Hell to Pay (Ascend Online Book 2)

by Luke Chmilenko

  “Flank it from the rear!” Sawyer shouted as he danced backwards from the Devourer, forcing the creature to choose between chasing him or exposing its guard and turning to face me. “It doesn’t look like it can turn fast! Try to keep it off balance!”

  “Right!” I called back as I began sidestepping to flank the fat devil, feeling somewhat surprised that I could hear and understand Sawyer, despite the sigil being active and its energy coursing through my body.

  It feels different this time, I mused to myself as I sliced through a roll of exposed fat on the Devourer’s side, causing a black ichor to pour forth. The energy feels…cold, and I can actually think!

  I didn’t have time to continue pondering over the different energy I felt coming from the sigil as the Devourer howled in pain from my blow and swung his axe in a wild cleave in my direction faster than I’d thought his bulk would allow. Throwing my sword upwards in a desperate parry, I felt the hilt rattle in my hands once more as I deflected the blackened axe away from my body and upwards into the air.

  Arriving seconds after the parry, Quinn joined the fight with a cluster of azure-colored missiles slamming into the side of the devil’s face, his wand’s crimson beam of light following a heartbeat behind. The twin waves of magic split flesh everywhere they touched, leaving savage burns and weeping wounds all across the Devourer’s face.

  “Watch the crossfire!” Quinn shouted over the growing cacophony of battle as the roars and cries of the other devils grew in intensity around us.

  “Heads up!” Molly added immediately after Quinn’s warning as an inky orb of darkness sailed through the air and splashed across the Devourer’s face. “I’m moving in to flank too!”

  Recognizing the black orb as it temporarily rendered the Devourer blind and deaf, I wasted no time in taking advantage of the gap in its defense, thrusting my sword deep into the devil’s side, sawing the blade viciously as I ran to get in position behind the creature. Flashing in the corner of my eye, I saw a combat notification blink once as it notified me of a critical hit.

  You critically [Sneak Attack II] a [Hellborn Devourer] in a vulnerable location for 267 points of damage!

  Tearing my blade free, a torrent of black blood gushed from the wound as the Devourer bellowed in pain, several other messages appearing in my vision behind the previous alert.

  Your [Bleeding Attack I] hits a [Hellborn Devourer] for 22 points of damage!

  Your [Bleeding Attack I] hits a [Hellborn Devourer] for 22 points of damage!

  Yes! Finally that ability comes into use! I felt a feral grin cross my face as I continued to run behind the Devourer, lifting my sword for another attack.

  Only to run into something hard and unyielding as it hit me directly in the face and knocked me right off my feet.

  “Whaaa?” I moaned softly while reeling from the stunning blow, my head throbbing viciously as my eyes began to water from a broken nose. Blinking furiously, I found myself lying on my back just behind the Devourer, thankfully still holding my sword, who had its attention focused towards Sawyer. Looking up at the devil’s back, I saw a second crimson eye staring down at me, set directly in the back of the creature’s head, along with a single arm coming out of the center of its mass.

  “You have to be kidding me,” I wheezed, spitting out a mouthful of blood as I saw the claw-tipped hand reaching out for me.

  “Lazarus! Are you okay?!” Sawyer voice called out, followed by the sounds of clashing metal. “What happened?!”

  “There’s a third arm that’s coming out of its back!” I called out as I rolled away from the Devourer, eager to put some distance between me and the devil before I tried to stand up. I already felt lucky enough that the arm that had hit me was unarmed. Had it been holding a weapon of any kind, I was fairly confident that I would have found myself respawning alone back at the guild headquarters.

  “Wha—urk!” Sawyer’s reply choked off as I saw the Devourer lurch forward out of the corner of my eye.

  “Sawyer!” I heard Molly’s voice shout in panic as I tried to get my feet back under me and push me back into a standing position.

  Forcing myself upwards, I looked up in time to see that the Devourer had somehow managed to trap Sawyer’s weapon and shield with its own and had wrapped its tongue around the red-armored warrior’s throat. Straining with all his might, Sawyer fought to keep his distance from the strangling devil as its tongue slowly retracted, gradually pulling him closer and closer towards its open maw.

  “Hold on!” I exclaimed while sprinting towards the Devourer, seeing Sawyer’s face begin to turn purple. I knew it was only a matter of time before he ran out of air and passed out, which would have him ending up in the Devourer’s mouth in short order.

  Charging at the devil from its flank, I lifted my glass-steel blade up high above my head as I ran, desperately trying to come up with a plan. With his strength flagging from the loss of air, Sawyer had slowly been pulled far too close to the Devourer’s mouth for me to risk trying to sever the creature’s tongue. A slipup on my part or a feint on the Devourer’s could have my sword crashing down into the top of Sawyer’s head, killing him just as easily as the devil’s teeth would.

  The best thing I could do at this point was to make holding on to Sawyer a costlier proposition than letting him go and dealing with me.

  Shouting loudly in the hopes of attracting the Devourer’s attention, I leaped forward and chopped down with my blade, targeting the arm that carried the partially melted shield. Slamming into the limb with my full momentum behind it, my sword bit through the fused links of chainmail that had imbedded themselves into the devil’s flesh, cutting deeply in a spray of black blood. Roaring in pain, the Devourer’s bulbous eye shot towards me as I began to work my weapon deeper into the wound, slicing it back and forth.

  Feeling the edge of the sword grate against bone, I was rewarded with a panicked flinch of the arm, the devil pulling its shield away from Sawyer in an attempt to dislodge me. Twisting my blade as the arm shifted, I jerked it upwards violently, causing a chunk of fatty flesh to tear free, along with another spurt of hot ichor.

  “Lazarus, move!” Quinn’s shouted from behind me. “Incoming!”

  Taking the mage’s warning to heart, I spun to the side reflexively, a crackling fireball passing straight through the spot that I had just been standing in and slamming into the devil’s side. Feeling the heat of the spell vanish as quickly as it arrived, I completed my spin, using the momentum of the maneuver to slash a shallow wound along the exposed fatty rolls protruding from the Devourer’s side.

  “Pull harder!” Molly yelled amid the chaos of battle, her voice coming from the far side of the Devourer, who roared in pain from something she did.

  Checking my swing from the wild slash, I looked up in time to see the Devourer’s protruding stomach roil, then heave itself inward, as a disturbing retching sound filled the air. Belching violently, a torrent of vile-smelling black fluid shot out of the Devourer’s open mouth, hitting Sawyer from pointblank range, completely covering the red-armored man from head to toe.

  Seconds after the expelling the slimy vomit, I saw the Devourer’s tongue pull itself free from around Sawyer’s neck and vanish back into its mouth, causing the now drenched warrior to stagger backwards as the resistance holding him at bay vanished. Blinded from the slime, Sawyer was then caught completely flatfooted when the Devourer’s shield swung out and caught him straight in the chest, sending the man sprawling to the ground with the sound of cracking bones.

  “Sawyer!” I shouted out of reflex as I saw the Bounty Hunter begin to convulse after hitting the ground, followed by the sound of heaving as the stench of the Devourer’s vomit overwhelmed his stomach. Catching a whiff of the black slime as the wind shifted, I couldn’t blame him for being sick, feeling a wave of nausea rise up from my own stomach in sympathy.

  Shuffling to face me, the Devourer belched loudly, black vomit completely covering the front of its chest as it lifted its axe
and began staggering towards me, its footsteps causing the ground to shake. Glancing at a motion out of the corner of my eye, I saw Molly dart past the turning devil and rush towards Sawyer’s aid.

  “I got him!” Molly called to me as she dropped her bloodied sabre to the ground, not hesitating in the slightest to lay her hands on the broken warrior to heal him. “Keep the big guy busy!”

  “Got it!” I grunted, my eyes shifting back towards the Devourer while tightening my grip on my sword.

  Meeting the advancing devil, I leaped forward once again, swinging my sword in a punishing downward blow as I purposefully targeted the creature’s weakened shield arm. Slow to realize what I was doing, the Devourer didn’t hesitate in raising the weakened appendage to block my attack, only to have it buckle under the violent impact.

  With the sickening sound of tearing flesh, the shield twisted violently from its fused position on the Devourer’s forearm as the wound I had inflicted earlier split open even wider, causing the fatty tissue to tear itself from the bone underneath. Howling in pain, the Devourer froze, its large crimson eye darting downwards to inspect the twisted limb in disbelief.

  Not giving it a chance to recover, I sidestepped to the creature’s flank, rushing to get out of range of its axe and to get a better angle for my follow-up attack. Lifting my sword upwards once more, I saw the Devourer’s ruined shield-arm, split flesh giving way to gleaming bone.

  There it is! I bared my teeth in a savage grin as I brought the glass-steel blade down onto the Devourer’s arm, feeling its razor-sharp edge bite deep into the exposed bone.

  And carve straight through it.

  “Raaaaah!” The Devourer screamed in an unholy rage as it began to flail wildly in pain, its shield-arm swinging limply through the air, the motion causing the last shreds of muscle and fat to tear away from the rest of its body before landing sickeningly on the ground.

  No sooner did the arm fall than did another cluster of missiles and fireballs arrive on the scene, hammering the stunned devil rapidly along its face and neck as Quinn unleashed his full arsenal of spells, pouring all of his mana into the creature without a thought for preservation. With the devil’s blood gushing from its severed limb, the Devourer continued to roar in pain, its sinister eye focusing intently on me as it shifted its massive bulk.

  Taking a step back from the creature while Quinn rained destruction upon it, I couldn’t help but notice the countless wounds that covered its body and an ever-so-slight fatigue to the devil’s motions that hadn’t been present a moment earlier. Slowly but surely, we were wearing the creature down, and it was only a matter of time before one of us landed a killing blow.

  We’re running out of time, though. I grimaced as the night began to turn crimson once more, the clouds hiding the burning moon above us beginning to thin. We need to finish this fast, before the moon comes out again.

  Checking out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Molly had managed to roll Sawyer over onto his side and that the red-armored warrior was slowly pushing himself up onto his feet, his violent coughing slowly fading as the Devourer’s vomit began to dry and lose its potent stench.

  Just a few more seconds, I thought to myself as I reflexively checked my remaining health, having forgotten about the freezing energy of the Sigil gripping my body. The last thing I needed was to have a repeat of my earlier fight, and realize that the sigil had burned away the majority of my health.

  HP: 501/800

  Relieved to see that I was still in reasonably good health, I focused my attention back towards the Devourer, who had since managed to overcome the shock of losing one of its arms. Growling angrily, the devil’s maw opened as it bared its long, serrated teeth at me.

  “Watch for its tongue!” Sawyer’s coughing voice rang out from behind me, a heartbeat before the Devourer’s tongue shot forward, like some grotesque parody of a frog.

  “Ah!” I flinched in surprise, Sawyer’s warning giving me just enough time to raise one hand in front of my face before the tongue hit me.

  Wrapping itself around my arm, I felt tiny barbs pierce through my armor and dig into my flesh underneath as the devil yanked its tongue backwards and pulled me off balance. Staggering forward, I had enough presence of mind to drive my sword down into the ground, the strange translucent metal biting through the gap in the cobblestone and anchoring me in place.

  Wincing in pain as the tongue threatened to tear the flesh straight off my bones, I did the only thing that I could do. I reached down with my trapped hand and grabbed hold of the Devourer’s tongue.

  Then began to pull.

  The Devourer’s eye widened in surprise as it realized that I was both heavier and stronger than Sawyer, its head jerking forward under my surprising strength, forcing it to brace its stubby feet on the ground.

  “Oh, you done fucked up now!” I yelled at the devil as I fought through the searing pain of the tongue’s barbs in my palm. Inhaling deeply, I strained with all of my might while pulling the Devourer’s tongue taut, in a deadly game of tug-of-war.

  “We’re coming, Lazarus!” Molly shouted as another inky orb flew through the air and splashed across the Devourer’s face, causing the creature’s crimson eye to turn black.

  The sound of running feet greeted my ears as Molly then rushed back into combat, passing directly under the Devourer’s tongue that stretched out before me. Her heavy sabre flashed briefly in the night as she slashed through the barbed tentacle, severing it an arm’s length away from me. Hot on her heels was Sawyer, the crusty remains of the Devourer’s bile flaking off his armor as he charged directly at the devil, eager to exact vengeance for its earlier attack.

  Catching myself as the tongue’s resistance vanished, I pulled my sword free from the ground, the Devourer’s tongue uncoiling itself from my hand as its strength faded and fell to the ground with a wet-sounding thump. Pushing myself forward to rejoin combat, I looked up in time to see Sawyer leap onto the Devourer’s protruding stomach and sink his blade deep into its throat, driving his weapon straight up to its hilt.

  Not to be outdone, Molly angled her charge and moved to attack the devil’s flank, dragging her curved sabre along the Devourer’s unarmored flesh, slicing a deep wound that immediately erupted with blood.

  “Lazarus!” Sawyer called for my attention as he pushed himself off of the Devourer’s chest and dropped back onto the ground, catching a wild blow from the still blind devil’s axe on his golden shield. Shifting his shield, Sawyer absorbed the attack, then quickly hooked the edge of the axe on the shield’s lip before the Devourer could pull it back, effectively trapping it. Pushing back on the limb, Sawyer then forced the arm out of position, completely exposing the Devourer’s stomach and began stabbing repeatedly with his weapon. “Stab it deep! I can’t hold this forever!”

  Not wasting the breath to answer Sawyer, I rushed forward, bracing my sword’s hilt against my hip as I ran. Thundering towards the Devourer, I saw its clouded eye regain its crimson color as Molly’s spell wore off once again. With the tip of my bloody sword barely a foot away from his body, I saw it widen in panic as it spotted me attacking from pointblank range.

  My sword vanished into the Devourer’s stomach with the disturbing sound of slurping flesh, the blade penetrating deep into the devil’s gut. Gasping from the impact, the Devourer’s gurgling breath rushed out in an instant, a low moan of pain escaping its ruined throat. Switching my grip on the hilt for leverage, I stepped to the side and sharply yanked on my blade backwards, using the length of the weapon to rend and tear the delicate organs buried inside the Devourer’s body.

  Slicing viciously through the devil’s innards, blood poured from the massive wound as I completed my brutal evisceration, the vile fluid washing over both mine and Sawyer’s feet. The latest wound far too much for the Devourer to withstand, the devil sagged forward, as life began to fade from its twisted form and fell to the ground.

  Dancing back from the falling devil to avoid being crushed, Sawyer and I exc
hanged relieved glances, a heartbeat before Molly’s shout caused the two of us to flinch.

  “Don’t just stand there! Finish it!”

  Leaping between the devil and I, Molly chopped down with her heavy sabre held in both hands, catching the dying Devourer at the base of the neck. Biting through bone and flesh, Molly’s blade flashed again and again, her third blow in as many seconds finally severing the devil’s head, sending it rolling to the ground by our feet. Only then did I see a pair of notifications appear in my vision.

  Molly has slain a [Hellborn Devourer]!

  You have gained Group Experience!

  Looking up at Molly in surprise, I saw her cock an eyebrow towards both Sawyer and I, then slowly shake her head.

  “Come on, guys,” she admonished, breathing heavily, as a slow smile spread across her face. “You know the rule.

  “The fight’s not over until you get experience for it.”

  Chapter 24

  “So many dead,” Sable exclaimed wearily as she joined the circle that the four of us and the other Thief Lords had formed a short distance away from where the Devourer had fallen, a bag of still untouched loot marking the spot where the creature had been before fading away. “At last count, we’ve lost nearly half of what we arrived with, including those who have taken serious wounds and can no longer fight. But to counteract that, we’ve gained a little more than a dozen in additional reinforcements as they’ve made their way across the district.”

  “It’s better than we could have expected, all things considered,” I replied with a sigh, seeing all of the other Thief Lords wince before nodding grimly. “They could have had more soul shards ready to use in their trap.”

  “That is true,” Stroud agreed in a raspy voice, the partially healed burns across his face indicating that he had been in close proximity to one of the fireballs that the enemy mages had unleashed during the battle. “A handful more devils would have caused our forces to break the moment they appeared. As it was, it was a close enough thing to keep their morale from faltering.”