The endless fields of grey sands swarmed with the terrifying forms of shadowed creatures littering the dull surface like the hellish scenery I'd grown increasingly used to. I hadn't indulged in the madness of the desert for a while, gazing at it once more was oddly..refreshing, something I felt was increasingly terrifying to consider. Cecil had often warned me that my mentality was a little destructive, far too detached from the fact that death was definitely something I could face at any moment but it didn't feel like that now, pointless to think about it anyway..
Right now as it stood, I sat atop one of many grey dune's not swarmed by the horrors of the night and scanned the endless grounds, my mind making mental notes of a varied number of shadow demons well within my field of expertise at disposing of, still a level 18 shadow demon, to say I was weak would be a harsh analysis of my current disposition considering I'd made it further than what I'd initially thought but I wouldn't disagree either. The assortment of skills I'd accumulated over previous battles closed the gap considerably but there was no denying the fact my progression was far from anything noteworthy.
The shadowy wisps of the cloak I now wore sat still along my shoulders, as I slowly stood. There were a few things I had in mind for this time, slipping off the sand and sliding along its slanted grounds, I made my way down and towards the first demon that had caught my attention.
[race: Shadow demon
type: Insectoria
level:17
Skills: (Inaccessible)]
The sands shifted, my body, not any faster than it was before but rather instilled with an intention and a trained point of thought. I ran low to the ground as the cloak fluttered in the cacophony of the starry night, the creature was no larger than myself, slightly taller but far from harrowing. Six legs and a face riddled in compacted sapphire eyes along a carapaced body outfitted with jagged protrusions whilst wings spread from its back, the thing resembled something close to an insect and yet nothing of grand familiarity from earth, perhaps that was the sort of norm that occurred with certain types of demons; the Arachondria I'd fought had no distinction either, outfitted with nothing more but the type of shadow demon it was, no sense of racial individuality.
At some point I'd have to ask the system if that was true for every demon, were there countless of other types of felis demons apart from the one's I'd seen in the desert but still under the banner of a felis demon? And was there a reason for that? I wondered, though my idle thoughts ended there.
[Skill: Threads of paralysis have been activated]
My fingers danced in the air as the web like structure of a skill I'd accumulated from killing the arachondria was activated, threads of a pinkish purple hue barrelling towards the intended target as the insect made an effort to dodge, though it wasn't like I'd used the skill on objects standing still. Shot a great distance from myself and the shadowy corruption of a bug, I pulled my middle finger back, bringing a piece of the thread towards us and grabbing at its wing's as they buzzed to no avail, fruitless in their endeavor.
[Effect: Paralysis has been initiated]
The system message rang, showcasing truth in the creature's rapidly stiffening body as though its locomotive capabilities had been stripped from it, a puppet cut from its strings. Seeing the opportunity, I sprang forward and activated Shadow step, appearing before the creature in the blink of an eye with a dark slash of unavoidable death.
[50EXP gained]
Solid, I thought, glancing over at the rest of the desert. The hellish landscape was an endless repetition of bloodshed, of death, countless numbers of shadowed creatures and yet the number of demons present during the nights had never changed. Though I wouldn't know, they were an army, perhaps a disgustingly exorbitant one where a hundred thousand deaths was worth as much as a grain of sand disappearing in a desert. I reeled myself from the scenery at the echo of a spiteful hiss not far from where I sat, one glance at my reserves was about as much of a confirmation that I could continue like this for quite some time as I urged my body forward and sprang to the source of it.
CRSHHH!!
BANG!!
Dust and dirt grey sand shot up into the air as I began to slow, watching as a serpent with a head crowned with two horns circling a narrowed face locked its jaws onto the throat of a beast almost mammal like in nature but not quite.
[Race: Shadow Demon
Type: Gluttonous Serpent
Level: 19
Skills: (inaccessible)]
A level above myself..
There were level disparities that truly held no more value than the digits they represented, both in a few games that popped into mind and even in the pits of oblivion. My targets for the night were anything reasonably like myself, I'd of course warranted for the fact that stronger enemies brought better rewards and the next evolution I needed was a grim ladder spiraling to who knew how far but a suicidal determination towards it was a dangerous mentality that'd prove dangerous if I let it fester. Kin eater could easily take me there, with my sanity intact? That was the question..
Cecil's presence made eventually echoed in my thoughts at my ensuing silence, [There are an awful amount of ways to deal with this, master. Even with the desire to test something, I do find it quite pointless here] her voice whispered, monotone and deadpan, weird, I could swear that was—
'boredom?' I asked unintentionally, simply likening the feeling but perhaps she'd read my thoughts just as she'd done to surmise why I didn't simply drag myself into the battle up ahead because an awkward silence occured leaving the weird feeling as though a part of me had grown blank and rigid.
[A primitive use of words, Unnecessary caution is all I had wished to convey] This simply solidified the fact, the mere fact she was trying so hard to make an excuse for it was even more amusing. Though an evolution was far from sight, the first I'd had had irreversibly had an effect on Cecil as a system; an ever growing consciousness that was growing increasingly more human, albeit there were times when its limits were made clear and that was something that couldn't be lifted till my next evolution though a spectrum of emotions and opinions weren't hard for her to have. I almost felt like laughing though found it jarringly out of place in the atmosphere and instead relented to a shrug, 'Experimentation at the precipitous of death is not experimenting, that's just gambling. You had me fight Felis demons for the same reason didn't you?'
She was silent for a while, pondering the idea, [Well, there was the threat of death without your skills..]
'But you wouldn't let me die of course?' She answered promptly, [Simply impossible!]
I nodded, the principal was no different here. I leapt forward and activated Shadow slash, barrelling towards them both and tearing them apart from one another other as a wound of shadowed wisps leaked from their bodies in guttural screams.
The second beast, a dark mass of wispy fur, bipedal and maned with eyes sunken into a face and snout the look and size of some kind of lion and yet undeniably not anything like it. The inhabitants of oblivion's dark depths at times seemed like twisted amalgamation of creatures from earth, warped and monsterfied or in this case, taken through a course of demonification but for all of oblivion's makings at further exasperating the eldritch horrors mother nature was doing quite well on her own with, a humanoid beast with the head of a creature in striking resemblance to a lion was quite new to me.
A plume of dusty grey flew into the air as both combatants, wounded and hatred filled had the cognitive ability to recognize a third opponent as a glare worth a thousand dying stars watched shot towards me as the serpent shook itself, a stream of sand flowing off its head whilst the latter's chest heaved up and down with a ferocity seemingly not quelled by a new arrival though opting to glare between us both.
They were weighing the difficulty of the task…, I thought.
It wasn't anything surprising, predators back on earth had more than enough cognitive ability to assess the possibility of a successful hunt, more aptly whether to face a foe or not. There was no difference here, stock still in the shifting sand till one of us moved, the the rapid lunge of hissing fangs as the serpent resumed its assault on the beast it had been locked in battle with before.
Rudely offensive!
A colossal clash erupted with a rushing cloud of dust and sand as I sprinted forward, cautious of Shadow step as I was with my mana reserves; as abusive as I'd been with it, Cecil's mentorship had quelled a sense of dependency on it. Meeting the serpent's outstretched jaw with fangs glistening in viscous pools of saliva were the beast's terrifying arms that grappled at them, forcing them from snapping shut.
A ravenous maw ripped at the serpent's obsidian scales, tearing into shadowed flesh with relative ease. I watched it all unfold with varying levels of astonishment, a level of strength I'd fall embarrassingly short of and yet the most that separated myself from either of them was a single level, had I been negligent of my physical stats in favor of flashy abilities? Though I sorely wanted to assess that with Cecil, the looming shadow of a rapidly approaching object caught my attention.
[Skill: Shadow Evasion has been activated]
My vision blurred and then came a sound like crashing thunder, suddenly I reoriened myself, suddenly I found myself a few feet away from a receding cloud of sand where the beast's arm sat plunged into the ground at the middle of it whilst the serpent..
The towering crowned creature drew its head from the ground slowly, the vibrant light of animosity hadn't left its gaze once but its body definitely had, 'C-Crisis!', I couldn't help but stare at where a gaping section of its fluid body sat missing, torn off near its neck but slightly further down. 'Is this the fruits of pure physicality?' I took a glance at the serpent and then the beast now glaring at us both, daring a move, daring an attack at whatever angle..it didn't matter.
[Race: Shadow Demon
Type: Ghastly Hunter
Level: 19
Skills: (inaccessible)]
Internally I raised a brow, taking focus on its name, 'Ghastly Hunter? That's its name?'. I'd thought there was an increasing pattern of the system simply naming them on their surface characteristics, or slightly to the warped imitation it bared resemblance, the arachnid demon that'd been under the family of Arachondria or even the damn Gluttonous serpent in front me because it was a Serpent.
Cecil's voice chimed in at my confusion, oddly enough with an actual answer rather than a vague interpretation that seemed barred by my own current weakness, [Names can usually be derived from a demon's reputation, its terror and lastly characteristics. Regarding this one's strength at such a low level, a ghastly hunter is quite fitting]
I groaned, 'So its strength comes from there? Ah, is this for every kind of Shadow demon?'
She almost seemed flabbergasted that I hadn't come to that conclusion already, [Of course, there are pieces of entertainment that have that sort of concept where master comes from are there not? Something about racial abilities?]
It didn't take long to figure out she was referring to the benefits offered by different kinds of racial groups in fantasy games, Orcs had an obscene level of strength, fairies were exceptional magic casters, so on and so forth; so the demon's in oblivion had something oddly similar? Different types of shadow demons all ruthlessly condemned to tear each other apart, why? He couldn't know but if they'd all been the same there wouldn't be a victor, if they wanted to survive, they adapted, just like any normal animal would do. A speciality was a given, I imagined the paralysing threads of the Arachondria was its speciality, something no matter what kind of Arachondria there was out there, they still retained that one integral ability.
At that realization, a sneaking wonder overcame me; 'Then what was mine?'
Cecil remained silent, Incredulously I raised a brow but was grimly made aware of where I was as the beast's patience had now run its course, its posture righted and readied to charge at either one of us. My thoughts floundered but there wasn't really much of a choice in options, flames of insanity would most likely burn through most of whatever mana reserves I had left of which I hadn't really wanted to pay any attention to, [I would imagine the first of its kind wouldn't have a manifested benefit] I finally heard Cecil answer, before the beast barrelled forward.
'The first?'