NOVEL NEXT B2 Chapter 18
Before Angar stood the three surviving abominations, their grotesque forms dominating the cage's blood-slicked rear, shadows twisting unnaturally around them, a great malevolence emanating from each one.
The Caitiff's tentacle-ridged head raised, its Redoubt power armor smoldering, its long, probably-tentacle fingers flexing as if eager to ensnare him.
Beside it, the sinewy, fanged figure hissed, its own armor smoking, the bulbous growths on its skull quivering with unnatural vitality, pulsating as if alive.
In front, the hulking abomination snarled, its massive frame unbowed by the lightning that had felled its allies, some of its flesh and bone spurs charred and blackened.
A grim smile split Angar's mouth. He hoped these three would offer worthy enough battle, not the feeble tributes of the fallen.
The cage, though less cramped now, even with six corpses strewn about, still greatly limited movement, and would force something like a close quarters brawl, just as he desired.
He wanted to tell them he wouldn't use further Abilities if they'd forgo their fell powers, and they could fight in the old way, but he didn't get the chance.
As soon as Tempest faded, the hulking abomination charged in, its bone-spur-laden fist blurring through the air.
Angar twisted, sidestepping the assault, his claws raking across its flank while his forearm deflected a gauntleted punch from the sinewy figure.
Surprisingly, his talons tore into the beast. The gouges weren't all that deep, but deep enough to make black blood spray and the creature roar in fury.
Like against the Phasorax, this was further proof his claws held an uncanny quality, more dangerous to his foes than they should be. Not as useful as a power hammer with a Graviton Pulse Amplifier, but still strangely effective.
The Caitiff was lurching forward, its tentacle-fingers splaying wide. Angar was certain they'd elongate with a sickening stretch, whipping toward him like venomous serpents.
Instincts and past lessons roared for him to evade the inevitable lash of tendrils, but the cage's tight walls offered no escape. As he braced for the writhing tentacle assault, the bone-spur beast's fist thudded into his armor, barely shifting his stance.
Instead of the Caitiff's fingers stretching out into terrible cords, a burst of power left the hand. Angar raised his forearm, blocking the blast.
That was his cue again. He activated Lightning Strike, the damage shield flaring around him.
The sinewy figure darted in, its fanged maw snapping centimeters from his throat, its Redoubt armor grinding and clanking as it moved with unnatural speed.
Angar's right claw met its face, sinking into black-veined flesh and ripping downward as a lightning seared into the creature's head.
It shrieked, stumbling back, its cheek torn open by talons and the bulbous growths bursting under the bolt's fury, splattering a viscous black fluid all around.
The Caitiff unleashed another spell, sending flames erupting across Angar's torso, shattering his absorb shield, and leaving him with 50% damage mitigation for three more seconds.
Though it broke the shield, the spell's fire caused him no damage, so he ignored it, letting the flames lick harmlessly at his armor as he maneuvered for position.
Just as that spell landed, the hulking abomination leapt, and its massive spur-fist crashed into Angar's back, the impact rattling him even through his sturdy armor, knocking him forward.
The sinewy figure ignited in unholy light, its glowing gauntlet lashing out just as another spell hammered into Angar.
He staggered, then dove, rolling over corpses, narrowly evading a follow-up spur-fist and a third spell from the Caitiff as he sprung up beside the sinewy figure.
All three foes now stood within Glory Thunder's cone, the Capstone's charges crackling through his veins like a storm waiting to break.
With a thought, his right gauntlet reformed, and he drove his metal fist into the sinewy figure's maw, blowing a hole through it as a shockwave exploded outward.
The cage quaked, the air cracked, the fanged visage disintegrating, and the Caitiff and hulking beast were hurled back, slamming into the bars, then crashing to the floor.
The bone-spur abomination recovered immediately, its mighty arms flinging aside a corpse before it charged, fist drawn back like a siege engine, zeroing in on Angar's unprotected head.
Angar sidestepped, the spurs grinding along his armored shoulder with a screech. His left-hand talons sank into the beast's thigh, and, with his gauntlet now a bracer again, his right talons joined, tearing through sinew and ripping out hunks of flesh.
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The creature roared as its legs buckled, but the Caitiff seized the moment, lunging from behind.
Wary of its unknown strength, which would be enhanced with the Redoubt armor, Angar spun, his leonine hands seizing the Caitiff's unarmored wrists, twisting with brutal force, trying to snap bone.
The abomination's eyes glowed as it aimed a headbutt at Angar. He activated Lightning Strike, headbutting right back.
His brow smashed into the creature's tentacled head, shattering his shield. Both reared back for a new assault, and brow and head collided again with explosive force, Angar realizing those weren't tentacles covering the thing's scalp, but boney and hard ridges.
The dizziness from his prior poisoning seemed to amplify tenfold. Stars swam across his blurred vision. A spur-fist smashed his skull from behind, slamming his brow into the ridges once more, spiraling the vertigo into nausea.
He triggered Ground Current, dissolving into particles. This time, with more space, he reformed where intended, behind the bone-hulk, Geomagnetic Phenomena unleashing bolts that seared into and staggered his opponents, still failing to stun either.
The beast turned, too slow, as Angar attacked. His claws tore into its back, shredding muscle and exposing the bone under that thick and tough hide, and the creature's roar shook the cage.
He leaped on its back, his arms grabbing hold of the bucking beast, his claws targeting its throat.
They sank deep, then deeper still, ripping outward with hunks of gore, sending blood gushing as the beast's snarl turned to a gurgle.
Its massive frame collapsed with a booming crash, its bone spurs clacking on the cage floor, and black blood pooled beneath it.
With its mouth closed, its body completely still, the Caitiff cackled with a deeply sinister and unholy sound. Angar noticed its ridge-hair was undamaged, unlike his own forehead, bleeding freely, painfully.
The bone-hulk stirred, its neck wound glowing green and closing as it pushed off the ground with its arms.
Angar jumped towards it, infusing energy into his Digiti Terebrantes, his toes spinning like drills as he kicked the beast's temple with a sickening crunch and a spray of blood.
The Caitiff just stood there laughing with its mouth closed.
To ensure the deed was done, Angar drilled his spinning toes into the beast's temple a few more times, then pulverized its head under his cybernetic stomp until it erupted in a viscous slurry of bone and brains.
Then the last abomination's cackling died abruptly.
As Angar went to attack, its ridge-covered skull split with a wet, tearing sound as a black, clawed hand erupted out of it.
The Caitiff's flesh parted like spoiled meat, offering no resistance, as a second hand followed, latching on, the talons sinking into the ruptured cranium.
With a slurping wrench, the hands heaved, pulling a pitch-black entity free, its form spilling from the husk like liquid shadow, trailing dark fog that hissed against the air.
But this was an illusion. Angar could see the Caitiff standing dazed, its head whole and unharmed. His Infernus Oculus struggled to show him reality, both scenes filling his vision.
As he went to attack the dazed Caitiff, the cage shuddered, and the air grew stranger, thicker, changing.
A bone-deep chill descended. Frost spiderwebbed across the corpses and metal bars with an unnatural crackle, each icy tendril glowing dimly with a sickly greenish hue.
Shadows deepened, warping, swallowing the now faint light, and a deep silence filled the space.
Everything stopped. Or seemed to.
He tried to look toward Simo, Harc, and the others, and see if they were moving, but his body refused to obey, like it was locked in paralysis.
Then his head moved a fraction, very slowly, pushing through the invisible chains. He could move, but only barely, crawling through something like highly dilated time.
The pitch-black creature emerged fully, a mass of complete and utter darkness, like something made from the void between stars.
It stood taller than the Caitiff had at first, then its body morphed into a larger silhouette of rough edges and coiling tendrils. It still had no discernible face save for two glowing slits where eyes might be.
These eyes burned with a crimson so deep and profane, and with such malevolence, it defied mortal description.
This wasn't an illusion. Not really. He was seeing two different planes at the same time.
This had to be the Hellspawn the Caitiff bound itself to through a pactum maleficum, its profane essence broken of its chains, now unleashed.
That it had torn free of its host made it a power far beyond a Caitiff of the low second-Realm, marking it as a true demon, from one of Hell's higher planes.
It could be an archdemon, but they were said to form pacts only with greater hosts, those more useful, those of the third Realm, or near it.
In either case, this wasn't its true form, just its spirit, the thing that had possessed a host.
The atmosphere twisted further, growing stranger, and a heaviness seeped into the cage, like gravity shifting stronger. A rancid mix of rotted scents assaulted Angar's nose, making him regret not wearing his helm with its filters.
Frost crackled more, running across the cell, creeping up his armor, and his slow exhale fogged in the frigid air.
The demon moved, slinking like shadow, its form flickering as if it existed only partially in this reality. It circled Angar, its talons clicking on frozen corpses and the frosted metal floor, leaving scorch marks where they touched.
It leaned in close, its crimson gaze boring into Angar, and a sound emanated from it that vibrated through his bones, making them ache.
The demon's head tilted, as if curious, and it inhaled deeply, tendrils of shadow flaring like nostrils, smelling him, maybe probing for weakness.
"I…want," it said, or emanated as a thought, the words slithered into Angar's ears, piercing his mind, coiling around his thoughts like a serpent.
It raised a clawed finger, the tip glowing with a strange dark-light, and pressed it to Angar's temple. The contact burned, not with heat but with an iciness that seared his mind, and his vision fractured.
The cage vanished, replaced by a howling abyss of shifting shadows and screaming faces, a fell maelstrom that sought to tear his consciousness apart.
The demon's essence flooded into him, a tidal wave of unholy that slammed against his mind with the force of a thousand hammers.
This was more of a full-on invasion than an assault, a ravenous entity seeking to hollow him out and wear his flesh like a trophy.
Their wills collided in a savage and all-out war. Unlike Azgoth's attack, which had sought to corrupt him, to turn him toward darkness, this demon fought for a very different reason.
With unrelenting force, its unholy claws raked through Angar's mind, trying to destroy it, to possess his body without a maleficum pact, but by brute force.