Lifeblood Chaos [LitRPG Apocalypse]

Ray and Gritty forged ahead. Oh, and the Imitator construct accompanied them too, of course. The plan was simple, really. While Gritty would make sure Marcus—and the rest of them maybe too, if she was feeling kind enough—was alright, Ray would tackle the Demon of Humanity.

"You got them, right?" Ray asked.

Gritty nodded. "Don't worry about Marcus. Just take care of that demon. Wish I could help more, but…"

"Yeah, this thing isn't something anyone can help much about." Ray looked up where the demon was still fighting against Sameer. "We're throwing whatever we can at it with the hopes that something will stick." He took a deep breath before exhaling it quickly. "Let's see if this works."

Ray and his construct both took to the air. Soaring Wings came on them both. The mimic might have taken the form of the Floor Lord, but Ray had no trouble imbuing a part of his own powerset into the Imitator construct to make sure it could keep up.

The construct shot towards the Demon of Humanity. Ray himself was busy casting more spells. More of Resurrect Recollect to create a few flying Windbane heads and Mottling Aeonguard to send the orbs of time hovering all over the battlefield.

He noted how the demon was still keeping itself airborne. Without wings, it would have normally been impossible to fly.

For the Demon of Humanity, impossible was nothing. Like a fucking Adidas ad.

It was stepping on thin air. The demon was using the same technique it had performed earlier to send those blasts of air everywhere, but now, it was generating them through its legs to keep itself floating. The slightest change in its legs' direction allowed it swerve through the air with as much speed as it could travel on the ground. This thing was certifiably insane.

Ray took a second to watch how well his construct did head-on. It wasn't surprising that it was no match for the demon.

The Imitator construct tried to smash into the demon with a punch, but its opponent simply smacked it back with a raised arm. Ray blinked. One second, the construct was charging through the air with all the power Ray had gifted it. The next, it was a splatter of grey matter in the broken crater far below.

"Is that it?" Sameer asked with a shout from farther back. "That's all you're capable of?"

"Fuck off, Sameer," Ray muttered as he cast Resurrect Recollect again. That was after using Temporal Passage. The demon, having taken care of the Imitator construct, immediately shot towards Ray, so he had to perform evasive manoeuvres. That was where the Aeonguard orbs came in. Ray had teleported to one of the orbs farthest from the demon.

As the Demon of Humanity charged in, it shrieked again. Thankfully, Ray was ready for its sonic attacks.

Not only did another Temporal Passage take him out of its direct range, but making sure there were temporal orbs of Mottling Aeonguard around both ears stopped the aftereffects of sonic shock from affecting him too.

By that point, the second mimic had regained the Floor Lord's appearance. Good enough for Ray. He just had to make sure the mimic construct didn't attack directly again.

Good thing the Floor Lord had such devastating ranged attacks.

While the lightning sparking from the construct's fingers was nowhere near as powerful as the Floor Lord's had been, they were still deadly. They could still damage the Demon of Humanity. If they hit. Which they didn't, because that monster was incredibly fast.

The demon dodged while still keeping itself airborne. Its mobility allowed it to swerve around and counterattack, blasting through the air like it was a missile.

Ray's turn. Two quick casts of Temporal Passage saved the Imitator and his plan. Once to actually reach his construct, and an immediate follow-up to get away.

Just in time. His construct had still lost a chunk of its shoulder while Ray's own robe was torn at the point where the demon had reached even him. He was going to be so relieved when the demon was finally dead.

"You missed, you ass!" Ray shouted, glaring at the demon as it shrieked at them again.

An Aeonguard orb took care of the sonic attack. Ray was more interested in the effects of his taunt. If the Demon of Humanity was smart enough to make split-second combat decisions with clever uses of its own abilities, then surely it had to have enough intelligence to comprehend something like insults.

"What's wrong?" Ray yelled. "You losing your touch, you fucking clown?"

It was difficult to tell if there was an actual effect or if Ray was making a fool of himself. Because the problem was that the demon was constantly aggressive on and on, so it wasn't like further taunting could make it any more hostile.

Ray just decided to assume that it was working, since the demon arrowed straight at him with blitzing speed once more.

Knowing full well he had zero chance of outrunning the demon normally, Ray cast Temporal Passage again. He was losing track of just how much Mana this fight was costing, but by the time it was done, he was pretty sure it would be his most expensive battle yet. Tier 38 dungeon indeed.

One Temporal Passage, then another and another, and yet another. Ray used it constantly while keeping one hand on the Imitator construct while the other was free to bring out another Aeon mana crystal to crush and replenish his stores.

His construct continued shooting lightning at the demon. None of the bolts got anywhere close, but they did their job. The demon was still chasing them.

Blood forged into burning lava stormed after them, melting everything in their wake as Ray continued to just barely avoid the attacks. Dozens of rocks shot in from behind, crashing and destroying the crater even more. Blasts of wind, of air compressed into rupturing sound, and then the demon itself, they all nearly struck Ray himself.

All the while, Ray continued running. He thanked his lucky stars that the Aeonguard orbs were at least slowing down some of the demon's attacks. Although, they were soon passing out of the crater battlefield in the direction that Pierce and the Floor Lord had gone.

If this could actually be considered a battle, it was the weirdest one Ray had ever been in. He wasn't fighting. He was running. When was the last time a foe had sent him fleeing like this?

Gritty: You still alive, wingman? Judging by the noise, it sounds like that thing hasn't killed you yet…

That was honestly Ray's best cue that they had already travelled far from the original battlefield. His plan was working. He just had to concentrate and keep it up, which meant he had no opportunity to reply to Gritty.

The only reason Ray could continue teleporting onwards instead of needing to fly was because of the Windbane maws he had sent ahead of him. Temporal Passage got him to any spot any of his spells had been in within the last few minutes. It wasn't restricted to a spell's exact location at any exact given time. Ray had a lot of flexibility.

That was what really kept him alive against the Demon of Humanity.

Ray's destination appeared before him moments later. A small dip in the mountainside was housing his real target—the Lord of the Third Floor. There was Pierce too, but Ray couldn't care less about the Tower-Node-loving jerk right then. The Floor Lord. He was Ray's goal.

They both turned. First, it was the Windbane head flying past them in a zipping rush, seemingly ignoring them completely. That had to have been confusing from their perspective.

And then Ray himself appeared, teleporting in without warning. Both Pierce and the Floor Lord staggered back.

"Missed me?" Ray asked the Sylvan with a grin.

"What are you—" The Floor Lord's cut off when he noticed the Imitator construct Ray had brought along. "What?"

Honestly, that was a very expected reaction. Although, Ray figured the Floor Lord ought to understand what as going on by now. Surely, someone like him had studied up what Ray was capable of performing. He had to know that this was a fake version of himself formed from the same kind of Imitators that the Second Floor Lord had taken advantage of on the Second Floor.

Then again, the sudden appearance of his exact copy had to be shocking to a great degree.

"Sorry, no time to chat," Ray said as the telltale noise of the Demon of Humanity's approach became loud and clear.

Both the Sylvan Floor Lord's and Pierce's heads turned at the sound of the demon approaching. As if they weren't surprised enough already.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Ray was going to disappear, but first, he let go of the Imitator construct. It had done its purpose. Instead, Ray turned and grabbed Pierce by the arm. "You're going to owe me so much after this, you asshole."

Pierce stiffened, but Ray gave nobody any time to react. He wasn't here to entertain any silly standoffs between the Floor Lord and his erstwhile ally. So, he used Temporal Passage.

It wasn't any harder than his last few uses. With the burden of his construct gone, Ray had just let Pierce take its place.

They left just in time too. Even as the world twisted, Ray distinctly heard the demon's screech and the jet-like noise of its onrushing approach. When he reappeared farther off, standing on a precipice jutting off the mountainside with Peirce in tow, he was faced with the Demon of Humanity colliding into the very spot he'd been standing at a second ago.

The very spot that the Floor Lord was left occupying.

Piece jerked himself free from Ray. "What the hell are you doing?" He turned to face the dust cloud rising from the point of impact where the demon had landed. "Did you just draw that thing here to fight the Floor Lord?" A glint of recognition went off in his eyes. "That copy you had…"

Ray nodded, speaking over the demonic screeching emanating from the battlefield. "We don't have to worry about that thing chasing us anymore." He turned to face the battlefield too. "Hopefully."

The actual battle that had started off drew both their attention. Ray had dismissed his Imitator construct as soon as they had reached their target location. There was no reason to leave any source of confusion, no reason to give the Floor Lord even an inch of space to get away.

Ray had to get the demon to fight the Floor Lord and the Floor Lord alone.

It had worked. As red lightning sparked to thundering life on the mountainside, a wide grin stretched across Ray's face. His plan really had worked.

The battle was going on too fast and furious. Of course, the Floor Lord wouldn't be killed by one blow, no matter how surprisingly it appeared. He was fighting back. Scarlet lightning danced and struck everywhere, leaving curling lines of horns and spires of red Growth Mana all over.

Ray couldn't tell if the Demon of Humanity's sudden appearance had allowed it to land a blow, not with how quickly they were shooting everyone. He tried to focus some Mana into his eyes to get a better grip on what was going on.

It helped a little. He could now see the Demon of Humanity dashing around with incredible speed. Both on the ground and on the air, it was even faster than the Floor Lord himself. And best of all, it was completely uninjured. For all that the Floor Lord was fighting back with tremendous power, he hadn't managed to land a single real blow on it.

Better yet, he couldn't escape. Turning his back on the demon for even a single instant would leave him fatally vulnerable. Ray had incensed the demon with the fake of the Floor Lord.

The way they were using their powers was honestly mesmerizing. There was an actual beauty to the battle once it was possible to observe everything carefully.

Just like in their battle, the Floor Lord was attempting to trap the demon in a field of his own lightning-sparking Growth Mana. Curling chains of red crystalline growths were sparking up everywhere, creating a barricade that sought to attack the demon from all directions.

Sadly for the Floor Lord, his enemy had great tricks of its own. And far more powerful ones too at that. Every movement from it sent off a shockwave thundering through the battlefield. Each blast was powerful enough to crush the Growth Mana to smithereens. It was as though the Floor Lord had never created them to begin with.

Then there were the demon's actual attacks. Blasts of sound ripped through the space. The loudness would have damaged Ray's hearing once again, but he had a little counter this time—creating little orbs of Mottling Aeonguard right over his ears.

Pierce, screw the bastard, didn't seem to be affected at all. Maybe he was deaf to begin with. It was a pleasing thought, even though Ray had literally talked with him earlier.

It wasn't just sound. Rocks were flying like a hailstorm of broken debris, the demon's molten lava blood turning them into flaming meteors. The blood itself was turning the entire mountainside into lava, and then demon send waves of it at the Floor Lord, who was forced to dodge and defend with his Growth Mana. At least, when it wasn't melting through the growths.

"He's actually losing," Pierce said. "Nothing he can do can actually hurt that thing. What even is that demon?"

"Didn't you see what it's called?" Ray asked. "The Demon of Humanity." Ray laughed. "Kind of poetic, when you think about it. Even if we didn't get to kill the Sylvan Floor Lord, he's still getting destroyed by a demon mimicking humans."

"You think that thing is mimicking people…?"

Pierce had a point. The crazy way that Demon of Humanity was fighting was far from any kind of combat Ray had ever seen any person use. A monster. The demon was undoubtedly a monster.

"I'm starting to understand how it's a Demon of Humanity," Ray said.

"What do you mean?"

"Look at what it's using to fight. Sounds. Heat. Pure power. Things people already possess."

"Sure, if you really stretch the definitions…"

Another good point. People didn't possess lava for blood. People certainly weren't able to move fast enough to cause shockwaves or unleash sonic booms just by screeching. And people definitely couldn't tear up rocks from a mountain with their bare hands only to throw them around with gale-force winds they themselves then generated just by moving their arms.

But strength. That was what people had. The ability to cause disturbances in their environment… Ray moved around his arms, feeling the air ripple his robes. Yes, people could affect their surroundings too.

This demon did all that. Just on insane, Mana-powered crack.

The battle had progressed to such a flashy degree, Ray was once again having a little trouble taking it in. A tornado of burning blood now surrounded the demon. Meanwhile, the Floor Lord had unleashed a lightning storm, but with the red bolts landing only on him and powering up some strange skill that was causing his body to glow brighter and brighter.

"We need to keep them here," Ray said, suddenly tense. "We can't let him escape."

Pierce just shook his head. "We've got the Tower Node. We don't need any of this crap. All we need to do is just break the dungeon. Right now, while they're fighting and occupied."

"Why are you so obsessed with destroying the dungeon?" Ray really wanted to grab the guy's shoulder and give them a strong, hard shake. "You've got your Tower Node, haven't you? Why does the dungeon matter?"

Pierce had at least enough wits to look a little abashed. "I suppose I don't need to, but think about it. What if this doesn't work out? What if one of them wins? Then—"

"Then we take care of the survivor with impunity, you dumbass. That's the whole, fucking point of this exercise. Just because they're too strong to beat in a one-on-one confrontation doesn't mean we have to play fair and beat them by the rules." That was when Ray stabbed in with the real point. "Plus, you owe me, Pierce. Now, you in or not?"

Pierce looked like he had force-fed some terrible medicine. He swallowed. "What's the next step?"

"Simple. I've decided to revise my strategy a little." Ray smiled triumphantly. "We end this before either of them can actually win."

***

The battle between the Floor Lord and the Demon of Humanity had more or less obliterated the entire mountaintop area. The destruction had even spread as far back as the original location where the demon had originated from. Thankfully, the others had been smart enough to fall back, which meant there weren't any interferences.

It also meant Pierce had an easier time of barging into the fight to make sure the Floor Lord didn't escape.

Ray had wondered what would happen if they started helping the demon instead of trying to fight it. So many shifting hostilities were present in their fight. It was natural for them to unite with the demon against their common enemy—the Sylvan Lord of the Third Floor.

Not that the demon needed their help. Given enough time, it would have defeated the Floor Lord on its own. It had hardly even been wounded in the battle, and instead, had delivered a few grievous injuries to its opponent. Even with all lightning sparking on his body and the red Growth Mana partially encasing him, the Floor Lord was falling apart bit by bit.

Turned out the demon didn't mind. So long as Pierce wasn't attacking it.

Probably helped that Pierce hadn't picked a fight against the demon ever. It wasn't like one of Ray or Sameer's team members had switched sides to inexplicably assist the demon all of a sudden.

All of which left Ray free to deal with this whole bullshit in a permanent fashion.

For the entire duration of the battle, Eternal Gravity had been acting. Sure, its range was limited and didn't cover the entire extent of the destruction the combatants had caused. And even worse, both the demon and the Floor Lord had moved out of where Ray ideally wanted them to be.

But that was where Pierce came in. He shot into the midst of the raging fight, remaining completely unharmed because he was undergoing yet another transformation.

No spears or swords this time for Pierce. His black armour and hardened leathers were gone too. Instead, he now had a staff resembling a shepherd's crook and a white, almost priestly robe. He had turned into some kind of caster.

As soon as he had finished transforming, he cast his spell. One that made everything freeze for a few moments.

Ray had been dragging in a long breath as he prepared for just that instant. For just the opportunity that Pierce had promised he could carve out. Time for Ray to act.

He swung into the middle of the battlefield on Soaring Wings, moving as fast as several buffs from Time Veil allowed. As soon as he dropped in, the effects of Pierce's spell started wearing off. But that was fine. Ray was in position to use Aetheric Trace to send the Petrified Vines rocketing off his back to touch the demon and the Floor Lord at the same time.

They got no chance to move apart. Ray cast Temporal Passage next. And disappeared.

Only to appear right in the middle of the spot where he had cast Eternal Gravity.

Teleporting with two extra people cost him a lot more than with just one person had. A splitting headache made him see double, and it was all he could do to not keel over. Even his stomach rebelled, threatening to upend what little food he'd had before entering the dungeon.

But this was his chance. This was the best opportunity Ray was ever going to get to end this. To win.

"You incorrigible fool!" the Floor Lord yelled. "You will not—"

Ray cast Momentous Domain and Temporal Passage immediately one after the other.

The first spell resurrected Eternal Gravity, which had drawn all the abilities used in the surrounding area into its central maw, combining everything together into a massively volatile concoction. All the lava-blood, broken rocks, sonic booms, and tearing winds from the demon, all the scarlet lightning and Growth Mana from the Floor Lord.

All drawn into one incredibly explosive blast in the centre of the battlefield. All of which set off a chain reaction that detonated with the force that Ray could swear would make the Manhattan Project people jealous.

Thankfully, Temporal Passage took Ray out of the danger zone. He disappeared just as the peak of the dungeon's mountain was simply eradicated from existence.

Ray arrived farther down the mountainside as brilliant white light shone like a newborn sun higher up. At the same time, he finally received the notifications he had been waiting for. He grinned. Victory was finally his.

[Enemy Defeated]

Demon of Humanity [Tier 38] Monster: [Level 80] x1

Lightning Empyrean [Tier 6] Sylvan: [Level 63] x1

Essence: +48,900

Knowledge: +6

Mana Restored: +2,510

Essence to Level 56: 157,400/312,000

Knowledge to next Threshold: 2,566/3,500