Swordsman of the Rift

by Brandon Varnell

  “Something is coming,” Vyra said, almost hissing as she glanced around in fear.

  “Whatever is coming, it’s a lot bigger and more powerful than those imps,” Ju Chen added as she looked toward the door.

  Brad said nothing, but his eyes had turned toward the door, and I looked over just in time to see something large and hulking standing behind it—before the entire door was blown inward.

  What blasted through the door stood on two legs. It had a large frame covered in thick, corded muscles. Scars crossed its body. It wasn’t wearing much in the way of clothes. A loincloth wrapped around its torso to protect its modesty. Motley green skin reminiscent of leather gleamed in the dull light. This creature was bald and had no eyebrows, but prominent brow-ridges combined with sharp tusk-like teeth jutting from its lower lip gave it a mean look. As it spotted us, the creature opened its mouth, raised a wicked-looking ax over its head, and roared as it charged forward.

  “OGRE!” Ju Chen shouted in shock.

  As the creature charged, Vyra and I darted away from each other. The ogre raced past us, the rumbling of its steps causing my body to shake. It charged at Elric and Brad. The paladin and the death knight leapt away as well. Ju Chen also tried to scramble out of the way, but she was a tad too slow.

  I watched in horror as the ogre swung his ax in a wide, horizontal arc, his weapon catching Ju Chen in the torso. Her mouth was open in a scream as her body was split in half. Her torso went flying, spinning through the air, before it landed on the ground with a wet, meaty thud. She still seemed to be alive, barely, but then the ogre grabbed her torso, raised her to his mouth, and bit down.

  My insides churned and tried to regurgitate my dinner as a sickening crunch echoed around us. Blood spilled over the ogre’s mouth as it ate Ju Chen, tearing off pieces of her flesh and crunching down on the bones. All of us were too shocked by what happened to do anything more than watch. Even when I was in the Marines, I had never seen anything this violent or disgusting.

  The moment soon passed. The ogre, finished with its meal, turned to us.

  “If you have a buff, use it now! Close range fighters attack, but be careful of its ax and don’t let it grab you!” Brad shouted. “Use special attacks skills if you have them!”

  At those words, I snapped back to myself and tightened my grip on the sword in my hand. Now wasn’t the time to be shocked or get queasy.

  I was the first to overcome my disgust. Racing forward, I released a furious roar as I pictured the skill I wanted to use. The strange draining sensation when I used mana engulfed me as my blade was coated in a bright red energy, and then I was thrusting my sword forward. Death by Piercing. My blade sank into the stomach of the ogre, though it couldn’t go up to the hilt. The further in my sword got, the harder it became to move. Blood dripped from around the blade as it stopped moving. I grimaced and tried to pull it out, only it wouldn’t come out.

  “Look out, Bryan!”

  A shout was my only warning, but it was all I needed to let go of my sword and drop to the ground.

  A moment later, something passed over my head, so fast I could barely see it. As I stood back up, the ogre’s arm had stopped. I noticed the ax in its hand, an ax which was coming back down for a return swing.

  I leapt backward as fast as I could. The ax missed, but I could feel it passing through where I had been. A gust of wind pushed against me, showing me how powerful this attack was. If that thing hit me, I would die.

  As I leapt back, Vyra and Elric came in from the left and right. They attacked in unison. Elric’s glowing white mace slammed into the ogre, and Vyra’s claws, which looked like they had caught fire, slashed into its left flank. The ogre roared in agony as it spun around and tried to take them out. Vyra and Elric proved faster than it was, however, and moved back.

  In that moment, Brad came in with a powerful swing of his scythe, which was coated in a viscous black flame. Something about that flame gave me chills. I couldn’t understand it, but there was a sense of wrongness, of death, that I felt emanating from it. Whatever that flame was, it allowed Brad’s scythe to easily slice through the creature. Blood gushed from the new wound he opened, splashing onto the floor.

  The ogre must have been on its deathbed. It lurched forward and cupped its stomach as though trying to keep its organs from spilling out, but then its arms sagged and it pitched forward, hitting the ground with a loud rumble that shook the room. Its body twitched a few times, but then it went completely still.

  “Is everyone okay?” asked Brad.

  “I’m okay,” Elric said.

  “I’m glad one of us is,” Vyra snapped. “I’m not okay. And what about Ju Chen? Is she going to be okay? Will she respawn or—”

  “I wish that were the case,” Brad said as I walked up to the troll and grabbed my sword, still embedded into the creature’s strong hide. “However, I told you this already. Dying in this world means dying in our world.”

  “Fuck this shit!” Vyra screamed. “I’m out! I’m done with this!” She pulled up her screen and began pressing something. I couldn’t see what it was, but after a moment, the blood drained from her somewhat reptilian face as she looked from the screen to Brad. “I can’t log out! Why can’t I log out?”

  “I told you that your last chance to turn back was in the Rift Plains,” Brad informed her. “You cannot log out when you’re in a world that has been occupied by enemy forces. If you want to log out, the only way to do so is to defeat the Dungeon Master and clear the world of enemies.”

  Vyra’s face paled further. Meanwhile, Elric looked like he had suddenly swallowed something extremely foul. I felt about the same as they looked.

  “How does that even work?!” asked Vyra with a cry of frustration.

  I pulled my blade free of the ogre’s hide and turned to Brad, eager to hear what he had to say about this matter. To his credit, Brad looked calm as he ran a hand through his hair.

  “I don’t know the full details myself, but a company tried to create a simulation that would allow users to interact with their lost loved ones. It was supposed to be something people used to get closure.” He sighed, shook his head, and continued. “But something went wrong. They went too far, and suddenly, portals began opening all over the world. These portals connect to the afterlife… an afterlife… or maybe even every afterlife. I’m not sure on those details. All I know for sure is that the Rift Plains we started off in is connected to dozens, hundreds, or maybe even thousands of worlds, many of which have hostile enemies like the creatures we’re fighting here.”

  “Why has no one heard of this?” asked Elric. “If something like this happened, then surely someone would have said something, right?”

  As the conversation continued, the ogre we had fought broke down and turned to dust, but it left several items that I strode toward and picked up. One of them was a large tusk. The other object was its ax. As I picked both objects up, they disappeared in a flash, and a soft dinging sound alerted me that something had happened seconds before a screen appeared in front of me.

  Item Drops:

  Ax of Uruk

  Ogre Tusk

  “There are obviously people who have heard about it,” Brad said, gesturing toward himself. “However, the government has done a good job of keeping everything covered for the moment. Imagine the panic, the chaos that would spread if people learned a rift had opened between our world and other words.” Brad looked at where Ju Chen’s lower half was lying and grimaced. “In either case, that’s why I hired you guys for this job. The place we’re in now is one of those worlds, a lesser world that was recently overrun by powerful demons. This world is close to the Rift Plains.”

  “I understand.” I turned to look at Brad, my eyes narrowed. “Basically, if something isn’t done to clear these demons out of this world, they could overrun the Rift Plains and eventually make it to our world. That about sums it up, right?”

  “Yes.” Brad nodded.

  “So what do we do now?�
�� asked Vyra.

  “We keep moving,” Brad said, shrugging.

  None of us could say anything against his idea.

  We moved on, fighting enemies as we went. Most of what we ran into were low-level imps. They appeared to be the grunts in this base, easy to kill but attacked in hordes. Sometimes we ran into stronger monsters, but the strongest creature we’d had to fight so far aside from ogres were succubus.

  Succubus were a type of female demon who appeared as gorgeous women with large breasts, wide hips, and a perfect waist. Their clothing always left little to the imagination. Most of the succubus we ran into had armor that looked like they were made with seduction in mind instead of protection. They had different color skin, sometimes red, sometimes pink, and sometimes purple or blue. The color of their skin seemed to denote what kind of attacks they used.

  “It’s a pink one!” Brad shouted. “Vyra, you’re up!”

  A gorgeous monster with soft pink skin walked over to us from down the hall with a sensual sway of her hips. She was nearly naked. Her breasts bounced as she walked. The tail sprouting from just above her perfect ass swayed from side to side like an inverted pendulum. Her tail ended in a trident shape that made it look like a weapon. Pouty lips. A small nose. Seductively narrowed crimson eyes. Even from a distance, I could feel something tugging at my libido.

  We men stepped back as Vyra raced forward. Her feet pounded against the stone floor, leaving dents in their wake as she barreled toward the female demon. The woman unleashed a ferocious roar as she threw a punch at the succubus. Her attack missed when the demon leapt backward. She was surprisingly nimble. After avoiding the powerful attack, the creature blew Vyra a kiss.

  While it seemed like she was taunting Vyra at first, I knew that was not the case. A small pink heart flew toward Vyra, who dodged left and allowed it to pass her, then came forward and threw a fist. Her attack hit this time. I could actually hear the smacking of her fist against the succubus’s face. The attack was so powerful it blasted the succubus off her feet and sent her crashing into a wall, which cracked upon impact.

  It didn’t get back up.

  The succubus soon burst into ashes.

  “I’m glad we came up with a strategy to deal with those things,” Elric said as they turned a corner. “I really don’t want to be on the receiving end of those charm powers again.”

  “That was pretty embarrassing, wasn’t it?” I asked with a slight chuckle. “I’ve never seen a person drool over someone in real life like that.”

  Elric shuddered. “Please don’t remind me.”

  Our footsteps echoed down the hall, which ended in a large door. Something about this door seemed… ominous. Perhaps it was the size. Up to this point, most of the doors we had wandered through were small single doors. This one was a double door that spanned the entire width of the hallway, towered over us by a good several feet, and looked like it was made from human bones. I saw skulls and rib cages embedded in the door, surrounded by femurs and other bones, all combined into a horrifying meshwork that made me think this was a gateway that led straight to Hell.

  “It looks like we’ve reached the first checkpoint,” Brad murmured. “Beyond this point is what I’ve taken to calling a sub-boss. Think of sub-bosses as a secondary boss that is less powerful than the main boss but still stronger than the average grunt on this level. If we can defeat this boss, we’ll be able to continue on to the next area. Fortunately, all of us are level 50, which is a pretty damn high level.”

  “What level are the creatures on this floor?” I asked.

  Brad cocked his head to the side. “About level 30 or 40, I’d say. I’m not sure since I don’t have the scan ability. The only reason Ju Chen lost her life to that ogre is because it caught us by surprise. Damage is dealt differently in this world than it is in a video game. No matter how high the level, if you get cut with an ax being swung from an ogre, unless your body is made of metal or something, you’re gonna die.”

  All of us nodded.

  With his explanation finished, Brad walked up to the door and pushed it open, the door groaning like humans screaming in pain. What lay on the other side of this door was a massive room with columns lining the walls. A stairway stood on the other side. However, in front of the stairway was a throne, and sitting on that throne was a woman.

  It was another succubus.

  Dark blue skin covered every inch of her luscious frame. She sat with one leg crossed over the other, supple muscles flexing as she changed from leaning her head on her left hand to leaning it on her right hand. Strange yellow lines like symbols or runes covered her skin, glowing brightly in the room. She stood up, her impressively large breasts jiggling within the confines of her metal top, which looked like clawed hands grasping her tits. That had to be uncomfortable, but the woman paid no attention as if she didn’t notice. She was barefoot, a spaded tail jutted from her lower back, wings extended and retracted, and the horns on her head resembled a heart-shaped crown.

  She was the first succubus we had run into that possessed wings. I wondered if there was some significance in that.

  “I was wondering what the commotion was,” she said, lips curving into a smile. I blinked. This was the first time I’d heard one of these demons talk. Her voice was husky and deep, containing a smoky and seductive quality that I was sure any man would have loved to hear screaming their name in bed. “So you’ve returned, and you brought friends.”

  “You didn’t think I’d stay away.” Brad shrugged and smirked at the woman. “You and your people have come too close to the Rift Plains. I can’t have you invading our world, so you’re gonna have to go.”

  The woman snorted, but her lips curled into an amused and sexy smile. “You can’t delay the inevitable. No matter how many people you bring, no matter how hard you fight, nothing will change… or have you forgotten about what happened the last time you were here?”

  “I haven’t forgotten.” Brad’s eyes hardened. “I learned my lesson last time. This time I brought more capable people.”

  The woman—succubus—narrowed her eyes. “We shall see.”

  She raised a hand and snapped her fingers, and then the walls on either side opened to reveal hidden passages, from which dozens of creatures stormed out. Most of them were imps. However, next to the imps were four massive ogres and two succubi. Both of the succubi were a deep red color. Their eyes glowed with a furious power like fire was hidden behind them, just waiting to burst free. Neither of them had wings, but they both had a tail, one spaded and the other forked.

  With these forces arrayed against us, our own forces stumbled back.

  “This does not look good,” Vyra muttered. She sounded like she was beginning to regret accepting this job. I sort of understood how she felt.

  “You know how in video games, you always fight the bosses with your party and don’t have to worry about random enemies attacking you from behind?” asked Elric.

  “Yeah.” My eyes narrowed as I judged our enemies. There were twenty in total. Minus the two succubi (three if I included the sub-boss) and four ogres, that made for a total of twelve imps. “What about it?”

  “I miss those days,” Elric confided.

  I snorted.

  Then the battle commenced.

  The imps came first, releasing their wretched battle-cries as they charged at us. Brad didn’t bother with them as he raced forward, his death scythe spinning about like the propellers of a helicopter. Several imps were slaughtered when they got too close. His charge took him past the imps, passed the two succubi and four ogres, and straight toward the sub-boss. The woman cackled as she suddenly disappeared from sight and some sort of large monster sprang forth as though summoned from the depths of Hell.

  I had no time to watch him since the imps came at us. I felt the drain on my mana as I created a large fireball in front of me and swung my sword. My sword caught fire, then the fire blasted off my blade in a wide arc that caught five imps. The flaming crescent blade sl
iced through them. Combine with the imps Brad had killed, there were now only nine—make that six. Elric had just destroyed three with his mace.

  The imps were easy enough to slay, but once we had killed them off, the ogres and succubi came next. Massive rumbling shook the room as the ogres stomped forward and attacked us. All four of them were wielding massive axes. They swung them hard, but we moved away to dodge them. However, we soon found ourselves with another problem.

  The succubi.

  Heat washed over me as a fireball slammed into my chest. I screamed as I felt the fire burning me, even through my armor. It hurt. By fucking God, it hurt unlike anything I’d felt before. I was blasted off my feet and struck the ground hard, rolling for several yards. Scrambling to my feet, I barely had time to avoid the swing of another ax as one of the ogres bore down on me.

  I raced between the creature’s legs. As I did, I activated Fire Slash again, felt the drain on my mana, and swung my sword. There was a moment of resistance, but then my sword cleaved through the creature’s left leg in a spray of blood and flames. The monster roared as it went down. I paid it no mind, since it couldn’t do anything with a missing leg, and instead looked toward my companions.

  One other ogre lay dead on the ground, its head severed from its body, but the remaining two were harassing Elric and Vyra. Fortunately, Vyra had a strong fire element and seemed resistant to the succubi’s flames. However, Elric was not doing so well. He had to constantly run across the ground as fireballs flew around him from all sides. He was also forced to dodge the ogres, who attacked with a relentless tenacity.

  I thought about what I needed to do for a moment, and then charged toward one of the succubus.

  She didn’t notice my approach at first, busy as she was toying with Elric. By the time she did notice me, it was too late. Death by Piercing. I thrust my blade into her chest. Her eyes widened as blue blood spilled from the wound around my sword, which went through her chest and out her back. She looked down at the weapon like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. I didn’t care. I pulled my blade free with a jerk and watched as she fell back with a thud. Her body remained there for several seconds before it burst apart. The strange sensation of being filled up with something rushed through me, then disappeared.