Chapter 22: Recognized
He knew better now.
Too many times already he'd fallen into the blood frenzy, mind fogged by the thrill of the slaughter. But not this time. This time, he kept his head clear.
Right now, amongst his own kind, he wasn't just a predator. He was a god of death.
He cleaved through five more imps just as Rend ticked out and the cleavers shrank. Without missing a beat, he dashed clear, keeping his back open and his vision wide.
He checked his UI and grinned, bloody teeth bared. Laughter rose, but he choked it back.
[HP // 68/70]
[SM // 15/15]
[EXP // 645/949]
[Hellfire // Active // +10% Damage]
[Feed // Active // +1HP/5sec]
[Demonic Will // Stack 5 // +25% Pain Suppression // +5% Health Regen]
[Fiend Skin // Active // Defense +5% // 46 sec]
He'd already hit Level 8. Easy.
His tail punched through an imp's eye like a spear, at the same time he used the flat of his cleaver to send the skull of another flying.
Bloody projectiles for the survivors to deal with.
STR and AGI had both increased by one naturally on level up. He had immediately dumped the 3 AP into AGI, raising it to 17, his top speed now hit 48 mph.
And with his STR at 14, even without Butcher's Wrath, a single claw strike was now fatal to his kin.
Despite the stat growth, the biggest gain in his eyes had been the new Curse. A defensive buff, Fiend Skin. Unlike Hellfire, it didn't drain soulmass over time.
[Curse // Fiend Skin]
[Type // Active]
[Category // Defense]
[Rank // F]
[Evolve // Yes]
[Sub-Category // Mutation]
[Description]
[You curse your flesh to thicken and harden into a grotesque hide. While active, your body distorts into a denser, warped form, reducing incoming physical damage]
[Cost // 2 Soulmass]
[Cast Time // Instant]
[Duration // 60 seconds]
[Cooldown // 2 minutes]
[Effect]
[Reduces all incoming physical damage by 5%]
[Flavor Text]
[You were not born to block blades. You were bred to survive them.]
Cleaving through the guts of another group, he leapt, activating Rend mid-air. The cleavers stretched, tearing through another mass of imps as he landed. With the cooldown reduction effect from Butcher's Wrath, ranking Rend up was practically free at this point.
'Only two more uses...'
Behind him, the horde chased like a living serpent of limbs and shrieks. He kept the path wide, circling them in a loop, always watching for signs of something worse finding its way into his feast.
He only needed twenty kills each time to refresh Rend. Simple.
He swirled back into the swarm, cleavers singing. Imp parts flew. Screams of rage and panic twisted into a rhythm. His rhythm. Like a conductor leading a chorus of death, an imp guided his kin through a performance the Maw had never witnessed. A symphony of butchery.
His strikes sharpened, more certain, more efficient. Two heads flew clean. Then three imps fell, bisected at the waist. One torso flailed through the air, latched onto him mid-charge. Its claws scraped against his flesh, but couldn't pierce it.
He bit its face off and kept moving.
He didn't hesitate. Only one more time. With his mind calm and eyes locked, he dove into the heart of the swarm.
Spinning. Bleeding. Laughing.
"Rend!"
[System // Notification]
[System Skill Rank-Up // Rend // F -> E]
[Achievement Unlocked // First System-skill Rank-Up]
[Distributing Rewards...]
[You have ranked up your first System Skill. Rend has evolved through repeated use and biological alignment.
Kill pattern analysis indicates consistent targeting of your own kind. Behavioral threshold crossed.]
[Achievement Reward // Title]
[Title // Kinslayer]
[Earned // Bloodline Betrayer]
[Effect]
[All Imps now instinctively recognize you as an apex predator // All Imps will fear and avoid proximity, even when hostile // Under certain conditions, some Imps may respond to basic commands or exhibit submission behavior]
[Flavor Text]
[They see you. Not as one of them...but as their end.]
"A title? Is that like a name? Do I have a name?!"
He shouted mid-swing, intestines flinging in arcs, disrupting the swarm. His cleavers tore through bodies without slowing.
[Negative. A title is not a name. It is earned through action, not given. Names are assigned at birth or chosen. A title is what others call you, what you become known for.]
Kinslayer.
There was an edge to it he liked. Something final, and brutal. The effect made his chest swell. Apex of the species, recognized by the system itself.
'I really am the strongest.'
[Strongest imp. Emphasis on imp. Do not get too confident. The strongest bug is still a bug.]
He growled low, but didn't argue. The system wasn't wrong.
The title was welcome, he immediately noticed the swarm had slowed, their movements turning unsure as some started to retreat, but what he really cared about was Butcher's Wrath. At six feet during his last Rend, the blades had felt perfect. Weightless. Devastating. As they shrank, he was already eager to see the updated profile.
As for the swarm?
Fleeing and almost gone.
Only a few stubborn ones left, cleared with ease. No surprise Alpha. No last-minute interruptions. Just silence and blood.
He ripped a cleaver from an imp's spine, then hoisted the corpse and bit through its skull. He crunched in, slurping brain matter with zero hesitation.
Only part worth eating. At least to him.
"Too bad, hunting my own kind is... enjoyable."
He wiped the blood off his face with the back of his claw.
"I hope humans are just as fun."
He grinned.
They probably taste better anyway.
Tossing the corpse aside, he took stock.
He had what he needed. His speed was more than enough now to reach the gate in time. The rest of his gains weren't bad either.
With his buffs fading, he kept his cleavers drawn as he opened the updated Rend profile.
[Skill Display // Rend]
[Type // Active/Curse]
[Category // Offensive]
[Rank // E]
[Evolve // Yes]
[Sub-Category // Mutation]
[Damage Type // Slashing/Soul]
[Description]
[Forces your claws to liquify and elongate, mutating them into serrated tendrils of hardened flesh]
[Cost // 2 Soulmass]
[Cast Time // Instant]
[Time Active // 5 Seconds]
[Cooldown // 5 minutes]
[Effects]
[1st Effect]
[+15% Slashing Damage // Attack Range +6ft]
[2nd Effect]
[20% chance to Afflict [Soul Bleed] with each successful hit]
[Soul Bleed]
[Every 2 seconds, removes 1 stat point from the target's highest stat // Stat loss lasts until the end of combat]
[Bleed Duration // 5 seconds]
[Stack Limit // 1]
[Flavor Text]
[Flesh is weak. Pull harder. Tear deeper. Make the body remember who it serves.]
[Uses // 0/100]
The detour had been worth it.
"Soul Bleed… it gained a Curse. Too bad the cooldown didn't drop."
Still, five seconds of enhanced damage, range, and a chance to weaken targets mid-fight, it was a solid upgrade. Only downside was the increased cost.
Glancing to the timer on his UI, he had just under six hours left till he had to start traveling.
He considered staying longer. Slaughtering more imps. Pushing Rend toward its next rank. But no. He didn't know what waited at the gate. Every second needed to be spent preparing for that.
[User's target is located within a fortress. Ownership implies power. In Hell, all claims are enforced through strength alone. Caution recommended.]
"Then I need to get there early."
He scanned the fields one last time. The flesh writhed endlessly, growing, feeding, rotting. A never-ending cycle of meat. The sight made something deep within him twist.
"One day I'll come back. And I'll kill everything."
Claws tightened. Blades glinted.
Then he ran. A blur of blood and steel, carving his path through Hell.
----
Darkness. Quiet and thick.
Unnatural.
Like oil suspended in air, motionless and suffocating. In that black stillness, a single severed finger hovered. Human. Feminine. Slender and smooth, the nail stained a black so deep it drank the dark around it.
A single drop of blood swelled at the cut. Slow. As if time had been stretched thin.
It hung there quivering.
Then... it fell.
The moment it broke free, time snapped back into motion. The drop plummeted with unnatural speed, vanishing into the abyss below... until it struck something unseen.
Light.
Sickly and violent.
A bloom of green fire erupted from the impact, coiling like something alive. It writhed and twisted, rising into a mass of flame. Within it, images burned, screams etched in embers. Flesh flayed. Mouths filled with nails. Eyes sewn open. Sins not whispered, but roared.
Then, suddenly, the flame collapsed inward, drawn to a single point.
A shard.
Green glass. Longer than wide. It hovered in the void, light leaking from within its core. It spun slowly, impossibly smooth, reflecting nothing.
Nothing...until it stopped.
Eyes. Hollow and black.
A skull.
Its grin wide. Teeth not only in the mouth, but lining the interior of the bone itself. Nestled in sockets. Grown into the jaw like tumors. A child's skull, grotesque, malformed, and smiling.
It stared.
"I will take back everything. Skin all of them. Soon… soon."
The shard vanished. The skull followed, swallowed by dark.
Only the finger remained. Melting, disintegrating, a woman's scream wailing from within the dissolving flesh.