As i looked at Araphenions extended hand i felt certain. I had to trust my gut feeling.
Even the name of his skill Dark Pact seemed to stink of betrayal.
What this demon didn't know, was the power of my worlds humans imagination. If this was a game, how could i trust someone from another world who wanted to conquer mine?
And besides, the terms of his deal seemed to be full of loopholes for him to exploit.
"So you swear to attack others who wants to conquer my world. That sounds like something you would do anyway, to fight off your alliances enemies to conquer my world yourself!"
I yelled the last part out and Araphanions espression turned rabid. Gone was the alluring beatifull features, replaced by pure evil and demonic rage.
He tried to pull his hand back, but my sword rang and before he knew it, his hand touched the grass.
"ARRGH! I'll devour you and your entire world!" His eyes burned crimson red as he jumped backwards. "Attack them! Kill them and rape them!" He screamed to his demon warriors.
But i had been preparing ever since my gut feeling first hinted that something was very wrong.
A tall stone wall had appeared between Araphenion and his warriors.
"Split up! Stop the warriors from reaching around the wall!" I yelled.
Five spear units rushed to either end of the stone wall as Erik and I engaged Araphenion in a sword duel.
He used the hand he had left with amazing skill, as his black sword sung while blocking every attempt Erik and I made against him.
He was fast! His sword mastery must be B-rank for sure, or maybe even A-rank!
Erik was blocked and kicked in his chestplate so he fell down. I had to quickly move between them, blocking Araphenions black sword, breaking my iron sword in the move.
Having no time to purchase another from the shop Araphenion quickly gained momentum as i no longer benefitted from my dual-sword mastery.
While i had higher agility and perception i blocked the best i could, but i was pushed further and further back as Araphenion had the clear advantage of skill, leaving me no room to breathe.
Erik gained his footing in a frenzy, seeing his commander being pushed back and in danger. He bought me some precious seconds to buy another iron sword.
I had to think of a way to beat this guy! Otherwise he would win with his sword skill alone!
My spearmen started to scream and i lost my concentrating. The demon warriors was touching them with their hands and grinning in evil joy. The touch made my spear units feel excruciating pain.
I quickly made two stone boulders in my inventory and released them in the air on either side, crushing my units and demon warriors beneath them.
By a stroke of luck Araphanion turned to look, having a wild expression on his face.
"How did you make that inside MY dungeon?!" He was clearly bewildered and fury ran on his face.
Erik reacted quickly, removing Araphanions last hand.
I didn't give him time to react as i stabbed forward with both swords, penetrating his stomach just below the ribs and through his left side chest.
Araphanion looked at me in disbelief.
"Don't think this is over human. Countless more will follow when my world finds out what have happened here! You will all be devoured!" The crimson red in his eyes faded as he died.
*Level up*
"Commander we have incoming!" Erik quickly positioned himself with a raised shield before me as more than fifty demon warriors charged at us, with rage and fury as their lord had died.
"Protect me Erik! At all cost!" I started to channel.
My mana was low after having made the wall and boulders, but Erik danced with skill before the demons, his stats much higher than theirs. He bought me five minutes to summon four new spear units before we counter attacked.
Erik had allready killed 10 demons by himself, but he was being overrun as we finally joined him.
I killed demons left and right as my bloodthirst emerged again, from deep within it had reemerged anew. A demon touched my arm and smiled, as pain the like i had never experienced, cursed trough my body. But the demons smile turned to an ugly grimasse as i slashed his groin with my steel sword, looking him dead in the eyes, unwavering from the pain.
The touch should have left me screaming, but my viking-blood turned the pain of the battlefield into power, singing at it and converting it into rage as i entered a beserker stance. Anyone who saw me would think i had used a skill, but it was simply a stage of blind rage, that had made the vikings of old feared wherever they went, a legendary fury that noone dared oppose.
I didn't sense much about me, i was looking at my own movements trough a tunnel, i saw my spear units and Erik himself trash about like possessed. Everywhere we went demon bodyparts came flying and eventually everything went still.
*Level up*
Breathing heavily, my fatigue had skyrocketed as i opened my eyes.
I wasen't standing on grass anymore. The field was thick and slumpy of blood. Erik sat on his knees in the middle of it all, with a ghostly white expression on his face.
"Are you hurt Erik?" I walked to him. Having regained complete controle of myself.
"I don't know commander. When you started to kill the demons in a frenzy, something happened to my body. I lost controle and my heart was filled with rage. I couldn't stop. I even loved it, i wanted nothing else than to kill."
I extended my hand and helped him stand. "I'm not sure what happened Erik. Maybe we share more bonds in the legion than the skill itself is telling."
He looked at me, his face regaining colour. "That might be so, commander. But i don't like it, it felt evil. I felt changed."
"Enough Erik. Gather the loot!" I snerred, and he obeyed immediately.
Truth is i didn't like it either. I felt it aswell. I enjoyed the killing. And i wanted more!
"Stop it Frey! Pull yourself together, you aren't a maniac!" I spoke to myself, trying to shake the sensation.
I went to Araphanions corpse and touched it.
*Title obtained: World Purger*
*Looted 3 Gold, 28 Silver, 88 Copper*
*Looted item: Skill upgrade token x1*
*Looted Item: Demonic black sword*
"What the fuck!" I gasped. More than three gold? I had never even had 40 silver at once before! And a skill upgrade token? I had inspect the items at once.
Title: World Purger - Defending the world from attack is recognised as a feat of power. +20 to all attributes.
Skill upgrade token: Permanently raise a skills rank.
Demonic black sword: A demon sword forged by the demon prince Mannion as a novice in the demon world. Unbreakable. +20 Agility.
I withdrew the sword. It had the same black blade as Araphanion had used. Looking closer at its hilt it seemed very unremarkable. Just a black handle with slightly upward-bent dark metal where the blade began. It came with a dark leather sword-sheath that i fastened to my belt.
I began to resummon my dead spear-units. At the time i had finished, Erik had equally finished gathering the loot from the demon warriors.
*Looted 63 Silver, 65 Copper*
*Looted health potion x17*
*Looted mana potion x13*
*Looted chain-mail x14*
*Looted demon blood x56*
This is certainly different campared to the other portals. The loot in here is rich. Looking at the potions i noticed that they were much better than the minor versions of them. I sold the demon blood as it was trash items.
"Let's do what we came here to do Erik. Advance to the castle!"
We went through the wooden gate that was left open.
Inside the walls seemed completely empty. Maybe Araphanion had really just arrived, spending a day or two to fortify his dungeon.
"Spread out. Search the walls, towers and any room you can find. I will search the castle, report back to me there."
"Yes commander!" All the spear units spread out, quickly searching for enemies or anything of note.
"Erik come with me."
We walked up the few stairs to the castle door. It wasen't a big castle as i had first imagined, looking from outside the walls.
There were many rooms with straw beds and fires, but not much of adornment or the likes. We found the throne room very quickly.
Eight large red pillars went down the room on either side of a green tapestry on the floor, leading to the steel throne in the end. But the room was all empty besides a golden chest next to the throne.
Obviously i quickly went to it and touched it.
*Looted skill tome: Linguist*
I inspected it at once.
Skill: Linguist (F-rank) - pathway to understand all languages.
I thought about how i was able to communicate with Araphanion, but i don't recall him having a skill like this. Maybe something else was going on that let us communicate, i simply didn't know. But this skill could most certainly help me on my travels. So i obtained it right away.
"It's completely empty commander." Erik had searched the back of the castle in the meantime, so we went outside and met the units in front of the castle, some was bearing loot they had found in chests in the towers.
*Looted 14 silver, 55 copper*
*Looted item: Black egg*
"Huh? An egg?"
Black egg: Unknown entity may hatch under the right conditions.