Damage Per Second

"Seneca?"

When Ru whispered this name, it was as if his heart was screaming.

"Are you Seneca's?"

Although his shadow kicked and stomped beneath his feet and told him to "shut up," Ru neither saw nor heard Alter Ru.

"Yes, you are the heart of Seneca."

The name, he'd hoped, would ignite a spark within him. Instead, a chilling silence enveloped him. A sudden, deafening buzz filled the air, followed by the lights going out.

Even though he didn't know it, his city had been plunged into complete darkness.

"Has the greatest demon attack begun," Ru muttered, his voice strong in the eerie silence. He clutched his chest, a mix of fear and anticipation coursing through him.

A response came, not from Seneca, but from the shadows. A pair of glowing eyes appeared on the mezzanine railing, followed by a horde of gray creatures. Their sharp teeth, claws, and multiple eyes glinted in the darkness.

Without hesitation, Ru lunged into action. He grabbed his vacuum cleaner and swung it at one of the demons, sending it reeling back. Ru spun around and took a defensive stance as another creature lunged at him.

"Let me show you hell," Ru taunted with a demonic voice. "Unpaid bills, for example?"

The demons were unlike any he'd ever seen, it seemed that they were more coordinated and more stylish than ever. Their ash-gray skin was covered in spikes, their limbs elongated and twisted. Some had extra limbs. Even their tails had different shapes from each other.

"What the fuck is that," Ru exclaimed, his eyes wide with disbelief.

One demon wore a lampshade on its head and had four arms adorned with aluminum foil. Another sported a pink skirt, a relic from Vaelan's childhood teddy bear, and its tail was wrapped in glowing little bulbs. The one with a hat and bat was ready for a baseball game, while the creature dressed in a net curtain had fashioned a crown from discarded beer cans.

Ru was dumbfounded, he found himself on a fashion podium of nightmares. The demons' grotesque appearance was somehow juxtaposed with their bizarre, almost comical attire. Their "fashionable" behavior was both absurd and terrifying.

Ru scoffed, "Biggest demon attack, huh? Big joke!"

But the demons' squeaks, made grinding their teeth, were a chilling reminder of the deadly threat they posed. They were faster, stronger, and more relentless than anything he'd ever encountered.

"Damn, they upgraded because I leveled up," Ru said. And he started to confront the arrivals with the vacuum cleaner.

A few of them jumped on Ru individually, some without waiting for their turn. Their tactical aim was obviously to pin the victim down. However, with a quick thought, Ru turned his back to the windows. One of them was open, he would jump over the demons and reach the window.

He swung the vacuum cleaner many times. To no avail, he grabbed it with both hands and whirled it around and around rapidly. Some of the demons' skirts flew.

"Whew!"

Ru was saving his breath for his attack, which he called 'red dragon fire.' That's why he wasn't singing or whistling for now. Instead, he tried to use everything around him as a weapon. Armchairs, Vaelan's dirty laundry, the coffee table, stale pizzas, books, beer cans, etc.

Suddenly an idea came to his mind. The ultimate attack idea for the big demon attack. However, he needed electricity to do this.

"Hmm," he thought while dodging the demons' claw and tail attacks with acrobatic moves. "If not, I will create it, after all, my bro is rich."

Ultimately, he somehow managed to evade demons and activate the power generator. He rolled quickly on the floor and grabbed the main control remote for the sound system. He leaped onto the kitchen counter. He cranked up the volume to maximum and kicked the garbage and dirty dishes around. He leaped up, swiftly walking by stomping on the heads of the demons. Upon landing, he seized the electric guitar from where he fell and stood up.

"It's showtime, baby," he exclaimed as he plucked at the guitar strings and let them go.

The abrupt chords of the electric guitar echoing through the hall, mezzanine, and adjoining rooms mixed the amplified DPS (damage per second) of the speakers with the intense DPS of the main source. The resulting sound wave, accompanied by a loud bang, reverberated through the hall and shook everything in its path.

Demons were tossed away, and some of the glass shattered.

"Hell yeah! That's it," Ru shouted, deciding to solo. "Seventh symphony, bitches! Muhaha!"

As he enthusiastically played the guitar, he continued to send everything flying and shattering with the mighty sound waves. Even though Vaelan's villa has a rather large garden, Ru's sudden concert made even the neighbors jump out of their seats. As the doors and windows of the houses opened one by one, something else happened —a humming, vibrations, and then a strong tremor that came closer step by step.

Screams, shouts, and wild honking...

While Ru was fighting a musical combo for demons and saw the gray catastrophe approaching. A gigantic grayness with burning houses on its horns was coming toward him.

"A mass, a demon!"

The demon looked like a giant centaur. It had the body of a horse from the waist down and four legs. Lava flowed from its four legs, and its hooves burned. And its flaming tail gave the night its fireworks.

"Padre," came his voice buzzing through the neighborhood. "Where are you, Padre?" Each shout became a hot wind, scorching dry trees and grass.

The resulting symphony of doom ignited a forest fire in Ru's subconscious. He was startled from head to toe. In a sense, at that moment he was continuously experiencing all the sensations of death in one breath. But the cries of the animals and the crunching of the plants caused him pain worse than death. The pain was unbearable...

Tear after tear flowed from his eyes, quickly evaporating in the intense heat. His skin was dry, it itched. But his back was damp, as damp as if he had been drenched with water, and just as warm.

The giant demon continued to mow the air with its howls: "Where are you, Padre? Come out! We've come to take you home."

His ribs had become knives stabbing into his lungs and heart. The pain in his back was unbearable. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't move. He could no longer come to his senses. At that moment, the huge eyes of the demon, which consisted of two suns, turned towards Ru.

"I found you, Padre! There you are," the giant demon said and began to gallop.

Ru's imaginary little girls squealed in unison.

<No, Daddy! You can't give up!>

<You can beat him, play the guitar, come on!>

Ru's index finger moved but failed to pull the guitar string.

<He can't do it,> said one of the girls.

<We can't let them take our daddy away from us,> said the other.

Ru seemed to hear them in his dreams, but he could not regain consciousness lost in the smoke.

<Our daddy flew away. Let's fight, girls,> was the suggestion from the girl wearing the crown of bone.

Almighty Ru commanded, "Go now!"

At that moment, a frantic driver in a White Falcon automobile intercepted the giant demon.

"Vaelan," He was the one who raised Ru's consciousness from the pit in which it had sunk.

Vaelan got out of the car and pulled out his rifle: "Take that, you motherfucking Padre!" Then he fired.

"Vaelan, don't! Runaway," Ru shouted, threw the guitar, and started running towards there.

Ru screamed as loud as he could. The flesh of the demons hit by his scream was peeling off their bones. But he couldn't make his voice heard to Vaelan.

Suddenly Clockmaker's voice, deep and resonant, filled the air. "Time stands still. The world holds its breath. Let the battle commence."

The bright hourglass summoned with magic words shattered. Sand poured out of it, flowing in great waves over a wide area. Demons, caught in this suspended moment, seemed to freeze. But the giant demon, its monstrous form looming over the city, was only slowed, not stopped. Its eyes, glowing with an unnatural intensity, remained fixed on Vaelan.

Vaelan kept firing his rifle. Bullet after bullet struck the demon, but it seemed impervious to the pain. Finally, a lucky shot found its mark, piercing its thick hide and striking its face and neck.

"Vaelan! Stand back, damn it," Ru shouted as he kept running.

But it was too late. The demon, enraged by the injury, turned its attention to Vaelan's car, smashing it into a crumpled heap. Its tail lashed out with a swift, powerful swing, sending Vaelan flying through the air. The impact was so forceful that it seemed to defy the laws of physics.

Vaelan was thrown by the impact of a rope 4.7 inches in diameter.

Ru fell to his knees, a silent scream escaping his lips.

"Vaelan! No! No!"