Chương 6: Bite The Hand

Ch. 6: Bite The Hand You have just defeated a god. How impressive! The god you have killed is… me? This can't be right. I'm your god you traitorous- The automated voice switched off, and a chipper, default voice replaced it. Congratulations on killing your god! Secret mission, Bite The Hand, complete! I stared down at the wound. Droplets of amber blood traveled from the gash, up the blade. They crawled up my arm and entered my mouth. They tasted like citrus. The droplets eventually merged into a stream.

The new voice spoke in my head.

Mission Complete! Get your first kill! Mission Complete! Wield a magic weapon! Bonus experience points for killing a being far above your level. Mission Complete! Kill a god Mission- It was a maelstrom of information. My head jolted back, my brain was alight with an overload of messaging. I started seizing up as my body was intaking new powers and my brain was brimming with a voice inside my head. The screen in front of me had a little number 1 in the top right corner.

My eyeball tracked it as the number began shooting up. It made a 'brring' sound and the number went up like a slot machine on full tilt. Level 3 Level 33 Congratulations on- Level 67 Mission com- Level 101. New stat- Spiros disappeared from of the magical knife I was wielding. I did not even have the strength or the remaining brain capacity to keep holding onto it. My hand released it as I dropped on my back, the last flood of blood entering me.

Mission- Level 489 Congr- New- Level 885 Mi- New ances- Co- You've just- The level counter had three barrels. As the number slowed to Level 999, I wondered if another barrel would conjure the level 1000. Instead, something new happened. I watched as the three digits reset. Prestige reached. Level 1 Class: God Type: Kirin I finished absorbing Spiros' essence. The seizing stopped and I took a big gasp of air to refresh my lungs. The screen had changed into something else. It looked different.

And instead of three barrels in for the level slot, it showed five. Welcome, New God! Happy to see a new face in the pantheon. May your reign be long and fruitful. And your end, painless;) Did that system message just use an emoticon? Not even an emoji. That was the weirdest part. Just used a colon and a parenthesis. I sat up. I looked at my hands, then my body. I was not bruised, or injured. I was clean. Like… fresh-out-of-the-box clean. I smelled myself, I had that new baby smell. But this whole fight…

the grizzlox. The grizzlox! I turned around. The beast was recovering from the attack. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. I burped and a little fire came out. I would still need to destroy the core. I grabbed at the double dagger on my hilt and it reminded me of the other dagger. The dagger that was strong enough to kill a god. The split eclipse had finished, the shade it had cast receded. So why did another shadow envelope me?

When I turned to where the knife had fallen, I was greeted by the goat demon towering over me.

"Stole my kill," He said. I could now understand him. He was no longer speaking in strange noises.

"You lost your kill," I said.

"That was one of the biggest gods. Now… You got a lot of power stuck in those guts," He brandished the dagger toward me.

"Wanna see?" I threatened, sticking my fists up. I had no clue what I was doing. I had no conception of what this new body meant or even how to access whatever powers I might have. I might have… if I had ever been a champion. But I was completely in the dark. The demon looked up as the second moon in the sky finished it's duty. He was out of time for whatever ritual.

"You just keep causing me trouble," he sighed.

"You sound like my parents," I said.

"Why don't we leave it there? I don't have to cause you anymore trouble."

"Oh, don't worry. You ain't." I saw a twitch of his feet and, suddenly, he was on top of me. My head shot up, tracking him off of instinct. He had electric speed but my new body was able to keep up. Barely. He dropped the knife on me. I dodged, and pulled out my double dagger.

"Twice the power!" I said, "This dagger gives me twice the power!" The goat demon chuckled to himself, gesturing to his own dagger, "This one kills gods." He leapt toward me and I jumped back using more power than I was expecting. A lot more. My body charged past the trees back to where the grizzlox was waiting. It looked down at me and roared. I pointed at the demon and said, "Get him!" The grizzlox' inner pair of arms dropped on top of me. He smashed me against the ground. And yet, I was not squished.

I would have been if I was in a normal body. Hell, if I was even in a champion's body, I might have been. If the champion had no armor and they were under level 10. But this new body… it hurt, yes. But I was fine. I pushed against the ground. Using my new strength, I could fight against the grizzlox' heavy paws. One more jolt, and I had broken free from its grasp. I jumped into the air, above the grizzlox, and dropped on the bear's shoulders. I had to take it's heart. That was the only way to close the dungeon.

But once the dungeon was closed I would have no access to the knife. Could I kill two birds with one stone? Who was I kidding? I had barely inherited these powers. That demon lord had killed Spiros in his prime. How the hell was I supposed to compete with that guy? I spun my hands around to try to create some clouds, but nothing happened. How did these new powers work!? The grizzlox reached up to attack me, but I punted him between the shoulderblades with a single fist.

The bear beast cried out in pain and dropped onto all six of his appendages. I grabbed its fur to steady myself. I had the strength down, at least. I would figure out the magic if I survived. The goat demon guy jetted toward me with his dagger. The new body had given me an elevated dangersense. I dipped. Jumping off the grizzlox' shoulders, into the air. It was time I went on the offensive. I stuck my own dagger out. He smiled and leapt into the air. I let the dagger scrape me so I could get a hit on him.

The dagger's poison caused the veins under my skin to turn green. But I managed to get a shot directly at his solarplexus. Twice my new power on a body as hard as his… and my dagger shattered into pieces. I could hear the malevolent smile in his voice.

"One knife on the field now." We were both hurdling back down to the ground. I grabbed his wrist so he couldn't stab me. The scrape in my shoulder from the knife wound flared. He knee-kicked me right in the abs. It was no double dagger, but it stung. He ripped his hand free and plunged right where my gut would have been. But I twisted out of the way as we landed back in front of the grizzlox. He teased me again.

"You ain't Spiros." He conjured a blue beam from his hand. He gripped the orb of blue energy until it was ready to release, and he shot it at me. I dove out of the way and it landed on a tree behind me. The tree exploded into a blue flame. He chased me, but I kicked off a tree trunk and shot backward. Our eyes met as I traveled under him, back toward the grizzlox. The beast greeted me by baring its three rows of fangs at me. I was going toe to toe with a demon lord. But I was no fool.

He had access to magics, battle skills, and, of course, the knife. In a war of attrition, I would lose. My time as an NPC had afforded me a lesson in deception. Bait and switch was my main form of survival. This was bolstered by the weapon I had. The dagger. Not at all meant for one on one fighting. I had to come with with all sorts of ways to get close to my enemies. Whether it was to hide or to play dead, that was how I managed to live. One time I even pretended to give up.

I laid down and let a slime goblin get close. Cried my eyes out, stuff like that. Then when it was right next to me, I screamed "Sike!" and stabbed her. It was awesome. She was still alive and beat my ass for the next half hour but eventually she bled all the way through. The grizzlox attacked with its teeth. It missed me. It looked around, searching for my body. It stood directly up before noticing me gripping its chest. This was what I needed, an open shot on the core. It picked at me with its claws.

Grabbing my arm and pulling. I refused to budge.

"Stop that!" I said, "Enough! Go away!" I pretended not to see him. But I could feel his gaze on me from across the forest floor. I held on as the grizzlox started to use two hands to pry me off. One hand had my left leg. The other had my right leg. I was holding on with nothing but one hand. Pulling at the grizzlox' fur. It was trying to pry me off but pulling its chest hairs was causing it pain.

"NO!" I screamed. The demon saw his opening. He took one step and propelled himself toward me, knife out, like he was a living missile. In a blink, he'd closed the gap. I let go of the chest hairs. The spring of my sudden release pulled me away from the spot I was in. I reached out and punched the appendages. The demon's knife-led missile stabbed into the bear's heart. Rupturing the dungeon core. I had little time now that the dungeon would close. As the grizzlox' life faded, it's grip loosened.

I dropped toward the demon. He looked up at me.

"Coward." I elbow slammed him. He dropped, leaving the knife in the grizzlox. I held onto the chest hairs, pulling myself up. The knife was in reach. I extended my hand as the last of the poison took effect on the grizzlox' heart. Life faded from its eyes. My fingers hovered just around the blade's handle. I could swear I almost touched it. As I closed my grip, a nuke of white energy exploded from the grizzlox' core.