A wave of silence buffeted the cavern, almost like a shockwave. And then Theo raised both his hands in the air as demons turned towards him. Black-metal punchblades popped into existence on his hands.
His face was unlike anything Sally had seen in him. Darkness had wrought his eyes into sunken pits of bright crimson, and a pained grimace sat widely on his face. It gave the appearance of being older and much more sinister.
The vampire moved as if in a slideshow - his first strike impaling a demon through the face. Immediately he darted to the next one, his blade carving a chunk of the throat of the shocked demon. A shadow of pink afterglow followed his every movement, not even in the same way as Sanguine Weapon or Novice Strike - it looked like the ability was following his whole body.
“How is this going to end?” Sally cut down one of the few still focused on the rest of the Party.
Archie shrugged and looked back over to Lucius, still trying to open the portal back up.
Somehow, the vampire had begun to move faster - as if slowly increasing momentum with each strike. As the demons tried to move closer or swing at him, a sudden burst of crimson would pop from parts of their body as he blurred past. It was not long before Theo was covered in viscera, a trail of spattering blood dripping in the wake of his afterimage.
The gloom in the cave was oppressive - and didn’t seem like Perfect Dark either. There was no crimson moon shadowing proceedings, although that might look odd being underground. Instead, everything was monochromatic and red. Very red - not only the hellish surroundings but between them, all the ground was stained by the blood of so many demons.
Even as the vampire flickered around, leaving arterial sprays and collapsing bodies in his wake, more demons continued to pour forth.
“It looks like…” she began, narrowing her eyes.
“The rate is increasing the more demons die.” Humphrey nodded and twisted his blade from a demon.
“I’d advise not to intervene or get any closer.” The ginger cat jumped up onto the Death Knight’s shoulder armor as all the demons were now trying to focus on the vampire. “He isn’t likely to be able to determine friendly or enemy targets at this stage.”
“So we can’t do the cliche thing of me talking him down from his crazed state because of our connection?” Sally pouted and tapped some gore from the tip of the bat off on her shoe.
“No,” Archie yawned.
Theo began to hum. Tuneless, but it was… happy. Every time he received a charge for [Blood Shift], he used the ability. And almost every other demon was slain in one strike. He became even more of a blur as he went from one edge of the chamber to the other, leaving crimson rain in his wake.
He had to kill all demons. But there were so many.
Damon had stopped his gloating and had his brow furrowed at proceedings ever since the vampire had started to attack. He must have known they had him stowed away - it was hard to mask that amount of power in a simple wooden box. But this was something else.
“You think if we kill the big bad over there, it’ll help matters?” Sally scrunched up her nose as she regarded the spellcaster.
“I don’t have anything to harm them from this range,” Humphrey shrugged.
Her crossbow hadn’t done much. Sometimes she really missed the mobster. Jackie was great at shooting things from afar. She considered the Party Teleport… but with Theo acting this way, they’d fast become his targets - and fast become mincemeat, no doubt.
“Anything you can do, Archie? Can’t summon a gun or something?” She resisted the urge to sit down on the floor. Her next Quest should be to nap, in her opinion. “Does this world even have guns?”
“Yes.” Humphrey nodded.
“No.” Archie shook his head.
Theo was now a constant streak of pink, and each demon was being struck multiple times each instead of once. Impossibly quick, his attacks crackled with energy as bodies began to pile up in excessive amounts.
“That’s not an answer. I’ll understand if it’d break the immersion of the fantasy setting - but where I’m from, some cultures, such as-“
“I think it is best we leave that for another day, Sally.” Archie’s emerald eyes twinkled in the crimson light of the cavern.
Perhaps. Personally, she didn’t understand the difference between a repeating crossbow or a wand, compared to a pistol. She wasn’t exactly asking for a minigun or laser canon. She put those on her mental list of things that she wanted. Although her recent acquisition of the not-a-baseball bat made that seem like an even further away prospect. Maybe a nicer dagger would be neat.
The Hell Portal was now overflowing, the demons respawning at a ridiculous rate, now struggling to fit through the opening as they squeezed and stumbled. Damon looked annoyed but also amused, in that odd way that demons managed to do.
“Lucius?” Sally prodded verbally.
“Getting there!” Sweatdrop emojis constantly kept reappearing beside him. “I think Damon is keeping it closed - it’s making it awkward.”
“Awkward,” she rolled her eyes. That’s not exactly how she would describe the present situation where Theo was a rolling ball of instant murder, and the rest of them were left twiddling their thumbs in the audience. Well, actually, that was a little awkward.
“We need to break the other portal, big brother.” Archie pawed at the side of the Death Knight's head, causing his helmet flame to rise higher.
Humphrey narrowed his empty eye sockets. “Any suggestions? A special beam you could fire over there, or a way to erase it from existence?”
“I’m pretty tired, big brother.” He yawned and stretched to emphasize the point. “I have maybe one more spell in me, and we might need that to deal with Theo.”
Sally looked between the cat and the roving beam of bloodshed carving through the masses of demons. So Archie looked to have spell slots that recovered on a short rest. Not something she had come across in this System - that sounded like something else she couldn’t remember the reference to. It was a glimpse into why he seemed useless sometimes, however.
She tilted her head. Normally it was nice to pull out a hidden ace card to save the day, but she wasn’t sure she had any left - oh! There was something…
“Humps, if I open all my Daily Rewards now, do you think there will be an object that will get us out of our current conundrum?”
“Doubtful…” He grimaced at her, but there was the slightest hint of uncertainty in his tone.
It couldn’t be worse than trying to put on the glitched hat that she received earlier. Imagine if that did something like making her really tall or capable of walking through walls. Most likely, it would just erase her head or worse.
Theo had begun to beam his way closer to the larger portal but was slowing as the amount of respawning demons - and their corpses - were delaying his progress physically. Damon looked to be trying to get a read on the vampire to levy some kind of attack, but he was beyond being able to be seen, let alone tracked.
“Is Theo taking damage?” She was worried that he was cheese-grating himself against the demons.
“Physically, he is fine.” Archie looked out at the spectacle but didn’t seem to be struggling to keep stock of Theo.
“Ack, the way you specify physically.” She looked back at their demon. “Lucius?”
“Ah! So,” he spun around, hands clasped behind his back. “It turns out I cannot, in fact, open this with Damon there.”
Sally exhaled through her nose. Looks like they were in this for the long haul then. She prodded at her STAR.
[Sally: currently in hell]
[Sally: literally]
[Sally: theo has turned into the avatar of death]
[Chuck: bet that suits him]
[Sally: kinda]
[Sally:_]
She let the cursor blink in front of her eyes for a few seconds, unsure what to say next. It wasn’t so bad that she had to send some last goodbyes, right? Although the situation was dangerous and pretty dire, she didn’t personally feel like she was in big trouble. Save for Theo turning on them or him dying and the gigantic crowd coming for them - they were just the audience for this show.
“You got a town scroll, just in case, Humps?”
“Yes. To one of the towns with people we don't care as much about.”
Just in case Theo is still wild. Imagine going back to Jackie or the goblins and causing mass slaughter. Everything they worked for undone in one pink blaze. She was annoyed at the vampire now, despite him not doing that yet.
“Alright, time for Daily rewards.”
“Are you sure you want to do that, Sally?” Archie raised an eyebrow.
“I’d rather know and not die, than die and not know.” She booped the STAR and rolled over to the notification.
[Daily Rewards Received]
[600 Gold]
[Error Experience]
[Rare Ranged Weapon Box (1)]
[Rare Melee Weapon Box (1)]
[Hearty Meal (10)]
[Basic Dagger (67)]
[Spell Scroll Box (3)]
[Stamp Card]
[Stamp Booster (5)]
[Error//stack misc detr-b]
She hadn’t realized it had been that many days that she hadn’t retrieved the reward. Classic error experience.
“I got sixty-seven Daggers.” She shrugged at the gathered Outsiders. “Some nerd stuff like stamps, some gross food I’ll never eat, gold which someone will soon come and try and extort from me - and chance boxes.”
“Underwhelmed?” Humphrey grinned in the macabre crimson light.
“Completely whelmed.” Sally worked her jaw and opened up the [Spell Scroll Box]es.
[Spell Scroll: Summon Demon]
[Spell Scroll: Greater Firebolt]
[Spell Scroll: Savage Strike]
Her jaw ached from how tense she was clenching her teeth. Summon demon?? She opened the [Weapon Chance Box]es.
[Rare Throwing Knives]
[Rare Dagger of Luck]
It probably wasn’t worth opening the stamps now. She sighed as she watched Theo blend through the non-stop demon spawns.
So much for narrative fiat saving the day. The System could go stick these random items up its-
A flashing notification caught her attention. With all the weight of the situation weighing down on her, she pressed her finger on the flickering blue box.
[Introductory Period Complete!]
[Welcome to the {System}!]
[500 Gold]
[Error Unlocked]
[////ss***__]
[Legendary Weapon Selection Box]
[Mark of the {unassigned}]
Right eye twitching, she slowly withdrew the weapon selection box.
A wave of silence buffeted the cavern, almost like a shockwave. And then Theo raised both his hands in the air as demons turned towards him. Black-metal punchblades popped into existence on his hands.
His face was unlike anything Sally had seen in him. Darkness had wrought his eyes into sunken pits of bright crimson, and a pained grimace sat widely on his face. It gave the appearance of being older and much more sinister.
The vampire moved as if in a slideshow - his first strike impaling a demon through the face. Immediately he darted to the next one, his blade carving a chunk of the throat of the shocked demon. A shadow of pink afterglow followed his every movement, not even in the same way as Sanguine Weapon or Novice Strike - it looked like the ability was following his whole body.
“How is this going to end?” Sally cut down one of the few still focused on the rest of the Party.
Archie shrugged and looked back over to Lucius, still trying to open the portal back up.
Somehow, the vampire had begun to move faster - as if slowly increasing momentum with each strike. As the demons tried to move closer or swing at him, a sudden burst of crimson would pop from parts of their body as he blurred past. It was not long before Theo was covered in viscera, a trail of spattering blood dripping in the wake of his afterimage.
The gloom in the cave was oppressive - and didn’t seem like Perfect Dark either. There was no crimson moon shadowing proceedings, although that might look odd being underground. Instead, everything was monochromatic and red. Very red - not only the hellish surroundings but between them, all the ground was stained by the blood of so many demons.
Even as the vampire flickered around, leaving arterial sprays and collapsing bodies in his wake, more demons continued to pour forth.
“It looks like…” she began, narrowing her eyes.
“The rate is increasing the more demons die.” Humphrey nodded and twisted his blade from a demon.
“I’d advise not to intervene or get any closer.” The ginger cat jumped up onto the Death Knight’s shoulder armor as all the demons were now trying to focus on the vampire. “He isn’t likely to be able to determine friendly or enemy targets at this stage.”
“So we can’t do the cliche thing of me talking him down from his crazed state because of our connection?” Sally pouted and tapped some gore from the tip of the bat off on her shoe.
“No,” Archie yawned.
Theo began to hum. Tuneless, but it was… happy. Every time he received a charge for [Blood Shift], he used the ability. And almost every other demon was slain in one strike. He became even more of a blur as he went from one edge of the chamber to the other, leaving crimson rain in his wake.
He had to kill all demons. But there were so many.
Damon had stopped his gloating and had his brow furrowed at proceedings ever since the vampire had started to attack. He must have known they had him stowed away - it was hard to mask that amount of power in a simple wooden box. But this was something else.
“You think if we kill the big bad over there, it’ll help matters?” Sally scrunched up her nose as she regarded the spellcaster.
“I don’t have anything to harm them from this range,” Humphrey shrugged.
Her crossbow hadn’t done much. Sometimes she really missed the mobster. Jackie was great at shooting things from afar. She considered the Party Teleport… but with Theo acting this way, they’d fast become his targets - and fast become mincemeat, no doubt.
“Anything you can do, Archie? Can’t summon a gun or something?” She resisted the urge to sit down on the floor. Her next Quest should be to nap, in her opinion. “Does this world even have guns?”
“Yes.” Humphrey nodded.
“No.” Archie shook his head.
Theo was now a constant streak of pink, and each demon was being struck multiple times each instead of once. Impossibly quick, his attacks crackled with energy as bodies began to pile up in excessive amounts.
“That’s not an answer. I’ll understand if it’d break the immersion of the fantasy setting - but where I’m from, some cultures, such as-“
“I think it is best we leave that for another day, Sally.” Archie’s emerald eyes twinkled in the crimson light of the cavern.
Perhaps. Personally, she didn’t understand the difference between a repeating crossbow or a wand, compared to a pistol. She wasn’t exactly asking for a minigun or laser canon. She put those on her mental list of things that she wanted. Although her recent acquisition of the not-a-baseball bat made that seem like an even further away prospect. Maybe a nicer dagger would be neat.
The Hell Portal was now overflowing, the demons respawning at a ridiculous rate, now struggling to fit through the opening as they squeezed and stumbled. Damon looked annoyed but also amused, in that odd way that demons managed to do.
“Lucius?” Sally prodded verbally.
“Getting there!” Sweatdrop emojis constantly kept reappearing beside him. “I think Damon is keeping it closed - it’s making it awkward.”
“Awkward,” she rolled her eyes. That’s not exactly how she would describe the present situation where Theo was a rolling ball of instant murder, and the rest of them were left twiddling their thumbs in the audience. Well, actually, that was a little awkward.
“We need to break the other portal, big brother.” Archie pawed at the side of the Death Knight's head, causing his helmet flame to rise higher.
Humphrey narrowed his empty eye sockets. “Any suggestions? A special beam you could fire over there, or a way to erase it from existence?”
“I’m pretty tired, big brother.” He yawned and stretched to emphasize the point. “I have maybe one more spell in me, and we might need that to deal with Theo.”
Sally looked between the cat and the roving beam of bloodshed carving through the masses of demons. So Archie looked to have spell slots that recovered on a short rest. Not something she had come across in this System - that sounded like something else she couldn’t remember the reference to. It was a glimpse into why he seemed useless sometimes, however.
She tilted her head. Normally it was nice to pull out a hidden ace card to save the day, but she wasn’t sure she had any left - oh! There was something…
“Humps, if I open all my Daily Rewards now, do you think there will be an object that will get us out of our current conundrum?”
“Doubtful…” He grimaced at her, but there was the slightest hint of uncertainty in his tone.
It couldn’t be worse than trying to put on the glitched hat that she received earlier. Imagine if that did something like making her really tall or capable of walking through walls. Most likely, it would just erase her head or worse.
Theo had begun to beam his way closer to the larger portal but was slowing as the amount of respawning demons - and their corpses - were delaying his progress physically. Damon looked to be trying to get a read on the vampire to levy some kind of attack, but he was beyond being able to be seen, let alone tracked.
“Is Theo taking damage?” She was worried that he was cheese-grating himself against the demons.
“Physically, he is fine.” Archie looked out at the spectacle but didn’t seem to be struggling to keep stock of Theo.
“Ack, the way you specify physically.” She looked back at their demon. “Lucius?”
“Ah! So,” he spun around, hands clasped behind his back. “It turns out I cannot, in fact, open this with Damon there.”
Sally exhaled through her nose. Looks like they were in this for the long haul then. She prodded at her STAR.
[Sally: currently in hell]
[Sally: literally]
[Sally: theo has turned into the avatar of death]
[Chuck: bet that suits him]
[Sally: kinda]
[Sally:_]
She let the cursor blink in front of her eyes for a few seconds, unsure what to say next. It wasn’t so bad that she had to send some last goodbyes, right? Although the situation was dangerous and pretty dire, she didn’t personally feel like she was in big trouble. Save for Theo turning on them or him dying and the gigantic crowd coming for them - they were just the audience for this show.
“You got a town scroll, just in case, Humps?”
“Yes. To one of the towns with people we don't care as much about.”
Just in case Theo is still wild. Imagine going back to Jackie or the goblins and causing mass slaughter. Everything they worked for undone in one pink blaze. She was annoyed at the vampire now, despite him not doing that yet.
“Alright, time for Daily rewards.”
“Are you sure you want to do that, Sally?” Archie raised an eyebrow.
“I’d rather know and not die, than die and not know.” She booped the STAR and rolled over to the notification.
[Daily Rewards Received]
[600 Gold]
[Error Experience]
[Rare Ranged Weapon Box (1)]
[Rare Melee Weapon Box (1)]
[Hearty Meal (10)]
[Basic Dagger (67)]
[Spell Scroll Box (3)]
[Stamp Card]
[Stamp Booster (5)]
[Error//stack misc detr-b]
She hadn’t realized it had been that many days that she hadn’t retrieved the reward. Classic error experience.
“I got sixty-seven Daggers.” She shrugged at the gathered Outsiders. “Some nerd stuff like stamps, some gross food I’ll never eat, gold which someone will soon come and try and extort from me - and chance boxes.”
“Underwhelmed?” Humphrey grinned in the macabre crimson light.
“Completely whelmed.” Sally worked her jaw and opened up the [Spell Scroll Box]es.
[Spell Scroll: Summon Demon]
[Spell Scroll: Greater Firebolt]
[Spell Scroll: Savage Strike]
Her jaw ached from how tense she was clenching her teeth. Summon demon?? She opened the [Weapon Chance Box]es.
[Rare Throwing Knives]
[Rare Dagger of Luck]
It probably wasn’t worth opening the stamps now. She sighed as she watched Theo blend through the non-stop demon spawns.
So much for narrative fiat saving the day. The System could go stick these random items up its-
A flashing notification caught her attention. With all the weight of the situation weighing down on her, she pressed her finger on the flickering blue box.
[Introductory Period Complete!]
[Welcome to the {System}!]
[500 Gold]
[Error Unlocked]
[////ss***__]
[Legendary Weapon Selection Box]
[Mark of the {unassigned}]
Right eye twitching, she slowly withdrew the weapon selection box.
