Chapter 97 (Patreon)

Chapter 97

The predator inside screamed with excitement alongside gluttony’s core, but he kept his sanity and mentally tugged at Fay’s contract.  The succubus landed beside him within seconds, eagerly standing with clasped hands in front of her.

“Azmoth will be the focal point.  Athela, do your thing as soon as I start.  Assassinate on the bigger threats first if you can.  Fay, we’re sticking to the shadows for a while.  They can’t see us as well as we can see them, and we’re using that to our advantage due to the numbers difference.  I want you to set up perimeters around me while I work, keep them quarantined with your explosive sigils.”

Athela vanished in an instant, and Riven launched himself upwards into the branches of a very tall tree nearby.  He landed lightly on his feet, the succubus beside him already starting to create a pattern of explosive unholy mana traps below where they now stood overlooking the battle.  Five, then ten, then twenty, and then dozens of sigils flashed below them - drawing some attention from the battlefield but not enough to create any shift in the enemy movements just yet.  Fay’s hands were held up in front of her, pointing to spots she wanted the traps to be placed, until she gave Riven a nod.

“I’m ready.” Fay stated with a gulp and slight fidgeting of her hands.  “Do you want me to set up a dreamwalker zone?”

Curse of the Dreamwalker was the ability she had to cause hallucinations for anyone Fay deemed as an enemy.  Riven nodded once, then glanced over his shoulder one last time as screams and the clash of battle continued to echo out across the village.  “Can you make it look like my magical attacks are coming from other angles?”

Fay cocked her head to the side, then nodded.  “Yes.”

“Good.  Do that then and make it as big as possible.  Don’t be nervous, here we go.”

He raised his staff, and the weapon shivered with excitement before exploding with a torrent of dark energy.

*CRACK*

The black lightning strike obliterated the two of the unaware backline orc shamans in a single go - shredding their bodies and peeling flesh off bone before they even had time to scream.  The ground around them exploded, and Fay’s magic sprang to life with a huge, expanding globe of green and black light.  Suddenly the entire rear of the orc unit started scrambling and screaming, numbers of them dying as blood was ripped off the corpses of the battlefield - solidifying to form razors that tore through their ranks.

It was like all hell had suddenly broken loose.  Fake magical attacks simulating Riven’s own came out from all over, covering Riven’s true location all along the outer village perimeter with hallucinations of black lightning, crimson ice, and bloody razors while the globe of Fay’s magic grew to encompass the entire northern village edge before stopping.  Athela was quick on the uptake too, zipping in and out through the scrambling orcs and ripping through throats or stabbing hearts at rapid pace while focusing the orc archers first.  Whenever she was spotted, she’d disappear again only to reappear elsewhere - using the prisoners, trees or nearby buildings to fade in and out of enemy lines with her superior speed.

One of the orc shamans had barely managed to erect a defensive aura of brown and orange light around himself right before Riven’s initial attack had hit though.  His two comrades, the other shamans, went up in clouds of red mist amidst the destructive torrent of obsidian energy - but he’d been thrown back through a small crowd of the orcs chaining prisoners to one another in a line.

“RRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Riven wasn’t pulling any pouches and a good portion of the greenskins turned in shock, confusion or anger to look towards the treeline where most of the attacks were coming from.  
Some of them started paling outright even despite the tone of their skin when they saw Azmoth erupt roaring from a portal of flames to rip an orc warrior’s head right off with two clawed hands.  Breathing a vortex of flames into a crowd of goblins that’d rushed over to help, the little green men withered in shrieking agony and the absolute tank of a hellscape demon beat his chest with another earthshattering roar.  He dwarfed even the largest of the orc warriors and rushed like a freight train into the midst of battle, ignoring Riven’s strikes and Fay’s hallucinations while barreling into a small crowd of green-skinned warriors.  His extra maws writhed up over his back like snakes and started snatching up goblins to eat them alive, while he continued tearing and stomping on other unfortunate victims that failed to get out of the way.

The shaman was visibly shaken as he stood up from where he was thrown, looked around to gain his bearings, and pointed his staff towards the treeline beyond the village when he saw the demon.

The shaman barely pulled up another barrier in time, only just avoiding a strike from Athela that would have taken off his head before blasting the demoness back - causing her to backpedal and dash into the shadows again.  His voice was deep, gruff, and strained - but nevertheless had a commanding tone to it.  “HE’S IN THE TREES SOMEWHERE!  FIND THE SUMMONER!  KILL HIM!  KILL HIM NOW BEFORE THOSE DEMONS ARE UNLEASHED UPON US FURTHER!!!”

Instantly Athela moved to intercept a group of braver enemies that’d responded to the shaman’s call to charge the forest, cleaving through three of them in half a second with spear-like movements of her arachnid limbs and clawing out a fourth warrior’s neck while Riven remained hidden in the treetops above.

He motioned to the right, and then to the left - conjuring dozens more of the spinning crimson blood blades from combinations of his own mana and the bodies on the battlefield.  The projectiles then blasted through an oncoming rush of orc and goblin warriors, spiraling into the mess of bodies all around the demoness like a meat grinder.  She shrieked with gleeful laughter as they died, acrobatically ducking under a swing and flipping over another orc’s axe before her shin slammed into a large warrior’s tusk and broke it off completely - catapulting the poor orc into the ground as if she’d hit him with a warhammer rather than just kicked him.

The greenskin soldiers who’d been chaining up prisoners were closest to the forest when the shaman’s command echoed through their ranks.  Orc and goblin alike had taken up arms and charged recklessly ahead, confident in their numbers only to be met with two obstacles.

The first were more hallucinations: causing them to become disoriented by losing a sense of direction, falling over one another when they tried to dodge imaginary magic projectiles, or making them swing at the shadows of enemies that weren’t actually there.

The second obstacle were the layers of invisible, explosive traps that Fay had laid out below Riven’s position all along the northern edge of the village.

*BOOM-BOOM-SPLAT-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM–SPLAT-SPLAT-BOOM*

It was like Riven had front row tickets to a carpet bombing show, with dozens of small, crooked-looking goblins go up in explosions of green mana that ripped apart their little bodies and flung them away.  The orcs faired a bit better, usually being able to take two or three of the traps before being killed, but even they were often maimed or severely injured on the first mana-made tripwire they came across.

“Fay…” Riven muttered, casting a red sheet of ice across the ground in front of their position with her hallucinations following suit across their left and right sides.  “You never told me you were god-level valuable back in that interview.  This is a god damn slaughterhouse.”

Wretched snares bloomed around him on the treetops and were loaded with blood lances that he created one after the other, adding extra power and speed behind the projectiles when the snares sling-shotted them away.

Fay smiled widely at the praise and continued to create new tripwires, connecting her invisible traps one after the other as they were triggered over and over again.  “Thank you, master.  I told you that you would not be disappointed!”

Though there were well over 80 of them laying dead on the ground, with more of them dying by the second due to Athela’s assassinations, Azmoth’s rampaging, or Riven’s magical barrage - they quickly stopped trying to push their luck against the invisible traps and mind-numbing hallucinations.  Down below, more orc mages started coming from the front where they’d been battling elves.  They cast illuminating barriers of orange light to block Riven’s strikes, two of them started to try and suppress Azmoth by creating a stone cage around the demon that was quickly ripped apart, and one of them threw out a spell that caused an eerie yellow mist to blow through the greenskin ranks.

The masked shaman was still screaming orders, trying to organize everyone else and setting up defensive lines of tusked warriors around the mages and ordering the more stupid goblins to charge the treeline again as cannon fodder.  The goblins that hesitated were killed by the larger orcs, who were growing uneasy due to being pinched on two sides from this unknown assailant and the elves - but things soon changed.  Yellow mist from the orc mage finally reached the village perimeter, and with it - all of Fay’s traps started lighting up one after another.  So too did the tripwires of mana connecting them, and the shaman barked another command to charge.

This time, the goblins were able to avoid her spells and many of the sigils were outright destroyed by fireballs that set off chain reactions.  The fireworks show was lit up even further with explosions from Riven’s black lightning and spiked walls of red ice that acted as a barrier to their progress.

Meanwhile Fay started cursing the orc mages while grunting in frustration as her globe of unholy mana took direct damage from some kind of light burst coming out of the greenskin ranks.  Fay’s hallucination shattered from an enemy spell a moment later, and she yelled out to warn her master.  “I won’t be able to set up the dreamwalker field for a while!  The hallucinations are down!”

Then Riven heard a quickening heartbeat behind him.

His body erupted with red sparks, sending his muscles into a spasm and he immediately ducked as an empowered arrow broke the sound barrier and whizzed by his head - grazing his ear and nearly taking his skull off his spine in the process.

“It looks like they’ve finally found our true location.”  He chuckled humorously, and having arced his fingers in the way to charge up a blood lance he sent it torpedoing into the orc archer in a tree not far off.

The torpedo blasted the archer’s head right off in a movement so fast that the orc simply couldn’t react even at such a distance, and the body slumped - falling off the branch he’d been positioned in to thud on the forest floor twenty feet below.

“Move.”

Fay jumped at his command, flapping her wings and soaring into the night sky above them while spraying a black, cursed cloud of rot over the greenskin ranks.

[Curse of Rot (Unholy) – Spray a cloud of unholy miasma to afflict targets with a single ‘Rot’ debuff before the cloud dissipates.  A single cloud can disperse across multiple enemies.  ‘Rot’ debuff applies unholy damage, slows the enemy, and can stack with other ‘Rot’ debuffs.  This curse starts out weak but scales over time in both damage and slowing effect.  Low cooldown.]

The orc raiding party erupted with a hail of arrows and fireballs in turn now that the vampire was within reach, and Riven launched himself off the side of his tree while barely avoiding incoming fire.  The tree exploded behind him with splintered wooden shrapnel, starting to burn, while throwing knives or tomahawks from the incoming orcs came to intercept him.

His staff blurred with his empowered movement, the fleshy string connecting his blade whipping out and deflecting many of the oncoming projectiles in a single strike - but some of them hit true.  He felt and heard the thuds of three daggers land, slamming into his chest and causing him to grunt before he dashed and rolled behind another large tree to avoid two more arrows.

The horrified screams from people around the village continued to come, with men, women and children all dying around him in senseless violence that they’d no doubt never expected this night.  But he had to push that out of his mind… because he couldn’t save all of them.   Instead he would focus on the fun he was having… that way he wouldn’t get distracted and do something stupid that could get himself killed.

He yanked the daggers out of his chest, feeling his regeneration kick in, and snarled before kicking off and exposing himself to the carnage at a distance.  “COME ON THEN!”

A red torpedo blew through four goblins and smashed into an oncoming orc mage, discharging the fireball that the man had been summoning and causing the area to light up in flames.  Azmoth then crashed into another group that’d come to charge Riven, while others started to slow and wither under Fay’s black cloud of curse magic - clawing at their faces while their bodies began to gradually rot away.  The shaman and other orc healers desperately tried to contain the demons, with four rogues using movement abilities successfully keeping Athela at bay for the moment, but Riven’s impact was more than just a little noticeable.

The scene was a shitshow, and the attackers began to come after him in force when they saw how devastating his attacks had been in such a short time.  The shaman exchanged a couple of earth-based projectiles with Riven’s own bloody razors while Riven dodged using his improved agility, and the shaman or other orc mages used orange mana barriers to block the incoming attacks directed their way.  The orcs were obviously confused as to why he was here after noticing he was a vampire, with the shouts and exclamations directed at one another - ordering them to engage the warlock.  Given their expressions, the imprisoned elves nearby obviously didn’t know what to think about it either by the way they shot him fearful looks or screamed out warnings to the defenders that a new enemy had presented itself.

Perhaps the elves thought that since he was what he was, that he was here to eat them?

That was utterly stupid in his opinion, for obvious and numerous reasons.  He had no back up and was here to help, but he’d deal with that when the time came if the elvish defenders actually did end up attacking him.

He pedaled backwards, further into the dark of the trees and drawing his pursuers into a more favorable battleground.  Riven ducked another arrow in the dark with his improved reflexes and created another bloody razor, vaulting over the head of an incoming tomahawk swing when a stealthed rogue got too close.  Simultaneously while in the air he let loose the bloody disc of magic - sending it flying out towards the archer.

He landed behind the rogue who’d tried to take him out and spun - slamming his staff full on into the side of the tusked man with a crunch.  The tusked man’s head was torn entirely off by the brutal trauma, exploding shadow magic emitted from the staff flinging bloody debris across the battlefield directly in front of him.  He also heard the archer who’d nearly hit Riven a second ago yelp in agony and drop his bow when the razor, crimson disc slammed into him.

Feeling the connection to that disc, Riven imbued it with even more energy and caused it to burst - blowing a hole in the hooded orc’s body and leaving entrails far behind the orc’s hunkered position next to a charred cabin on the outer village edge.  Immediately the man’s blood condensed and rocketed towards three goblins who were screaming insults and charging his way - decapitating them in a fluid motion when the blood formed more projectiles.

Two other archers clad in leathers behind the first went down as well when Azmoth let loose another cone of fire breath, burning them alive with guttural shrieks of pain.  A thrilling sense of satisfaction immediately overcame Riven and he charged forward, forcing more mana into blessing of the crow to increase his speed boost with sparks of lightning fluctuating across his body more prominently - just as a cold arrow struck him in the chest.

*WHUMPH*

Screams of horror or rage continued to berate his ears, battle cries from the incoming enemies and the sound of airborne projectiles centered on Riven’s position tore through what should have been a peaceful and quiet night.  The first projectile lodged itself in Riven’s chest, and it was imbued with some kind of ice mana.  Ice started to freeze his right pectoral muscle and he gasped, ripping it out only to have two more arrows slam into his left shoulder as he stumbled forward onto one knee.  Pain and another deep cold sensation radiated across his body, and he let out an involuntary groan when his muscles began to freeze over, but that groan soon turned into amused laughter.  His body’s regeneration was incredible even during the daytime, but here in the dark?  At night?  The regeneration was just unfair and utterly absurd.

It hurt, yes.  The cold certainly affected his regeneration a little bit, and the ice on his body remained despite sealing wounds, but it wasn’t enough.  They’d have to hit him a whole lot more than that to get anywhere in terms of killing him.

Riven ripped the arrows right out of his shoulder, and he snarled at the orcs.  Glowing red eyes glinting maniacally from underneath his hood as he threw the frozen arrows onto the ground, and explosions from more of Fay’s unholy traps blasted with green light - eliminating a group of goblins that’d tried to flank him.

Riven’s staff blurred left, smacking a fireball straight out of the air with a collision of shadow that sent the blast into a nearby tree.  The trunk exploded with flames, lighting up his position and revealing the wounds along his body in the otherwise dark surroundings of the forest at night.

Wide-eyed elves and orcs alike watched with mixed emotions of confusion, horror and awe while his wounds sealed up in real time - the holes of his clothes openly showing them how easily he could shrug off their attacks without any real damage.  Even the arrowheads he’d snapped off and left in his body were pushed out and expelled by flesh that quickly sealed over; creating scabs and then new skin within less than ten seconds after having removed the arrows by force.

More fireballs slammed into Atharost’s huge frame when the tanky demon leapt to cover Riven’s body in a renewed attack, with orc warriors bringing up large clubs and axes to beat back the huge demon in an attempt to protect the mages.

“KILL THAT GODS-DAMNED SUMMONER!” the shaman shrieked, infusing the nearby warriors battling Azmoth with buff after buff as their bodies glowed - enabling them to take hits that would have otherwise killed them on the spot.

*WHUMPH*

Athela’s blades dug through the heart of an orc mage nearby, drawing the shaman’s attention as he flung another molten ball of metal her way.  Fay flew overhead: dispensing clouds of black mist with each flyby that continued to settle down on the packed horde of greenskin enemies battling the elves on the other end of the village.  Many of the goblins were already withered away because of the dark magic, piling up as rotting carcasses for their brethren to step over.  Orc healers were simultaneously dispelling the rot afflictions, but most of them were single-target healing spells while Fay’s mist could target entire swaths of enemies.

*BOOM*

A huge bolt of elemental lightning crashed into Azmoth, bowling him over and briefly stunning the demon.  The fiery monstrosity twitched on the ground, with orc warriors jumping at the chance to hack away before Riven’s own blood magic crashed into them in a wave of carnage.  Riven looked up above with a frown, focusing on red-robed orc mage that Riven hadn’t noticed before now.  The caster was positioned on the roof of a tree-house in the center of the village, and was beginning to conjure up yet another lightning bolt that condensed every couple seconds to empower the attack.

Riven pointed towards the caster, an obvious threat above most of the others while Azmoth picked himself up on shaky legs.  “Athela, kill him!”

The screeching obsidian woman blurred forward, easily dragging a lightly armored fighter twice her size by his ankles - using a tightened line of red silk.  She jumped over the heads of a pack of goblins, whirling and flinging the warrior into the side of the building the red-robed mage was standing on with an audible crunch of bones even from where Riven stood.

The treehouse shook violently in a small explosion of debris and the tusked mage canceled his upcoming lightning bolt, frantically propelling himself backwards with a clap of his hands that sent a short-range blast of storm energy Athela’s way - barely saving him from Athela’s wicked claws and even shocking her to deal moderate damage.  But that didn’t stop her there, and she whipped out her long sharp tongue that snaked its way like a black ribbon to pursue the mage.  When that failed and he teleported further into the village - she pursued with an eager scream and launched herself into the treetops high above like a true apex predator.

“I WILL FEAST ON YOUR BONES, LITTLE ORC!!!”

By now the orcs had thoroughly recognized Riven and his demons as the primary threats in the battle, even with a couple dozen of the elf defenders still remaining - and they began to focus on taking Riven down in growing numbers while keeping the elves preoccupied with the swarming smaller goblins.

Red crystalized ice rapidly spread along the ground in the direction of the incoming greenskins to slow their progress and Riven dashed right into the crevice between a treehouse and a cabin where one of the orcs who’d shot him earlier with an arrow was gurgling in a pool of his own blood.  Riven leaped ahead, slamming his boot into the orc’s neck with a sickening snapping sound and a gleeful cackle.  “Like me now bitch?  DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!?”

The unknown assailant died there on the ground - forever ending his story.