Cries from up ahead startled the remaining bandits. A few arrows flew my way, but most went to where Alpha was wreaking havoc. Screams pierced the silent night as he jumped from tree to tree and mauled his victims. I stopped running and looked up, deflecting any arrows that still came my way.
“You can finish them all off. I’m going ahead into the cavern,” I said and rushed toward the three guards that seemed as if they’d been dazed. Three arrows were all of the resistance the bandits could scrounge up. Too little too late.
I stabbed the left bandit straight in the chest and ripped the sword out to the side. The middle guard brought up his hammer and struck me in the shoulder. I fell to the ground and slashed at his legs, going straight through, amputating them at the knees. He dropped with a howl as the third bandit turned to flee. I threw my sword at him, catching him in the neck. He was dead before he hit the ground.
“One more,” Alpha growled out and jumped to the last marked tree. He was magnificent, yet frightening beyond measure. Gods forbid I got on his bad side one day. The last scream died out as the bandit thudded against the tree stump below.
I got up and clenched my teeth. The hammer’s blow had struck me pretty hard, and dislocated my shoulder. There was a strange, tingling sensation crawling up and down my arm, as if a colony of ants had made it their home.
“Wait,” Sophia whispered as she ran up to me. “Shit, that looks nasty,” she said and pulled away from me. Then I saw it as well. Bone protruded through the skin on my right shoulder.
“Could you try and… help me out here?” I asked worriedly. The strange thing wasn’t the sight as much as that I didn’t feel the pain.
Sophia groaned and sagged, murmuring something about her bad luck. She grabbed my hand and put her foot up, pressing it against me.
“Wait, why are you--” I began to ask but then I went quiet at the sight of her nether lips. She noticed my gaze and pulled with all her might.
“That’s for your lecherous nature!” she yelled and slapped my wounded shoulder as it slid into place.
“Fucking hell! Damn, woman, it’s not my fault you put your leg up and revealed everything!”
“Maybe the two of you should poke before you tackle the cave. Just in case you were to die. That way you would have gotten something out of it, at least.” Alpha’s interruption was unexpected.
However, he wasn’t especially wrong. There was some merit to his words. Though I doubted she’d see it that way. But before I could even reply, Sophia pressed herself against me and placed her arms around my waist.
“I… wouldn’t mind, if you promise not to double cross me. After all, I’m… a virgin.”
“Al, how about you shut the fuck up, please? You’re creating awkward moments every time you speak!” I cursed at the wolf. He snickered and lay at the entrance.
“The coast is still clear if you’re going to do it. I’ll call out if anyone comes out.”
“We’re not gonna do anything, you idiot!” I yelled at him, frustrated.
“Yes, we are,” Sophia whispered as she pressed her face into my neck. She kissed my cheek and traced her hands toward my chest, and then slid them down slowly. Her eyes met mine, imploring me to not embarrass her. I cursed under my breath as she knelt in front of me and pulled down my trousers, revealing my hard member. It throbbed in front of her face, and pulsated with my lifeblood.
“You don’t have to--”
“Shh,” she whispered as she leaned in and kissed the tip of my cock. “It’s warm,” she said and looked up at me as she put her hand around my shaft. Her big, round eyes seemed so innocent, devoid of any malice or guile. Sophia moved her hand along my length and slid her dress down her body, revealing the pale skin beneath.
Her large breasts beckoned for me to grab them, but I couldn't move. I melted in her hands with each movement she made, with each bob of her head. Her hands were as soft as silk, her tongue playful beyond measure as she slid it around me.
“You don’t--” I began, hesitant.
She didn’t even let me finish as she looked up at me again, her gaze focused and cold, a contrast to how warm her touch was. The rush of pleasure that welled up in meall went to my cock. It stiffened even more as a single drop of cum slid into her mouth. She hesitated for an instant, before her hand tightened around my cock and her head began moving even faster than before.
“I’m coming,” I moaned as my muscles tightened and spurt after spurt of cum shot into her mouth. She pulled back and looked up at me, the white liquid dripping lazily down her lips. It covered her breasts as drops fell from her mouth. Something in me felt like I should die, for humiliating her, but she didn’t turn red, start crying or even let go of my length.
“You taste strange,” she whispered and pressed her lips against my still turgid arousal, moving her hand slowly. She pulled her head back slightly and stared at my shaft, then licked it clean and swallowed.
“Y-Yeah. I guess,” I whispered, embarrassed, as she stood and pulled up her dress, covering the two mounds of pale perfection.
“All right. You got your down payment. Please, take care of your part of the deal.”
I cursed and pulled up my pants. My cock was still stiff from her touch and gaze as she turned her head away from me.
“T-Thank you,” I muttered and hurried past her toward the cave entrance. “Keep her company, and make sure she stays alive.”
“You got it, boss,” Alpha replied as he got up and walked past me toward Sophia. I smirked, looking forward to killing some bandits and freeing the slaves.
11
Faint light lit up the path in front of me, as the scent of stale air assaulted my nostrils. The walls felt like they were creeping up on me with each step I made. Corner after corner and corridor after corridor stretched out into eternity. Only it didn’t. That was the way it had been constructed, to give anyone who wasn’t familiar with it a false sense of paranoia.
The corridor up ahead was brighter, with multiple braziers burning wood. The smoke hung heavy in the air, filling my lungs as I approached. It was no wonder no one had heard the bandits scream this far inside the mountain. Flickering shadows and movement from up ahead gave me pause.
“Can you hear me?” I asked and pressed myself against the wall, becoming one with the darkness around me.
“Tell Sophia she’ll be punished. She never mentioned the long and narrow corridors. I fucking hate it.”
I could feel him laugh in my mind, but I didn’t rise to the bait. There were much more important things to think about just now. Like killing all the bad guys and getting out alive.
“You’ll get a repeat performance, she said,” Alpha replied after he went silent. My face flushed red and I could feel the discomfort squirm inside me. Damned wolf. Why was he so free with his comments?
I shook away these thoughts and leaned around the last bend. I couldn’t count the number of bandits in the adjacent area, but there were at least ten of them. To the right, I noticed a gate. Two gates, next to one another, to be more precise.
That must be where they keep the slaves, I thought.
At a loss on how to proceed, I just stood there, motionless. There shouldn’t be a way for anyone to open the gates and start killing the slaves once I attacked, but there was always that one thing that I kept at the back of my mind. No plan survives first contact with the enemy, no matter how well made.
I sighed and turned back and ran some forty feet the way I’d come from and put up my hands.
“Soul forge,” I whispered. The bright light illuminated the near vicinity, but I hoped the three bends between me and the bandits were enough to kill off the light. I ran back and stepped up to the same turn, holding both swords to my sides and peeked around the corner. The situation had remained unchanged. I nodded and took one last deep breath.
Within seconds, I found myself standing opposite my first victim. He had his back to me and was talking to a group of three men, as they huddled around a brazie
r. The tip of my sword rammed through his chest. I pulled it out to his side, ripping him open and stepped between the three sitting bandits. With my left sword, I slashed the first bandit across the chest and stepped in again, slashing at the remaining two with my right sword. They died before any could make a ruckus, but I was seen. By the slaves, no less.
“Help us! Save us! Help us, warrior!”
“Oh fuck,” I cursed and turned toward the commotion on my left.
“Intruders! Get them!” rang out from a dozen mouths. I sighed and rushed in, brandishing my swords. Each slash and stab was precise, killing their target almost instantaneously. A pain radiated out from my left shoulder, as if a hot poker had grazed me. I winced and glanced backwards, slashing my sword across a bandit’s neck. I stopped and gasped. It was only a kid. True, he attacked me, but I cut him down like the rest of this vermin. I closed my eyes and cried out when another attack went through. My right side hurt like a bitch, but I needed the pain. I needed a constant reminder of what I’d done. I was right, but it still hurt.
“You savages!” I cried out and rounded on the few remaining bandits. Something in me snapped. My body moved on its own, but I wasn’t in control. All I could do was observe and pray to the gods that nothing happened.
“It’s my turn, little boy,” an evil presence announced in my head as it appeared around me like a fog. It enveloped me and slowly worked its way into me through every opening it could. It possessed me, driving me onward.
“Who... no, what are you?” I stuttered out, afraid of the answer. I couldn’t help the weakness in my voice, and it scared me. I wasn’t weak, I was a strong, young man.
“Oh, you know very well who I am. You’ve known me all your life, in your dreams.”
I froze, but my body didn’t. The monstrous presence from my nightmares was apparently in control, and killing the bandits in droves. It was one thing to fight for your life, but something else entirely to watch the carnage that was unfolding.
“Please, stop…” I whispered. I didn’t have much more in me. Everything ached as I struggled against its control, but I was too weak. I couldn’t free myself.
“What… do I get in return?” it asked mischievously.
I went silent, thinking hard about what I could offer this monstrous entity. But there wasn’t anything I could offer it. Not yet. I was too weak and that knowledge was killing me.
“No, please, not the slaves!” I cried out as he turned my body toward the cages.
“What am I getting in return? I won’t ask again.”
I could feel phantom tears forming in my eyes, as I was trapped in my own head. It was all in my mind, but it didn’t mean that I wasn’t hurting beyond measure.
“Nothing! I can’t give you anything except myself!”
My hand stopped on the latch, as the entity chuckled in response.
“Yes, you’re quite correct. Today was all about demonstrating a fraction of my power. Next time I decide to take over, you won’t get away so easily.”
The presence disappeared, leaving a sour aftertaste in my mouth. I felt violated, and not just in the way a human being could violate another. No, this was pure malevolence.
I snapped back to reality and found myself standing in front of the cage. A couple dozen slaves, both younger and older women, huddled in the corner farthest away from me. I felt horrible, even though it hadn’t been me during that last minute.
“I’m sorry. I got carried away for a moment,” I said, my head hung low and turned away from them. “I’m sorry you had to witness all of… this,” I added, motioning around with my hand as I walked toward the second cage and opened it. The same timid and frightful expressions stared back at me from the second group.
“Thank you,” a young voice spoke from behind me. A young girl, barely ten, stood there, covered in rags, her face dirty. Long, ragged hair covered most of it.
I turned toward her and knelt in front of the young girl, spreading my arms. She didn’t hesitate for an instant and ran into them.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Lilly,” she whispered in reply.
“Lilly, please take the others outside. There’s a young woman and a gigantic wolf waiting there. He killed all of the bad guys, so there’s no one left to hurt you. Can you do that for me?” I asked and pushed her off me slightly, meeting her large, hazel eyes.
“Okay,” she replied, a half smile gracing her grimy face.
I didn’t have much left in me, certainly not enough to endure the looks sent my way. It was as if they thought I’d eat the little girl right in front of their eyes. I sighed and turned away.
“Go!” I said, much louder than I had intended, but it couldn’t be helped. I needed them out of here.
“What’s going on? I lost you for a moment. Do you want me to come inside?” Alpha offered. A weak smile found its way to my face.
“No. We’ll talk later. I need to finish this. Oh, and don’t eat the slaves. They’re coming out now.”
He said something else, but I tuned him out and closed my mind, thinking about the evil inside me as I strode into the next corridor. Three bends, two, and finally one. A bright, intense light radiated from the last room. I felt claustrophobia creeping up on me this deep within the mountain. But it was soon replaced with something much more primal: rage.
“What… the hell do you think you’re doing?!” I yelled as I went around the bend. I couldn’t stay quiet, no sane person could have, greeted with the sight that awaited me.
“Oh, it’s the intruder. I’ve felt you ever since you and… something else took out my underlings outside. I’d honestly hoped that the greater power would try its best against me, and not the far weaker one.”
I narrowed my eyes at the tall woman. Her long, fiery red hair drifted in an unnatural breeze that surrounded her and lifted the hem of her semi-transparent dress. Her green, glowing eyes sent shivers down my spine as she sat there on her throne, legs crossed. Around her laid seven dead and dying slaves, some missing body parts, while others were more or less intact.
“I’ll kill you, witch. And then I’ll dismember you and feed you to my wolf!”
12
“Hold it,” the woman said with a sultry voice and pointed down at her feet.
I bared my teeth, fuming. Oh I would come alright. I’d come and rip her apart for massacring innocent women. So I obliged, moving in her direction, one slow step at a time.
“I have no idea what you’re playing at here, but this is inhuman. Not even the monsters would treat each other like this,” I growled angrily, my hands clenched tightly around the spirit swords.
“Maybe, but who are you to judge, really? I’d like for you to play with my underlings a while longer; until I’m ready to take you on. Would you indulge me, please?” She asked this with a false, sugary smile that made my blood boil.
I didn’t reply. There was nothing I had to say to her. Yes, I would indulge her and kill every single vile creature hiding in this cavern. So I grinned. The expression was more wicked and feral than resembling anything human.
“Come at me, beasts!”
I planted my feet firmly on the stone beneath and darted toward the group of bandits to my left. They looked much more formidable than the ones I’d encountered before, outside or in the cave, but I didn’t care.
With inhuman strength, I hurled my right sword at them, but didn’t let go and was dragged after the weapon. I crashed into the group of ten men and women holding various types of weapons and shields. They went down easily, my momentum too much for them. My sword embedded itself in a particularly mean looking brute of a man. He gurgled beneath my body and twitched, before dying right after.
I got up and slashed in a circle, cutting three open, and decapitating one other. Half down, half to go. Something slammed into my back as the second group circled around me and joined their fellow bandits in assaulting me. Two more blows struck against my hip and shoulder, making me swing around. I held
out my swords and struck another bandit before I fell on top of the dead.
“Get him!” the bandit queen ordered fiercely. There was power behind her words, and letting her issue that command was a mistake I couldn’t undo. Just then, I could feel the power inside her stir and awaken. I cursed and kicked out at two of the bandits. My right foot connected with a bandit’s crotch, while my left missed the second. The first cried out and fell to his knees.
I put both hands around his head and pulled myself up, kicking off against his body to gain some distance between me and the bandits. I turned toward them in mid-air and threw both swords, killing two more. Only seven left. Two women and five men.
“Don’t you people realize you’ll all die if you keep this up? All I want is that bitch!” I cursed and summoned the weapons back. Just for effect, I hurled them again. One of the women put up her hands and one sword was deflected, while I killed the other woman accidentally after the other sword was deflected off a man’s shield and straight into her.
“All five of you, on him! You, with me!” the bandit queen ordered to the men and the remaining woman, in turn. The six of them obeyed her as if under a spell. The woman veered off and ran up to the queen as the five men came at me.
“Idiots,” I murmured and launched myself at them. I came in low and sliced at their legs. Two of them toppled over, screaming bloody murder. But I didn’t care. One way or another, they deserved this.
A searing pain shot through my left leg as I head butted the smallest of the three bandits. I looked down and saw blood gushing from where a dagger stuck out from my leg.
“Die!” I screamed and fell on the two remaining men. My swords rent their flesh to pieces under the onslaught of my frenzied attacks.
“Let me in,” the evil voice whispered. “Give me free reign, and I’ll bestow my power upon you. Let me in and you can become invincible!”
I breathed heavily, looking down at my hands, coated in blood. My swords stayed put, the life’s blood of my victims fueling them. Good, I needed them to devour the bitch queen.
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