AN: chapter 9, I'm getting somewhere with this, one step before double digit chapter, yay, gotta say thanks to the peeps at mgq fanfic server for…something something support I don't know, just ignore me as I compare this fic to 2 fakes and dark past despite having different tones and trying to tell completely different tales, go read those stories regardless, they good and they inspire me to be better.
Enough moping on people better than me.
Last time we saw the men get their first taste of a cultist rogue along with a fight that didn't operate on dnd rpg mechanics and instead worked on LORE mechanics which would make them more powerful (high end lore wizards can warp reality, paladins are basically death machines, monks are anime characters and clerics look like jesus and moses did a fusion dance and went to the gym) despite being temporary until they hit level 20 but were also hit by the harsh reality that real fights aren't turn based (shocking I know) as the rogue ran away while their friend got a hot steamy blood transfusion from alice to save his spine, dark luka fought Alma and made her run away with his new sword that's definitely isn't evil, he heard how she thinks humans are yummy and wondered if she is too (I'd rather not know) and is now on his way to Sentora.
Let's get to it shall we?
[1]
I'll be the first to admit that what I did was foolish. They warned me not to trust him as soon as he gave us the money, but I disregarded them. It also distracted me when the turn magic didn't activate before me and Jake started chasing after him on the rooftops, which allowed me to realize just how fast he is.
Each time I used the technique alice had taught me, he would weave and dance around it, dodging out of the way anytime either of us managed to come near to him. He would then slash at us before disengaging and continuing to flee, aggravating both of us.
Soon enough, we had him on the dock in our sights and there was nowhere for him to flee. "We won't hurt you if you simply submit" so I sought to reason with him as Jake quietly moved to block a potential exist point.
As the waves grew more intense, he sighed and said, "That's where you're wrong Luka, I'm exactly where I want to be, I'm just waiting for my ride to arrive." He then turned to face us with a peaceful smile.
What emerged from the sea can only be described as a beast or demon; it was a huge fish-like monster with three red eyes, smooth, dark-blue skin, and innumerable tendril-like appendages, and as it opened its mouth, something even more horrifying emerged.
A man with dark blue skin, gills on his neck, dark inky black hair, and deep blue stilted eyes emerged, holding a spear and saying, "I came to pick you up, are you done on your end as i am, Lukas?" In a calm voice, the man inquired 'Luis'.
He casually responds to the beast by jumping into its mouth and saying, "Yes and more, turns out there was this group of adventurers looking for us, over here are two of them, managed to strike down their wizard, filthy yuan-ti bugger, we should leave, I already managed to gather whatever information I could find including on these guys, I think we're done here".
He nodded to his partner before tapping the creature's tongue with his foot. Before we could react, the creature closed its mouth and swam away from us, out of sight, into the ocean.
I simply stood there as if expecting them to come back to fight or something as Jake spoke "damn, he led us right from the start, time to regroup with them Luka" I didn't notice when I began walking back with him.
All I could think about was the moment John was stabbed in the back as a result of me, and how Lui-Lukas misled us and got away while ostensibly gathering information about us and other things.
After being backstabbed and leaving to pursue the assailant with Jake and me, Tom and Mike used their magic to heal John before Alice gave him an injection of her blood to fix his spine, and to my surprise and relief, John was still alive. In spite of the fact that he should have turned into a monster by all rights, he didn't.
I'll admit that at first I was concerned that it was just a disguise or that it would make him become monster-like, but I was reassured and reminded that he probably already faced so much prejudice that he doesn't deserve 'just because his dad broke Ilias's commandments doesn't mean he's to blame'.
Soon enough we found a modest inn where we could rest, and each of us began to unwind somewhat. Jake calmly meditated to calm his nerves, Mike read his religious book seriously for the first time, Tom dozed off while John took off his shirt as he and Alice examined his body to check for any changes as a result of Alice injecting her blood into him.
"You sure nothing has changed about me?" While she prodded his sides and back, he remarked, "I'm not complaining about staying human, but I'm quite sure having monster blood pumped into you in the proportions you gave me is bound to do something other than make me heal fast".
Clicking her tongue she replied "none, you smell the same but the feel of your aura and darkness is now very similar to mine that some might mistake you for me or would think we're actually related, you should also other than being a monster have whatever abilities I have".
Scratching the back of his head he held out a hand as once more he tried really hard to gather some darkness in it to minuscule results "even though you replaced 40% of the blood in my body I can barely use this so called 'darkness', maybe it's you who's the problem" instead of being insulted she just smirked.
"of course you barely get anything, you're not doing it properly at all, if you were to actually become a monster from this you'd turn into a yoma queen, as of now you have enough darkness to take over this town and iliasburg without breaking a sweat, it's only because you don't know how to use it that's all" she really looked full of herself with that explanation while he mostly looked tired.
Sighing as he rubbed his face he asked "so are you going to tell me how to use it or what?" snorting she replied "no, it's too amusing to see you struggle and if I did your travels would become too easy for you with the potential you now have, not to mention that a significant amount of things done with darkness are focused around pleasure: .monsters~, though if you figure something out on your own I won't stop you and you should be able to use it for biological manipulation at the bare minimum, perhaps more seeing how you created a monster earlier".
Oh, that nekomata from before, she was kind of cute…..not in that way, she still seemed to think that she was a cat as she still wanted petting and belly rubs and the like 'seems like something The Monster Lord would be able to do, though considering all monsters have great amounts of darkness it might just be him stuffing her with too much'.
After they finished each proceeded to find their own ways to relax, John drank at the inn's bar while Alice rather than doing what I expected went and lied next to Tom and napped leaving me to ponder.
Why did he go so far as to try and kill John? How bad is that cult anyway? From what I saw so far they have no problem killing monsters or even working with them if that fish guy was anything to go by 'despite how little sense it makes for there to be a male monster' or the fact he called John a yuan-ti just like John called Alice at first.
Sigh…I have so many questions yet so little answers, I finally believe them that this cult is real 'despite trusting them before there was that small tingent of disbelief in their goal, safe to say it's gone now' and now I'm starting to see why they are in such a hurry to stop them.
Not to mention how harder it is, I insisted on going to search through the port town for any signs of this cult, but I was quickly shot down with them saying they probably left as those who fled us in all likelihood informed any members about us and had them leave.
With the Monster Lord it's plain and simple, just go to Hellgondo and from there go to the Monster Lord's castle and soon enough you'll face her, and it also helps that according to them is that the current Monster Lord isn't really doing anything.
This cult however….we really have no effective way of knowing where they are, and we do know they have some sort of goal they are after that they'll achieve in 1 year if we don't stop them.
I wish it was as easy as going after The Monster Lord, but I guess if being a hero was that easy then everyone would be one…except for monsters I guess.
Soon enough everyone was done resting, and we made our to that cave where that bell was according to Todd 'I really don't get why they're so worried about him, he's weird and made us see Alice's…privates and keeps giving us those strange dolls or that box to John but overall he is pretty helpful'.
Making a short stop we set up camp as the distance to that cave was far longer then we anticipated, Alice had me practice more swings and kept telling to fight like the wind, be as strong as the earth and fight like fire 'whatever that's supposed to mean'.
Each of them took the time to practice their own craft with John going as far as to use his magic to summon a familiar as he called it, to Alice's joy he ended up summoning an adorable snake that coiled around his neck like a scarf before it fell asleep.
What followed was Alice making me meditate with Jake stating that according to legend some angels were able to heal by doing so before refuting it calling it a lie 'to be fair I did feel better after this but seeing how during my chase I wasn't really injured I can't really say'.
It was then followed with John trying to teach me about something called 'feats' which are less powers and more special skills that can be picked up and apparently each of us have one, they can be trained but also this turn magic lets us just get one in place of making one of our attributes stronger.
'quite handy though I think it's better to train to get it since that way I can both get those skills and become stronger' what followed was him having me train to learn how to act as a 'sentinel' as I had to defend him in a spar while Jake and Tom attacked me.
A few hours later covered in sweat I pulled out this weird book that's part of this magic to find that feat he spoke about added to my skills.
With everything done for today we all went to sleep in our sleeping bags with John noting that the one I gave him is about to be ruined 'probably from him and alice having to share it that one time' with Alice cheekily saying that if it's such a problem he can use her stomach as a sleeping bag as she motions to her lower region 'I can't tell if she's joking about wanting to eat him or if it's a genuine offer to help'.
With us sleeping the might uneventfully we quickly packed our things before continuing to the cave as fast as possible.
[360-359 days remain]
Staying steadfast we made our way to the cave just as the sun rose with us intending to deal with both locations before the day's end comes to a close.
As soon as we entered the cave we were hit by an odd coppery smell, as we slowly entered the cave staying vigilant we went deeper step by step, not even taking the time for idle chatter as even alice seemed to take in the situation at hand.
Traps triggered were around us, small pools of blood as well, Alice sniffed the air while John seemed to notice the smell as well yet didn't note any significance to unlike Alice.
"that's monster blood, whatever happened here involved monsters" she told us as we progressed further into the gloomy cave.
Soon enough we were confronted by a horrifying visage, a meda girl yes but to our shock she was dead and whoever did so did it with violent and cruelty.
Her head was popped open as blood spilled from it like a cup while her brain was missing, her hands were bent in unnatural ways and her body was riddled with holes where her vital organs were and oddly John seemed to know what caused it.
"Illithids" he said as his friends nodded at him while me and Alice were left confused at what it meant though safe to say they were likely prepared to deal with whatever has done this.
As we continued on our path silently we saw more dead monsters like that, having their brain missing was what linked all of them which did not inspire confidence in me as I really never actually heard of a monster who does something like that, I know some monsters like to swallow whole people to eat them or through other methods but all monsters kill their victims while giving them pleasure.
There's nothing pleasurable about this if their expression is anything to go by which Alice seemed to agree as she looked equally disturbed by the sight as she was bewildered from it, muttering to herself about it.
A mimic girl laid with a blank face as blood from her open skull dripped to the floor, Alice went and pushed her into her box before closing her eyes and giving silent words of prayer before going back to us.
As we continued Alice sniffed the air before calming down suddenly and motioning for us to stop "there's quite the powerful monster ahead of you, I'd avoid fighting her as she might know who did this, clearly who ever has done this wasn't strong enough to fight her or didn't bother trying so try not to antagonize her" each of us gave our own affirmation as we went to face her.
When we came around we were faced with an extremely large kitsune with green fur and 7 tails signaling how powerful she was, John was startled from her as we was almost face to face with as we bore witness to the first possible side effect Alice's blood had on him.
Swinging his arm out of instinct at her his forearm opened grossly as we saw a large bone like blade jut out as his forearm closed around it and reshaped itself into armored plate like material as his skin took a rougher texture around the region while the blade itself long enough to be called a sword seemed to vibrate at rapid speeds despite being completely silent "ah what the fuck?!".
Yelling clearly not expecting it "sorry about it! You just startled me" he said quickly moving back to us "um, how did you do that?" Jake asked as we all kept our eyes on the large sized woman who passively observed us.
"I don't know, just….happened, now how do I put it back in?" what followed was him trying to shove it inside resulting in him cutting himself accidently and after that while he quickly healed he tried pushing the blade against a boulder only to his dismay the blade cut through the boulder like butter.
Sighing he gave up for now as Tom addressed the kitsune for us "hello there, we are known as the Hell Hunters, a group of traveling adventurers and we were wondering of you know anything about the trail of dead monsters we saw until we met you just now?" slowly taking a good look at us she answered.
"my name is Nanabi, I do not know anything about it as when I came here I was told to guard this entrance and not let any pass and the monsters we came across were alive and well" then her eyes narrowed as gave us a hard gaze "among those dead monsters, did you come across a sliver haired kitsune with 2 tails? Do not even consider lying to me heroes or might be led to think you are the ones responsible".
Volunteering to answer her Mike gulped in dread "please don't mistake my fear of you for lying but we didn't see any kitsune at all apart from you, if it helps all the monsters who were killed had their brains missing and I don't know about you but humans generally don't do that" she processed what he said before not exactly calming down but slightly relaxing around us.
"i…can see that you're not lying, I should stop threatening people when interrogating them, makes it hard to tell if they're just afraid or lying, I'm sorry but I can't move to verify what you said and I'd rather you won't move those corpses over here, I can smell the blood well enough and I'll make sure they get a proper burial, if you manage to find the kitsune I described to you...her name is Kitsu...please send her my way whether she's alive or not I'll appreciate it (more if she's alive)...and if you find who did this don't hesitate killing them, about time heroes earn their name, do this and I promise to I'll owe you anything you could want, money, a priceless artifact, pleasure, anything you could think of, just please if you can bring her back safely".
Nodding at her we began making our way back with her bidding us farewell and wishing us luck but not before mistaking John as she quietly addressed him as The Monster Lord for some reason 'I get that he has monster blood and a lot of it now thanks to Alice but even I can tell that's a far stretch'.
As we were leaving the cave trying to ignore the corpses Mike asked to borrow Angel Halo for a moment and proceeded to smack John's blade with it causing it to quickly go back inside relieving John of his struggle as he gave him a quick thanks before I was given back the sword.
A few minutes or so after we left the cave Alice rejoined us as she mumbled something to herself and laughing a bit before addressing John "seems my blood does have an effect on you beyond making recover quickly, seems you now have the same abilities of a monster while somehow still remaining human, how strange, could it be that humans are changing? Being able to possess a monster's power while retaining one's humanity, how quaint, or perhaps you were turned into a monster but can keep your humanity to a certain degree? The darkness inside you was more active when you pulled out that blade and it was only because of Angel Halo that the blade receded back inside, something you should be able to do without being struck by it, watching you try and see how human you still are is going to be more entertaining than I thought".
To all of that he merely gave her the middle finger before once more claiming he is still human as he demonstrated by asking her if monsters are supposed to have a different smell then humans and what's his smell like compared to before.
Her smirk fell as she said he smalls exactly the same as before and confirming that monsters have a distinct smell and he should have one as well if he were to be a monster 'she really seems adamant about that and really seems to want him to be one, it doesn't even seem malicious and more like she wants someone she can relate to or a friend'.
Other then that we went back to the port soon enough, not needing to resupply and having spent little time during our venture to that cave we quickly took a look at our map to see the other marked location Todd gave us to find another cave yet this one being an unremarkable cave as opposed to one in which Selene the pirate captain hid treasure.
As we were walking Alice noted that if we they were indeed telling the truth whether on how these aren't supposedly normal monsters or that they're going out of their way to attack humans and monsters alike she'd just this once help us 'seems like she was more interested in if they attack other monsters'.
The cave was unusually quiet as we delved into it, more so it was clean, no water puddles were disrupted as we walked, no pools of blood or corpses, none of that, it was very eerily and unnerving, as if something was waiting to jump on us.
Trying to relieve some tension Alice of all people asked about those Ilithids things "what should we be looking out for? What distinguishes those 'special' monsters so much from others like me? How do they look like?".
I didn't know what to expect or whether what was said calmed me down or not "you should be on the lookout for humanoids with purple to blue skin, pupilless eyes and a squid like face with tentacles where their mouth should be, and what makes them so special is that they like to experiment with some of their victims while others are used for their unusual reproductive method, long story short they slip a tadpole inside you that eats your brain and turns your body into another mind flayer, that's how most people refer to them by the way, and lastly they don't eat semen but brains, being kidnapped by them doesn't have an happy ending".
Eating brains?! And that reproductive method! i…..the monsters I know are bad but mating with them for the sake of having a kid doesn't mean death and even then it's not even painful from what I was told both by the villagers and Alice, I really hope John is wrong about what he's talking about.
Alice to her credit was just as disgusted as I was but also commented on the wastefulness of only eating someone's brains before getting looks from everyone, she stood her ground though said she won't be eating us 'great to know that'.
The others among them weren't as disturbed most likely because they already knew what me and Alice were told but that didn't stop them from having green faces with Mike mumbling something about 'not sexy monsters'.
'Really thinking with your pants there huh? Kinda funny that a priest is the horny one and not the monster blooded one but that might be racist, wait is that racist?' putting that thought aside we marched on as it seemed we finally reached our targets.
Strange words and sounds none of us apart from John seemed to recognize, littered on the floor were both humans and monsters, some were too late to save as their skulls were emptied while others were opened up by the very creatures he described as they used unknown tools on them.
Breathing hectically as they were prodded and some organs were pulled out to be replaced with bizarre alien ones, laying on the floor quiet near us was a silver/white furred kitsune with two tails.
I would have felt excitement down there from seeing her naked as she was now if not for how she was shaking in fear and how slowly one of them walked towards her holding something in hand.
An odd large bluish larva like thing writhing wildly, it looked a little bit like a frog's tadpole…..oh shit!.
Faster than I could react Jake rushed the mind flayer punching him which knocked him back before quickly crushing the tadpole under his feet, all of us came to his side while he took off part of his robe and covered the kitsune with it "get back, we'll deal with them".
Wiping off her tears and nodding she stepped back as all 6 of us took positions to fight them 'brain eating monsters that apparently don't care about semen, no pressure' I thought as I tried not to panic from the sight before me.
"Quite the mockery of monsters these creatures are, I'll deal with them like the joke they are" Alice remarked looking at them in disdain.
[-]
Unlike usual where there's some sort of music playing as we were fighting there was silence this time, creating a semi-circle we each prepared to fight save for alice who looked irritated at them more than anything.
[John- 10+7=17]
[Jake- 16+4=20]
[Mike- 13+3=16]
[Thomas- 18+4=22]
[Luka- 16+3=19]
[Alice- 1+5=6]
[1- 13+1=14]
[2- 11+1=12]
[3- 14+1=15]
[4- 20+1=21]
[5- 20+1=21]
[order- tom, 4+5, jake, luka, john, mike, 3, 1, 2, alice]
With the turn order at hand we began to formulate a plan on how to take
Them out as quickly as possible while alice was quite angry at her turn placement promising to take out her frustrations on our enemy.
"Why do I have to go last? If anything I should be first!" alice again complained as Tom eyed mindflayers 4 and 5 'I guess they're named like this because we don't know their names or because they're the same type of monster? Kind of insulting to just number them'.
Mike just sighed being annoyed at her acting like this in this sort of situation of all places "please don't complain, the turn order is somewhat random and we all know they are dead the moment you get your turn" usually she'd smirk at someone rubbing her ego but now? She just wanted to kill them as fast as possible.
Looking at each other those 'mind flayers' spoke in a language none of us understood….save for John who was unnerved by them "you'd rather not know the most of it but the important thing to know is that someone made a tear to their home realm…..the far realm and that tear leaking is what dropped them here and possibly in other universes".
Nodding to him Tom took his blade and swung it at the 1st's neck aiming to kill him in a single slash.
[melee attack roll: 11+7=18, success]
Despite his attempt the mind flayer dodged in time and instead suffered a great wound on his chest as Tom delivered his blade once more.
[melee attack roll: 12+7=19, success]
Another slash to the chest causes an 'X' like mark to bleed from the…monster 'I have a hard time compering these things to monsters from how they look and sound'.
[damage: 1d10+4 ,5+4=9, 9-71=62, 6+4=10, 10-62=52][1]
Sick dark blue blood began to spill from that thing's wounds as it spoke in nightmarish sounds that John again seemed to be the only one that understood them.
"fahf shuggog ah'f'nah lw'nafh'nah llll lloigg Iiahe vulgtmnah. c' ahnythor mgep fahf bthnkor ehyeog" he spoke…whatever that was, John looked a bit green and held his head as if…oh goddess.
With that came 4 and 5's turn as they looked at one another and nodded to each other before looking straight at me and Mike as both of us can only look in confusion as nothing happens and the turn passes while the creatures and their friends seem satisfied with what those two did 'they just looked at us, what use is just looking at someone and not doing anything?'.
With that came Jake's turn who rushed to beat up 3, without wasting a moment he went and delivered as many kicks and punches as he could to the foul being.
[melee attack roll: 11+7=18, 16+7=23, 18+7=25, 17+7=24, success, success, success, success]
I watch as each of his blows lands with devastating precision and 3 either reacts too slowly to do anything or his armor fails to protect him? Her? Doesn't matter.
[damage: 1d6+4, 4+4=8, 8-71=63, 6+4=10, 10-63=53, 6+4=10, 10-53=43, 6+4=10, 10-43=33][3]
Knowing these 'rolls' are no different than dice rolls makes me feel very happy for Jake as he pummels 3 with 2 stomach wrenching kicks and 2 jaw shattering punches along with him using his technique to try and do something to 3.
[Dex saving throw: DC:14, 11+1=12, fail]
As it tried to resist whatever Jake's attacks did to it we felt it fail to resist before falling prone on the ground with Jake grunting and passing his turn to me.
'okay Luka, these monsters are cruel, malicious and harm both the monsters you know and humans and there's no reason to spare them, kill them' I try to psych myself up as I prepare to go finish off the one Jake knocked off it's feet while trying not to think about how I'm going to kill someone 'stop trying to see them as people'.
Without thinking I walk to 3's prone position as Jake nods to me while I take out my iron sword feeling as though someone else is piloting my body, as I walked over I had to try not to step on the corpses of both humans and monsters that littered the floor.
'you're just killing a horrible monster that hurts all it sees, no need to feel guilty, it's no different than when we fought that roper' it might be the scenery that's making me like this or the fearful look that girl had but for whatever reason I felt myself fighting like possessed man acting only by instincts.
[melee attack roll: prone target, advantage, 18,1, 18+6=24, 20,14, 20+6=26, success, crit]
I watched as both slashes opened up the mind flayer's stomach as the sick looking blood pooled and strange organs spilled out and even alice looked disgusted by it and muttering about how even almost all monsters share most organs humans possess.
[damage: 1d6+3, 9-33=24, 12-24=12][3]
As soon as all of my actions on my turn were exhausted I just felt the emptiness within me as this pitiful mons-creature clung to life as most of it was beaten, the bruises Jake gave it and the slashes added by me and even the 'guts' that lied out of him were damaged beyond repair not including magic, it was as good as dead.
While I was left with my thoughts I let my turn end and John whispered something to alice with her looking at me before nodding to him. He moved to stand near her with him facing 2,4 and 5 as they were in a straight line as he held a more somber and tired look contrasting his more giddy look at the thought of murdering monsters that he believed deserved to die.
"I hope this hurts" he said quietly as lightning danced between his fingers before he quickly took out a clump of fur and a small rod of amber before rapidly chanting something and making fast hand movements as if he was channeling something before he shot out a powerful bolt of lightning with the intent to hit all 3 'the same thing he used against Granberia, huh and to think he does all of this in 2 seconds, I wonder how much practice it took to do that'.
[dexterity saving throw: DC:16, 4,10, 10+1=11, fail][2]
[dexterity saving throw: DC:16, 2,13, 13+1=14, fail][5]
[dexterity saving throw: DC:16, 1,9, 9+1=10, fail][4]
The smell of burnt flesh was arid as each tried to dodge the bolt of nature's fury but was either too slow or lacking agility for it, I could even see their skeleton for a moment as they spasmed from being hit, John looked satisfied from the spell landing but not as enthusiastically as he was so far.
[damage: 8d6 lightning, 39-71=32][2]
[damage: 8d6 lightning, 32-71=39][5]
[damage: 8d6 lightning, 36-71=35][4]
This should have been enough to kill them, it would be enough to kill almost any human or monster that isn't exceptionally strong but it didn't.
Because we're operating on game like rules, I know it's meant to be to train us and we benefit from the same boons but seeing arbitrary numbers go down…just takes it out of me as if the situation I'm in isn't enough, even if the damage isn't too visible I can still see them shaking and opening and closing their hands or the marks that I can see from the small parts of exposed skin.
After that he just sighed tiredly once more before the turn moved on to Mike who wanted to be done with all of this as the rest of us were, I just now noticed the sheer silence that permeates the battlefield, no banter between us, no comments apart from ones relating to information or born out of anger, nothing, even Alice was unusually quiet…I'm ok with all of this.
Mike takes a good look at all the mind flayers before focusing on the one that Tom is facing and deciding to target him "when I tell you, go and make him suffer" Tom gave an affirmative nod to that as both mentally prepared.
Just like John did before Mike moved his free hand in a certain way and whispered something before sending a powerful bolt of light towards 1.
[ranged spell attack roll: 20+3=23, crit]
The monster howled in pain as the light seared and cauterized the wound on it's chest as the smell of smoke became stronger while the mind flayer was surrounded by the glow of light.
[damage: 4d6,16*2=32, 32-52=20]
Standing on it's last legs it gave a defiant to all of us before looking at it's allies as they seemed to plan something and were quite confident in whatever it was despite how they were losing.
After casting that spell Mike walked up to Tom and touched his shoulder while mumbling something as a feint green glow covered Tom before going away "voice of authority and embodiment of law! Go and kill this scum of the earth that's not even deserving of pity or the slightest hint of sympathy!" he growled in rage as took a good look at all those who were both close to or already dead by these monsters.
"Might not be the best time to say it but I'm pretty sure we don't actually have to say those things to activate our abilities" John added as cringed after frowns faced his attempt to help/lighten the mood.
As if to joke at him, Tom raised his sword to decapitate 1 and yelled "with the force of a thousand suns, SMITE!".
[melee attack roll: 18+7=25, success]
Bright white light combined with a black/reddish hue covered his sword as he swung his blade at the foul being's nape.
[damage: 1d8+4+3d8, 7+4=11, 11+12=23, 23-20=-3]
The head flew high as the neck and most of it's upper torso were crumbling to dust as the they went near the divine and malicious light covering the bladed instrument of death.
Wiping the blood off with a simple swing he looked at the remaining ones as all of this was about to be over and we could finally help the victims.
Then came the turn of 3, 1 and 2, 1 was knocked off thanks to being dead while 3 was soon going to die and was on the ground and 4 had no escape route and his turn was after Alice's and Tom's turns so he was guaranteed to die.
The 3 remaining ones nodded to each other including the one laying before me, then out of nowhere both 3 and 2 took their turns as both were swallowed by cyan colored energy before disappearing as John cursed loudly slamming his hand to the ground while 4 laughed loudly at what just happened.
"God fucking piece of shit damn it!" he yelled as the turn magic abruptly ended as Alice coiled around 4 the second she had the chance as we addressed John to figure out what got him so enraged.
Walking up to him Mike put a hand on his shoulder "try to calm down please man and tell us what they did" looking back at him he took several breathes before answering.
"They got away! That's what happened, plane shifted themselves to another plane where we can't follow them!" he explained as the only one we managed to capture continued to laugh in amusement within Alice's binding not hindered by her tightening her coil around him.
"you're a wizard aren't you? Can't you cast that same spell to follow them?" Alice asked looking just as irritated but more collected.
"Nope!" he yelled as he gave 4 the meanest stink eye "that spell lets you travel to a different plane, they have a version that only lets them use it on themselves but point is that there are on an entirely different plane right now! Basically a separate universe from this one!" At that last part he punched 4 in the face as sounds of cracking could be heard.
Crossing her arms and getting angrier as well Alice replied "can't you do something to get to them? Can't you cast that same spell? Or what if I teach you how to use darkness? Will you be able to get to them then?".
Snorting at her he laughed "Nope, nope and nope! I don't know how to cast that spell yet and won't until much later and that spell doesn't even use darkness so nope!" throwing his hands up and groaning he kicked his feet against the ground.
"I won't be able to find them until at least level 13 which is 6 levels later" Tom walked up to them trying to calm them down.
"Take it easy, we stopped them for now and even if they come back we'll be stronger the next time we meet them and now it will be harder for them to operate now that both humans and monsters know about their existence" this seemed to calm Alice down to some extant while John calmed himself down by kicking 1's corpse repeatedly.
As Alice was about to do something involving her eyes to try and squeeze information from our captive he stopped laughing before spasming and laying still, dead.
Inspecting him and poking him Jake sighs "yep, he's dead, so now we only have two dead mind flayers and the rest managed to escape" slowly setting down the corpse Alice sighed being exhausted by the situation.
"let's get those people back to that kitsune and be done with this" John paused his kicking to look at her "why would we bring humans to that kitsune when we just finished saving them? You want them to be turned into food or something?!".
Groaning tiredly she explained "that kitsune works for one of the heavenly knights and one who can be said to be on the friendlier side, much so that her home village houses both humans and monsters almost as equals, not fully of course but enough so and there's also the fact that the people there would probably be able to help the victims with the psychological scars they're going to have".
"whatever, let's go meet up with her, give her the people and that silver fox girl, get our way to cross over to Sentora and then take a few days to rest from the clusterfucks we had lately".
With all of us generally agreeing we were about to face the problem of how would we carry all those we had just rescued save for the silver fox girl who was stuck to Jake hugging him and thanking him only for Alice to surprise us in a…interesting manner.
"What the fuck are you doing?! We just saved them, and you are trying to eat them?!" he yelled as Alice began to swallow them one by one with her vagina "what does it look like? I'm merely storing them in my stomach so it will be easier to carry them, I don't have so little self-control that I'm going to eat everything the moment I have a chance, otherwise I would have eaten all of you the moment we met" Mike and Tom holstered their weapons while John grumbled as Alice continued to…do her thing.
[all receive 1400 exp]
At that Tom sighed while Jake shrugged with Mike groaning and John "not the fucking time for that".
With that done we began making our way straight to that cave where we met Nanabi as Alice seemed to scare off any monster that would attack us with her aura 'she seems to want to be done with this as we are'.
What a day, I want to go to bed.
[2]
After I beat Alma and made her go away our ride to port Natalia went without a hitch, come the morning I rose from the bed stretching in satisfaction as I felt my body fully repaired despite how much in dire need my clothes need to be cleaned and replaced 'every time I have a major fight my clothes and body get ruined, I can ignore my body seeing how it heals after every fight but it's really starting to become a hassle replacing and repairing my clothes'.
After a couple of hours we reach a dock on the port and after I take a quick bath in the water to wash the blood both of mine and Alma 'her flesh and blood tasted no different than pork but it was oddly satisfying to eat a part of her and taste her blood, that's what you get for acting like eating people alive is nothing'.
I look around calmly as I walk through the port town taking in the scenery, seeing both mermaids and humans play with one another peacefully or just engaging in small talk and other mundane things is…a breath of fresh air compared to what I saw from monsters so far.
Strolling near a pub despite not being my cup of tea I was taken out of my musing by the sound of an explosion and quickly rushed towards it. "get out of the way! I'm a hero, I'll take care of it!" I yell as people block my path in their panic or hugging their legs laying on the ground.
Post haste I reach the area of the attack to find many people buried under or crushed by rubble and without wasting a thought I go and save as many as I can as fast as I can.
I keep lifting up larger and larger chunks of brick without struggle or fatigue while some marvel at my actions, I notice a somewhat familiar woman with silver hair aiding in saving people in another area, I ignore her despite the sudden rush of rage within me 'got more important things than some dumb snake'.
While we successfully saved most who were trapped or buried there were some who it was too late to save, an unfortunate number of mermaids and humans were either crushed, bled or in the area of the explosion lost their lives.
It didn't take a genius to know who caused this 'Ilias kruez, why can't you waste your efforts on something more productive like killing actually harmful monsters! Meatbags wasting air!' Where did that last part come from?...i should learn to calm down.
After I finished doing my part and being thanked for it and accepting the reward I was offered 'much as I want to reject it I need some money and I can't waste time getting jobs, at least it's better than stealing' I want to a quite cafe and ordered myself a warm cup of coffee.
Taking a sip I took note of how for the past year there wasn't any coffee in Ilias along with other goods now that I notice 'Alma, how much damage did you do just so you and monsters can go unimpeded while killing and hurting humans for selfish pleasure?!' I thought as I enjoyed my drink.
Clenching my hand I vowed to spare monsters who have done nothing to hurt others like the mermaids here while slaughtering ones like Alma and Granberia who hurt others or want to deprive them of the means for self-defense 'not forgetting The Monster Lord herself of course'.
Footsteps were heard behind me and turning around I felt myself smile greeting my odd ally "makings of a great hero you have, don't you?" Rogkua laughed as he sat with me "you could say that I guess" I scratched the back of my head bashfully.
He drank his tea slowly after the rather befuddled mermaid took his order "but I do question, why do you consume when you have no need?" sipping his tea under his mask he questioned me .
"I guess because I enjoy it? Just because I don't need to eat, or drink doesn't mean I don't like doing it" I shot back.
As we were drinking and chatting I was approached by a family consisting of a young mermaid probably the same age as the bandits I met, a kid, an older mermaid and a middle aged man with who I can only assume is his mermaid wife.
"How can I help you?" I ask them politely as the kids come up to me "is it true that you helped save all those people when someone blew up the school?" The boy asks with stars in his eyes.
The girl then comes putting her hands on my lap "and is it true that you crossed that horrible storm that stopped anyone from going to Ilias?" I laugh a bit at their questions while the older girl and who I can only assume are their parents giggle at the scene.
"Yes and yes" I answer them as they gawk in amazement at me "so cool!" in unison they call as the kids jump around me while the parents give me apologetic looks.
Unfortunately all this nice calm was soon broken thanks to a single question "when I grow up I'm going to be a super awesome hero like you and big sis! She's a human too! By the way did you see her when you crossed the storm? She went out to stop this storm yesterday! She has cute pink panties with white stripes!" he said as I looked in surprise hearing someone his age talk about that.
While his mom nagged him about that and gave a quick apology, I was reminded of the set o panties Alma burped yesterday…I took a good look at the family and sighed not having the heart to tell that kid the truth.
"the truth is that your sister did such an amazing job that Ilias was impressed and gave her a place in heaven, unfortunately she can't visit you but she'll always watch over you and one day you'll be able to meet her" the kids were both saddened but also in awe at what I told them before I took the parents aside.
"I'm very sorry for lying to your kids but I didn't have it in me to break their hearts" the man took a deep breath and sighed while his wife hugged him "please tell me the truth, what happened to our daughter?".
I steeled myself as I spoke "Alma Elma ate her, when I fought her she burped her panties, I'm sorry, that's all that is left of her" I answer as I give him the partially melted pair of underwear.
The mother starts crying while hugging the man tightly, he takes deep breathes rapidly before at least outwardly taking a hold of himself "I don't hate you Claire or your species, but I do believe that from now on I'll die hating monsters, any sympathy I could have for monsters being forced to live in hiding is now gone".
Claire wiping her nose and tears looked at her husband "to be honest Jori? I think it's the same for me, I always thought some monsters living in the wild was because of fear of heroes or discrimination, now I know better, it's not humans who should be asking to live in coexistence with monsters or for forgiveness, it's the other way around" wiping her nose again she looked at her husband and kissed him as he wiped her tears.
"at least we still have our 3 remaining kids with us, one day we'll tell them the truth" with that she turned to me and surprised me with a tight hug and a wet smooch on the cheek "I don't care that you gave us this terrible news, I sincerely thank you for telling us this no matter how much this hurts".
I rub my cheek having difficulty speaking "it's…no problem, it's what a hero should do and if it's any consolation to you in my fight with her I ripped her wings and tail off along with giving her the beating of a lifetime and a small taste of her medicine" I chuckled.
They did not look convinced despite believing that I at the very least drove her off until I gave them Alma's severed tail "this…this is too much, you can sell this for a fortune or make with it something amazing and you're giving this to us for free?".
"sure, keep it, whenever you feel sad or angry about what happened to your daughter take a good look at this knowing there's someone out there who can kill that monster" they wordlessly nod as they bid me farewell along with the kids who weren't too bothered by my odd friend and I could only chuckle a bit hearing the boy complain after his dad told him only people who are given angel blood could be heroes 'I wish my dad was like that rather than…better not focus about that'.
Upon returning to Rogkua I saw him engaged in small talk with the owner before turning to me as I heard him give a hearty laugh "sob stories are plentiful for monsters yet true excuses for their crimes are but a whisper in the wind".
I can't help but snort at his strange way of talking 'can't say he's wrong though, I still want coexistence, but monsters can't expect what they do to be forgotten like nothing ever happened'.
We talked a bit more before he finally seemed to go into the reasoning for meeting me again "there are quite the number of tasks you may do, in what order is for you to choose" I nod to him as he continues.
"firstly there's a mermaid living a simple life with a loving man but desires marriage but a ceremony must be made first, should you seek to help her I'll send you right to her so she'll enlighten you more, there's also the city of San Ilia where someone very important is waiting for you, it is imperative you go there, and finally there's a haunted house where a foolish necromancer is running horrid experiments that are bound to get out of control and endanger the nearby city" he explained to me each place I could visit.
Scratching my chin as I thought 'there's no way I'm not making my way to deal with that house or meet that important person but I should also have enough time to help that mermaid'
"I think I'll meet that mermaid lady before getting to San Illia and then that house, that sounds right" I tell him my planned course.
With that her finished his drink before abruptly standing up "then with that I bid you farewell for now and good luck on your journey dear omen of the great old one" what does that supposed to mean?
With that all being said I wave him goodbye as I make my way to meet the one needing my help.
[359-358]
With more time spent walking we made it back to the cave as I recount what happened on the way back here, Kitsue after properly meeting her told us that she was asked by a certain someone to guard the path to the treasure of that cave along with Nanabi.
To her dismay however those mind flayers we fought from yesterday came in and either kidnapped the monsters or…consumed their brains, they were then taken to the cave where we found everyone and were either used as food, experiments or were to be cerebramorphed into more mind flayers.
She was vey clearly traumatized by this experience as she promised to never again attack or rape any humans she came across and even protect those she could 'I want to achieve my of coexistence but not like this, they should change because I taught them better or they changed…not because they went through a scarring experience and were saved by humans'.
The people we saved and were inside Alice's stomach had a wide array of injuries ranging from minor to critical, oddly enough most of the monsters were in the critical range enough so that Alice forcibly taught John how to manipulate and control darkness on a basic level so he could help heal the monsters.
As we marched as quickly as possible without hurting those held by Alice, I noticed how Kitsu at all times tried staying as close to Jake or all of us, walking near us, hugging our arm or simply stepping right behind us she always stayed close, very close.
When we reached the entrance of the cave we unanimously agreed to have her be away in case the mind flayers staked the area or some other monster like that, she whined wanting to see us beat them up and also because she was scared Alice secretly planned on digesting all those inside her but her arguing was crushed when Jake talked to her followed by Alice taking her inside her private area into her stomach "we're almost done, I won't let that fox slow us down just because she wants to see her knights in shining armor in action".
John just sighed for the 20th time today "yeah I get it, I just to be done already, get that dumb bell and take a week or so off to rest and THEN go to that other continent, time constraint be damned I need some time to rest after this long string of trash" scratching his head he looked at Alice's bulging tail.
"By the way Alice, I know you told us you can control your stomach to not accidentally digest them and even keep them safe for long periods of time without them needing to eat or drink but how are they not suffocating to death?" he asked her as we all took note of that.
Rubbing her stomach as we leisurely walked through the cave while trying to ignore the corpses we saw here in our last visit she explained "first off I already knew that was a possibility and made it so that there are tiny openings letting in air for them and secondly it's common enough for monster-human couples to let the monster eat them safely as a form of trust and furthering their bond, most monsters who can eat humans have enough control over their bodies to stop the stomach acid and insure the human doesn't suffocate, it's quite romantic isn't it? The human showing his trust in his partner by willingly entering what could be his grave while she shows it by keeping him safe from harm and not killing him…of course there are a number of cases where the monster either accidentally digested him or suffocated him and sometimes it was intentionally".
Looking at her with varying amount of disgust John decided to be the one to speak for us "I'll try avoiding judging anyone wanting to do that but that seems like an easy way to accidently get yourself killed and I'm pretty sure there's a 50/50 chance your 'lover' won't care much that she killed you".
Chuckling Alice retorted "you'd be surprised, most couples who reach that level of trust are quite close, for the less nice monsters this occurring is quite the embarrassment having realized they killed their man on accident, for the more loving ones though…it usually doesn't end well for them" snorting at this John mocked "let me guess, Lamia are among the ones who don't care and the ones who do are the minority".
Oddly enough this got Alice to turn serious "you're wrong, it's actually the other way around, earning that level of a human's trust is quite the achievement and Lamia are known to be…very attached to the ones they love…enough so that if I learned I was responsible for the death of my husband or children…".
"I'm sorry, I didn't know you did such a thing" John apologized remorsefully while Mike whispered something to him out of earshot and I only caught a few things "she####have####or####right###kids" what did they say?
Calming down she held a serene smile "it's ok, I don't have a husband or kids, it was just the idea that I spoke about" oh.
Coughing into his hand Tom asserted himself "I think we should keep on going and maybe when we get back we can go more into what you were talking about" nodding both their heads we hurried up.
"got to agree with you there Tom" he tapped Alice's tail causing her to jolt before calming down "I know already that she and John used that darkness to heal the monsters and you and Mike healed those humans but the sooner they get to that woman who can help with those mental scars the better, I can't even imagine the sort of trauma they're having from surviving that encounter".
I can't help but agree 'monsters do awful things no doubt but not all deserve death as they said…much less to be tortured and experimented on'.
After a few minutes we finally came face to face with Nanabi once more, she took a quick look at Alice and upon noticing her large tail and the people in it being still alive she seemed to calm down "in just a moment she'll be here to talk to you, you have nothing to worry about but before you talk to her I must ask, is Kitsu okay?" looking pleadingly at us I felt happy to reassure her fears.
"we found alive and well, she might need therapy and a doctor but other than that she's alive" letting out a huff of relief she silently thanked us as the doors behind her opened up.
Skipping happily I saw as a short kitsune girl with yellow hair and ears walked over up to her subordinate "hey Nanabi, are they here yet? Did they figure out what happened to Kitsu?" rather than answer she pointed right at us.
Sniffing the air and taking a few seconds to look at each of us including Alice she smirked "you need to relax a bit and not wear yourself thin trying to be the best, it's okay to take time off sometimes and not always be the man people look towards for help or guidance, you're not just a role model but a person" she said looking at Tom as he silently nodded.
Looking at Jake she held a somber look "the wind is fickle, free as it is it's also shapeless and lacks form, you might not know what you can and can't do but you need to be decisive, also between you and me a friend of mine likes to say you can't command the wind but we both know it's not true, man is known for many things including forcing things to obey his will so I'm sure you can do the same and besides…monks decide themselves what disciplines they follow".
Sniffing intently Mike she giggled a bit "you're quite the interesting human you know? Just because you follow laws and rules religiously doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your freedom or happiness, I'm sure you can find a rule to get you married more easily or a one night stand, alternatively you can just have one of my kitsune make you cum 3 times and there! But make sure to not let your lust blind you, I saw enough good men die because of that" despite the blush he had he nodded his head at her.
And then she looked at me "…you'd make a good mate~" she said with a sly smile only for John the hold her by the throat in anger as Alice and us panicked seeing the dangerous black smoke come out of that hand "AND YOU'D MAKE A GOOD CORPSE. I saw enough monsters talk like that before going in on the attack and try to rape us!".
She didn't seem concerned until she touched his hand and saw hers begin to rot and decay at which her eyes widened with horror and…recognition?
"before you make a terrible mistake John, remove your hand from her before I have to force you" Alice commanded him "and why should i? she was probably about to try and rape him!".
"THAT's The Heavenly Knight of Earth Tamamo" oh…OH! Slowly taking off his hand from her throat and stopping the flow of the deadly smoke she breathed slowly as she calmed down as well while her hand healed after she forcibly removed the decaying part.
"I'm sorry for agitating you like that, sometimes I forget that the rest of my kind tend to talk like that just before attacking people, my name is Tamamo like dear Alice said" taking out a fan and covering her face with it she then addressed me before addressing John.
"you have a lot of optimism and naivety, both are good and bad, don't let your lack of understanding be your downfall and don't let your hopes be crushed, there's enough vindictive men and women perpetuating the cycle of hate between humans and monsters" at that she faced John with a strange look.
"how odd, you are able to use the same power the boogeyman is able to" he giggled at that "not really, everyone is able to, it's just that not everyone knows how to or is even aware of the existence of negative energy".
Raising an eyebrow she continued "is that's what it's called? Regardless of that you have too much hate within yourself, I understand being spiteful and vengeful for what we monsters do to humans, but you shouldn't let it consume and blind you, sure it's okay to be angry or even hate what we do but don't let it take over and control you, your power is over time and space right? Use that to heal your heart and make a future where bad people pay for their crimes and good people are saved instead of making one where everyone dies" to his credit he did calm down but still eyed her suspiciously…especially when he saw in the corner of his eye her giving him gaga looks.
After that she closed her fan before giving all of us a Cheshire grin "I am The Heavenly Knight of Earth Tamamo and it seems I have you to thank for saving my subordinate and a lot of other monsters as well, you have the blood of monsters on your hands but you didn't kill all who were in your way, hmmm, this could prove very interesting" she then looked at John once more with a lustful gaze before her grin widened as she looked at Alice.
"My oh my Alice, you work fast don't you? You leave to have fun and you already have a child. Now tell me! Who's the lucky man who married The Monster Lord and gave her an heir!" what!
Alice had enough of Tamamo as she slammed her fist against the wall while her face was red "he's not my son or related to me! He just has my blood that I injected into him to save his life that's all! He's too old to be my son anyway!" i-i! ah!
[1]
*Sigh* looks like Luka is reacting a bit more than I expected he would to finding out, in the game it wasn't this bad…though it might have to do with all the stress from the last few days piling on, I definitely feel it.
We were now left standing in the cave with Tamamo giggling at what she 'accidently' revealed while Luka was having a possible breakdown with Tom trying to calm him down, John who couldn't care less and wanted to be done with this, Alice who was more or less the same but far more irritated, Jake simply sat near Nanabi discussing pleasantries, as for me?
"Did you have to do this? For all you know we would have attacked her out of sheer surprise and would be killed because of you" she just shrugged and snorted "not a problem, Alice can make more friends later on, it's not the end of the world and besides she has enough of my kitsune as friends from her childhood".
Taking out my religious book I opened it and skimmed in it 'there are times where 'eye for an eye' punishment method may be enacted when no proper governing body could give proper judgement so long as the punishment is of precise value, and it may only be enacted by law clerics and priests' I felt a grin cross my face.
'Guess it's time to be petty like John because our death is definitely the end of the world even if she doesn't know it' cocking back a fist and feeling divine energy swell in it "I would disagree with you on that, attitude like this proves you are a shitty parent and ancestor!" boy was it satisfying to see her eyes widen upon hearing that last part! All those around me heard me too but were busy, didn't know what it meant or didn't care.
It was just as satisfying to feel her nose break as my fist landed on her face, as she got up she didn't seem too angry and more shocked at what I said. Whatever, I'll answer most of her questions no problem, it was well worth it seeing how Alice would have probably eaten us without thinking twice because of Tamamo's 'prank'.
'Alice is right, foxes for all they're beauty and fluffiness are the worst'.
AN: .time!
It took way longer than it should have to make this.
Anyway I'm going to take probably also quite some time for chapter 10 because after a bit of nudging and advice I'll be taking this month to try to fix/improve the previous chapters.
Do note I say fix and improve and not rewrite, the general plot and order of things will stay the same but how it's written should change for the better I hope and some small things will be changed such as how The Hell Hunters met Luka and Alice to be…less rushed (I was rushing a lot things before haven't i?)
Anyway expect next chapter to be in a month or so.
As for what happened this chapter: we finally saw some of d&d's monsters with the lovely nod to our boy Lovecraft with those mind flayers and yes that's how they really reproduce and be prepared to later on learn the freaky ways other d&d monsters make kids, John is now somehow still 'human' but also has Alice's abilities (not that he knows how to use them), after rescuing the victims while some of the mind flayers escaped they finally met Tamamo who like in canon could have gotten them eaten by Alice for a sick prank without knowing what they went through before (for the record they would probably first jumped on Tamamo to beat her up for this with Alice joining in to vent and for what Tamamo was trying to pull off).
Dark Luka (until his proper moniker is given) made it to port Natalia and met his ally once more and learned of a few destinations and a side quest he may do (I'm sure his meeting with kraken could go nicely and nothing wrong will happen) while also seeing some of the damages Alma's hunger has caused which further cemented his trust in his god's words.
Review time:
Gentelemen Rance-T.M: you are definitely right in that regard of 40k and ironically enough out of everything that will be involved from 40k in the fic the chaos gods themselves and the majority of the warp won't be anywhere near it not including daemon primarchs, but yeah you summarized it pretty well yourself, 99.9 will be dnd/mgq with the others being like side dishes or toppings with the occasional side story delving deeper into the idea thanks to being non canon and being there just for fun.
genilgames and probably a number of other people: no insult or anything but it may be that you misunderstood the point of that urban legend/story Alice told, it's a theory that the boogeyman is a 7th renegade ancestor allying with humanity, not the actual truth, there may be more to come down the line on who the this supposed being is and his or her goal so don't be so sure it's one single option.
On another note I'd like to return the favor turt19 did and call out his fic for you to read, it may be good or not because I'm not experienced enough to say but because of the bro code I must call him out, go read his fic and decide for yourself.
Until next chapter after I improve the previous ones.