Benjamin Vryce

“Demons.” Benjamin whispered as he knelt down beside one of the bodies. It was a small humanoid, perhaps two and a half feet tall. Red leathery skin, with scales covering it in patches. The creature had large bat like wings and small horns on its head. Benjamin inspected the body; it was slashed across the abdomen. Coupled with the fall, it was clear what had killed the beast.

He inspected its hands and teeth; claws and fangs were evident but they weren’t large. Turning it over, he found the creature had a long thin tail that had to be as long, as the thing was tall. The end was a rounded lump of flesh and muscle, tipped with a three-inch-long curved stinger. The stinger was hollow at the tip, and was likely venomous.

“What is it?” Grace asked, coming up behind him.

“I can’t be sure, but it looks like an imp. A minor demon, from our legends on earth. They existed outside reality, but would sneak in when they could, to cause mischief.” He recounted what he knew about imps. Granted, most of the knowledge came from video-games, but he left that part out.

“What about this one then?” Jade asked, pointing to another body, Tik had fished out of the pile. It was a large pitch black, thickly muscled quadruped. Somewhere between a bear and a dog in appearance with a long mane of red orange and yellow fur, running the length of its head, back, and tail.

“That’s a hellhound. Or at least, that’s what it would be called back home I think.” He said, looking at the beast. It was bigger than the mastiff sized dire squirrels, but smaller than the horse sized wolves. “One or two of those might not be too bad, but if they run in packs, we might be in for trouble.” He finished with a sigh.

Demons, the invaders of the universe. The corruption, that the Arbiter and the World Lords feared so much, were freaking demons. Did the rift lead into hell then, or the multiverses version of it anyway?

“We need to hurry. From what the Erlking said, and what I remember from home, the longer the rift stays active, the worse the things that come through will get.” Benjamin said at last, turning to the group.

Grace closed the distance between them and hugged him tightly. He hugged her back, with all the strength her body could bare. The fight ahead was going to be difficult, and he just hoped they would survive it.

Using the same method as before, the ogres climbed the shaft wall with the humans on their backs. The Hive monarchs flew around them with their soldiers, providing cover. As they neared the top of the shaft, they started encountering flying imps and autumn hive in aerial combat. The red queen stayed close, covering their climb, while the blue king flitted about dealing death, to all who came to close.

Essence began to flow into Benjamin from the kills, and he directed it all into the aged copper acorn. He was on the verge of a break through, he knew it, and this battle should see him reach that point. He was able to watch the aerial battle as his ogre mount climbed, actually it was all he could do, holding on as he was. The autumn hive had the size advantage over the imps, but the imps outnumbered them several times over.

The big Hive scythed through the mass of smaller flyers, shrugging off the majority of their attacks. They were nearly impervious to the small stingers that whipped repeatedly at them from all angles. After watching for a while, Benjamin was now convinced the stingers contained some kind of toxin. Whenever one struck an eye cluster or a joint, the hive who had been hit would plummet to the ground within minutes of the attack.

“Doesn’t this seem a little sudden?” Jade said over to him as they neared the top.

“What do you mean?” he asked back, trying to gear himself up for the battle to come.

“Well, like, we scouted and hunted and hid and scouted some more. Then we worked our way into this tower and climbed for what felt like ever, and now BAM it’s time for the show down.” She said with typical Jade flair. “Don’t that seem kinda sudden to you?”

“Not really, Jade. Everything else was just leading up to this after all.” he answered, shaking his head.

“Ok, sure but, do we even know how to close this rift thingy?” she continued, looking at him with confusion.

He looked over at her, slightly amazed even now that she hadn’t been paying attention at all during their strategy meetings. He laughed suddenly, tension draining away as he looked at his fellow human. She was a mess, but at least she was consistent.

“Not a clue, but it’s supposed to be obvious when we get there. Like, how pulling a summon from your soul or using your force shield, its instinctual, so I’m told.” He said with a grin, “don’t sweat the small stuff blondie, just get up there and kill…everything.”

She looked like she really wanted to comment on the blondie jab, but it was too late. The ogres had reached the top of the shaft. Climbing up and over Tok’s shoulder, Benjamin scanned the surroundings. It was another sewer pit, full of old discarded bodies and angled shoots. There must be several of these throughout a tower of this size.

He thought he saw the rift on the other side of a pile of empty exoskeletons, like a tear in the fabric of space. That was all the time he had for idle staring however, he was instantly swarmed by enemies. Drawing on his connections, he pulled the wolves and goblins to himself.

“You all know the plan” he shouted over the deafening thumping of wings and cries of pain. “Grace, stay on Honor. Stomper stay by them, and everyone…kill everything!” he screamed the last as he raced into a pack of three hellhounds, with murder in his heart and Ice at his side. Benjamin thought he could hear the affirmative yells of his companions, but it was soon lost to the rush of battle. He gave a silent prayer to the Erlking on Grace’s behalf, hoping her creator was watching out for her now.

His claws found the neck of the first hellhound, sinking deeply into its throat before it could register him as a threat. The muscles were thick and as tough as braided cables, but he ripped and pulled until the blood on his hands began to froth and bubble. Having reached the beast’s windpipe he let go and moved on. That hellhound was dead, even if it didn’t know it yet.

Ice had another by the throat, shaking her massive head wildly. Benjamin heard the cracking of the beast’s neck as it dropped lifelessly to the floor. The streak of easy kills ended there, however. The final hound had time to see them coming and sunk its own jaws into Ice’s flank. The flame-colored mane, whipping around looked like real fire as it moved.

Ice let out a howl of pain, sinking her own jaws into the beast’s hind leg. Benjamin leapt onto the hounds back simultaneously and clawed for its spine. The pair ripped the hellhound apart. Afterwards, Benjamin pried its jaws out if Ice’s side. Pouring essence into the wounds they had sustained; they caught their breath.

As she healed, Benjamin took a moment to look around at his companions. Grace sat astride Honor firing arrows in a steady stream. The wolf was dancing around behind the ogres, snapping his jaws around any of their foes who weren’t quite dead when they moved on.

Stomper stood nearby, axe and shield a blur of motion as he waded into the enemy. Many of the imps and autumn hive were airborne, but there were several on the ground as well. Not to mention, the wounded who dropped from the battles. Jade was focused on these, each time she spotted something moving on the ground she would fire an essence bolt into it.

His time ended when a swarm of imps descended on him and Ice. The red queen was tasked with watching the girls, and the blue king had been sent out to hunt solo. That left Benjamin largely exposed to aerial attack. When they had planned out the assault, he hadn’t taken into consideration the fact that the invaders could fly. The imps were nimble in the air, and their tails extended their reach beyond what Benjamin could counter with his claws.

Reaching behind him, he pulled the long dead Hive’s scything limb from where he had secured it. Two feet of wickedly sharp blade, made of something similar to his own claws. Attached to another foot of exoskeleton forelimb, close enough to a sword hilt to get by with. The makeshift weapon, extended his reach enough to exchange blows with the imps.

As they battled, Benjamin and Ice piled the corpses high around them. The venom from the stings was taking its toll on them though. It itched and burned where the stingers pierced the skin, he was forced to channel more of the essence the kills gained them to healing their wounds. Even that however, was a short-term gain. He knew from past experience that his body could only handle so much abuse before it failed him.

So, it came as little surprise to Benjamin that Ice was the first in their party to die. She was quick and agile for her size, but she was restricted to frontal assaults. Whereas her body made for a huge target, for all the imps she wasn’t directly biting. He felt her return to his void space, just moments before the imps that had been swarming her moved over to him.

With a mental pull, he called the blue king over to himself. It took several long seconds for him to arrive, him having dove deep into the cloud of miniature demons. Requesting that he clear the immediate area, Benjamin called his group back together.

“There’s just too many of them,” he shouted to the group at large as he bisected little red bodies with every wave of his scythe. “We need to rush the rift, when I summon Ice back, we make a break for it.”

The others could only nod or shout agreement, there was no time for debate or strategizing. The acorn had started shaking in his mind, it was like an egg on the verge of hatching into something new. He wished he could watch it happen, but there was no time. Pulling on the link to Ice, he vaulted onto her back the moment she materialized. Shouting the charge, he aimed her at where he thought he had seen the rift.

The monarchs led the charge. The blue king moved like a dancer, every shift of his limbs caused another body to fall away. The red queen conversely; was like a flying ogre, smashing enemies aside with her bulk and bashing them down with brute strength, as often as she sliced a foe with her scythes. The pair creating a tunnel in the maelstrom that the rest rushed through, before the remaining enemy swarmed back to fill the gaps left by their fallen brethren.

Benjamin looked around as they sprinted for the rift, he couldn’t see any of the reds or blues anymore. An outline filling in within his void space let him know one of his creatures had died, looking back he saw Stomper fading from sight under another pack of hellhounds. He couldn’t resummon him just yet however, they were moving too quickly. He would have to wait until they came to a stop, which would keep the axe wielder fresh for the coming battle as well.

He could hardly see through the mass of bodies swarming the sky in front and around them, so when they reached the rift, it was almost a surprise to Benjamin. He could feel it in his soul though, like a wrongness on the world. The rift was a wound to the universe that he thought he could heal; assuming the demonic horde pouring, from the tear in reality, would kindly step aside and let him focus for a few uninterrupted moments.

Almost as if the universe was reading his thoughts, the flow of imps and the occasional trio of hellhounds suddenly stopped streaming in through the rift. Benjamin was too stunned by the sudden lull, to take advantage of the opportunity however. Before he could so much as reach for his essence, four new forms flew through the rift.

The three in front were huge, ten-foot-tall brutes. They looked to Benjamin a lot like winged ogres on steroids… except two feet taller, and made of jagged black stone. They flew slowly and awkwardly, like each wing beat was a lumbering step. The v formation they flew in and how they were arrayed around the fourth figure, told Benjamin they were body guards. The fact that they were hulking stone creatures built to guard, made him think of the ancient gargoyles of legend.

The final figure to enter through the rift before the tide of imps began again, was a red skinned demon woman. She looked small and petite in comparison to the gargoyles, but she had to be every bit of six feet tall. Her crimson skin was only visible on her face, hands and wings. The rest of her body was completely covered in rough cut, obsidian armor. Dark hair somewhere between black and maroon fell to her shoulders, seeming to shine against the black of her armor.

She held a weapon in each hand; in her right hand she held a blade that also looked to have been chipped out of obsidian, and in her left, she held an ebony rod, perhaps a foot long with several glowing bands of energy circling its length. Even in flight, she moved with fluid grace. She held herself with a poise, which Benjamin could only associate with nobility.

She looked around as she entered the universe, like a queen surveying her new kingdom. When her eyes turned on Benjamin, he couldn’t help but tense up. Her eyes were striking; the irises were an ice blue, that stood out in flagrant contrast, to the reds and blacks that made up the rest of her form. When their eyes met, he knew there was no mercy in this woman.

The grin that exposed canines of a size with his, split her face making Benjamin shudder. Raising the rod in her left hand she waved it casually in the direction of the red queen, who had been advancing on her position. Even while everyone else in the party had stopped. The glowing band nearest the tip winked out as a bolt of raw energy shot at the red queen. When it impacted her, both the Hive monarch and Benjamin began to scream.