Chapter 16 - The Fat One

Eleknar knew exactly what this sword really was. How had it ended up here? How had he just ‘happened’ to run across it? The odds of finding this weapon were astronomically outside the realm of chance.

No. This was not just an accident. This was orchestrated by someone or something else.

First, after millenia of waiting, Eleknar had been presented with a host having unbelievable potential. True, Trey had suppressed him unintentionally when they’d bonded, but that was only a temporary problem. He had no doubt that his hastily constructed offspring, Sithis, would keep Trey out of harm’s way in Eleknar’s stead.

Or at least that’s what Eleknar hoped, because it was the best he could do in his current situation. As a piggybacker to Trey’s subconscious mind, Eleknar really didn’t have a lot of leeway to help his host directly. He just had to count on Trey’s ability to keep himself alive long enough to let Eleknar’s subtle changes take hold over his personality - long enough for Eleknar to finally gain access as a partner, instead of just a tag-along.

His mind was getting off track though. Eleknar’s host was a boon unlike anything he could have ever dreamed of. His soul was pristine. Was he expected to believe that the All Spirit had just ‘happened’ to drop Trey off right where Eleknar, one of the most prominent essence in existence, happened to be residing?

Was Eleknar expected to believe that Trey had just ‘happened’ across a weapon of this caliber?

The idea was laughable.

Whoever was guiding these events, it was a friend. That much Eleknar was certain of, and if he had to guess… Eleknar had to suspect it was his long-time ally Alkir. Perhaps she had struck a deal with the All Spirit, or perhaps this was entirely her doing, but he had no way of knowing yet.

He wondered what she was up to nowadays. It’d been a while since he and the dark goddess had conversed. It would be nice to finally come into contact with her again, but for now… that would have to wait.

In the meantime, Eleknar was rather busy laughing at the attempts of his partner while the human did his best to survive. Internally sighing, Eleknar acknowledged the obvious fact that he had a lot of work to do in shaping his future partner.

It would certainly take time.

Fortunately, as long as Eleknar’s return was kept hidden and Trey didn’t manage to permanently die, time was something Eleknar had a lot of. Turning his attention back to the monster in front of him, Eleknar watched the amusing encounter between his host and the large, ugly brute unfold.

***

The fat one Napoleon had been talking about... It was a monster of some variant, but Trey wasn’t sure what exactly that was. His best guess was a giant brown ogre, based on the fairy tales he had read growing up as a child. Trying to identify it resulted in nothing but question marks across all areas.

The behemoth rolled its hideous, gnarled head to face the puny man beneath it. Its bulging yellow eyes became glued to the scene and it picked itself up to stand with a panicked and then angry glare. Frantically standing to full height, it was even larger than the gargoyle Dreadlord Vorshok had been. It’s gut was also far larger than it should have been by normal anatomical standards.

“My lord…” a ghostly voice emanated out from the weapon like a loud man trying to whisper - and it shook the entire cavern. Trey was panicking but couldn’t move, with his bones aching beyond words and feeling like they were going to be crushed at any second. As the weapon spoke, Trey's hand was drawn like a magnet against his will to reach up and grab the sword by its hilt.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” screamed the ogre as it raised a brawny, leathery trunk of an arm up - readying a strike.

Upon touching the weapon, time seemed to freeze. Trey was thinking at a rapidfire pace, but everything around him was like a painting. He couldn’t feel his heart beat. He couldn’t move. All he could do was silently watch.

“The living weapon: Talsh’Noc’Un, has chosen you as its next master and has been recognized as your minion. It has revealed relevant parts of its status page to you. One of your minion control limit slots has been filled.”

Talsh’Noc’Un Greatsword

Item Tier: ???

Damage: ???

On Hit Effect: ???

Bonuses: ???

Requirements: Minionize this weapon to wield it at bare minimum potential, dealing 10% of normal damage without bonuses. Requires 710 Strength and 138 Wisdom to wield at full potential.

Durability: 12,000/12,000

Specials:

1 - Living Blade: Talsh’Noc’Un evolves and grows with its master, registers as a demonic class minion.

2 - Berserk: Tremendously increases aggression. Vast but temporary increase to strength, speed, dexterity, intelligence, and faith. +180 to full body physical and magic resistance. Immune to all debuffs (this does not include physically inflicted statuses like 'bleeding'). Lasts until out of combat. Cooldown: Long.

3 - Obliterate: Empower next attack, explodes upon impact. Damage is variable based upon mana availability from the wielder. Cooldown: Medium.

4 - ???

5 - ???

6 - ???

7 - ???

8 - ???

9 - ???

Opinion of you: Neutral

“Talsh’Noc’Un has modified your body after capitalizing upon already-existing traits. You have been forced into an evolution - Aspect of the Devil: Tail is now part of your being. You have been forced into an evolution - Aspect of the Devil: Horns is now part of your being.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Trey Bon

HP 220/220

MP 144/144

SP 120/120

DP 1/1

Race: Human

Guild: None

Class: Infernal Summoner

Level 5

Status Alerts:

Remaining Skill Points: 1 Remaining Stat Points: 5 Current Permanence cycle: ON Current Bound Point: Negaizer Runestone You have leveled up! Be sure to assign your stat and skill points!

Buffs:

+3% resistance to all damage (Resilience) +10% resistance to all damage (Dreadlord Vorshok’s Bane) Autoregeneration (Dreadlord Vorshok’s Bane) +15% damage to offensive spells (Aspect of the Devil: Death’s Gaze) Night Vision (Aspect of the Devil: Death’s Gaze) +100% to sight, hearing, smell, reflexes and awareness (Predator) +33% to awareness (Aspect of the Devil: Horns)

Debuffs:

+8% damage taken from all Celestial and Holy abilities (Aversion to Divine)

Stat Amplifications:

12 Strength

10 Vitality

10 Endurance

9 Dexterity

21 Speed

19 Intelligence

22 Wisdom

0 Faith

0 Luck

5 Willpower

Magics

Chaos Ball (Chaos) - Level 3

Summon a ball of chaos to fling at your enemies

Chains of Chaos (Chaos) - Level 2

Summon chaos chains to bind or impale your enemies

Shadowstep (Dark) - Level 1

Teleport a short distance instantly

Summoner’s Calling: Least Summoning Circle (Dark) - Level N/A

The most basic of summoning circles with a low intensity magic signature that usually (but not always) attracts the weaker denizens of the infernal realms. This broad spectrum spell enables you to communicate with the infernal realms of Hell, Oblivion, and the Void, but offers no protection whatsoever from the creatures you summon. You are able to increase the chance for a random target to appear by using double the mana and circling the center pentagram.

Summoner’s Calling: Minion’s Call (Dark) - Level N/A

Summons a specific minion you already own, or dismisses them to your personal nether realm. Dismissing a demon to their nether realm will heal it over time and allow it to revitalize. However, keep in mind it takes 30 seconds to channel this ability. You may only summon or dismiss 1 minion at a time.

Roar of the Banshee (Dark) - Level 1

Silences enemies for a short time, inhibiting them from casting spells or miracles

Miracles

None

Physical Combat

Aspect of the Devil: Claws - Level 2

Aspect of the Devil: Mask (Chaos) - Level 1

Grants bite attacks and manaless ability to breathe short range hellfire

Aspect of the Devil: Tail - Level 1

Hand to Hand Combat - Level 1

Polearms - Level 1

Blades - Level 1

Assassination - Level 1

Adds bonuses and critical strikes while unseen by your opponent.

Miscellaneous

Sneak - Level 2

Identification - Level 2

Traits:

Vatosis Inferna - *TRAIT IS LOCKED AND UNAVAILABLE.*

Earthborn - You are earthborn and experience ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ permanence cycles. You also gain a 20% increase to any type of XP acquired when compared to your fellow NPCs, and your mana regeneration rate is increased by 30%.

Languages Learned - Ancient Demon

Void Essence - You have been chosen as a suitable host. You are now able to access black magics, skill trees, abilities, and spells unavailable to most other black magic users.

Resilience - +100 HP, +3% resistance to all damage. Mental fortitude increased.

Dreadlord Voshok’s Bane (Heroic) - +10% resistance to all damage. Autoregenerate 1% HP per minute. Autoregenerate lost body parts over time.

Predator - Participant has acquired a symbiote. Predator is a separate entity that will become bound to participant. Predator symbiote gives +100% to sight, hearing, smell, reflexes and awareness. Predator symbiote is currently in the chrysalis stage, when it matures this symbiote will be able to possess and acquire the body of a demon-class enemy - giving you a new minion. When this possession has finished, the Predator symbiote's bonuses will remain but the symbiote entity itself will no longer be bound to the master's body. Also allows participant to use the ability Consume.

*Consume - Beings that you have killed yourself may be consumed. Doing so gives you a chance to acquire Strength stat points and is largely dependent on the foe’s danger rating. Consume will also rapidly restore HP, MP, and SP.

Aversion to Divine - Participant is associated with the infernal arts. +8% damage taken by all Celestial and Holy abilities.

Physical Attributes:

Shadowform - Allows participant’s body to express shadow properties. Allows Participant to focus and bind acquired items into Shadowform, absorbing them into the participant’s body fitting a maximum weight of 500kg. May summon bound items anywhere within a 5 yard radius of participant. May unbind items when needed. If bound item is outside of a 1000 yard radius from participant, bound item automatically returns to Shadowform.

Stored Items:

Noc’Tul Grimoire Major Healing Potion Enchanting Stone

Aspect of the Devil: Death’s Gaze - Permanent no cost upon use Night Vision enchantments afflict your eyes, which are tinged a glowing red. This also empowers all of your damaging magics by 15% damage.

Aspect of the Devil: Claws - Summon and discard demon claws at will. Separate from hand to hand combat. Can cause bleeding, a damage over time effect.

Aspect of the Devil: Mask

Summon and discard demon Jaws at will. Allows participant to use predator’s Consume ability much more rapidly and participant is now able to use Consume during battle. Allows participant to breath Hellfire (Chaos), a medium range area of effect spell that costs no mana. Can cause burns.

Aspect of the Devil: Tail

Allows piercing and slashing attacks. Damage equivalent to Aspect of the Devil: Claws. May extend up to 25 additional feet. (Non-retractable prior to original 5 foot length)

Aspect of the Devil: Horns

These horns pick up vibrations in the air and in the ground to sense incoming attacks, +33% to awareness. (Non-retractable)

Magical Attributes:

Chaos

Dark

Skill Trees Unlocked:

Aspect of the Devil Summoner’s Calling

Control Limit Slots: 2 of 2 used.

Trey’s Minions:

Napoleon, Oblivion Imp, Level 3 (1 slot)(Liked) Talsh’Noc’Un Greatsword, Living Weapon (1 slot)(Neutral)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The prompts popped up simultaneously right as time came back into normal frames. Sithis cut in: ‘I’ve analyzed our new skill sets, I’m downloading the analysis into your brain as we speak.’

An enormous hand slammed down to crush the spot where Trey had been just a moment before. From the sewer, Napoleon watched in first with fear and then dumbfounded as a blur of motion sent the mammoth of an ogre flying face first into a nearby building.

Trey’s improved reflexes and improved awareness had allowed him to see the attack coming. He had envisioned where he wanted to go, shadowstepped high into the air and slammed his new sword into the giant’s face to send his opponent sprawling. The attack wasn’t enough to do much damage but left a gash along the face of the monster, but even that was a surprise considering the size of his opponent. Trey landed on the ground a few seconds later, just as dumbfounded as the imp was by the impact that the sword had made upon the giant, but then he convulsed and sank his gigantic newfound weapon into the earth. He began to scream in agony, clutching at his body to try to stop the new burning sensation that'd come on so suddenly.

Pain was etched into Trey’s features as he continued to scream into the ground. The veins in his face trailed out from his eyes in scarlet weblike patterns. Two black, wicked looking horns slowly began to break skin and protrude from his forehead until they curved out to reach a length of about ten inches each. A black tail had sprouted from Trey’s spine in a burst of blood just above his buttocks to tear another hole in his pants and whipped about in a frenzy to reach a length of 5 feet, the long slender tail coming to a point at the end.

It lasted only eight seconds, but those eight seconds were far too long for Trey’s liking. When the transformation stopped, Trey’s new attributes looked very similar in texture and color to the claws and mask he had acquired already. The horns and tail shimmered slightly for a couple moments before solidifying and matched the color of his sclera. They seemed to merge with Trey’s body over the next couple of seconds and steam rose from where they had appeared, being hot to the touch after being created; and cooling off in rapid fashion.

Trey stayed where he was, kneeling on the ground with both hands propping himself up as he stared downwards. He was panting hard and sweat dripped down his toned musculature to splat onto the ground beneath him in droves. To Trey’s front, he heard the rumble and then a roar. He slowly lifted his head to gaze at the enraged ogre.

[Ancient Demon Dialect] “YOU DARE STEAL FROM ME HUMAN!” the behemoth screamed from its ugly twisted mouth. Huge gnarled teeth gleamed out as he spat globs of filth while he roared. It slammed a gigantic foot down onto the ground and the earth shook. “THE SWORD IS MINE! I WILL TEAR IT FROM YOUR CORPSE!”

The ogre picked up a huge piece of rubble twice the size of Trey and flung it as hard as he could at the man with a snarl. Trey saw the attack incoming and his eyes grew wide, thinking he was about to be crushed. Instinctively he held out the sword to brace himself, he certainly didn’t have time to dodge the high velocity projectile and his shadowstep was on cooldown. As he felt the rubble collide with the weapon and his arms began to give, the sword activated automatically: it channeled 40 points of his 144 total mana into the weapon and in a rush the blade came to life.

Chaos magic erupted across the blade and tore through the piece of wall, decimating it and ripping the stone apart effortlessly in a spray of debris to leave Trey wide eyed and pissing himself. Shakily looking the weapon over, he felt it pulse slightly in his hands as Sithis began to laugh.

‘Fascinating.’ Sithis commented softly as he watched it pulse as well, the mana from the blade dying down to a low simmer. ‘That took a large gap of your mana to do, but I believe it activated the Obliterate ability it has registered on its status sheet.’

The ogre was just as baffled as Trey was and screamed as it began to charge, wiping the blood from the cut in its face in newfound fury at the thief before it. Huge feet ramming into the ground and causing the ground to shudder underneath the weight, Trey could only think of one thing to do.

He began to run.

“Shit!” Trey screamed as he flung himself over the top of another wall and onto the roof of an adjacent building just as a huge crusted hand smashed the spot where he had been a moment before.

There was no way he could beat this thing. It was too big, just as fast as he was, and really, really angry.

He dodged another piece of rubble that slammed into the wreckage beside him and lunged forward, sprinting across the roof to jump onto the next building and then onto another as the ogre began smashing its way through the ruins to chase after him.

“COME HERE LITTLE MAN! LITTLE THIEF!” roared the monster he had originally thought was a god damned hill it was so big, and to Trey’s surprise it jumped over an entire street to land awkwardly and directly in front of him with its back to Trey.

This situation was utterly ridiculous, and Trey couldn’t help but think about how unlucky he’d been over the past couple weeks. Trey angrily raged expletives between panting breaths as he spun around and went back the way he had came. Flinging to chaos balls in the giant’s direction - he internally congratulated himself as they struck home across the giant’s face, leaving two bloody and burned holes across the same cheek he had cut earlier.

Then, due to his own stupidity and a lack of awareness, he fell off the next building entirely. He hadn’t been watching where he was going as he cast the two spells and literally flipped off the side of the wreckage to land on his side with a loud thud. The pain was excruciating and he was pretty damned sure he had just popped his arm out of socket. He screamed in pain and tried dragging himself up with his good hand, letting go of the greatsword for a moment and angrily popping his shoulder back in place with a gruesome snapping sound. Was it supposed to sound like that? It wasn’t an experience he’d like to repeat.

A crash from further down sounded out with a spray of rock and rotting wood as the ogre barreled through another building to face him, snot dripping down its large rolling nose and bloodlust in its eyes as it raised its right hand with a series of strange motions. Before Trey knew it, a blast of sound rocked Trey’s world and nearly burst his eardrums in a deafening magic attack meant to disorient him.

And disorient him it did. Trey fumbled for a second after that and scrambled to pick up the sword again, wobbling and tripping over his own feet as he failed to right himself again. The attack had taken a whopping 90 HP off of his health bar with the one blast and he was completely at a loss while trying to get up again. In his top left vision under the status bars, he saw an icon with the description of ‘Disoriented’ listed as a debuff.

A loud, deep laugh of victory rang out and the ogre began to advance on the struggling man. It spit a large gob of snot to one side and clenched a fist, preparing to smash the smaller being with one go.

“NO NO FAT ONE! FAT UGLY ONE YOU YOU!” screeched a high pitched voice as a firebolt collided with the ogre’s right eye.

The ogre roared, clutching its face and wheeled about angrily to search for the one who had attacked him. Immediately spotting the tiny imp, who was relatively the size of a beetle to this ogre, he became even more infuriated that such a weak creature would dare cause him pain. He forgot Trey in that moment and barreled ahead, easily clearing the gap between him and Napoleon at rapid pace while Napoleon squealed in a panic.

The tiny oblivion imp succeeded in scurrying back into the sewer entrance just a couple seconds before the area was utterly crushed by the pursuing hate-filled ogre. Trey saw Napoleon’s health drop just barely on the bars below his own, but he knew the imp had made it far enough down the sewer to avoid any major harm as he was still alive.

“Master…” a voice whispered from the sword into his ear.

It was… ancient. Raspy even, and filled with a want for blood.

“Master…” it repeated soothingly as the ogre turned around to finish the job. The brute was gaining distance at a moderate pace and was almost on top of him, wanting to finish this business as soon as possible.

“Use me… Use… Berserk…”

Trey was too disoriented to understand what the sword wanted him to do. Berserk? What the hell was that?

It was Sithis who clarified the meaning by recognizing the ability on the sword’s status page, noting that it made the user “immune to all debuffs.” Without another second spared, Sithis activated the sword’s ability and Trey’s muscles suddenly tensed. His heart made a loud THUD sound and his body began to shake. His pupils dilated, his mind sped up, and his veins bulged. For a moment, as his body adapted with the overwhelming sense of power flowing through him, everything became silent. And then... nothing but bloodlust encompassed his mind.

Trey screamed a demonic howl back out at the ogre in challenge, cackling soon thereafter as insanity set in. His mask and claws materialized as he shot like a bullet towards the towering figure of his enemy, completely oriented again and putting the ogre into a state of shock after it had thought him immobilized. Trey’s movement was fast and the monster was so close that the ogre barely had time to bring up one arm, suddenly in a panic.

Trey leapt to clear the gap and smiled through his razor teeth, slicing through the dorsal half of the ogre’s arm with his sword and passing over the creature with another shadowstep immediately after. The monster screamed out - terrified and in agony while spinning around to figure out where Trey was, but no sooner had Trey reached a low hanging cave protrusion when he spun to plant both feet and landed sideways against the overhanging cave wall. Trey’s momentum prior to shadowstep kept him on the side of the cave looking down and sideways at the monster for another good second before he jumped and shot back down to engage.

By the time Trey had reached the back of the monstrous brute, slamming into his enemy with speed and power unlike anything he’d ever experienced before, the sword was again alive with flickering black-red chaos sparks and flames. The sword punctured deep into the ogre’s back, and its mana didn’t affect Trey at all as black lightning surged from Talsh’Noc’Un to lacerate the spine and ribcage of the ogre. Power ripped into the monster’s flesh as Trey heaved like a madman to cut deeper into the creature that had dared attack him.

The ogre bellowed and screamed, and the sudden lack of nerve connections caused the great beast to go limp from the mid-back down: effectively paralyzing it. With another squeal of pain and surprise it plunged downwards onto its frontside to catch itself with its hands.

Trey ejected himself off the back of his enemy as huge elbows came up to swing back at him. He hit the ground beneath only to roll and flip back into the air - sending two chaos balls to explode into the now open body cavities of the beast’s back.

But Trey wasn’t done. As blood, muscle and spine were showering the nearby wreckage, Trey sent three flaming chaos chains to pierce the giant’s body - grappling with various pieces of the monster from three different directions - and then the chains contracted to pull out vertebrae from the exposed wound in gut-wrenching sounds that left the ogre convulsing.

Soon it was nothing but a giant, ugly carcass, and its unbelieving eyes began to close for the final time.

“Your Chains of Chaos spell has increased to Level 3.”

With not a moment to lose, Trey rushed over and tore a large piece of the corpse off. It hit the ground and he began to violently devour it as if he had never eaten in his life before. The huge chunk of brown and red flesh was easily ripped to pieces as his demonic jaws went to work at amazing speed.

He was ravenous. He needed to feed, and this would suffice.

“You have gained XP. You have gained 1 overall level. You have gained 1 strength from consuming a fresh kill. Your minion Napoleon has gained 1 overall level.” stated the mechanical voice from the All Spirit.

Not far above him and along an outer ledge, his imp Napoleon sat there watching him with a puzzled expression as it scratched its head before scrambling down the rubble to join him in the feast. Napoleon hadn’t expected his master to win, but he was pleasantly surprised to find he’d been wrong.