Chapter 31: Fae Horrors

Hell came on buzzing wings, descending from the heavens and into the bowels of the Earth.

Within the rocky ravine, Axel dove for cover as a 15-ton abomination of nature roared and crashed to the ground, aiming to flatten him.

The Fae Dragon twisted its head — a multi-eyed stalk with over a narrow, horned skull — and bellowed. A torrent of acidic liquids spewed from its mouth and washed over his cover, turning the rock outcropping he was hiding behind into slag.

Axel was already moving — not away, but towards the dragon. The air was filled with buzzing flies again, and they obscured his view of the beast, but its silhouette within the murky moonlight was visible.

It certainly looked like a dragon from a distance. Standing at the canyon’s throat, the creature dominated with its broad, membranous wings and coiled tail. The bulk alone was cause for alarm — the dragon was the size of a small building; at least five metres tall while hunched over, and a length thrice that from head to tail.

Up close, however, the true grotesque nature of the thing became clear. Oily chitinous plates the colour of obsidian, mandibles from elongated jaws, and mantis-like spiked forelimbs. The carapace bulged and squirmed with vein-like tubings, torso bubbling like a worm.

It saw Axel’s approach through the swarm of flies, and with an ear-piercing shriek, it charged to meet him. 

The Fae Dragon's wings beat with an unnatural force, giving it lift and sending its horrid mass lurching towards Axel. The soldier readied his twin axes and, with preternatural speed and strength, clashed against the beast.

Scything limbs came first, aiming to stab, slash, or flay from above. Axel’s blade-work parried the blows, but each clash carried such weight that they sent a horrific tremor up his arms. 

Using his strength and reflexes, the soldier broke the monster's guard and pressed forth into its festering embrace. Passed the limbs, Axel slid low, going under the floating bulk of the dragon. More vestigial limbs grasped and swung at him. The air beneath stank of ammonia and rot. Heavy gusts beat from his sides as he fully allowed himself to descend into the Dragon’s shadow.

Here, he swapped his axes for iron spears, stabbing hard at the softer underbelly between the creature’s plates. The monster shrieked and rancid blood poured, but the tip of the blade did not go deep.

Even its stomach is too hard, Axel snarled. He rolled to the side and out of the creature's shadow just as it slammed its torso down. The spear impaled upon its underbelly snapped and broke off.

In that brief moment of the Dragon’s vulnerability, Axel summoned his axes and tried to swing for its jointed limbs, hoping to cripple it.

A sharp whistling from above. The soldier cancelled his attack and blocked.

The Dragonrider thrusted his lance with horrendous force. Axel’s weapon shattered under the impact, and the soldier was sent flying.

He collided hard against the canyon walls, both arms shattered.

[Warning! Health below 20%!]

[Conditions met! ‘Last Stand’ activated]

[Stats increased! Endurance +12, Strength +8, Agility +8]

A small but welcome surge of power welled within him. Axel forced himself up just in time to dodge another torrent of acid belched forth from the Dragon’s maw.

He ducked behind another rock, summoning a potion to his side. The moment he tried to drink it with his broken arms, however, a cloud of flies swarmed to his face, blocking his mouth and infuriatingly clogging the potion bottle’s opening with their buzzing mass.

Another roar. This time, the flood of acid cut through the rock like a beam and smashed into the floor beside him, spraying his broken arms with caustic fluids.

His skin burned, hissing as they were melted to the bone within seconds.

[Warning! Health below 10%!]

Axel wanted to roar, to scream, but his mouth was clogged with a dozen buzzing things that crawled and bit on his inner cheek and tongue. The soldier hissed and chewed with machine-like movements, ignoring the revulsion and rising bile as he viciously tore and pulverised the persistent lumps of buzzing flies in his mouth. He spat out the resulting rancid, still-twitching lump, leaving his mouth free.

There were so many. He could not even open his eyes without his eyeballs being assaulted by stinging bites. Even if the damage was minimal thanks to his high endurance, he could not fight effectively like this.

More wingbeats descended. Axel heard laughter as he was surrounded on all sides by those large, insect-humanoid creatures from before.

Four Fae-Hybrids, all level 20 each. Their upper bodies and faces were shaped into an attractive feminine form — sharply defined faces and long silvery hair that framed pitch-black eyes, and womanly curves upon their breasts — but below the chest, their lower torso and legs were replaced by a bulbous thorax and a fat, ooze-dripping insect abdomen. They possess great moth wings as well, and their many arms all end in scythe-like blades.

One of them giggled. “Play with us, too, Demon!”

“I want his pretty eyes!” Another shouted manically.

They all charged him at once.

Arms broken, flesh melting or burnt, the hollow gaze of Axel looked up, as if resigned to impending death.

Then, the soldier grinned, the mouthpiece of an ancient warhorn clutched tight between his teeth.

Axel sucked hard, then blew into the horn.

[‘The General’s Oliphant’ activated!]

[Blizzard summoned!]

[All Stats boasted +6!]

A haunting echo roared across the earth, and the breath of winter’s fury descended upon the canyon like a tidal wave.

A thousand flies froze instantly. Entire swarms died as the corpses of frosted insects rained down upon the earth like hailstones. The maddening, ear-scratching noise of buzzing was replaced with a blizzard’s primal howl, killing all lesser creatures in its freezing embrace.

Snow came from nowhere, whirling in extreme gusts that turned visibility to zero for all trapped within, save for one.

Axel looked up, silver eyes glowing bright blue as the magic of the horn gave him clear vision despite the snow. With shaking arms, he forced two health potions into his lips.

[Full Health restored!]

His flesh mended itself with impossible speed. His bones cracked themselves back to alignment.

He was whole again, but the problem remained.

[You cannot win.]

Probably not, but it was unlikely he could escape the horde as it was. The flies could no doubt track him. He had nowhere to run or hide.

That left him with only one avenue. 

“Time to die fighting,” he laughed. From his inventory, he pulled out a weapon.

Not his axes, nor the arsenal of iron weapons he had amassed. What he pulled forth was a titan that could not be compared to its lesser brethren of war.

Gold of haft and red of blade. Massive beyond reason and practicality, yet perfectly balanced and weightless in his hands. Forged under torture and tempered by a Dragon’s blood, it now hungered for the flesh of beasts that could blacken the sky.

Axel readied the Troll King’s Halberd, blade whistling as he swung it around, tip pointing forth. 

The manic laughing of four Fae-Hybrids danced in the wind as they rushed him again.

The blizzard hampered their visibility, but still the four attacked as one, lashing from all sides. Axel swung the halberd, using his greater reach to his advantage, keeping the foe at a distance when he could. His visibility was clear, allowing him to dodge the semi-blind swings of his assailants as he delivered precise cleaves. 

With a massive overhead swing, the blood-rimmed edge of the blade turned black as the metal tore into Fae flesh and ripped through its chitinous body like it were cloth. It didn’t die instantly; the maddened grin of the female monster remained even with its body split halfway down the middle.

Pulling it back, Axel sawed through his opponent’s body and pulled the blade free, just in time to use the opposite side of the halberd’s axehead — a wickedly hooked spike jutting like a curved fang — and to intercept another encroaching Fae-hybrid.

The sharpened end drove itself deep into the creature’s abdomen, catching it from below like the blade of a reaper’s scythe. Then, in one fluid pivot, Axel twisted his body and turned his back to the weight. The haft locked against his shoulder like a lever, and with a surge of violent motion, he heaved upward — his whole body becoming a fulcrum for lethal mutilation. The opposite end of the weapon swung skyward, dragging out the creature’s blackened innards in a brutal, rising arc.

The abdomen of the Fae-hybrid exploded outwards into a rain of gore as the thick strands of its putrid intestines were ripped from its body and flung into the open air. The Fae-hybrid gave one final laugh, expression wide with near-orgasmtic ecstasy, before it collapsed, black eyes blank.

The other Fae-hybrids laughed louder, stoked to greater heights of excitement, as they saw one of their sisters die in horrific agony.

[Level 20 Fae-Hybrid slain!]

The blizzard continued its roars, drowning all other noise while bringing its wails of freezing pain. The two remaining uninjured Fae Hybrids came upon him together, but it was clear the cold and wind had slowed their movements. Their supersonic agility was reduced to sluggish speeds as they charged blindly, their heads lowered and horns raised, hoping to impale him despite the lowered speed and visibility. 

Axel narrowly dodged the first. For the second, he spun, the halberd’s spearpoint gleaming like a silver fang as the soldier stepped into the monster’s charge.

With a twist of his wrists, he brought the halberd's shaft down and to the side, catching the Fae-Hybrid’s momentum on the curved hook beneath the blade. The weapon groaned. Iron shrieked. The steel slid under the monster’s thick neck, lodging deep.

The manic laughing turned choked as the monster’s lungs filled with blood. Before the creature could break free, Axel turned, planting his heel and dropping low. Muscles bulging, the haft of the halberd braced across his broad chest, its length catching on the notch of his shoulder like a hinge. In a single, practised motion, he pivoted, dragging the weapon’s long arc up and over his body.

The halberd’s blade whistled through the air, carrying the entire bulk of the Fae-Hyrbid by its impaled neck.

The Fae was lifted off the ground, her neck muscles tearing as it strained to support the monster’s entire weight within the force of that rising swing. And then—rip and crack—the backspike caught her spine and sheared through chitin, bone, and sinew.

A violent pull, metal ripping clean, and the creature’s body collapsed as her decapitated, grinning head was sent flying.

[Level 20 Fae-Hybrid slain!]

The last flying Fae-Hybrid turned around, coming in for another aerial charge after its first miss, wailing and laughing.

Axel thought he heard a tinge of despair and anguish within its madness. There was… something familiar in it.

That twisting horror of insanity used to disguise grief.

It did little to make him hesitate. He did not pause nor afford himself a single wasted motion.

Axel turned with the falling body, dragging the blade free from the headless torso with a twist of his hips. Blood sprayed in a crescent as he reset his stance — low, balanced, the halberd’s wet blade poised to reap another life.

He met the charge head-on, bringing the blade around in a wide, arcing slash — clean, controlled, and deadly. Crimson-black steel whistled through the air, then howled as it connected, carving a sharp crescent through Fae flesh and bone. The motion was fluid, almost effortless, but the aftermath was anything but. 

Blood fanned outward in a red-black arc, painting the ground in brilliant patterns as two pieces of the bisected Fae-hybrid passed Axel’s form, showering him in gore before crashing against the wall behind him.

[Level 20 Fae-Hybrid slain!]

Silence. No more buzzing — Only the howls of raging blizzard winds that sounded distant in his ears.

Then, a pained cough, as well as a tired giggle.

“Beautiful…”

He turned. The first Fae-Hybrid he wounded — her body torn from shoulder to belly — still lay against the snow, turning it black with its pouring blood.

She spoke again, voice strained with laughter and agony. “You are… exquisite. Like our Lords of old, how impossibly brilliant you shine…”

Axel walked over wordlessly, halberd in hand. 

“But you know, Demon…”

He stopped beside the monster.

“You would look so much better…”

He raised his blade.

“If your smile wasn’t so sad, like ours.”

He froze.

The monster’s face, tears of blood flowing from black eyes, met his. 

Past her pain, he saw a pitying, empathetic stare. She opened her mouth—

—and lunged.

Instincts forced Axel to bring the blade down. The halberd slashed hard, completely tearing what remained of the creature’s lower torso in half. 

Still, the upper body of the Fae-Hybrid carried forth, boosted by the last dregs of power within its wounded wings. A scythe-limb came for his head; too close, he could not dodge!

Then… a pinprick of pain.

The blade did not cleave his head in half, or aim for his neck and eyes.

Instead, it sliced across his cheeks, almost gently. A thin line of blood welled from the cut.

The mangled body of the Fae-Hybrid slammed against his. Her arms hooked around his shoulder and neck, bringing their faces close. 

She was light and warm; everything below her chest was severed, and her heated guts were spilling over his legs. Only the upper part of her body remained, and yet, she was still conscious. 

She opened her mouth, and her tongue languidly licked across the tiny wound she made upon his cheeks. She lapped the blood, then shuddered.

“You will do… Go kill that Prince for us, Broken Demon.”

Upon those final words, her eyes turned blank, and she finally died.

[Level 20 Fae-Hybrid slain!]

[New Blessing Received: Wishful Hopes of the Defiled Royals]

[Class Boon Active! All Stat gains doubled! Temporary Skill Bonus duration doubled!]

[+4 to all stats for the next 10 minutes]

[Defeat the Eldarin Prince within the Blessing’s Duration to gain an Exotic Trait!]

Axel stared uncomprehendingly, the severed body of the Fae-Hybrid still clinging to his shoulders.

All around him, the wind began to die. The snow had dissipated, as if it had never been there. The cold rapidly disappeared.

The entire exchange with the Fae-Hybrids had barely lasted a minute. All four now lay dead before him.

[‘The General’s Oliphant’ expired!]

[Cooldown remaining: 4 minutes!]

Almost instantly, the blizzard vanished, leaving the skies clear.

Axel pushed the body off him, letting its gore slick past his front. He turned around, boots crunching against the frozen flies covering the ground.

Before him, the Fae Dragon snarled, split maws dripping acid as it could finally see its prey.

Riding atop, the Prince glared at him. Armoured and regal, the Eldarin looked upon Axel’s bloody form with contempt.

His facial features mirrored those of the monsters Axel had just slain.

“Well met, Demon from another world,” the Eldarin said, his voice clear and strong. “I have been looking forward to this.”

Axel tried to smile back, to show his madness through bared teeth and feral eyes, as he had always done before.

He could not. The fire within him was cold. An unfamiliar emotion had seized him.

So instead, he raised the halberd tip towards the Prince.

The Eldarin nodded in acknowledgement. The Dragon shrieked and took to the skies.

When it swooped down once more, the moonlit lance of the Prince clashed against the crimson gold of Axel’s halberd.

The final duel of the Zone commenced, and though Axel had not known at the time…

Scutinised by otherworldly beings beyond Gods, the fate of his entire species now rested on his shoulders.