The soldier rammed through an enormously fat demon at least fifteen feet tall, shoving his shoulder through the meat of the enemy and erupting through the other side. The end result was that a spray of gore thoroughly drenched the targets cowering behind it. The soldier didn't bother asking for a surrender. He simply raised his shotgun.

! As a result, your Perk has upgraded to !>

Wiping the blood away from his visor, the soldier stared at the small board, wondering what difference it was supposed to make.

He'd ended up in a smaller part of the city, where dingy buildings loomed over the streets and alleys were full of demons. The soldier had promptly gotten to work exterminating them all, and had gained fifteen levels in the process. The rate was slowing down somewhat, and his sharp increase of strength, speed, and endurance was slowing as the curve leveled out, for lack of a better term.

Here, the reddish buildings and jutting roofs made for excellent cover and weapons, if need be. It was almost a playground for the soldier.

Pouncing out from one of the alleyways, Eld was carrying the remains of what appeared to be a much smaller demon with stubby horns. Amazingly, the tiny demon was still alive, albeit a little shell-shocked. It was muttering gibberish under its breath, staring off into the distance wide-eyed.

Rubbing Eld's head, the soldier pointed at the small demon, and Eld's teeth tightened. The tiny demon shrieked, screaming, "Message for-"

POP. To the soldier's surprise, the small demon exploded under the hellhound's grip, and the giant dog blinked, dropping to the ground and pawing the worst of the gore away.

"Hey, Doom Guy! Chew on this!"

The soldier turned just in time to get hit in the face.

Staggering backward, the soldier shook his head and squinted ahead. A series of explosions detonated right in front of him, and he was physically hurled backward through a brick wall.

Lying there for a moment, he heard several voices congratulating each other.

"Nice one! You nailed him!"

"Yeah, that's what he gets for bothering everyone!"

"You didn't even flinch from his fear Perk!"

What's a fear Perk? The soldier wondered as he sat up. He was currently inside a small cloud of dust, motes of light twirling through the cloud.

He didn't really understand. He'd killed them, right? He'd probably torn them to pieces, whether it be from a gun or his bare hands, or maybe even that sword from a while back. He had definitely spared no strength in ensuring their demise, whoever they were. If they respawned, then that meant they knew who he was.

The soldier came to an obvious conclusion soon enough.

They did not fear him enough.

So he would have to rectify that.

Getting to his feet, he summoned his shotgun and paced through the dust cloud, loading it as he did. Raising his view in front of him, he saw a group of three demons, all of whom looked rather cocky.

Striding forward, the middle one raised a hand, and a spiraling ball of fire erupted from its palm, and crashed into the soldier's visor. He'd been ready this time and didn't so much as flinch. The demon's confident smirk vanished, and it raised both hands, flame spewing from both of them.

The soldier was implacable. Moving onward and ignoring the flickers of liquid fire dripping from his armor, he continued to calmly load his shotgun, getting closer and closer.

With a furious scream, the demon lunged forward and brought its claws upward to try and stab the soldier. Side-stepping the attack, the soldier aimed the shotgun and blew the demon's arm off at the elbow.

Collapsing in shock, the demon clutched at the stump of its arm, staring at it in blank disbelief, then lifted its eyes to the soldier. "Why do you keep killing us? Why don't you take damage?" It stumbled to its feet, its face contorting in anger and fear. "What are you!?"

The soldier placed a hand on the demon's forehead, his fingers resting between the horns. "Doom." The soldier replied simply, then started squeezing.

He saw the demon's allies' eyes widen, saw their hands raise and flames of two different colors sparking to life in their palms. He witnessed the demon in his hand's incredible grip scrabble at the soldier's arm, trying to get his immovable grip off of its skull.

The soldier increased the pressure further, and a loud crack was audible to everyone nearby. The demon's eyes glazed over, and it went limp.

The soldier wasn't done. Underneath his gloves, his knuckles whitened as he squeezed impossibly tighter. Something had to give, and it wasn't the soldier.

With a gruesome pop, the demon's head squelched into the soldier's hand, and he tossed the corpse aside.

The demon's allies were frozen in shock, the fire in their hands sputtering out. "He... that wasn't an attack."

Looking to each other, the other demon said worriedly, "He just..."

Returning their attention to the soldier, one of them said in wonder, "What kind of demon are you!?"

The soldier took a step forward. Just one step, but it made both of them take a step back in response. The soldier grinned in his helmet. They might not be running in abject terror, but it was progress.

Moving forward, the soldier picked up speed, and the demons ran to meet him, fangs bared and claws at the ready. The soldier would have laughed if he was capable of it - hadn't they seen what he did to their comrade? Still, he would accept the free experience.

And then a silver barricade landed in front of him.

At least, that's how it looked to the soldier. As the demons crashed into the barricade and he heard it grunt, he realized it was Aliss. "Hey there, Doom! Looked like you could use some help!"

They practically bounced off of the titanic silver shield, and Aliss took full advantage of it. Rushing forward, she slammed the rim of the rectangular shield on one of the demons' feet, and the demon screamed a few octaves higher than he'd been speaking in earlier.

The other one lunged forward, a quick swipe of its claws at Aliss' head. Leaning backward, there was a faint hiss as she barely avoided its strike. Shoving her shield into the other demon and knocking it off balance, she stomped forward and kicked the attacker's knee, snapping it backward. As the demon went down, shrieking in agony, she brought her own knee up and smashed the demon's nose with it.

The assailant was visibly lifted into the air, gobbets of blood coming from its shattered nose, and Aliss rammed it with her shield. As the one whose foot she'd slammed tried to attack her, she took the hit full on her shield and sprinted forward, the demon's claws scraping on the surface of her shield. As she picked up in speed, she let out a low grunt and almost jumped forward. The demon was practically squished between her shield and the very solid building wall, and collapsed to the ground, groaning.

The soldier walked forward, and Aliss spun to face him, her face twisted in a strange expression that faded the moment she saw him, draining into one of embarrassment. "Oh - oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry! I don't know what got into-"

He handed her his shotgun, and she almost dropped it in shock. Staring at it for a moment, she raised her eyes to his. They were full of confusion. "Aren't you mad I went overboard?"

The soldier glanced at the demon whose head he had squeezed, and her attention was directed to it. Her eyes widened, and then she looked back to the shotgun, and then to the soldier. Her face split into a slow, uncertain grin. "You - you're sure?"

He nodded confirmation, and she went back over to the demon with the broken nose. Slinging her massive shield onto her back, she raised the shotgun to her shoulder and aimed down it like how she'd seen the soldier do it. The demon looked up, squinting through the tears in its eyes. "Please, don't! I'll lose levels! C'mon, don't!"

She hesitated, glancing back to the soldier, and the demon lunged forward, the fear in its eyes giving way to triumph. Instinctively, she pulled the trigger, and most of the demon's head disappeared in a spray of red.

Clutching the shotgun two-handed to her chest, Aliss stared at the decapitated demon, then spun to the soldier with a huge grin. "That was awesome! Where can I get weapons like this? I mean, I felt a little guilty at first - he looked really scared, and I thought Oh, he's terrified of me! and then he lunged and I was like BLAM! and his head was just gone! That was the coolest thing I've ever done! Please let me borrow some more of those!"

The soldier grinned behind his helmet. He'd always known he wasn't the only one who enjoyed the job, but at least he'd finally met one for himself.

And yes, he had every intention of getting her more guns if it meant he'd have backup for meting out extra death.