NEW Chapter 208 (Patreon)

NEW Chapter 208

Bridgar Mush was an officer of his majesty’s legions, a veteran of many battles and a dwarf with a truly splendid red beard.  Brown eyes and a firm, square jawline stared out underneath a thick stone helmet carved out of the very caves they lived in and molded by forgeries and mages accustomed to the Volcanic Subpillar.  Most of the dwarves of his majesty’s legions were imbued with that particular subpillar, and thus the army Bridgar now stood over in his stone fortress tower all displayed various weapons, spells, and enchantments primarily from that specialty.

As the man in ivory armor Bridgar knew to be Riven Thane walked across a desolate battlefield between the two opposing armies, alongside the deafening chant of the ratkin horde just drooling to get their claws into dwarf flesh, Bridgar’s frown was a worried one.  It was him, without a doubt, due to the two demons on either side of the man and the unique Gluttony-infused items he wore - though the enormous demon basilisk slithering behind them was definitely new.

Their kingdom had assumed that Riven wasn’t invested in Deepnest’s problems beyond a passing trading partner, that Riven would never actually come down into the underdark himself to fight on the ratkin people’s behalf.  It appeared that Bridgar’s kingdom had assumed wrong.

[Riven Thane, Level 130 Warlock Devastator, Harbinger of Gluttony, Pureblooded Vampire, Lost Prince of the Blood Moon Requiem.  LEGENDARY.  PANU WORLD BOSS.]

“By the beard of Ragnut.  Load the cannons and push the rune barriers to full!”  Bridgar said shakily, knuckles turning white on the battlements overlooking the cavern ahead of him.  “Get ready to drop the ceiling on his head.  We’re going to wipe this stain clean from the world once and for all.”

One of his five nearby underlings, an officer with long braided black hair hanging from his chin, shifted uneasily.  “Bridgar… Are you sure you want to do that?  We dug those tunnels over the ceiling for a worst case scenario.  Blowing them will lose us this entire area, miles of suitable farmland for the mushrooms and crystals that grow here.  We have been fighting for control of this-”

Bridgar backhanded the officer, red in the face almost enough to match his beard.  “DO YOU REALIZE WHO THAT IS WALKING TOWARDS US!?”

The officer who was smacked stumbled, angrily put his hand on his glaive, then saw the absolute venom in Bridgar’s face and thought better of it.  Straightening an glaring at Bridgar, the officer pushed past his fellows to nod just once.  “Yes.  As I was saying, perhaps there are better avenues than to just drop the cavern on his head.  Not only will we lose these resources, but it will likely infuriate him.  You’d better hope that the resulting collapse would kill him, or else we’re all dead.  I say we negotiate.”

The idea of negotiation got a round of jeering laughter from the other dwarves present.

“He’s a vampire!  They do NOT negotiate!” Bridgar hissed, spitting on the ground and turning his back on the officers to watch the slow progression of Riven’s advance across the large expanse of underground farmland.  “Those bloodsuckers want nothing more than to enslave and feed on all the races they consider inferior.  And they consider ALL other races inferior.  Do as I say, or-”

The air was split with the roar of cannons.

Bridgar’s eyes went wide when a volley of siege weapons erupted from the front lines - targeting the slowly advancing vampire.  Explosions of volcanic ash and slabs of magma rocketed towards Riven’s position without warning, colliding with the vampire and sending clouds of debris into the air.

Bridgar looked down at his political rival, a lordling from another dwarvish noble house named Vire who’d no doubt tried to steal the glory of killing Riven Thane for himself.  Bridgar’s head nearly popped off and he almost spit blood.  “That little gnome-humping WORM!  HE SHOULD HAVE WAITED FOR THE CEILING DAMN HIM!  WE NEEDED TIME TO PREP IT!  CANNONS - FIRE ON THE VAMPIRE NOW!  SEND THEM ALL!  EVEN THE SMALL ARMS!  IF HE DOESN’T DIE HERE WE’RE DONE FOR!”

Not willing to be outdone by his political rival, Bridgar screamed at the rest of the cannons under his command while officers started shouting for the barriers to be reinforced.  Cylindrical tubes of rock and molten steel glowed hot red before spinning up and sending torpedoes of their own, crashing into the cloud of debris where the vampire had been.

Thousands of dwarves immediately lowered their crossbows and began to fire at will after shouted commands from captains overseeing them, and soon volleys of enchanted bolts were being fired like clouds of spines that condensed onto the area the cannon fire had targeted.

Volcanic, earthen spells were launched - crossbows and cannons reloaded, before the volleys continued as the chants of the ratkin across the cavern complex were drowned out.  Bridgar’s eyes narrowed on the spot that the barrage was targeting, and only after an entire minute of constant fire from the dwarvish side did he call for a cease.

The chanting of the ratkin had stopped.

Smoke, dust and fire billowed out in enormous waves out of the cavern floor where a crater had been created.

There was only silence as the two armies stared at the no-man’s-ground between them.

Bridgar continued to watch, eyes wide and knuckles white.  He took in a deep breath of air, then slowly released it as the seconds ticked by.  “Is he dead?”

Not one of the officers beside him replied.  They all just waited, expectantly, to see the result of their army’s barrage.

“There shouldn’t be a corpse if he’s dead.  His body would have been blown apart.” Bridgar said under his breath, feeling the saliva sticking to the back of his throat while he nervously shifted his weight from foot to foot.  “We have those barriers prepped for incoming attacks right?”

The officer beside him nodded stoically, staring at the still flowing plumes of ash, fire and dust.  “They’re fully charged and ready to intercept.”

Bridgar gave a shuddering nod, feeling his nerves reach a tipping point until suddenly - a flash of infernal light tore away the flaming wreckage of the crater the dwarves had created.  His eyes went wide, and he silently cursed Riven’s family 9 generations back.

There, in the center of the crater on a piece of cave floor that was largely unscathed, was the warlock.  He was surrounded by a dome of fire, while the armored brutalisk demon maintained the defensive ward with help from the basilisk - who was pouring mana into the brutalisk’s skill to reinforce it.  Athela, known prominently on the world forums as the demon who’d been resurrected from permanent death with one of Gluttony’s profane miracles after the sacrifice of an entire city, now stood in her house-sized archdemon form - blinking four narrowed red eyes on the top of a beautiful woman.  Meanwhile she maintained the lower body of an enormous, rose-covered white and crystal spider.

Beyond them, hundreds of sleek, crimson lances were crackling with black lightning and being pulled back by wretched snares in sling-shot mechanisms; and more were being made by the second.  Electrified snow began to gather around them as Athela’s crystal roses spewed frosted mists, and the basilisks' huge body erupted alongside the brutalisks’ - both encompassed with infernal flames.

The dome fell.

“You engaged me in long range combat?  Really?  Before I’d even had a chance to speak with you?”  Riven’s voice echoed out across the chamber.

Red frost began to rapidly spread out towards the hunkered dwarvish formations along the stone, covering tens and then hundred of yards in seconds.  A flare of his aura produced a swirling whirlwind of crimson snow crackling with black lightning, intermixing with Athela’s own elementally charged white snowflakes in a flurry of cold that quickly began turning into a far reaching cyclone.

Through the building storm that raged, thundered and boomed - shaking the cavern as more and more crackling blood lances were created and pulled back in the air overhead and behind the warlock - Bridgar the dwarf watched in horror while taking an involuntary step back.

Riven’s voice echoed throughout the chamber one final time, through the haze of whirling snow that was now obscuring him from view, a precursor of violence to come.  “I’d hoped that we could settle this like gentlemen.  I suppose that was my mistake.”

The air ripped apart and the thundering cloud of red and white snow parted as many thousands of piercing blood lances imbued with the path of black and red roared forward - causing space itself to rip and tear at the seams.

The semi-invisible barriers flared and shattered almost instantly as a cacophony of explosions tore into dwarvish formations, eliciting screams of horror and pain as body parts, trenches and battlements were ripped apart like they were made of paper.  The volley was followed by the building storm, a storm of chaotic energies and blinding snow that rolled across the dwarven fortress and defensive positions as an impenetrable wave that chilled Bridgar to the bone.

The dwarf dropped back onto his rear, heart beating like a drum, having been spared the initial volley but finding his hand catching himself on the exploded corpse of a nearby officer.

He screamed through the deafening storm of snow that whipped his beard around, only to cry out again in pain when an arc of elemental lightning tore through an exposed part of his armor into his forearm - splitting it open with a singed wound.

All around him, the roars and screams of his comrades could be heard as the booming approach of the oncoming ratkin army’s battlecries began to rise above the cyclone.  All was chaos, and Bridgar only barely had enough clarity to get back to the battlements to begin screaming orders.

Despite his dismay, despite the building dread he felt, he managed to make it to the wall as he tried his best to yell over the howling winds.  He tried to yell over the ice that slapped against his skin and cut him in numerous places while jolts of lightning - black and yellow - both randomly hammered into his body and stone armor.

But his voice was lost to the winds, and even to his own ears it began to die in his throat as - through the thick haze of crackling red and white - dozens upon dozens of ice-made arachnids began sweeping over the dwarvish formations to eat his still recoiling men alive while they tried to fight back.  The huge flaming figure of a basilisk crashed into the fortress wall on his right and below him, sending splintered spears and torn apart cannons down hundreds of feet while the men stationed there began to scream even louder.

A booming thud and the shake of the wall he now stood on caused Bridgar to trip just as he’d regained his footing, and he raised a hand to block out the whirling storm.  But when he uncovered his eyes to try to get a better view of the chaos unleashed on the area around him while debating whether or not he should just run to abandon his men, his gaze fell upon the looming, flaming figure of an obsidian knight torn from the depths of hell.

The towering brutalisk was covered in thick ebony plates, spikes running down its back, and the magma-infused maul in two of its hands flared to life as the fiery demon chuckled.  Bridgar abruptly tried to find the axe strapped to his side, but it had been lost somehow after being knocked around by the cyclone, and going pale - he realized that he was defenseless.

The last thing Bridgar saw was the downward swing of the large stone maul, glowing with lines of magma digging into the outer surface of the weapon, and his life was ended with a loud squelching sound as his body was splattered along the inner defensive layers of the dwarven fortress.

***

Allie panted, pressed her lips against Lahn’s and violently dominated him on her bed while she pinched his cheeks.  Gasping and pulling back to let the man breathe, her red eyes glistened with amusement when he finished.

“That was good!  Longer than I expected given your situation.” She said, humming to herself in satisfaction and leaving the baffled young man behind after she got up and strode over to the bookshelf.  Taking a bottle of blood wine from the top and draining half of it in one go, she gasped again and let out a long burp.

She turned around in the dim light of her room, finding him staring at her longingly with those puppy dog eyes of his.  He really was adorable, though a lot of that had to play into his personality.  She’d had thralls far more attractive than him in the realm of physical looks, especially due to how Lahn was still regaining muscle mass on his withered left side, but she’d found those fuckboy toys to be lacking in all other aspects.  Thralls were something she’d quickly become bored of, and after having found Lahn - she’d executed hers so she didn’t have to deal with them any longer.

Why HAD she so quickly fallen for this man?

Pausing to think about it, she really didn’t know.  Riven had told her that, in his opinion, her transition and infatuation with Lahn had been incredibly abrupt.  Too abrupt.  Perhaps Riven was right, but her older brother was not one to go about giving dating advice given his absolute failures in that realm.  Allie still didn’t know what to think about the Fay situation, but at the very least Riven had said he did like and approve of Lahn.  So there was that, and Allie wasn’t about to fight off feelings like this when she’d been looking for this exact kind of connection for so long.  She just.. Felt right, being around Lahn.

“So… how was your first time?” Allie asked, a  sly smile playing on her lips as her bare, pale legs took her forward in a gliding motion to the edge of the bed.  She bent over, booping him on the nose while he propped himself up on his good elbow, and gave him a pecking kiss on the cheek.  “Hopefully not too disappointing?”

Lahn just continued to stare, as if dumbstruck, and he eventually blinked while slowly letting his body drop back into the pillows.  “I only lasted two minutes.”

Allie snorted a laugh.  “I expected as much, don’t worry about it.  You’ll get better.”

Lahn eyed her up and down while she stood at the edge of the bed, and he reached out a hand to touch her own.  He smiled.  “I don’t know about that.  Every time I look at you, I just… I get butterflies.  I see only perfection, and I ask myself just how did I become this lucky.  How am I supposed to last longer in the face of this?”

Allie squeezed his hand back, sitting and caressing his face with one hand.  Then a look of doubt briefly overcame her.  “Do you think it was better than it would have been with Marsia?”

Lahn blinked.  “Marsia?”

“Marsia Bortrost.  The young lady your parents tried to set you up with.  Lord and Lady Bortrost’s daughter, before you started school.”

Lahn blinked again, then began loudly laughing while pulling Allie into a hug on the bed.  Their bare bodies rolled onto one another, and the rolling stopped when they settled into a position with their eyes locked nose to nose.  “Allie, she doesn’t hold a candle to you.  You seriously can’t say that YOU’RE jealous.  Right?”

Allie grinned.  “Of course not!”

There was a pause, and Lahn’s face grew bright with smug satisfaction.  “You WERE jealous!  Oh my gosh!  WOW!  Allie Thane, Queen of the Thane Necropolis and Princess of the Blood Moon Requiem, is JEALOUS of MARSIA BORTORST!  This is great!  I’m definitely telling mother.”

Allie’s eyes narrowed and she abruptly jabbed him in the side, getting him to squeal.  “You’d better not you little turd, or I’ll suck your body dry and leave it for the roaches.”

Lahn’s eyebrow raised teasingly.  “I may like that.”

“Shut up.”

They both laughed, and eventually Allie stopped the cuddle fest by getting up and stretching with a yawn.  Donning a robe and heading for the door, she turned to look over her shoulder just once.  “I’ve got to go change and see Kathrine now.  The Blood Moon Requiem apparently has an important guest that I need to talk to, and she’s been hounding me about it for a while.  I’ll be back in a few hours, but you should get some sleep.  Your body needs all the recovery it can get.”

Lahn sighed in disappointment.  “Could we try again when you get back?  I want to make up for my failures here.”

Allie rolled her eyes and snorted again, but the smile she had on was wide and displayed her fangs.  “Of course.  I look forward to it.  And we can watch a movie afterwards!”

“What’s a movie?”

“Oh, I forgot you’re not from Earth again.  I’ll explain when I get back!”

With that she blew him a kiss and left the room, shutting the door behind her with a click - before her footsteps faded away.  After that, only the faint rustle of leaves of the garden tree outside Allie’s window were there to keep Lahn company.