World Boss: Break the Narrative

I reached the top landing and found myself in a dark space. I could see the faintest glimmer of the central power pillar reflecting off some of the winding passages. This was meant to be a maze.

Nope, not today.

I punched the destroyed wall, and a section about the size of a door for me fell over. I stepped through the gap quickly. The walls were stone and about six inches thick. Most folks would have a hell of a time busting their way through. The walls behind me shifted as well to close the gap. Of course, the demon maze would adjust itself to confuse and delay people.

"Ya! Ahgk!" the demon screamed, running out of the darkness with a blackened knife. They were very well hidden. Their silhouette all but vanished into the strange patterns carved into the walls, and the dark paint on their skin and weapons matched the gloom perfectly.

In hindsight, the shouting was really stupid. They could have gotten the jump on me. But the noise put me on alert.

"Holy Shit! How can he see us?" A demon that I hadn't noticed until they started shouting, squealed as ran away in a panic.

I may as well lie to them, "I can see all of you. You can't hide from me." I knocked a hole in the next wall.

"Bullshit!" Another demon yelled, "We are Shadow Demons!"

I hucked the chunk of wall in the rough direction of the voice.

The weight of the massive slab of stone both crushed and smeared Greg across the floor. It is his fault for talking in a narrow hallway

"I am a Titan of Darkness" I said, kicking down another wall.

"Titan spawn," a demon hissed. When I turned to face him, the others took the opportunity to strike. Not a bad strategy, it didn't work though. One demon could hide along the walls easily. Half a dozen standing right in the middle of the lane, ready to bum rush me, less so.

I side-stepped the first demon's knife and slammed them, horns first, into the second demon. I slapped the third assailant's knife out of his hand and then kicked him square in the nuts. Maybe not a gentleman's move, but I never claimed to be a gentleman. Also, he was trying to backstab me. The fourth, I just shouldered into the wall. It didn't go well for them, or the wall or the fifth demon that got caught in the middle. I backhanded the sixth, after they stabbed me. the initial impact didn't kill them, but the second impact with the wall did.

I pulled the knife out of the ice of my ablative shell, "Titan Spawn beats demon."

"We'll stop you," The talky demon hissed. The threat was undercut as they were actively slinking away from me and hiding behind a corner.

"You can try," I told him. I pushed down another wall. No follow-up attack came, "That's what I fuckin' thought!" I called back as I reached the stairs.

The next level was just a large open space. It would be a great rumpus room for activities. Actually, it probably wouldn't be that great for kids. It was kinda spooky with the dark atmosphere. The central pillar of hellfire didn't have a railing either. Maybe it would be better as a convention center. The demons seemed to think it was a suitable space for a Three Hundred reenactment.

This wasn't a big-budget affair. They only had fifty demons, with interlocking obsidian-looking shields and burning hellfire spears. The back row had some with bows as well. They did appear to be a well-organized fighting force. They were between me and the next set of stairs.

"Get out of my way," I said, walking towards them.

"Stay back Spawn, we have you outnumbered." The leader declared as she held up a hand, probably to signal the archers.

"Big assumption, that fifty of you could outnumber me," I said walking closer.

The demons raised their shields, and several made to stab me.

I triggered Titanic Retribution as I kicked the front shield wall. This caused an interesting interaction with the system. Since I hadn't attacked a demon. The attack targeted the shield. The shield was not up to the task of absorbing 5,390 points of damage. It shattered instantly. The thing is that amount of force was not just forgotten. The sharp chunks of stone launched away from me like grape shot out of a cannon. That killed seven demons instantly and buckled the middle of the shield wall, while killing a good chunk of the archers.

When it came to demons, I was taking the 'fuck you phalanx' stance.

The fight that followed was exacerbated by a few things. These demons were stronger than the first line of defence. The other issue was the parade of Commune Checks

Rob Shiv was sneakin' well. Not good. There is no good sneakin'. Then again, he was being an evil shit for all the right reasons. Rogues lived in moral states of gray. He'd slipped past the first, second, and third layer of security and found the prisoners. Well, these folks were slaves. They were chained to work stations. IF they got too far from their task, the irons would heat up and burn them something awful. The strange bit was that a lot of the work looked pointless. Some were hauling dirt. Others were manually cranking elevators up and down. Then there were the sorry sods sifting through the dirt and dumping it back into the pile for the first lot to haul again.

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It was almost like the only point was to make people suffer.

He planned to bust them outta here. The issue was the chains. They were wicked bastards. Rob could smell the burnt flesh from some sorry prisoner that had collapsed. The damned chains didn't have locks on them. They were magic. Rob had figured that out when he found the central anchor. It was… it was. It sure was a thing. The best Rob could make of the anchor was some sort of tangle of chains mixed with a screaming face, all burning and screaming like.

There wasn't much he could do about that. Rob couldn't find a lock to pick, or a lever to throw or even a button to push. He had used his bomb already, but Rob could tell another wouldn't do anything to this horror. He thought really hard about where it was and then got ready to make his way to the high security cells. If he could, he was gonna try and let the heavy hitters out.

He turned and almost jumped out of his skin. That Brit fella was in the room with him.

"Do you know the way to the cells?" Brand asked Rob.

"Yeah," Rob told him.

"Then after you sir." Brand said stepping out of his way.

Rob appreciated workin' with a professional. The Brit had gotten in here while actually sneaking the whole way. That was impressive, head start or no. Plus, it was always nice to find someone who was polite.

It was a little ticklish trying to battle demons while living through someone else's memories. I adopted a strategy of using the shields of the fallen demons. It was sorta like having sharp stone hulk hands. This wasn't exactly a DPS optimal move, but it was great for avoiding being stabbed by flaming spears.

Even with Tenebras Form, Dodge, Block, and Deflect. The demons did manage to crack a layer of Ablative Shell. I did manage to crush six demons, though.

Philp stabbed the last Demon in the central hall. His spear punched through the damned thing's eye. Now came the hard work, they would have to hold this space. Thankfully, there were several factors making this easier. First, there was only one path from above that the demons could attack from above. They have four paths from below, and the three main doors on their level.

"Get the barricades up," He shouted. One of the hardest parts about being a soldier is being where you are needed. This isn't where he wanted to be. In order, he wished he could be with his children. Then with Rob finding the prisoners, his wife. His third choice would be to fight alongside the warlord, Doug. He was powerful, but still a possible weakness. Should he fall, this army would fold.

"They're coming!" Tom Shiv shouted as he tossed an explosive down the stairs. The screaming of hellfire was drowned out by the thunder of an explosion.

That didn't slow the demons for long. A large, armored, winged juggernaut burst out of the depths and roared in challenge. Bullets bounced off his armor. The flaming wheel however, found purchase and bit into the creature's wing.

"You hold the demons, I will ensure they never take this place from you," Sunit promised. He was followed by the second wave of goblins.

Everything was going to plan.

So far, all lights were green. Philip wasn't concerned in the memories. The wave of relief at seeing reinforcements was borderline spiritual. He wanted the demons to attack. That would give Rob and the others infiltrating the bottom levels more space, and opportunity to free captives. Now that Sunit was there, he knew they could hold the entry.

I was making a lot of headway in my room. Demons seemed to be great at attrition, but in my humble opinion I was the absolute best at it. As they got more desperate in attacking me I just kept countering. This meant a negligible increase in damage to me, but I stomped, shield bashed, headbutted, and body slammed eleven of them to the other side of the veil.

I flung one of the shields at a demon across the room. He was bellowing some sort of challenge. maybe a duel? Probably not, since his coworkers were still trying to murder me. Obviously, they had no respect for the warrior code. I didn't either, but my lack of respect was from deep soul searching and long pondering on complex moral issues. I truly believe war, even a just one, was a crime. One I was willing to accept the consequences of. These guys were obviously just assholes.

Sadly, the shield didn't bounce off one demon before boomeranging into another. The shields had sharp edges and it sort of stabbed him. The shouting took a different tone. Eh, fuck him. His name was Edge the Dominator. Technically, that wasn't a reason to stab him with a shield, but most juries outside of Texas wouldn't convict.

Toad looked at the maps and shook his head. "The plan needs to change. Hold these troops in reserve. All forces to the main gate. Charge now. Divert everything I didn't mark to hold back and reroute them to the main gate.

Julian nodded, "Yes, sir."

"General, Hellen, and the helicopters are ready to move in," Bosco said from the radio.

"Tell them to target only the outer two rings. The inner rings are crippled," Toad instructed him.

"The second bridge is in place. The dwarf can shape the earth like the titan spawn," Marcus said.

"Keep pressing, we need the third bridge. Holding the ground floor is how we get people out of the tower. Philip will need all the resources we can get him." Toad stepped out of the command center and walked up the hill to see the tower.

The pieces were moving. The first explosions of the helicopters strafing the outer ring thundered so loudly that Leto hit the ground in fear. The debris stopped far short of hitting them. Almost a hundred yards short.

Demons were descending from the rings and the top of the tower, but they weren't going to meet a scattered force of goblins, a risk Toad's original plan had. They were flying right into the tip of his spear. Toad meant to ram it into their heart.

Leto got to his feet, "General, what about the titan Spawn?'

Toad laughed, "Don't worry about him. I would be shocked if our tall friend wasn't already on the fifth floor of the tower." A flash of angelic light darkened the world around it as part of the tower's wall exploded halfway up the tower. "Besides, I am not convinced he is the heavy in our army."

Toad looked at the battlefield and, for the first time in a long time, felt satisfied. Soon their big guns would be inside the demonic domain, and then the demons would be blasted back to hell.

I was still on the third floor. According to Toad, I was sandbagging. That said, I needed to go faster. Once the demons were down to about twenty, the cadence of the fight took a turn. I was the one attacking. The demons weren't exactly running, but most of them realized attacking me was a great way to die. In the spirit of speeding things up, I had busted out the knife, Frigidus Mortis. I ignored the description, which was clearly just a personal attack from the Narrators and/or poorly dealt with trauma from my past… the Titan's past.

The big thing is it was a Divine Scale weapon able to deal a lot of damage.

"I am starting to see why Frosty is king shit of turd mountain," I told the others, and the admittedly coolly named Hellotoncheires died screaming. The wound iced over and slowly encased his entire body as the flames within him sputtered, faded, and then died.

It was almost enough to make me stop using the knife, but turnabout is fair play. They were torturing others. At some point, that would stop being a justification for everything. But it wasn't right now, and probably wouldn't be today.

That said, it was different charging someone else with the intent to kill. I didn't like it. That was probably a good thing, but it didn't stop me.

It barely slowed me down.

Less than a minute after I pulled out the knife, I was making my way to the stairs leading up.

Ten more demons descended the stairs, shields up and spears ready. That was also when another fifteen of the shadow demons popped up from the lower level. They all stopped short, seeing their… well, not friends. They weren't worried about the dead demons.

I manifested another layer of Ablative Shell before speaking, "Hey all, how's the health care?"

For a moment, everything was still and calm in the room. Then, as if by some command, all of them charged me, screaming in rage. It was nightmarish and literally hellish.

"That good, huh?" It was gallows humor, but they were about to die.