Purgatory: The Devil's Game

by M. A. Carlson

  Asher’s answered, “Heavy armor is heavy. Your speed will naturally be affected wearing it. I did warn you that heavy armor was a burden beyond being ridiculously expensive. You’ll find that once you equip the chainmail you purchased, your speed will be significantly reduced. The 10% may not seem like much right now, but level it up a fair bit and you’ll find that it grows quickly. Same goes for the energy cost. You’ll find that your EP drains quickly when you are burdened with so much weight. The increased defense should be self-explanatory. If your armor gives you a defense of ten, you will actually have a defense of eleven.”

  Based on that, the heavy armor proficiency was in reality, quite good. Yeah, losing that much speed from wearing the armor was not so good, but at least I had a way of compensating for it. Being able to hypothetically take eleven fewer points of damage, absolutely was worth it.

  Asher continued, “And remember, plate mail would make you even slower.”

  It would be a while then before I got to that point, but the reminder didn’t hurt.

  “But how does it work?” I asked.

  “How does what work?” Asher asked.

  I grunted in annoyance. “How does the proficiency make any of that possible? I know, I know, it’s like magic but I want to understand it better.”

  Asher sighed. “Your proficiency grants you a certain amount of knowledge regarding heavy armor. It’s how you now know what a coif is, or a hauberk.”

  Asher was right, I knew exactly what those were. A chainmail helmet or coif, that was more of a hood than a helmet, was intended to protect my head and neck. And a hauberk was a chainmail shirt, meant to protect my chest and shoulders. Gauntlets were gloves and chausses were chainmail chaps . . . more or less.

  Asher continued, “On a basic level, you have knowledge about heavy armor you didn’t previously possess. You also know better how to move with the armor to reduce friction. You know how to distribute the weight to reduce its burden. You know where best to take a hit with your armor to limit how much damage you take. Thus, more speed, more defense, and less wasted energy.”

  “Now, it’s time to get back into Purgatory and make some forward progress. Tomorrow, after shield training, we are going to see how far you can go,” Asher ordered.

  Shield training. Yesterday, I just happened to glance at my other proficiencies. My mace proficiency was indeed growing fast, much faster than my shield proficiency. It was already level 24. My shield proficiency had fallen behind and was only level 20. I hadn’t been checking it every day as I had in the past. Not while I was just grinding away in Purgatory the last few weeks. I’d kept the same routine, one day of mace training, one day of shield training, grind Purgatory, grind essence engineering. Going forward, I would probably need two days of shield training for every one day of mace training. And that wouldn’t take effect until after I got my shield proficiency caught up a bit.

  Still, I yawned and laid back on my cot. It was time to get some rest. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day, and it was.

  “Welcome my pride!” Glorior boomed his standard introduction. I quickly tuned him out while I waited for the pride demon to emerge from the other end of the arena. Eventually, his speech ended, and a weak and sickly-looking pride demon emerged.

  I didn’t wait, I charged across the sands . . . though I was significantly slower. I could feel how slow I was. I could feel how much longer it was taking to cross the short distance to my opponent. Worse, I could feel the heavy chain mail sapping my energy. A glance at my EP bar proved as much when it drained quickly. I had already made a miscalculation. I’d been so used to this fight. Doing it in once again in the same manner, but I never considered the additional EP cost of wearing a full set chainmail armor. I needed to learn to fight all over again.

  I stopped my charge, my EP down to just a quarter remaining. I settled back and waited on my foe. The spear wielding demon charged forward. I side stepped the tip of the spear and swung. My mace glanced off the demon’s shoulder. That had never happened before. This first demon was always the easiest to deal with. One hit and it was dead. It had never dodged before.

  I was so surprised by the dodge that I was slow to react when the demon countered. The spear shot toward my exposed stomach. Once again, I tried to move my shield, something that should have been fast and easy, but again, I was too slow. The spear struck. I expected pain to blossom in my gut. I expected to find the spear piercing through me and back out the other side. I didn’t expect to feel a slight pinch of pain and punch to the stomach. I glanced down. The spear tip barely penetrated my chain mail.

  I looked up at the demon and grinned. I swung overhead and brought the flanged head down on the demon’s skull. It went down and didn’t get up again. There was no reward of crystals or demon parts. I kind of expected it after spending so many unused points, but it was still disappointing.

  I moved back to my starting spot and waited on Glorior to offer up the next fight. I waited until my EP refilled before I accepted the challenge.

  Three demons emerged. One with a sword and shield and two spear wielders. I wanted to charge across the sands and deal with them as I had learned to do in the past. Instead, I settled back and waited.

  One of the spear wielders charged ahead. He was sickly looking, just as the first one and just like I had seen in all the previous daily grinds.

  As the spear wielder came close, I raised my shield in anticipation of its charge. I needed to get ahead of their attacks. Unfortunately, I moved to soon. The demon changed its point of attack, lowering its spear and aiming for my leg. Once again, the spear struck but I barely felt anything.

  I slammed my shield down on the spear, snapping the shaft in two. The demon looked up in shock. It didn’t last as I brought my mace across its face, putting it on the ground. The demon held its face and rolled in pain, but I ignored it. I knew the sword and shield wielding demon would be upon me any second.

  It was there as I predicted. I saw its wide arcing swing coming, I tried once again to raise my shield to block but I was just too slow. I couldn’t even move fast enough to duck below the attack. The blade hit the chainmail coif, sending a ringing through my head, and dealing a little blunt damage. But it failed to cut through the armor or my head. At least, it did until the blade slid past the metal links to contact my face. It sliced through like a hot knife through butter. With a suddenness I wasn’t prepared for, everything went dark. Not because I was dead but because I was blinded. I could still hear the cheers of the crowd around me. I still felt the pain where my face was sliced into. I really felt the pain as the two demons went to work. Stabbing me anywhere there was exposed flesh. They were relentless.

  Unfortunately, it was death by a thousand cuts, or at least it felt that way. It was probably more like twenty or thirty cuts. Either way it was unpleasant, as was waking up in the morgue.

  “What did you learn?” Asher asked, surprising me slightly. He’d been awfully quiet throughout those two fights.

  I had a feeling he was testing me again. So, I asked myself, what did I learn? First, I was too slow to react, too slow to attack or defend. I was just too slow. Second, the armor did provide significant defense. Any time the demons hit armor, I barely felt a thing and the damage was negligible.

  Taking those two into consideration, I either needed to drastically change the way I fought, or I needed to find a way to become a lot faster.

  I said as much to Asher and got a bob in return. He explained, “The way I see it, your best option is to remove most of the armor. I would say everything but the hauberk. That should recover most of your speed while giving you some much needed defense. Until either you level up your heavy armor proficiency or you increase your speed stat, you won’t be able to efficiently wear heavy armor.”

  I sighed. It was a little disappointing, but I wasn’t going to argue. As I just learned, the loss of speed was significant, and if losing a little armor balanced those scales a little, then I would do what was necessary
. With that, I removed the coif that covered my head and dropped it into an open inventory slot. Then gauntlets came off my hands and joined it. Finally, the chausses came off my legs leaving me in the light cloth pants I started with. That left me wearing the chainmail shirt, my hauberk. It was longer on me, intentionally so, the goal of the long shirt to cover my groin. It was held around my waist with a leather belt.

  I made my way back inside purgatory and proceeded to ignore Glorior’s speech. With so much less weight, the poor unfortunate chimera dreg didn’t have long to live.

  The next group went down quickly as well. In fact, I killed my way through the next two fights with ease.

  Glorior was not pleased, still, he orated to his sycophants, praising the fallen and disparaging me. Finally, he turned to me and asked, “Will you face your next challenger?”

  “Bring it,” I said, feeling the pull of the pride.

  “Yes!” Glorior roared. “Challenge accepted! Now, a special treat for the pride. I give you, Decimus!”

  That was . . . a little worrying. It was the first he’d called on a named demon. Worse, the mob was chanting the name, over, and over again.

  Swallowing nervously, I focused on the gate where I expected a giant monstrosity to emerge. The gate rose slowly but then stopped about two feet up. From within the shadows, I saw something moving. Stepping carefully into the light, a short pride demon emerged. It looked more like a house cat than one of the lion-headed demons, its horns were also more goat like, sticking straight up. Despite its underwhelming size, I knew I needed to take it seriously. The demon wore leather armor, had a bow strapped across its back and carried a dagger at each hip.

  “Assassin?” I asked, so as only Asher would hear me. I kept my eyes focused on the new opponent, watching, waiting for it to make a move.

  It kept its focus on me as well.

  “Possibly,” Asher replied. “Watch it closely. If it is an assassin, it will disappear from view as soon as Glorior starts the fight.”

  I barely nodded.

  “Fight!” Glorior roared.

  I raised my shield on instinct, and just in time, as an arrow hammered solidly into it.

  “He’s fast,” Asher warned.

  I didn’t spare the fireball a glance as I stalked forward, keeping my shield out in front of me. Decimus continued to fire arrow after arrow, my shield taking the majority of the damage. Every few arrows, I would fail to move the shield and one would strike a glancing blow on the edges of my body. The damage was minimal, especially after Asher used his shield spell . . . proficiency on me.

  Suddenly, the arrows stopped and Decimus vanished like a mirage.

  “It is an assassin, be careful, it will most likely strike at your back,” Asher warned.

  I couldn’t see anything. I hoped my perception was high enough to see through whatever illusion the demon was using but there was nothing.

  Then I heard something I couldn’t exactly place. It was a strange kind of crunching sound, but it was so faint. Realizing where I heard the sound coming from, I spun around sweeping my shield out and hitting something solid.

  While flying away from me, the diminutive cat demon reappeared. I didn’t think I hit it that hard, but it was light weight. It didn’t feel like it took a lot of strength to send the demon flying. I watched for a moment as it flipped in midair then landed on its feet, a trickle of blood flowing from its nose and one of its eyes already swelling shut. The demon spit some blood onto the sand then snarled. It charged at me recklessly. It leaped into the air then vanished from view.

  I raised my shield, hoping my timing was right but there was no impact. In fact, it went eerily quiet, even in the stands. That was when I heard the crunching sound again. I tried to spin around again but was too late. The demon managed to slice my Achilles, dropping me down to a knee. I instantly missed my chausses and the protection they offered my legs.

  I swung wildly with my mace, hoping to catch the little monster before it got too far out of range. I missed. It was quick.

  “That was another proficiency, it couldn’t have gotten past my shield otherwise. It’s a debuff, thirty seconds,” Asher said.

  That was bad. It was the first true debuff I’d faced yet.

  “Hunker down and protect yourself as best you can,” Asher instructed. “I’ll let you know as soon as the debuff fades.”

  I nodded and tried to make myself a smaller target. That was when I felt something impact my back. Thankfully, it wasn’t a blade. Unfortunately, whatever it was still managed to pierce my chainmail.

  “It’s firing arrows again, get your shield between you and it, hurry,” Asher warned.

  I tried to spin around from my knee, but it was slow, and the demon managed to plant another arrow into me, my shoulder this time. It made lifting my shield very painful. Still, I manage to get my shield up between the demon and me, slowly spinning myself as it circled, firing arrows at me relentlessly. And where was it getting all the arrows? I didn’t see any kind of quiver.

  “Go,” Asher shouted.

  I sprang back to my feet and charged forward, sprinting toward the demon. I saw its eyes widen in panic. It fumbled its bow trying to put it away. Instead, it dropped the bow and rolled to my right, away from the shield. It didn’t quite get far enough away though. I lashed out with a quick strike, hitting its shoulder, and spinning it through the air. I was disappointed I didn’t hear the sound of bones breaking but it was still a solid hit.

  I didn’t relent. I took a big overhead swing, crashing down into nothing but sand. The little demon had rolled back and away. I chased it, turning my swing around into an uppercut, barely catching the demon in the chin, one of the flanges parted the flesh and drew blood.

  The demon hit the ground with a light smacking sound, making it clear just how light it was. I attacked again, tempering my desire to end the fight with one big swing. I struck from the side this time. The demon started to roll away from my blow, but something looked off. It seemed a lot slower than before. My mace impacted with the cat demon’s ribs, sending it skittering across the sand once more, flying much farther than even I would have liked.

  The demon stood slowly, its eyes on me. It began to fade from view, but again it was slow. Like the demon was struggling to use its proficiency. That was about when I figured out what was happening. Sloth’s touch had taken effect. I grinned as I swung into the slowly fading demon, its eyes slowly widening. It just couldn’t believe what was happening. That was about the time my mace met the demon’s head and the fight was over.

  It took a moment to realize I was breathing heavily. That fight was much harder than I thought it would be. Still, I won.

  I looked to the sand where the demon was quickly melting away, leaving behind a chunk of horn and a few tiny crystals. The reward was disappointing.

  “Look,” Asher said, facing away from me.

  I followed his gaze and saw something unexpected. The demon’s bow was still sitting in the sand. I grinned a little as I jogged over to it. I picked it up. It felt sturdy and it was quite a bit larger than it was in the demon’s hands.

  “Now this is a treasure,” Asher said reverently. “It’s called the Bow of Multitudinous Arrows. It can store up to a hundred arrows in an extra dimensional space, similar to your inventory.”

  That explained why it felt like the demon never ran out of arrows. “Is it worth me learning a bow proficiency?”

  Asher hummed in thought. “It might be. You could really use a ranged option. A lot of these fights would be much easier if you could open with a few ranged attacks. Hold on to it for now and we can talk about it later.”

  I nodded my agreement and slipped the bow into my inventory.

  With the looting done, I turned my attention back to Glorior, ready for the next challenge.

  Chapter 21 – Circus Maximus

  In ancient Rome, the arena was often called the circus. The largest of them was the Circus Maximus where they did chariot races. I knew t
hat from the one vacation to Italy I took in my twenties. The coliseum by extension was much smaller and generally used in gladiatorial combat, and still, it was large enough for smaller chariots to be driven while an archer could ride shotgun and cause all manner of damage. Like the one currently circling me.

  After fighting and defeating the assassin housecat demon, I fought four more rounds of escalating difficulty. The demons got stronger and more diverse. House cat demons started mixing in with the lion demons, though none of them were as strong as Decimus. Not even the lion headed demons were as powerful as Decimus. Sure, they threatened to overwhelm me with their numbers a time or two but a few good hits, a lucky sloth’s touch, and they were easily dealt with.

  Then the fifth fight, tenth overall, and out came Rondus and Sondus. The charioteers as Glorior announced them. I didn’t know which was the archer and which was the driver. The only thing I knew for sure was that this was going to be a difficult fight. Especially if they continued circling and peppering me with arrows. It was the first time I really wished I had a ranged attack of some kind . . . like a bow and arrow.

  “Weather it. When they run out of arrows, that will be your chance,” Asher advised.

  Advice that would work . . . assuming I lived that long. Rondus or Sondus, whichever was firing arrows at me, never seemed to run out. And once again, I was facing death by a thousand cuts.

  An arrow pierced my hauberk in the shoulder, numbing the arm holding my mace. Trying to ignore the pain, I snarled, “I might not live that long!”

  “Then try harder,” Asher snapped back.

  I grumbled. I tried chasing the chariot, I tried anticipating its path through the arena, but the machine had sharpened blades attached to the wheels that I hadn’t seen until it was almost too late. I got shot in the backside for that attempt. The arena had nothing to hide behind either. So, it wasn’t like I could hide behind a column and keep up my dwindling hope of them running out of arrows. No, they systematically dismantled me. Even when I blocked an arrow with my shield, I still took some transfer damage, not to mention the damage to my shield. In the end, they inevitably struck me down.