In Loki's Honor

The Gods came to send me to clean up somebody else's mess. But that was what I was, a murderer for hire. The carrot was too tasty.

I said my goodbyes. Hazel performed a ballad for me. "The Silver Heroine," She called it.

Outside the city, away from prying eyes, I shifted, prepared myself, and ran. I ran for days. I ran for weeks. A silver jaguar blurred over the continent, toward doom. I went forward.

Mountains, valleys, even rivers with Nenandil's help making me walk on water like a water strider. I went forward.

Near the end, I saw them. People of all kinds and walks in life fleeing. Running for their lives, to avoid the devastation of a soul-sucking Demon Lord. I went forward.

The land left on the Demon Lord's wake was barren of life. Plants became ashes, animals, and people became bony husks. The very life of the land died in a twisted offering for the Demon Lord. I went forward.

I saw it and dismayed. The Demon Lord was as tall as a castle. And he walked on all fours. He moved and mowed his path of destruction, the flames coursing his cursed body illuminating the night. I went forward.

Behind the Demon Lord, I found them. Adventurers, lunatics, [Monster Hunter] like I once was. I cared not to hide my true nature. I walked among them in my hybrid form, my backpack behind me, and my silver fur shining. The title was there for all who cared to look with their mind's eye.

I stopped to talk. I am starving. I refrained from eating on purpose, to get the maximum absorption from {Magic Eater}.

"Greetings. I believe you are here to kill that beast," I said.

A warrior with a big sword approached. Level eighty-five. His armor glowed. "Are you the Demon Slayer?" I nodded. "And a were-cat." I nodded. "We don't need you here."

"Fine by me. I'm going to get me a demon meal then," I scoffed and sashayed past him. He nicked my arm with a silver blade as I passed. I looked and showed him the wound healing. "My blood is silver. I'm a [Sivler Slayer]. And a killer. My prey is that way. Do not cross my path."

"I think you aren't going anywhere. You might be the ticket for my next level."

"Likewise," I put a contract on him. "A duel then?"

"Yes, I don't want anybody stealing my Exp."

I dumped my backpack. I probably shouldn't even bother to bring anything. Or maybe one item. I took a flask from the bag and took a swig, holding the liquid in my mouth. He drew his massive sword. I studied him. He was no Chad. I didn't doubt for a moment he had the agility to swing that thing to become a blur. And before I forget, a contract on his head for being an asshole.

He came I sacrificed my left arm to his blow and came close. Close enough to his face that I could kiss him if he wasn't using a Thracian helmet. Instead, I sputtered concentrated deathberry oil on his face through the opening.

My arm fell down, still a furry jaguar's limb. The bleeding debuff was bearable. He would be dead in minutes if I did nothing. An antidote to deathberry did not exist and I spent two lives studying the plant. Ever since Wyxnos banned the immunity perks, I was probably the only creature truly immune to the thing.

He fought to remove his helmet and I climbed on his back. While he wiped the deathberry off of his face, I bit his arms off. Then the head.

Contract fulfilled.

You killed level 85 [Sword Juggernaut]. You gained You gained 1,684,825,566 Exp (72,250 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 7,57 contract x 10 rank x 10 Class rank x 5.05 favored enemy x2 size).

You reached Silver Slayer level 17.

You reached High Human level 16.

You reached High Chemist level 14

You reached High Surgeon level 14.

I let the System assign my other Skills Anywhere. The human ones, I knew what I wanted.

You purchased the Improved Spiritual Power (very rare) Skill. Increase your Spiritual Power amount by Rank x Ego 0.5% [Current: 27%].

You purchased the Improved Spiritual recover (very rare) Skill. Increase your SP regeneration by Rank x Spirit x 0.5% [Current: 28%].

"Level up!" I chirped happily.

I picked up my arm and held it to the stump. A minute later, it was moving again. I slung my pack on my back and looked at the people around. "I'm going to fight the demon. I relinquish my claim to this idiot's equipment. Happy looting."

I ran. The people behind me started to kill each other for that guy's magic gear.

These two Skills would make putting contracts much easier, as the perk consumed SP even though it didn't mention it. The real bonus was that I now could track my hidden Attributes, at least two of them. My Ego was fifty-four, my Spirit fifty-six. But I already knew that from the blight message.

This Demon Lord wasn't humanoid. First, it hadn't skinned but interlocking plates of either chitin or some black glossy metal. An eerie red glow could be seen between the plates. It had the hindquarters of a horse, the forepaws of a cat, bat-like wings, a scorpion's tail, a humanoid torso and two heads, one draconic and the other was a slug's, with two eye bulbs on stalks. The humanoid torso had four arms, two facing forward and the other two facing backward. His hands ended in claws the size of trees and were upside down. With the palms facing up, its thumbs faced inward.

And it's supposed to have eleven more of those. And then what? Third impact? An eternal wait for movie three? I guess I'll never watch that one.

There's only one way to kill that guy. Climb it and shred the heck out of it. I ran after the brute of a kaiju, hoping doesn't breathe lasers.

I reach the monster and jump on its plates. They are metallic and piping hot. My backpack burst in flames and burns to cinders as I read the damage notification.

You are exposed to extreme heat. You lose 9 HP ( 2,000 base x 0.75 magic resistance x 0.2 magic eater x 0.03 fire resistance)

No wonder those pussies were measuring their dicks instead of engaging the beast. But my regeneration can deal with this level of damage. Let's hope it doesn't increase when I reach a hotter part of its body. Worse, when {Magic Eater} starts to sate me, that damage will go up.

I climb the monster and reach its back. From there, I walk unimpeded to its neck and peek between the heads. It didn't notice me yet. I see a city in the distance. Seems he's going there to feed. Speaking of which, what level is it?

Level 180 Demon Lord.

That's one of the bosses that will take forever to whittle down its HP. And the periodic damage jumped to ten per second. I can see the heat waves distorting the air around me. I should start with the snail head. Looks softer.

There's a gel covering the snail. I push it aside and bite the snail flesh. Nothing happens and I get my paws and muzzle stuck. The bastard is covered in some sort of adhesive slime.

She conjures a jet of water and immediately it boils. Droplets of water scatter, happily jumping and skittering over the boss courtesy of the Leidenfrost effect. They roll off the boss and fall down. We accomplished nothing and I'm still stuck.

Nenandil conjectures.

She fires her ice shards. They too break down and boil almost instantly. A ball of ice. Lasts a few seconds more.

Maybe I can unstick myself with them. I make the pseudopods and send them to poke the slime. They get stuck and start to feed on it, but more slime oozes to fill the spot. Changing gears, I use the pseudopods to push my muzzle away from the monster. When only pseudopods are touching the ooze, I cut them loose. I take some damage but it's negligible. I do the same with my paws and break free.

The periodic heat damage jumped to twelve per second.

This monster is too ridiculous. On its shoulder, I'm at the same height as a building twenty-five stories high. Maybe I can cut off the dragon head. I only need to find a gap between the metallic plate-scales. I search for a quarter of an hour to no avail. The gap between the plates is too small and even hotter than the outside.

Next, the arms. Maybe I can crawl into its armpits and sever the arms. From experience, I'll need to dig the skin and reach the flesh. I won't get a critical hit if I don't.

As I glimpsed before, there's no armor in the armpits. I walk there - there's no scent in this heat - and start to dig the skin.

The Demon Lord roar-giggle-laugh. It seems I'm ticking it. Focused on digging the skin, I don't see the hand coming to scratch the itch. Me, I mean. He flings me away.

You lose 14,400 HP (Base 600 x 3.2 strength x1x5 skill x 5 size). You are severely wounded. You are bleeding. You have a concussion.

That's from a casual scratch. I fall on the ground and lose another thousand-ish HP because I'm a were-jaguar and can mitigate falls. But I'm broken. I can't move on.

No answer. I have to ask why they don't give me some kind of support.

Broken and battered, I can only despair as I see my quest target move away. I check the quest tracker and see that the summoners are already dead. That bonus objective is gone, someone went for the easy part. It takes about eleven minutes for my HP to regenerate and I'm back on the chase.

From what I saw, the arms can't reach the tail. I climb the monster and walk over and around the tail to find a weak spot. Not finding one, I claw the metal plates in frustration. They cleaved through, making spiral shavings. I felt dumb. Should've tried to do that earlier.

So, wait a second.

This monster is hot enough to Leidenfrost water. Why is it not glowing? It should emit black-body radiation in the visible spectrum if it is dealing more damage per second than holding searing hot metal. It means this fucking metallic armor is not baryonic matter.

This is either some bullshit fantasy or an illusion. I claw the metal and dig more furrows. It is soft as... Oh. I'm stupid. I use {Chemical Analysis} on the shavings. Yes, it is nothing-foam. These plates do not exist, they are an illusion. when I compartmentalize this in Apricot's brain, the whole armor vanishes, leaving a dry cracked hide full of tufts of coarse hair I could use to make a bridge replacing the steel cables.

But it is skin I can cut and shred. I work for five minutes, the periodic damage rose to twenty per second but I cut off the freaking scorpion tail with a critical bite.

The tail falls down and raises a plume of smoke as the Demon Lord bucks and screams. I get a corrupted blood bath for my efforts. The corrupted blood mixes with the silver in my own body and hisses with horrendous sounds.

I actually start to lose HP from the two periodic damage debuffs. Without much time to idle around, I run to the now naked torso. When the corrupted blood vanishes, I regain the bit I lost.

I climb the torso paying attention to the arms. I probably should sever those first. Change course and go to the armpit. I look ahead as I climb. Only a few more hours and he'll attack another city. I can see the tiny ants of people fleeing the place but this monster is fast. With legs this long, he has all the right to be so.

At the armpit, I bite and rip chunks of skin off, mindful of the arms trying to get me. I dodge, move back and forth, and return to my spot. More corrupted blood gushes out but I need to keep going. I reach the tendons underneath and score two criticals, taking the arms away. I repeat the same on the other side and the boss becomes a normal quadruped.

The fire damage ticks up to thirty per second and I'm no longer starving although I'm almost at the limit of my regeneration. Now, unless he rolls around to crush me under some hill, he can't attack me. Unless he has some hidden trick, but he would've used it before losing five limbs.

The big dumb demon had no way to attack me now. I severed the dragon head and all four limbs but it had already reached the city. The furnace of a giant monster burned everything in its path before falling down. It was still trying to crawl toward other neighborhoods.

I had to get away from him to recover HP. But he was bleeding from the severed stumps and in the middle of the night, it finally died.

You killed level 185 Demon Lord. You gained You gained 17,589,083,125 Exp (342,250 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 200 size x 20 rank x 1.25 perk x3.37 perk).

Quest completed. You gained 3 perks of your choice up to very rare.

You reached Silver Slayer level 19.

You reached High Human level 18.

You reached High Chemist level 17.

You reached High Surgeon level 17.

Boss gained five levels from the city. And I got two from him. I need now twenty billion Exp to the next level and rank up. Mind-boggling.

I had perks to spend.

Demon Slayer II (very rare): Your attacks against demons deal 125% more damage. The damage from your attacks do not regenerate and lowers the demon's strength and agility.

You purchased the Favored Enemy Exp Boost IV (very rare) Perk. Experience from favored enemies is increased by 405%.

I ran to the boss's body, heedless of the heat. This one hadn't crumbled to cinders like the first. I saw the glowing core near the neck, more than three times in diameter bigger than the first.

You claimed the level 185 magic core.

"Hey, Wyxnos, come and get this shit. I want my perk!" I shouted.

I was still taking periodic damage from the heat.

Wyxnos appeared. "Would you offer the core to the gods freely?"

"Yeah. Why not. It is just a hundred and twenty-seven Attributes I'm not getting. But hey, there are eleven more dudes like this one and I get a unique perk, right?"

He nodded. "That's correct. What perks do you want?

"I want a perk to allow me to use spiritual power in place of MP. And don't give me something that needs MP to activate like these blood rituals."

"That will have to be unique. I'll let the system fill in the details."

"I want favored enemy critical chance, partial transformations, and another rank in extra experience from favored enemies."

You gained the SP Substitution (unique) perk. You can spend SP instead of MP to power any ability that requires SP.

You gained Favored Enemy Critical Chance (very rare) perk. Increase your critical hit chance against favored enemies.

You gained the Partial Transformation (very rare) perk. You can shift parts of your body while keeping the rest the same.

You gained the Favored Enemy Exp Boost V (very rare) Perk. Experience from favored enemies is increased by 657%.

I was about to cheer that I hadn't died when Wyxnos vanished with the core and I saw a heatwave coming from the boss' body. It was glowing bright white. Just like another sun. Whatever organ created all that heat inside the boss didn't die with its owner. Instead, it went...

*** BOOM ***

You died.