CH15: Breaking A Siege

Silas and Tish ate raw dragon steak for quick protein before starting a fight. A man couldn't live on blood essence alone, even if he was about to reap the motherload.

Leaving Ultra Red had been difficult. But it wouldn't fit in the winding underground tunnels anymore than he would fit in an ant hill. That didn't mean he wanted to walk into an ambush ill-prepared. Tish had led him on a merry chase through dead ends and tiger spider nests. Blood essence flowed into him, strengthening him from his latest kill. Tish swore there were no spiders before when the scouts traced the gnoll pack's tracks.

When they finally came upon the gnoll village, it was sieged by two groups, each led by a dark lord. Silas saw his gobs behind the village fence stabbing at the invading gobs and flat justice kobolds. Night's end aimed at the white kobold wearing a witch's hat and carrying a staff. The witch kobold kept close to the blond-haired man holding a wand with a blue lord stone at its end. She held back her strength for the sack, so it was better to end her threat early. With the other party, a red-skinned lesser oni partnered with a guy with a fuzzy red mustache. The Oni would be his greatest physical threat; killing it would be as important as killing the kobold witch.

The demon squeezed the trigger and hoped he had made the right decision. After he made the shot, the Oni turned, and instead of catching her in the head, he got her shoulder. It was the curse of misfortune.

Silas stood up, poured demonic energy into his legs, and shot forward. In his right hand, his rapier's blade faintly glowed red. His strategy turned into pounding the opposing force into the fences like a pickup smashed into a tree. Blood essence filled him from his first kills. The goblins of the red dark lord were all blood lust and no discipline. They had leather armor, but that was meaningless before his blade.

A kobold latched onto his leg and bit into his shin; Silas ignored the pain and kept moving. The weight hadn't stopped him from slashing open throats and draining blood essence. Silas saw the dark lords look at one another before the one with the fancy mustache called out Berzerk. His blade moved as a tide of green filled his vision.

Wave tactics were the worst strategies imaginable to fight Silas with flesh and blood units. After the initial wave, Silas waded through them covered in claw wounds. He had been cut up, but his sword moved. Those that fell lost their blood, empowering him further.

Red lightning crackled across the red dark lord's fingers before he pointed them at Silas. Both the blue, dark lord, and the kobold with joined forces. "Reverberate," the two of them chanted.

"He's using his will to create lightning," Tish said.

Silas raised night's end and fired. The bullet blasted the red, dark lord through the chest, and he fired his lightning off the target. It was a thing of beauty seeing his enemy miss. Unfortunately, the spell the witch and other dark lord used caused the lightning to multiply into four massive lightning strikes. Fortunately, they hit the ceiling, only scorching some rocks instead of hitting Silas.

The demon pulled on the lever and shot the blue one, only to hit a will barrier. It reminded him of Hansel. Then, out of the corner of his eye, the Oni shot after him and pulled a giant meat clever from behind her back. A single blood-colored rune pulsed along the blade like a primitive version of the hero's blade. The blue, dark lord began chanting something gathering will while the kobold witch held her hands out, miming a wall.

He shot down the distance strafing to make him a hard target to hit. In each leg, he shot the Oni once, but the Monstergirl ran through the pain. He used the barrel to deflect a slash from her heavy cleaver and was surprised when she forced him back a step. Silas didn't know what rank an oni was; it could be second or third. Either way, he didn't plan to lose.

"Precognition," the blue, dark lord said. The Oni's eyes turned blue, and suddenly she reacted to his moves before he made them. That made him curious if she could predict the future, what he was most likely to do, or if it was a kind of mind reading. So his tactics altered, and he used his inventory to change weapons while charging a burst palm in his offhand.

Anytime she dodged, instead of blocking his slash, he decided to use a burst palm. Silas slashed with his rapier, and she dodged into a burst palm. The Oni dodged, and Silas swapped his rapier for night's end, aimed for her next position. His adversary leaped into the air, and Silas withdrew his burst palm and aimed for the airborne target. Once in the air, even for a moment, she couldn't dodge. Precognition seemed to be limited to moments before the attack. He tripped on a rock, and his aim slid off of her. The Oni touched her feet to the ground, and the battle continued.

Silas decided to test another weakness and tossed night's end to Tish. The gob fumbled with the weapon before aiming at the blue, dark lord before firing.

He stabbed down, piercing the skull of the kobold biting him, and taking her blood essence. Blood essence flowed into him, refining his body and phantasm at once. He was much stronger at the second tier of the apocalypse demon body refinement. Every clash where he missed the Oni by a hair's breadth forced him to tighten his stance and swings. It was true what they said, learning came from defeat, not victory. Every miss was a loss forcing him to square his shoulders. A kick to his stomach from her nearly shattered his ribs, forcing him to make a smaller target. Pain truly was the best teacher.

He saw the blue, dark lord watching the fight keeping its forces back while he dealt with the Oni and berserk gobs. Blood soaked the ground, nearly causing him to slip several times. Silas was continuously absorbing blood essence from those he slew. It no longer hurt him to absorb blood essence; it restored his stamina. A lengthy battle played into his hands.

But he didn't want to waste time.

Silas pulled his arousal ray and fired. The Oni grabbed her stomach where the ray had blasted her with a confused expression. He hit her with it five times for good measure causing the Monstergirl to collapse in a masturbating frenzy.

He put the weapon away and glared at the blue, dark lord. The guy supported the queen and the red, dark lord but didn't seem too invested.

"If you withdraw, I won't chase you down. Stay out of my territory, and we won't have any problems." Silas grabbed the Oni by her leg and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of corn. "Do you want to be the third dark lord I've killed?" Silas said.

"Don't get cocky because you beat that idiot and a greenhorn. I'm a tier 3; don't lump me into the same category as those you managed to slay." The blue dark lord said.

He held his wand defensively while his queen held her hands up. The defenders on the wall were catching their breath, and half 20 of the gobs under the red dark lord were on their knees in surrender.

"Reverberance multiplies will skills and possibly spells, precognition buffs units with future sight. I can only imagine that your 3rd spell buffs others in some way. Your casting time is long; you need plenty of minions to keep opponents off you. I've killed 20 of your units, leaving 33,"

Silas was interrupted. "Do you have a point? My lord doesn't fight alone, but that is his strength, something you can't understand." The kobold witch said.

The demon was certain his burst palm was fully charged, and the blue dark lord didn't have time to try any chanting. The red dark lord could create lightning with his will. Silas had expected something similar at first.

He dashed forward and used his rape ray to hit the witch. Silas returned his rapier to his hand and struck out. A barrier appeared, stopping his blade, and red sparks erupted along the glassy appearance of the will shield.

"My will is strongest at creating barriers." Silas brought his offhand to the barrier and unleashed a burst palm. Even with the Oni on his shoulder, it wasn't any trouble. The barrier shattered, but the dark lord remained standing, even stumbling away. A gunshot resounded, and the blue, dark lord fell, clutching his chest. "What happened?"

"Goblins are opportunists, and the only time you should ever speak in a battle is when you need to buy time or distract an opponent," Silas said.

The demon raised an eyebrow at the dark lord. Then, another shot rang out, hitting the dark lord in the face. His brain splattered against a boulder behind him. He didn't have the demonic energy for more than a few burst palms per day. Silas had been too drained for a second one. So he distracted the dark lord to keep him from getting a grip on the situation and putting up a second barrier.

By handing Tish a squat green forgettable goblin his night's end, she immediately became a hidden sniper. Goblins were cunning, cruel, and opportunistic. Give her a long-range weapon, and she was bound to wait for the right time to strike where the enemy could afford it least.

Silas swapped out for his rape ray and blasted the kobold witch a few times. The kobolds looked stunned at their dark lord's death. "I'm your demon lord now; all of you will follow me."

"We follow you, Masta," a pink kobold with a mouth a mix between a dragon and crocodile said.

Silas nodded and walked towards the gate. His gobs opened it, letting him in with his new little army. But, of course, they would need more hunting, smoking, and building when they returned to the goblin village. It was more his base of operations. Housing a larger force would require a more robust plumbing system, better housing, and perhaps an official guard to keep the peace.

"You are the one who defeated Hansel." A gnoll with a near-red coat said.

"My name is Silas Flex. I am a demon lord. These walls are tiny, and there are monster spiders in the tunnels. We're relocating back a the goblin village where the walls are tall and the mithril plentiful. So where are the dwarves?" Silas asked.

A group of short stacks with flowing brown, gold, and bronze hair greeted him with fire in their eyes. Many wore thick braids tight as bull whips down to their knees. They moved with the certainty of tanks on treads; blowing them off their feet would take more than strong wind. Unlike the half-naked goblins or the bloody leather-wearing gnolls, the dwarves wore chainmail like they were the standard.

"I don't believe you, how do the goblins have a mithril vein?" A dwarf asked.

Silas pulled an ingot from his inventory and placed it in the dwarf's hands like a man might gifting a child a toy. The dwarf cuddled the ingot like a new doll. A smile split Silas's face. He was going to get so many hentai points. Grisha would soon finish ranking up, and then the fun would begin.

His thoughts were disturbed by the sounds of clicking from the ceiling. Then, as if sensing his good mood, the roof ripped open overhead, and a queen ant girl poked her head through the gap, looking directly at him. Then she poked her head back, and warrior ants erupted through the hole she made. They had nothing human about them, only stingers, pincers, and rage.