Gaming in the Underworld: Βασιλιάς

I jumped back after I had my fill. The Empousa groaned in pain as she struggled to get to her feet. I felt a tendril of power binding the monster to me and smirked.

Turns out they were close enough to being vampires to recognize me as an apex predator. The Empousa disappeared in a flash of light, another tattoo appeared on my arm. This time it was a snarling woman with fangs. The rest of the Empousai disappeared leaving just the Minotaur and the Nemean Lion with a few other monsters. 

"Alruna, let's finish up. I got an idea where the Door of Death are." 

Alruna grinned and took her Lycan form. She roared at the Minotaur who bellowed at her. With a single swipe of her razor sharp claws she turned the half man half bull into a red smear on the ground.

The lion roared at me and I seized the opportunity to kill it while its mouth was open. I summoned the Elder Wand into my hand from my inventory and cast a curse fueled by my absolute loathing for the word 'moist'. The flash of green came out more like a large bolt of green lightning that struck the lion's mouth. 

The Nemean Lion let out a pitiful roar and collapsed on the floor with glassy eyes. I walked over and put the corpse in my inventory after testing its impenetrable hide with Dark Sister.

Turning the sword back into a wand I returned it to my inventory with the lions corpse and looked at the remaining bodies. Alruna was happily eating chunks of meat off of the Minotaur. It would have been strange had she not been a werewolf. 

"Does that even taste good?" 

'Mmmmhmmm,' she swallowed a chunk of meat. 'Tastes like beef.' 

"I mean, I guess. Minotaur is half a bull. Though I don't really know how that works since only his head… never mind. Thinking about this for too long is going to give me a headache." 

'Would you like some my lord?' Alruna offered me a large chunk of meat. 

I hesitated for a moment looking at the bloody chunk of flesh. Technically it wasn't cannibalism since I wasn't even human. The morality was a bit skewed but the smell of blood was tempting me the longer I looked at the meat.

"Ah what the hell, can't be worse than Empousa blood." 

I shifted into my wolf form and grew to full size before tearing into the Minotaur's carcass. Alruna was right, it tasted like beef.

I ate my fill before shifting back to my human form. The Lycan also shifted back to her human form. She looked around while picking something from her teeth. 

"What now?" 

"Back to Selene and Tiamat, we've been gone for a few hours now. I reckon we can kill a fair amount of monsters amongst the new pack, Tiamat, and Selene." 

"New pack?" 

"Got a new pack, hellhounds. Almost as big as my full wolf form just a bit bigger than your Lycan form." 

"Let us go then, I wish to kill more monster." 

Alruna was much more bloodthirsty than Tiamat. Given what she was, it wasn't that surprising. Though I would have expected Tiamat to be much more bloodthirsty being a dragon and all.

Traveling back to the ruined temple in our wolf forms made the journey that much faster. By the time we got back Selene was already awake standing at the entrance with Tiamat.

"Tiamat told me you went out to explore." 

"Yeah, dealt with a few monster dens too. I also figured out where the Doors of Death are."

"Good, like I said. I'm quite done with this red themed landscape." 

"Let's get going then." I held out my hand for Selene to take. 

Alruna and Tiamat disappeared back into my tattoos as Selene took my hand. Focusing on the location in my head I tried to teleport us over only to move several feet over.

I frowned and tried again just to get the same result. I took out the Elder Wand and tried to apperate just for the same results once again but this time with a loud crack. 

"It seems this place blocks teleportation methods." 

"We'll have to walk there then." Selene suggested. 

"Unfortunately yes… fortunately we have different ways that we can travel faster." 

Selene raised an eyebrow, I pulled out a shrunken cube from my Inventory and grinned. 

"I've been meaning to bust this out but never had the opportunity." 

I tossed the cube onto the ground outside the temple and watched as it expanded into a Quinjet. Selene sighed when she saw the aircraft and glared at me. 

"Please tell me you can fly this thing properly. I've seen how you drive." 

"I can get us from point A to point B perfectly fine thank you." 

"Alright, but if we crash you're on the couch for the rest of the year." 

"Fine, I'll fly it safely." I grumbled. 

Knowledge of how to operate the Quinjet came to my mind courtesy of my Aviator Skill. Thankfully I still had access to most of my abilities despite my System being updated.

I made a mental note to make a physical note about which abilities were available to me when my System was unavailable. 

Taking the pilot's seat I began to flip switches just as Selene buckled into the co-pilot seat. The HUD and the various electrical instruments flickered on as the Quinjet came to life with a hum.

I pushed the throttle forward causing a shudder to go through the aircraft as it began to lift off the ground. Pushing the VTOL button the jet took off with a lurch. I retracted the landing gear and glanced over to Selene. 

"See, nothing to it." 

She glared at me, "Watch where you're flying, I'd rather not crash into anything." 

"There not much to crash on down here love, just relax." 

Selene huffed and crossed her arms. I chuckled at her behavior. Ever since she had seen my driving skills in Budapest she had been hesitant to get into any vehicle with me behind the wheel.

To be fair I loved the speed, something about going really fast just made my heart soar. 

The radar on the jet was offline due to the fact that we were in Tartarus.

However the weapons were online, which led to me running a few strafing runs on clusters of monsters. I saved the missiles for bigger monsters, instead I used the twin 20mm cannons to blast monsters apart. I eventually passed gun controls over to Selene so that she wouldn't feel left out of the monster killing. 

An alarm pinged inside the cockpit drawing my attention to a flashing light. The radar may have been off but that didn't mean that the MWS (missile warning system) wasn't working. I banked hard just in time to dodge a flaming ball that exploded a few feet away from the Quinjet.

Another flaming ball shot towards the jet forcing me to dodge again. I looked out of the window and spotted the attackers. There were four giants throwing flaming bronze balls at the Quinjet. 

''Laistrygonians my lord, cannibal giants." Alruna provided. 

"I don't give a fuck what they are, we're bombing the shit out of them." 

Selene smirked and tapped a few buttons on the control panel of the Quinjet. A targeting system appeared on the HUD.

The hydraulics under the Quinjet got a five hundred pound bomb ready. Selene released the bomb with a press of a button. Flaring the afterburners to get further away I turned the Quinjet around to see the bomb crash into the face of a giant.

The explosive shockwave reached the jet causing a bit of turbulence before the jet settled. There wasn't a mushroom cloud this time but the giants still got turned into scraps of flesh and bone. 

"I'm going to land the jet, we can go on foot from here. Alruna and Tiamat are getting restless." 

Once everyone was out of the jet I stuffed it back in my inventory with a touch. Selene was busy observing the massive horde of monsters. I joined her and looked over the field where the monsters had set up.

Further inspection revealed that the monsters were letting groups of other monsters through the elevator. I frowned that the implications as I watched the monster at the control box hold the lever in place. 

"Looks like the lever has to be constantly held down for the elevator to function. It's probably why the outside world isn't completely overrun." 

"So one of us has to stay?" 

"I've got a solution… I think. Either way no one is getting left behind." 

"How are we going to deal with all those monsters though?" 

"As much as I'd like to use that spell you and Tiamat saw, I don't want to risk damaging the only way out of here. We'll have to fight our way through." 

"The classics then?" Selene asked with a small smile. 

"The classics." I agreed while summoning Dark Sister from my Inventory. 

I also summoned a sword and a pair of Glock 18s for Selene. Once we were geared up I called forth all my familiars and grinned when they came out dressed for battle.

Alruna was already in Lycan form, Tiamat was getting ready to shift, the Empousai were in armor sporting swords, bows, and daggers, and the hellhounds had somehow shifted to look more like dire wolves. I mentally shrugged at the change and addressed the crowd. 

"I take it you know what we're doing from the familiar bond you have with me. We're going to wipe out that horde of monsters over there. Stick together, watch each others backs, and try not to die." 

"Great pep talk." Selene whispered. 

"Hush you," I turned back to the small army I had amassed. "Right then, CHARGE!"