My life as a reborn monster - 144 Journey for Redemption pt. 3

“WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!!! ARMY INCOMING FROM THE TERRITORY OF THE DUKE!”

Those words put an end to every smile on every face. I looked over at Kitsoma and nodded before I took off towards Sondar. I was going to group up with him and a few others and go as a vanguard to hold off the majority of whatever was coming our way while the others evacuated the more defenseless citizens.

“Sondar! You, me, Gaia, my sons, and a few others are going to go as a vanguard to stop the army in their tracks while the rest evacuates the citizens, sound good?”

“Sounds good I want Shorunt and Sylvania on standby with medics and longe range attackers setting up on nearby high ground.” Sondar quickly said to Konna who took off and started to round up the people. I only raised my eyebrow at him but he simply waved me off with a smile before we took off. We gathered the rest of the vanguard on our way to the frontlines and when we got there I hate to admit that I should have brought a few extra hands.

In front of me was a small lake of soldiers wearing blue and red striped uniforms all while marching in sync towards us. As soon as they spotted us they stopped and a huge man with legs as round as redwoods and arms half that size came riding up to us atop a quadraped like animal that semi resembled a horse but it had horns that jutted out over top of its eyes that then expanded to form a battering ram over its forehead. It’s mane and overall hair was a dull bluish black, the man had on contrasting dark red armor that seemed to be more crimson and the color of rusty blood.

When the man and mount got closer and waited for one of us to step forward. I knew what was going on from the shows I used to watch back on earth so I stepped forward as the new lord of this land.

“Hello there, I am the lord of this land, My name is Vexsus. Who might I be speaking with?”

As I got closer I came to realize that the man that seemed super imposing and threatening while up on the horse was actually shorter than me, his mount was as tall as I was but the man himself couldn’t have been more than 6 ft tall.

“I am looking for Mara Shadowheart, The Lady who is the true ruler over this land. Did you rebel and kill her?” He asked while looking down at me with an arrogant look in his eyes.

I clear my throat before I say something smartass. “Actually good sir, I am her husband, She is carrying my child. If you don’t mind we are actually in the middle of something important and if there is no pressing matter than I must ask that you leave my borders and go back to your own.” I try to sound as noble and posh as possible and with a side glance I look at Sondar who gives me a thumbs up and a nod.

I quickly look back at the man but I see that he had already dismounted and is now standing in front of me with his hand on his sheathed sword. “I will only ask this once… Where is the lord Duke?” The man asked with a serious tone.

“His name is actually Duke? Like it’s actually Duke? I thought this whole time that it was a title and that he just didn’t give out his real name or something.” I looked over at the others with a smile but soon grunted as I felt a sharp stab in my stomach. I looked down and saw as his sword wasn’t sheathed by his waist and instead it was sheathed inside me. Blood was starting to spill from the sides as I looked up at his face.

“I said I would only ask once. you didn’t answer and I will not repeat myself. I will dispose of you and go find Mara myself, if she intends to not answer me then I will do the same to her and everthing else in this waste pit until I find the Lord Duke. Now get out of my way you pathetic sub human.” With a scowl he tried to pull back on his sword but I had already grabbed onto the blade and was keeping it there, I didn’t want my new friend to leave so soon.

He kept trying to wrench his blade free but each attempt ended in failure and his face took on more and more desperation and my face soon took on a bigger and bigger smile. Before long I was showing off all my teeth. “You can’t leave just yet bud, you just invited you and your whole army to play with us. Why don’t we find something fun to play huh? maybe something like your strongest versus my strongest? or 1 versus 1? what do you think?”

I kept listing off things to do but by this point this man with the crimson armor that smelt of blood wasn’t listening and instead was in pure desperation to get his sword out of my stomach. I wasn’t going to budge and let him ofcourse since it would be rude and I didn’t want to bleed out internally, so I had a couple health reasons why it was imperative I didn’t let the sword go.

“Hey, hey, are you listening to me?” I snap my fingers a couple of times before I give him a quick knock on the top of his head, that last thing seemed to do the trick as he fell on his ass and looked up at me with fear.

“Wh-wh-wh.” He kept stuttering the same thing but never finishing the word. I was chuckling at this but in the back of my mind I was concerned about one thing…. Why wasn’t his army moving? If he was the commander, why weren’t they in battle ready position? He obviouvsly started a fight so why didn’t they start fighting us?

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“They aren’t real.” He said moments later. He then walked up to the army and with a wave of his hand it goes straight through one of the soldiers that was standing at attention.

I looked down at the guy with confusion. “Why the hell did you bring a fake army just to see Mara? did you think Intimidation was going to help you achieve something? What was your real goal here?”

“I-I-I-I was tasked with retrieving Lord Duke and br-br-bringing him home.” The man on the ground now started to shake as he slowly started to back away from me. I felt the time was right and pulled the sword out of me. The blood had long stopped oozing and my insides only needed the sword out of the way to fully heal up, I only kept it for dramatic effect.

“This sword is a good payment for the cheap shot to the stomach you just did, I’m keeping it ok? But sad to say that on the Lord Duke problem? He’s dead. I ate him. He said some stuff about my wife well I should say about my Wives and about my children and so I started to get a little hungry, but speaking of getting hungry.” With a lick of my teeth and a glint in my eye I start to slowly reach down towards the man, but as I do I’m stopped by a sudden shimmer in the air.

“Lord Vexsus Emergency! Lady Kitsoma and Lady Mara along with a few others are in a desperate fight! They sent me to get you as quickly as possible!” Shouted a young man as he appeared through the shimmer. I jerked my head towards him and then towards the direction of my wives, Using Detection I scanned and I could see that along with my daughters, they were being harassed in an encirclement by a group of men. At the back of the circle was the head butler, So called ‘Johnny’.please visit panda-:)ɴᴏᴠᴇ1.co)m

“I thought the Dark Embrace killed off all the slavers? How is it that there are still survivors?” I asked quickly.

“I don’t know my lord but please come with me so that we can rescue the lady and mistress!” The young man jumps through the shimmer but it doesn’t dissapear like usual and instead it expands to fit what I would expect to be my size. I just shrug and turn to look down at the little man on the ground.

“looks like I got more important things to do than mess around with you, but nice try on the intimidation tactic, maybe next life you’ll come up with something better. Sondar I’m going on ahead.” He nodded before I jumped through the shimmer and was soon speeding through a bright hallway like path with visions of scenery blazing past me until without warning I am being thrown out onto the hard floor of what feels like a cave.

“VEXSUS! How did you get here so fast?” Kitsoma yelled at me as she deflected a sword strike and countered with a flaming whip that sent up a small plume of smoke as it struck a man across the chest and illicited a scream from him.

“I had a member of the Dark Embrace who was talented in teleporting to bring him here. Now Focus or we are going to die!” Mara said as she parried a sword strike aimed at her heart and with a flick of her other hand a small dart made of shadows pierced into the mans hand before it turned black and rotted away. The man screamed and fell to the ground but someone came from behind wearing a cloak that covered their faces and held up an amulet and muttered a few words. Quickly the cave lit up with bright silvery light and the mans remaining nub returned to a normal healthy color but what was even more fascinating was the fact that a small 5 digit hand was visibly growing by the second.

“That person has been healing these men this whole time, It seems like they have an endless supply of mana but unfortunately we do not and are almost tapped out. Honey please help.”

“Dad please! I can barely keep up my buffs any longer.” My poor daughter Grace who is weaker than my other 3 oldest hasn’t trained as long and as hard so naturally she isn’t up to these harsh fights. But seeing how she still stuck with it and percervered I was moved to try my best. I rubbed her head and kissed her forehead.

“Good job honey, you did awesome. Just leave the rest to your dad ok?” She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and I could tell she was scared for her life but now that I was here I was going to make sure they got out of here safely. I turned to my wives and Harper. “You three did good aswell. Just sit back and let me take over.” They sighed but soon I heard a familiar voice.

“But Lord Vexsus, are you sure that is a wise decision? I mean there could be bandits running around in this cave? What would happen if Lady Mara was to run into such unsavory characters?” I turned and looked at the back of the crowd to stare at the ringleader. ‘Johnny’.

“Before we get started, I have to ask, Who set you up to do all of this? Did you purposely betray Mara or were you bought by someone?” I asked as I took a step closer to Johnny while making sure to corral the girls behind me. I started to use Detection to figure out where I was and then sent that location to Sondar in the hopes that he could get here quickly but judging by where I was, it would take atleast a few minutes to get here.

“I got this job so that I could have an easier access to the people. I could pick and choose the slums and lowlifes, the weaklings and the easy pickings. My backers paid quite a pretty penny for my shipments. Last I heard the last shipment I made was used in their newly built arena for sport hehe. But none of that matters now since I’m going to be using you as my last shipment and leave the business on a damn good note with a big bag of gold as my retirement.” Johnny says as he starts chuckling and lifts up a small wand from some kind of holster on his waist along with a book of some kind.

“Now, Here me lord of dreams, I ask for aid and to be a witness of your power. Embrace my enemies in your arms and gift them everlasting nightmares! SLEEP!” Johnny raises his wand as he starts to recite a spell and the book opens up and starts to glow an eery blue glow. When he finishes all throughout the cave is silence but soon a bluish mist starts to roll and cascade down from above almost like a fine dust. I look and the men around us is covering their faces with cloth or whatever they have.

I try to act quickly and create a magic circle around us to block mist. I manage to create a dome made of mana that block most of it but by the time I finish my eyes are foggy and my senses are hazy.

“Darl-ing? I-I can’t… I’m so sleepy?” Kitsoma says before she falls over and soon starts to snore lightly. The same can be same of my girls as they didn’t even have a chance to say anything before the mist to effect.

“Honey, this magic is potent. Are you ok?” Mara asks me as she lays a hand on my back. I look with suprise at her and try to ask a question but my mouth and tongue won’t cooperate.

“Shh, don’t try, and it’s because I’m a succubus remember? Dreams and things like that are kind of in our job description so I’m immune to any sleep inducing spells or poisons, Here drink this.” She then lifts her arm up and quickly slashes it with her nails, a wound opens up and a slight drizzle of her blood drips into my mouth. It tastes delicious but also it burns going down my throat. Haha, it kind of reminds me of back on earth of that pop called Dr. Salt. Man did I love that pop.

She soon wraps her arm up and within seconds the haze over my senses fades away and my mind is clearer. “Thank you baby.” I thanked her and gave her a kiss before I turned to the group of slavers that were still alive.

“We have to find out how these guys are still alive? any ideas?” I ask while I start drawing more circles.

“No idea but first let’s deal with them and while we’re at it let’s take johnny alive ok? I’m sure you have a trick or two for info gathering.” Mara says knowing full well that she is the one that is well suited for gathering info.

“Hehe, we’ll see honey, but just stay in here and look after the girls alright? if you can see if you can wake them up I’m afraid of what Johnny meant by his spell saying nightmares.” Mara smiled and nodded as I took a couple deep breaths before a hole opened up in my barrier and I jumped through. The group of slavers looked at me with surprise and Johnny yelled.

“What the hell are you still doing awake!? My spell should have worked even on Mara!? He swore it would dammit!?”

“Oh? Well looks like you and me are going to have a few things to talk about Johnny boy.” I said as a big toothy grin filled with sharp teeth appears on my face.