Chapter 88


    <strong>Chapter 88</strong>


    Frankly, none of them had expected the creature to talk - but as surprised as they were upon the creature speaking, it was equally as surprised when it saw Azmoth.


    “Demon? What is a demon doing here?”


    The hellscape brutalisk roared in challenge, pping its spiked tail against the ground and bloomed into mes. Azmoth took one step forward, heaved back, and then let loose a cannon of fire from his throat.


    Had Azmoth always been able to do that? Riven didn’t think so.


    The creature screamed as it was bathed in the fires of hell, the smaller dream creatures above shrieked in unison, and the battle was instantaneously on the move.


    Waves of spinning razorsunched themselves into a horde of gray-skinned monsters that poured through the hole in the ceiling and into the basement, and a st of ck lightning erupted into a crowd while Azmoth closed with the big guy who’d begun to charge Riven.


    The two titanic creatures smashed into each other while dozens of muscr, gray-skinned humanoids continued tounch themselves Riven’s way - dying like flies in sprays of viscera and blood. Combined with Azmoth’s mes, Ath’s needles, and therger dream creature’s writhing appendages that regrew with each one torn off - it was like a violent fireworks show.


    A gray, wed hand whipped towards Riven’s head when one of the monsters got underneath the barrage, but was sent flying along with the monster’s head as Ath intercepted the beast. The ovoid mouth full of teeth screeched in rage along with all the others at having been so close to striking the mage, but Riven paid it no mind. He had confidence in Ath to keep him safe while he dished out damage from the backline, and his confidence was well founded. Ath whisked back and forth like a bullet, catching one here, two there,unching herself between the floor and ceiling to get better vantage points while on protect-Riven-duty.The two brutes in front of him were an even match. Azmoth’s ming ws would collide and rip at the fleshy, maggot-ridden clown while therger beast would try to throw Azmoth aside to get at Riven. Eel-like appendages with toothy maws tried to bite down on Azmoth’s armored body, only to be burned away in the hellfire coating the demon before they’d regrow momentster. Their shes and the brute force of their strikes caused the room to vibrate amidst a cacophony of battle, with body parts spraying along the ground with each new dream creature that entered the meat grinder.


    But the numbers of the iing swarm were too great, and though Riven was using a chokepoint and environmental blood from the bodies of those in tounch more razors - he and his minions let one of the enemies get through.


    <strong>*CRUNCH*</strong>


    Riven’s arm was torn into with rows of sharp teeth. He grimaced and was tackled to the ground, but rolled and mmed his afflicted forearm into the nearby wall. Repeatedly mming the creature that’dtched onto him into hard stone, he felt its body give when he heard a loud crack - and the monster fell limp to the ground.


    But that was all the time these monsters needed to overrun his current position.


    <strong>*ZIP*</strong>


    A rift in space tore open and Riven jumped through, yanking an absolutely stunned doctor with him and teleporting further down the long hallway before spinning. Throwing Dr. Brass to the ground and grimacing at the lost ground, Riven watched the screaming horde barrel past where Azmoth and the clown were battling towards him and the barricaded civilians.


    Shrouds of unholy mana bloomed in front of his position, ck snares attaching themselves to either side of the hallway in a blockade that was further reinforced with a wall of crimson ice. The horde mmed into the barricade and the ice cracked, and more of the crimson magic surged from nearby bodies - flowing overhead along the ceiling and walls. The power rapidly condensed, formingyers of jagged spikes the size of his leg coating the path in front of him while he heard his demons continuing to battle it out on the other side of the barrier.


    “THEY’RE BREAKING THROUGH!” Dr. Brass screamed in horror, still not having fired a single shot and shaking terribly. His skin had a thin film of sweat on it, and his hand gripping the pistol had gone pale white due to how hard he held the object.


    Riven ignored the man, finishing his long passage of spikes while rapidly making curving motions with his hands. Blood magic began surging up his arms, charging bloodnces one after the other before depositing them to the side where they floated - radiating in the air. Four. Six. Eight.


    He got to ten before the reinforced barrier broke down. Ath had been cutting down many of the monsters at the front line, but this hive mind was intelligent. They knew taking Riven out was the key to victory and would rid them of the demons too, so they for the mostpart ignored his demons and shattered the wall to keep oning.


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    Like a tidal wave the monsters poured through, mbering over one another in a mad rush with elongated tongues, toothy maws and sharp ws making a beeline for Riven.


    Riven calmly held back and gave Ath a signal to make way of friendly fire, waiting for them to get halfway to him while they impaled themselves on the spikes for their brethren to mber over. More snares appeared around him, pulling tight and elongating while he attached each to one the ten bloodnces.


    Almost there.


    Riven let loose and used the snares to give his bloodnces an extra boost. Bloodnce was already a high-velocity and long rage spell, able to pierce through most things like an absolute missile. It was by far his fastest projectile whenpared to the snares, spinning des, or even his new tier 3 spell blood nova. But when he was able to line up his targets like this in a narrow hallway and used tennces at once while boosting their speed with sling-shots created from wretched snares - the effect was devastating.


    Ten red and ck torpedoes sted forward in a straight line, decimating the enemy ranks literally in an instant and clearing the hallway all the way down to the waiting room where Azmoth, Ath and the clown were still battling it out. In an instant, nearly a hundred of the monsters had been wiped off the face of the in an attack so fast that a sonic boom rocked the basement. ss windows along the operating rooms shattered and people behind him screamed as their eardrums took a hit, with Dr. Brass reeling on the floor in pain while clutching his head.


    The attack had been much better than Riven could have hoped for, and he made a mental note to use thisbination again in the future given that he had time to prepare.


    “Line em up…” Riven said with gritted teeth, and he suddenly felt his decreasing mana stores starting to weigh down on him. He’d used a lot of mana in a very short amount of time, his blood pir was beginning to be rigid from overuse, and he could even feel cooldowns starting to umte should he continue at this pace.


    And that was even if his mana stores held out long enough.


    Still, the blood from his fallen enemies was great material and fueled his magical reserves shortly afterwards. With a raised hand, his blood pir reacted - with blood all around the hallway ripping from bodies and flowing towards Riven’s position to circte around him like the eye of a small storm.


    A primal wave of hunger hit him then. He could feel the razor’s edge of intent flooding through him, permeating his already thick aura with an even greater bloodlust as the shard of gluttony inside his soul resonated with his will to kill.


    Crimson eyes grew brighter, and a wide smile lit up his face to rece the calm. The shard urged him onwards, awning him to kill more, to… to eat more. He began to salivate, the swirling storm of blood energy whirling around him and crashing against the stone walls - causing Dr. Brass to run back to avoid being ripped apart from the sheer force of the fluctuating power.


    “THERE ARE MORE COMING! WE’LL KEEP THE BIG GUY HERE!” Ath screamed over the ruckus, vanishing a secondter and mming six of her arachnid des into the back of the shrieking clown while it tussled with Azmoth and barreled out of sight into the surgery waiting area. It was still trying to get at Riven, and unlike the other weaker members of its hive mind - that one was certainly able to take a hit.


    On cue, another roar of shrill screams pierced the air and another wave of gray, fleshy, muscr bodies barreled down the hall again - this time with even greater fervor. Piles of bodies were climbed over and stomped on in their quest for Riven’s head, uncaring of all that they’d lost, andpletely lost in rage.


    Gluttony simmered and snarled, rejoicing in the violence toe, and his body began to drink in the surrounding blood at a rapid pace. The storm poured into his body, flooding his mana channels and flesh before it was transformed into a more viable source of power. His blood pir screamed at him, nearly at its breaking point, but Riven continued to maneuver the energy with the shard of gluttony spurring him onwards.


    Intricate hand gestures began racing across his fingertips,bining both hands as he let go of the staff to conjure his newest spell. Magical seals to the power he craved unlocked with every hand motion he performed, and the blood pir inside his soul began to vibrate. Though his body radiated and his aura pulsed a sinister, tangible breath of malice, the words he spoke were soft. “Nefajia crecus blood nova.”


    <strong>*KABOOM*</strong>


    A shockwave radiated out from his body in all directions, though he was able to focus most of it forward to avoid seriously hurting anyone behind him. Immediately after that and an orb of crimson rapidly expanded to the size of the entire hallway. Everything it touched evaporated, and another sonic boom tore through the hallway and through dozens more of the creatures to leave nothing but red mist and debris in its wake.


    <strong>*CRASH*</strong>


    The entire building shook. An explosion of red light blinded Riven for a moment after that, and a round tunnel smoldering with crimson cracks was left in the wake of his attack after the st calmed down. What had once been a hallway was now gone, with the ceiling, walls and floor beingpletely ripped out and eaten by the mana he’d unleashed for well over a hundred yards in a straight line.


    <strong>[Blood Nova’s mandatory 8 hour cooldown has been triggered.]</strong>


    <strong>[Your blood pir has bepletely rigid. All blood spells have a mandatory cooldown for the next 24 hours.]</strong>


    His soul clenched and Riven winced due to the pain. He’d never had a pir gopletely rigid before, but pushing himself to the absolute limit had finally done it. His connection to the blood mana around him was gone, and attempting to draw on it at all resulted in an even greater spike of pain that pierced his skull like a migraine. “Fuck that hurts.”


    Leaning against the wall next to him right before a drop off in the floor where he’d created the simmering tunnel, he looked forward and saw that most of the dream creatures were now dead. Further ahead and to the left where the waiting room was still partially intact, Riven could see swaths of me and red needlesunch across his line of sight and smaller versions of the dream monsters being flung this way or that way.


    Fortunately though he still had ess to his spells that weren’t blood rted. Wretched snare still worked, his staff had acquired another charge of ck lightning, riftwalk was avable, hell’s armor hadn’t even been used yet, and blessing of the crow was on standby.


    Despite the killer headache andck of sleep, Riven hopped on down into the trench he’d created in the floor and started moving towards the remaining battle to be had. The edge of gluttony had receded, his mind was clearer, and he wasn’t even close to being out of the game just yet.


    He had a clown to kill.