Chapter 126
[Azmoth has selected the class ‘Infernal Crusader Initiate.’ Due to genetic
makeup, class title benefits have integrated with species traits.]
Infernal Crusader Initiate (Class Title) - A fire-attuned physical class path that focuses on tanking through martial arts. This class increases defensive capabilities with inherent bonuses, the amount of Sturdiness gained per level, and abilities granted by the system at regular intervals. 1 Strength, 4 Sturdiness, 1 Free Stat Point per level. Gives bonuses to heavy armor and fire-attuned abilities. (Cos with the knowledge of the Infernal Martial Art: Do of Flas)(Increases Willpower Requirent by 5)]
Riven stumbled and nearly fell over before being caught mid-stride walking through the garden at the back side of the manor. The neon-teal leaves of the tree overhead shuddered and quaked, and he found himself needing to catch himself yet again on Jose’s tombstone when a pulsing wave of heat rippled across the black, red and silver flowers that decorated the walkways.
And then all went still again, and Riven shared a curious glance with Athela before hurriedly walking over to where the heat wave had co from.
The old stone chapel that Azmoth now was making his own ho was only a couple dozen yards away, across the garden and behind the manor where Riven now lived. It was a far bigger room than the smaller ones in the manor could offer such a large demon, and Azmoth had volunteered to stay there after scoping out potential places to call his own.
Coming around the side of the old ruined building and entering through a wide archway without a door, Riven froze when he saw Azmoth inspecting one of his arms.
Though Azmoth had undergone a significant change.
Azmoth’s body was generally the sa shape and composed of the sa materials, but he was slightly bigger and aner-looking. Just previous to selecting the class before the class title ‘integrated’ with the species traits Azmoth had, the thick black iron plates covering Azmoth’s body had left large gaps inbetween them to expose red and sinewy muscle that lacked skin. Here, however, those gaps had significantly decreased and had mostly been replaced with more of the black tal. More spikes had also been added along the ridge of his neck and head to boot.
The effect made Azmoth look like a titanic, demonic black knight of sorts - with a tail, four arms, no eyes, and two eel-like maws made of black tal that gnashed their teeth and flickered with cinders. Only small slits of red muscular flesh were now seen between the plates, and Azmoth’s body had beco sothing of a living set of armor.
His movents were still fluid however, and he turned his sightless gaze upon Riven with a grin to expose the usual rows of obsidian teeth while picking up his gigantic stone maul. Resting it on a shoulder, he waved with his two free hands. “Class count body as armor and give more bonus. We go now?”
Riven looked the large demon and his exterior tallic exoskeleton up and down with newfound appreciation. “You really look the part of a doomsday knight my friend. Congratulations on picking a class! And yes, we’re going. Fay’s staying behind with her brother unless I need to summon her, she’s having… family issues. Anyways have you had a chance ot try out your new ability yet?”
“Do of Flas?” Azmoth muttered, looking down to a notification that appeared before his face - and he shook his head. “Try later. I burn down house if stay here. Let go.”
***
Walking down the cent road towards the remnants of the half-destroyed hospital, Riven saw a couple decaying bodies of humans that hadn’t been there prior to the last ti he’d been here. So of them were being fed upon by birds like roadkill, but they all had obvious gunshot wounds - indicating that they’d been killed by other humans instead of from monsters, goblins or anything else.
He avoided the remnant bodies of the n and won who’d been killed by the nightmare creature too, frowning at the mory of these creatures rampaging through the crowds.
He kicked open the hole they’d patched in the floor leading to the basent, shoved so rubble and remnants of Athela’s webbing that was still there, and dropped down into the dark.
The stench hit his nostrils imdiately, and he nearly gagged at the putrification that the clown-like dream creature was undergoing at this very mont. He stood in a puddle of the necrotic ooze leaking out from the massive beast, along with so of the smaller bodies of other dream creatures, and he kicked the clown monster’s corpse for good asure while walking by in a spiteful act of retribution for the headache it’d given him back then. There were no signs of anyone having ever returned after the mass exodus when the creature had attacked, the basent being completely devoid of any life, and he alongside his two minions found the sewer entrance in the back room without incident.
He dropped down yet again, feet landing on the hard stone of the sewer’s walkway while his eyes imdiately adjusted to the deep black of the tunnels beneath Brightsville.
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“Which way?” Azmoth asked after his huge body slamd against the floor with a loud, thudding boom. The newly ford black armor was so fucking sick, and Riven could only shake his head with a large smile of approval while looking at his unholy paladin that flickered with smoldering flas here or there at random. The huge stone maul Azmoth wielded was very similar, and it too simred with heat while the demon stood to his full height to tower over the others.
Athela waved away the dust that Azmoth had kicked up, giving the bigger demon a grimace, and pointed left. “That way.”
Riven nodded in affirmation, holding out his staff to confirm Athela’s gesture and stepped ahead. “Let’s go.”
The tunnels were devoid of any heartbeats other than the small rodents and amphibians that sohow lived down here in the muck without getting herpa-ghona-syphil-aids, but that wasn’t reason to be without caution. The armored wyrm creatures that’d attacked him last ti down here ca as a swarm, they were ambush predators and Riven hadn’t picked up any heartbeats from them last ti either. The battle between Riven, Athela, Snagger, and the swarm of wyrms had left huge numbers of the creatures dead - but that didn’t an there weren’t more.
The tunnels turned and twisted a couple tis and then led down further into the ground where it connected with a large cave system that spanned many hundreds of yards out in any direction, no doubt attached there by the system on purpose when fusing the three worlds together. It had many stalagmites and stalactites, a couple pools of water far cleaner than the sewage pockets from up above, and a couple patches of bioluminescent moss. This was the real entrance into the Underdark, and Riven had been instructed to et Snagger here.
Riven was not disappointed.
Already standing in the middle of the cave was Snagger, accompanied by three more ratn each quite a bit smaller than Snagger was. Snagger looked the sa - a scarred, brown-furred, muscular ratman that stood up on two legs like a human to be a little taller than Riven was. He wore the sa spiked knuckle pieces he’d used to bash the wyrms with when Riven’d first t him, and had the sa worn leather chest piece across his front as well.
Unlike Snagger, who looked like he’d eaten roids for breakfast for the past 9 years, were the three other scrawny ratnt nearby. Each of them only stood to be sowhere between four and five feet tall. Two of them were colored gray, while the other had white fur instead, but all of them had long bare tails and large ears like Snagger did. Riven couldn’t tell if any of them were male or female because of the rags and cloaks they wore around their upper and lower bodies, but one of the gray colored rats carried a caster’s staff and the other two carried daggers and slings. They all perked up upon Riven’s entrance, chittering in hushed tones to one another while Snagger stepped forward and ca to greet the vampire himself.
“It is happy-good that you-we et here!” Snagger chittered in the sa raspy voice Riven rembered. “We-I am excited to show-introduce you to my nest-brood. Co-co, I will show-tell the na-signs of my kin-brood!”
The ratman was obviously excited to have Riven there, and Riven couldn’t help but feel the sa way. Despite everything else that was going on in the world, he was here eting creatures akin to aliens and going likely where no man from Earth had ever gone before - into the Underdark. This was the kind of stuff books were written about.
“Good to see you too, Snagger. I’d love to et your friends. By the way, this is Azmoth - I know he wasn’t there with us last ti but he’s another of my demonic servants.”
The ratn were already evaluating Azmoth with wary eyes, or at least the newcors were. Azmoth’s foot was enough to crush them to dust, and the huge demon’s form-fitting obsidian plates were a testant to the enormous strength underneath.
“A strong minion-demon-slave, yes-yes. You are certainly-truly powerful-strong!”
Snagger nodded enthusiastically and raced over to the other ratnt on all fours, being just slightly faster than he’d have been on two legs and showing Riven that Snagger and his species likely could run or walk either way depending on what suited them at a given mont.
Snagger motioned to the white-furred rat first as Riven approached. “This is sha-kin, my cousin-kin.”
He then motioned to the gray-furred rat with the staff, and the other gray-furred rat with the twin daggers. “Cheshish-kin and Bort-kin. They help-fight with - and sha-kin. We take jobs-fights for the brood-nest and mother-queen, we explore the surface-city and upper-higher Underdark, try-find helpers and ally-friends.”
sha, the white rat and apparently Snagger’s cousin, bowed low and offered her two daggers out hilt-first towards Riven. Her voice was far squeakier and higher-pitched than Snagger’s, and she kept her eyes low upon her own introduction. “I-we heard-listened to story-tales about you, great vampire mageling. I thought you summoned-kept only one demon slave-servant, but you acquired-have two? Much impressed-awe, not an easy-flimsy thing-item to do.”
“I actually have three. One of them is on personal business.” Riven silently snickered at the way Athela was giving the rat people a dirty look at the ntion of ‘slaves’ when referencing his two demonic minions, but kept his humor underneath his mask. “Alrighty then. I believe you were going to show around your nest? Is it like a city, or… What should I be expecting here? Either way, I’m rather excited to find out. I’ve never been to a settlent created by your people before.”
“You-you have not?” Cheshish, the gray-furred caster rat asked curiously, adjusting the leathers he wore so that they weren’t too tightly bound.
It was a conversation he’d already had with Snagger, but he was patient. Riven shook his head. “Nope. On my world, Earth, your people don’t even exist there. Or they didn’t, Earth isn’t around anymore as it was incorporated into Panu.”
sha cut into the conversation with wide eyes, stepping over to evaluate him in more detail. “Interesting-fascinating. Maybe why your eyes are red-bright, and not red-dull like other bat-vampire friends we-we have. We co-travel from Zazir world-planet, but we will show-see you to our nest-city. It is very akin-like to other nest-cities in the underdark, and you will be welco-friended there! Travel-follow -!”
“Zazir huh? I don’t think I’ve t anyone from the third planet. Everyone I’ve seen so far is either from Earth or Zazir…"
And that was when Riven heard it. The rapidly increasing heartbeats from further down they tunnel. His eyes narrowed, and he peered further ahead until he focused in on what looked like a helt…
Yup. That was definitely a helt, a set of eyes, and a long brown beard on a face peering out at him from around a ledge further back. The clicking of bolts being loaded into crossbows was vaguely heard, and then a shout-squeak of alarm went up from Snagger as a flurry of incoming missiles launched themselves through the tunnel towards their position.
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