Swordsman of the Rift

by Brandon Varnell

  There was indeed a woman trapped inside that crystal, beautiful beyond compare, with succulent breasts that possessed beautiful pink nipples. Her skin was almost pure red, but her long hair was pink. Like all high-level succubus, this one had wings, a tail, and horns. Her horns were jutting from the side of her head and curved around the front to form something that resembled a tiara. Likewise, the end of her tail was shaped like a crown. Her exposed pussy was completely bare. It looked like whoever had trapped her inside wanted her to be in as humiliating a position as possible.

  “You can’t!” Michelle snapped. “If you go over there, you’ll just die! Look!” Michelle pointed at something with her free hand. “Our enemy is right there waiting for us!”

  Adina stopped struggling and brought her gaze down. Michelle was right. In the very center of this room, sitting on a throne made of skulls and bones, was a creature so massive I could tell even from this distance that he was at least taller than a three or four-story house. His skin was a combination of blistering red and black, but it didn’t look like normal skin. It more closely resembled segmented armor made from dragon scales. Like the engraving on the door, this creature had three heads. None of his heads really looked human, but the most humanlike one sat between his shoulders on a normal neck. His shoulders were composed of his other two heads. His left head looked like a bull and his right a ram. With his massively clawed hands resting on the arms of his throne, this creature exuded a foul, potent energy of death and lust, which washed over us.

  “It seems I finally have guests,” Asmodeus said, and his voice was a bass rumble that shook the entire room and caused my bones to vibrate. “How delightful. I have long wondered when all of you would finally arrive. Ever since my connection to Naamah was cut, I knew it was only a matter of time before you came to see me.”

  “Let go of my mom!” Adina shouted, her rage and sorrow mixing in her voice.

  Asmodeus’s deep, throaty chuckle caused the hairs on my arms to prickle. “I absolutely will not. Your mother is the greatest trophy in my possession. The Succubus Queen Lilith. She is a fine trophy to display, is she not?”

  Adina shrieked and tried to race toward Asmodeus, but Michelle and I held her back. We couldn’t afford to make any careless mistakes here.

  “You are the master of this world, right?” Brad asked as he took a step forward. “The one in control?”

  “Hmph. That’s correct, little one. I’m guessing you came here to try and steal this world from me. Most unfortunate. Fools like you will never amount to much. You’re always biting off more than you can chew.”

  At that moment, Asmodeus stood up, and I finally realized that he was far, far bigger than I first thought. He towered over us. I remembered my parents telling me a story once called David and Goliath. It was a Christian story, ironically enough, about a young boy named David who fought against the giant Goliath. David manages to kill Goliath by slinging a rock at him. Sadly, I didn’t think we would have that kind of windfall.

  He took a step forward, his reverse-jointed leg slamming into the ground. I noticed there was a tail behind him. It swept over the ground, creating gale force winds that I could feel even from far away. He reached out a single arm, clad in strange red armor, and wrapped his fingers around the hilt of a massive sword that was leaning against the throne.

  The sword was more vicious than anything I had ever seen. It didn’t even look like a real functioning sword. The blade was made of what appeared to be the remains of demonic creatures. I could see tentacles, arms, and even eyes located within the blade. The jagged edges gave it a terrifyingly demonic feel, while the crossguard curved out from between the hilt and blade, creating a pair of nasty-looking pincers.

  Of course, what really made this weapon seem so terrifying was definitely the eye in the center of the guard. A single demonic red eye with a black slit running down the middle looked around, eying us as though it was alive. Strange fires danced within it. If I looked closely enough, I could see tormented faces howling inside of the eye as if they were trapped souls damned to an eternity of suffering.

  The atmosphere around us grew overbearingly tense as strange energy undulations wafted off Asmodeus’s body. This power caused my knees to buckle. The others didn’t look much better off. Brad was sweating, Christine’s face was pale, Elric looked like he was about to vomit, and Vyra’s entire body had grown tense. Adina and Michelle, my two lovers, wore grave expressions as the blood drained from their faces.

  “It has been so long since I’ve had a good fight,” Asmodeus admitted as he swung his blade, creating a powerful gust of wind that nearly knocked us off our feet. He peeled his lips back into a feral grin, revealing sharp and saw-like teeth. “I hope you do not disappoint me.”

  Chapter 12

  The battle began when Asmodeus swung the massive sword in his hand, though I think it was more like a disgusting slab of body parts melded together…

  “Everyone scatter!” Brad shouted before putting words into action.

  All of us bolted away. Adina, Michelle, and Vyra flapped their wings and soared out of the strike zone, while those of us unfortunate enough to not have wings were forced to travel on foot.

  I ran like hell as the sword came down, the air shrieking as it was cut. It happened in an instant. The sword slammed into the ground, and an incredible shockwave spread out from the point of impact. Myself, Brad, Christine, and Elric were struck hard by the explosive force, which rolled across the area like a powerful rippling shockwave. Pain seared into my side as my feet were lifted off the ground, and I was tossed through the air.

  “Bryan!”

  Two voices shouted before two pairs of arms grabbed onto me. I felt a moment of weightlessness before a powerful jerk set my shoulders ablaze. Looking up, I found Adina and Michelle flying away with me.

  “You two…”

  “Are you okay?” asked Adina.

  “I’m fine, but…”

  I looked back down at the ground, at where Asmodeus’s sword even now lay embedded into the floor. As the demon pulled his sword away, I saw how it had left a massive trench in the ground. Cracks spread from this trench. They weren’t tiny either, but large chasms that looked like you could fall down them and never reach the bottom.

  “I had no idea Asmodeus would be this powerful,” Michelle mumbled.

  “No kidding,” Adina added. “That was some swing.”

  “Yeah, well, you two had better get ready because he’s coming back for his second swing,” I warned them.

  Asmodeus turned around to face us, his eyes glowing with malevolence, lips twisted into a sneer as he brought up his sword and swung it again. The power behind his swing was such that we felt the air pressure before his attack even reached us.

  Adina and Michelle were quick to fly into a series aerial maneuvers. They dropped swiftly, losing altitude so the sword could pass over our heads, but even though it didn’t hit us, the power behind that swing sent us spiraling out of control. The two girls screamed as we were forced into a sickening tailspin that caused the world around me to blur. I felt their hands let go of me and fell to the ground.

  I think I was fortunate we were already so close to the ground. I landed on my ass, but it wasn’t a far drop, and I quickly scrambled to my feet. Looking around for a moment, I found Adina and Michelle. The archangel was nearest to me, a little off to my left, rubbing her backside as she stood up. Adina was on my right. She was still on the ground and rubbing her head.

  “You two okay?” I asked as I reached my hand out to Adina.

  “I am fine,” Michelle said.

  “Me too,” Adina assured me as she grabbed my hand.

  “Good.” I pulled the succubus to her feet as Michelle joined us. Then I looked at Asmodeus. “Now what are we going to do about that?”

  Asmodeus was currently locked in combat against Brad, Christine, Elric, and Vyra, though it looked more like a couple of gnats buzzing around an annoyed human. Vyra was attacking
from the sky, unleashing her powerful dragon’s breath to no effect. Down below, Brad and Elric tried to take out Asmodeus’s legs with their death and holy powers respectively. Christine was further back. It looked like she was using her powers to boost everyone’s physical abilities.

  As we watched, Asmodeus impaled his sword into the ground. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but then black flames erupted from around the sword, causing the stone floor to rupture. I could feel the heat even from here. I couldn’t imagine how hot it was when you were right next to it.

  Brad, Christine, and Elric were forced to move fast to avoid being incinerated. The flames continued to spread out. They did eventually stop, however, showing that there was a limit to the area of effect. Meanwhile, Vyra was swatted out of the sky when Asmodeus whacked her with a powerful backhand.

  “Adina!”

  “On it!”

  As Vyra soared through the air like a rocket, Adina blasted off the ground and intercepted the woman before she could strike the hard wall. Both Vyra and Adina sailed through the air. However, Adina was physically the strongest out of all of us, and she stopped mere feet from striking the wall. I sighed in relief as Adina quickly floated back to the ground.

  “Michelle! Let’s go and distract Asmodeus! Maybe if we fight him, we’ll discover his weakness!”

  “I’m really not hopeful of that, but I suppose it is better than nothing.”

  Michelle took to the sky while I ran along on the ground. The chasm from Asmodeus’s sword was before me, but I used the strength granted by my level 69 stats to leap clear over it. I landed on the ground and continued running.

  Asmodeus was right in front of me, but Michelle had begun her attack, so he was a little busy. Bolts of golden lightning shot from her palms and slammed into the demon. I was surprised to see her attacks actually did damage, but I guess holy attacks were strong against demons like him. Even though Asmodeus had a weakness to holy damage, though the attacks still only caused small black scorch marks to appear on his skin.

  “Ha ha ha! What is the matter, archangel?! Is that all you have?! Oh, how the mighty have fallen!”

  From the grave scowl on Michelle’s face, I could tell Asmodeus had hit a sore spot. She still wasn’t at the level she had been before she was kicked out of Heaven.

  Rather than make her feel weak, Asmodeus’s words served to fuel her, and Michelle darted in close to his face, so close he couldn’t attack her without the risk of hurting himself. I saw a flash of light. Then Asmodeus screamed in agony and rage as he stumbled backward. His free hand went up to his eye. I couldn’t see what kind of damage was done, but I could at least assume his eye was a major weak point for him.

  Unfortunately, this attack didn’t just hurt him. It also enraged him. Asmodeus swung his sword at Michelle, who was able to dodge, but she couldn’t avoid the air pressure from the swing. Astonishingly powerful gale winds slammed into Michelle, who spiraled and would have crashed to the ground had I not leapt up and caught her in my arms. I grimaced as her weight sent us both down. Landing on the stone floor, I bent my knees and skidded for several feet before stopping.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Michelle said, opening the eyes she had inadvertently closed. “I am all—look out!”

  I looked up just in time to see a shadow closing in. It was Asmodeus’s sword. The demon had recovered!

  Shit!

  I ran fast, putting on his much speed as I could, but it wasn’t enough. The sword slammed into the ground, and the shockwave sent Michelle and I sailing. I yelped as my shoulder was ripped from its socket when I struck the hard ground. Rolling across the stone, I only stopped when my back slammed into something hard. Groaning, I climbed to my feet and tried to pretend my back didn’t feel like it was broken as I looked around.

  It didn’t take long to find Michelle. She was lying several yards from me. However, Asmodeus had also seen her. His enraged crimson eyes locked onto the archangel, and a vicious snarl split his face as he raised his sword and brought it down. I tried to move, but even as I scrambled over to Michelle, I knew I wouldn’t make it in time.

  Just as I was about to scream, Adina darted over to Michelle, picked her up, and took to the skies. The sword crashed against the floor seconds later. Stone was upheaved and flew through the air in chunks as another shockwave ripped across the ground. I stopped running and covered my face, grunting as several large stone projectiles slammed into my arms, legs, and torso. I was lucky I had armor on. I was pretty sure those makeshift projectiles would have pierced right through me if I wasn’t.

  “You little gnats are beginning to annoy me! You’re like a bunch of flies and ants moving about!” Asmodeus roared as he tried to track Adina. However, Vyra appeared in front of his face and unleashed several fireballs that detonated against his eyes. The man roared in anger as Vyra darted away.

  Adina landed next to me and set Michelle on her feet. The woman still looked woozy, so I stabilized her with a hand to her back. While she was recovering, Christine raced over to us.

  “Are you three okay?”

  “I think so,” I answered her.

  “Good.” Christine breathed a sigh of relief before her eyes hardened. “Listen, I’m sure you’ve realized it, but Asmodeus is way out of our league right now.”

  “Trust me, I’ve realized it,” I said.

  “It’s kinda hard not to,” Adina added.

  “Right.” Christine nodded. “However, we can’t leave either. Brad and Elric have already tried opening the door out of here, so it looks like our only way to survive this is to defeat Asmodeus.”

  As we spoke, Brad and Elric were darting around Asmodeus’s legs, attacking him in tandem. Their attacks didn’t seem to do much. That hard armored skin of his was nigh impenetrable. Even Elric’s holy attacks didn’t do much damage. His level simply wasn’t high enough to crack that armor…

  Armor?

  “Do you know if there’s a way to attack him through that armor?” I asked.

  “Maybe.” Christine looked over at Asmodeus as he tried to crush Brad and Elric beneath his feet. Vyra, however, kept that from happening by shooting more fireballs at his face. While they didn’t do any damage, they did distract and blind him. “I don’t really think we can attack through his armor, but if you look closely, his armor has several areas around the joints that are vulnerable.”

  I looked harder and noticed that she was right. The area around his knees, elbows, wrists, armpits, shoulders, and neck were all lacking in armor, which meant they were the most vulnerable spots we could attack. However…

  “Even if we attack his flesh, Asmodeus is still strong enough to shrug off all but the most powerful attacks,” Michelle said. “I have already hit him with my second strongest attack, and it did very little damage despite being one of the weakest points of his body.”

  “What about your strongest attack?” asked Adina.

  Michelle shrugged. “It is possible my attack will hurt him, but I highly doubt it will be strong enough to finish him off—and that is what we need, an attack that will finish this demon in a single blow.”

  I wondered if any of us had that, but I didn’t think we did. My strongest attack right now was Triple Thrust. It had a +610 attack power and dealt critical damage. Even so, it wasn’t a very strong attack compared to Michelle’s Holy Lightning, which had already proven only partially effective against this demon.

  “What if we all attacked the same spot?” asked Adina, scratching her head. “Maybe a concentrated barrage to the same area over and over will be enough to take him out?”

  Christine, Michelle, and I stared at the woman as she gave us what might have been the most brilliant idea ever.

  “Adina, you are either the most brilliant genius in the entire Rift Plains or an incredibly lucky idiot,” Michelle said.

  Adina narrowed her eyes. “I might not be the sharpest succubus in this lair, but I at least know when I’m being insulted.”

&n
bsp; “I’m glad you can recognize a backhanded compliment when you hear one.”

  “So mean.”

  As Adina and Michelle traded their by now typical banter, I turned to Christine, who was watching the pair like she didn’t know what to make of them. I understood her. Here we were, in the middle of a battle against a powerful demon boss, and they were bantering. However, there were far more important matters to think about.

  “Christine, can you boost our attack power?” I asked.

  “Of course,” Christine said, turning away from the sight of Adina and Michelle quarreling.

  “Then do it,” I ordered. “Boost our attack power as much as you can, as many times as you can.”

  “That’s going to leave me exhausted…” Christine grimaced. “But I’ll do it. What’s a little exhaustion compared to making it out of this alive.”

  Christine began glowing a bright orange before she sent her powers into the three of us. I immediately felt my muscles being strengthened. It was hard to describe such a feeling, but if I had to, I’d say it was like when you had to take enhancement steroids after suffering from a severe injury during a mission. It gave me a temporary boost of strength, which could allow even grievously injured soldiers to keep going.

  The moment she finished boosting us, Christine dropped to her hands and knees, breathing heavily through her mouth. Her shoulders heaved. Sweat poured from her body. Her face was now pale as though the blood had drained from it. I guess boosting us like this really did require a lot of power.

  I would have to thank her later.

  “All right.” I unsheathed my sword. “Let’s do this.”

  “I’ll go first!” Adina volunteered as she blasted off the ground.

  “Silly girl! Wait for us!” Michelle shouted as she also flapped her wings and soared through the skies.

  I groaned as I was once again left behind, but I didn’t complain as I put on an incredible burst of speed. With Christine’s buffing spell racing through me, I was able to catch up with Adina and Michelle, who soared through the sky. We were practically neck and neck as I ran along the ground and they the air, though maybe I was a little behind them. Whatever. I could work with this. I’d still make sure I was the first one to attack.