Dao 3 Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Dar turned, ready to head back to the city after taking on the trolls, but he was intercepted by a giant white form that hurtled itself off the wall and came crashing down before him.

“Neko. Stay back.” Dar tried to make sure that Neko didn’t get herself killed as he watched a bloodthirsty Karn stride straight for him. He had no idea what Karn was doing.

“Stupid bear.” Neko pushed off Dar and landed in a crouch, but she stayed back.

Karn picked up speed like a train pulling out of the station as he charged Dar.

Dar wracked his brain trying to figure out what was going on. But Karn gave him little time to think.

Dar blocked the fuzzy white fist as the demon came swinging. It felt like he’d just gotten hit by a truck. Dar was blown back a dozen feet, even with his dao of heavy.

Karn roared into the air; his black beady eyes of his were filled with the desire to fight.

“Karn, stop. What are you doing?”

But he got no response. It was like the demon was possessed. Karn swung as if to take Dar’s head.

At that point, Dar couldn’t afford to hold back. So he rolled out of the way and drew upon his dao of granite. Unfortunately, when he pulled, he got no response. It figured he’d be on top of ground with no granite underneath.

Crossing granite off his list of options, he moved on to shadow. He tried to tangle up Karn’s feet with his dao of shadows.

Karn ignored the dao, ripping his legs out of Dar’s attempt to hobble him and stomping down, creating a ripple of ice that rained spikes on Dar.

For all that Dar trusted his dao of hard, he wasn’t about to take one of Karn’s attacks head on if he could help it.

Blasting the surrounding air with heat, he hoped to stave off more of Karn’s ice. But as they kept coming, it became clear that the demon’s grand dao could overpower his lesser heat dao. Dar just had to keep moving.

Every time Karn swung and missed, the air grew several times colder.

Dar wasn’t sure what the hell he could pull out to compete against the bear.

“Fight me!” Karn growled, spittle flying from his mouth. “Watching you got my blood pumping. I want to see your strength.” He slammed both hands into the ground.

The world around Dar erupted in shards of ice. One managed to touch Dar, burning him with how cold it was and leaving behind a patch of painful red skin.

Dar cursed. Cherry was his best option at that point for help, but he couldn’t ask her to come out in full view of the city. Hearing a hiss, he realized Neko was prowling well outside of the fight, glaring angrily at Karn.

He was proud of her for not stepping in and getting tangled up in the fight, when it was clear she wanted to.

“Is that all this is about, Karn? You just want to fight?” Dar goaded the bear as he dodged again, making his way towards the forest that the devils had come out of. There, hidden in the trees, Cherry would be her strongest.

“Don’t pretend. I want to see your strength.” Karn barreled forward with surprising speed, catching Dar and picking him up in a running tackle before crushing him back down to the earth. “Where is your strength? No need to hide it. If you do, I’ll probably end up killing you.”

There, staring into Karn’s eyes, Dar could see a touch of madness eating away at the demon. He had a lust for battle and blood that had consumed him.

Catching his knees under Karn’s bulk, Dar kicked the bear off of him and rolled to his feet. “I don’t know what the heck you expect from me Karn.”

The bear didn’t even seem bothered by being tossed into the air as he rolled to his hands and feet with a crooked chuckle. “Oh, quit playing. I want to see Lilith’s little pet fight again.”

Dar’s gut sank. Somehow, Karn recognized that he was the Black Knight.

“Don’t look like that. Of course, I know who you are. Don’t you remember when Lilith brought you to Frost’s Fang? Your eyes were so lifeless back then.” Karn licked his lips. “But the fight was glorious.”

Karn charged again on all fours in a running lope that belonged to a bear, not a bipedal creature.

He’s crazy, Dar thought. The stupid bear is a maniac.

But there was no time to lament his situation. Dar turned and ran headlong into the forest, using bushes and trees to slow down Karn’s charge.

The bear wasn’t so easily dissuaded; he crashed through bushes and swatted down small trees. “Don’t run. I want a rematch!” He roared. “You don’t have your armor this time. I want to see just what Lilith’s little pet is made of.”

Dar was backed into a corner, but that was okay. He had gotten Karn into the woods where the view of them was obscured.

“Cherry, stop him.” He pushed on his inner world, ejecting the dryad forcefully as he pointed at Karn.

“Wha? Shit!” Cherry slammed her hands on the ground and vines burst out of the ground, grabbing and flinging Karn to the side. “What is going on?”

“I don’t know. Karn recognized me as the Black Knight and went crazy.” Dar hurried to explain.

“Fucking crazy bear.” She cursed before raising her voice. “Karn, calm down.”

The demon picked himself back up, panting as those little beady black eyes stared at them unblinkingly. “Ha. I was right. Well met Cherry.”

The dryad rolled her eyes. “Great, introductions are out of the way. Now, can we stop this?”

“If you need this to stop, why doesn’t Lilith come out and stop me?” He chuckled, rolling his shoulder.

“Because Lilith is dead.” Dar spat.

That pulled Karn up short. “Dead?”

“Dead.” Dar repeated. “I saw it myself; a death spirit went with her.”

“Impossible. Not to mention, Valdis could bring her back.” Karn growled.

Dar was just thankful that Karn seemed to be a little more reasonable for the moment. “I don’t know who Valdis is, but Lilith went willingly to her next life. I was there. She pulled me back from another life, and I woke up here about a month ago.”

Karn shook his massive head. “The death spirit, Valdis, is one of the oldest and most powerful spirits here. How…” He struggled for words. “Why did Lilith allow herself to die? She had too much to do here.”

The way Karn said it, it was almost as if he thought that evading death was entirely within Lilith’s realm of control. Just how powerful did everyone think she was, or for that matter, just how powerful had she been?

And here she sacrificed herself for Dar. Dar had always wondered why, but he realized she’d given the world a chance to have somebody who could destroy, not just contain, the Mo.

Maybe it was time to come clean.

“She did it for me. With what she did to my body when she brought me back, I can kill Mo. Not just weaken them, or put them in a seal. Dead, for good.” Dar tried to explain.

Karn leaned against a tree and threw his head back, laughing. “You? Kill a Mo? Laughable.” The bear’s head snapped down, humor gone. “Wait. Is that what happened back at the ettercaps near your village? Tell me how.”

Dar wasn’t about to tell him everything, not after what had just happened, but he needed to tell Karn enough. “She put something inside of me. When I was near the weakened Mo, it scoured the creature’s body and destroyed it.”

Karn licked his lips. “Did it make you stronger?”

“Yes?” Dar wasn’t sure why that was important.

“Prove it.” Karn growled. “Beat me, and I’ll walk away.”

“I thought we just got done with fighting.”

In response, Karn slammed the ground, and a wall of ice formed around the three of them. “Just hand to hand combat. Since you embarrassed me that day in front of The White, I have awaited the opportunity to fight you again.”

Cherry stepped back, looking at Dar for what he wanted to do.

Even with Cherry, Dar wasn’t sure they could take Karn if he used his dao. Dar was fairly certain Karn had been holding back so far, and the ice arena he’d created was further indication that was right. Physical combat would also be a challenge, but he at least stood a chance. And hopefully it would get the battle crazed demon off his back.

“Fine. Rules?”

“Lesser dao only. No weapons. Victory to the last one standing.” Karn flexed his massive, clawed hands.

No weapons, Dar scoffed. Those hands were murder mitts.

“Dar.” Cherry’s voice wavered.

“I got this.” He patted the top of her head. “Get out of the arena and watch me do my thing.” He turned back to Karn.

“I agree with your terms. But after this, we will be good, whatever the result. No further fights.” Dar put his hands up, ready to fight.

There was no starting bell, no countdown. One second, Dar had agreed to the fight and the next second, a massive white claw was swinging for his head.

Dar just barely reacted in time, ducking under the swing and inside Karn’s range. He jabbed forward with several quick strikes as he filled his body with the daos of heavy, hard and strength.

The enchantments on his body glowing with mana as he put everything he had into the fight.

Karn’s bestial mouth opened wide, and he lurched forward, biting down at Dar.

Abandoning his assault, Dar braced his forearm to be an object larger than Karn could stuff in his mouth. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop the bear man’s teeth from scraping along Dar’s arm, drawing blood despite the dao of hard.

Karn snapped his mouth closed with jaws that would no doubt crush deer bones like a midday snack. He licked his lips, tasting Dar’s blood. “Going to have to do better than that.”

Dar slugged the bear in the chest again, but the large demon just shrugged it off. Karn began another running tackle, grabbing Dar and slamming him against the icy wall of the arena.

Putting his arms up to protect his face, Dar weathered Karn’s assault as the demon pounded him into the icy wall. He’d hoped to tire Karn out, but instead, as the blows rained down, Karn seemed to grow more excited with each punch.

With a scream of rage, Dar pushed Karn off of him. While Karn was unbalanced, Dar slugged the bear in the face hard enough to stagger him.

Dar pressed his advantage with another right hook to the bear's face and an uppercut to his gut; Dar tried to keep Karn off balance. But it wasn’t easy. Karn was tough. He only landed a few more blows before Karn blocked a strike, his claws sinking into Dar’s arm and twisting his arm.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Karn squeezed Dar’s forearm with enough pressure that only Dar’s enchantments were saving him from having his bones crushed.

Jerking forward, Dar head-butted Karn. But he immediately regretted it as he came away seeing stars.

He could tell that the hit had affected Karn as well, because his arm came free of the demon’s grip. Dar stumbled back, catching himself on the icy wall.

As his vision cleared, Karn’s big bear head was tossing itself back and forth, trying to shake his own daze.

Dar noticed that there were specks of blood dotting the bear’s white fur. And one look at his knuckles said it wasn’t all Dar’s blood. Underneath the fur, welts were forming from where Dar had hit him.

The bear demon wasn’t impervious, just a hell of a lot tougher than anything Dar had fought before. “Karn, how about we call it quits?”

“Fat chance.” Karn wiped at his mouth, streaking his forearm with blood. “I have been waiting hundreds of years for this to just stop. This chance will not slip away from me.” Karn put his hands back up, ready to fight once more.

“I’m flattered, but I am not the same person you once fought. I may look the same and have aspects of the same soul, but I have lived a different life. I am a different man.” Dar pushed off the icy wall. “That said, if you continue to fight me, you will lose to me as well.”

Anger flared in Karn’s beady black eyes, and Dar could tell Karn would not back down.

Sure enough, he roared as he charged for Dar.

Dar blocked the wild punch, pushing it back across Karn’s body as Dar spun, grabbing the bear’s extended wrist and locking out the bear’s arm.

Frozen in that tangled knot, Dar slammed his knee into Karn’s hip repeatedly.

Seeing the bear injured during their brief pause had made Dar think about some of his bar fights back on Earth. When opponents had greater strength, he would just hammer the same spot repeatedly until they weakened.

Karn came again and Dar took the hit, driving a left hook back into Karn’s hip.

The demon staggered and Dar pushed the demon back, coming in for another round. His fists were a distraction. The real damage was done as Dar used his knee for short, brutal strikes against Karn’s hip.

While the demon fought like an angry bear, Dar fought like a human. Duck, dodge, strike the hip. Block, jab, hook to the hip.

Again and again Dar took hits as long as he could keep hammering Karn’s hip to a bruised pulp.

Eventually, Karn wobbled on his feet. His hips nearly giving out.

“We can call this a tie and walk away.” Dar offered once more, feeling at the end of his own strength. His shoulders ached and his head throbbed to the unseen rhythm of his pulse. Even if victory was only a few rounds away, Dar didn’t want to take any more of a beating than he had to.

Dar knew that even after the fight, Bellhaven was only a stone's throw away, and he didn’t want the wizards or The Prince to see him as a battered and bruised mess.

“No.” Karn raised his fists. “I will win.”

They stepped back into the fight, both of them sloppy as they teetered on their feet.

But Karn had a surprise for Dar.

The first swing Dar threw wasn’t met with hands or arm, it was met with teeth.

Karn’s jaw popped open wide at the last second, his inhuman neck muscles bulging under his fur. Karn made one last attempt to bite Dar’s arm off.

The world froze for a moment as Dar realized the impending loss of his arm. Karn’s jaw was already closing down. Dar knew the teeth could cut right through his dao and flesh.

His arm needed to not be there; it needed to be somewhere else.

Or something else.

Remembering Cherry’s words, embracing his dao of shadows, he willed his arm away, to become shadows. There wasn’t time to dwell on it.

Dar instead left his right arm up to fate as he focused on winning. Even if he lost it, he wasn’t about to lose the fight.

His left fist hammered past Karn’s guard as the bear threw everything into removing Dar’s arm. Once, twice. Dar’s left fist was like a jackhammer into Karn’s left hip, using the rebounding force and pushing through it for a third strike.

Something broke under Dar’s knuckles, and Karn screamed as he lost his balance and stumbled to the ground, clutching his hip.

Finally.

Dar looked at his right arm; from the elbow to his fingertips was a smokey black form. His lips curled up in victory as that smokey black form faded back to flesh.

“Had enough?” Dar goaded Karn once again.

The bear pushed off the ground trying to stand, but his hip gave out and he fell back down to the ground. Growling, he tried once more to get up, pushing through the pain. But he only made it partway up before he gave up and collapsed. “You win.”

“Dar!” Cherry jumped onto his shoulders. Her weight would normally have been insignificant to Dar, but this time it made him stagger to a knee as she peppered him with kisses.

The icy barrier that Karn had erected for their fight shattered and faded. A concerned Neko rushed through the shards of ice, grabbing Dar and shoving her shoulder under his arm to support him.

“Stupid bear. I told you, Dar is best.”

Rather than be angry, Karn threw his head back and let loose a deep bellied laugh that seemed to go on forever.

When he was done, Karn wiped a tear from his eyes. “Oh. You have good companions, Dar.”

Vines rose out of the ground around Karn as Cherry clutched tightly to Dar’s back. “I should kill you right now.”

“Don’t.” Dar sighed. “The last thing we need to do is start a fight with The White.”

“She won’t know for weeks.” Cherry argued, her vines poised to finish him.

“And when Karn doesn’t come back after investigating Bellhaven for killing demons and spirits? If we kill Karn here, The White is liable to come down here and turn Bellhaven into the next Toldove, or worse. He gets a pass this time. Besides, he wasn’t trying to kill me.” Dar struggled to his feet, holding his side.

Cherry’s vines receded into the ground. “What do you mean he wasn’t trying to kill you?”

“He just wanted to beat me to a pulp.”

“The stupid bear tried to bite your arm off.” Neko blurted out with an angry hiss in Karn’s direction.

That Dar did believe. The bear was a loose cannon and too dangerous to stay in the area. He clearly couldn’t hold himself back in a fight. “Karn, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d rather you not stay around. After you finish up your tasks at Bellhaven, you need to get the hell back to Frost’s Fang. If I see you again, if you pose a threat to my village, I may not be able to let you walk away.”

Karn chuckled. “Do you really want to make that threat? Next time we might not fight with just fists.”

Dar would make that bet. He may not be able to defeat Karn at the moment, but he had a feeling the next time they met he’d be far stronger and maybe even strong enough to kill Karn using his full strength. “Finish up Karn and get out of Bellhaven.”

The big demon winced as he gathered his feet under him and lifted his body off the ground, stumbling several steps and using trees to brace himself as he headed back towards Bellhaven.

“Dar, that was dangerous.” Cherry admonished him.

“Can you tell me that if I let you kill him here and now that Bellhaven would be here in a month?”

She looked away. “Probably not.”

“Besides, until he went psycho, he’s been a decent ally. Now help me up; we need to figure out what to do from here.”

Neko scooped up his arm and supported his weight as she stood. “I have you.”

“Thanks, Neko.” He took a few wobbled steps, using Neko as support. But they didn’t make it far before something began crashing through the forest.

For a moment Dar thought it was Karn coming back to settle things, but he realized it was coming from the opposite direction.