Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

The demon screeched in agony and swung around its empty hand and with its magic earth spikes erupted from the ground forcing both Citro and Saturio to back off. The demon noticed that its current strategy wasn’t working all that well, so it opted to try something different.

Since using a floating shield was a bit too mana expensive the demon decided to try another form of defence. A large amount of stone erupted from the ground and covered it from head to toe. At first it was very circular in shape but quickly it morphed into an improvised armour that from what the demon could tell did not hinder its movements in any way.

With a sickening laugh the demon resumed its fight with the invaders this time putting them on the back foot. Although the armour wasn’t all that thick and the mages and archers in the back of the formation were giving just about everything they had, the demon wasn’t all that worried about it. With a bit of mana and some stone collected from the ground it could repair the damage.

The fight wasn’t going well and everyone knew it, so when he was sure no one was paying him attention Saturio quickly swallowed a pill. He could feel most of his wounds rapidly healing and he felt strength like he had never imagined.

With a large smile on his face he pointed his spear towards the demon's back and ran with all his might. His spear pierced through the armour and through a significant portion of the demon's flesh. The demon shrieked louder than it had so far and swung its staff around wildly in an attempt to get Saturio off.

The demon collapsed to the ground bleeding profusely and without the strength to fight any longer. “Our victory is at hand!” Saturio shouted as he plunged his spear into the demon’s skull.

The remaining members of his team recognised the code words to begin their plan the moment the demon was killed and they all took pills similar to the one Saturio took moments earlier.

Citro while he sheathed his short sword approached Saturio with the intention of congratulating him, but before he had an opportunity Saturio spun around and tried to stab Citro with his spear. It was a very close attack with Citro just barely blocking with his shield.

“I am sorry sir, but i'll be taking the phylacterium.”

The rest of Saturio’s team joined in and struck at the people closest to them. Although they were outnumbered two or three to one and their opponents had ranged support their temporary physical capabilities gave them the edge to keep on fighting.

While this happened Arthur noticed a strange ghostly blue energy flowing from the demon's corpse into a strange small obelisk that was about a foot tall. On the sides were strange symbols that started glowing as the energy entered it.

Arthur also was able to hear Saturio say something about a phylacterium. ‘Could that be the phylacterium he spoke of. If it is, I need to get rid of it before he can use it for the scheme he came up with.’

Arthur ran along the side of the wall away from only of the fights happening but as he was halfway passed the fight Citro, Aelia and the dwarf were fighting in Saturio saw him and shouted. “Don't you dare!” Saturio attempted to run after Arthur but Citro bashed him in the face with his shield. “You might want to focus on the fight in front of you first.”

Arthur raced to the small obelisk and picked it up. By this point the ghastly blue energy stopped flowing from the demon. As Arthur held it in his hands he could feel the energy in it wanting to go somewhere, Arthur not knowing what else to do put a bit of mana into the obelisk to see if it would do anything.

The energy now displaced and with only one nearby place to go rushed into Arthur the same way it did from the demon to the obelisk in the first place. At first he felt energised and shortly after he could feel new information entering his mind.

This was the demon's soul he was absorbing and its knowledge with it. Not all of the information, some was lost in the transfer but enough to give someone with no experience in a subject very good skill in it as if they had been practicing for quite some time.

/- - - - - -\

+ 2000 Exp

Level up

+ Geomancy Level 17

+ Polearms Level 12

+ Wrestling Level 20

+ Unarmed Level 23

+ Leadership Level 5

+ Mana manipulation Level 21

\- - - - - -/

Subjects Arthur had no past experience with felt so trivial to, he could command the earth around him and the mana within him to do things he couldn’t have without much more experience. He had a very good understanding of how to use his body on its own to take down and if necessary kill his opponents.

“You bastard!” Saturio shouted as he punched the dwarf blocking him in the face with a loud crunch. The dwarf fell to the ground and rolled away, dropping his weapon as he did, not the best option but the only one he could afford.

Saturio raced towards Arthur intending to kill him in the most brutal way he could imagine. ‘What am I meant to tell lady Alkonost when I return. Some fool took the demon's soul before I was able to, resulting in a waste of the Order's resources and time. I must at the bare minimum kill the bastard who interfered and perhaps she will grant me mercy.’

For half a second time appeared too slow for Arthur, giving him enough time to formulate a very simple plan. Arthur raised a simple stone wall blocking Saturio, although in his rage he would likely simply smash right through it, but this still gave Arthur an opportunity.

Saturio saw Arthur raise his left hand and with it a stone wall. Using his temporary strength and his spear he pierced through the wall and smashed through with his left shoulder. On the other side however Arthur had prepared a simple trap.

With the wall Arthur was able to move in close to Saturio where his spear would become more of a hindrance than anything else, and with the wrestling skill he obtained from the demons soul he grabbed him by his arm and got a hold of the top bit of his leather cuirass and pulled him forward while he left his right leg out. Saturio, practically with no knowledge in hand to hand combat, did not know what Arthur was doing until his feet had left the ground and he was upside down while in midair.

Saturio hit the ground with an umph and Arthur wasted no time and formed a crude dagger that was more like a spike with a handle. Arthur at Saturio’s head plunged the dagger into his stomach piercing through the leather armour. Of course with the effects of the pill Saturio swallowed he bore through the pain and attempted to remove the dagger while Arthur kept it pressed into his stomach.

“You think -gasp- this will -gasp- kill me!” Saturio forced the dagger out of his chest even with the unfavorable conditions.

“No, but this will.” Since Saturio was not a mage he didn’t really know how magic worked.

But suddenly Saturio felt a small prick in his back, it wasn’t all that painful but it was quite distracting. But it did not remain a prick and soon he could feel it moving upwards through his back. Soon the pain became unbearable and Saturio screamed out all let go of the dagger. Whatever it was that was moving through his body had started accelerating and he felt it pick up quite a bit of speed before it slowed again, he wouldn’t have found it very important if it hadn't left him unable to breathe.

‘My lungs! He pierced through my lungs!’

Arthur had used his newfound geomancy knowledge to turn some of the stone under Saturio into a spike that slowly pierced through his body. Saturio now gasped for air that could not remain in his lungs leading to a slow and agonising death.

Arthur fell to his knees and breathed heavily as he watched as Saturio flailed his arms around in a desperate attempt to live. Arthur saw that his adversary could not breath and although he did not know why he did know that breathing was very important.

“Fuck - You - Traitor!” Arthur shouted at Saturio with deep breaths between each word. Suddenly Arthur felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Citro. Citro went to his knees matching Arthur in height.

“You did well kid. I'm not entirely sure how or what you did but you did it well.”

“Kid? You aren’t much older than I am.” Arthur was a little insulted by that.

“I am at least 5 years older than you, that gives me the right to call you a kid.” Citro chuckled. “The rest of this fuckers allies who didn’t fall while we fought the demon are now in several pieces thanks to your diversion. I will be sure to include your contributions in my report.”

Arthur looked to the many corpses that now littered the room, many came not from the demon but other humans for reasons unknown to him.

“Who- who survived?” Arthur felt himself become shaky as the adrenaline wore off.

“Most of your team survived the fight with the traitors.”

“Most survived?” Arthur felt a lump in his throat as he worried about who survived.

“The dwarf, Hambel died protecting your friend Cassia from one of the traitors. He took a blade to the throat for her.”

Arthur was silent. ‘Hambel died. But I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.’

Citro saw Arthurs blank face and simply assumed he was too far in shock to think properly and called over a mage that was skilled in restoration magic.

Arthur had suffered quite a bit more damage than even he had noticed. His wrists were crushed a bit by Saturio’s strength when he attempted to keep the dagger out of his chest. He had also lightly fractured his leg when he tripped Saturio, it may have looked like a clean sweep but in reality the speed Saturio went when his leg collided with Arthurs was what caused the situation that killed him.

Even with the mage doing her best to heal Arthur it would still take a few days to fully heal from all the damage, without magic Arthur would have likely been bedridden for three or four weeks. Cassia was always by his side for his recovery and even ate with him in his own tent that he was given after they returned to the camp.