Dao 3 Chapter 11

Dar was sitting calmly on the couch, flipping through one of the books that had been in Tami’s home, when the door opened.

Neko strode through proudly. “Goats will go to Hearthway.”

“Great.” Dar put the book down and checked over Neko, trying to identify anything out of place. But everything seemed fine. “Did you have any trouble?”

Neko’s nose flared. She ignored his question, coming over and sniffing his chair. “You had sex with the maids. Where are they?”

“Resting.” Dar said with a smirk. They were currently in his inner world with his family’s dao booklet, working on Dar’s technique. Having connected with him physically, they were taking the chance to cultivate. And he wondered if the tree would boost them as well, but only time would tell.

Neko made a face of disappointment. “Okay. Oh, and you owe the merchant money.”

“No problem. That’s to be expected. But you didn’t have any issues in town at all?” Dar was skeptical.

She huffed before she spoke carefully. “I am capable. No need to treat me like a kid.” Her eyes were filled with more that she wasn’t saying.

But he wasn’t going to push her. She came back in one piece.

“Of course you aren’t a kid.” He pulled Neko into his lap and rubbed her head between her ears. The cat girl melted into him. Dar realized he needed to give her more independence and treat her like the others. It was easy to coddle her when she could be so naïve, and her speech was still developing, but that wasn’t fair to her.

“Thank you for checking and making sure we had goats going back to Hearthway. We’ll make sure to let Sasha know you could ensure her plans went through.”

“Reward.” She nuzzled her head into his chest.

Dar continued to rub between her ears while taking his other hand and carefully stroking her ears. They twitched every time he got close to the tips.

“It tickles when you touch the tips. Just rub the base.” She grabbed his hand after they twitched again. “But I want a bigger reward, like how you reward Sasha and Cherry after they have a good day.”

“Ah.” Nerves crept in on Dar; he was fairly certain she meant sex. “I’m not sure that’s a reward for them as much as an excuse for both of us to have a little fun.”

Neko looked up from where she was in his lap. “Do you not want Neko?”

“No, that’s not it at all.” The top of Neko’s shirt had pulled down as she rubbed herself against him, and her bounty of creamy skin was on full display, reminding Dar she was very much a woman.

“Then why?” Neko grabbed his hand that had been petting her and pulled it off her head, shoving it on her chest. “These are better than bossy maid’s.”

His hand squeezed her on instinct, and Neko’s face blushed as she bit her lip.

She really was a beautiful woman, and he hadn’t been treating her like one. Neko clearly wanted to change that and push them forward, but Dar hadn’t really decided if he was ready.

Peels of bells suddenly rang out.

Dar sighed internally; he was relieved that something had broken up the moment, so he didn’t have to make an instant decision.

“What’s that?” Dar asked, picking Neko up and stepping around the grumpy-looking cat girl. But his brain processed the noise, and he realized he recognized it.

Bellhaven was under attack.

“Come on, Neko. We need to see what’s happening.” Dar stood up and put Neko down.

“The maids?”

“Cultivating in my inner world.” He answered. “Those bells are for an attack on the city.”

Outside Tami’s house, Dar paused, looking back at her door. Once Neko was out, he put his finger up to the lock and let himself feel the shadows inside of it before using them to fill the void in the lock and twist.

It clicked, locking itself. Dar smiled, satisfied with his new dao.

People were hurrying about on the streets, running home with their belongings and running back out in groups with simple weapons, ready to defend themselves and their home.

Men and women hustled to the eastern side of the city, carrying bows and arrows. It at least seemed that The Prince had put together a better system for fighting the devils.

Dar couldn’t help but remember his previous experience with the nobility when he’d come to town. They had taken the people out of the slums and shoved them out the front gate with spears in hand. They were entirely used as fodder to help weaken the devils.

As he took a few steps, Karn exited the Prince’s Home, followed by a group of men. Dar slowed, waiting for Karn to catch up.

“Do you know what’s going on Karn?”

“A runner interrupted court. There are devils at the eastern wall.” Karn grunted. Dar noticed a spirit and a demon trying to attend to the large bear man, but he ignored both of them.

The spirit and demon looked absolutely terrified. Dar wasn’t sure if it was because of Karn’s overall presence or if it had to do with failing whatever task they’d been given.

Dar eyed them before bringing his focus back to Karn. “Will you help protect the city from the devils?”

“Why would I?” Karn appeared genuinely baffled. “Though I have yet to return to Frost’s Fang and formally have The White withdraw her support, I have stated it. I stand by my word. Frost’s Fang will not support Bellhaven in this.” Karn looked around. “Where’s Tami?”

“She left this morning to scout out the devils in the hills to the northeast.” Dar reminded him.

Karn frowned. “And she missed this group? I would have thought she’d have seen this coming and given advanced warning.”

Dar would have thought so too, but maybe they passed each other. The countryside was vast, and even a mass of devils could hide in a forest.

Their group ascended the wall to look out past it and assess the situation. The city’s people were stopped short just inside the nearest gate. Guards were arranging those with bows up along the wall while a mass formed. It was what looked like a rather uncoordinated group of tradesmen with spears.

The Prince walked up to Karn. “Will you be aiding us?”

“No.” Karn said it almost like a declaration.

Dar really wished The Prince had taken his advice to heart and made changes in the city. Now innocent people were more at risk because Karn would not engage in the battle. And that was entirely The Prince’s fault.

The Prince scowled, and Neko stepped forward, poking his face on either side of his mouth and tilting it from a frown into an odd grimace. Guards started moving in to intercept her, but Dar gave them a look that slowed them. Neko ignored the imposing guards. “Turn frown upside down. Dar may help.”

Prince Gregor went to yell at her, but then he glanced at Karn. He seemed to remember that he was trying to be more considerate to demons and spirits.

Dar was pleased that he’d made some progress.

“Will you aid us?” Prince Gregor asked Dar.

“Maybe. I’m not particularly interested in fighting for you. But I feel for the people who you are failing. And I have a new dao that I’m interested in giving some exercise.” Dar answered as they got to the top of the wall and saw the mass of devils laid out before them.

It was similar to before. Gremlins were being herded by the much larger trolls into the city walls like fodder.

“New dao?” Karn eyed Dar again. “You are stronger than yesterday.”

“I was on the verge of a new greater dao.” Dar said by way of explanation. “You know how much fun it is to play with a new dao.”

A grunt was all he got in return, but Karn didn’t dissuade him from fighting. He had a feeling that was the best he was going to get given he was supporting Bellhaven.

“Can Neko come too?” Neko asked.

“Of course.” Dar would be happy to have his ferocious Neko with him. “But let’s see how this starts out. I’d hate to jump down there only to turn into a pincushion for the archers.”

The Prince cleared his throat, seeming to dislike being relegated to an afterthought. “We’ll do three volleys once they are in range of the archers. Any more and we end up wasting arrows. Then we’ll open the gate with a spear wall to control the funnel. Anything that tries to climb the wall will meet our guards with spears and swords at the top of the wall.”

He seemed proud of their defense strategy, and truthfully, it was better than Dar had experienced last time he was in Bellhaven. But they had set the bar quite low.

“I’ll wait until after the three volleys.” Dar recognized that as the best time to get down there and fight. “What about your wizards?”

“They’ll join the volleys and help how they can after. In many ways, they are independent.”

“You mean you can’t control them.” Dar interpreted.

The Prince’s face twitched, but he didn’t respond. Instead, it was Karn who replied. “Yes, it seems they are working more and more independently these days.”

Neko crouched on the edge of the battlement, watching the gremlins rush towards the city. Her tail flicked back and forth like a cat watching a mouse.

“Aim!” The call came, and there was a collective drawing of bows, creating a noise like a great wooden door opening on old hinges. “Fire!”

The twang of a thousand bow strings snapped in the air and the sky whistled with arrows. It looked like some massive swarm of locusts taking to the sky.

The arrows arced high into the sky before they plummeted with much more force, hitting the gremlins like a physical wall. Hundreds were smacked down to the earth, creating barriers those coming after them had to climb over.

“Again.” Another volley was released. But this time they hit not only gremlins but also the trolls. The arrows did far less to the trolls than the gremlins; the lumbering grey devils shrugged off the arrow fire like pests.

“Again.” This time, one troll fell from what looked like dozens of arrows, but at that point, the devils were close enough to start climbing the walls. The archers replaced their bows with spears.

Dar recognized his chance to join the battle. Taking a running leap, he launched himself off the wall and into the mass of devils below. Letting mana flow through him, he drew upon his dao of heavy and accelerated his speed to the ground, slamming into it hard enough to crush the gremlins under him and knocking the nearby ones off their feet.

Landing among the gremlins, he largely ignored them. They were much easier for the city defenders to fight. While the smaller devils were troublesome in numbers, they weren’t particularly tough. The trolls were the real problem.

Neko landed on Dar’s shoulder in a crouch, then launched herself off of him and over the gremlins, right into a troll. Her claws lashed out and tore swaths in the hairless gorilla like creatures.

Dar was proud of her ferociousness, but he couldn’t let her upstage him. Smiling, he charged forward.

As he moved through the gremlins, he activated the dao of hard on his skin and clothes. The little buggers had sharp claws, and primitive weapons bounced off him as he crushed through them, coming out the other side to the trolls.

As much as he wanted to use brute force and see just how much he’d improved since he’d last fought trolls, it was most important to him to test out his new dao of shadows.

Dar’s own shadow sprang up behind him, slashing like a great blade and cleaving through the nearby gremlins.

He wielded his shadow like an extra limb as it flowed behind him, materializing in sharp blades and cutting at those who got in range.

Unfortunately, the trolls had thick skin and their dao was related to earth, making them tougher targets. When his shadow hit a troll, it stopped like it had hit a brick wall.

The troll grabbed Dar’s shoulders and tried to toss him.

Dar let his dao of heavy weigh him down, locking him onto the ground and stopping the troll from being able to throw him. He grabbed the troll and used his enchanted strength to lift the troll off the ground and slam the devil down on his back.

Deciding to try a closer tactic, Dar held his hand over the troll’s face and created shadows under his hand before turning them into sharp blades that tore apart the troll's skin, destroying the devil’s head.

Because his dao of shadows was a greater dao, he was largely limited to what he could touch, which meant he was mostly using his own shadow. But he could create his own shadow in many ways.

The blades were a simple, but effective, use of the dao.

The trolls must have realized the threat that Dar and Neko posed, because they abandoned their work driving the gremlins forward and came towards them en masse.

Neko was a sleek and agile fighter as she slipped under the guards of the lumbering trolls, her fingers becoming sharper than steel blades, powered by her dao of sharp.

The trolls found themselves tripping over each other, trying to catch the cat girl, ending up with cuts covering the undersides of their arms and their chests.

Neko spun over one particular troll, latching onto its back before she crossed her arms in a flash and severed the troll’s head. As it fell, she jumped off and started fighting another, onto the new troll before the old one even hit the ground.

Dar didn’t have much time to appreciate the savage element to Neko’s attacks, but he wished he could watch longer.

Focusing on his own fight, Dar continued to use his own skills to fight off the trolls. He stood his ground as trolls came swinging with clubs that were largely small uprooted trees or massive deadwood branches.

Between the dao of heavy and the dao of hard, Dar stood like a rock, taking the blows without flinching. The trolls tried to hammer him like a stubborn nail, but Dar’s body withstood the attack.

Seeing the right moment, Dar grabbed the clubs and wrenched them out of the trolls’ hands, swinging them hard enough to shatter them on their previous owners.

Trolls fell before his superior strength, and Dar’s shadow stretched out over them, finishing them like a wicked scythe.

It was far easier to take down the trolls than Dar remembered; he had only a few lesser dao the last time he fought trolls. He’d grown so much in such a short time. He now had two greater dao, and with them, a better understanding of the lesser dao that comprised them.

He and Neko continued to slaughter the surrounding trolls.

Dar was feeling quite confident that they could help eliminate the threat to the city until a massive troll began lumbering towards them, tossing one of the smaller ones aside.

Dar squinted, taking in the troll. It looked like it had huge slabs of stone hanging off his body in some sort of crude armor and a cudgel made of stone dragging on the ground behind it.

Dar recognized its strength; it exuded the power of a greater dao. He licked his lips, ready for a challenge.

The troll swung with enough force to make the air pop as it was displaced. Its stone cudgel hurtled forward in Dar’s vision as he braced himself with his dao.

Catching the crude weapon, Dar found himself sliding back, digging furrows in the ground from the force. His arms ached with the effort to hold the weapon from smashing into his face.

“Phew. That is some strength you have there, Big Boy.”

The troll bellowed in rage and then it raised its weapon, pausing a moment at the peak before swinging it. Dar watched as it hurtled down towards him like a meteor landing.

As much as Dar wanted to test his strength against Big Boy, he didn’t want to exhaust himself in the middle of the enemy lines.

Rolling to the side, the ground exploded with the impact as it hit, sending clods of earth spraying into the air. Dar’s feet caught under him, and he shot forward, tackling the creature that was double his size.

As he touched the Troll, Dar tried to see if he could use his granite dao to do anything, but it appeared the stone on the troll wasn’t granite. It resisted his dao.

So instead, Dar went for another tactic. He let his dao of shadow seep between the stone plates, stabbing into the troll. His victory was short-lived when it didn’t work. The blades weren’t able to push through the troll’s tough skin.

While he might have been able to make a blade out of shadows to cut through gremlins and the weaker trolls, this one had a greater dao and used it to protect itself. The shadows didn’t have the kind of penetrating power Dar needed.

The troll laughed, feeling Dar’s failed attempt to harm it and no doubt feeling invincible. The troll pointed and laughed at Dar, opening itself up for attack.

Dar didn’t hesitate.

Winding back, he threw a reckless punch right into one of the troll’s stone plates before activating his dao of combustion and detonating the surrounding stone.

The explosion rocketed Dar’s fist out of the stone. His hand was smoking as he removed it, the troll doubling over.

But Dar wasn’t done yet. He continued hitting the troll. Each time his fist touched the troll, his dao of combustion activated and blew another piece of stone apart. Dar kept going until his fists started touching troll flesh. Then he started blowing chunks out of the troll with every explosive punch.

The troll’s own control of dao tried to resist each time, but Dar’s focused attacks seemed to be enough to break through.

The troll stumbled and tried to drag itself off the ground, but Dar didn’t relent, changing his target to the troll’s head. He clasped it between his palms and rattled its brain with a concussive clap of combustion on each side.

The troll’s eyes rolled up into its head as it leaned forward, face planting into the ground.

Dar didn’t like to leave things up to chance, so he hauled the massive stone cudgel into the air and slammed it down in an execution of the troll.

The fight would have been easier if he had used one of the Black Knight’s weapons lying in his inner world, but he wasn’t about to show those off in front of The Prince, who still had a bounty out for Dar’s alter ego.

Dar looked around for the next target. All around him, trolls lay dead and dying. He and Neko had decimated the stronger devils on their own.

The gremlins were wise enough to stay well away from the duo. Most of the little greedy devils were still pushing into the city, while others on the outskirts had fled without the trolls herding them.

“You hit hard.” Neko looked down at the large troll. “And get hit a lot. Sasha is going to be mad that you ruined that shirt.”

Dar looked down. Despite extending his dao of hard to his clothes, they’d still been torn apart with the hits from the trolls.

“Let’s make sure to buy her some silk before we head back. She’d like that.”

Neko giggled and jumped on Dar’s back, hitching a ride as he walked back to the city, letting his shadow lash out and clear the way of any gremlins.

AN - As for what Neko did in town you'll find out later. Also last chapter for $2 patreons on this book.