3.11: Melee Weapon

“So let me get this straight. You turn into this terrifying fear demon that literally embodies our worst nightmares… and the first thing you say is that you have tits? You will never cease to amaze me, Blaine.”

After his initial discovery of his body change, he was thrilled about being stuck in a woman’s body. He made several jokes about checking himself out, and when he randomly removed his clothing his shouts of excitement at seeing what was between his legs had everyone shaking their heads. He told us that he had never wanted to be a girl, but he wasn’t against playing one in a video game if it meant he got to feel himself up while doing so. As Ikelos spoke his voice sounded almost exactly like Emma Stone. A sort of smoky, sexy tone that sounded so weird when I remembered it was Blaine talking.

“Hey, it’s not like I asked to be put in this body… if you suddenly woke up with a dick and no boobs wouldn’t you say something along those same lines?”

I blushed as I realized he didn’t know about my demonic body’s extra attachment. I debated on just not saying anything when he suddenly remembered what Lucifer had said about me being a futanari.

“You actually would know what that's like, my apologies.”

Come to think of it… I hadn’t seen the dark pixie that followed him around since the battle with the colossus. It was almost like someone had forgotten she existed and forgot to write her into the chapter.

“Ikelos, where’s Lucifer.”

He gave me an accusatory glance and pointed to the space just above his shoulder.

“Oh, she’s right here. She cast a spell on herself so you can’t see or hear her. You nearly blew her up when you went all psycho. I forgot that she did it until you mentioned her. No, I didn’t forget you Lucifer, she did.”

I moved closer to him and started speaking in a soft voice.

“I’m really sorry Lucifer. I promise that won’t ever happen again. Will you please talk with me?”

As Ikelos face suddenly broke into a grin and as he suppressed a laugh I realized something was up.

“I’m so sorry, Allie. I’m totally fucking with you. Lucifer is with Gehenna trying to figure out her powers.”

I smacked his arm and he just laughed even harder.

“Ass.”

As we discussed our ordeals in the cave, we found out that we were the only ones to make it further than the darkness room. The others had eventually found themselves exiting out the same way they went in without realizing they had done it and no matter how many times they tried, the result was always the same. After Ikelos demonstrated his new skills for us, we made our way to the other location that Nialla had scouted. While it may have taken us a little under three hours to complete the fear dungeon, we hadn’t actually used any MP and had only taken minimal damage from the scrapes and burns we received. Before we headed into the dungeon, I pulled Ikelos, Scythe, and Areandra aside.

“Guys… I know I’m your clan leader… but in that cave I… I wasn’t my normal badass self. I wouldn’t have made it through that water or hell… any of that shit without you guys. I-”

Scythe placed his hand on my arm and grabbed it firmly.

“Allie… we wouldn’t have gotten through any of that without each other. Including you.”

We all looked to Blaine in his new demonic body. It was so awkward seeing him look so… feminine. As I studied his face I realized that despite the unnerving way his eyes looked and the strange markings on his face, he was actually quite beautiful. His long white hair hung in strands around his shoulders, but it framed his face in a way that only amplified his attractiveness. His skin was pale, too pale to be a normal tone. He was tall, standing over a foot taller than me. His dress shimmered and caught the light in ways that made the angles of it seem impossible. His long legs moved with an ethereal grace but the way he walked made his movements look jerky and erratic. Everything about him was a terrifying contradiction; pale and vivacious, smooth and jagged, beautiful and ugly. The longer I looked at him the more I felt like I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him. It was so… unnerving.

“Allie, from the way you’re staring at me, I can’t tell if you want to kiss me or kill me.”

“Maybe both. Not sure yet. I just wanted to say, and I know the others share this sentiment, we entirely owe our success to you. Your ability to lighten the mood and keep us distracted from our own fears was the only reason we made it through. Now… I’m going to tell you something, and if you ever tell anyone else I said it, I will deny it.”

He gave me a half grin and cocked his head.

“You’re a badass, Blaine.”

The others laughed and nodded their heads vigorously in agreement. We all turned as Emelia and Nialla approached us before giving each other a look of determination and we walked back towards the rest of the clan.

We moved closer to the spot that Nialla had told us about and looked around at the huge battlefield. Weapons of all shapes and sizes were scattered around, some looking rusted and ancient, while others looked like they had just been dropped in the last week. The metal from several holy weapons lit up as we drew closer and Areandra reached down and picked up a small shining dagger and several arrows with faintly glowing arrowheads. She found a sheath that fit the dagger and placed the arrows into her quiver. I cocked my eyebrow at her and she gave me a half-smile and extended her wings once before folding them.

“May as well use any advantage we can get… it’s not like the rest of you can touch them.”

I nodded in acknowledgement and scanned the area around the flag. From the base of the incline to the top of the hill was about 200 feet. It was almost perfectly circular and as spread my wings and flew up above the field I realized anyone on top of the hill would be able to have an almost 360∘ view of the surrounding area. While the height advantage would let ranged attacks have a much clearer line of sight, the elevated position would also grant melee fighters an edge in combat. Looking around the field at the hundreds upon hundreds of weapons was the main thing that made me concerned, along with a significant lack of corpses.

I descended to the ground and motioned for everyone to head towards the large flag planted in the ground. As we drew closer to it we all studied it intently. It was reminiscent of a feudal Japanese style flag and had strange symbols and pictures on each side. Nialla moved closer to it and shook her head.

"It's almost like it's trying to be Kanji, but it's not. All the symbols are just off."

I cocked my eyebrow at her and she shrugged.

"Sorry, I'm a bit of a weeb. I took several years of Japanese all through high-school."

I nodded but didn't really understand. I shrugged and looked around the field again. I moved to the side slightly as Bray pushed past me towards the flag.

"Hey, it looks like there's some weird runes on the flag pole… Maybe if I-"

The sound of something like a cannon boomed through the area and all around the base of the hill dark shadowy figures materialized. I glanced back at Bray who was now holding the flag that he had pulled out of the ground. As he saw the enemies surrounding us he gave me a guilty look.

"Well… shit."

As the figures started walking up the hill, I spread my wings wide, flew up a bit, and started issuing commands to my clan.

"Emelia, create a wall around the perimeter just high enough to impede their movement but not so high we can't shoot over it. Aeryn, cover the ground on either side of the wall in webbing to slow them even further. Summon your smaller spiders and have them spread out just beneath us. Nialla, use basic spells to blast them from a distance, but save your MP as much as you can. Ikelos, summon your bats and have them join me up here for now. Then have your hounds and armor demon join Aeryn's spiders. Areandra… you already know what to do. This fight was made for your shooting skills. Bray, Scythe, Ghost… Hold for now. I need to think for a second."

Ranged attacks are going to be the key to victory here. Scythe, Bray, and Ghost are not specialized for ranged combat, however… Maybe if we had some javelins or hand axes the two that had Might specialities could help… But unless he wastes a bunch of MP on attack spells, Ghost is still just standing around. I can use Pain and Panic for some more ranged support… And… Hmmm…

I opened my minion menu and selected a dozen of the demons in my 1st legion of Corrupted. They appeared below me and all kneeled at once.

"Soldiers of the 1st legion. I need you to move around the battlefield and retrieve any ranged weapons you can find and bring them to that warrior and the Paladin next to him. Attack anything that gets too close to you, but otherwise do not engage."

They stood in unison and saluted me before moving down the hill towards the scattered weapons. I quickly summoned Pain and Panic and they hugged my legs ecstatically. I had them stay next to Areandra and take orders from her before I turned to Ghost.

"Ghost, for now, sit tight and conserve all your MP… I get the feeling this is going to be a long protracted fight… Your healing spells are going to be invaluable the longer the fight goes. If you want to grab a ranged weapon to help out, though, feel free."

He nodded to me and turned to face the oncoming enemies. With all my orders issued I looked out at the hundreds of ghost-like figures that slowly drew closer towards the top of the hill. Instead of using any of my ranged spells, I opted to conserve my MP as well and summoned a bow. I fired at the enemies that were the closest and sighed in frustration as each arrow did little to slow them.

"Uh… Allie… We got a problem."

"Yep. I'm getting that."

I held up a hand and cast my [Blastburn] spell. It struck one in the shoulder and the fire and electricity surged around its body but other than blasting a piece of its shadowy body off, the creature looked otherwise unharmed.

Fuck… we were quickly running out of options as the first wave had already made it to the first of Aeryn's spiders. Each of the creatures raised their large clawed hands and with each swipe they cut cleanly through the spiders that were attacking them. We were rapidly losing ground, and I started to close my eyes to try and figure out what to do when an idea occurred to me.

"Bray, move down and attack one of them with your axe first, and then if that doesn't do anything try attacking with that flag."

He nodded and drew his axe after placing the flag on his back. He ran down the hill and moved to swing his axe at the closest enemy. Before he could do so, however, its shadowy firm shimmered and shifted into a warrior clad in ancient looking armor similar to that of a samurai. He swung in a wide arc and cut through the enemy in a single attack. As he moved closer to each shadow figure, its form shifted and changed into a figure like the one Bray had killed.

"Ghost, cast every enchantment and buff you have on Bray. Don't let him drop below 50% health. Scythe, you do the same. Areandra, Pain, and Panic, kill the enemy as soon as its form changes to clear a path for him. Emelia, make walls to 'herd' the enemies towards Bray. Aeryn, dismiss your spiders and instead focus on keeping the enemies off Bray so he doesn't get flanked. Ikelos, have your summons body block the enemies that try to break away from the others and attack them as soon as they shift forms. Nialla, switch to your tiger form so Bray can ride you."

Everyone giggled at my accidental double entendre and after I snickered for a second I shook my head.

"Yeah. You know what I meant. No sex in the middle of battle please."

"That's funny coming from the queen of the sex demons herself."

"Ha. Focus guys. This fight is only just beginning."

"[Blessings of Corruption]."

I cast my enchantment spell on Bray and considered what to do next. I hated not really being able to do much, but I knew that this was all on Bray, so I focused on doing what I could to keep him alive. As Emelia looked up at me for a moment she must have seen the expression on my face.

"Doing alright up there babe? You look bored."

I shrugged and nodded once.

"I feel sorta worthless up here…"

"Hardly. You're doing exactly what we needed you to do. You came up with a viable plan for us to beat this shit. You're just not used to having to fully rely on others. Now you know how we feel sometimes watching you do all the things you can do."

I opened my mouth to say something and shut it just as quickly. I hadn't thought about it like that before. I had truly become accustomed to being the vanguard and having everyone else support me in battle. As loath as I was to admit it, this really did help me put things into perspective with how much I had come to rely on my overwhelming power and abilities. I descended to the ground and folded my wings. I was not only the clan's leader… I was their tactician as well.

As more and more enemies pressed in to attack Bray, I saw he was taking quite a bit of damage even with all the enchantments and healing. I moved down the hill so that I could use my own healing spell when I remembered my enchantment I had cast on him was based on my current level and stats.

"Power Limiter Release: 30%."

Warm energy bloomed in my core and spread throughout my body as my toes and fingers tingled. I suppressed a moan and placed my hand on Bray's shoulder.

"[Blood of the Corrupted One]."

Dark lines appeared on my arm and snaked their way up to my chest. With each beat of my heart my veins burned and I grimaced in pain. I watched as a black essence flowed from my chest down my arm and into Bray. The same black lines appeared on his skin and then faded as his body absorbed them. His health went back up to full almost immediately. He turned briefly to me and grinned.

"Thanks Demon Jesus!"

I burst into laughter before ducking to avoid a swing from the katana of one of the shadow warriors.

"You're welcome, my child. Just know that I have zero intention of dying for you… So don't get killed out here."

He turned to say something but stopped short as an attack sliced across his back. He snarled in anger and swung his axe back as he spun on his heel. I took that moment to fly back up to the top of the hill as my Corrupted Regeneration started to restore the health I had lost from the blood magic.

I walked over to Blaine and elbowed him playfully. The blazing orange orbs of his eyes flicked towards me and he raised his eyebrows.

"Doin’ OK goddess of nightmares?”

“Goddess of- Do I look like- OK. Fair. I do. Yeah… I guess so. I kinda got used to sitting in the back letting others do the fighting. I mean… that’s what a summoner does, right? Still, I can understand how you feel. You’re always the first one to rush into danger, Allie. I mean… the first time we played you practically soloed the whole dungeon. I mean, yeah, me and the others helped, but you could have easily done it without us. You’re the real badass, Lady iPhone charger.”

“I mea-”

An ear splitting roar sounded out from below us. I looked for the source of the noise and saw one of the biggest demons I had ever laid eyes on, even bigger than the massive fire demon that Tesrif had summoned. Its skin was a dark red and the only piece of clothing it wore was a grubby loincloth, slung over its shoulder was a gargantuan wooden maul with huge metal studs along its length like a japanese tetsubo. As it turned towards us, I saw it had a huge set of upper and lower incisors that stuck out of its mouth. Its eyes were a mustard yellow with black irises and pupils. Two large black horns extended upwards from its brow like those of a bull. The massive creature let out another roar and started charging up the hill. As Bray and Nialla moved to intercept the creature it swung the huge weapon and sent both of them flying backwards almost 50 feet. Aeryn rushed across the field and used his own body to cushion Bray’s fall and the two fell to the ground and started rolling down the hill. Nialla in tiger form slammed into the ground hard, and she tried pushing herself to her feet before stumbling back down.  The head of Bray’s axe managed to catch on the ground and he and Aeryn stopped in place, but the large red creature wasted no time as it started to stomp towards the pair to attack again.

“Allie…”

“I know.”

“Allie!”

“I fucking know!”

“Allie, what do we do?!”

Ikelos elbowed me and smirked.

“Go do your thing, Demon Lord Allexus.”

I nodded once and sighed through my nose.

“Power Limiter Release: 50%!

My demonic speed surged as I spread my wings and rushed forward. I bit my lip as heat bloomed in my core and flooded my senses. I drew both of my swords and summoned a suit of heavy armor. The massive red demon lifted its club in preparation for an attack and I landed between it and Bray and Aeryn. It swung the huge club downwards and I used my blades to block it. The impact from the blow pushed me to my knees and pain flared in my arms. I pushed with all the strength I could muster but it still wasn’t enough to drive the creature’s weapon back. As it placed a second hand on the club and pressed downwards, I struggled to remain upright.

“A little help guys! I can’t hold this thing much longer!”

I saw a black blur in my peripheral vision and the creature roared in pain as Aeryn struck the side of its leg over and over. It started to raise the club again in preparation for another swing and I dropped my swords and grabbed onto the end of the enormous weapon.

“Power Limiter Re-”

It swung one of its meaty fists downward and caught me in the chest, knocking the wind out of me and forcing me back to my knees. Aeryn continued to attack it with blow after blow, but the creature seemed undeterred. All at once I felt its strength wane and I was able to push the creature back as I stood up. At first I thought maybe Aeryn had struck something that made the creature back off, until I saw dark gray and the blade of a huge axe cleave into the creature’s other leg.

“Fall back, Allie. I got this.”

I looked over at the huge warrior and gave him a thumbs up before spreading my wings and pushing backwards. Instead of fully retreating, I flapped a few times to gain a little altitude and then started raining spells onto the massive red creature’s back.

“[Blastburn]! [Corrupting Fire]! [Blastburn]! [Coldfire]! [Coldfire]!”

Each of my spells struck it, but despite the roars of pain the creature let out, I could tell my attacks had done little more than piss it off. I did, however, accomplish what I had set out to do and drew the creature’s attention away from Aeryn and Bray. The pair took the momentary distraction and I saw Aeryn boost Bray upwards as he jumped towards the creature’s head. Just as Bray’s massive doublehanded overhead swing was about to connect with the thing’s face, I saw one of its huge red fists heading towards the airborne warrior. Three shining arrows struck the creature’s arm followed by several blasts of lightning. A second gigantic surge of electricity caught the side of Bray’s axe and the blade crackled with energy as it struck the huge demon in the face. The sound of metal on bone rang out followed by a meaty thump. Bray’s axe was embedded in the creature’s brain, and it took one final step forward and then began to fall forward. Just before it fell, one its arms shot up and snatched Bray out of midair, and then the two crashed into the ground with a sound akin to a falling tree. Before the dust could settle, everyone was rushing forward in hopes that our clan’s warrior was still alive.

As everyone reached the mountain of red flesh that was now covered in blood, we worked together to lift the monster. When we were finally able to get it off its side we saw the remnants of Bray’s shattered and bloodied armor. Scythe swore loudly and I felt tears stinging my eyes. I knew that Bray wasn’t really dead and he was safe back in the clan hall, but it still sucked seeing the remains of his body.

“As much as I like cock, can anyone please get this massive thing off of me so I don’t have to have this thing’s monstrous dick pressed against me anymore?!”

We all looked stunned as the creature’s loincloth shifted and we all rushed to help Bray out from under it. As I reached down to grab his arm, huge dark red fingers latched onto me and I yelped and started to pull my arm back.

“Jesus, it’s me Allie!”

When the others were able to pull Bray out from under it, we looked up at him with wide eyes and stunned looks on our faces. Standing in front of us was a smaller, yet still very tall, version of the massive red demon we had just killed.

“Why are you all looking at me like that?”

Bray looked down at himself and his expression mirrored our own. He opened his character menu and let out a shout of surprise.

“Check it out!!! I’m a badass!! What the fuck is an Ogre Demon?! This is AWESOME!”

As we studied his new form I noticed that the same symbols that had been on the flag he had been carrying were now engraved in black on the skin of his chest. Everything about him was the exact same as the bigger version, save for one small detail. Well… it wasn’t exactly small.

“Hey um… Bray. Would you mind putting that thing away before you break someone’s leg with it?”

“Jesus, is that thing considered a melee weapon?”

“I think that thing is almost as big as that creature’s club.”

Bray finally figured out what all of us were referencing and he shrugged and strode confidently over to his boyfriend.

“Hey babe, how’s it going? What brings a handsome fella such as yourself to a place like this?”

“Braylon, my love… under no circumstances are we ever having sex in this game again. You would literally kill me with that thing.”

We all laughed and Bray’s face turned a slightly darker shade of red.