[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 68: Flames of War III

Sam imbued every ounce of his bloodline prowess into [Whirling Slash] as he spun about like a top, locking his gaze on each weak point and adjusting minutely as he spun about and the demons closed in on him.

He didn’t have any [Fury] to spend, but as he spun continuously, he seemed to build some up even though, technically, he wasn’t using [Whirling Slash] correctly.

It was only meant to be a onetime use Art, like any other type of Sword Art. He could transition into a different one, but he kept spinning, hitting those weak points one after the other until he stuck the last one in a shower of sparks.

Like a chain of fireworks, the shields burst toward their carriers. Shrapnel exploded into their ranks, and Sam took full advantage of the chaos.

On the other side, he saw sprays of water and cries of pain from the fiery demons. Perhaps they were weak to water? They sure cleared a space where Matt had been casting on their back ranks.

Maybe Matt would be that much more of an effective damage dealer despite his low level. Elemental weaknesses were something Sam should have considered.

Sam, having turned their trap into one of his very own, cleaved and struck out with sword, boot, gauntleted fist, and pommel wherever he could find a gap in their ranks.

Without their shield bearers to defend them, the demons were unable to hold their ground. Sandwiched between Sam and his allies, they fell like a row of dominoes.

More kill notifications flowed in.

Level Up!

Your [Swordsman] Job has reached Level 16.

+4 Strength | +4 Vigor | +2 Agility

+2 Dexterity

+2 Bonus Points

The rush of another Swordsman level spurred Sam on, even as Matt whooped and hollered like a kid about getting several levels from that battle alone.

“You can’t tell me to turn back now!” he called to Sam’s back. “I just got a new spell too from hitting level 7.”

He’s only level 7?  The gulf of power between them was vast. The Mage Job hardly gained as many stats as Swordsman, too.

Sam had to forcibly remind himself that Matt started out far lower level when this all started. Jumping up to level 7 was incredibly good growth, even if it still didn’t compare to what Sam achieved on the starting island.

He absolutely was not going to tell Matt that. Not now anyway.

“Make sure you use it,” Sam called back to him as they reached the outer rim of the broken tower.

The dullahan were still fighting, but as their armor showed more and more cracks, it was clear that they were not going to hold out much longer.

Even with Raiko’s spirit fighting with them. It appeared that she left the roaming Chaos Sage alone when she was no longer directly targeting Sam.

Crescent slashes of mana pulsed out from her every attack, passing over the headless tops of the dullahans.

The dullahans seemed to be stronger than when he last saw them, despite how much more damage they took since then. Was Raiko’s presence giving them some kind of buff?

He had so many questions, such as whether it was something specific with the dullahan or something to do with her Skyshard, but Sam wasted no time asking.

He collided with the back ranks of the demons, cutting several of the weaker things down before they knew what was going on.

He didn’t trust getting too close to the dullahans, so he curved around through the demons’ small army, sending Kai and Matt clockwise while he went counterclockwise.

Forced to fight on two fronts, the demons let confusion reign, which gave the dullahans the opportunity to crash into their encircling forces.

With a shout in a foreign language, Raiko donned a gruesome oni mask. The demons cried out in dismay. Their morale dropped even further.

Sam couldn’t blame them. There was something unsettlingly dark about it.

Each demon they crushed prompted another demon to turn and run headlong into Sam, Kai, or Matt. Even Komachi tossed a few offensive spells into the mix, enough to stun or distract long enough that Sam’s blade finished the job.

It wasn’t until Sam unleashed three stacks of [Fury] with [Shockwave], throwing half a dozen demons into the air as the ground below them erupted with a surge of force, that he realized something had changed.

His [Power Stance] was giving him [Fury] stacks for normally attacking.

Rather than having to use one of the three Arts, Sam was simply using them as combo finishers. He blocked one thrusting spear, kicked out at their leg, sliced across the chest of a downed spear wielder, and then came in close, jumping to knee them in the chin.

As soon as his knee touched the ground, he spun around with his sword extended using [Reaping the Willows]. With 3 full [Fury] stacks, the cutting edge of the blade glowed a faint red and was extended more than a foot from its tip.

Like scything a crop of wheat, their legs stayed upright below the knee while the rest of their bodies fell to the ground.

Stunned and grasping for fallen weapons, Sam left them to the rapidly approaching dullahans. He didn’t know what sort of reception he might get, even with spirit Raiko amongst them.

For now, he was happy to keep a line of demons between himself and the fearsome armored dullahans.

Bloodied and weary, Sam caught sight of a large swaying anchorstone chain. Looking back to make sure Matt and Kai were okay, he rushed toward it.

What few demons there were between him and it saw his approach and turned tail. They had seen the things he did to the demons that outnumbered him and were, thankfully, smart enough to get out of his way.

He wouldn’t have minded a little extra EXP, but from the lack of additional level ups beyond hitting level 16 Swordsman, Sam figured that his best bet to keep the chain leveling going—and to save Raiko’s Tree, of course—was to go after the anchorstones and the shamans protecting them.

More demons spawned from the shadowy abyss, first a handful, then a dozen, and they kept multiplying. Replacing each and every demon that Sam and his allies laid low.

He idly wondered, as he sheathed his sword and leapt onto the swaying chain, if he could somehow exploit the shamans’ ability to summon more demons. It would be an infinite EXP farm.

It wasn’t the sort of thing he would seriously follow up on, given the dire state of Raiko’s Skyshard, but he was curious all the same.

His Strength and even Dexterity and Agility had grown so much during the fighting that he was surprised by his own speed.

He climbed the chain as easily as if he was walking down the street.

Each handhold held him without having to check if he had a good grip. Instead, he was more concerned with the growing potential of crushing the chain of the anchorstone. As he climbed up from the chain and pulled himself onto the island proper, he noticed more than a few depressions along the chain where his hands had been.

The demons hadn’t been sitting idly by, two defenders wielding cruel billhooks chopped down onto a shoulder a piece. His armor squealed in protest and a fifth of his HP dropped at the damage.

Their hooked ends caught under Sam’s shoulders and pulled him face-first aboard the island where another pair of guards raised clubs banded in rusted iron.

Sam took a deep breath and used [Void: Surge]. It didn’t hurt them, but the force of so much Void mana in such a small space created a bubble of pressure that pushed the murderous bastards back, buying Sam time to get to his feet and go on the offensive.

The billhook demons were the first to fall.

During the blast of Void mana, they had dropped their weapons, and that had spelled their doom.

The two clubbers closed up on each other, keeping their backs to the shaman, who was busy chanting.

Sam watched as some dark force reached out. Not the same shadowy substance that he had seen the shamans invoke, that was just a pale imitation of this frigid dark hatred that bubbled up all around the anchorstone.

Slamming his greatsword into the ground with [Shockwave], Sam staggered the two guards and struck out for their throats, hoping to stop whatever the shaman was doing before it was too late.

A wall of pitch black darkness erupted between Sam and the guards. He stopped just in time, but even a foot away, frost had gathered across his armor and his lungs burned with icy pain.

“Long have I waited for an opportunity to pay back an Incarnate upstart,” said a hollow, wretched voice. “Your cowardly friend won’t help you now. No God will lift a finger to aid you.”

Sam slowly spun around as the wall extended into a ring that hemmed him in. He thrust out a palm using [Void: Scour], blasting a hole in the darkness, and leaping through just as it closed around his ankle, freezing it solid.

Another [Scour] freed himself, but his foot was numb and a sharp tingling pain was crawling up his left leg. Purely on instinct, Sam thrust out his sword and impaled one of the demons with their club raised from behind.

Oh, so they can walk through the death shadow, but I can’t? Great!

The other demon was nowhere to be seen. Sam used the same trick as before on the shaman.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Once more, using [Void: Scour] and thrusting into the opening in the shaman’s barrier resulted in its demise. The demons linked to it, however, didn’t die.

Instead, Sam watched as black lines of shadow draped across the Skyshard like puppeteer strings. Rather than being severed when the shaman was killed, they were carefully gathered up by some unseen power and handed to another shaman.

Sam cursed and turned to destroy the anchorstone while he still could, but through the wall of impenetrable darkness, the final demon came at him.

Its club caught him right beneath the ribs. Again, his Thanas armor proved its worth. He could feel his ribs creak ominously, but they didn’t appear to break despite the surprising force the creature put into the swing.

He would have made Babe Ruth seem like he played little league.

The surprise on the demon’s face when Sam was still standing was the only reason he managed to get in a sucker punch, then a pommel strike.

Dazed and off-balanced, Sam twisted on the ball of his good leg. [Whirling Slash] freed the demon’s head from its neck, and an inky frigid cold fell from the wound.

Sam dismissed the EXP notification even as it appeared. He needed to stay focused.

The wall of darkness still separated Sam from the anchorstone, but he wasn’t worried. He just Broke the island, and since the anchorstone was part of the island, it was destroyed as well.

This time, however, Sam had planned ahead and was already scaling down the chain as fast as he could as the island above shattered into pieces and rained down upon him.

He dropped the last twenty or so feet, tucked and rolled to the side to absorb the force, then sprang up to one foot and hobbled away as fast as he could.

It was more than a little concerning that his foot was still numb, but his HP was on the rebound with Komachi’s [Regens] going strong. She popped out every so often to jingle her bell and cast another spell, but even Sam could see she was running out of MP fast.

Kai and Matt were nowhere to be seen. He had hoped that killing the shaman would kill all the demons attacking the tower and dullahans.

Instead, the number of demons around the broken tower had multiplied. He had made the situation worse, and unless he could kill the last shaman quickly, he feared for Kai and Matt.

Every demon between him and the next anchorstone had given up all pretense of attacking the Sacred Tree.

Hordes of red-glowing eyes turned to Sam and a bone-chilling screech of bloodthirsty rage rolled across the hilly plains as if from one mouth.

Sam squared up his shoulders, tightened his grip on his claymore, and clumsily charged forward, praying his numb foot wouldn’t trip him up.