Charlie and the oni samurai clashed blade against blade, her armor wreathed in fire and ash. Every movement was focused, disciplined, her sword colliding with the katana in a blur of sparks. When a heavy strike forced her to brace and hold her ground, Luke swept in from the side, his daggers coated in corrosive acid as he carved across the oni’s armor.
The creature roared.
Three spear-wielding onis rushed in to assist. Luke spun, activating Demonic Blade Dance, his movements sharp and relentless.
“You’re not helping him,” he said, finishing the spin as all three heads flew free. He followed through, hurling a kukri into an archer.
Another throwing knife left his hand, launched by [Telekinetic Impulse], striking an oni who had been lining up a strike on Charlie.
The samurai charged at Luke, katana burning, each breath leaving a wave of heat in the air. Luke caught a returning kukri mid-motion and drove it into the oni’s back as they traded blows.
“You’ll need more than that, human!” the samurai bellowed.
Charlie leapt in front of Luke, her sword shifting into a shield as she blocked the next strike, stopping the oni cold. Luke darted to the side, his kukris carving into the armor before he slammed one blade up beneath the jaw. Acid splashed across one of the tusks, hissing as it burned.
“How about now?”
The samurai roared and lunged again.
“Now, Master Luke!” Charlie called.
A spectral chain lashed out, dragging another oni toward her. She touched it.
[Mark of Doom activated]
She spun, hurling the marked oni straight into the charging samurai. Luke’s knife flew.
[You have slain Oni Soldier – Lvl 48]
Charlie triggered the mark.
[Doom Explosion activated]
The corpse detonated on impact. She grabbed more foes with the chain, tossing bodies like weapons while Luke bombarded them with cursed, telekinetically-driven knives. One after another, they exploded into bursts of gore and smoke.
**Your second class [Witch] has reached Level 25!**
[You have unlocked a Class Skill]
The samurai pressed forward through the flames, his entire body burning crimson.
Luke and Charlie vaulted onto a nearby rooftop just as a wave of fire burst outward beneath them. More onis leapt toward the roof, and Charlie cleaved through anything that came within reach.
The samurai jumped up after them, his katana meeting Charlie’s blade again and again while arrows whistled through the air.
“Outer beings…” one of the onis muttered as a pair moved in on Luke.
“Yes. Outsiders. They know nothing,” another replied.
Luke watched through Angie’s eyes, then hurled a cluster of knives. They arced out of sight and came down across the street, skewering archers hiding behind rubble.
“Oh yes. Creatures trapped in a cage,” an oni went on. “So small. They don’t understand where they are.”
“I agree. They know nothing. They don’t know what this place is… or what happens here.”
“Shut up,” Luke snapped, dropping down between them and driving both kukris through their skulls.
**[You have reached Level 62! Half-Demon (Rank E)] (+2 bonus point to all attributes, +5 free point)**
They collapsed, lifeless. Luke turned just in time to see Charlie still locked in a furious sword exchange with the samurai. He sent more knives flying, [Telekinetic Impulse] igniting each cast, but the weaker blades shattered against the oni’s armor.
“It’s useless, human filth!” the samurai roared.
Luke seized the kukris still hovering around him and sent them flying, flooding them with acid power. The blades struck the oni’s back, one of them sinking in deep. He closed the distance in a heartbeat and kicked the handle, driving the weapon even further into flesh.
The oni roared.
“Not enough?” Luke smirked and slipped past the next strike.
The creature leapt into the air and spun, a flaming whirlwind ready to tear him apart.
[Spectral Chain activated]
Charlie’s chain snapped around him and, with a hard swing, flung Luke out of the oni’s path just as the samurai crashed down. The monster landed atop a rooftop. Luke hurled throwing knives mid-air.
[Telekinetic Impulse activated]
The blades smashed into the tiles around the oni, shattering the roof and sending the creature crashing through.
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[Twin Meteor Fists activated]
Charlie unleashed two blazing fists of fire that slammed into the building and exploded. Luke followed up with shadow orbs, blasting into the wreckage.
He landed on another rooftop and sprinted, weaving past arrows and spears streaking toward him. With [Demonic Predator Hands], he gripped the side of a tower and climbed in a blur. At the top, he grabbed an oni by the face. Acid burned through flesh as the creature screamed, and Luke crushed its skull.
[You have slain an Oni Archer – Lvl 35]
The house where the samurai oni had fallen collapsed entirely. The creature emerged from the smoke, armor shattered in places but still very far from beaten. Its red, tusked grin looked downright demonic.
In a blur of motion, it dashed straight for Charlie. Her spectral barrier flared, then shattered instantly.
Luke grabbed the fallen archer’s bow, slipped it into the dimensional space inside his haori, and vaulted to another tower, decapitating the next archer in one swift motion. He kept moving across rooftops, cutting down every oni in his path.
Two sword-wielding oni leapt at him. Luke spun, his blades tracing a tight arc across their necks.
“Don’t get in my way.” He flicked a kukri straight into the face of another oni mid-jump, dropping it out of the air.
[You have slain an Oni Guard – Lvl 78]
**Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 65!**
[You have unlocked a Class Skill]
Too bad I can’t check that right now.
He reached for his holster, conjuring fresh throwing knives, then let loose in a rapid-fire rhythm, drawing and casting and boosting each shot telekinetically.
The oni took hit after hit while Charlie pressed the assault. Luke targeted the face, the chest, every weak point in the armor already cracked open by their earlier blows. With a shout, Charlie charged, sword raised and one fist glowing with [Steel Fist]. The oni’s blade crashed against hers, and in the same instant she drove her punch into its helmet with such force that the creature reeled.
[Mark of Doom activated]
Luke appeared behind it, kicking the oni forward and flowing into a flurry of kukri strikes.
“Little assassin, your head will roll!” the oni snarled, swinging for him, but Luke dissolved into black mist. Charlie cut through the vapor and hammered the oni again, now fighting bare-handed.
[Vampiric Strength I activated]
She drove her fists into its chest, its skull. Luke reformed at its back and dragged a kukri across its flesh. Charlie tightened her fists, [Steel Fist] igniting once more.
The creature roared and seized Charlie’s wrist. With its free hand, it rammed the katana straight through her chestplate, the blade punching through metal and flesh. Then it hammered its fist into her helmet again and again until the steel shattered. Charlie’s body slammed back against a wall.
Luke lunged in with a double kick that knocked the oni aside. The monster dug its claws into the stone, tore loose a slab of masonry, and spun with brutal momentum, hurling the debris at them.
Charlie threw herself in front of Luke. The impact blasted her across the street.
“That was all?” the oni said, spitting a broken fang onto the ground, blood running down its face as it raised the katana. “Now it’s just you. The mighty army.”
The other onis converged fully at last. Luke saw them gathering from every direction, rooftops, alleys, streets, crowding into the crossroads around him. A ring of crimson bodies. Heavy footsteps struck the earth in unison, a rhythmic warbeat echoing through the village.
“Now we take your head!” the samurai roared.
Luke tightened his grip on the kukris. “You’ve been saying that since this fight started. Funny how it’s still attached.”
The horde bellowed back.
“Devour him! Leave nothing!”
The samurai charged, his soldiers thundering at his sides.
Luke grounded himself, channeling stamina through legs and arms, parrying and redirecting the oni’s swings as he spun with mantis-like precision. A gust of pressure from the katana sliced past his cheek as he slipped aside and hurled both kukris into the samurai’s back.
“Come on, then!” he shouted. At the last instant, he thrust his hand toward the ground.
[Teleportation Circle II activated]
A blue sigil flared beneath his feet. He waited, calm, as every advancing cluster of onis funneled into the crossroads, closing tighter and tighter around him.
They leapt as one.
And Luke vanished.
[Teleport Pentagram activated]
He reappeared atop an archer’s tower, already ripping the bow from a fallen oni’s hands. [Acid Blood Arrow] and [Mana Infusion] surged together, mana flooding the weapon until cracks spidered through the wood. He loosed.
Below, the samurai and his troops searched wildly for him. Then the arrow fell.
A white flash swallowed the street, followed by a billowing wave of acid.
[You have slain Oni Soldier – Lvl 48]
[You have slain Oni Soldier – Lvl 48]
[You have slain Oni Soldier – Lvl 48]
[You have slain Oni Guard – Lvl 78]
[You have slain Oni Soldier – Lvl 48]
[You have slain Oni Soldier – Lvl 48]
[You have slain Oni Soldier – Lvl 48]
[You have slain Oni Guard – Lvl 78]
…
Notifications cascaded across his vision. Two stood out.
**Your profession [Guardian Botanist of Mother Freya] has reached Level 76!**
**[You have reached Level 63! Half-Demon (Rank E)] (+2 bonus point to all attributes, +5 free point)**
The teleport circle shattered beneath the blast. Luke vaulted off the tower and sprinted across the rooftops. Black smoke and dust rolled through the streets. Somewhere in the haze, someone coughed.
“Filth… honorless filth…” the samurai muttered, half his body burned away, one arm missing, skull cracked open, armor gone.
Luke approached slowly.
“Damn… assassin…”
“I’ve been called nicer things.”
He surged forward. The kukris crossed in a clean, merciless arc.
An instant later, the oni’s head struck the ground.
“I just needed you out of that armor. You were dead from the start, you just didn’t know it,” Luke said to the severed head as the oni’s body crumbled to dust.
[You have slain the Temple Guardian Oni – Lvl 93]
**Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 66!**
Charlie emerged from the wreckage, lifting aside chunks of debris where she had fallen.
“Nice work, Charlie.”
She pulled off what was left of her helmet. Her face was bruised, and there was an ugly gash carved across the chest plate of her armor.
“Master Luke, your plan was a little dangerous… again. You could have been hurt.”
“And when does this guy ever have a plan that doesn’t involve nearly throwing himself at death and relying on some absurd plot-luck to bail him out?” Artemis muttered.
Angie hovered overhead for a moment before gliding down to join them. “I could have dropped in and pulled him out. Same idea, just… applied differently.”
Charlie glanced toward the ruins. Several oni were dragging themselves free from the rubble, and others who had escaped the acid were regrouping near the temple.
“What now, Master Luke?” she asked, looking from the enemies to him.
“Now?” He smiled. “Now we kill every last one of them and cash in all that experience.”
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