Bruce_Sentar

RD 3 Ch 44

Chapter 44

The fight began in earnest. It quickly devolved into a chaotic battlefield where allies and enemies were uncertain. Magic and muscle clashed as I dodged backwards, grabbing Merlin by the cloak while fending off my latest attacker. 

"'Merlin, do me a favor,” I said, noticing a lull in the combat arou...

RD 3 Ch 43

Chapter 43

"General," the boss asked, "is it complete?"

The boss watched the demon general's face change, hoping this abysmal post would be over soon. The general had sent most of himself inside and had split off a small section to keep command of the vault outside.

It wasn't something most demons would do, but...

RD 3 Ch 42

Chapter 42

The time for talking seemed to be over as General Zaydelin lunged at me. The demon general’s hand morphed into a massive claw with shadows twisting off the tips as he took a swipe at me.

I blocked his attack with my sword, sidestepping and swinging his hand away. Spinning back, I attempted to chop him wi...

RD 3 Ch 41

Chapter 41

Slowly but surely, I found myself in nearly everyone's soul, defeating all of the demons and teaching my people the art of soul absorption. Those on the outside were freed after being ‘possessed’ and using their access to project their ability into others. Despite being in stasis, I was working to clear this...

RD 3 Ch 40

Chapter 40

Now that I had something to do besides staring out at the empty white expanse, I realized how much time was passing by.

As the different Mul Branova summoned me into their souls, I realized that I was sitting on the shelf about six hours between members of the Mul Branova finishing and the next starting. T...

RD 3 Ch 39

Chapter 39

The time continued to pass while my body was frozen, and I was going a little stir-crazy. There was nothing but the empty white room and the occasional demonic grunt.

The demons were working for the boss, walking through and commenting on various parts of whatever trials were happening. I was able to glean...

RD 3 Ch 38

Chapter 38

Amanda groaned, shaking out her hair and running her fingers through her long, golden mane.

Her brain attempted to play back what had just happened to orient herself.

There was the trial, the forest, after Bran announced everything within as his enemies they started feasting on the blood of monsters ...

RD 3 Ch 37

Chapter 37

The dracoon bellowed behind me, reminding me why I needed to hurry. That breath would bake the quicksand and it would be able to break free.

Movement ahead caught my attention. It didn't seem that large, but I had to remember I was now 16 feet tall, and something twice my height was peeling itself away fro...

RD 3 Ch 36

Chapter 36

"Merlin, can you teleport to the limit of this space?" I asked quickly as the dracoon swooped down towards us.

"Already on it," Merlin replied, chugging back one of the mana potions. She held her staff with both hands and began to chant. From what I understood of here teleportation ability, she slowly rais...

RD 3 Ch 35

Chapter 35

"Nyx is near that thing, so whether it's cute or not doesn't matter. We have to go save her." I told Gloria and Simone.

"Wait, what?" Gloria peeled the talisman off her forehead. "We're going to go to that thing?" she sounded surprised. “In that case, it’s not cute at all, it is terrifying!”

"W...

RD 3 Ch 34

Chapter 34

The serpent’s role couldn’t be understated after that. I continued through the forest as the lashers dropped fruits. I suspected that the whole drop function in the vault was actually being controlled by the demons. Despite that, I focused on sweeping up as many fruits as I could, clearing my quadrant.

RD 3 Ch 33

Chapter 33

The tank gave a confused, "Huh?" as he stared at his shield, and the inscription I had placed upon it.

Suddenly, lightning slammed down at me as I stepped away from his shield. The lightning bent, drawn to his shield as a conduit and fried the tank, giving me just enough time to spin around on the lightnin...

RD 3 Ch 32

Chapter 32

As if the garrotes and the lashers were not enough, I felt a new danger almost like a sixth sense.

Spinning out of the way and swinging my sword behind me, my strike barely bit into the new beast before it bounced off a hard-scaled serpent.

Its colors indeterminate, soul gaze only gave me outlines as...

RD 3 Ch 31

Chapter 31

"I'm so sleepy," Linda, one of Antonio's guild members, yawned and fanned her face. She was a petite woman with long black hair and a penchant to complain about the quality of my olive oil when I cooked.

I was gathered with his group, Merlin, Simone, and Gloria, leaning on pine trees near a fruit outside t...

RD 3 Ch 30

Chapter 30

Circe leaned back in her chair, fresh from overseeing the installation of the Hellgate anchor into Bran's demon trap. She was not an impatient woman, but she was feeling a little bitter at the moment as she played with her long blue hair and stared out the window for a moment.

Four months had passed with n...

RD 3 Ch 29

Chapter 29

The next week and a half passed agonizingly slowly. The sun continued to shrink in the sky above and the days grew darker by the hour.

I turned to Merlin, who had finished constructing our newest castle using everything we had learned from the Mul Branova and our own explorations of the vault.

Many o...

RD 3 Ch 28

Chapter 28

Jenny held one of the rockie-talkies while the other leaders of the Mul Branova circled around her. Also present were the three servants of Lord Bran, as well as Amanda and Helena. The six of them would be in charge of the larger Mul Branova, they had dozens of women to look after in the vault.

They were h...

RD 3 Ch 27

Chapter 27

Our newly formed group continued to map out the region like a giant rectangle. Every time we found a fruit, I marked it with a talisman high in a nearby tree. That way, even if people forgot, I would be able to hand out locator talismans and send everybody out to gather them rapidly.

Thankfully, I had come...

RD 3 Ch 26

Chapter 26

Antonio and the others from his guild were all sitting in front of me, their legs folded under them, heads bowed, and hands resting on their laps. More than a few were now wearing bruises and bloody lips. They’d managed to come out of the quelled forest fire and tried to stop me from murdering Antonio.

I...

RD 3 Ch 25

Nyx walked through the mist, waving it out of her vision as colorful lights flashed all around her.

An announcer's voice echoed from overhead, "B-b-bonus round!" Suddenly, a giant sign with a few faded lights fell from the empty air and suspended itself above her. The edges of the sign had a ring of lights that swirled just to get attentio...

RD 3 Ch 24

Before I could crush Antonio's spirit any further, he exploded into an expanding mist that reformed twenty feet away. His sword was at the ready as he stared at me and drank a potion. "Who are you?" he asked, his gaze fixed on me down the edge of his rapier. 

Meanwhile, as he tried to inspect me, I brushed the inspect aside and got a ...

RD 3 Ch 23

Chapter 23

"I was walking through the forest with Merlin using her incredible ability. She had termed it 'League Step,' and surprisingly, it was one I had not heard of before. 

"Pause for a minute, Merlin," I said, frowning. We were two days into our journey and something had started to bother me. I began fishin...

RD 3 Ch 22

Chapter 22

Simone and Gloria never did find the ninja. The woman had likely slunk away after her two compatriots had been downed. Simone respected the move. Gloria would have trounced the ninja on her own.

Gloria had taken the two spatial rings and then put out the fires before they became a full blown forest fire.&n...

RD 3 Ch 21

Chapter 21

After stepping out of the mist, Simone waved a hand in front of her, clearing it away. She turned to Gloria, surprised to find that the woman was not beside her. They had walked through holding hands, thinking that might help, but it seemed there was no such luck.

Nyx and Gloria were both gone, and Simone ...

RD 3 Ch 20

Chapter 20

The fruits appeared one after the other up the stairs. Simone took only a moment to inspect them before realizing their incredible value. Bran had emphasized several times how difficult it could be to raise stats once leveling slowed down.

But realizing the opportunity these presented, Simone suddenly had ...

RD 3 Ch 19

Chapter 19

I threw myself to the side, rolling out of the way, only for another foot to try and catch me off balance. I scrambled only for one of its talons to catch my thigh and cleave my leg clean off.

The pain was excruciating, but I had experienced worse. 

Scrambling to my hands and knee, I threw mysel...

RD 3 Ch 18

As it turned out, Merlin could keep up quite easily. Having challenged her, I shot forward, flying over the detritus on the forest floor, only for Merlin to keep pace, walking as if she were strolling in the park. Yet with every step she took, she teleported right next to my side, no matter how fast I was going.

I paused after a few miles...

RD 3 Ch 17

Chapter 17

I was currently sharing the highest step with this ignoramus of an inscription master, rubbing my temples as I stared down at the hourglass that was slowly draining away. "So, Leonardo," I stared at the inscriptionist, "given that we're both at the top, I say we split whatever rewards we can take." 

T...

RD 3 Ch 16

Somewhere in the strange expanse of the vault, there was a room filled with demons. In it, a demon named Bart back on a chair, observing a myriad of screens.

Each of them showed a very similar situation: a set of stairs and a group of initiates taking their steps. The first stage of the selection process had ten levels and all of them were...

RD 3 Ch 15

Chapter 15

I blinked away the blinding light as I stepped into a new area, completely alone. There was no door or anything behind me, just a black void that I had emerged from. I put my hands in my pockets and ventured further into the room. Giant, plain columns connected the ceiling to the floor in an otherwise monstrous ...