Mistaken for a Returnee

Derrik leaned back, barely avoiding having his head removed, and then had to leap back to keep the demonwolf from disemboweling him.

But he couldn't stay at this range for long. In a contest of reach, the wolf would win every time, and he certainly wasn't fast enough to keep dodging like this. Which left him with only one option- the wolf swung at his head, forcing Derrik to duck under it.

The wall to Derrick's left cracked beneath the demon's fist- The dwarf gnashed his teeth and rushed in: he thrust Rosa's hilt into the demon's midsection, knocking it back a step.

The demon's arm blurred, and Derrik felt a flash of pain across his arm.

Yet he persisted.

He twirled Rosa, knocking aside a few punches and stabs, waiting for the right moment to strike… then he got lucky.

The wolf overextended and its swing went wide, flying way past Derrik's head- Derrik capitalized on it: He smashed Rosa into the wolf's chin, smacking its head back hard enough to knock the beast on its ass.

But that wasn't the end of Derrik's fight. No, all he'd done was give the next demon enough room to climb over the wolf and attack him.

That was the only good thing about fighting in this alley; movement restrictions- for himself, sure, but also for the demons.

The ogres were far too large to fit between the buildings, as were most of the demonwolves they'd seen. Which meant only the smallest of demons could reach them, so long as they stayed inside the alley.

The imps could've been an issue, true, but he hadn't seen one of them in a while.

A part of his mind could hear the warning bells going off, he knew that meant something was horribly wrong. But the rest of him was too preoccupied with fighting off the next demon to notice.

The next wolf lunged at Derrik and attempted to bite him- The dwarf countered by shoving Rosa's handle in its mouth instead.

The wolf snarled and yanked at the handle, attempting to pull the weapon from the small meat bag's hands… Derrik grinned beneath his beard.

Rule number one of fighting a Dwarf: Never challenge one to a game of tug of war.

You will lose.

Derrik dropped his center of mass and jerked the wolf towards him, completely taking the demon off guard. The demon's feet slipped out from under him- And Derrik slammed his helmeted head into the demon's nose.

Before the demon could so much as whine, Derrik was already looking to put the beast down.

[Warrior exclusive skill 'Whirlwind' has been used.]

Violet colored mana swirled around him as Derrik rotated, his body temporarily guided and reinforced by the system. He could already feel the oncoming pain, even as he pulled the wolf's entire body off the ground, dragged the top of its skull across the wall to his right, then carried it completely around and smashed its back into the opposite wall.

The wolf released his hammer on impact and collapsed into a heap on the ground.

Derrik raised his right boot and prepared to stomp on the beast's head-

"Ah!"

Only to be knocked off balance by an incubus with a spear; the steel tip having pierced the gap between his cuirass and greaves.

Derrik grabbed the spear and pulled it from his body; crimson liquid spilled from his waist and fell into a pool at his feet.

The incubus smiled, revealing two rows of perfectly straight and wickedly sharp teeth. Then he pulled back the spear, parried Derrik's wild swing, and thrust it at his neck-

Derrik barely managed to push the tip away from his throat and pinned it against the wall. He quickly kicked the demon's knee, causing it to snap back, then twisted his body and smashed Rosa into the side of its pretty face.

Black blood and gore splashed over Derrik's helmet and beard, but he didn't even have time to wipe it away before another demon was on him; the red-skinned Imp leapt over the incubus's falling back and swiped a claw through Derrik's magnificent beard.

Derrik watched in horrified silence as a chunk of his beard fell to the blood-stained ground… "A little help would be appreciated!" He roared before dodging the Imp's barbed tail and smashing the creature against the wall with Rosa.

You could bite his arms, you could stab his body, you could even smash his skull- It was all fair game in a battle of life and death… But you do Not touch a dwarf's beard.

Derrik brought Rosa down on the imp's corpse three more times before he was forced to move onto the next demon- only this time, he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle it on his own.

An Ogre, twice as tall as Zarud and more than three times as heavy, forced itself into the alley. One by one it started grabbing the deceased demons Derrik had been carefully piling up in front of them and "Ragh!" It roughly dragged them out of the way and boldly tossed them halfway across the road.

The sounds of the bodies being eaten by the other demons filled Derrik's ears- A frenzied roar replaced the Ogre's shout a second before Zarud launched himself over Derrik's head.

Zarud's twin axes bit deeply into the Ogre's shoulders while Zarud's teeth sank into its left eye.

Surprised by the sudden attack, the Ogre stumbled out of the alley while fighting to keep its footing amidst the corpses of its fellow demons.

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Dralak'nor khazrim, Rosa! (Let's crack some skulls, Rosa!)" Derrik laughed.

[Warrior exclusive skill 'Provoke' has been used.]

[Damage resistance: +20% for 30 seconds.]

[Living targets within a twenty-foot radius will be unable to target party members for the duration of the skill.]

[Cooldown initiated: 180 seconds.]

Violet-colored mana erupted from his body like a grease fire, drawing any attention away from Zarud and onto himself.

Meanwhile, Zarud ripped the eye from the Ogre's face, then tore the axes from its flesh. He pushed off the demon's chest and launched himself back first into the wall of the building.

Only, he didn't feel the impact.

His rage-addled mind could perceive one thing and one thing only- The Ogre was still breathing.

He sprinted towards the Ogre while trusting his instincts to keep him alive.

His body automatically dealt with any demon that got between him and the Ogre, jumping over imps, spinning around or cleaving through wolves. One incubus even tried to tackle him to the ground.

Zarud barely slowed down while grabbing the incubus by the wings and yanking it off its feet. He pivoted his body and- Slam the incubus was used as a battering ram; its beautiful face and slender neck crushed against the Ogre's musclebound, fat-covered chest.

The Ogre felt the impact but couldn't look away from the irritating dwarf who was staring him down.

It didn't know why, but it found its remaining eye inexplicably drawn to the Dwarf.

The Ogre felt pains running through its body… But it just couldn't stop thinking about the Dwarf. It shook its head and tried to focus, but its brain- which was naturally weak to begin with, was drowning in a haze that made it impossible to think of anything but twisting that irritating little Dwarf's head off!

A roar spilled from the Ogre's mouth, and it began to charge at Derrik, who was too distracted by a pair of burly wolves to notice the wall of meat rushing towards him.

Zarud leapt in front of it and- Bam! the Ogre felt a heavy blow across its right knee. But Zarud wasn't about to let the Ogre go with only one strike.

He dodged away from its falling body while ripping his axe free from its leg and circled around to its back while it fell to its knees.

He raised both axes high and brought them down with everything he had.

Both axes cleaved through the dense muscles of the Ogre until they reached its shoulder bone- metal clashed with bone and blood sprayed over Zarud's face.

Unfortunately, the Ogre's bones were too dense to cut through with a single strike. But both axes bounced off the bone in different directions, instead removing a chunk of flesh from the side of its arm and causing more dark blood to pour from the demon's body.

Zarud didn't notice it at the time, but both of his arms were shaking from the impact of hitting the Ogre's bones.

The Ogre wailed in agony and swung its fist at Zarud, forcing the Half-Orc back a few steps.

In a normal fight, he wouldn't have bothered to dodge. His rage would've taken the blow head on and used the opportunity to launch an even more aggressive attack in return… Had he done that here, it would've killed him.

Having just cleared a bit of space for himself, Derrik capitalized on the opportunity and rushed out of the alley to assist Zarud; with a mighty leap Derrik crossed a dozen feet in a single leap and brought Rosa down on the Ogre's head like a meteor-

Bang!

The hammer smashed the top of the Ogre's skull and forced it to use its hands to keep from falling to the ground.

The Ogre turned its lone eyes on Derrik, who didn't give it a chance to do anything else; Rosa smashed the Ogre's right cheek and forced its head to turn- Dark blood flew from the demon's mouth as Derrik shifted his hold on Rosa and drove the head into the Ogre's beefy neck, then brought the hammer back down onto the Ogre's skull.

The blow was the final straw, and the Ogre could no longer keep its balance and started to fall- "Hap!" Derrik roared; he spun Rosa as fast as he could and used the extra momentum to smash it down on final time, driving the demon's face into the road hard enough to break both the concrete and the Ogre's skull.

Derrik dropped to his knees in the pool of the Ogre's blood and was forced to use his beloved hammer to prop himself up.

He looked around at the dozens of demons still moving towards them… He shook his head and pushed himself to his feet.

[The Warrior exclusive skill 'Charge' has been used.]

[Sixty second cooldown initiated.]

A violet-colored spark of mana came to life near the center of Derrik's chest as he started walking towards Zarud… Then he started to run- the mana bloomed into a cloak of purple flames that covered his entire body like a suit of armor.

His speed quadrupled, sending Derrik hurtling towards the half-orc like a purple missile.

[Barbarian exclusive skill 'Savage Rage' has ended.]

[All stats have returned to normal.]

Zarud stumbled to the side, barely avoided getting stabbed in the back by an Imp's tail and crudely hacked off its head- He felt a sudden pain across his lower back and turned to find a wolf already launching another attack.

Bam! The demonwolf's body folded as Derrik slammed Rosa into its side: three of its ribs shattered beneath the weight of the blow before the wolf was launched into the wall, beside the mouth of the alley.

Zarud fell to his knees, his hands covering the open wound at his back.

Derrik grabbed the half-orc by the arm and started dragging him towards the alley- "Oomph!" The Dwarf grunted as an Imp dropped onto his head; it tore at his face and eyes, its claws unable to pierce his thick helmet… So, it cheated.

It drove its barbed tail into Derrik's waist, causing the dwarf to reflexively lean back.

The Imp slashed at the straps keeping his helmet in place, then- Zarud managed to find his footing and used his axe to knock the demon away from Derrik's back.

Both warriors, bleeding and exhausted, stumbled into the alley and slowly worked their way towards the broken wall at the far end.

With their backs literally to the wall, they prepared to stand their ground against the tide of demons that were sure to chase after them…

Yet, even after a few minutes of waiting, none seemed to be following them.

"Do you think-"

"Shut yer mouth before ya jinx us." Derrik snarled before collapsing against one of the walls.

Guess he was hurting a bit more than he thought… He slowly pulled his armor away from his body- his eyes widened at the hole in his stomach.

The imp's tail had gone all the way through.

"Nor'grak khodun. (That's not good.)"

"Wait here." Zarud whispered before hobbling towards the mouth of the alley. He had to use the walls to support himself, but he eventually made it to the end and look out onto the road.

A heavily wounded and bleeding Tahl'roth was sitting a few feet from the alley and feasting on the flesh of the Ogre Derrik killed.

A relieved sigh escaped Zarud's lips, and he suddenly lost strength in his legs- he fell against the wall and slid to a seated position.

"It's only Tahl'Roth." Zarud laughed, turning his head back towards Derrik- who was still quietly leaning against the wall.

"You hear me, half-pint?" He said, teasing the dwarf now that the danger had seemingly passed. He knew the dwarf wouldn't be able to resist saying something in return. He closed his eyes and waited for the insult that was sure to come… Yet Derrik never made a sound.

Zarud opened his eyes and quickly found the dwarf sitting near the back of the alley.

"Derrik?"