Chapter 84

The Ranker seemed to hesitate, then he muttered, “Worth the cost.”

A gauntleted fist came up and his index and thumb moved toward his face, or more specifically the black and silver eyepatch. He touched at it, then drawing in a breath, he lifted it away.

Teeth, sharp needle-like teeth, reddened flesh, a disturbing mouth, that was what was behind the patch, a demonic mouth in his eye socket which contained a hellish swirling green Fel Fire. A very very dense Fel Fire.

Rain furrowed his brow, his animal instinct was warning him to be wary, this wasn’t normal, the Ranker had done something to himself even the Ranker himself was hesitant to touch.

He wasn’t about to let him use it. He darted forward, the lake of Imp bits tearing up around his feet as he lunged for the Ranker, scythes reaching.

Fel Fire spilt from the Rankers eye socket in a waterfall, the fire poured and built as the Ranker stumbled back, fire running out faster and faster as though a great lake was draining.

A large demonic hand lurched from the fire, the rest of its body not even fully formed, and grabbed for Rain’s dark paws. A mistake. The demon didn’t know what it was facing. Rain made his punishment swift and terrible, slashing out with his scythes, pieces of half-formed red demon disintegrating even as the rest formed. One demon formed missing a head and immediately collapsed, another with its arms falling to bits. Rain came on with a fury, shredding through the half formed battalion of demons as he chased after the Ranker.

He broke through and found the ground awash with Fel Fire. Ahead the Ranker was bent over, hands on knees, fire waterfalling from his eye socket so quickly that it splashed against the growing pool of fire below. He couldn’t reach the Ranker as it was. He didn’t have to wait long for the situation to change however, demons were rising, their red faces and yellow slitted eyes forming from the fire, the many heads already looking in Rain’s direction. These creatures were different from those that came before, broader, more muscular, and were wearing at least some amount of armour as well as wielding solid silver spears. Their teeth were larger too not fitting in their mouths, almost orc like.

Rain didn’t give a shit. He launched into them, shredding through their ranks in a hurricane of gore even as they rose. While this ability of the Ranker’s was strong it had one fatal flaw, it was slow. If he had to guess the Ranker had used it only rarely and wasn’t used to pulling it out this quickly. He shot through the rising army, tearing it to pieces, his scything claws cutting a bloody harvest, dozens of demons falling with every passing moment. He leapt into the air, claws rising, and his scythes came down on the Ranker’s held up vambraces ringing like a church bell as they struck the eerie green metal in a flash of light.

The metal rippled and Rain snarled, the bridge of his nose wrinkling as his half lip lifted. He forced his paw down, his muscles bulging as with a shriek of metal the armour began to give. The Ranker’s one green eye danced between the scythes bearing down on him, unable to pull his arms away as the blades would instantly fall upon his exposed head.

He let out a cry of pain as a blade pierced through and nicked his skin, and then he didn’t have a choice as he lost control of his arm. His arms fell-

But then the thing that had been forming behind Rain moved.

A mammoth hand curled around Rain’s leg and Rain found himself being flipped upside down and dragged up into the air, his scythe claws slipping free from the green armour as the Ranker fell back clutching his arm.

The huge demon dangled Rain upside down, Imps crawling over its vast and broad muscular body, yellow tusk like teeth sticking up through its mouth, long black hair hanging lank from its head, silver baubles woven throughout. Its body was clothed in sheets of metal plate, cruel spikes set along the surface, a match to the many imps that crawled across the giant, each Imp bedecked in their own plate just like the giant. Rain blinked up at it from where he dangled.

“Big.”

He had gotten used to being the largest person in the room, it was a little jarring to be picked up by the eighteen-plus foot demon. Its yellow slitted eyes examined him, then its other arm rose, a cleaver held in its fist. The cleaver was surprisingly well made, a giant chunk of silvery steel clearly well cared for, and sharp, very sharp.

The cleaver moved toward his chest as Rain came to the conclusion that he didn’t like that this demon was larger than him. Time to cut some demon away.

His scythes swept up in a blur and sliced deep into the thick hand holding him. The demon jerked back with a roar as its fist began to disintegrate.

Rain fell away with the rain of flesh and bone and skin that poured down from the rapidly shrinking mass. He flipped through the air and came down with a crash amongst an army of angry demons. They instantly swarmed him, burying him in a mound of raging stabbing bodies, savagely fighting without thought for their comrades. The attack was barbaric, a brutal dogpile designed to crush and overwhelm with numbers and weight.

Then the screaming began.

The demons waiting to pile on looked down in horror as a pair of flying black wolf teeth burst from the mound before diving back in, turning the mound into a horrifying pile of wriggling gore. It took no time at all for the pile to go from desperately moving bodies, to desperately moving bits. The demons closely packed around it looked at the moving morass of gore and took a hesitant step back.

Rain stood, bones and flesh and muscles sheeting off him. He was drenched from head to toe in blood which made his partially exposed to bone face all the more disturbing.