Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Drew was ready for this. His friends had their fun, his wife had her fun, now it was time for Drew to take out his unhealthy frustration on these trees. He sent forth the mental command to his minion to attack the nearest tree. It was important to test whether his minion had capabilities similar to Freya, he needed to have a solid understanding of how his powers worked by the time The Descent arrived. That required testing. Luckily for him, there were many unwilling and immobile targets directly in front of him.

The speed of the minion was a tiny bit faster than Freya had been, but the main benefit that he could pick up immediately, was the muffled sound. His increased perception had made the shepherd's movements when she'd sped to her target noticeable, however his minion was a good deal quieter in it's movements. Was that due to the fact that it was a walking pile of animated bones instead of flesh and blood? He wasn't certain. Either way, it was an advantage that would be useful, especially in scouting and security.

It leapt towards the target and began ripping and tearing at the wooden exterior. The damage was... mediocre. It was definitely less powerful than Freya was, however the upside was noticed around the five minute mark of minion vs tree action. The minion wasn't tiring at all. Freya had just gotten up to walk around and watch his minion attack, but previously she'd been slumped on the ground resting, and she'd been relentless with her target for only two or three minutes. His pet was on minute five, and was still going strong.

So either the undead didn't have an endurance stat, or maybe it was just naturally high. Either way, that seemed like another advantage that Drew could exploit in the future. He recalled his pet to sit by his side as he examined the damage from afar. The tree was pretty fucked up, magic damage from his spells would have done more, and accomplished it faster, but he was pleased with the overall results.

Mentally, he was assigning different roles his pet would fit well with. The most obvious was it's ability to harry an enemy relentless and without tiring, while the damage wasn't fantastic, the endless nature of the attacks would eventually force an enemy to change their focus of aggression to the pet. So basically, a very solid option for a distraction. Security was another option, it would never tire and it would always remain alert. If he had enough minions he could keep his property relatively secure without needing to set up guard schedules.

If a particularly strong group of enemies were determined, it would still buy a few moments of time, moments the defenders could use to prepare. Keeping those things in mind, Drew made a mental note to raise more undead minions from the bones he'd collected previously. Moving on from that train of thought, it was time to try out his corruption spell on a tree. It wasn't an innocent animal, and it certainly wasn't aware, and most importantly he hated the damn things. Morally, he was totally fine with this application.

He chose a different tree than the one his minion had attacked, and released the spell. It was instantly cast, silent, and had no obvious spell effects at first, so he turned to the group behind him to let them know he'd cast something on the tree and asked them to watch it. The progress of the spell on the tree was far different than it was on the coyotes. Instead of turning into a bubbling mess of meat that slurped off the bones, the tree's bark began to blacken in splotches. Little by little, the spots grew larger until the bark began to fall off from the afflicted areas.

It wasn't yet spring, so there were no leaves, but Drew was certain that if the tree had any, they'd have fallen off by now and withered to dust. The process continued for a fair while, he knew the tree had been dead now for several minutes, but the spell continued to progress until several cracks were heard. Eventually, the middle of the tree just crumpled inward as the inner wood rotted from within, it was all over after that. The tree fell, hit the ground, and continued to rot.

"That was anticlimactic." Mark said.

"Yeah, a bit. but it was also a tree, not a coyote. The minion next to me was dead within a minute after I'd cast it, it's skin and meat bubbled and rotted until it just fell straight off the bones." Drew replied.

"Oh." Mark said as he went a bit pale.

"Yeah, nasty shit. Way more effective against something with flesh, than wood. But still, it's good to know that it'll work on targets other than flesh and blood."

The group nodded, with both of the Kobinahs appearing to have gone a bit green while thinking about the results the spell would have had on a living target. Well, more things needed to be tested, so no point in dallying when there were targets available. Drew focused on the next target and thought about activating his new death toll spell he'd received recently. The information flooded his mind and he adjusted his stance to the knowledge that had been made known to him.

His feet were spread shoulder-length apart, his right shoulder aimed towards the target. The mana from his core rushed to his right arm as he raised it towards the tree. His index finger extended to point directly at the tree, and the pressure that had been building popped like a bubble as the spell came to completion. A translucent emerald skull, with blazing purple flames for eyes burst into existence directly past his extended finger. Promptly after appearing, the skull shot towards the tree like a bottle rocket on fourth of July.

The distant sound of a deep ringing could be heard, as if an invisible campanile was somewhere beyond eyesight. As the skull streaked towards the bullseye, the resonance of a chill shrieking came from the skull itself, as if it were being cast into the pits of hell and the fear of it's impending damnation was made manifest for all to hear. The screaming skull shot towards the tree, leaving a beam of parakeet green in it's wake, the same emerald energy that surrounded the skull twisted back upon the beam as the skull was propelled forward.

The spell didn't crash into the tree and disperse as Drew had originally believed would happen. No, it didn't even really hit the bullseye, it just blew right past it, shredding a two foot section of the tree before flying into the distance and exploding like a small emerald firework. The tree itself, having been blown apart so forcefully, crashed to the ground, crown towards the group.

"Whelp, that was unexpected." Drew said dryly.

"Yeahhhhhh." Mark replied.

The rest of the group just stood behind him, too stunned to utter a single word in reply.

"Soooo... that was the common grade spell I'd gotten from a title. Just in case any of us were still wondering about the power that titles grant. Or the power of a common grade spell for that matter. Sure hope the neighbors didn't see the explosion or hear that awful wailing."

"That was horrifying dude. My hands are trembling after seeing and hearing that. My wife's spell was impressive, but that one just scared the shit out of me. What kind of beasts and monsters are we going to be facing?"

It seemed the logic of that conclusion had hit Mark first, but after he vocalized it, the same pale expression that Mark had held now grew on everyone else's face as well. Reality had sunk in. Drew had already experienced the horror of his corruption spell against the coyotes, and he'd already come to the same thought process after reflecting for a while. The mental fortitude of his race must have prevented the same level of fear that his friends and Amber were currently going through.

Once again, he was thankful he'd chosen dhampir as his race. Logically, he could process the fear, he could process the emotions running through his body, but unlike everyone else, those emotions weren't currently controlling him. Maybe he was more detached, or maybe it really was the strength of his race coming to his protection.

"I'm not sure, but I think we should focus on leveling up and building our strength as soon as we can. I'd recommend we all go out hunting early tomorrow morning before taking care of errands. Getting some levels should be the most important thing right now." Drew said.

"Agreed." The Kobinahs replied.

"Definitely." Amber said.

The crew were making their way back to the house when three figures exited the gate and began to approach them. Spock and Drew's mom were easily recognized. So the other figure must have been his mom's pet. Although calling it a pet felt very, very wrong. It had vibrant red skin, that could only be seen on it's hands and face, as the rest of it was covered in obsidian black metal armor. Medium-length, raven black wavy hair draped down from it's scalp. It's eyes were also black, but the irises were a bright yellow. Other than that, it seemed similar in form to his mother's new body. Long black horns, talons, fangs, the whole kit and caboodle.

So why did calling it a pet seem so wrong? Well, it was clearly another humanoid being for one, and most importantly, it was over eight feet tall. Despite heavy armor completely covering it's body, Drew could tell this thing was strong. Very strong. It kept an even pace with Spock and his mother despite wearing several hundred pounds of heavy ass metal. Simply put? It would make a young Arnold Schwarzenegger look like an eight year-old boy. When the three figures made it to the group, Drew was extremely careful with his next words as to not offend the being in front of him, he was dumb, not stupid.

"I assume the summoning was successful based on our guest here?" Drew queried.

"Indeed. Although, there were some surprises." Spock mentioned.

"Oh? Do tell."

"The summoning ritual itself went well, but once the portal to their plane opened, the original being your mother summoned declined the contract once it had heard her desire. It wished to return home to talk to it's superiors."

"Okay, I guess that's fine right?"

"An uncommon occurrence, but yes it was fine. But the portal remained open for over an hour until this being arrived. According to him, his superiors had a counter-proposal. In addition to your mother's original requests, they offered him as a summon in exchange, with the stipulation that he would be allowed to interact with her electronics prior to The Descent."

"Okayyy... I fail to see why these surprises would warrant this conversation. What happened?"

"According to him, being summoned to a pre-integrated world was extremely rare, and it was far rarer still, that such a world had technology similar to theirs and the entertainment they enjoy."

"Come on man, spit it out already. Short and easy please." Drew had grown impatient.

"Ahem. His bosses wanted to acquire the electronics that were going to be rendered moot by The Descent. Additionally, they wished to use their own technology to scan and retrieve all entertainment sources similar to your mother's shows."

"Soooo... they what? Wanted to steal all of Earth's tv shows and movies? People do that shit all the time. If they want them, that's not a big deal at all."

"Yes, well, your mother indicated that she didn't know how to facilitate that, and instead mentioned that you could most likely help in her stead."

"They want me to pirate all of our planet's entertainment in exchange for my mom having... him, as a summon?"

"Indeed. That's an apt description of the events that led us here."

"Why didn't you just say that in the first place?" Drew muttered.

"I did."

"We really need to work on your ability to shorten explanations and learn some slang or shorthand when talking. Okay, I understand what you mean." Drew said.

It wasn't Spock's fault that he wasn't able to quickly relay information. The System had probably taught him a very proper manner of speaking. Drew would need to work with him so he could relay important information in a quicker manner. He turned to the figure before him, and pitched his head up, up, up, andddd there it's eyes were. Good God, was that thing tall as fuck.

"Yeah, I can help your bosses out. We have tv shows, movies, music, and all kind of video games here. I can teach you how to find the stuff, but we're extremely limited on time before The System comes crashing down on our heads. So, I hope you don't mind. Also, there's an absolutely crazy amount of said media out there, our...uh date retrieval speeds are very limited, so unless you have a way to magically collect the data, there's no way you'll get it all before doomsday happens." Drew said to the demon.

"That is fine. We have our ways to retrieve everything. If you and my summoner accept the contract, a small, temporary team will join me here to extract the data."

"Yeah, that's fine. As long as they don't mean to bring any harm to my family and friends. But why go through all this hassle, and what does my mom, and the rest of us get out of this deal? I assume this is a big deal since the first guy went back right?" Drew asked.

"My people suddenly have access to a treasure trove of new culture, entertainment and broadcasted shows for the first time in several millennia. It is, a big deal, as you say. They sent me in order to provide fairly valued compensation." The demon replied.

"Ah, so what do you bring to the table that the first guy didn't?"

"I'm very, very strong. I'm much stronger than even a genius level zero warlock would manage to summon as their first contracted being."

"So your bosses are sending one of their best warriors to compensate us?"

"HA! No, I am not one of our best warriors, however I am considered to be an elite of our youngest generation."

"Youngest? Does that mean you're still a child?"

"In terms of my race, yes. I'm only one hundred and thirty six of your Earth year's worth of age."

"Oh yes, that is very youn... HUH?! You know what, never mind, can you show me what you can do with your strength before we accept? We've been practicing our starter skills on this awful grove of spikey trees behind me."

"I'd be delighted to." The 'young' demon said.

The new, and much larger group walked back to the grove of trees. Several were laying on the ground after being blasted to pieces, and several more had arrows stuck in them, slashes cut through them, and bark missing from the damage that teeth and claw caused. The giant demon warrior walked towards the remaining sixteen or so trees that remained standing. From his spatial inventory, he pulled a sword that was as tall as Drew, and as wide as his dhampir torso was. The demon held the ridiculous blade like it weighed the same as a baseball bat. He took a step forward and swung the blade so quickly that Drew only saw a blur.

There was a crashing sound that reverberated throughout the property as all sixteen trees were cut through like a hot knife through butter, and then fell and crashed to the ground below them. The trees were not close together either. No, some where five feet away from the next closest tree. Yet all fell like straw before a farmer's scythe. The demon walked back to the group who stood completely shocked, Spock and his mom included.

"Is that satisfactory, or do you wish for me to begin clearing and leveling the small forested area nearby as well?" The demon asked.

"I think I love you." Drew whispered.

"What was that?"

"Uh, I asked if you have a name."

"None that you could easily pronounce."

"Well then, from now on, you shall be known as Beefcake."