Chapter 453: Here for you

Mason crushed another demon in his bare hand, smirking as the portal started to close. These creatures stunk in living and dying. They looked horrible and sounded worse. But killing them was extremely satisfying.

First of all, they made a subtle kind of…popping sound. Or they exploded. Or melted. Or turned into smoke as you cut them in half. But however they died it was grotesquely enjoyable.

After checking on the other players once or twice, Mason had gotten quite absorbed in it all, and really lost himself in the moments between kills. He’d lost track of how many demons he’d put down, how many portals he’d closed.

They’d formed so many variants now that they’d washed him with acid, tested his strength, riddled him with magic, and just generally made a nuisance of themselves.

This was another way of saying they’d turned him into a monster with Transformation and Duality of Strength. Every portal and fresh horror that had failed to kill him just sent his powers tick ticking away.

His skin was now thick and numb, his limbs corded with cable-like strands of sinewy muscle. His steps were doing that involuntary bouncing thing again, and what he really wanted was something…bigger. Something he could sink his teeth into. Well, so to speak. The thought of biting the reeking creatures made him cringe.

Druid. A greater demon is forming to the east.

Mason heard something like actual concern in the Stag’s telepathic voice, but he couldn’t help but smile. He knew the attitude likely wasn’t good—that it may get him or others killed. He also couldn’t stop himself.

The challenge. The danger. The hunt. He wanted it. He yearned for it. And the arrival of a ‘greater demon’ was maybe the first good news he’d felt all day.

He felt the Stag’s disbelief through their bond. But it made him grin. Streak’s howl rose above the din of combat, the animal letting Mason know he and his pack were ready. That it felt the same as he did.

“Hide if you like,” Mason said to the Stag, then sped towards the growing bruise in the sky with a slightly awkward, leaping sprint.

He fought the growing smile as the Stag clomped and jumped beside him, an indignant kind of ‘I’ll show you’ emotion radiating with a stubborn pulse.

“OK. Now tell me what the hell to expect from a greater demon,” he shouted, seeing there were still smaller portals open and maybe opening, his players still busily fighting for their lives.

They are as unpredictable as the others, Stag explained. But it will not be alone or unprepared. Its most powerful servants will come at its side. It will bring every weapon, every ounce of power. To attack like this risks its immortal existence, so it is either very confident, or very reckless.

Or desperate, Mason thought. Violence pretty much always came from one of the three, so it didn’t tell him much. But he supposed knowing it had allies was good. Now the question was did Mason kill its friends, first, or focus on the boss?

As he ran he noticed a particularly large clump of demons around Phuong, Alex, and Seamus, so he altered course to take him their way.

Kill everything and free those players, he told his growing pack of creatures with Speak with Nature, then stopped before a cluster and started channeling a lightning bolt.

He hadn’t used it in quite awhile, and as he was just about to cast he wondered if he could mix it with the druidic runes he’d been learning. He didn’t see why not. But which one(s)?

All he knew was ‘tree’, ‘front’, and ‘stone’. The first two felt almost immediately useless, or at least he couldn’t feel any connection between the magic. But stone…stone felt weirdly right.

He wasn’t even sure why, exactly. But he trusted the feeling and imagined the symbol over a cluster of demons near his players. It helped him target it, somehow, like he was choosing the ground instead of just vaguely aiming.

The power swirled around him, using his Sleeves as always to channel whatever physical requirements druidic magic had. The sky cracked above his target, and Mason blinked as he realized the energy wasn’t building from him, but above.

Not wanting to waste too much mana, he stopped the channel and released before it drained him below two thirds. A bolt flashed from above, striking the ground with a flare of light and flame.

Half a dozen demons went slack and dropped. A few more blasted away as the ground ripped apart like there’d been some kind of explosion. Normal lightning definitely do that. At least not the non-magic kind. But he’d sure as hell take it.

Still, it killed maybe a tenth of the demons lining up to get at Phuong and Alex.

Stag snorted impatiently beside him, and Mason summoned his Claws and started to move. Streak and his pack overtook them all, howling and baying for demonic blood as they spread out in something damn near like a cavalry line.

Mason grinned and picked up speed. The rear of the demon pack all turned and stared, roaring in surprise or warning or just running the hell away. His vision blinked and he realized both Strength of the Pack and Fang Brothers were glowing bright green. He could tell instantly he was sharing his passives and items not just with Streak, and now with Stag, but the whole damn pack of wolves.

Mason struck first, cutting a half-bull, half-pig demon into three pieces with his swords. Stag hit next, his charge sounding like another bolt of lightning, his rock-like skull smashing into a creature’s bony chest and blasting it a dozen feet.

The wolves all growled and swarmed their targets in twos, chomping at legs and pulling to get their targets down. Their eyes were all glowing green, the strength of Mason’s powers sending them into a frenzy.

Streak attacked alone. The increasingly huge wolf chomped onto some half armadillo-looking humanoid, his Ranger Claw enhanced teeth cracking and breaking shell as he tossed the thing to the dirt and chewed.

For a moment Mason just reveled in the slaughter, no thoughts of the players or any battles to come. He laughed as a canine-like demon tried to bite him, jabbing his shorter Claw straight through its brain and tossing it back.

Everywhere he turned he found fleeing demons being taken down by wolves. He slashed off chunks of heads as he passed, crushing skulls with the occasional stomp. Then there were targets that didn’t stink like demon, and he stopped and looked up at a waiting Phuong.

“Happy to see you, Patron. Things were getting…a bit out of control.”

“Nonsense!” Seamus stepped to the man’s side twirling his staff with actual growing competence. “I think that’s what you yanks would call a target rich environment, like. You ruined all my fun.”

Mason grinned. He was glad for the man’s enthusiasm today.

“There’s a giant demon coming out of that portal. Killing it ends all this. Follow me, and do what you can.”

“Fecking eh, chief.” Seamus nodded and planted his staff, and even Phuong looked like he was having fun. Alex just nodded like he’d been asked to take out the trash. Mason supposed it would do.

He gave the now chest-ramming Streak a good, affectionate thump on the side, a quick scan of the pack to see if there were any injuries. It looked like one or two, but it also looked like they were slowly regenerating. Mason grinned at the animals, their fur all covered in demonic ichor and goo. Other than a few rips and tears, they seemed ready for more.

“Go get the other people. Help them, and bring them to me.”

Streak whined but took off, his pack close on his heels. Mason banished his Claws and ran to his huge new target with elven bow at the ready, picking off stray demons as he raced towards the growing portal. It was getting more obvious now what the ‘herald’ looked like.

Dark horns grew out of a man-shaped shadow, its eyes like red lighthouses moving back and forth through a growing grey smoke. They seemed confused, or maybe blind, but solidified as Mason got closer. Eventually they turned and stared straight at him through the canopy.

The damn thing smiled with two rows of shark-like fangs.

There you are, princeling, boomed a voice in his mind. You should have run while you had the chance. I’m not here for your precious trees, these pitiful wretches. I am here for you. Tonight I feast on your flesh, and send your bones to your master.

Mason supposed it was just nice to be recognized. He activated Ranger’s Mark, wincing as the power made some kind of fizzling failure sound. He hoped it got easier up close.

“Pretty sure he’s gonna fuck with our brains,” Mason yelled. “Be ready for that. Any more advice now that you’ve got a look at him, Stag?”

A lord of shadows, at least. Expect teleportation, darkness, mind magic. And he may have other demonic gifts. Greater demons are not so constrained.

Sounded lovely. Teleportation? Something that big? Mason expected darkness and mind magic wouldn’t be a problem. At least not for him. But if the damn thing started screwing with the other players or using something like Blake’s mind control…that was a problem.

It reminded him he had a fancy new ‘Earthsoul’ gem that could shut down non-nature magic. And he also had his new Stag Essence that could screw with an enemy and force it to focus on him. Or something.

His other power gem could make a natural environment, which wasn’t currently necessary. But the first two things seemed like they might be pretty damn handy in a few seconds.

He and the other players finally got within arrow range of the still-forming demon. Mason looked at the huge circle of dying trees, the white grass and pulsating red light that beat like a demon’s heart in a portal the size of a mansion—then he lifted his bow, and started with a Power Shot.

The missile whistled at the thing’s face, then dropped and pierced shadow with an anti-climactic nothing. Mason just kept moving, and kept shooting.

“Nothing big yet,” he shouted. “Preserve your mana, but start.”

Seamus got in range and stopped moving, letting loose a series of fiery projectiles at different spots all over the demon’s body. It wasn’t hard to hit. The thing must have been twenty feet tall.

The fire mostly vanished into a body that seemed made of smoke, but little pockets of light flared as if they’d struck something. Mason hoped it was doing more than nothing, his arrows mostly aimed at the creature’s more ‘formed’ head.

More portals were solidifying now beside it—more horned creatures at least ten feet tall and also made of smoke, like smaller versions of their master. Mason winced and found himself annoyingly distracted because of worrying for the others. He needed Becky and maybe John to get their asses over here.

“Keep back,” he said, trying not to show too much excitement as he summoned a Claw. “I’m getting closer. When the others get here…” he shrugged. “Decide how to attack.”

Without another word, and deciding the best way to protect the others was to put himself in the worst possible danger, he charged straight for the giant demon.