“Finally, you’ve arrived,” the vampire lord stated, then laughed maniacally. “Lorelai, kill this man.”
The front right fallen angel answered, “With pleasure my lord.” She flapped her wings once, propelling herself toward me.
I didn’t see anything hidden in her attack and it didn’t seem all that powerful. I took a slightly angled step forward and to the left. I used my shield slam proficiency. Stunning her while she was still in the air. That one hit stopped her wings from flapping and keeping her aloft. She crashed and tumbled, her momentum carrying her to the stairway I had come up. She was defenseless as she fell down those stairs, bones breaking and wings snapping until she fell out of sight.
I looked back to the vampire lord and raised a cheeky eyebrow. “Is that the best you’ve got?”
“Don’t antagonize him,” Era hissed.
“Adelaide, go,” the vampire lord hissed. “Bring me his head.”
Adelaide, the front left fallen angel rushed forward, foregoing using her wings.
“Era,” I said, letting her know I wanted her to attack and draw the angel’s attention.
Wordlessly, Era started firing wind blades at the oncoming vampire. At the same time, Era moved away from me, trying to get to her range limit. The vampire quickly diverted her attention, exactly as planned.
The vampire bypassed me by about a foot. One step and I was behind the girl. One swing into the girl’s lower back and she was face down on the ground. It was my turn to rush. I leaped forward, bringing my mace down on the back of the head of the scantily clad angel. There was a solid thud but no cracking sound of bone breaking. Apparently, the fallen angel was made of sterner stuff. I started to bring my mace down again when a wing flapped backward, hitting me in the side and pushing me off my fallen enemy. But there was a cost to her hitting me. Her wing caught fire.
Ignoring the flames, the girl flapped both wings once to bring her back to her feet, fanning the flames and catching the other wing on fire. Thanks to my mace’s new essence ability, her attention was now fully on me. At least it was until her head suddenly rolled forward, completely severed at the neck. For just a moment, it looked like the angel’s head had been replaced with Era. Then the body fell as well.
“Good job,” I said to the ball of air.
“Thanks for softening her up,” Era replied.
“Priscilla, Mary, kill this wretched human,” the vampire lord ordered, not giving me much time to catch my breath.
At that order, both fallen angels attacked. One leaping into the air, the other charging along the ground.
“Choke point,” Asher advised.
I chanced a quick glance over my shoulder at the still open door that led to the stairway. I took two large steps backward, putting my back to the open door.
“Era, open fire, aim for the flying one’s wings,” I ordered, putting my shield in front to take the first blow.
Era didn’t say anything, but the airborne fallen angel suddenly slowed and screamed as feathers were suddenly cut from her wings.
With the flying angel distracted, I focused on the earthbound angel. The foolish girl ran straight at me. It was the first I’d noticed, but the fallen angels had changed somehow. Their faces weren’t smooth skinned any longer, instead, looking scaled, almost lizard like. And her hands now had sharp claws instead of fingers. It was those claws she struck with first, rending into my shield, scoring a deep gouge but thankfully not cutting through it.
I rebuffed her with a shield slam, stunning her and giving me a large opening to attack with. I swung for the fences, bring my mace through at an upward angle. The flanged head impacted her chin, lifting her from the ground.
A scream from above reminded me there was another angel. I looked for the source and saw an angel that was in very rough shape. I had no idea how her wings were even keeping her in the air, there were so full of cuts and even a few holes where the wind blades had cut completely through.
“Era, you good?” I asked, my eyes going back the angel I had just hit.
Era quickly replied, “I’ll manage. Hurry and finish that one off.”
The angel I was not watching was struggling to get back to her feet. The arm she attacked me with was slightly charred, but it looked like the fire had gone out. I took advantage of her still slightly dazed state and moved in. I struck with another shield slam, stunning her again and knocking her back to the ground. I smashed my mace into her face, finally hearing some crunching but not enough, probably just her nose breaking.
I was going to attack again when a foot impacted with my side, lifting me off my feet and sending me tumbling a few feet. Apparently, the flying angel had either decided to save her fellow harem member or Era was dead. I really hoped Era wasn’t dead.
Thankfully, the girl that kicked me wasn’t the flying angel who I could see was still battling Era in the air. No, it was the first angel, the one that had fallen down the stairs. She was still alive. She was a wreck of broken bones and large ugly bruises, but still alive and kicking . . . literally kicking. She also wasn’t burning after kicking me.
I cursed. Era was alive for now, but it seemed that Asher was not. The one that came back up the stairs must have killed him. It would also explain why there was no warning.
The kick hurt but my armor absorbed most of the damage. It didn’t slow me from rolling with the kick and springing back up to my feet. I was suddenly aware of another problem. Without Asher’s passive increase to my resistance, these women were suddenly much more appealing, making my stomach turn summersaults.
I growled, trying to build up some anger at being manipulated but it was hard. It was hard to be angry when confronted with such beauty.
“Kill them already,” Era snapped, trying to dodge the airborne angel.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get me to ignore the beauty. I rushed forward, swinging my shield first into one, using shield slam again to stun her. A third stun wouldn’t last more than a second or two, but it was enough. I took one more step and swung, catching the already heavily injured angel in the side of the head. Her skull deformed around the mace, cracking, and snapping as the bone shattered. She dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground, completely still and unmoving.
I turned just in time to raise my shield and block part of the blow from the previously stunned angel. Unfortunately, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stun her again. I had already used it too many times on her. Still, in a one-on-one fight, when she was already slightly damaged, I had better than average odds of winning.
She snarled and attacked, swiping with one hand, then the other. I stepped back out of range of the first swipe, then stepped into the second swipe, catching her arm on my shield, stopping her attack in its tracks. I used a pair of quick strikes to the girl’s ribs, hearing a satisfying crack on the second hit. The girl folded around the broken ribs, exposing her head. I wasn’t going to let the opportunity go to waste. I struck hard with two more hits, one to the head that thudded but didn’t crack and one to the neck that snapped. I was aiming for the head with that hit, but the neck turned out better. The girl dropped to the ground. She snarled angrily, and yelled obscenities, but couldn’t move. She was paralyzed from the neck down.
“You stay here,” I said, looking for Era’s fight just in time to see a wind blade slice cleanly through the flying angel’s throat.
The girl’s eyes went wide as her hands went to her throat, trying in vain to staunch the black blood bleeding out. Era cast wind blade a few more times, finally severing one of the wings, making the girl drop.
I knew the fight was over for that girl. Still, I wasn’t going to let her suffer or worse, heal and rejoin the fight. I finished her off with a few blows.
The slow, metallic clap from the vampire lord drew my eyes to him. He was no longer shirtless. In fact, the suit he was now dressed in was a full complement of plate armor. I also noted that he now carried a massive two-handed sword. “So entertaining. The blood and c
arnage . . . simply spectacular. I must have more. I need more. I desire it. Feed my lust for life with your own!”
And just like that, the vampire lord was suddenly in front of me. I didn’t even have time to raise my shield before the massive sword cleaved into my arm, the armor there only preventing my arm from being severed.
I countered, swinging my mace down on the vampire’s hands, it was the only thing I could reach. Unfortunately, the vampire was too fast. My attack hit only air.
“Era, slow him down,” I yelled, barely bringing my shield up in time to block the next attack.
Era yelled back, “I would be happy to, but you need to get him to hold still for a moment.”
I grunted as a metal clad boot tried to cave in my chest. I sent a small prayer of thanks that I now wore a full set of chainmail armor. Knowing it was probably going to open me up to suffer more damage, I stepped into the blade swinging toward my chest. I lifted my arm above the blade and braced myself. The blade bit into the armor and flesh underneath, but not as bad as it could have been as I caught mostly hilt. Ignoring the pain, I dropped my arm, quickly trapping the vampire’s arms.
My God was the man strong though. It took everything I had just to hold it for a few seconds. But it was enough. A blast of cold air from over my shoulder caught the vampire lord in the face and chest, giving him a slightly blue tint.
I smiled even as the vampire lord’s strength overwhelmed my grip. I didn’t mind losing that grip because he was finally slowed down. I struck first with a shield slam, stunning him. Given it was a boss, I didn’t expect it to last long, but it didn’t need to. I struck with a pair of quick strikes to one of the vampire lord’s knees.
“Keep him slowed down,” I said, ducking under a much slower attack from the vampire lord’s sword. I countered again, this time striking with my full strength to the same knee. There was no cracking or breaking sound though something certainly was different. The vampire lord was suddenly moving even slower.
I grinned. Sloth’s touch had activated on him. I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. I struck at that knee repeatedly. I easily dodge the extremely slow sword each time he tried to attack. It took far more attacks than I would have liked, but eventually the armor around the knee caved in and the joint shattered.
I smiled in victory. It was all over. With his mobility impaired, I was going to win. Then two giant leathery wings sprouted from his back, and he was airborne, or at least he wasn’t stuck on his knees. The slowing affects didn’t really allow him to take flight, more just act as a crutch for his broken knee.
I sighed and cursed again.
“I am surprised,” he drawled out slowly. “I shall need to take you more seriously.”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” I quipped, feeling distinctly uncomfortable when the vampire lord’s blade started glowing blood red. He moved to attack, and I dodged with ease, or I thought I did. I received several small cuts in the wake of his blade.
“It’s a blood aura of some kind. It won’t do much damage but with enough time it can kill you. Whatever you do, don’t let the blade hit you,” Era warned.
“Thanks for the warning,” I replied, it wouldn’t take long for Raphael’s blessing to repair the damage. Even knowing that, I needed to end the fight as soon as possible so I went on the offensive.
I dodged the blade where I could and blocked it with my shield when I had no other choice. Even after sloth’s touch expired, I found his attack pattern easy to predict and maneuver around. I dodged and countered or blocked and countered. Slowly whittling away at the vampire lord’s life.
“No! It can’t end here! It won’t end here!” the vampire lord shouted suddenly. I wished I knew how many HP the boss had left. Anytime a monster boss made that kind of statement, it usually meant things were about to get worse for me.
A wave of red energy suddenly exploded from the boss, knocking me off my feet. Then, instead of attack me, he ran for the table filled with decanters.
“Era, stop him!” I shouted, finding it very difficult to climb back to my feet. Unfortunately, she was gone. Whatever that attack was, it knocked me off my feet and was enough to kill her.
I watched in horror as the vampire lord dumped one decanter after another over his head, only some of which made it into his mouth. With each empty decanter the vampire lord seemed to grow larger until his armor started to crack apart. As the armor fell away, the vampire continued to grow larger, muscled bulging and bloating until he looked more like an enlarged greater imp, tiny wings, and all.
The lord emptied the last decanter and turned on me, his eyes effusing blood red energy. Then he spoke, his voice a deep distortion of what it once was. “Now, you die!”
“Oh great, enrage,” I grumbled, bracing myself for the attack to come. It had been more than enough time for the chilling effect to wear off and without Era to reapply it, I could only brace for what was sure to be swift retribution.
The vampire lord seemed to struggle to move. He was still slow . . . no, he was just slower. He put on so much muscle mass that he couldn’t move well, especially with his knee still busted up and wings that were too small to carry his new bulky form.
I might have laughed a little at the absurdity of it. Feeling much more confident, I went to work. I suspected going in that if he hit me even once, regardless of whether or not I blocked, it would be game over. But dodging the slow lumbering brute, that was relatively easy.
I dodged the first punch with ease as his fist struck the floor, moving around behind the boss and striking at the good knee. It was only after I struck that knee that I saw the problem. That one punch put a hole in the floor. Suddenly, there was a new timer running in my head as I roughly calculated how many punches it would take before the floor was gone. And that didn’t consider the structural integrity of the tower.
I quickly looked around for a solution, moving quickly to dodge another punch that put another hole in the floor. I tried attacking the knee with abandon, dropping my shield, and swinging with both arms, hoping to deal just a little more damage. It just wasn’t fast enough.
I dodged another punch and almost stepped into one of the holes. I wasn’t sure about the architecture, but I would have thought the hole would look down on the amphitheater below, not a rocky chasm with a river or stream at the bottom. And that was when the answer struck me. I wasn’t meant to kill him with my weapon.
“Come on, hit me already,” I said, standing next to one of the holes.
The vampire lord roared and struck, this time he brought both fists down, side by side. I dove to the right and rolled. I quickly clambered back up to my feet and grinned. I moved to the other side of the hole. I taunted him, “Is that really the best you’ve got?”
Another roar of frustration filled the tower as the lumbering oaf of a vampire lord struck again. I just kept circling him, helping him dig his own grave. I was about two-thirds of the way around him when the floor beneath him finally gave out. His little wings tried to support him, but they were neither strong enough, nor large enough to keep him airborne, though he tried. Right up until one of the wings tore from the effort, he might have had a chance. He plummeted to his death, his body hitting the side of the rocky chasm and bouncing off several rocks, leaving a bloody black smear all the way down until he hit the water. A black pool of blood quickly formed then dissolved, leaving the water clean and clear.
I breathed a sigh of relief and moved away from the holes. I would have died just as easily if I were to fall.
I looked around the room. It was a mess. There were broken decanters all over the room from where the demon had tossed the empties. There was never much furniture to begin with but what was there seemed to be sliced and cut and burned as were the carpets and tapestries.
More importantly, the throne was gone. In its place was a stairway leading down into darkness.
I was about to start down that path when I heard a whimper. It reminded me that I had one vampire angel still ali
ve. I sighed. I didn’t want to kill her, but it would have been stupid to leave any experience behind.
I looked to the source and saw an angel. Not a fallen angel, but an actual angel. It was the girl from the entrance. She was just as beautiful as I remembered. It took everything I had not to rush over to help her. I knew I wasn’t thinking straight. I knew I needed to make sure I wasn’t walking into a trap.
I cancelled Raphael’s blessing then waited the few minutes I needed to be able to call Asher back into being. I breathed a small sigh of relief once I knew his demonic resistance increase was back in place.
“I’m sorry,” Asher said as soon as he finished forming. “She snuck up on me. I never saw her coming.”
“It’s alright,” I said, just happy to have my companion back.
“Did you win?” Asher asked.
I nodded.
“Where’s Era?” Asher asked.
I answered, “She died. The boss did an area of effect attack of some kind. It probably would have killed you as well if you had lived that long.”
Asher bobbed then looked around. “Is that one of the fallen angels?”
I nodded again. “I think so. Although, it seems she’s no longer a fallen angel. It’s why I brought you back right away. I needed to make sure I wasn’t being tricked by a lust demon or something.”
Asher hummed in thought. “I’m not sure.”
I decided to wait a few more minutes and call Era back before doing anything about the fallen angel.
“Did we win?” Era asked as soon as she finished forming.
“Yes, we won,” I said tiredly.
“Good, I would hate to think we needed to do this all over again. Now, let’s go claim our rewards.”
“What do we do about the angel?” I asked, pointing at the whimpering girl.
Era stopped short and stared. “Angel? What angel?”
I pointed to the fallen angel that seemed to be fallen no more.
Era peered at the girl, being sure to keep her distance. “Is she really an angel?
I shrugged. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
Purgatory: The Devil's Game Page 36