I caught hold of a hunk of meat and hurled it into their midst. The hurtling object forced the pair of imps to split, their orbs dissipating in their hands. In an instant, I was on my feet again and racing back into the fight.
The first imp-elite couldn’t evade my slick elf’s speed as my fingers closed around a leathery wing. I ripped the imp open with my dagger, spilling viscera and gore all over my hands. Bertha leaped from her hiding place to charge the next one, and it must have considered me an easier fight because it made a desperate dive toward me. Its glowing red eyes were aflame with hate, and I fixed my eyes on those tiny, devilish beads.
The creature paused, drawn into my elf’s irresistible gaze.
Charm Test… Success
Squallish the Infernal Imp Enthralled!
Half a second gave me a moment to wonder if Lilith was watching this chaos, and I felt a shit-eating grin cross my face. She was definitely getting her fill of evisceration.
“Kill your brethren, in the name of Lilith,” I told the imp.
Squallish started to fire shadow-spheres into the ranks of the lesser imps, and they scattered in confusion at the sudden friendly fire. Before I could admire the slaughter, the last Infernal Imp rushed me, diving for the exposed flesh near my throat. Squallish quit blasting the other monsters and tackled his fellow tribe-mate. They tumbled through the air in a whirl of blood and talons, but Squallish had the upper hand. He tore at the other imp’s wings, back, and anything else he could get his hands on.
With the two Infernal Imps battling it out, I turned my attention to Bertha. The other monsters had swarmed her, their speed worth appreciating, but she was stronger than them. If her hands found anything, a wing, an arm, a leg, she crushed them. Her emerald-colored skin was splashed with blood, streaked with brains, splattered with crushed organs.
The whole cavern reeked of blood, gore, and the magic of the imps. A thick miasma of Infernal Essence swirled in black forms before racing toward me. The dark tendrils circled around me, and then they drained into my pores like some kind of vacuum cleaner.
What the fuck?
I didn’t have time to figure out what had just happened while my champion was in the thick of battle, so I charged over to help her. As I cut through an imp’s stomach, I felt my connection with Squallish break. I fought off the imps while I pivoted to see what had happened to my enthralled creature. He lay dead on the ground beside the other Infernal Imp. Squallish had conquered his foe but died in the process.
A worthy effort; maybe I’d have considered naming a dungeon pet after him if he hadn’t come here trying to kill me.
Bertha caught the last imp as its claws tore at her hair, but then she ripped it in half in a shower of black and red, bones snapping and sinews popping. She saw me absorbing the essence, and her eyes widened. I grinned, and my eyes slid from her gorgeous form to movement behind the kitchen bench. I heard the clatter of bottles and a loud chugging noise.
Then Jeff rose up from behind the bench. He was a bloody and bruised mess with a glowing liquid oozed down his chin.
“He found Ma’s healing tonics!” Bertha said.
“I did,” Jeff replied as he wiped his maw with a grubby fist. “I be all patched-up now.”
I stared at his stomach, at the spot where only minutes ago his intestines had threatened to fall out and uncoil on the ground. It was completely healed.
“Must be some incredible potions,” I muttered to Bertha.
“I’m surprised they still work. They’ve been in there for generations.”
“I be ready for you again.” Jeff ushered us forward with a hand.
“I’ve had about enough of fucking monsters trying to stop me getting to the top of this goddamned mountain,” I said.
Jeff swayed as he waited for me to make the first move. He was surrounded by the bodies of dead imps, their black essence moving toward me. The substance seeped into my every pore and filled my Tainted Elf form with the spoils of death and destruction. The harvest brought with it an all-consuming fury and a desire for more of the delicious essence.
Was this how Lilith had gained her power?
I didn’t care to wonder. Not now. Not when there was still one last monster to slay.
Anger filled me as I considered how fucking hard it was just to get my dungeon started. I was meant to be a dungeon core, filling my floors with monsters and traps, ending the lives of hapless adventurers. Instead, I was caught in a battle between trolls and imps, and this was one troll that wouldn’t die.
I would have to remedy that.
My whole being howled for carnage, for death, for evisceration with my bare hands. I wanted to kill and rend and tear, filling the entire mountain with the inert bodies of my enemies. I wanted to drain their essence, drink all of it in, to become exactly what Lilith had said I would be—the ultimate dungeon core, the strongest in the all the Sinarius Realms.
“You steal my woman. You kill Ma.” Jeff flexed, and seemed to grow muscles on top of his muscles. “You will die. I will kill you.”
I was too consumed by battle rage to even question why Jeff considered Bertha his woman. I tossed the cleaver to my other hand as my lips spread into another charming, fanged, bloodthirsty grin.
“This is my mountain now.”
Chapter Ten
Jeff lunged in one last-ditch effort to rip me in two, but I stepped easily out of the way. My boot scraped against something on the floor, and I looked down to see my champion’s weapon of choice.
I slipped a toe under the poleaxe, then flicked it up into Bertha’s waiting hands. She caught the weapon with a savage smile as Jeff’s momentum
