Heroes of Darkness: A Dark Dungeon Realm LitRPG Omnibus Collection

by Wolfe Locke

  2Face darted under the hind legs of the Huntsman Spider, swinging the broad-sword that he carried. The blade bit into the legs of the Spider. But though the blade met its target, it did not cut deep enough to harm the Spider, causing it to hiss in a fury, becoming thoroughly enraged.

  The wounds on Steele’s body began to heal as the cracks in her form began to seal themselves. From off to the side of the battle Mother stood within a white floating double triangle. His lips moved as he pulled the life directly from the trees and vegetation around them. Their colors rapidly changed from green to brown as he channeled their life force directly into Steele.

  But it was not enough. Though Mother was successful in healing Steele, his spell was not able to restore her vitality or the magic she had used up in the creation and maintenance of the shield that was keeping her alive. In its frenzied, furious state, the Huntsman Spider was able to roughly jerk its head, causing the shield to shatter like glass. Steele, in an exhausted state, was unable to use another ability to impede the Spider's movements.

  With a quick and terrible scream, the Spider’s mandibles bit into the metallic flesh of her neck, decapitating her and silencing the sounds coming from her mouth into a muted gurgle. For Luca and the rest of the party, time seemed to stop for a moment as they all saw Steele fall before reaching her. With one sweep of its unhindered legs, the Spider swatted the body aside, knowing it would have plenty of time to consume her later at its leisure.

  Chapter 21: The Dark Ability

  Steele’s severed head dropped out of the Huntsman Spider’s mouth. An expression of terrified surprise twisted on her partially destroyed face. What am I supposed to do against that monster if it killed her so easily? thought Luca as his courage wavered, demoralized as he looked at the twisted grimace on the dead woman’s face.

  "Save it for later," screamed 2Face in a desperate warning at Luca, trying to get Luca to back him up. "We can’t let up just because we lost a teammate.” 2Face was frustrated, tired, and trembling after he had expended most of his energy on his previous attack, and it hardly fazed the monster, and despite his best efforts, Steele had still been killed.

  Luca watched as 2Face’s expression hardened into a mask of grim resolution and set off to attack the monster again. Repeating the same series of moves again and again, he weaved through the monster's legs, attacking at the joints, doing whatever he could to damage the spider in small incremental bits.

  "It’s a sub-boss," 2Face yelled at Tatiana from the other side of the field. Luca watched as Tatiana rushed forward to back up 2Face, though she seemed to be injured as her left arm hung uselessly by her side, apparently broken in places and needing to be healed. Her injury didn’t stop her from attacking the spider as the steel shortsword in her hand began to glow as she spoke low words to herself. A white mist trailed out of her mouth and covered the blade as it began to store up a charge of energy she was able to collect from the environment around her.

  With an impossible burst of athleticism, Tatiana jumped forward and upward through the air, easily clearing the wide gap that had been between her and the Huntsman Spider. With an angry snarl, Tatiana stabbed into one of the eyes of the monster. "Die!" she screamed as she unleashed the energy she had stored within the blade as a bolt of chain lightning that burned through the spider’s eye and spread out in a web of blazing white electricity to the rest. Almost instantly, each of the eyes burst outwards in black gore as the ruined retinas began to smoke.

  Seeing his teammates struggling against the spider and fighting it motivated Luca to start moving again, shamed into action after he had seized up seeing Steele die. He had frozen up and was ashamed of it. Luca knew he needed to join in if they were going to survive, and his wings started twitching from the adrenaline rush that was just starting to flood his body.

  As the chemicals moved through his body, Luca stopped needing to hold his ribs. All thoughts about his own pain were banished, and he started to run. For a brief second, his wings started flapping behind him without conscious thought, lifting him off the ground for a second. Even with the specter of the Huntsman Spider looming in front of him, Luca couldn’t help but smile. He couldn't fly yet but knew he would soon be able.

  As he ran, Luca was lucky to see the steel maul he had been given by 2Face, the one he had dropped when Steele had flung him aside with her ability, was lying on its side in the grass. Seeing a means to harm the monster, Luca felt another surge of energy and quickly closed the distance between him and the weapon. Even in his rush, the pain from his broken bones did not reappear.

  Picking up the maul in both of his hands, Luca rushed forward, screaming in what he thought was a warrior yell as he swung the maul in a diagonal motion, aiming for the joint of the spider's front legs where he had seen 2Face shallowly cut it. 2Face and Tatiana both called out to him, "About time you decided to pull your weight." Luca nodded and kept swinging.

  With his massive strength advantage, Luca felt the chitin armor of the Huntsman Spider give way as it broke beneath the damage inflicted by his blows. After Luca destroyed the second leg, the spider began to buckle, and his teammates began to cheer him on, urging him to keep going. As the Huntsman Spider began to fall, tiny dog-sized spiders began to pour out of a hole that opened in its underside.

  There were too many of the spiders, and all three of them had to retreat from fear of being overwhelmed. The worry ended up being minor, though, as the spiders seemed to be unable to move far away from the shadow of the Huntsman’s influence; some of them disappearing in a puff of smoke as they got too far away. The monster roared furiously, unable to pursue them on its broken legs. But that did not mean they were safe. Far too late did Luca see the dark-brown appendage striking out at him.

  A horrible pain erupted through his back as Luca was jolted forward with whiplash. Looking down, Luca saw that one of the spider’s legs was protruding through his chest. Is this how it ends for me? Luca thought as the Huntsman Spider lifted him up and threw him across the field in the same direction it had thrown Steele’s body, thinking it had another meal stored for later.

  A strange calmness fell over Luca as he landed near Steele, lingering between life and death as he slowly started to bleed to death, most of his bones broken by the impact, causing many of his organs to burst. As the blood pooled underneath him, the last thing Luca thought he was going to see was a lingering shadow over Steele’s headless body.

  In subconscious desperation, Luca reached out with a mangled arm towards that shadow, willing it towards him, and the closer it came, the faster it approached. However, Luca wasn’t afraid, even as the shadow seemed to want to resist coming closer. Time seemed to stop as the shadow approached, and Luca vaguely thought he saw Steele’s panicked face reflected in that shadow. No, it can’t be. You’re dead. I’m sorry. Luca reached out, seeing her in her panic and wanting to confront her shade before he passed.

  As his hands passed through the shadow, it seemed to attach to the shade. Steele’s lifeless lips turned in a scream of unheard terror as Luca’s hand turned, grasping the shadow and pulling it close. Luca was unsure of what was going on, instinct seemingly taking over his actions. Without knowing or thinking, he shoved the shadow into his mouth and consumed it.

  Notification: Soul Consumption – Steele

  Details: You have successfully consumed the soul of the lingering dead woman named Steele. In doing so, you have gained a portion of the power she held in life. In the process of her soul being consumed, the person known as Steele has been completely destroyed. The resurrection of this individual is completely impossible.

  This power is quantified as X7 points to Strength, X2 points to Agility, X0 points to Intelligence, X0 points to Luck, X4 points to Endurance, X1 points to Wisdom and X1 points to Perception.

  No experience is gained.

  You have gained $7150 Sol

  Notification: Passive Ability Gained – Body of Steel

  Details: You have gained the passive ability, B
ody of Steel. The ability may be upgraded through combat and through other methods to force the ability to evolve. This ability coats the skin in a permanent layer of armor that prevents most basic attacks from having any harm on the possessor.

  Name: Luca Fernandez

  Race: Nephilim

  Aliases: None

  Class: Angel of Death

  Passives Abilities

  Soul Persistence

  Additional Stats on Player Kill

  Abilities

  Summon Nightmare 1-1000

  Level:3 of 999

  Unassigned Stat Points: 4

  Current Experience: 2-35

  STR: 10>17 INT: 10 AGI: 10>12

  WIS: 10 LCK:10>14 PHY: 2*

  END: 10>11 PER:10>11

  SOL: $00000>7150

  After he had unintentionally consumed Steele’s soul, Luca felt a brief hint of guilt that lasted all of the time it took for his body to start healing from the massive damage he had taken. The sense of calm he had possessed was replaced by a wave of red-hot anger and desire for vengeance against the monster that had almost taken his life, and a fit of anger at himself for almost letting himself be killed.

  He had never been powerless, and he had certainly never needed to get close enough to the Huntsman Spider for him to suffer a catastrophic injury. Luca admonished himself for trying too hard for the approval of these teammates of his, when he should have been far more focused on staying alive. It’s not like his survival had been a concern of theirs. Otherwise, they would have taken the time to train him up on their team before heading out.

  Things are going to change from now on, Luca promised himself as he coughed up blood on to the grass. At least they would once he woke up as he teetered on the edge of unconsciousness, his body needing to use the energy he had absorbed from Steele in order to heal.

  Before Luca collapsed on the ground, he thrust his palm into the bloodsoaked earth and used the ability he had always had at his disposal. He barely spoke the words out loud before passing out. "Summon Nightmare."

  Chapter 22: Soul Eater

  Blood still dripped out of Luca’s wounds, and even more of it pooled beneath his unconscious body, dyeing the green grass red. Bits of red droplets stained his wings a dark crimson where Luca had landed on them. Bits of blood fell freely to the ground off the end of his feathers and off the ends of his fingertips. In any other turn of events, Luca would have been long dead.

  At the behest of the words he had uttered before passing out and being rent unconscious by blood loss, an arcane circle appeared beneath him. The circle opened up into a dark void sprawling across the grounds as Luca lay suspended in the middle of it. A portal connecting this reality to another, a darker nether dimension, and from that dimension, something was to come forth.

  A symbol appeared within the portal to that nether world, the symbol of the school of conjuration flashing in purple light and forming an inscribed pentagon with the blood that had pooled, his blood and Steele’s. Smoke began to rise from the dark world on the other side of the portal as Luca’s mana was fed into the spell, his very lifeforce calling to the Nightmare that was bound to him.

  A cloud of noxious smoke bubbled up from the circle, tainting all the untouched grass around Luca’s body as more of his life’s blood fell freely into the portal, further powering the ability and also taxing his unconscious body. Though Luca was no longer at risk for death, simply a prolonged period of rest as he healed, even as the spell pulled energy from his body.

  An oppressive dense aura of malevolent darkness descended on the entire area, calling 2Face’s and Tatiana’s attention to it and even drawing that of the Huntsman Spider. Whatever malignant being was coming, they all knew to fear it, and though it was a terrible fear, 2Face and Tatiana both ran towards the source, wanting and needing to know what was happening.

  When they saw the source of the creeping aura of malice was coming from Luca’s body, they both shuddered, afraid of what was coming next. Whether they had admitted it or not, the kid had freaked them out. Neither had ever wanted him on the team, not really. It was only at Dominic’s urging that Tatiana had even initially propositioned the kid to join their team when he had arrived.

  From within the circle, a slender, though well-muscled arm reached out with long clawed fingers and grabbed the edges of the portal and began pulling itself up out of the nether realm from which it had come. The Nightmare revealed itself, showing a heavily marred body of matted purple and red scar tissue, barely covered in places by the shredded black leather armor it wore from head to toe. Rusted iron chains were bound around its wrists and its torso.

  The Nightmare’s head was not readily apparent underneath its armor, but as it lifted its body out of the pit it had emerged from, Tatiana and 2Face could see it wore a triangle-shaped hat, and beneath the hat, the Nightmare’s features were entirely obscured by an unnatural darkness, all that could be seen were two yellow orbs where its eyes were.

  The thing that Luca had summoned grasped at the other side of the summoning pit within the arcane circle with its off-hand. With an otherworldly effort, it hefted itself up, launching itself out of the pit. It landed perfectly upright on two spindly, unsteady-looking legs. Where the Nightmare had landed, the grass began to rapidly turn to grey ash, and the earth beneath it blackened with blight. A trail of rot spread out from the Nightmare as the disease it spawned promptly killed the nearby vegetation.

  2Face recognized the monster for what it was, seeing that Luca was still alive by noticing the heaving of his chest as he continued to draw breath. Just as 2Face recognized that Luca had summoned the monster, Tatiana also recognized it was a danger to them. "We need to get back away from that thing right now. Whatever you do, don’t let that blight touch you."

  Even as she yelled it out, 2Face was taken back in surprise by the suddenness of her outburst and quickly obeyed, pulling back from the battlefield as he looked in suspicion at both the Nightmare and the Huntsman Spider who was now eyeing the newest participant on the field with thinly veiled fear.

  The Huntsman Spider was not like the group of humans that had milled around trying to harm it before running away. It had sensed the sensation of danger long before it had recognized where the sensation of danger was coming from, and unlike the humans, the Huntsman Spider turned as best it could on its damaged legs to meet this new threat head-on. It planned on killing it and consuming it later, just like it had done with the other two humans.

  The Nightmare grinned, showing a row of razor-sharp triangle-shaped teeth as it saw the spider its master had summoned it to kill.

  Splitting its attention between both the Huntsman Spider, the running humans, and a third party that waited and watched in the distance, the Nightmare announced itself. "I am Ars Goethe, a Nightmare Duke of the Nether Realm. Bound on this day to serve the Black Seraph forevermore. On behalf of my master, I will take your lives as a gift on this glorious day of his dark ascension."

  The Nightmare stood upright like a man. As it moved, its limbs and bones cracked and popped. Though if it held any weakness, it did not show otherwise. The Huntsman Spider glared and hissed as the Nightmare approached it, knowing the fear of the many prey it had killed and consumed over the millennia.

  As the Nightmare came closer, the Huntsman Spider opened up a fleshly compartment in its under belly and let loose every spider it held within, seeking to completely overwhelm this new threat with numbers. But when the swarm of arachnids approached, it was to no avail. As soon as spiders got close to the Nightmare, their legs began to turn rapidly decay and turn to dust. In a matter of seconds, every spider that had been used to attack the Nightmare was reduced in ash.

  As the humans watched from a distance, all they could do was stare in fear. Wondering what evil the newest member of their team had awoken and unleashed. The sheer aura of dark power in the air was stifling, making it difficult to breathe and starting to cloud their reason. Every single set of eyes was transfixed on the impossible sce
ne before them, the Nightmare from another world, and the giant spider it was going to kill.

  Tatiana let out an audible gasp of fear as they all watched the Nightmare thrust its hands into the blighted earth, causing the blight to rapidly expand its area of influence to include where the Huntsman Spider was. Though the monster was unaffected by the newly expanded blight, it seemed the intention wasn’t to try and use the decaying ability. Skeletal arms emerged all around the gigantic spider, spawning out of the blackened and blighted earth as the Nightmare that summoned them looked on in glee.

  White ivory fingers of bone embedded themselves into the chitin carapace of the arachnid, tearing off the outer layer of armor and further tearing into the soft flesh underneath. The Huntsman Spider screamed an ungodly shriek of pain as those skeletal hands dug into its body and seized hold, systematically beginning to butcher the monster. Though the spider tried to shake the skeletal hands loose, fighting for its life to free itself from their clutches, it was to no avail. The monster’s doom was sealed.

  Without a sound, the Nightmare pulled its hands out of the blighted dirt. The arms of the Nightmare were seemingly more shadow than flesh as everyone struggled to watch and keep up with its rapid movements. It reached down a dark hand and grabbed at the pale flesh of its own leg and began to pull, tearing at the skin until both the flesh and bone ripped off. The Nightmare smiled as it lapped at the leaking marrow of the jaded bone it now held in its hand.

  What remained was completely otherworldly. An oily darkness began to materialize in the shape of the leg the Nightmare had lost, a shadow leg upon which the Nightmare easily walked upon as it approached the entrapped and terrified arachnid. In its hands, it wielded the severed leg like an executioner blade. As the Nightmare moved, it began to shuck the pale flesh from the bone, using its clawed hands to sharpen the edge of the bone in even, powerful strokes. The sound and sight of which put the fear of death and the knowledge of true fear into all who heard it.