Chapter 41: Blood, Fire & Shadow (2) (Patreon)

World: MSS - Loading...

***

Arione had summoned an oblong shaped disc, large enough to fit them all.  Clover, Scarlet and L’teya were on the disc which levitated in the air right behind Arione.  They patrolled through the city, Arione searching for Lock while killing groups of people as soon as Scarlet confirmed that the black-haired slave wasn’t among them.

“Over there?”  Scarlet asked.

Clover shook her head then closed her eyes.  Just as expected a second later, Arione’s Flame Tornado rose in the spot that Scarlet had pointed to.

“HELP!”

“FUCK! I’M BUR-”

“PLEASE!”

“DAD!”

“FOR HONOR!”

Clover wanted to block her ears and keep her eyes closed forever.  But deep within, she knew without an ounce of doubt that she’d remember this for years.

She opened them again, looking through the streets.  Her heart lurched, looking at the burnt skeletons.  Could any of them be Lock?  Even if they weren’t, was it a slave she had trained with? Someone she had sat with at the mess hall?  Arione’s merciless spells were starting to weigh down on Clover’s conscience. 

The smaller skeletons were the worst.

“Keep your eyes peeled for your friend.”  Arione ordered.  As soon as they began this whole ordeal, his manner had shifted.  More focused, intense.

Cold.

Scarlet layered the four of them with Blessings and Clover felt her mana circulate faster and with more intensity.  She saw a group of Akka Xaluds fighting a small group of Berserkers.  The Akka Xaluds were outnumbered two to one.  Holding out her hands she concentrated deep within her, where she knew the gift that Oung had given her lay.  Arione had informed her about the berserkers and the soldiers’ need for Clover’s aid when facing them in combat.

｢Clover Weinport casts  [Sharpened Senses] ｣

｢Clover Weinport casts [Enhanced Regeneration] ｣

Small pieces of her mana floated through the air and touched the armor of the Akka Xalud soldiers.  Beneath the gaps in their armor, she saw their wounds mend, turning into raw pink skin.  Their movement became sharper, more controlled and the same could be said for the insects they controlled.  An Akka Xalud soldier riding a giant beetle the size of a small house took to the air, raining the streets with arrow after arrow.

The Berserkers fell quickly.

Clover looked away from the scenes of carnage and turned her attention to those of the living.  The pink-haired woman looked towards pockets of resistance that fought back against Arione and the Akka Xalud soldiers in particular.  Lock wasn’t the type to run away with his tail tucked between his legs.  He’d stand his ground and fight, continuing to search for herself and L’teya.

“I need to find him and let him know we’re ok… that we can get us out of here.”  Clover wanted nothing more than to see the black-haired slave.

Everytime Clover saw a human man with shoulder length black hair and a manacle around his neck, she thought it was Lock.  But none shared his wiry frame or the scar running from his eye all the way to his chin.  The slave was nowhere to be seen, however, and that meant one more body for Arione to burn.  One more innocent for the Akka Xaluds to cut down.

Clover banished the fear, guilt and shame; hiding them in the corner of her heart where she could forget about them.  Where she didn’t have to face herself.

“It’s ok.”  The Priestess convinced herself as more bodies were lacerated by Arione’s winds.  “Lock and L’teya would have done the same.”

***

After picking up the pace, we quickly passed by the cages where I had met Scarlet.

“This is it.”  I stopped in the middle of the stairwell to check on my companions.

Skaris was breathing hard but no worse than I.  Briefly I wondered what kind of training Skaris went through in his home village to take all this without batting an eye.  He even had less Cores than me, only two.  On the other hand, Kyrian looked worse than ever.  His lips were blue and eyes had lost focus.  The man was completely exhausted.

“Do you hear that?”  The sounds of battle came flowing down.  

Screams of men and women alike, accented by the scent of blood.

Skaris nodded.  “I am ready.”

Kyrian didn’t give me a verbal answer but his eyes did the speaking for him.

Taking a deep breath, I opened the door finally leading us out of the darkness of the subterranean cave and into the first floor of the cavern.

Into Pandemonium.

The first thing I noticed was the orange glow of fire and the smell of smoke that punctuated throughout the place.  The first temple I remembered was gone, it was a sea of fire filled to the brim with corpses.  I saw a body that was burnt from the waist down, blackened ash the only sign that the beastman had been once whole.  Another that was pinned to the wall by a spear through her stomach, one eye hanging out of its sockets.  Still more signs of slaughter assaulted my senses.

I do not know how but the stone building was burning.  Angry red flames licked at the floor and continued to climb higher, threatening to leave the whole building covered in it.  The statue of the Autarch was made of bronze and it glowed red with heat, the side of its head started to slough into liquid metal before my eyes.  But I didn’t have time to keep on watching because we hadn’t entered the aftermath of the killings; we were in the midst of it.

“Kyrian! Cover me!”  

I saw a fighter in dark green chitinous armor, reminding me of a cross between a reptile and insect.  He held curved blades in both hands – called a scimitar if I was remembering correctly – and was using them with deadly efficiency, cutting down manacled slaves in front of him.  He wasn’t the only warrior with that armor, there were others flying about on flying-insect mounts and still more.  But scimitar -wielder was the closest.

I charged straight at him, activating [Coin Toss] and praying for a debuff.

My prayers were answered.  Immediately I felt the sensation of being pressed down from all sides, my skin condensing in on itself.

A defense buff from [Arcane Masochism].  Not as useful as an attack or speed, but better than a useless buff from Coin Toss.

The warrior turned my way, my footsteps and verbal command towards Kyrian alerting him of my presence.  He brandished his weapons and met me head on.  

Before I could even try anything, he slashed me across both shoulders and kicked me in the stomach.  He followed up with a stab towards my throat that would have killed me if Skaris didn’t knock away the dual-thrust with his halberd.

“Beware Ssslaveborn! They are ssstrong!”  Skaris warned me.

I got to my feet, wishing badly that I had a shield.  The insectoid warrior was faster than any other warrior I’ve ever seen, even the Tiger-totem berserkers.

Both of my offensive abilities, Hateful Wound and Sadistic Mimicry – if it was still called that for the Named Monster’s Core – were dependent on the fact that I could wound the enemy.  Plus, my current fighting style depended on receiving numerous debuffs to activate Arcane Masochism, bringing up my Attack, Defense and Speed to its fullest potential.  All in all, I was a slow starter and against a fighter like this who outclassed me from the get-go, I needed stall tactics.

The fighter was pressing his attack, trying to close the distance between himself and Skaris.  I saw the red-scaled fighter knock the fighter off of his feet with a tail-sweep and try to finish him off with a stab to the chest.  But we’d taken too long and the other chitinous warriors were starting to pay us attention; Skaris and I were the only ones who had weapons among the dozens of manacled slaves in this entire building.

“Lock! They’re the Akka Xaluds Soldiers!”  

｢Kyrian Tricilan casts [Reduce Sight]｣

I heard Kyrian call my name and felt the same sensation while we had been dueling the berserkers: he was casting a curse-type spell.  I made a split second decision and ran towards the group of warriors who were approaching us.

I was taking a risk by getting into their range.  I should have stayed back; letting my enemies get debuffed first but I wanted to catch them by surprise.

The armored warrior stopped and some of them even took off their helmet; those must be the ones with a particularly low [Sight] stat.  Interestingly, every single one of them were human.  That made sense, Kyrian told me that the Akka Xaluds were a Great House of the Turina Empire, the country of mainly humans.

｢[Arcane Masochism] raises [Speed]｣

I felt my feet practically slide across the floor as I reached the first warrior in front of me.  The only weapon he held in his hand was a shield, made of the same exoskeleton material as his armor.  Even with my speed buff, he matched me move for move; blocking my sword maneuvers.  I felt the gap between our experience with the first two moves.  The other guy had been faster than me and this guy with the shield was more skilled than me.

I feinted left, pretending to aim for his non-shield holding arm but soon realized he had been the one feinting me all along.

The greaves on his hand parted into separate interlocking plates as his hand grew in size, transforming into what looked like a giant crab claw.  He didn’t need to block my strike with the shield anymore; he grabbed it with the newly formed pincer and broke the sword clean off.  Seeing the broken sword made me miss the jagged katana.

But my sword had never been meant to wound it, simply to distract.  Just because I feinted with my sword didn’t mean I needed it for the next move; I threw the broken sword at his face; purposefully aiming towards a spot that was closer to his claw rather than the shield.  Then as expected, he knocked it away with his claw.

[Sadistic Mimicry] (or whatever it was called now) would only work if I hit my opponent.  He’d been blocking my attacks with his shield, what if he blocked with the claw which was considered his body part?  Would it still count as being blocked or being attacked?

I felt his ability flow into me and the claw appendage disappeared, leaving his hand exposed.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what the ability from Prince Charming’s Core did.  The witch doctor screaming at me had been enough of a clue; my new ability worked the same as [Sadistic Mimicry] did, except it would disable my opponent from using what I mimicked.

｢[Sadistic Kleptomania] has stolen [Crab Claw]｣

｢Lock Slaveborn casts [Crab Claw]｣

The best thing about this [Crab Claw] I stole? It did extra damage to equipment; both weapons and armor.  Hence, why my sword broke so easily.

I wondered if he knew that I knew about the skill just as much as him, if not more.

Ducking low, I sliced across his knees first; he must have been in shock because there was reaction until after both his kneecaps were shredded.  I had to give him credit though, he put his shield between us and tried to backpedal out of reach.  I saw behind his friends that they were close enough to help now.  But blood had been drawn; that meant another toy for me to play with.

｢[Sadistic Kleptomania] has stolen [Acid Tentacle]｣

Want to know something nice about Sadistic Mimicry? If I use an ability I stole, I can mimic another ability immediately.  But that doesn’t mean I lose the effects of the initial cast.  That ability will remain until I cancel it or the timer runs out.

I transformed my other hand into a bluish-green tentacle dripping with acid, grabbing the fighter’s neck and pulling him towards me.  

The Acid Tentacle melted through his armor like hot knife through butter, his muffled screen grew louder right as the part of his helmet protecting his chin was corroded off.  He tried desperately to push me with his shield but with his legs destroyed, there was no strength behind the shove.  I finished him off quickly, releasing his neck with the tentacle and decapitating his neck with the claw.

I saw the other fighters stop their advance.

｢[Sadistic Kleptomania] has stolen [Arachno Physiology (Lesser)]｣

This ability was from the monster, Lesser Tsuchigomo (​​土蜘蛛).  It brought me back to the time that L’teya and I had been forced to fight that adventurer before entering Oung’s dungeon, right outside the door.  But the dying man knew what he was doing with his Cores, unlike the assassin who used a combination of Wind Barrier and this ability.

An itching sensation overcame me and I felt two limbs sprout from my back, right behind my armpits.  The feeling of having two extra hands overloaded my brain momentarily and I knew that it would take practice for me to control them with the same dexterity as my original hands.  But my two new limbs didn’t end in hands; one ended in a Crab Claw and the other in an octopus tentacle.

｢[Arachno Physiology] reduces [Handicraft]｣

｢[Arcane Masochism] cancels [Arachno Physiology (Lesser)]｣

｢[Arcane Masochism] raises [Attack]｣

Now that’s what I call Core Synergy.

The fighters had hesitated after I killed one of them, but they flinched as a group once more right as I sprouted the extra limbs.  They stopped again.  They must’ve been confused, a slave with a manacle still around his neck just killed one of their own in single combat; not to mention using the very abilities that their friend was using.  I instinctively knew from their demeanor that none of the slaves had put up a fight like this.

I waded in and grabbed the one closest to me with the tentacles.  He tried to cut them off using the daggers but I blocked them with my claw and wrapped the tentacles around both his wrists.  His helmet muffled his scream as my Crab Claw decapitated him clean off, aided by the new attack buff.  I immediately activated the Core ability I copied from him.

｢Lock Slaveborn casts [Wind Barrier]｣

The other fighters had recovered by now and were rushing me, all of them using either a dagger or sword.  Unlike the berserkers, it seemed that the Akka Xaluds favored outfitting their soldiers with similar weapons.  It could also have been the fact that these guys possessed similar Cores.  Regardless, the soldiers who had been rushing me were buffeted away by the sphere of wind I created around myself.

My tentacles grabbed another soldier that was flying by his ankles and before he could react, my Crab Claws stabbed into his chest half a dozen times.  The man died without a sound.

｢[Sadistic Kleptomania] has stolen [Charlotte’s Web]｣

I moved both my claws in an arc and they shot out strands of strengthened silk.  The warriors had just started to get themselves together, deciding that the best course of action was to keep me from touching them in the first place.  I saw two of them grow wings out of their backs and take towards the ceiling, flying out of reach.  Another chose to use his ability to create an exoskeleton around his body, using the sword to cut webbing that was falling around him.

Crackle-Crackle

Crack

Lightning flashed and fried him to a crisp within his armor, filling my nose with the scent of burning flesh.  

Kyrian was finally joining the battle.

Looking back I saw that Skaris had slain the dual-scimitar wielding soldier, using the Bool Dokkaebi’s [Playing with Fire] ability to burn away the armor.  He finally used Inmyun Ho’s Core ability: [Hand in Hand].  It created a translucent clone of which mimicked his every movement.  The clone could not move separately but it would mimic Skaris’ Core usage as well; every one of its halberd strikes that found its mark left the wound burning.

There must have been two to three dozen of those soldiers.

But we were pushing them back.

“M-monster.  MONSTER!”  One of the soldiers started screaming.  “FUCKER! HE’S NOT HUMAN! MAGE!! MAGEE!!!”  

He must have been praising Skaris; with the Inmyunho Clone fighting alongside him Skaris looked like a martial artist from a xianxia novel.  Plus with his red-scales, he looked inhuman.

More people filed in from the openings to the temple, effectively surrounding us.  They wore a dark-green cloak, same color as the armor of the Akka Xalud warriors; they must be the Akka Xalud mages.  I saw one of them take a look at me and step back involuntarily.

“KILL HIM! HE’S A MONSTER!”  

The mages began chanting, some of them lifting up their staffs and the other burning paper talismans.  Though the methods were different, their end-result was the same: roaring flames came to life and rippled the air in the temple with scorching heat.  As one, the mages sent dozens of flame-streams flying right at me.

I slipped underneath the shadow of an archway right as the flames reached me.

The flames flew right past me.

Normally getting immunity to magical damage came with a downside, the defense debuff from Gloomy Disposition.  With Arcane Masochism, the debuff was automatically canceled out.  If I had absorbed a normal Shadow Mimic Wolf’s Core, that’d be the end of it.  But I knew that this Gloomy Disposition had a twist thanks to the Shadow Mimic Wolf – that the Core dropped from – being a Named Boss.

Bits of shadow began to leak from my boots, indicating that I could use [Shadow Blink], a side-effect of the passive which rendered me immune to magical damage.  It had taken a bit of guesswork and Kyrian’s help but I managed to figure it out.

“M-monster…”  I heard one of them praise Skaris again.

No.  I could see it now.

They were afraid of me.

I wanted to kill them.

I knew I could.  And the Spirit Cores within me cried for it, the Ujo in particular.  I wanted to lean in and obey the call for blood, satiating the need for violence.  Monsters saw bloodlust as the same thing as hunger; when they wanted to eat, they’d eat.  When they wanted to kill, they’d kill.  There was no wrong or right about it, just fulfilling a need.

But I wasn’t a monster despite what these guys were calling me.

Even if they were enemies, they were still people.

“Leave.”  I was surprised by my own voice; it came out deeper than before and was a throaty snarl.

The Akka Xalud soldiers looked at each other, hesitating.  The mages were already edging towards the archways; after having seen me survive a concentrated fire-spell and walk out without singing a single strand of hair, they were nervous.  

The Ujo and the Shadow Mimic Wolf’s senses dominated my own; I could smell their fear.

They were already broken.

It started with one single person, a boy no older than eighteen wearing dark green robes.  His face broke into a sob and turning around, he ran out of the temple.  Everyone had been looking at each other wondering who would be the first to leave.  

Every mage and soldier wearing the dark green of the Akka Xalud left the temple.

Looking around, I saw Skaris with a fierce smile, looking at me with obvious respect.  He tilted his head just a bit and I returned the gesture.  Kyrian looked horrified but that was replaced by awe.

One by one, the survivors of the massacre started to come out.  They had been hiding behind the rubble and fallen statues.  Orcs and humans.  Elves and dwarves.  Slaves with manacles and others with fancy clothing.  All came out as one.  The slaves saw the manacle on my neck and I saw the majority of their eyes shine with something I hadn’t seen in a long, long time.

Hope.

***

｢You have unlocked a hidden quest!｣

｢Quest: Slave King｣

｢+1 Fame｣

｢+1 Fame｣

｢+1 Fame｣

｢+1 Fame｣

｢+1 Fame｣

…

｢Character is rapidly gaining Fame!｣

｢Increased Probability of Special Scenarios!｣