Chapter 17

  [Oh, finally some fun! Welcome to the way of the sword, recruit, I will turn you into a proper swordsman even if it kills you! Let the bootcamp begin!]

  Burning Darkness sent the excited and rather suspicious message to my NeuroHUD as I strode forward on the cracked and baked ground towards the forest, holding him in one hand, Hell Mana gathering in the other.

  ‘What? Just … what?’ I said, shaking my head.

  [Wrong, recruit! The first and last thing that will leave your mouth is “sir”. And make no mistake, our enemies are waiting, and they aren’t going to stab themselves. That will be your job as a member of my glorious Corps, and it’s my job to hammer into you how to do it, and God help me I will do my utmost because I love my job and I’m good at it!]

  ‘Have you … oh man, this is just ridiculous. Have you been watching my war movies in my entertainment library?’ I asked, almost unable to believe this. Then again, it was Burning Darkness, so I shouldn’t have been this shocked. ‘Button, why are you letting him watch my stuff? And how is he able to do it in the first place? Care to explain?’

  Button remained uncharacteristically silent. A traitor then.

  [Alright, recruit, the first rule of the corps is …]

  ‘Alright, stop it! Nostalgic, this whole drill sergeant routine, I’ll give you that. But I’m with the army, not the marines,’ I said, wanting to bury my face in my hands; unfortunately, both my hands were occupied, and I had my helmet on, so it wasn’t an option. ‘And just so you know, it really doesn’t have the right effect when all your screaming is purple text on my NeuroHUD.’

  [Oh. That’s … hm … I want a voice! I demand a voice! Button!]

  The sword text-yelled, and then Button’s orange coloured message appeared in my field of vision.

  [Burning Darkness requests access to your NeuroHUD’s audiosensory processor.]

  ‘Denied!’ I snapped. As if I was going to let that idiot-sword actually yell at me.

  ‘Daddy?’ I heard Flamey’s voice from behind me.

  ‘Is something the matter, Hellfire Lord? Why did we stop? And you’re talking to yourself once again.’ Tarashak’s voice joined my daughter’s.

  I didn’t even realise I had stopped walking, right at the edge of the dark and ominous forest of black trees. From this close, the thousands of long, twisted, intertwined branches looked as if giant spiders had decided the world would be a better place if they’d created a messy maze of their thick, black, stoney webs for all to enjoy.

  ‘I’m talking to my sword,’ I informed my companions.

  ‘Your … sword?’ Tarashak inquired, and he looked interested. For a change.

  Flamey stepped next to me, leaned closer to the blade I was holding as if to study it, squinting at it with her cat-eyes.

  ‘Uh-huh, my sword. He’s being a nuisance.’

  ‘That is interesting.’ Tarashak commented. ‘If its soul is developed enough to talk, it must be very old. It is a part of your bonded item set, isn’t it? And it … bears some similarities to The Magnificently Destructive Blade of Utter Darkness and Burning Death the former demon lord wielded. Come to think of it, what happened to that sword?’

  [Please do not let him utter that name again! I hate that name. Ugrathar was a true idiot.]

  The sword begged me.

  ‘This is my sword. Burning Darkness.' I stated. 'Definitely not the same sword. More like a distant second cousin twice removed.’

  I decided he deserved at least this much from me. And his old name was indeed a travesty, so no argument about that from me. Tarashak grunted something, and let the matter go, no doubt his demonic mind already putting two and two together.

  [Oh, thanks, my man. Now, about my voice …]

  ‘Fuck no!’ I scoffed at him.

  [Come on!]

  ‘No!’

  [Listen, I’ll be good, alright? I’ll drop the drill sergeant routine. You need to learn how to use me properly, surely you realise that. I can instruct you, talk you through stances, attack and defense, footwork and the whole lot. And the Wilds is literally the best place to practice. Once you get a skill, I can help you with that, too, and trust me my man, you’ll get a swordsmanship skill in no time if you let me help. But it’s not going to work well through texts.]

  Unfortunately, he made a good point; I needed to learn how to use him effectively just as I needed to level my magic skills to cast my spells. Even more unfortunately, he was right about this horrid forest being the best place for it. Low level wildlife was going to be manageable, hopefully, not just for me but for Flamey as well, and who knew when I’d get another opportunity to venture into a similar forest again.

  ‘Fine. But if you get tempted to start yelling into my brain, just remember: the Hellfire Lord giveth, the Hellfire Lord taketh away. Got that?’

  [Got that.]

  He agreed to my terms.

  ‘Alright, Button, I grant Burning Darkness access to the audiosensory processor.’ I declared before I could change my mind about it.

  I felt something happening with Hell Mana in my soul, and a bunch of orange coloured messages flashed through my NeuroHUD so fast I couldn’t read any of them. Then, I heard my dreaded weapon speak for the first time.

  ‘Hey, my man, can you hear me?’ he asked with a male voice that was surprisingly high pitched, but not so high as to be weird or feminine.

  Well, it was done, and I had to bear the consequences of my decision. And now we could be on our way and get to work on my skills.

  ***

  I removed my helmet for a short time. My demonic heat resistance trait made the temperature almost pleasant for me, but I could still tell how much hotter it was in the forest than it had been among the pillars inside that city-sized defensive building that was supposed to guard against an invasion from the Fifth Ring. Here, the air burned, and my suit’s sensors told me it was over 50 degrees Celsius. Even discounting the toxic, sulphurous air, this wasn’t an environment a human could endure for long without a SAC or without those demonic traits. Being human, however, gave me an advantage over Tarashak and any similarly sized demon; unlike the two and a half metres tall, bulky archmage, I had a much easier time making my way through the jumble of branches criss-crossing everywhere, while the demon had to walk hunched over, constantly tilting left or right so his horns wouldn’t be caught on the branches. Flamey had an even easier time, waltzing through the place without the slightest sign of being hindered.

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  I couldn’t safely fly my drone here; partly because the forest was too dense, and partly because even if I could fly it, it would have been pointless; it was impossible to see more than ten, sometimes fifteen metres ahead in any direction. Within a single minute of entering the forest, I knew this was the perfect place for any and all predators to lay in wait for unsuspecting prey to walk into their traps. Good stuff.

  Flamey walked a few steps ahead of me, clutching her curved dagger tightly, and for a change she wasn’t smiling. She was alert, more or less focused, and hopefully ready for the first of the inevitable ambushes coming our way. I wanted to believe I could shield her and protect her, and maybe I could, but she had to get some levels in, and she was confident she could handle most of what the forest could throw at her. Tarashak seemed as relaxed as a demon could, Hell Mana already covering both his hands, his spells probably begging him to be unleashed already. The cries, roars and howls echoing through the forest told me those spells of his wouldn’t have to wait long; I was sure it was only a matter of minutes before the wildlife would make itself known to us, and I wasn’t wrong: Flamey’s first battle began.

  A creature poked its head out from behind the trunk of a tree some six metres in front of us. Then another one popped out from behind another tree. Then a third. Then a fourth. They were of the same kind, and as they crawled out to confront us, growling viciously, I was wishing I was somewhere else; the monsters were terrifying. Not that big, but absolutely scary. They were perhaps the size of larger dogs or wolves, standing on four legs, but those were the only things even remotely normal about them. Snake-like heads covered in eyes and spikes, their pitch-black bodies thin and furry with some extra spikes sprinkled around for good measure, their long tails splitting three ways, each ending in some sort of talon. I instantly decided that I disliked the wildlife here, and was of a mind to turn back and get out of this place — not because I felt threatened by the critters, but because they were really, really hard to look at. Flamey, on the other hand, didn’t even flinch; she looked excited if anything. Tarashak seemed to yawn — apparently these things weren’t even worth his attention.

  ‘Daddy! Watch me! Watch what I can do!’ she squeaked cutely, just before the four critters decided to attack. And their charge faltered almost immediately, and even I could sense — no doubt thanks to my new psychic resistance — as my daughter’s Lost in the Fog skill unleashed a psychic aura of confusion. The four horrors lost direction as if they suddenly couldn’t see their prey despite having way too many eyes on their heads, and bumbled around like lost puppies. And Flamey was of a mind to violently dispatch those puppies. And so she did. I couldn’t say that she was incredibly fast or efficient, but she worked that Saerkhan-dagger-thing as she ran back and forth between the lost critters, severing tails, slicing necks and spilling guts. Three of the animals were dead in ten seconds, and the fourth one was about to fall victim to her weapon when her psychic skill must have ran out of juice, or time, or however it worked. The snake-headed, furry, talon-tailed thing lunged at her, but Flamey seemed to be fully aware that her skill’s time was up, and she jumped out of the way of the charging beast — quite clumsily, but very cutely, I might add. Regardless, the result was good; the horror flew past her, she pivoted, and with a few quick strikes of her dagger, three tails fell to the ground. The monstrous critter must have thought Flamey was too much for it to handle now, and ran for its life. Unfortunately for it, it didn’t look around properly, and ran straight into me. I caught the critter, grabbing its spiked head with my gauntleted hand. Holding the creature was so easy and effortless it surprised me. Flamey just stared at me, quite obviously angry with herself for letting her quarry slip away, her mouth drooping down, looking as if she could start crying any second. I had to say something.

  ‘Hm. Not bad, sweetheart, you’re doing great. This was a good warm-up,’ I said to her. ‘You even spared one for me to … uh … to warm up, too?’

  Her sniffling ceased and she smiled.

  ‘Yes!’ she stated, as if it had been the plan from the start. Ah, kids!

  The creature felt light and weak as it struggled in my grip. I felt like I could just … Crunch! I squeezed my fingers into a fist and the creature’s head exploded into black gore and skull fragments. Ugh! I shouldn’t have done this, but … it was so easy.

  [You have defeated Staring Hunter of the Dark Abyss, level 2. You receive EXP.]

  ‘Level 2, huh?’ I whistled. ‘It was …’

  ‘Don’t waste your time with these cattle, Hellfire Lord. Let the weakli … I mean, your heir work on her levels as we go,’ Tarashak said, his voice bored and annoyed at the same time. ‘My army … your army is waiting.’

  I looked at Flamey. She was nodding vigorously, waving her dagger around to show off how well she could use it. Well, I supposed if she was going to use her psychic aura skill together with that unreasonably evil looking blade, she could probably hold her own for a while. If something was to prove too much for her, I’d always be a few steps behind her.

  ***

  Flamey was a butcher. A cute and rather weak level 4 butcher, but a butcher nonetheless. In four hours’ time we had come across so many different monsters I had given up marveling at the designs Mother Nature’s Hell Department had come up with, each of them more horrid and evil looking than the other.

  The Prowling Devourers were large, all-mouth creatures that hunted alone, and when all their mouths along their long bodies were closed, their black and red colours blended with the environment so well I had been consistently mistaking them for just tree branches. Flamey noticed them without fail, and the level 2 and 3 horrors never stood a chance.

  The Swarm of Scorching Blood was … uh … a single monster, apparently. The twenty or so glowing, mosquito-like bugs making up a Swarm were each as large as a seagull on Earth. Flamey’s Lost in the Fog skill worked quite well on them … it. She would slap the confused bugs around until all of it/them was/were on the ground, and stomp the life out of them with glee. Then, only when the last of the Swarm-members was squashed under her boots would the kill be awarded to her. They were quite weak even at level 5 or 6, and whenever they popped up, my daughter looked happier than usual.

  The Flamescythe was probably the scariest of everything I’d seen; a tall, slim, almost humanoid creature that looked suspiciously like a pitch-black and anatomically very incorrect skeleton, with long, scythe-like blades for arms, which were of course burning, because this was Hell so why not? Hence the name, I supposed. When the first of them popped up I had been a little worried, but Flamey was not to be deterred by a level 4 creature; with some struggling and under my watchful eyes, she had managed to dispatch it. And as a pleasant surprise, this was the one creature of all the wildlife that didn’t have any guts and gore to spill to make a mess, so they had quickly become my favourites.

  While we marched forward with Flamey in front and Tarashak on rear guard duty — he had some sort of fiery barrier spell going on so nothing ever attacked us from behind — Burning Darkness was diligently inducting me into the mysteries of swordsmanship.

  ‘Stop watching your daughter, she’s fine!’ the sword groaned at me. ‘Now. That stance. Do it again!’

  I begrudgingly tore my eyes away from Flamey swatting away another Swarm of Scorching Blood, and assumed the stance my sword was trying to hammer into me. I put one foot forward, one back and slightly to the side while twisting my torso and holding the blade close to me.

  ‘What are you doing? This isn’t a stance, it’s a dance move!’ he wailed. ‘Feet more apart! Arms pressed in and hold me closer!’

  I groaned as I adjusted the stance, which really wasn’t taking the bulk of my SAC into account.

  ‘This is the best I can do.’ I hissed angrily.

  ‘Alright, close enough,’ he conceded. ‘Now, just as we practiced! Lunge forward, stab, then draw me back and then slash down!’

  I did as instructed and I performed the combo attack as fast as my own 17 levels combined with my set’s 20 let me: in less than a second. And I could control it, follow my own movement with my eyes, and it was incredible. I had not realised how inhumanly fast my levels were making me before Burning Darkness began teaching me the ins and outs of wielding him. I didn’t think even he realised how much his lessons in controlling my speed, my movements and my perception were needed for all other aspects of my new and partly demonic life. I had learned a lot and found a new appreciation for the annoying sword.

  ‘Alright! Horrible form! Again!’ he yelled at me.

  And the appreciation was all gone.

  Time passed quickly like this, and according to the clock on my NeuroHUD display, we had been walking, fighting and training in the forest for eight hours straight. I felt like I could go on indefinitely; I did feel a little tired, but it was my mind, not my body. Flamey and Tarashak showed no signs of fatigue either, so I was happy to continue.

  ‘Now!’ my sword announced. ‘It’s time to put what you’ve learned to the test, my man!’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Ask that Flamey kid to stand down a bit before she gets covered in even more blood, and tell her to let the next batch of monsters through. I want you to feel the joy of your trusty blade ripping into flesh and spilling the guts of your enemies!’

  ‘Ah. Spilling guts. Right,’ I nodded.

  Allied Systems Army training was more geared towards clear thinking, professionalism and a semblance of efficiency these days; the kind of bloodthirstiness Burning Darkness was trying to hammer into me was something marines were more inclined to lean towards. On top of that, I was a combat medic, and my job was as much about saving lives as it was about fighting. I didn’t argue though, the lessons were useful. Eventually I’d need to experience combat using a sword one way or another, and I agreed a relatively safe environment like this was ideal for it. If only said safe environment wasn’t so hellishly scary.

  I asked Flamey to take a break, giving her permission to take a few small bites of her Crunchymel bar, seeing how diligently she had been dispatching monsters every ten minutes without complaining. She took me up on my offer, rushed off to stand closer to Tarashak — who still looked incredibly bored — and watched me get ready to work while munching on her well-deserved piece of chocolate.