Chapter 89 (Patreon)

Chapter 89

He turned the corner just when Athela was thrown across the room - face planting against the wall but recovering quickly to turn on the giant, grotesque clown.  His demons were in the process of winning this fight already, but the monster had incredible regeneration and was battling back fiercely.  Maggots wriggled and sightless, eel-like appendages with sharp teeth grappled the other titanic combatant while Azmoth’s fire-imbued armor slammed into the beast.

Riven drew up his staff and pointed it at the creature’s face, pouring his mana into the weapon, and put on his mask to feel the item’s effects empower him in the same instant.  “Mind if I help out!?”

Black lightning blew open a hole the size of a dinner plate through the writhing, squealing creature’s rotting flesh.

[You have landed a critical hit.  Max Damage x4.]

The dream creature shrieked in surprise and fury, having already been pressed to its limits by Athela and Azmoth. It stumbled back and not even knowing what had happened to it after being blinded by the torrent of flames out of Azmoth’s mouth, still screaming.  That scream then turned into a roar when a wave of rapidly fired bullets slammed into its head, with none other than Dr. Brass having followed Riven in order to finally help.

Riven glanced back at the doc, gave a head nod while the old man fumbled for a reload, then snapped his attention back to the mainfight.  The bullets wouldn’t do much to a monster like this, but it’d certainly help the old man get some levels after Riven and crew finished it off.  Hopefully, anyways.

Azmoth’s fire breath soon began to fade while Athela repositioned herself along the ceiling, and it was apparent that the hellscape brutalisk could only keep up the fire breathing for so long.  Still, it numbed the effect of the monster’s regeneration and pieces of its body were beginning to fall off.

“YOUR RESISTANCE IS FUTILE, LITTLE MEATLINGS!”

The monster’s defiant challenge was heard through the gunfire and small explosions, echoing out hatred as it surged out of the rubble and fire - taking a straight rush at Riven now that the warlock had finally exposed himself.

Though it didn’t get far when Athela slammed her six arachnid blades into its side, causing the creature to topple over due to the speed of her strike.  Claws began rapid-firing strikes into the smoldering monster, trying to dig into the chest to find its heart.

Azmoth’s tail whipped around and landed a devastating strike to the monster’s knee when it stumbled under the arshakai demon’s attack, and Athela immediately capitalized.  She made for its exposed weak spots - skewering it entirely through the neck with a shrill squeal of delight as her hands morphed into claws, and yanking on the creature’s spine she began ripping savagely away to try and dig out its bones.

Azmoth did not remain idle either, charging like a linebacker to connect head-on with a roar.  His huge obsidian claws and teeth tore into the enormous monster and nearly knocked it off its feet while it let out a surprised shriek of anger.

The nightmare creature was absolutely dominated, rolling on the ground and fighting off the two demons to the point that Riven almost felt bad for it.  Blows that would have crippled normal men such as slamming Azmoth’s armored head into the floor with the power of a pickup truck had little effect on the armored creature.  Meanwhile Athela was simply too fast for the nightmare creature to land a hit.  Despite this, it wasn’t what the nightmare had been expecting, and its many jawed appendages began flailing about trying to catch Athela since it couldn’t make it to Riven.  Though the beast certainly tried, every time it attempted to rush Riven’s position on the sideline it was met with devastating attacks for having turned its attention away from the more immediate threat.

“Your demons are… very good at what they do.” Dr. Brass stated numbly, pistol held limply at his side.  “My ears are still ringing.”

Riven grinned.  “Sorry about that.”

The flaming brutalisk was putting in serious damage, playing tug-of-war with the mawed appendages to rip them off whenever they got too close.  The nightmare creature had to resort to its larger front limbs instead of the myriad of lithe jaws protruding from its back - and it sneered through its creepy clown-like face while trying to bite back at Azmoth with everything it had.  This resulted in Athela playing on hit-and-run tactics to induce necrotic venom with her tongue strikes.

“Wow.  Thing thing’s regeneration is amazing, it’s even better than mine.” Riven muttered under his breath, charging up another black lightning bolt and waiting until an opportune moment before he blasted the clown with another brutal shock.

He scored a perfect hit to the head.  It hadn’t been where Riven had intended to shoot, but the creature had jerked in an odd angle to cover the pelvis.  Though Riven’s eyes went wide as his attack completely obliterated the monster’s skull, only to have it reform seconds later in a smattering of gray flesh that re-formed the missing body part only a couple seconds later.

The nightmare creature laughed, glaring in his direction with that bloodied, sickening clown face snarling amidst the chuckles.  “YOU WILL MAKE A FINE MEAL!”

But the clown’s laughing snarl was quickly reduced to a bruised mess of flesh before having to regenerate again.

*WHAM*

*THUD*

*RIP*

*CRUNCH*

*CRASH*

“RRAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!”

It barely had time to respond due to the constant barrage of attacks.

Minutes later, the fight was over.

“That is one ugly motherfucker.”  Riven stated calmly while looking down at the husk of the creature that slowly tried to drag itself towards a nearby wall.  It glared back at him, its regeneration finally having come to a grim end.  It only had a single arm left, half of its face, and a hole in its chest.

The beast screamed in a furious denial of its situation, spit flying out of its mouth while pieces of it dropped off over the ticking seconds.  “YOU WILL DIE, LITTLE MEATLING!”

Riven blinked, folded his arms, then nodded to Azmoth who stood over the monster like a flaming executioner come to collect souls for the lords of hell.  “Do it.”

Azmoth’s clawed hand crashed down.

There was a moment of silence as the nightmare’s tormented screeching came to an abrupt stop.  Its body twitched three times, and then lay forever still.  Then to everyone’s surprise, something odd happened.  Slowly illuminating the dim light of the room: a long, red rectangular box began to form over the corpse – hovering over the body, only to be joined by yet another container – this one being a wooden chest that slowly drifted down to settle on the nightmare’s body.

[You have completed the guiding system quest from the administrator: Kill the Dream Creatures – You have successfully killed the dream creatures building a nest over the hospital’s basement before they grew in power and became a larger threat to the surrounding area.  Congratulations!  Rewards: 1 Elysium Altar.  An additional reward has been given due to overcoming heavy odds stacked against you.  An additional amount of gifted stat points have been randomly distributed to you due to your performance in this quest.]

Huh.  Riven had completely forgotten about this particular quest.  He’d been more caught up in other events, but it was nice to see that he was going to get a reward…

And a good one at that.  An Elysium Altar would finally allow him to spend all the money he’d earned by killing-

As if on cue, all of the creatures he’d slaughtered immediately dropped bags of money over their corpses.  The sound of many thousands of coins clinking against one another when they hit the ground over the death marked places he’d vanquished his foes.  In turn, two boxes appeared in blips of white light - hovering in the air in front of him to reach out and take.  One was red, thin and long, while the other was a smaller brown chest.

[You have gained 8 levels.  Congratulations!  Be sure to visit your status page to apply points.]

[Your minions have both acquired new skills from the system after leveling up multiple times.  Congratulations!]

[You have reached combat level 36.  Congratulations!  Your class allows you to create one additional demonic contract at level 35.  When ready, please select the option at the minions tab to interview potential partners.]

Alongside levels he’d gained from killing Allie’s skeletons and then the new age crusaders, he’d recently gained 9 levels in total.  He shot a look to his demons, and his grin grew wider.  “Good job Athela, good job Azmoth. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

It wasn’t until twenty seconds of heavy breathing had passed that Riven turned and saw Dr. Brass, Senna, and Ethel all watching wide-eyed and silently from the large tunnel behind them.

[New update: You have reached combat level 36.  Congratulations!  Your Warlock Adept class allows you to create one additional demonic contract at combat level 35.  When ready, please select the option at the minions tab to interview potential partners.]

***

[Riven Thane’s Status Page:

• Level 36
• Pillar Orientations:] Unholy Foundation, Blood Specialty, Infernal, Shadow
• Core of Original Sin - Gluttony:] (Under Construction)(???)
• Traits:] Race: Pureblooded Vampire (Extreme Darkness Regeneration)(Sunlight Decay)(Extreme Weakness to Silver weapons, Sun pillar, and Light pillar attacks), Class: Warlock Adept, Adrenaline Junky (Blood)(+15% to Agility)
• Abilities:] Blessing of the Crow (Unholy), Wretched Snare (Unholy), Bloody Razors (Blood), Crimson Ice (Blood), Blood Lance (Blood)(Tier 2), Blood Nova (Blood)(Tier 3), Hell’s Armor (Infernal), Riftwalk (Shadow)
• Stats:] 68 Strength, 147 Sturdiness, 366 Intelligence, 170 Agility, 10 Luck, -362 Charisma,              182 Vampiric Perception, 112 Willpower, 9 Faith
• Free Stat Points: 0
• Minions:] Athela, Level 29 Arshakai [36 Willpower Requirement].  Azmoth, Level 30 Hellscape Brutalisk [27 Willpower Requirement].
• Equipped Items:] Crude Cultist’s Robes (1 def), Black Redemption (74 shadow dmg, 68% mana regen, shadow dmg +27%, Black Lightning), Chalgathi Cultist Amulet (???), Leather Boots (1 def), Backpack of Supplies (Guild Hall: Stone Manor), Witch’s Ring of Grand Casting (+26 Intelligence), Cloak of the Tundra (22 def, +56 bonus def vs frost), Breath of Valgeshia (48 def, +13 dmg & +9% mana output dmg for blood dmg, 6% mana regen)]

Everyone else had left in a mad rush to escape the dungeon during the fight.  Jake and his parents had gone, Tyson the male nurse had left.  All of the families with kids had left.  Even the man who Riven maimed had woken up and followed his wife groggily down into the sewers, according to Dr. Brass.  Many of them had carried away lanterns they’d taken from the ceilings and food supplies from room 7 when Riven and his minions were preoccupied, and Riven had come back to a significantly reduced amount of food left over from the plundering.

That, however, would hardly damper his good mood over the next few minutes as the team explored their spoils of battle.  Money, levels, stat boosts, minion abilities, a new demonic partner, an Elysium Altar, and some other unknown prize were all more than enough to keep him in good spirits.

He gave both his demons a hug and a huge amount of compliments before offering to send them back to the nether realms for healing - but both demons declined as they were curious about what additional reward he’d gotten and wanted to watch before going back.  It was also obvious they were excited for their own power gains, having pulled up their own status screens to go over whatever new abilities they’d been granted due to the level gains.  It was the first time Riven had seen a straight up ability gained purely by leveling, even though Athela had mentioned it could happen in past conversations.

So after Riven plopped down next to Dr. Brass with a groan; Athela distributed what little crackers, granola bars and juice they had left as a celebratory gesture.

He held the long, red, rectangular box in his lap.  The coins had all been collected, though there were thousands of them and the bags they’d come in all disappeared after ten minutes - so they lay in a pile off to one side.  Azmoth had also carried in the second box, a small brown chest and he put it on the floor with a grunt.  Riven hadn’t wanted to stay in that main room due to the mess and smell, so they’d gone back to operating room 7 along with everyone that’d stayed.

“I can’t believe you won…” Dr. Brass stated giddily at Riven’s side - smiling widely and showing Riven that he too had gained quite a few levels just from firing bullets at the slain clown.  It was apparent that whatever level that clown had been, it’d been quite high.  So for someone like Dr. Brass at level 0 to help kill such a beast meant that the gains were far higher for much less effort.

Riven let out another groan of relief and rested his head back against the cold stone wall.  “Wana see what’s in these boxes?”

“Definitely!” Athela chimed in happily, nudging Azmoth along an almost shattered arm and causing him to yelp.  “Oh don’t be such a wuss, Azmoth!  You’re a big boy now, you gotta act tough!”

Azmoth just growled back, coddling his injured limb with a side glare.

The others remained quiet, watching wordlessly while Riven opened the long red box in his lap.  It had a lid on it, like one would see from a jeweler’s store – only far larger than any jewelry Riven had ever seen.  It popped off rather easily, and Riven gently laid the lid to the side as his eyes gleamed with excitement.