wasn’t jealous—quite the opposite.

“Alright, we’re moving to Circe’s palace,” I said to Simone and Nyx, even as I was already walking at a brisk pace.

Regeneration was still doing work to put me back together.

“That was… badass,” Nyx said, keeping up much more easily than before.

“Bran has a lot of experience fighting wars.” Simone chuckled, watching me carefully. “What’s got you worried?”

“Demons attacked the boat on my way back. A perimeter around this attack. I got the chance to interrogate one. Damnit, if Persephone hadn’t killed the ones before, the situation wouldn’t be so damned dire. I would have figured this out sooner. Tartarus is likely being hidden by an item that the Demon Lord desperately wants.

“Somehow, they got the word out that Persephone is here on the islands, and the Demon Lord wants her because she can give him Tartarus.” I was pissed, but there was little I could do now except solve the current situation.

The islands shook, indicating a larger battle across the islands.

Glancing in that direction, a giant black hydra appeared over the island and started striking at several people on Mount Olympus.

Changing directions, I rushed that way.

“What’s that?” Nyx asked.

“A summon.” I had an idea of who was attacking, but if I was right, then this was about to get a lot harder. Sending people after the clan directly, meant the Demon Lord had used one of his stronger tools.

A flight of dark gryphons flew through the air, diving down on the island.

“Those, too?” Simone asked.

“Yeah.” I took the steps up to the branch four at a time, rushing up to the top only to get a look at the battle.

A good number of the clan’s elite were fighting a small army of skeletal knights while Hercules struggled with the hydra. He was currently glowing gold.

Circe was protecting the elites from gryphons and manticores using several tornadoes.

Zeus was busy fighting an elemental of black fire that swirled and struck from every angle at once.

The leader of the clan threw lightning bolts to ward it off, but he wasn’t doing enough to do more than keep it at bay.

I scanned, my eyes quickly locking on the orchestrator of the entire attack. He stood in the back with his hands calmly behind his back. No one could approach him.

He looked exactly as he had in my past life, and my body froze for a split second as the memories rushed back.

The second demon general was apparently already well-established and able to fight. People called him the Tide of Terror. He was a summoner able to create entire armies. Unlike fresher demons, his black charred appearance had smoothed out into customized armor. His was slim and sleek, built for running away and not taking blows head-on. With the glowing red eyes and a horned helmet, he looked like a living suit of armor.

He turned my way as we reached the top and was clearly assessing me as I inspected him.

[Name: Xix’tri Glmogdov

Level: 387

Class: Dark Summoner SSS

Status: Amused

Strength: 4837

Agility: 2875

Vitality: 5297

Intelligence: 8649

Spirit: 11721

Skills:

…]

A troop of skeletal knights split off from fighting the elites, rushing towards me.

The demon’s amusement angered me. More so that he likely only looked at my stats and immediately lumped me in with the elites. There wasn’t the surprise I’d expect if he saw Soul Absorption Arts or my bloodline.

He was underestimating me, and I would use that to my advantage.

The skeletal knights advanced as I crushed the first two, and Simone fired pink Heartbreaker beams into them while Nyx let loose magical arrows.

I was angry and glanced at the message that popped up on the side as I checked my level 100 ability.

Bloodrage Ascension was available for the first time.

“Simone, I think this is going to take me out for a moment.” I smiled, feeling in my element. It was time to play with this ability for the first time. The conditions were hard to fulfill, at least for now.

Nyx fired a line of arrows that turned into a wall to protect me.

I took that as a signal.

For the first time, I activated Bloodrage Ascension.

There was a suction within me that drew all of my own blood as something inside of me hungered for more.

Streamers of crimson picked up from the island behind us and spiraled through the air to me.

All the blood from the battle on the island moved in my direction.

It separated itself from the surrounding waters, murky with the blood running off the islands, and pulled free of the blades of grass.

All of it gathered towards me as my body ran dry.

For a split moment between when my own blood ran out and the streamers met my skin, I thought I was going to die.

But as soon as the blood started flowing in from the surroundings, the hunger stopped eating at me and swallowed all the blood that was gathering.

My body swelled beyond Blood Boil, growing six feet as my skin darkened and turned red. Everything in my body was so tightly packed that my skin started to tear, and blood dripped from me.

It was no doubt unsightly, but that blood would help me activate other abilities.

“Holy shit,” Nyx said from beside me. “You look…”

“Badass,” Simone finished for her. “Go get ’em, Bran!” Ever my cheerleader, I smiled at her before leaning into the crowd of skeletal knights and wiping the floor with them. Blood Blade grew with my form, and I cleaved the summons in two easily.

I roared and charged the second general.

A number of inspects hit me, but my focus was on controlling the power I now wielded rather than deflecting them.

This was a proper fucking berserk skill.