Swordsman of the Rift

by Brandon Varnell

  I gave her a nod to show I understood. On my other side, Michelle was thinking hard about something as we continued walking. I would have asked, but I figured she’d tell us whatever she was thinking about in due time.

  Just as Michelle had said, she played the bait this time. We set up our ambush point, Michelle left, and then came back several minutes later with about twenty imps. There were no trolls, sadly, which earned more Life Essence points, but we still managed to raise our experience at least a little.

  Adina played the bait next. She actually did a pretty good job. About three dozen imps, one troll, and a succubus chased after her. The battle was a lot more hard fought than before. I ended up engaged in combat with the succubus, who tried to use her allure on me. It felt a lot like my mind was wading through mud. Focusing on anything other than the woman’s perky tits, bare pussy lips, and perfectly round ass was incredibly difficult.

  From the smile on her face, she knew what she was doing to me.

  “I really hope you don’t think flashing your tits is enough to make me hard,” I said to taunt the woman, who narrowed her eyes and hissed at me. “It’s bitches like you that give succubi a bad name.”

  “Blasted mortal!” the woman finally broke her silence and spoke. “Do not think I will let this insult go unpunished!”

  “Come and punish me if you think you’re capable of it,” I said with a shrug. I tried to hide my smile after angering her, but I was sure I hadn’t succeeded.

  The woman hissed some more as she attacked with hers claws and tail. I avoided her left swipe, used my sword to block a swipe from her right hand, and grunted as her strength pushed against me and caused sparks to fly. At least her allure was gone. It seemed succubi really didn’t have any true magical abilities until they reached level 50. Now that I was thinking about it, even Maliperum didn’t have any magic. The most they seemed to possess was this odd allure that made it easy to get distracted, but I had been living with Adina for quite some time now, so they didn’t affect me very much.

  One thing succubi did have, however, was incredible physical strength.

  I grimaced as she slammed her nails into my sword. My arm was knocked wide, which opened me up to her attack. She tried to stab me through the chest with her right hand, but I leapt back to avoid it, then came back in with a thrust. Death by Piercing. As I felt the mana drain from my body, my sword seemed to glow as I stabbed at her.

  She avoided my attack.

  These succubi were an awfully limber race, able to contort their bodies in ways I’d never seen a human do before. She bent her torso at an angle that seemed to defy gravity. Consequently, this also caused her tits to move away from each other as if they were also being dragged down by gravity. My blade went right past her, not even grazing her body. In fact, my sword literally slid right through the valley of her breasts without drawing blood. She knocked my sword aside and came back up to attack me again, but I blocked her blow, even though it sent me skidding across the ground.

  Since she could avoid attacks meant for an individual, I decided to use an attack meant for multiple opponents—Whirlwind Slash—which she also evaded. However, I noticed that my attack grazed her side. It drew blood, causing her to hiss and retreat as he held a hand to her torso. Her crimson eyes narrowed at me, but I grinned before launching a Fireball.

  The cooldown time for Death by Piercing was over. As the succubus dodged my Fireball, I rushed in and used the attack again. Because she was too busy dodging the fireball, she was not able to dodge me again, and my sword sank into her chest. She looked down at the hilt of my sword, which I soon yanked out of her. The succubus fell to the ground with a thud. Her body didn’t so much as twitch as she looked up at the ceiling, her eyes glazed over in death.

  About thirty seconds after she died, her body burst into dust.

  I learned from Adina and Michelle that demons turned into dust when they ran out of Life Essence. The person who killed them absorbed their Life Essence when they died, and then they disappeared. Adina had another talent called Essence Drain, which is how she absorbed Maliperum’s Life Essence even though I killed her, but that was a rare skill specific to her. She called it a genetic skill. In either event, learning about this made me wonder what would happen if someone died without having their Life Essence absorbed. Would they remain here as a corpse and just rot?

  Shaking my head, I checked my stats and saw that I had gained a level along with two more Skill Points and twenty more Status Points. I noticed after reaching level 55 that I gained two skill points instead of one. I wondered what that meant, but I honestly didn’t have a clue, so I tried to put it out of my mind.

  I saved the Skill Points and only allocated my Status Points.

  Name: Bryan Jenson

  Class: Magic Swordsman

  Level: 58

  Magic: Red/fire

  Attack: 140

  Agility: 140

  Defense: 140

  Magic Defense: 120

  Mana: 110

  Total Status Points available: 0

  Special Skills:

  Whirlwind Slash: Attack +5

  Death by Piercing: Attack +5

  Fire Slash: Attack +5

  Fireball: Attack +5

  Total Skill Points available: 14

  After that, I checked my level stats and saw that I was at 25/2,000 before I reached my next level… which meant it would probably take a long time before I reached level 60. Whenever I reached a new level, it took more Life Essence before I could reach the next one. Back when I was level 50, it only took me 1,000 Life Essence to reach the next level.

  We did draw in and ambush several more demon hordes. I didn’t gain a level during that time, though I was now at 1,325/2,000 because I had fought several trolls and another succubus, which earned me more Life Essence points.

  We eventually went back to Adina’s hideout, which hadn’t changed much… except for the new bed. Adina had thought it was a shame that Maliperum had such a nice bed and wasn’t even going to use it anymore, so we’d pooled our strength together and moved the bed here. It had been a pain in the ass. However, we now had a better place to sleep than before.

  A strange perfume pervaded the room now as well. It came from a series of incense that were burning along the room. The scent was soothing, a combination of lilac and lavender… I think. It was a very floral scent. These were also from Maliperum’s room. There was nothing special about them. They were just incense.

  “We should get some sleep,” Michelle suggested. “We’ll have to keep doing this tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, and I’m tired.” Adina grabbed me by the hand and smiled as she dragged me toward the bed. “Come on, hug pillow. We’re going to bed.”

  “At least let me remove my armor first,” I muttered before undoing the catches for my chestplate, pauldron, gauntlets, and greaves. I also slipped out of my boots. Adina waited impatiently for me to finish, arms crossed as she tapped her foot against the ground. I wondered when she had removed her boots once I saw them sitting by the bed.

  I didn’t resist Adina’s pull as she drew me onto the bed and pushed me down. I really had nothing to complain about, especially when Adina laid down at my side and nestled her body against mine. The feeling of her succulent breasts pushing into me, so soft and elastic I was reminded of two pillows, was like being trapped between heaven and hell. Since they were only covered by thin strips that kept her nipples from showing, I could feel practically all of her. Those feelings were only amplified when she hooked a leg around mine.

  Michelle looked at us with a small scowl; it was easy to see she didn’t approve of our intimacy, but I wasn’t going to let that bother me. It wasn’t like Adina and I had sex. Cuddling was about as far as we’d gone.

  Of course, it could have been that Michelle was jealous. She had glanced my way on any number of occasions. However, I didn’t know if I should bring that up or not. We were in a life threatening situation, where each new day could be our l
ast, and I had no desire to add any kind of relationship drama to the party. At this junction, we needed to trust each other to watch our backs. That wouldn’t happen if we were arguing over what our relationship was.

  The archangel laid down on the bed next to us, but she turned around so she wasn’t facing us. I sighed. It really was difficult knowing what I should do and say right now. However, I did my best to put that out of my mind for the moment and closed my eyes. Hopefully, I wouldn’t have any dreams tonight.

  I dreamed of fire, bullets, and blood.

  I was surrounded by flames. They licked at my kevlar vest and pants as I ran through the war torn battlefield. Bodies lay strewn around me.

  I wasn’t alone. Comrades raced by my side, but they died one by one. Some received a bullet to the head. Others went up in flames when they stepped on a landmine. Even more went down under a hail of bullet fire, their kevlar vests unable to withstand the intense heat. Soon, it was just me and my best friend.

  Yet soon, even my best friend went down, stepping in front of me when the enemy unleashed a hailstorm of bullets. I fell to the ground and looked up. Blood splattered against my face as his body shook back and forth. It felt like I could almost see the bullet wounds as they exited his body. My eyes widened and my heart grew cold and fearful as the bullet fire ceased and my friend’s lifeless corpse fell to the side.

  “No! No no no no NO!”

  I screamed as I ran over to my friend’s side and tried to rouse him. It didn’t matter. As I turned his body over, rolling him onto his back, I found lifeless eyes gazing up at me.

  “CHRIS!”

  The scream erupted from my throat as I sat up, my breathing heavy, my eyes wide, and my body shaking. The scent of blood still filled my nose. It was almost enough to make me wretch. It took me a moment to realize I wasn’t on the battlefield.

  My scream woke the other two. Michelle leapt out of the bed, a sword of light appearing in her hand as she shifted into a battle stance. Meanwhile, Adina shrieked in shock, tried to stand up, became tangled in the bedsheets, and fell back onto the bed. She squirmed around for a moment, but realized she was getting more tangled the longer she struggled.

  “Bryan?” Michelle realized there was no enemy, released the light sword, and looked at me with a concerned frown as she sat back down. “What is wrong? Why are you screaming?”

  “N-nothing.” I tried to smile, but I don’t think it reached my eyes. “Just a bad dream.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?” asked Adina as she carefully untangled herself from the bedsheets.

  “I…”

  I was about to tell them not to worry, that it wasn’t something they needed to think about, but I paused. In all the years since it happened, I had never once told anyone about what I had experienced. I never talked about what happened to me, what it felt like, or anything really. I’d bottled up my feelings and let them fester.

  But it wasn’t like I didn’t want people to know. There had been times where I thought it would be nice to tell someone, but I never did because I was afraid they wouldn’t understand. Maybe… maybe it was time I actually said something.

  “I… used to be a soldier in my world’s army—I was a member of the Special Forces for the United States Marines,” I said. “This was a few years back. At the time, my best friend and I had joined because we had a member of the Marines give a speech at our school. We got into the Marines soon after graduating, went through training, and joined their Special Forces. We went on numerous missions for them, but…” I trailed off for a moment, shook my head, and smiled self-deprecatingly as I continued. “I don’t think we had any idea about how hard the Special Forces were, of what they did and how dangerous it was.”

  “What happened?” asked Michelle, placing a hand over one of mine.

  I hadn’t realized I was clenching my hands until she did this. My hand slowly relaxed. Adina sidled up to my other side and leaned into me. I know it was probably weird to take comfort from a demon, but hers and Michelle’s presence really helped settle my nerves.

  “Well… to make a long story short, I saw a lot of death, enough that it now haunts my dreams.” I released a soft sigh. “Even my best friend eventually died. It was actually on our last mission. We had been ordered to retrieve some data that had been stolen by a foreign government. We were able to sneak into the facility it was being kept, steal it, and get back to the extraction point, but… I don’t know. It must have had a trace on it because the next thing I knew, we were being ambushed by enemy forces. My friend shielded me from an attack and died. After that, I quit the Marines. I’ve been having nightmares ever since.”

  While I wouldn’t say I felt better letting this all out, I wouldn’t lie and say I felt nothing either. It was a little relieving to get all that off my chest.

  I looked at the two girls. Michelle’s compassionate gaze was enough to soothe the soul of anyone who looked at it, and I was no different. However, it was Adina who surprised me, though I was beginning to realize being a succubus didn’t change who she was on the inside, which was a warm and caring woman.

  “I guess we aren’t the only ones who have been through a lot,” Adina said as she stroked my arm. Her soft hands felt incredible on my skin. It was enough to make me forget her nails could become extremely long and tear through flesh as easily as paper.

  “The human world has always been one filled with death and mayhem. I’ve know this for a long time.” Michelle paused as she squeezed my hand. “But I don’t think I ever realized how it affected humans. I wish there was something I could do to make this all better, to take away your pain, but that’s sadly impossible.”

  “It’s fine.” I smiled at Michelle and Adina. “I think just having people with me is enough. I’ve never shared this with anyone before. It’s… nice.”

  Adina grinned as she leaned forward, until her lips were practically kissing my ear. “You can share anything with me. Just speak up whenever you need to talk.”

  “You can also feel free to share your hardships with me,” Michelle said as she grabbed my arm and pulled me away from Adina. She glared at the succubus, who frowned at her, and then shifted her kind gaze back to me. “I would be more than willing to listen to you whenever you wish to get something off your chest. As your partner and an archangel, it is my duty to share your burdens.”

  “Well… we succubi are great listeners!” Adina grabbed my other arm and yanked me toward her. I was completely certain she just yanked my arm out of its socket.

  “So are archangels!” Michelle added with a yank of her own, and it took everything I had not to groan in pain.

  “If sharing my burdens is going to include having you two fight over me like this, maybe I shouldn’t share anything with either of you,” I shot back.

  Adina and Michelle let go of me at the same time.

  “M-my apologies, Chris,” Michelle said, looking contrite. “I don’t know what came over me.”

  “Me too. I’m sorry,” Adina added with a soft frown. “I just don’t want you two leaving me out of anything.”

  These two had good intentions, and I believed they were good people—well, a good angel and demon—but the way they sometimes bickered like this could be annoying, especially when they were fighting over me in some way, shape, or form. It wasn’t cute at all.

  At some point, I knew I would have to speak with them. I wanted to know what I was to them, but I couldn’t say anything until I knew what they were to me. At the moment, my emotions were all jumbled together, and there was also the fact that I didn’t know how long I would remain here. Even if I confessed now, there was a good chance we’d never see each other again after we killed Naamah. Was there any point in saying something if that was the outcome?

  I sighed.

  Relationships on their own were complicated.

  Relationships inside of another dimension/world/whatever with one angel and one demon were even more complicated.

  Fuck my life. />
  Chapter 8

  While I did have some issues with the relationship between myself and the two beautiful women at my side that did not stop us from continuing our current path. Each day we scouted out good ambush points, and each day one of us would act as the bait and draw several demons into an ambush. Like this, the days passed, and our levels continued to slowly rise.

  I was a little concerned about being discovered by Naamah, but Adina told me not to worry about that.

  “She doesn’t come down this far,” Adina explained. “Because she is at heart just a puppet. She is under the control of the master of this fortress, the powerful ruler Asmodeus. He’s one of the nine rulers of hell. Like us succubi, he is the epitome of lust, but he is so much stronger than we are. Even my mother was wary of him.”

  “I see. So the person who Brad and the others were after was this Asmodeus,” I said with a sigh. “However, if they can’t even defeat Naamah, there is no way they’ll be able to beat Asmodeus.”

  “Probably not,” Adina agreed.

  It was currently another day of grinding to level up, and we’d just finished off another small army of imps. I noticed that we were running out of prey to kill. This also meant our levels weren’t rising as quickly. Imps did not even have much Life Essence to begin with, especially when compared to the much more powerful troll.

  “This isn’t working anymore,” Michelle said with a sigh. “I’m nearly at level 60, but the amount of Life Essence we gain from killing imps just isn’t enough. What’s more, with less and less enemies appearing, I fear there may not be enough in this area of the dungeon to give us that last boost we need.”

  “What is your level?” I asked Adina, who scrunched her nose cutely before answering me.