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BloodSworn Ch. 5
🕑 Added 2024-10-31 21:06:23 +0000 UTC5.
Erak turned the corner and jerked his head back as the side of the building erupted in a spray of stone splinters. A forearm long, yellowing bone spear exploded in a wave of razor sharp shrapnel, pinging off his armor. The half dozen Adjudicators behind him weren’t as lucky, their thin uniforms offering no protection. Shrieks of pain resounded, echoing off the canyon-like alley way they had been herded into.
Erak spun around the corner, shield rising to cover his head, and charged the abomination that sat perched like a toadstool down the street. Eight feet tall and just as wide, its bulbous body puffed up like a balloon and Essence shone around it, crimson red in the light of the sun. Erak made it two more steps before all the Essence condensed into the creature’s body, sucked away like a whirlwind. New bone splinters rose out of its saggy skin, sharp and gleaming as the demon expanded to its limit.
Demonic Bonespitter lvl. 7
The bone hammered into his shield, stopping him in his tracks as his entire left side went numb. Growling in his throat, he shook his arm out as he continued toward the now deflated sack. Essence was gathering around it again, but its short legs couldn’t move itself fast enough as Erak closed the distance.
Hellspawn came running at him, all bones and bloody talons, screeching as they tried to step in front of him and the organic artillery piece. His spear shifted, flashing in the light of the day and bodies fell to the ground as he cut through them like a thresher through wheat. The weak monsters were battered and tossed, their broken bodies hitting the stone buildings and failing to withstand the impact.
The bonespitter began to inflate again, air whistling into it, pulled by an orifice underneath the layers of baggy skin. Erak lined up and thrust with one smooth motion, the spear piercing through the semi-filled air sac with a pop as an unearthly scream filled the air, causing him to grimace in distaste.
He twisted the spear, ripping it free with a spray of ichor as the alert came that the demon was dead. Erak turned back to the alleyway where they had been pinned down and waved them forward. It was the this bonespitter he had been forced to kill in the last hour, the monsters clinging to rooftops and throwing missiles down with deadly accuracy. His heavy armor was the only thing allowing him to stand against them, otherwise their expedition would have been left in puddles of blood already.
“Something with intelligence is herding us,” Professor Rutledge hypothesized. The old academic walked with little assistance from her cane and peered around the world with sharp eyes. She prodded at the deflated bonespitter and then looked around wildly.
“Julius! Julius! You fool boy, what are you doing back there behind the soldiers? You will go nowhere in your field if you are always lagging behind. Now get up here and tell me what you have observed of this monster,” Rutledge’s voice cracked like a whip and even the soldiers parted around Julius, exposing him to her wrath. Erak kept moving up the street as the voices of the academics followed behind him.
“We have witnessed it gather, what we can only assume is Essence, and then use it to spit spears of bone at us. As its name indicates.”
“Is that all you observed? No wonder the Archaeology department hasn’t produced any papers in a decade. If only Abelard was alive!”
Erak tuned them out as he watched the intersection. Many of the hellspawn had fled as they marched, too weak to stand against either the concentrated caster fire, or his spear. That hadn’t stopped their ransacking of the city. The screams of the dying still filled the air and battle was being met everywhere he turned to look.
The glow of the rift competed with the sun as the chained being lounged in the boundaries. The Iron Cathedral had begun to glow as the metal heated, but few dared move in that direction. Fire rose from bursts of lighting from the creature’s hands and huge swathes of the Imperial City burned, black ash rising to choke the sky.
“Sir, we’ve sustained heavy losses. Almost all of the Adjudicators are injured. We should bivouac and regroup. There’s plenty of citizens who need help as well. We can establish a defense point between the Armory and the square. A rally point.” Nevia’s words were as useful as pissing in the wind. His goal was immutable.
He shook his head and pointed his spear down the interconnected street. He had been swayed to follow the side streets and try to avoid fights as the small command had been fearful of facing the hellspawn in open confrontation. For too long they had wandered, scuttling around in the dark as they tried to avoid the invaders. No more. Erak would cut his way through the horde to reach the armory and the guns of the Sword of Empire.
Infernal Soldier lvl. 12
Infernal Soldier lvl. 11
Infernal Soldier lvl. 13
The road he looked down was filled with them. True soldiers and not the mindless horde they had been fighting so far. Nevia peered around him and her pale face blanched till she was as pale as the stone around them. She ducked back and looked at her own ranks, the soldiers slowly fanning out and taking up firing positions with what limited cover they had.
“Julius! Up here!” Nevia barked, waving her hand to the berated professor. He bowed and bobbed and babbled apologies as he fled from Rutledge to race to them. Julius looked between the two of them before peering around the edge and seeing their newest foe. He held back a shriek of fear as he quickly slithered back behind the false security of the stone buildings.
“They are higher than everyone. Even you Erak! We need to go around them!”
“I am hesitant to agree with him, Ring Bearer, but we have confirmed that there is a correlation between strength and levels. If that bonespitter is only a seven, then I fear we lack the necessary strength to overpower them. At least while maintaining the strength needed to accomplish your goals.”
Erak looked at his own floating numbers that he had been ignoring so far. Julius and Rutledge had been hard at work, extrapolating every iota of data they could from the soldiers and their own observations. He had listened as they spoke, theory and hypothesis flying forth with little confirmation. Erak had been willing to wait, but the soldiers who had used their levels had experienced boosts in strength.
The Infernal Soldiers were in his way and was done walking around and to the side, lengthening his journey to the Armory. He had been content to wait to fully understand what the levels would require for him, but he needed the strength they offered and he needed it now.
He signed what he was going to do and Julius and the Professor’s jaw dropped as he quickly spun to Nevia.
“Erak hasn’t used his levels yet. He’s going to take them and then says we’re going up the street. Your soldiers are to deploy on either side and box the enemy into a crossfire while he goes down the middle.”
“He’s been doing all this without using Essence? By the gods, he’s a monster.” Nevia’s whisper was loud enough for Erak to hear but he paid it no mind. He was born and bred for war. Whether it was on the ice caps of the polar fields or in the streets of the Imperial City against the soldiers of Hell, none would stand before him.
