Angel Fall - Prologue: Knock Knock

I feel a heavy hand on my shoulder through my layers of plate and chain armor, forcing me to reflexively tighten my grip on my shield and war hammer.  This is hardly my first OP with them, and I have grown use to these guys, except for Ninic ‘cause he’s new, but for some reason my mind keeps losing focus.  Could it be all the demonic energy in the air?  Archbishop Tinios said we would be fine from its effects as long as we don’t lose direct contact with our weapons.  The hand pushes harder and a deep earthy voice mumbles into my ear.

	“Ya alright Smiles?  Being in a demon realm scaring the piss outa’ ya?”

I don’t shift my gaze from the barely visible door in front of me.  It appears to be just one of many ordinary rotting wooden door in an ordinary ruin of a once vibrant city.  This is no ordinary city though, this is the heart of one of the oldest demon realms on this continent.  The Order tasked us with eliminating one of the Monster Lord’s generals, no small feat by any means.  Normally we wouldn’t go so deep behind enemy lines, but this is retribution for what she did to Easthaven; the newest city added to the whore’s collection, and what was one our few remaining port cities.  We can only hope that she mistakes us for an easy win, all it takes is one slip up on her part for us to win.

	“No Pops, no problems here sir”.

He chuckles softly and the weight from my shoulder disappears.  As our captain, Clayn Versam, who we endearingly call “Pops” because of his fatherly personality, has sort of tuned himself in to all our little mannerisms.  He most definitely caught on to that the demonic energy is starting to fuck with my mind.  I’m no demon realm vet like some of the team; I guess that is something I have in common with Ninic.

	“Good! So let’s go over our strategy one more time.”

Pops pushes himself off the wall we are all plastered against in preparation for our breach and clear of the target’s home.  None of us remove ourselves from the wall, but we all to turn to face the hulking massive of metal and flesh of a man.  Pops is almost a foot taller than me, and I’m not short to begin with.  If I had to guess I would say he was 6’8” or 6’9”.  The only thing as outrageous as his height is his strength.  He easily wields his zweihander with one hand and a great tower shield in the other; both of which are about as tall as me.  He clears his throat bringing my mind back into focus. Everyone is watching him with anxious eyes.  The plan is to break into this manor, kill the general, and get out of dodge before reinforcements come and make the rest of our lives a living hell of rape and torture.

	“Once we get to the whore, Smiles and I are gunna try to control her movements while Tiger deals with any guards!”
Tiger flashes his lady killer grin, rumor has it that his grin once stalled a charging manticore long enough for to bring his spear to bear and impale her through the heart.  He spins his broadleaf blade spear in his hand.  Like Pops and me, he is wearing a full set of plate over his chain armor, all of which is coated black.

“Specs!“

Ninic frowns, I guess he doesn’t like his new nickname.  Pops likes to assign nicknames to people based on the first thing he notices about them… usually.  Ninic just so happened to still be wearing his ugly combat training glasses when Pops first met him.  He’s switched them out for low profile ones since then though.  I’m not one for fashion but I do say they seem to go rather nicely with his specialized plated leather armor.  The armor type is almost unheard of outside of us special operations teams. It is normal leather armor with plates of blackened metal riveted to them for maximum mobility and minimized noise.
“Your job is too pump spells into the whore’s asshole like a pile of fat cocks.  I’m sure she won’t like it as much though!”
He chuckles to himself at his shitty joke. I don’t want to think about what that creature’s body is designed to do, especially in the demon realm.  Pops turns to look at the last man in our team.  The man, Rucard Smumos though we call him “Twitch” because he is always twitching, raises his hand to prevent Pops from continuing.

	“Aye I know me job, watch the new blood here and make sure he don’t get too bloodied up.”  His oceanic accent clearly
slicing through the night for all of us to hear.

Twitch drapes his arm over Ninic’s shoulder, whispering something in his ear.  Knowing Twitch I rather not hear it.  No matter what he says, Twitch always pulls through. The guy is a deadeye with his bow AND he has explosives, toxin coated knives, and potions to boot; Ninic is going to be fine.

Pops places himself back in line behind me, “Let’s kill this bitch.”

I take a few deep breaths to steady myself, as soon as we breach I estimate we will have no more than ten minutes to get the fuck out of here.  A smile cracks my normally steely face, it is time to have some fun! Quickly stepping away from the wall I swing my hammer down over my shoulder, the enchantment causing it to flash with light as it comes into contact with door, completely obliterating it with a loud crack.  As part of the normal breech and clear routine I step aside to the other side of the door way allowing Pops to take point, and then falling in behind him.
As a single file line we quickly navigate through the manor with no resistance, the two imps we came across were quickly sliced in half before any alarm could be sounded.  It seemed like a rather normal manor; expensive carpets, fancy paintings, elegant chandeliers, and so on.  The only thing that really stuck out was that the atmosphere got more oppressive, and it became much harder to focus on the mission the deeper in we went.  Pops stop in front of a pair of ornate doors.  We all knew what laid beyond, we could sense it, like everything wrong with this city was originating from that room.  Then it hit me, the most wretched of smells momentarily overwhelmed my senses.  The air was filled with the scent of sweat and other bodily fluids; it just smelled like sex.  My gag reflex quickly cuts in and rips me from my brief paralysis.  I can hear the rest of our team suffering just as I did.

I can see Pops tense as he draws his shield back.  Shooting me quickly glance he slams it forward with all his tremendous strength, shattering the doors with a resounding bang.  As one we swiftly enter the dark room following the wall directly to our right.

	“Normally I would treat visitors with a degree of respect and kindness.”  A deep female voice echoes through the massive room. We immediately freeze in our tracks.  With a snap of her fingers the voice lights all the torches in the room.  At the far end of the room up on a balcony flanked by two curved stairways hovers the most beautiful yet monstrous creature I’ve ever had the misfortune of laying my eyes on.  It is hard to gauge how tall she is, but she seems to be slightly taller than the average human woman.  Her body though is a completely different story. She strides towards us down the right stairway, her perfectly toned hour glass figure moving fluidly in an almost otherworldly manner.  Her hips swaying with each step, those barely contained breasts behind a maroon leather and metal bra jiggling, and the clack of her thin heels of her maroon and royal purple knee high boots fill the room.  As she reaches the bottom of the stairway a pair of soft blue-ish purple wings splay apart at her hips and her vibrant blue hair begins to billow past her curled ram horns from non-existent winds.

	“However you broke it my domain during the dead of night, killed two of servants, and interrupted my love making session with my husband!”

Her eyes narrowed and focused on each of us in turn. I could feel the intensity of the hate as we locked eyes; it made me smile in delight.  After our first mission together Pops asked how I trained myself to resist the temptations of the monsters.  I told him it was easy: I turned any desire I felt for their bodies into the desire to tear them to pieces and bask in the heat of combat.  He gave me a strange look and never brought it up again, but I could see from then on an increase in the intensity in which he fought with.

The Succubus’ voice broke the silence once again as she begins to slowly approach us once again, “For that I will make the rest of your miserable lives a living hell of servitude and seamen production for my girls.  Do you like the sound of having your pelvis pulverized by an oni every night?  What about melding your flesh with a matango?  Such a punishment would still be a mercy compared to what you deserve!”
The scent of the sweetest nectars wafted over to us, a fragrant so thick I could almost taste it.  It was intoxicating.  When the demon whore was only a few yards from us, Pops burst into action without so much as a warning.  As fast as Pops was the demon general was faster.  With only a fraction of a second to spare the succubus leaped backwards as Pops arching strike with his massive sword came smashing down, cratering the floor where she once stood.  The bang, marking the start of our duel to determine the rest of our lives, snapped the rest of us from our paralysis and we sprung into motion.  I sprint forward as fast as my armor lets me towards the succubus’ new position a few yards away.  Right before I reach her I plant my leading foot down and twist myself into a spinning shield smash followed by a hammer strike containing the rest of my momentum.  The shield predictably misses, but the hammer, glowing with divine energy fueled by my hate for these creatures, catches her by surprise giving her only enough time to raise her arms in a feeble attempt to weather the blow.  I can see the fear in her eyes, almost smell it in the air, as my divine hammer smashes through her guard knocking her to the side several feet before she finally regains control.

Her eyes, filled with hatred and the desire to live, lock onto me; a fatal mistake.  Whizzing over my shoulder a pair of white magic orbs crackling with holy energy slams into the succubus’ torso, exploding on contact, and knocking her into the air.  I glance over at Pops charging at her again, a vicious smile plastered across his face as he once again brings his zweihander down in an over the shoulder power attack.  I see in her eyes the moment she realizes she won’t be able to get out of the way fast enough, and again when Pops’ blade slices cleanly through her left leg, continuing into the floor underneath her where it buries itself in the stone.  A warm sensation tingles my cheeks as her blood splatters against my face; she greatly underestimated us.  My joy, my hatred, my lust for life! It is all too much to contain and laughter erupts from deep within against my will as I charge the downed whore demon, slashing through her other leg with the tip of my shield.  She doesn’t even let out a squeak, how disappointing.  Her eyes stare off into the distance as she lies face up on the floor hyperventilating.  I dislike this part of the fight, the part where the enemy is moments away from death and there is nothing left to do but put them out of their misery.  I slowly walk over to the side of her body, kneeling, and closing my eyes in prayer.  Her scent, now mingling with the thick metallic scent of blood, assaults my senses.

	“Oh powerful and merciful Lord, please show mercy and forgiveness for the soul soon to meet you.  Though their heart may have been tainted by the dark, their soul will remain pure forever more.  Please Lord, welcome your returning child with open arms.”

I open my eyes and they immediately make eye contact with the demon’s, she has been watching me, tears welling up in her eyes.  She tries to mouth something.

Please don’t.

I shake my head, there is only one place left for this wretched soul, and it is by the Chief God’s side.  Without standing I raise my hammer above my head and bring it crashing down onto her chest.  The sound of bones cracking and shattering echo throughout the now silent room, the light finally leaves her watery eyes.  I feel more tired than usual after an execution, it must be the demonic energy in the air.  Rising to my feet I see Pops standing where he was when he delivered the leg cleaving blow.

	“Yo pops, think Ninic should be the one to take the head?  New guy did well for it not only being his first OP, but it being a demon realm one as well. I say he earned it.”

	Pops smirks and turns around to get a look at Ninic.  I follow his gaze, but something else catches my eye.  Tiger whips his spear sending the corpse of the impaled imp ragdolling into the far wall.  Gathered around him in a pile at the back of the room are the corpses of a dozen or so imps and other child-body monsters.  A few have arrows piercing through their heads and hearts; those must have been Twitch’s victims.  How did I not sense all those monsters? The demonic energy has to be messing with my senses.  Ninic slowly walks over to us, eying the dying demon warily; unsure what to make of it.

	Ninic’s quiet voice barely reaches our ears, “A-are you sure?  I’m not really sure what I’m doing.   Will the Archbishop still accept the head as proof if I butcher it?”

	Pops slaps him on the back playfully, “Ha! Don’t worry about it Specs, we’ll just have to hunt down another general if you do.  Hurry up though, we have maybe three minutes before this places gets swarmed.”
The color drains from Ninic’s face, and he quickly starts incanting words of power, though I can’t hear what he is saying. He flattens his hand into a knife shape as brilliant white-yellow holy energy create a three foot blade stretching from the tips of his fingers.  In one fluid motion he brings his arm down and swipes the holy energy blade across the beast’s neck, severing it.  Weak pulses of blood from her quickly failing heart dirty Ninic’s boots as he lifts up the head with disgust.  Ah what a pussy, its like he’s never seen a severed head before.  Pops quickly takes it from him and places it in a bag tied around his waist.

	Pops turns around to face the rest of us, “Alright boys it’s time to get the hell out of here!  Last one to the Clearview highway has to buy the rest of us drinks!”

With a cheer we fall back into formation and quickly navigate through the halls from which we came.  It has been only minutes since we dispatched the demon, but the air already feels less intoxicating than it did upon our arrival.  I am sure if we are already able to feel the effects then the monster population has also been made aware of the change, and they will be coming to find out why en masse.  Anything that can get an entire demon realm city to stop fucking is undoubtedly a big deal.
The sharp clack of metal against cobblestone is all that accompanies us as we move swiftly through the city’s side streets to.  The stagnant air is especially thick with the scent of sweat and sex here, I almost prefer the smell of shit and decay that accompanies back allies in the slums back at the capital.  It must have been minutes since we started navigating these dingy abandoned side streets when Pops snapped his fist into the air signaling for us to freeze in place at an intersection.  A few tense moments of us pressing our backs against the side of a building later, I hear the sound of scales slithering across the cobblestone street, and they are rapidly approaching.  There is a slight pause in the slithering as the source is about to reach our intersection.

	A silky smooth sultry voice reaches out from behind the intersection, “Well well… What is this nostalgic smell? Could it possibly be a virgin?”

God damn it Ninic.

	“Oh it is! An unclaimed one at that!  Don’t worry little boy, I will make you feel right at-” the serpent, a lamia with pink hair and scales with flawless milky skin turns the corner.
I watch fear spread across her face as she almost slams into Pops who is towering over her like a metal golem, probably with his stupid grin plastered across his face.  The lamia takes a sharp breath, but before she could release the scream Pops cleaves her monstrous body in two from forehead to navel coating the street in a rapidly growing pool of blood.  Pops jerks his blade free from the lamia’s corpse with a kick and satisfying slap of limp flesh hitting a puddle.

	Without a moment of hesitation he signals for us to double time it, “Didn’t know you spent so much time studying Specs!”  I can just imagine how red his face must be right now.

	Tiger’s smooth eastern voice warms the air like a fresh spring breeze, “Do not worry, friend, when we get back I know a girl around your age who I think will suit you perfectly.  Consider it a present for not losing your head.”
I’m not sure where Tiger meets all these women, but he has set most of us up with dates at least once.  There is a pang in my chest as memories of Caroline surface, I can almost remember the smell of her hair as I see her in my mind’s eye by the cliff side smiling again. No! This isn’t the time to be thinking about the past.

I can see the city exit, we’re almost home free! A pair of tremors cause me to lose my footing, bring all of us to a halt; I don’t like the feeling of this.  I can hear everyone tensing up as weapons and armor click with their shifting bodies.  A few heart beats pass, but there is nothing else; hopefully whatever created those tremors are-

The wall in front of explodes outwards, debris shower us, and clouds of pulverized rocks choke our lungs.  I cough in a feeble attempt to clear my lungs of and mouth, a costly mistake.  A deep yet somehow still seductive voice rolls over us followed by rapidly approaching tremors, and the sound of stone being crushed underfoot.  With each step the voice takes it feels like the ground is being pulled from under us.  Faster than I can react a truly titanic shadow rushes out of the cloud of dust, and a thick, brown, muscly hand wraps around my arms and torso lifting me several feet off the ground.  The hand squeezes, easily warping my armor and forcing the air out of my lungs.  Struggling is useless, I knew that the moment my feet left the ground, but I did it anyways as I was brought eye to eye with a strikingly beautiful face with large hazel eyes filled with lust.  This creature, a minotaur by the looks of her, towered several feet over even Pops.  A large toothy grin spread across her face; she is clearly pleased with what she sees though I don’t know how I feel about that.

	“My name is Heavy-Tits-Tuar! However you will call me Minnie!” The base in her voice shook loose any remaining dust that somehow managed to cling to our surroundings.  Lowering my face to be level with her oversized, firm breasts she unclips her leather “bra” if you could call it that. “And these are my tits! They weigh twenty pounds each and give over a gallon of milk per day.”

Her laugh echoes through the alleyway as she smooshes my face onto her exposed breast, forcing the erect nipple into my mouth.   With a squeeze of her breast delightfully warm milk, far more delicious than I’ve ever had in my life, shoots into my mouth bouncing off the back of my throat causing me to cough and gag.  The taste and aroma are almost too much for my mind to handle, and I begin to lose my resolve to fight.

	“AH HA HA HA DRINK SOME MO-“

She is cut off mid-sentence by the wonderful sound of two arrows cutting through soft eye tissue.  I feel disappointed as the nipple leaves my mouth, but luckily crashing onto the hard ground snaps me back to reality.  Warped crushed metal jab into my still aching body as two pairs of hands drag me to my feet. The beast, Minnie, howls in pain, throwing herself onto far alleyway wall her fists pounding against it as swears stream out of her mouth.

	Tiger’s voice bringing me back to our rapidly deteriorating situation, “Friend we must keep moving!  Others have our scent as well it is only a matter of time until they are here!”

Our horses are just outside the city gates, which no one mans because this is a demon realm and everyone is busy fucking like the heathens they are.  The faster we get mounted up the better, once running on horse back very few monsters will be able to keep up.  I force myself to push forward despite my muscles screaming for me to stop, the roars of rage and agony coming from behind me spur me even more.

Ancient trees loom over us as, partially blocking out the clear starry sky, as we continue pushing ourselves past our limits.  We make it to the clearing where we left our horses at dusk as my body finally gives out.  I take a moment to regain my strength while the sounds of metal clinking and leather groaning as everyone else saddles up before I do the same.

	Twitch’s laugh cuts through the night like one of his blades, “Ah! It feels great to be alive, don’t ya say boys?”
I can sense Pops grinning through the darkness, “We aren’t out of the woods yet, let the Chief God guide us home safely”.
With that we gallop off, the sounds of mayhem rapidly shrinking into the night.  It takes a few minutes, but it feels like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders.  I can’t wait until we get back to the capital, after a stressful mission I like this we all need a few beers.