Chapter 454: Trapped
The demons didn’t just look like smoke. Arrows pretty much zipped through them without doing much of anything. And Mason was starting to realize they weren’t still forming. They were completely formed and waiting. Probably for him.
Their bodies vanished and morphed, swirling away from Mason’s Claws, too, escaping on the very air he disturbed to cut them. They hadn’t even tried to strike him, just blowing back and forth beneath the giant darkness of the looming portal.
The greater demon was laughing in Mason’s mind.
I know what you are, horned prince. You were a fool to challenge me.
A roaring sound erupted all around the portal. What looked like a wall of bone ripped from the earth, swallowed in shadowy armor as it rose up and formed a kind of cage surrounding the dying earth.
Dark mist descended, covering everything. It touched even Mason’s thickened skin like a wet cold that seemed to be soaking deeper.
He could sense the ‘natural’ environment dying, and almost gone already. Whatever this was, it was soon going to be considered something else. Obviously, he had his new power. But he could only use it once, and he suspected it would drain away quickly.
You cannot kill that you cannot catch. The air from my home will suck the life from your mortal veins while I watch. So what will you do now, ranger?
Apex Predator flared.
[Affinity: Abyssal.]
The cold mist turned lukewarm. Almost pleasant. The swirling darkness and blurry smoke turned clearer, the smaller demons forming behind mirror-like spheres of power they’d clearly used as cover. Mason grinned.
“Oh. I’ll think of something.”
He formed his bow and launched every arrow and ranged power in his arsenal in blistering succession, just trying to find something that worked. His new friends still didn’t die, or really seem to get hurt. But they didn’t look pleased.
Smoke launched towards him in tendrils, and he took off with Aspect of the Cheetah loosing arrows.
A buck-shot like Crippling Strike scattered into one of the creature’s ‘spheres’, blasting some of it away to sizzle on the ground. His Power Shot tore straight through, spraying the creature with inky liquid that seemed to coat its body and make it…more solid, less like smoke. Mason got the idea, and kept shooting the sphere.
The ground shook as a massive hoofed foot smashed next to him. A black blade hissed through the air, and Mason barely had time to summon a Claw and block. The weapon sizzled as if with heat, and the force of the blow smashed his own blade against his shoulder, cutting flesh and staggering him back.
He was about to watch it heal and make some kind of quip about ‘how will you kill something that doesn’t die’. Then he realized his skin wasn’t healing.
In fact, Transformation looked entirely greyed out. Not like ‘it was trying to work and failing’, but temporarily disabled. Like it wasn’t supposed to work right now at all.
So, that was bad.
Mason regained his feet quick enough, leaping away to avoid another swipe of the demon’s giant blade. Whatever was happening he expected the demon didn’t really understand it, either, or he’d be mocking him. Was it the fact that he’d changed to ‘Abyssal affinity’? Maybe ‘abyssals’ couldn’t heal, or something…
He tried Ranger’s Mark again without much confidence. But this time the power zinged a satisfying success. It gave him a greenish outline of the big demon in the smoke, which was already pretty damn nice.
But it also showed some text in the usual spot for advice, which he read eagerly, eyes moving across the now familiar font…
[Analysis unclear. Consider fighting target with a group.]
Mason blinked, then ducked another sword swipe and ran around the edge of the ‘bone wall’, switching back to his bow to take more shots at those spheres on the run. He was hoping said ‘group’ was en route, and trying to break open this prison.
On the other hand, as long as they weren’t here, they couldn’t get hurt. On the other, other, presumably third hand, Mason wasn’t actually regenerating either, which made him theoretically as vulnerable as anyone else. Probably.
Finding it hard to breathe, mortal? The demon’s mocking voice echoed in Mason’s ears. Lie down. Rest. It will all be over soon.
The ‘small’ demons had begun to abandon their protective spheres. They were coming out and becoming more solid, forming their own blades and shooting out gaseous lines of smoke in Mason’s direction.
He dodged them easily enough, slowing or weaving but never stopping as he ran around the edge of the prison. The big demon stayed near the middle, ready to cut off his escape and loosing smoke-shots of his own. But he didn’t seem eager to go running around on foot.
Mason was reminded of his first ever ‘boss’ battle—the great tree in the tutorial, fighting giant gnolls who got in each other’s way as much as anything. He’d had no interest in trying to bring them down in close combat.
Back then, Mason healed, but not very quickly. He’d always planned to be ‘ranged’, really, and had only gone more ‘melee’ because of the incredible effectiveness of his regeneration and Duality.
But his Endless Quiver made his shots impossibly fast, his arrow options diverse. His Elven Bow was small yet powerful enough to let him shoot and move with impressive force. And these demons seemed real interested in getting close. Their ‘smoke beams’ didn’t seem able to lock onto Mason worth a damn, possibly because of Apex Predator.
Maybe it was time to put the range back in ranger.
Mason loosed a Power Shot at Little Demon Asshole #1, dodged a smoke shot, then began an unpleasant game of dodge ball. The arrows were landing, but the bastards were still something like half gas, and he started taking turns shooting them or their spheres.
My lord will destroy this world, the demon growled. Your sire will watch as we tear down the great trees and forests. As the mountains crumble and fall. We will choke the rivers and poison the seas.
“You guys are a little over the top villainous,” Mason muttered, smiling as Crippling Strike recycled and struck a demon in a hail of fiery scattershot, at least a few pinging and sparking off as the power clicked its success.
One of the smoke shots finally hit his hip as three came in at once. The thing sprayed with dark liquid until Mason moved, the inky droplets coming off him without sticking, steaming on the ground.
“Impossible,” the demon roared with its own mouth. “Nothing of this plane can resist the waters of the abyss.”
“And yet.”
Mason shifted and loosed an Exploiting Strike at the big boy’s face, sighing as it passed straight through. He was guessing it had its own ‘sphere’ in the center and refused to leave it.
Mason couldn’t actually see the thing, though he suspected he could if he got close enough. But considering the creature had at least a fifteen foot reach with that massive sword, he didn’t suppose he was going to…
He blinked as he considered the distance, dodging another smoke shot (out of instinct more than concern) and loosing another arrow at Little Demon Asshole #1. Maybe it was time for a little test.
After another round of ring around the demon bone prison, he slowed and turned, racing right past the chasing demons before crossing between the gap between them and the big boy. As he did, Apex Predator flared.
[Greater Smoke Jovok: affinity removed.]
He watched the dark eyes of the creature go wide as Mason’s power stripped its affinity. Right from the start, the power had been able not just to change Mason’s, but to alter it for his enemies if he got close enough. It had been a long time since it really helped him. Now seemed an opportune moment.
Mason was no comic or movie buff, but he’d been forced to watch The Watchmen with his brother. The only character he’d liked had been Rorschach, which was at least enough to get him to the end. Though when that happened, he’d practically tossed Blake off the couch and stormed off.
Anyway. He’d been struck by the prison scene—the hero sent away and trapped with so many of the criminals he’d caught, the threat of violence on all their faces. As Mason glanced around the prison of bone, he couldn’t help but grin.
He slowed again and blinked away a trickle of sweat. He was going to have to get real close and personal, and somehow manage to dodge or block without getting hacked apart, because he wasn’t going to heal.
But it was time to see how these demons liked living in the smoke of the abyss without their gas masks. Mason summoned his Claws and rolled his shoulders, ready to drop traps and run, or maybe summon a natural environment just to heal a minute, which would hopefully actually work.
He was going to keep in range of these bastards and watch them cook. Dropping Little Demon Assholes 1-3 before giving the big bastard the same treatment.
I’m not trapped in here with you, he mentally quoted The Watchmen hero, fake charging just to get into Apex Predator range, smiling as he watched the creature’s affinity drop. You’re trapped in here with me.