Chapter 458: To the victors

[Event: Demonic Invasion (Major) – complete. Herald: destroyed. Settlement damage: Negligible. Losses: None. Victory level: Total. Calculating patron/personal contribution and reward.]

[Personal and Patron Demonic Invasion (Major) reward: Experience (moderate), Patron points (moderate), House points (major). Power Modification (Endless Quiver).]

[You have gained enough experience to reach level 22. Increase to all statistics.]

[Power modification: Endless Quiver. New Arrow type: Abyssal Arrows. Some stare into the abyss. Others shoot at it. Significantly increased damage to abyssal creatures. Variable effects on other planar life.]

[Title gained: Abyssal Antagonist. Permanently destroyed a greater demon of the abyss. Significant demonic slaying aura increase. Improved resistance to abyssal environments.]

[Titled gained: Struck the First Blow. You are the first patron to permanently destroy a greater demon in phase 3, reducing the total power of abyssal forces. Improved reputation with all intelligent primal life.]

[Title gained: Demon Slayer. Increase demonic slaying aura beyond a certain threshold. Increased resistances to all demonic magic and abilities.]

Mason watched the considerable amount of text scroll with a grin. First of all, ‘no losses’ and ‘negligible’ settlement damage definitely put his mind at ease. The paranoid piece of him had kept thinking the settlement could have been getting overrun with him and all his players outside.

The only thing that had really kept him from running back was the hope that the people would be safely up in the Nexus, and that the ‘tree defenders’ would spawn and help them if things got bleak. Well, that, and the demons swarming him.

But those abyssal arrows were a hell of a good surprise. Technically, since all his arrows were also ‘fey arrows’ with his bow, he assumed he’d be getting a kind of double planar boost against ‘abyssal’ creatures. Though he understood these demons had more than one ‘plane’ they came from, so presumably it wouldn’t help against the other kind.

Still, it was good news. As was a new level and all those titles, even if the level apparently just gave him more statistics. He hoped that didn’t mean it was it, and that he wouldn’t be getting new powers. But he doubted it. It was probably just coming at a slower rate.

He hoped the ‘improved resistance’ to abyssal environment would let him ignore it enough not to bother swapping affinities. He wasn’t sure what an ‘improved reputation with all primal planar life’ meant, exactly. But he suspected it meant things like elves would see he was in the demon killing business, and that business was good.

“Dariya!” Ayet’s voice broke Mason from his reverie. His new ‘concubine’ was trying to keep the old seer from falling completely prone, and Mason looked to Alex a moment before the man came running over on his own accord.

“Do not be afraid,” he said, holding up a hand before it glowed with divine light. Despite seeming near total exhaustion, the old elf had enough strength left to literally

swat

at the man’s hand with a weak look of disgust.

“Get your filthy human magic away from me.” Her eyes fluttered and Ayet looked at Mason and Alex with a helpless embarrassment.

“Please, help her. She’s…mana burnt. Half out of her mind.”

Mason gave Alex a nod, and the Belarusian’s whole body glowed as he focused. In seconds, the seer looked healthier. A bit of color touched her cheeks, and her eyes fluttered before she glanced between the players with something closer to actual perception. Her mouth opened and closed, and she touched her fingers to her cheek.

“I…” she shook her head and glanced at Ayet. “We truly live in a time of prophecy, my lady. I have never seen such things.” She tossed a hand towards the now vanished demon portal, and finally met Alex’s eyes. “I have never seen a human healer. Thank you.”

The older man shrugged like it was no great thing, but Mason knew him well enough now to see the pleasure in his eyes.

“I’m next,” Becky called with a groan.

She was limping towards them with an arm around Carl, and Mason crossed and lifted her up like a new bride. Though he damn near jabbed her with an elbow bone-blade before he remembered and moved

very

carefully.

“I can still

walk

,” she said, but her face brightened. “I just sprained my ankle. And maybe a hip. Can you sprain hips? Oh and a wrist.”

“That’s no sprain, sweetheart.” Carl gave Mason a frown. “She snapped that shield arm, I

heard

it. Hip’s probably just bruised.”

Mason turned on Ranger’s Mark and scanned, seeing a pretty bad break just above her wrist. Otherwise she just looked a bit banged up.

“Let’s get you to the infirmary,” he said, holding her out for Alex to do what he could. The light flared way brighter than it had for the seer, and Alex soon wiped a hand over his face and blinked.

“Tougher is harder,” he explained, then gave Becky a grin, which for him was basically a minute long hug. “Some are tougher than others.”

Despite the injuries, Becky kicked her feet like a little girl in Mason’s arms and gave Alex a wink.

“Get me on home, faithful steed,” she said. “Anybody else get a bunch of titles? I think we done good, y’all.”

The other players were coming around and smiling now, nodding and patting each other’s backs or shoulders. Nobody got near Mason, though, and he supposed his transformations were worse than usual. Not to mention he’d shapeshifted.

“We done good,” Mason agreed with a smile, hoping it didn’t look like a predator baring its teeth. “Between the spears and Becky’s wall you made a damn fortress out of nowhere. Good job defending it, too.”

Jason, Garet and John puffed up quick, and Mason nodded to Seamus.

“And I don’t think I ever saw those blasts stop. Don’t you ever run out of mana?”

“With that easy shite? Not bloody likely,” said the Irishman with a grin.

Mason turned to Phuong and shook his head.

“But I’d say MVP goes to our resident senior citizen. You get tired of the old jokes and try to end it all,

War Minister

?”

Phuong grinned, looking damn near untouched despite the insanity of his fight with the herald.

“It seems my class and powers are particularly suitable against demons, Patron. Strangely they also seem…drawn to me. They must have some kind of objective to destroy players like me.”

“Ah hell, beat your chest now and then, will ya?” Becky kicked a foot in Phuong’s direction. “You make the rest of us look bad.”

Phuong’s grin stretched into a smile.

“Yes,” he agreed. “I do.”

Everyone laughed at that, including Mason. He was about to (again) suggest they get their bruised and beaten asses back to Nassau for a well earned meal when Dariya stood and pointed at the dead ground of the ex-portal.

“We should gather anything they left behind. The corpses. Bits of flesh. Ichor. Bone.”

Mason raised a brow, and the players all exchanged a look.

“Demonic carcasses have many useful effects,” Ayet explained. “For planar magic, spell components, and enchanting.”

The elven noblewoman looked about as exhausted as the seer, and Mason wanted to tell her how incredibly brave she’d been, but he didn’t want to do it here. In fact he pretty badly wanted to get her alone.

Despite his…body modifications…she met his eyes without any hesitation, and he was pretty sure they shared that desire. Probably after a bath. And a bit of sleep.

Rosa and a few other civilians were coming out from Nassau with what looked like a stretcher or two. Streak and his pack were still rampaging all over with excitement, apparently having too much fun outside the settlement to come see what the humans might want. Mason could sense Violet

somewhere

beneath, filling her stomach on what he hoped was animals and not…demon bits.

When the civilians arrived there was a round of hugs and excited talk about bonuses and points, and Mason wanted to tell Rosa she’d done well but in his current form it seemed like she could hardly look at him.

“Take whatever you want from the corpses,” he said over the noise, then started back to Nassau with some effort required not to hop like a damn deer.

The thought made him remember Stag, and his mood dropped before he opened the bonds in his profile and saw a very obvious clock counting down. It said it had approximately 23 hours to go, and his bond with the fey creature was still there looking otherwise the same.

It had to be a kind of spawn timer, didn’t it? Like players in the tutorial? Did that mean the damn thing was basically immortal?

He didn’t allow himself to feel totally sure. But it made sense, considering the animal seemed to be a kind of old acquaintance of Cerebus. And you had to do something special to actually destroy a demon permanently, right? So maybe the Stag was the same.

With that in mind, Mason ran Becky back to Nassau feeling pretty damn good. Despite his frightening form, she squeezed herself against his chest and arms without a word, and he held her tight as he moved.

They’d smashed the first ‘invasion’ with total success. Hopefully a bunch of players had leveled up and got something useful, and he knew for sure they’d at least have gotten some good titles. He wondered if the eastern players were getting hit with the same, and he tried to knock down the ruthless part of him that hoped they had considerable losses.

In the end, they were just people, and if they were living by human laws built up over a few thousand years of practice, they’d be living in relative peace. It was Mason’s job to set things right again. To protect what was left. Not to ‘beat’ them.

He set Becky down on a cot in the infirmary, feeling a little awkward when he realized he definitely couldn’t kiss her with his current jaw. And God damn fighting always made him even hornier.

Aila the impressively endowed nurse showed up in some kind of…uniform. And that definitely didn’t help. Though at least she stopped and stared at Mason with wide-eyed terror, which snapped him back to reality.

“He don’t bite. OK I guess he does,” Becky said with a laugh, lying back and giving Mason’s arm a squeeze. “You better go wash off the beast before you make half the town shit themselves, darlin’.”

Mason nodded and left her in Aila’s capable hands, then went for the fountain in the center of the settlement. Somehow the Gaian waters always cleansed his body, washing off the transformations and probably his injuries, too—if he ever kept any. It also felt amazing.

With his increases senses he heard Aila saying something like ‘this is starting to become a bad habit, Becky’, and he winced when he thought that was true.

But the fact was, his cowgirl was the toughest player in Nassau besides him, and she’d always be on the front lines. It was just something they both had to accept. It was maybe easier for her than him.

He ignored a few wide eyes before jumping into Gaia’s fountain, stretching compulsively as his body twisted and sloughed off skin and fur and god knew what. It scattered like dirt in the fountain, thinning then vanishing until nothing but cool, clean water remained.

Mason lay there submerged, far longer than he had to. He stared up with open eyes, through the water to a break in the forest canopy. For a moment, at least, the endless sound of the world muffled beneath, the alien strength and weight of his body meaningless as he floated.

He finally stood with a satisfied sigh, stepping out naked before he realized he was in the middle of town, and mentally searched for his vestments.

The entire pack of his players and civilians had apparently arrived through the front gate. They stood there staring with a mixture of grins and wide eyes until Mason hurried up and got his damn clothes summoned.

“Christ Jesus, why did I pick wizard,” Seamus said, to a few consoling pats on the back.

“You could still lift some weights and eat more protein,” said John, and the Irishman snorted.

Ayet was staring at him with the equivalent of eyes that were bigger than her stomach. She looked torn between falling down to sleep, or falling down to her knees. Mason realized Rosa and most of the civilians weren’t with the group and cleared his throat.

“The others are safe?”

“Carl and Garet stayed behind,” Phuong explained. “And the wolves are…loose. It seems safe for now to loot the bodies.”

Mason nodded, torn between going back to his house, or maybe the scout enclave, or…wherever Ayet was going. He needed to get moving south but randomly spawning demon invasions changed the math. They would have to leave more players, figure out a different strategy.

“Would you mind helping me?” Ayet said, coming a bit closer as the others moved on towards their own houses or loved ones. The elven enchantress came close enough to touch Mason’s arm, seeming too shy to meet his eyes. “Dariya needs to go home. And I’m worried I might not be strong enough to catch her if she falls.”

“Course,” Mason said, taking Ayet’s arm as he walked towards the ancient seer. Then, in the back of his mind.

And get you directly to bed.