“And I’m proud of that!” Arkemeya shouted furiously. “Are you not tired of this masquerade? Assume your true form, you damned freak!”
“You think you’re worthy of my true form, you lowlife? I’ll deal with you without it.”
With a smile, the Queen took a step forward. Blue silk danced around her slender legs and up her torso, revealing a flat stomach adorned with odd patterns. Her ample bosom was hidden beneath a strip of the blue cloth. It was hard to believe that all of this was an illusion that hid her true appearance.
“Are these… weaklings your allies? They’re but ants that have just recently learned how to bite! I raised you better than this.”
“My mother raised me, you bitch!” Arkemeya exclaimed as energy began to swirl around her. Golden and blue with streaks of crimson, it was reminiscent of a desert dawn. It looked like blood that had been spilled on gold and diamonds.
“Yes, I still remember the taste of her blood,” the Queen said with a wicked grin and licked her fingers.
She walked across the pile of zombies, which moved along with her steps. Sometimes, they’d reach for her in hopes of touching the hem of her skirt, but they were immediately pulled back every time.
“You will die today, hag.” Arkemeya’s eyes flashed and the energy that surrounded her became more solid, taking the form of her Spirit, which immediately flew into her. It looked like two huge, crossed sabers, both of them almost six feet long. Hadjar stared at them in awe; he’d never seen a Lord’s Spirit before.
“Deadly Dream!” She screamed as she unsheathed her weapons.
The blades shimmered, summoning an invisible stream of energy that began to assume different shapes: a herd of horses rushed off into the distance, followed by a group of howling warriors waving their hammers around wildly. It was difficult to understand the essence of the attack as it confused the mind even more than the spells of the Dah’Khasses normally did.
“Pathetic,” the Queen sneered and raised her left hand. Something red flashed in her palm and she unleashed a stream of monstrously powerful energy. Surging forward, it pierced through Arkemeya’s attack and threw her back. With a shout of pain, the demoness flew through the wall, leaving a hole behind.
Hadjar started coming up with another plan. For a moment, he thought that the demoness was dead, as he could no longer feel her energy in the World River.
“I said that you’d die today, hag!”
Arkemeya appeared behind the Queen. She seemed to come out of a fold in space itself. It resembled Einen’s shadow Technique, but the half-breed didn’t need any shadows.
Her sabers flashed with a golden flame so intense and powerful that it instantly incinerated the undead. Hadjar had never seen anything as mighty as her sabers. Her attacks could’ve wounded the Primeval Giant itself.
“You’ve gotten stronger.”
The Queen moved her left forearm in front of her, blocking the attack. However, the blades still sank a few inches into her flesh.
“It’s time to end this,” she hissed as a bone, one as long and sharp as a blade, emerged from her right wrist. “Mommy’s waiting for you, dearie.”
With a smile, the Queen waved her hand. There were no mysteries or Techniques in her attack, only raw power equal to Steppe Fang’s own. Unable to dodge, Arkemeya was cut in half.
After slicing through her, the attack, turning into a crescent of colorless energy, continued on for over a hundred yards, cutting down the towers in its path. The rest of the Dah’Khasses, lost in a trance of ecstasy, paid no attention to the battle. Even when huge fragments of the destroyed towers turned several of them into bloody smears of flesh, they continued their orgy.
“You’re right, Queenie. My mother is waiting… For vengeance!”
Hadjar could hardly believe his eyes. Arkemeya’s figure rippled slightly, and then the two halves of her body came together once again. Not a drop of blood fell to the roof. Taking advantage of the Queen’s astonishment, Arkemeya kicked her. Her foot, encased in Imperial level armor, sent the Queen crashing through the roof, plunging her into the darkness of the Palace’s interior.
“Stop him!” Arkemeya urged them and then jumped after the Queen.
Suddenly, the King let out a deafening roar that was instantly joined by a chorus of thousands of delighted moans and sighs.
“Irma!” Derek cried out, but she didn’t hear him.
Her frightened moans and sobs died away. She stopped shaking and twitching, then locked her legs around the King’s waist and opened her now ruby-red eyes.
“My love,” she whispered and passionately kissed the King.
Grinning as they kissed, he waved his cloak and covered them with an impenetrable cocoon that began to spin. Hearing a rumble, Hadjar looked up and saw the stormy clouds forming a wide funnel, revealing the gloom of the moonless sky.
“It has begun,” Steppe Fang growled.
“We stick to the plan,” Hadjar said firmly and mentally dove into his spatial ring. The fate of two Empires, or perhaps even the whole world, depended on whether his mad plan worked or not.
Chapter 615
The King’s personal guards were far stronger than the other Dah’Khasses: their power ranged from the peak stage of the Spirit Knight level to the initial stage of the Lord level.
“Guards!” One of them stepped forward. “Protect the King and the Prince!”
“Yes, sir!”
Their black cloaks merged with their bodies, and four broad wings spread out behind them. As tall as Steppe Fang, they had gray skin and short but wide claws. They, too, wielded blades made of bone.
“Gods save us!” Derek recoiled.
The Dah’Khasses at the foot of the Palace, finally shaking off their delirium and ecstasy, flew over the moat and began to climb the walls. Something seemed to be preventing them from flying directly up to the platform.
“On my signal!”
From his spatial ring, Hadjar retrieved one of the ship’s crystals that he’d used to create turbulence in the streams of the World River back at the Palace. In order to turn them into weapons that could hurt the demons, they had inserted them into fragments of the sconces from the dungeons. Taking out one of these impromptu ‘shrapnel grenades’, Hadjar tossed it into the air.
When the demons saw the grenade, they scattered so quickly that their forms blurred. In a heartbeat, they surrounded the squad. Their blades were vibrating slightly, radiating a strange aura that was so powerful it cut into the nearby statues and the roof.
Grinning, Hadjar took out two more grenades.
“Come on!” He shouted, swinging his sword so quickly that his three rapid strikes seemed to merge into one.
When the attacks hit the grenades, Derek and Steppe Fang used their best Techniques. The orc howled and his Spirit bared its fangs and leapt forward. Hadjar watched in disbelief as it passed through the orc’s body and merged with his axes, turning them into a pair of wolf maws. With a cry, the orc swung his axes and traced a wide arc in the air with them, conjuring two exact copies of his Spirit. With every step the copies took, they created yet more copies, until Steppe Fang commanded a pack numbering a hundred wolves, each of which was just as powerful as the original.
Derek didn’t waste any time either. He brought his daggers together, then flung his arms to the side, creating a line of shimmering droplets between them.
“Morning Tide!” He shouted, desperate to contribute, as he could sense that the potion’s effects were slowly fading.
Energy equal to the Spirit Knight level poured out of him in a single stream. The drops stretched until they became three-foot-long needles. Twisting and spinning, they scattered, aimed at the guards.
There was a deafening explosion, followed by two more, even louder explosions. Spheres of blue energy swirled in the spots where the needles had struck. Derek’s weapons turned into simple blades and he was pinned to the roof. Steppe Fang and Hadjar, still maintaining their Calls with power from their souls, fe
lt weak. The guards fell before they could even reach them.
Fragments of the Revelation Ore, dispersed by the explosions, scattered in all directions. Hadjar, leaping in front of the stunned Steppe Fang, moved his sword with frightening speed. Each swing of his blade was followed by a bright flash as it deflected dozens of tiny ore fragments. On their own, they couldn’t completely block one’s energy, but if they got under your skin, they could make it harder to use. And that was exactly what Hadjar had wanted. Every shard he deflected was aimed at the guards who hadn’t been hit by Derek’s or Steppe Fang’s Techniques.
The wolves had killed three Dah’Khasses, two of which had been equal to a Spirit Knight, and one to a Lord, reducing them to little more than bloodstains. Powerful as they’d been, they still hadn’t been able to handle the orc’s monstrous attack, which had been full of raw power combined with Spirit. Hadjar still didn’t understand how Steppe Fang could do something like that. It defied everything he’d learned about cultivation. Then again, orc cultivation was clearly very different from what he’d been taught.
As for Derek’s Technique, it had been powerful enough to accomplish his goal. Their power severely weakened, most of the Dah’Khasses had been saved by their natural protection. However, they hadn’t been Derek’s target. No. The young man had been focused on one particular enemy — a Lord at the initial stage.
Nine of the needles had merged into one, forming a large blade of ice that had plunged itself deep into the Dah’Khass’ eye and instantly killed her.
When the dust settled and the guards rose to their feet, only five of the original ten were still standing: four Spirit Knights and one Lord. The latter had a mightier build, long, bony fangs, and powerful wings that had been rendered useless. Shredded by the Revelation Ore, they now looked like tattered sails. Some of the guards, as Hadjar had planned, had shrapnel embedded under their skin. The ore would prevent them from properly using their energy and, therefore, their power.
“You’ll pay for that,” the guard at the Lord level hissed. “Kill them all!”
“The. Biggest. One. Is. Mine!” Steppe Fang growled.
Pushing off from the roof, he soared into the air, axes raised high above his head. The maws had already transformed back into paws. And although they’d lost more than half their power, they were still formidable weapons.
With a shout, the orc came crashing down on the Lord, who protected himself by blocking the attack with his crossed daggers. The two giants colliding made the tiles beneath them crumble and the statues all around them fall apart.
Shielding himself with his cloak, Hadjar turned to Derek.
“Distract — Derek!”
The Lascanian, swaying slightly, was holding his hand against his left side. Blood was trickling out from between his fingers.
“Delicious,” one of the guards grinned, chewing on a piece of Derek’s flesh, his chin and fangs stained crimson.
“Damn it all!” Hadjar swore in frustration.
With a wave of his hand, he focused his will on one spot and threw Derek back.
“Black Wind!”
Chapter 616
Until recently, Hadjar had wielded his blade in a truly inefficient manner. But now, thanks to the experience that had helped him get stronger and had deepened his understanding of the Sword’s essence, he could perform truly powerful and skillful attacks. Swinging his blade in a wide arc, he created a blanket of darkness that covered the roof like a black fog. The outline of a fifty-foot-long replica of the Black Blade formed at its edges.
A terrifying attack, equal in power to that of a mid-stage Spirit Knight’s, moved at a blistering speed. Even Anise Dinos, the fastest warrior Hadjar had ever seen, would’ve only been able to block it, not dodge it.
The guards were even faster than her, but they, too, were unable to avoid his attack completely. Three of them managed to avoid the Technique and take only minimal damage; holding their crossed daggers in front of them just in case, they jumped a dozen yards back and crashed into statues depicting odd monsters. The one who’d been eating Derek’s flesh didn’t manage to react in time. The ‘Black Wind’ passed through him as if he were made of paper. The demon’s eyes rolled back and his body split in half, a fountain of green blood rocketing into the sky. Guts spilled out from his cleaved abdomen and rolled down the slope of the roof.
Before the first drops of blood even landed on the tiles, Hadjar took off. Using the ‘Wind’ stance, he turned into a plume of black fog. His body, strengthened by the Wolf Broth, disappeared with a sound that resembled a dragon’s roar.
Leaving a trail of black fog in his wake, Hadjar turned into the spectral silhouette of a dragon. Cutting through the curtain of demon blood with his elbow, he attacked the remaining enemies, determined to deal with them as quickly as possible. If he failed, he’d never be able to boast of his achievements to Einen.
The guards came to their senses almost immediately. Stopping near the one closest to him, Hadjar swung his sword at him in an upward, vertical slice. The trail of energy that followed his blade looked like a fang ready to tear apart any target. The Dah’Khass retaliated by attacking him with his dagger. A rough wave of power struck Hadjar’s dark energy, sending sharp gusts of wind out in all directions. They left deep scratches on the statues, tore off layers of tiles from the roof, and pushed back the other Dah’Khasses.
Sensing a threat approaching him from the left, Hadjar punched the demon in the jaw with his left fist, which was clad in armor made of fog. There was an unpleasant crunch and the Dah’Khass collapsed. Turning on his heel, Hadjar ducked under the second guard’s dagger. Instead of cutting him open from his collarbone to his waist, the demon only grazed his hip. Blood that was the color of dark rubies splattered across the tiles, but that didn’t stop Hadjar. On the contrary, the pain made him hear battle drums beating in his mind. In the dream, he had enjoyed sex and alcohol the most, but here, in the real world, his vice and biggest pleasure was battle.
Swiftly moving behind the demon, Hadjar kicked him just below the knee. Falling to the tiles, the demon tried to protect himself with his wings, but soon realized that they were about as useful to him as a tattered rag. The Black Blade exuded bloodlust as it sank into the demon’s chest, pinning him to the roof. Without allowing the sword to feast, Hadjar directed his energy into the weapon. Combining itself with the blade’s power, it surged out of the blade’s tip in the form of a black ray that forced the third guard to assume a defensive stance. Demons, used to only fighting against other demons, knew nothing of sword Techniques.
Hadjar allowed the Black Blade to feast. In an instant, a myriad of hungry, dark wisps of fog emptied the demon’s energy body. Tearing apart nodes and burning meridians, they tore the shards of his Spirit out of them. A second later, all that remained of the once-menacing demon was nothing but an empty husk. Hadjar yanked the blade out of his victim. The corpse turned into dust and was scattered all over the roof by the wind.
“Don’t you like being devoured?” He asked the wary guard with a smirk.
He was suddenly almost knocked down by something huge and red. Dodging, he stretched out his cloak with an effort of will and caught Steppe Fang as he flew past him. He looked terrible. There was a gaping wound in his torso through which his ribcage could be seen, and he was also missing a large chunk of flesh from his right bicep. Something had done quite a number on him.
“Let’s swap,” Hadjar said and threw Steppe Fang at the Dah’Khass he’d just punched in the jaw.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hadjar noticed Derek kicking the climbing Dah’Khasses off the walls. He nodded in approval and rushed at the demon Steppe Fang had been fighting. The demon’ right wing had been cut off and he was bleeding heavily. His left arm had been bitten into so viciously that his forearm was hanging on by only a thin strip of flesh, exposing the elbow joint. Despite all of that, the demon was lazily eating a chunk of orc meat. This seemed to be helping him as his wounds were slowly healing
.
“Autumn Leaf!” Hadjar shouted, imagining four leaves falling from a tree and landing on the demon’s limbs
His attack was faster than the speed of sound. Slashing through the air four times, the Black Blade formed a square. Sheathing his sword, Hadjar used the ‘Spring Wind’ stance and lunged at the demon.
The darkness took on the form of a thin dragon fang and pierced the square. The demon, still eating, deflected it with his dagger. A wave of raw, primal power got in the way of Hadjar’s lunge, but the ‘Falling Leaf’ Technique still landed.
Four attacks struck the demon. Hadjar had made sure to aim at his most vulnerable points — the joints. However, despite taking a direct hit, the demon remained standing. Rolling through the attack, he rose to his feet and dusted himself off. Green blood ran down his body from deep gashes. Try as he might, Hadjar couldn’t break through the demon’s natural defenses.
“What-”
“Swap!” The orc’s muffled growl rang out.
Leaping over Hadjar, one of his axes clenched between his teeth, he came down on the demon like a rockslide. They were soon engaged in a desperate fight once more.
Hadjar, turning back to the two enemies he’d left behind previously, hoped that the orc had managed to kill at least one of them. However, Steppe Fang seemed to have used Hadjar’s attack as a chance to rest up. The two guards came to their senses and started approaching him when a red beam shot out, coming from somewhere below Hadjar, forcing him to sidestep it. It blasted through one of the demons and disappeared somewhere in the sky.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Somewhere in the depths of the Palace, the Queen was fighting Arkemeya. It had been her attack that had made Hadjar’s fight a little bit easier.
Chapter 617
Hadjar, already knowing what to expect, felt a ripple within the energy flows. A month ago, he’d lacked the knowledge and experience needed to anticipate such an attack, but things were different now.
Dragon Heart: Land of Demons. LitRPG Wuxia Series: Book 7 Page 32
