NOVEL NEXT 130 - Twin Peaks
He was here.
Abandoning my Party had not been a foolish self sacrifice, or an attempt for bravado to lead me to an early grave. It was just the knowledge that someone was close, and what I was about to do should bear no witnesses.
Even as my STAR lit up with messages, I chose to ignore them. Didn’t have the heart to explain, nor the time. A flash of air surrounded me as I switched back up to the roof of the central house.
The horde had truly swarmed in now. Amongst the pattering rain, their glowing yellow eyes sought me out. Soon enough, the entire village would be drowned in walking dead, with little chance of escape. It would take them a while to destroy the building to get at me - or less if they could climb, but for now, this was a sensible enough place to gather my thoughts.
My tired eyes looked down to see Roger in constant conflict. Every time his puppet became overwhelmed, he would switch to another, grabbing up whatever was closest to renew his onslaught. His dedication was admirable, but it didn’t hit any emotional marker within me. He would find a lack of applicable hosts soon enough, and wasn’t gaining any ground against the endless sea of corpses.
My mood had cooled, as if the persistent precipitation had melted away the blind panic I had not a minute ago. The truth wasn’t so simple. Now, without the weight of love clouding my mind, things had become clearer. I knew what I was and what purpose I had to fulfill at this stage of the show.
I turned slowly.
Across the village street, atop the roof of the building opposite mine. There he was.
A singular eye of bright white glared at me. Deep red skin and ivory horns. Muted leathers, the hand-print of the Lady on his forehead as well as on his chest plate.
I blinked, and his mouth upturned into a sharp grin.
“The trouble with my Domain,” he crooned, “is that it allows people to escape, in exchange for a wider area and specific effect.”
Cogs in my head clicked around. My brief mania, the fear instilled in my mind, was part of his Domain. A reason why it didn’t show up as a Status, perhaps. Something to learn.
He tilted his head. “You must have strong willpower, most would be reduced to a blubbering wreck by now.”
That must mean I was still in it. Odd, considering I didn’t have the lashing of paranoia keeping me cowering any longer. In saying that, I had a lot more cards up my sleeve that he wasn’t privy to. My own Domain. My demonic side. My Hunter past life that sought to erase beings like him.
He’d know soon enough.
I rolled my head around on my neck and stood to face him fully. “Last I heard, Rolo is feeling pretty lonely. So eager to join him?”
“Human fuck!” He seethed in response. “You sealed your fate when you killed my twin.”
A thrum of energy vibrated through my ears. Part of my psyche was fighting against his power. Pushing through the weight he was trying to smother me with. And I was winning.
I grinned. “Do you want to know how I did it?”
“Just die!” A sword of red energy burst out into his grip and he surged towards me, zipping across the open air with a streak of crimson blur.
He struck the empty air, as I appeared on the roof he had just left, leaving us in switched places. My foot slid slightly on the tiles that had become slick from the rain. The gnashing crowd below looked up with eager eyes. Stage diving wasn’t really a done thing in the magic world, so I’d leave them hungry.
My head turned back to the demon, a smile still on my face. “You didn’t come alone, surely? I’d hate to think you are as foolish as Rolo?”
Confidence was seeping back through my body quicker than the rain dampened my suit. In fact… I ran my tongue across my teeth. Purple lightning crackled around my body, and the rain abated, falling around me but no longer striking me. A bubble of dry air, rejecting the inclement weather. Part of his Domain that I no longer allowed.
His eye narrowed at seeing my shirking of his ability. “I fight my own battles. Here I stand before you to take vengeance.”
Foolish. Even more so than I was. “Idiot,” I scoffed. “You have an army of zombies as a backup for when you realize you are too weak.”
“I had not expected to catch you on your own.” He flourished his blade and tensed for the next attack.
So the original plan was to separate or distract my team while he got in a cheap shot and finished me off. I suppose I should be more flattered that an assassination attempt took so much effort, but he had made a fatal flaw.
All demons must die.
I raised up my hand and a trio of purple cards bloomed around it, spinning as he prepared his next attack. “Come closer, so that I may reunite you with your twin.”
He growled and burst across the gap between rooftops again. Instead of moving, I summoned my cannon right in front of me. The demon slammed into it, but twisted and rolled across the top as my Spear of Luck jettisoned out into the horde below. My cards went out toward him, and he vanished.
I had only used my invisibility, a little misdirection with my body language, causing him to make mistakes. Of course, now he had jumped himself right into where I had adjusted the cannon to aim as he flew across. A blast caused a bag of nails to split and pelt the area with shrapnel.
Windows shattered, wood was splintered, and tiles cracked. A wavering shield of red flashed over the demon, but as it faded, there were telltale streaks of a handful of fresh cuts and shredded armor. He was enraged and his off-hand went up, power running through it.
I moved too late. Long spikes of demonic energy burst up from where I stood. Several feet long, and bright red in color. Couldn’t help but add my own shade of crimson to them, as several pierced through my legs. Eyes up into the air as he had leaped at a greater height to swing down on me with his sword, avoiding the range of my cannon. Cooldowns were still ticking away.
The several planks of wood I summoned just above me shattered into splinters and I was knocked down prone. With the spikes vanished away, I slid down the roof, only stopping a foot away from dropping into the salivating mouths below. I spun out a trio of cards with half a dozen mundane ones, circling them like a tornado just before me to stop him from getting closer.
As I rolled to my front to push myself back up, into one hand, I quickly downed several potions in a row. Healing. Intelligence Boost. Action Speed. My legs screamed out in pain as I put my weight back on them, but they were just about able to hold me up. It’d do.
“You’re a slippery shit,” he growled. “No wonder you’ve been such a problem for the Lady. It will be my pleasure to…”
I started laughing. Even as purple energy sparked and ran over my body, the pain just brought me greater elation. It was all the same at the end of the day. Bullies spouting out bullshit before I kicked their shit in.
“You’re a pitiful excuse for a fucking demon, pal.” My eyes were burning up now, the first time they had held the glow since accepting what I was. 45% Power and rising.
“And you are a feckless human with no sense-”
“Ah-hah. No.” I raised up a bleeding finger and wagged it at him. “You want to know my secret before I kill you?”
He growled and a circle of white light pulsed up and down his blade. “That you can summon demons? Big deal. A weak tether to my kind won’t save you.”
“Our kind.”
I launched myself forward, sending my circling cards out in a burst. His sword came up to deflect them but I switched which were powered just before they got to him. Still, one his shield caught. Second deflected by his quick blade. Third cut through his left arm, severing into muscle.
And then I was upon him. Dagger spun up into my hand as I lashed down at him. As he blocked my strike, I changed it into the raspberry scented oil, bursting over his weapon and splashing down his front. My left hand jabbed upward with an empowered card, missing as he vanished to appear three feet back. Catching me off-guard he lunged forward and struck my extended left arm just below the STAR.
Blood burst from the wound and continued to trickle down, soaking my sleeve. Might have hit something important there. I held my right hand up, now wearing a white glove, as another trio of cards bloomed.
He paused to gauge how I was about to attack. Fucked him there. It was just another distraction.
Cannon went off. It had taken some time to turn it all the way around, so the melee suited that purpose. Not aimed straight for him directly, however. Pointed down against the roof, tiles burst into a mist of blue as the paint can rocketed through the supports. With a groan, the footing around us shattered, and we dropped down into the room below.
I bounced slightly, landing on the single bed, while the demon crashed onto the wooden floorboards. Amidst the cloud of dust dampened by the constant rain, I hopped down, bringing the Blade of Shadow into the recovering figure. Pierced him straight through the chest, burying through the gap in his ribcage into his stupid fucking demon internal organs.
He groaned as he slunk over, before I vanished, switching places with my Ice Imp+ back up on the roof at the edge of the wrought hole.
The real demon missed his swing, crimson blade crackling through the air just above the Imp’s head, before my pal blasted him point blank with an ice-bolt. Singular eye turned up to me, confusion and anger near blinding him.
“I’m more of a demon than you are.” I smiled. “You are but a wriggling worm, not even fit to devour the corpse of your brother.”
“Cursed shit, you know nothing. Those true to the Lady will pick the flesh from the bodies of you and that pretty elf you hold so dear.”
Oh, and I thought we could get away with keeping it all fun and games. This murder attempt just something casual between demons. Bringing in the Party just ruined my mood. Then again, I wasn’t even treating this as a show. That part of me had taken the backseat.
“What is your name, demon?”
He spat on the floor, before attempting to swipe at my Imp+ as I sent it away. “Syther. The last you’ll ever hear.”
70%.
“Why don’t you put your little Domain away? Let’s fight as equals. You… wouldn’t want me to get mine out, would you?”
“You’re… bluffing.”
He turned as the bedroom door burst open, Roger staggered through, his own eyes aglow with fury as he strode towards Syther. “Fucked the door, Boss.”
I leaped down from the edge, two-handed axe in my hands as my opponent was distracted. Cooldowns were being a pain once more, so I had some time to kill before this building needed to be evacuated. Roger had let the tide in, and we were about to be flooded by my hungry audience. Ah, there it was. Time to meet in the middle once more.
Syther stepped to the side as my weapon buried into the wooden floorboards, his shield flaring up as my pact demon lashed out with a mace. As he tried to take advantage of my stuck axe, I instead switched it out with my knife once more. Slashed across his collarbone and shoulder, narrowly missing his neck as his attack went wide. Mace struck him in the side of the head and he stumbled back into the wall, knocking a shelf of books down.
I was already back upon him. The falling books looted and flung back into the air one after the other, like a fountain of dusty tomes. Adding in a wave of mundane cards, even his large eye couldn’t see where my true attack was coming from. Another lunge with my dagger than was mostly absorbed by his armor. I ducked as Roger swung in a wide arc, pulping some of the wall as Syther vanished.
Spun in place and shot out three powered cards right behind us. A reasonable guess, with one slashing through his leg. 84%. Adrenaline and hatred had all but erased any pain or aches I should be feeling. I shouldn’t play with my food, but he kept squirming. A demon that must be erased. I turned my head to see the first of the zombies that had made it up the stairs. Time for a change of set.
“I’ll buy time, Boss.” Roger immediately sprinted out towards the landing.
Syther pulsed with energy as he blurred up back out onto the roof. A glare back toward me and he repeated the process, probably onto the next building.
Running from me. I grinned and wavered. Felt warm. Blood still poured from my left wrist, while both white gloves were now soaked crimson. 96%. My suit sparkled as if a cloud of glitter hung around me. Wasn’t even performing that many tricks, but he was a demon, and that was fuel enough.
I closed my eyes. It was time.
A rush of air and I stood before him. His eye widened in surprise as I grabbed him by the collar, appearing out of invisibility. “I told you to turn off your bullshit. Now you will learn the hard way.”
100%
Before he had the chance to raise his sword, I cast my Domain, cracking his in half like a bad egg. The dark clouds parted from the split and a ray of sunshine bore down, illuminating me.
Showtime.