Ogre Tyrant

Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 18 – Questionable decision making – Part One {Rewrite}

Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 18 – Questionable decision making – Part One {Rewrite}Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 18 - Questionable decision making - Part One {Rewrite}

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know!” The Angel whined fearfully, attempting to recoil away but rendered incapable of doing so by Gric’s iron grip upon his arms.

“What did you do to her!” I snarled, pointing a trembling finger at Lash who was still comatose on the floor.

The Angel gulped hard, “I-I cast Judgement on her...” He stammered as if that answered the question.

“Then UNCAST IT!” I growled, the knuckles in both my fists popping as I fought hard to restrain myself.

The Angel grew deathly pale and tried shrinking back and away from me, but Gric wouldn’t allow it. “I...I can’t...” He whispered fearfully.

A sudden surge of fury drove me forward and I barely managed to regain control of myself in time to avoid wringing the Angel’s neck. With a monumental force of will, I slowly withdrew my hands from around his throat, “Why, not?!” I demanded quietly.

Hyperventilating and obviously terrified, the Angel began to cry. “I-I It-It’s n-not h-h-how I-it w-w-works!”

“Then I have no use for you...” The coldness in my voice would have once disturbed me, but it didn’t stop me from reaching out to take hold of the Angel’s neck.

*Boom*

Looking back towards the gate I was just in time to watch the doors shudder under the force of a second impact, shortly followed by another and then another.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Crack*

A web of fractures began spreading over the rightmost door, growing larger and deepening with each impact.

“It is most likely Dar, my Lord,” Gric explained while still intensely staring at the Angel in his grasp.

I slowly began tightening my grip.

The Angel’s eyes bulged as my grip grew tighter, cutting off the blood flow to his brain. “Pleash....urk...no!...”

Feeling the angel go limp, I let go. And began making my way over to Lash. Gently opening her right eye, I could see that her pupil was heavily dilated and could feel her skin trembling faintly beneath my touch. Whatever the angel had done to her, Lash seemed to be under the effects of a hallucination, suggested by the twitching of her eyes.

“Bind the Angel,” I told Gric numbly, “If it tries to escape, kill it.”

“Of course Lord,” Gric bowed and slowly made his way over towards Toofy to retrieve the necessary rope.

Toofy bared her teeth in anger and contempt as the Angel was brought closer, and to my surprise, Ril began to stir. “Baby?!” Toofy gave Ril a rough shake.

“Nng...” Ril pushed feebly at Toofy in response, groggily opening her eyes with a dazed expression on her face, “Mama?...”

“Baby!” Toofy pulled Ril in tight for another hug, fresh tears running down her cheeks.

Ril’s eyes suddenly snapped into focus, “Mama!” She hugged Toofy back tightly.

After a couple of minutes, the damaged stone door collapsed inwards and scattered broken chunks of stone across the floor.

Unsurprisingly, Dar was the first through the breach, staggering drunkenly and rubbing irritably at his bleeding head. If it weren't for his split and bleeding knuckles, I would have thought Dar had been exclusively battering his thick head against the door in order to breach it, although it was only a small consolation given the numerous bruises on his head.

“Lord!” Qreet was next through the breach, carrying Asra in her arms, who appeared to be more or less okay, albeit a little shaken. “The blood outside is drawing more Blood Hunters! What are your orders?!”

“We are going to kill them,” I replied coldly.

“They-are-many,” Dar rumbled, cocking his head curiously to one side and staring at me with one large crocodilian eye.

“We will kill them all,” I repeated. “Gric,I want you and two others to protect Asra, Lash, Toofy and Ril.”

“As you command my Lord,” Gric replied eagerly.

Nodding in appreciation, I turned back to Qreet and Dar, “Qreet, I want you to pick four other Daemons and hold the door. Dar, you and the rest are with me.”

“By your will Lord,” Qreet bowed and lowered Asra to the ground before hurriedly making her choice of defenders.

“Dar-obey!” Dar rumbled excitedly, a sentiment shared by many of the remaining Daemons.

After retrieving my morning star, I considered leaving without saying anything to Toofy, but thought better of it. Quickly making my way over and kneeling down beside her, I didn’t know what to say. “Stay safe, okay?” I asked uncertainly, the reality of what I was committing to beginning to sink in and aggravate the primitive part of my brain.

Toofy and Ril both nodded, “Keep Lash safe too!” Toofy insisted, “Yeah!” Ril nodded energetically, wincing slightly from the pain in her abdomen.

I gave them both a brief hug before getting back to my feet, “I’m so proud of you.” With great effort, I turned away and headed for the door, donning Lash’s helmet as I went.

As per my instructions, Gric and Qreet had both chosen their subordinates to assist in defending the dungeon, while Dar and the remaining Daemons were waiting outside.

Exiting the dungeon and standing alongside Dar, I was a little surprised to find that he was almost as tall as me and very nearly as wide. If he were to stand upright, Dar would certainly be the taller of the two of us, although the heavily packed muscles on his back made such an event unlikely.

Wraithe was amongst those waiting for me outside, her large batlike ears twitching in excitement. “Lord! They are coming!” She hissed, eliciting a chorus of muted growls from the other Daemons.

“We-crush-them!” Dar snapped with a throaty growl, lumbering forwards to the outermost edge of the pack of Daemons.

Confident Dar would be capable of holding his own, I passed through the Daemons and took up a position on the leftmost side. With Dar more or less holding the right and myself on the left, I hoped that the remaining Daemons would be enough to stop anything from getting through into the dungeon.

After less than half a minute, I could hear the swarm approaching from down the tunnel.

The swarm spilled out of the tunnel and into the cavern. Free of the confinement of the tunnel, the dog-sized rodents spread out across the open ground of the cavern and barrelled towards our position with bloodthirsty abandon. Forking at the lake, a full two thirds or more of the swarm were headed straight for Dar, while the remainder headed for me.

Expecting to feel afraid at the seemingly limitless swarm headed in our direction, all I felt was anger.

“RAAAAAAGH!!! DAR KILL!!!” Dar bellowed in challenge, the concussive force of his outburst causing the frontrunners of the swarm to become disoriented and trampled by their kin.

“LET NONE PASS!!!” I roared, burning a point of MP to activate my Class Ability.

To my surprise, a half-second later, a cry reverberated from within the dungeon. “THE LORD’S WILL BE DONE!!!” Gric cried, his words causing the nearby Daemons to swell in size and ferocity.

*Crunch*

I caught the front runner on my flank and was very nearly bowled over as twenty more Blood Hunters barrelled into me, scratching and biting at every exposed piece of my flesh.

Ignoring the minor flashes of pain, I failed my right arm wildly and felt the spikes of my morningstar cutting and puncturing the seething mass of monsters, despite the reduced momentum. With my left hand, I began grabbing for anything I could get a hold of and squeezed. I didn’t shy away from the feeling of broken bones and rent flesh as I had before.

This violence had a purpose.

Taking a shorter grip on my morningstar, I laid into the swarm with increased vigour. No matter what the rodents tried, they accomplished little more than turning my clothes to rags. Too weak to pierce my skin, their chisel-like teeth were essentially useless and their small claws even more so.

With adrenaline crashing through my veins. I surged through the swarm like they were water, trampling any of the vermin unfortunate enough to be caught underfoot.

The Daemons were holding their ground. Those in the front most position were taking the worst of the onslaught but weren’t backing down, savagely ripping the Blood Hunter’s to pieces and gorging themselves on the fresh meat whenever possible.

Dar was a fortress unto himself, killing the Blood Hunters with sweeping arcs of his powerful claws, dashing them to bloody pieces.

Somewhat following his lead, I balled my left hand into a fist and began bashing at the Blood Hunters rather than wasting time trying to grab and crush something important. Blinded momentarily by a golden flash of light, I didn’t bother taking in the status alert, blinking it away so I could continue fighting unimpeded. Judging by the fact that it had been dismissed so easily, it was probably a level-up notification. So it could definitely wait until later.

Seeing the swarms numbers beginning to thin, I realised that I had completely lost track of time. Almost like sleepwalking, I had been functioning just about entirely on autopilot.

Quickly glancing back towards the Daemons, I was relieved to find that they were continuing to doggedly hold the line. At some point, the rearmost and frontmost ranks had changed places with one another. Both groups were covered in blood and small wounds, although they seemed no less enthusiastic for their injuries. This was likely due to the fact that even as the injuries were mounting on those in front, the wounds were rapidly healing on those standing behind.

Even with the swarm weakening by the moment, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that worse was yet to come. The Blood Hunters, although numerous, had hardly been a real threat. Benefitting from a stack of damage mitigating and damage dealing synergies, the Daemons seemed capable of holding their ground near indefinitely. Knowing this, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something dangerous was headed their way.

Laying into the swarm with greater vigour, I smashed and bashed my way over to the tunnel entrance to the cavern. At first, I saw nothing, but that in and of itself should have been a warning. All luminescent fungi had been obliterated, even those growing higher up on the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. All but ignoring the few Blood Hunters that attempted to harass and distract me, I was still very nearly bowled over as the first of the Spinebacks bellowed a challenge and surged into the cavern.

Barely stumbling out of the way in time, I saw three more Spinebacks enter the cavern moments after the first, two scaling the walls and the last effortlessly scuttling across the ceiling.

I quickly realised that I had made a grave tactical error in defending the dungeon entrance instead of the tunnel. But there was still a chance to change that. “QREET! DAR! TO ME!!!” I roared and took a longer grip on my morningstar again.

*Crunch*

I swatted a Spineback off the wall and pushed forward while shoving at the armoured back of another with my free hand.

“RAAAAGH!” Dar bellowed, shaking the ground as he charged towards my position, “DAR KILL!!!”

“WRAITHE!” I jabbed a Spineback in the eye with one of my morningstar’s spikes, “CHOOSE FOUR AND PELT THEM OFF THE WALLS AND CEILING!!” Without slings, I honestly wasn’t expecting much, but the Spinebacks were enlarging the tunnel with every passing second they were delayed. It would only be a matter of time before they were spilling across the ceiling and out of reach.

A few moments later, Dar materialised at my side.

*Thump Crunch*

Dar tackled a Spineback with so much force that it caused the unfortunate creature to vomit out more than half its internal organs. Bleeding from a small puncture wound, Dar savaged the defenceless Spineback, ripping free a chunk of flesh from its exposed neck and leaving it to die. Gulping down his prize, Dar set to attacking the encroaching Spinebacks with reckless abandon, like some sort of enraged reptilian gorilla.

As ordered, Wraithe and her selected Daemons had begun pelting stones at the few Spinebacks that had managed to slip past. Considering they lacked slings, practice and were still being harassed by the remaining Blood Hunters, as near as I could tell, they were doing an admirable job.

Hearing a pitiable screech from the ceiling, I glanced back just in time to see a Spineback topple to the ground.

*Thump*

Although the fall did not kill it, the Spineback seemed close to paralyzed.

Nimbly scuttling along the ceiling, Qreet homed in on her next target.

Unable to look away from the vicious melee for more than a handful of seconds, I very nearly lost a finger when a Spineback scythed its claws against the back of its kin. Missed only by a hair's breadth, I had no doubt that Toofy’s defensive synergy was the only reason I had managed to pull back in time.

*Whump*

I slugged the offending Spineback in the flank to repay it for the effort and slammed my morningstar down on the back of another. Without the natural weaponry of the Daemons, I supposed I was probably doing reasonably well. Unfortunately, unlike Dar, I was not able to find suitable footholds and was left behind a growing wall of bloody corpses.

Seeing that the majority of the Blood Hunters had been dealt with, I made my decision. The Daemons would need to hold the line on their own, short of scrambling over the pile and fighting on the other side, my involvement was no longer viable. “WRAITHE! KILL WHAT REMAINS OF THE SWARM! ONCE THEY ARE DEAD, JOIN DAR IN DEFENDING THE TUNNEL!!”

“I OBEY LORD!” Wraithe shrieked back with excitement, “FOLLOW ME! CULL THE WEAK!!!”

The chorus of eager cries in response was a little disconcerting, but it also served as a reminder of the fact that I was dealing with literal Daemons.

Stepping back from the wall of corpses at the entrance of the tunnel, I began making my way back to the dungeon. Theoretically, so long as Asra was kept alive and manastones were funnelled back for him to use, the Daemon blockade could be maintained indefinitely. Assuming the water in the lake was drinkable, and no one got sick from eating raw meat.

“-have to leave!” The Angel cried, ”The dungeon will soon collapse! What part of that sentence do you not understand?!”

Clearing the doorway, I could see the Angel squaring up against Gric as best as he was able, which wasn’t particularly impressive given he was very nearly cocooned in rope, struggling to remain upright on his knees.

“YOU! Ogre!” Taking note of my arrival, the Angel shifted the entirety of its attention to me. “We have to leave! The dungeon will soon collapse and kill us all!”

“Is this true?” I asked Gric, unwilling to take an enemy at their word.

Gric shrugged, “It is possible Lord,” he admitted sceptically, “More likely the Angel seeks a chance to escape.”

The Angel gave Gric an incredulous look of disdain.

“Angel says Mama’s treasure will let us escape,” Ril added.

“Treasure?” I asked warily, turning my attention to Toofy, I could see she was suspiciously avoiding eye contact.

Ril gave me an apologetic look before giving Toofy a pinch, “Mama, show Tim!” She insisted.

“Ow!” Toofy flinched and wrinkled her face in thought for a moment before letting out a deep sigh, “Fine, Toofy do...” An ornate gold and silver stave appeared in Toofy’s outstretched hand. Easily more than seven feet in length, somehow she was able to hold up the staff as if it weighed less than a pen.

“Just give me the staff and I can get us all out of here!” The angel demanded, earning a none too gentle kick to the back from Gric.

“Why?” I demanded in turn, “What does it do?”

The Angel groaned and tried rising to his knees again, but failed. “It is a Lesser Staff of Planar Travel,” the Angel grunted angrily, “And I am the only one that would be able to use it!”

“Lies!” Gric hissed, snapping a quick kick to the Angel’s stomach before turning his attention to me, “Lord, someone of your immense strength would have no problems dominating such a paltry magical item and binding it to his will.”

“You believe the staff is magical?” I asked warily.

Gric nodded, “Yes Lord. I can feel its power, and even though it is incomplete, it should serve sufficiently well to provide an escape for those you deem important.”

“Incomplete?” I asked curiously, eyeing the staff and noticing that the clawed tip was actually an empty socket. “Is Ril’s jewel meant to slot into the top?”

Moving closer while Toofy materialised the jewel in her other hand, I noticed a faint shimmering distortion emanating from the staff. No more than a quarter of an inch from the surface of the staff, it still gave me the impression of looking through a pane of glass. Warping and bending the light to distort what was visible on the other side. Unable to slot the jewel into the socket, Toofy shrugged apologetically and offered them both to me instead.

Four separate alerts appeared in rapid succession, the first was a resplendent gold, the second a deep bloody crimson, and the last pair a dull and all too familiar grey.

[Staff of {Lesser Planar Travel} has been acquired! ]

[Limited use item: (5/5)]

[Lesser Planar Travel: Expending MP allows the wielder to open a portal to a location well known to them. While open, the portal will continue to drain MP from the wielder. Incapable of opening a portal beyond the current floor of the Labyrinth. {Intelligence} reduces the required MP to maintain the portal.]

[You have acquired a Jewel of Elemental Water.]

[Jewel of Elemental Water: Accelerates MP regeneration of the owner while they are immersed in water. The rate of MP regeneration is dependent upon the owners {Willpower}.]

[You are not qualified to unlock this Class. {Incompatible}.]

[You have qualified to unlock the {Rift Walker} Basic Class.]

“Bloody hell...” I croaked in relief. The staff was like some sort of town portal item. All we needed was enough mana to operate it and we would be fine. Seeing no racial restrictions or anything absurd like that regarding the staff, there was no way I was going to let the Angel anywhere near it.

Gric, Ril and Asra would be our best bet for sheer volume of MP. Quickly looking through their stats I was only slightly surprised to see that Ril had the highest Intelligence of the three of them with twelve, Gric came second with eleven and Asra in the rear with ten.

Gric’s relatively high Intelligence and high MP made him a logical choice for activating the Staff of Lesser Planar Travel to allow our escape, “Gric-”

Seemingly having come to the same conclusion, Gric shook his head, “No Lord,” he pointed to Ril and Toofy, “Ril would be a better choice. I am just a projection.”

I was far too familiar with Daemon psychology at this point to be blindsided by Gric's seeming benevolence. If he was suggesting this as an alternative, then Gric truly believed it was the optimal solution. Thinking it over for a moment, I had to agree that he was right.

Assuming Ril would be the last to pass through the portal, Gric or perhaps Qreet would be able to serve as an emergency safety to open a second portal in case something went wrong. Furthermore, I didn’t doubt for a moment that Gric fully intended to harvest and bring back as many manastones as possible

“Alright, Ril,” I held out the staff for her to take, “Are you able to activate the staff?” I asked, doing my best to not sound nervous, in spite of the visible panic on the Angel’s face.

Ril eagerly accepted the staff and greedily eyed the Jewel of Elemental Water before hastily nodding in agreement, “I can,” she agreed, still pointedly staring at the jewel in my hand.

Rolling my eyes a little, I sighed and offered Ril the jewel.

Ril snatched it without a second thought, avariciously holding it before her eyes with a near manic obsession. Knowing what it did, I could easily understand why.

Carrying Lash over my shoulder I took a firm hold of the Angel by the back of his neck. Leading the others out of the dungeon, just in case, I was glad to see that the Daemons were holding the tunnel entrance, albeit barely.

As I had feared would happen, the Spinebacks were enlarging the entrance to the tunnel and quite probably the tunnel beyond as well.

Supported by Toofy, Ril gingerly climbed the broken remains of the front door and entered the cavern beside me.

With a telling look from Gric, the Daemons who had been left behind as protection set upon the scattered corpses and began retrieving manastones as well as filling their bellies. Not that I could blame them. The fighting back to Sanctuary’s protective barrier was likely going to be brutal.

Toofy gave the Angel a vicious glare from the corner of her eye, a shiv materializing in her free hand.

Giving Ril a nod, I held my breath and hoped nothing would go wrong..

Rill nodded, closed her eyes and took a deep breath just as I had done. Quickly cloaked in a crimson aura, Ril held out the staff in front of her, “Activate Staff of Lesser Planar Travel!” Ril’s normally quiet voice crashed through the cavern like a thunderclap. Tapping the clawed end of the staff on the cavern floor, the familiar shimmering form of a portal took shape in the air. The carved surface of Sanctuary’s Totem could be seen but was heavily distorted.

Just as I took a step towards the portal, I was temporarily disoriented by a complete absence of sound that lasted less than a second. Noticing the same bewildered expressions on everyone else, it took me a few moments to realise that the dungeon entrance had disappeared, exposing another tunnel and a moving wall of Clay Dolls.

“Through the portal! Now!” With both my arms occupied, I quickly strode through the portal and arrived in a familiar section of swampland. Despite the portal having shown the Totem, the distortion likely represented a variable nature to the magic. Less ideal than I would have preferred, it was still manageable. I was less than five minutes from Sanctuary, so it would not take long to reach safety. However, waiting for more than two minutes in relative silence, I began to worry about the others.

What if they teleported into a pool of water?

My stomach churned with unease. I had to get back to Sanctuary and organise a

“Cowards!” Shrieked Lt. Uric, now fully on the run from Toofy, having lost his spear and now clutching at his bloodied glove.

Just like that, the last of the soldiers threw down their weapons and edged away.

Shifting my attention from the soldiers to the tree, I could see Ril limply hanging on to one of the topmost branches, although there was no sign of the staff. Hurrying over to the tree, I was just about to contemplate how I was going to climb it, when Ril slipped from her branch.

“Ril!” Diving backwards, I barely managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Cold to the touch, my eyes were drawn to the arrow lodged in Ril’s shoulder.

[Ril - HP: -1/20 - Bloodied, Bleeding ] [Tim - HP: 42/44 - Enraged ]

Biting down hard on the flesh of my thumb, I felt the warm coppery taste of blood welling into my mouth. Pushing my injured thumb into Ril’s mouth, I winced as a sudden chill swept up my arm and Ril’s jaw clamped down hard, anchoring her long needle-like teeth into my thumb. Almost immediately, her mouth formed an airtight seal and I felt my blood being forcibly redirected through my circulatory system and towards my thumb.

[Ril - HP: 1/20 - Bloodied, Bleeding ] [Tim - HP: 41/44 - Bleeding, Poisoned ]

I shivered and awkwardly cradled Ril against my chest. I wasn’t particularly surprised when Ril’s arms wrapped around my left arm to anchor herself in place. Still holding the axe in my right hand, I was actually somewhat relieved by the lessening of the strain on my hand, particularly given how numb it currently felt.

“Toofy?!” I called out and staggered slightly as I tried to quickly turn my head to look for her.

Lt. Uric was scrambling backwards in the mud as Toofy stalked after him. “I yield! I yield!!” He cried pitiably to no avail. Toofy was clearly out for blood. “Captain! Save me!”

I shifted my attention to Cpt. Klive to see what he would do, as did many of his gathered soldiers.

Meeting my eyes for a moment, Cpt. Klive closed his eyes, sighed and shook his head,

“Captain?!” Lt. Uric screamed.

Cpt. Klive turned away and faced back towards the direction of their camp.

“Captain?!” Lt. Uric screamed again, even more urgently, “Capt-AAAIIE-URGH!” His cries turned to a wet rasping gurgle as Toofy slammed her shiv into his face and jugular over and over again.

“DIE! DIE! DIE! TOOFY KILL!” Toofy screamed in blackhearted fury, blood splashing against her face and chest as she straddled Lt. Uric’s feebly struggling body and stabbed him over and over again.

Looking back towards the soldiers, I was surprised to see that they had all taken Cpt. Klive’s lead and literally turned their backs on Lt. Uric.

Perhaps he was literally as bad as my first impression of him had been, or maybe Cpt. Klive was far shrewder than I had given him credit for.

After all, there was no way he would have been able to intervene in time to stop Toofy from dealing a fatal injury. Besides, there was more to be gained from his death anyway.

[Toofy has slain {Human: ??? } +0 Exp]

[Quest: Find and Rescue the Children! {Active}]

[Find and Rescue the Children! {Stage 1}: {Success} {Asra} rescued by {Lt. Felix} and {Subordinates}]

[Find and Rescue the Children! {Stage 2}: {Success} {Asra} returned to Sanctuary]

[Find and Rescue the Children! {Stage 1}: {Success} {Toofy} rescued by {Cpt. Klive} and {Subordinates}]

[Find and Rescue the Children! {Stage 2}: {TBD} {Toofy} returned to Sanctuary]

[Find and Rescue the Children! {Stage 1}: {Success} {Ril} rescued by {Cpt. Klive} and {Subordinates}]

[Find and Rescue the Children! {Stage 2}: {TBD} {Ril} returned to Sanctuary]

The golden flash of light accompanying the quest update only served to reinforce that idea as the soldiers began excitedly comparing stat gains from their multiple level-ups.

Now that the cat was out of the bag, I was far more valuable to Cpt. Klive and his military. Doubtless, the experienced officer was already crunching the numbers on how much leeway he would give in regards to all manner of hypothetical scenarios.

“Toofy!” I waved at Toofy to get her attention.

Caked with blood, Toofy glared back at me for a moment, her eyes hard and feral before noticing Ril. “Baby...” Toofy murmured, dropping her shiv and stumbling off of Uric’s corpse. “Baby!” Toofy cried and ran over, hugging Ril’s dangling feet.

Hissing from the sudden emergence of pain, I vaguely felt Ril dislodge her teeth and push my thumb out of her mouth.

“Mama!” Ril croaked, wriggling stiffly as she released my arm and slid into Toofy’s embrace.

Taking care to avoid the arrow still lodged in Ril’s shoulder, Toofy hugged Ril tight and cried.