Chapter 3: Demon?
"Are you finally done?" My voice cut through the momentary silence that infected the classroom.
"As much as I would love to continue chit-chatting with you girls, standing here with our thumbs up our ass ain't going to change anything."
"You're right about that," Olive commented from the side. She too participated lightly in the girls' heated discussion.
"Not so fast!" But before a real discussion could be had, another voice rudely barged into the fray.
A stout woman with thick legs and wide arms, brown hair clipped into a bun, walked towards me and threw her fat finger in my direction.
"Who the hell even are you?" She berated me, "You didn't arrive along with the rest of us! And why are your arms dyed black? You appeared out of nowhere! We can't trust you!"
But before I could answer the woman, Olive answered before me.
"He's a Demon," She said nonchalantly, "I summoned him with my |Summon • Hellspawn| Ability. We've been over this!"
The stout woman wore an incredulous expression on her face, but instead of admiring it, I shot a lightning quick glance towards Olive.
She summoned me?!
But I'm not a Demon! I think?
It was then that I suddenly remembered the Class I possessed [Lesser Evil] and not only my class, even my species seems to have changed from human to [Corrupted Human] but I have no idea what any of that actually means!
While Olive and the fat woman bickered between themselves, I decided to study the system screen a little more in depth.
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Species: Corrupted Human
Species Description: A human, and yet not one at all – existing solely on the edge of alive and dead, real and unreal. An existence said to be impossible to exist. A human, imbued with Corruption, yet remains.
Class: Lesser Evil
Class Description: Adopted by Hell, prove useful and seek retribution. Wage war, commit genocide, obliterate. Become Annihilation.
Special Trait: Spark of Obliteration
Special Trait Description: Possessing the Spark of Obliteration, be immune to ceaselessness and spread Corruption.
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I read through my various descriptions with a scorn on my face.
What is all this evil shit talking about?
Become annihilation? Okay buddy, I'll get right on it!
I rolled my eyes egregiously, but even if I didn't want to admit it, Olive summoning me made too much sense. It was her who yelled at me to act, to help them survive the final Goblin. And when her directive echoed within my ear drums, I felt overwhelmingly condemned to perform her orders.
Whether I liked it or not, I seemed to be bound to her. Maybe even enslaved. Before I was able to fight the sensation for a handful of seconds, but in the future? When she's become stronger and more familiar with the Ability? What's to stop her from condemning me to erase my sense of self?
But these were things that could be discussed later. The lot of us are still trapped inside the abandoned school, confused at what exactly our objective is in being summoned here. And so, a plan was quickly formulated by myself and the girls.
Other than myself, the two most prominent voices among the strategy discussion was undoubtedly Olive, my Summoner, and the fat – I mean stout – woman named Carla. Previously, Carla had already expressed displeasure with my attendance, but it seems as though Olive and Carla have been at each other since before I arrived.
The two constantly argued with one another. Each time one of them suggested a plan, the other one would tear it to the ground, ripping apart every vulnerability and overlooked aspect of it. And although this process was incredibly annoying to witness live, it did prove useful in constructing a well-thought out plan.
I mean it practically had to, the two of them tried their earnest to sabotage the other.
The plan was as follows, the group of girls, plus me, are going to split into groups of two. From the classroom sliding doors, one team will go left while the other will go right. If presented the opportunity to ascend or descend, the group in question will return to the classroom and wait for the other group.
We will only ascend and descend together. And we will rendezvous at this original classroom in two hours.
Olive is the team leader of group one. Carla is the team leader of group two.
It's that simple.
So Olive, myself, and five other girls slid the wooden shoji doors open revealing the nearly lightless hallway of the abandoned school. Looking around, the hallways were narrow, the cheap and flimsy walls were covered in holes and scratches, and many of the boards along the floorboard were jagged and cracked.
Team one spread out in the hallway. While shoulder to shoulder, only three could stand next to each other within the narrow walls. With our team composition, Olive and I faced our rear while the four other girls pushed us forward.
While traversing, we occasionally came across dried blood and ripped clothes. Soiled bandages littered the vicinity, but not a single corpse could be found. Not of the green Goblins or of any humans.
We found four other classrooms down the hall, but like the first, all had been vacated and void of any lifeforms. It seems as though all the Goblins in the school ran towards the girls when they appeared, and if so, then the school could possibly be safe at the moment.
Having found nothing noteworthy, team one returned to the original class and waited for team two's arrival. One hour passed and then two.
Three hours passed.
"Help!" A heart-wrenching wale echoed down the long corridor of the school.
Instantly, the heads of team one burst to life as we rocketed towards the right of the hallway. With Olive and I in the lead, we sprinted down the hallway and quickly arrived at a gruesome scene.
The girl who's voice pierced our heart strings was being ravaged by a Goblin. Her clothes ripped from her body, chunks of skin gorged out along with it. On top of her, a Goblin held the back of her head and slammed it into the wood boards, forcing her to arch her back into the air.
Her eyes were bloodshot and blood seeped out of the corner of her lips. As her body convulsed, the light in her eyes rapidly faded before she no longer had the strength to keep them open at all.
Although too late, Olive charged into the Goblin, tackling the vile beast to the ground. She dug her fingers into the Goblins throat and used her gel tipped nails to rip and tear into the Goblins flesh like claws. The Goblin resisted, opening his maw of rotten teeth and plunging them into Olive's forearm.
But she persisted and continued to squirm her fingers into the Goblin's throat. She finally succeeded in wrapping her fingers around its artery and quickly tightened them. She pulled back and ripped the Goblins carotid arteries straight from its neck. A long and rubbery tube exploded from the Goblin's throat and immediately the beast's jaw relaxed and fell from Olive's arm.
Olive stood up and turned around. By the time she was finished, the other girls had arrived to witness her savagery. The girls covered their mouths in disgust, most of them looked away entirely. Without batting an eye, Olive walked towards her slain, naked companion.
She undid the ties of her shirt and pulled it over her head. Now wearing nothing but an orange bra, Olive gently laid her shirt over the girl's revealing corpse and quietly offered a few moments of respect.
Even still, Olive stood up and looked at the rest of team one with determination in her eyes. Before her teammates could even recover from the display of unruly gore they were just subject to, Olive was firing off inferences – trying her best to navigate their perilous path.
"I believe it's safe to assume the rest of team two has perished." Olive suggested.
"I agree." I nodded from the side.
"And since our path led to a dead end, we have no other choice but to follow in their footsteps." Olive smacked her lips in annoyance.
"Listen up everyone!" Olive commanded, "I know you're feeling scared. I know you're feeling hopeless. I know because I feel it too. None of us were raised for this! For fighting, for killing, for war! We were raised in bustling cities and comfortable suburbs, but the life we once led has been left behind. Similar to our circumstance, we have one way forward. And I, for one, refuse to run and hide, to allow my fears to control me – whether we like it or not, this is our world now and I am going to keep moving forward! All I ask is that you take that step with me! Right here. Right now." Olive turned around and faced the bottomless abyss that was the abandoned school hallway.
With unwavering determination, and without hearing even a lick of a response from her peers, Olive took a step into the darkness.
Needless to say I immediately followed suit. I had been thinking the same thing. She just said it first. As the two of us continued walking forward with seemingly zero care over whether the others joined us, the rest of the sheep herded into place and the seven of us advanced towards guaranteed danger.
And lo and behold, to nobody's surprise, soon after we left on our venture we encountered our first group of enemies: the disgusting and vile green Goblins.
Four of them openly roamed the area ahead of us and before team one could even fully perceive them, the Goblins were rushing towards us.
Gripping tightly their poorly fashioned daggers, the Goblins advanced. To meet their charge, Olive appeared. She bent her knees low and angled her shoulder beneath the neck of the beast. Pushing into the ground, she exploded forth and crashed into the Goblin's chin. From her shoulder's contact, Olive could feel something slip within the Goblin's body.
It's jaw shattered. The Goblin rolled on the ground and seethed in pain, it tried to part its lips to scream, but its mouth refused to listen to its commands! With one taken care of, I charged towards the second.
The second Goblin pounced on Olive from the side, hoping to attack her while she was occupied with the first. I intercepted its leap and took hold of the Goblin's leg. With its limb in my grasp, I swung the Goblin around and slammed its skull into the ground.
Another Goblin approached from in front of me and I slammed its brethren upon him, cracking his skull with the skull of his companion. Blood splattered in the air and painted the walls and suddenly, my body grew hot.
Like tremors, my heart began to radiate warmth and as my body grew hotter my strength seemed to grow! My grip around the deceased Goblin's leg tightened and I unintentionally crushed the bone, snapping its leg in half at my fingers discretion.
One Goblin remained and for some reason I felt inexplicably excited about it! I wanted to slay the beast myself!
Is this the high hunters get when they catch a good game?
Or is this an effect of the System in some way? A trait inherent to [Lesser Evil] perhaps?
Either way, I wanted to be the one to kill the last Goblin.
With newfound strength surging through my body, I charged towards the Goblin with all my might. The wood beneath my feet cracked underneath the pressure and my body moved faster than I expected. I crashed into the Goblin, my chest slamming into its head as I knocked it onto the ground.
I raised my hand and prepared to pummel the creature, but my senses started tingling. Like before, a strong pull enacted on my will and I felt coerced to straighten my fingers to a point – rather than clench my hand into a ball.
Forced to oblige, I flattened my hand and strained my finger muscles, allowing my intuition to guide me through whatever the overwhelming force was pressuring me to do. As I tightened my fingers, I noticed a subtle change enacted onto my hand. The blackness grew a glossy sheen, like metal, and the edges of my fingers grew jagged and sharp.
My nails also extended, growing naturally to a fine point. Looking at my fingers now, they looked more like prehistoric claws than a man's hand. Even the edges were sharpened for the added benefit of slash attacks, but everyone knows piercing is always preferred.
I brought my fingers down in a flash and as if I were cutting butter, my hardened fingers passed through the Goblin's skull and cut into its brain, splitting its mind in two. I pulled my bloodied fingers from the Goblin's head and as I loosened my fingers they returned to their soft, sausage-like appearance.
As they did so, the soothing woman's voice spoke in my mind once more.
[Goblin Slain x 3]
[3 Lesser Souls Harvested]
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TheLostBoy
TheLostBoy I just started reading an "I became Homelander" fan-fic.... brothers I am deep in the fan-fic hole.... but hey how was your day?
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