Dragon Gods Reign

[Monster territory]

Standing upon a small mountain surrounded by monster-infested grasslands, Darganth stared towards the sky in amusement.

“Honestly Irsyr, sometimes I wonder who is crazier between you and Azeal. A universe under attack by four eldritch gods and you just place it into an artificial miniature realm.” He said into the nothingness.

Just like their mortal counterparts the true monsters, eldritch gods were a universally despised group. While orcs, minotaurs, and all the other monsters by classification can ascend and form divinities to become gods like everybody else, the abominations that the classification originally referred to can't.

Instead, when they have consumed enough matter or mana, they evolve into eldritch gods. These twisted monstrosities corrupt and erode the very elements only to slowly devour the now weakened universes completely, fueling their own growth just like their mortal counterparts do with their surroundings.

And among these eldritch gods, the four who hovered in the sky above clearly ranged toward the higher levels of power. The only reason they didn't destroy this entire realm was a combination of the extensive wounds they were suffering under as well as the prison that held them in place.

“Any idea where exactly we landed?” Allaire asked him once she shook off the discomfort from entering the pocket realm.

“No.”

“Then what now?” Jennia asked.

Thinking for a moment, Darganth motioned towards the mix of monsters and undead down below. Letting their eyes wander over the horde, Jennia and Allaire turned to each other and the former just shrugged.

“Better than boredom.” She said before jumping down into the fray below.

Calling for her armor to materialize around her during the descent, she reinforced her body with aura before landing with a crash. Without waiting even a moment, she called upon the fire element and sent a wave of flames into the nearby monsters.

Easily burning these expendable meat shields to cinders, she started rampaging among the army in the hopes of drawing out its leaders.

Each of her movements sent dozens of attacks in all directions, quickly clearing the field around her. Teleporting forward to close the gap this created, Jennia arrived before one particularly large humanoid monster.

Using her clawed gauntlet to leave four deep gashed at its neck, with the slashes of fire energy that flew out from her attack fully decapitating her target.

Watching with some surprise as the nearby soldiers managed to react fast enough to form a carpet of spears below her, she dodged by teleporting away. As soon as she arrived at the targeted location, a deformed humanoid appeared and attacked her.

Using the blade that replaced its left forearm to swing at her, the being seemed surprised when Jennia easily caught the weapon. Struggling to break free from her, it only managed to do so when she broke the blade into two with a slight twist of her wrist.

“Never met an equal opponent?” Jennia asked condescendingly.

Receiving only meaningless grunts in response, she braced herself as the monster again rushed at her. Gathering a mass of darkness on the ground next to her, she waited for it to come closer before morphing it into tens of black spears that easily pierced their targets.

With her opponent falling to the ground lifeless, she turned back to the army. Sensing seventeen similar monsters rushing towards her position she made the decision to stop playing with them.

Waving her arm in a half circle around her, she made a wave of darkness rise from the ground that advanced toward the monster horde. As soon as it got a hold of one it easily destroyed them, dissolving the individual until nothing remained of them.

Watching this happen with calm eyes, Jennia soon noticed one individual surviving her attack. Slowly a second, then a third emerged until finally, eight such individuals stood on the other side of the wave. Some of them had suffered noticeable damage despite surviving, with four being nearly completely unharmed.

“What are you?” One of the unharmed asked in confusion.

“What does it matter, she doesn't have its bloodline. Oh, how long has it been since I last could feast without the blood burning in my throat.” Another answered.

Agreeing with this sentiment, the group quickly got ready to rush to Jennia. However, before they could do so, Darganth and Allaire arrived next to her.

As soon as they did, the attention of five of them switched to Darganth. Looking at him with greedy eyes as if he was a wandering treasure trove, they didn't wait for their other three allies and charged at him.

Reacting just as fast, Darganth met them at the middle point between them with his usual spear in hand. Swinging it in an arc to force his opponents to jump back or be bisected, he turned his body with the swing's momentum and pushed his left arm forward.

Sending out a concentrated pulse of telekinetic energy from it, he managed to catch one of them with this attack. Ignoring this individual that was flung away from him, he closed the gap to the one who managed to dodge the pulse.

Piercing his spear towards him, he caught his target before it could regain its footing after having hastily dodged the previous attack. With the blade of his weapon sinking into the being's chest, Darganth sent a burst of fire magic through the handle.

As soon as this energy reached its destination, it exploded outward and set his opponent aflame. And despite these flames having a rather low intensity, the being started screaming in desperation while its body quickly turned to ash.

The speed with which he managed to dispatch one of them made the other four worried, giving Allaire the opportunity to strike another one with an arrow. Staggering from the unexpected attack, her target didn't manage to react as she hurled a fireball at him.

Gaining a new-found fear of them, the three remaining enemies increased the distance they kept from Darganth and Allaire. Not sure what to do, they were ripped out of their internal debate when one of their three other allies crashed into the ground before them.

Shortly after Jennia leisurely walked closer, having dispatched all but this last one of her opponents. After the group of five rushed ahead, she had quickly closed the gap to the remaining three, landing in their midst and sending a circular wave through the ground.

Her opponent's footing was destabilized by this sudden rise in the ground that traveled past them just as quickly as it came. Dashing towards the most wounded among them during this small window of opportunity, Jennia managed to catch him off guard and land a heavy strike at him, flinging him backward.

Opening the hand's palm towards him, she called upon a cloud of pebbles and stone with her earth control. Ignoring the monster whose body was shredded by these, killing it, she spun around and guided the stream of rocks toward one of the other monsters.

But before these could reach their target it started to regain its stance, dashing to the side to dodge. Easily crossing tens of meters with this, the monster arrived next to its ally and both rushed at Jennia.

Meeting their charge with a conjured sword of darkness, she blocked the overhead strike of the first while sidestepping the claw swipe from the second one. Using the opening to sink her weapon into the first one's shoulder, she became surprised when it barely sunk ten centimeters deep.

Luckily not having the need to free her weapon, she just let go of it and jumped back to avoid their retaliation. Before the old sword even fully faded away she already had a new one in her hand, using it to block the wounded opponent's next strike.

Launching swing after swing in quick succession, he slowly managed to push her back. While each strike was weak, Jennia had trouble with the sheer number that was coming her way.

From time to time she would manage to conjure an attack with her elements, though each time it only brought her a short moment. Soon she also noticed the wound on its shoulder starting to heal at visible speeds.

Deciding to hurry up and end this, she teleported away with the next step back she took. Grinning at the momentary confusion of her two opponents, she used the two seconds it took them to find her again to prepare for one massive attack.

Waiting for another second for them to close in on her, Jennia unleashed a roar laced with space energy. Before her two targets could even react, the cone of energy slammed into them and started pushing them back while also tearing them apart.

Wave after wave crashed into them, with only short pauses in between where the intensity of the attack lessened. This pushed them back and left four linear tracks in the ground as they tried to resist.

By the fourth burst of power, the clawed humanoid monster's healing could no longer keep up with the constant damage. Sinking to the ground with hundreds of wounds, it was flung into the distance when the force of Jennia's attack spiked the next time.

The other monster fared not much better as while its wounds were shallower, it was catapulted into the other fight.

Watching the shock this brought his three remaining opponents with delight, Darganth said mockingly, “Fighting against weaker vampires is too easy, once they smell some powerful blood they lose sight of everything else.”

His comments made the three vampires growl in response, though still held off from attacking again.

“Be proud, at least you aren't weak and stupid.” Jennia mocked.

Further enraged by her words the three vampires exchanged a quick glance. Nodding in unison, one rushed forward and pushed the monster toward Darganth. Landing roughly three meters before him, it stumbled further toward him with a shocked look.

Ignoring this and the fact that its approach was involuntary, Darganth cleaved its head off cleanly with one swing from his spear.

Stepping to the side to dodge the falling body, he ducked as the same vampire appeared behind him in a blur. This left its claws to sail past above him, giving him the opportunity to kick his assailant's legs away from under him.

Bringing his elbow up and connecting it with the chin of the falling vampire, Darganth turned further into the strike to follow it up with an upwards swing from his spear. The weapon's blade easily tore vertically through its target, leaving the vampire in two halves that fell to the side.

Standing up straight, Darganth turned to the next one just to see him vanishing in a flash of flames from Jennia. Having initially humored her opponent and exchanged attacks, her clawed gauntlets against his natural claws, she quickly proved to be superior even in her humanoid form.

Easily parrying the initial onslaught, she managed to catch one of his strikes by turning out of the way and grabbing his wrist. Before the man could even realize what was happening she had already retaliated, leaving four gashed on his side.

Forcing his arm to the side as she pulled her outstretched arm back, she cut through nearly the entire limb which allowed her left arm to let go of it. Before her opponent could react to that, she sunk the clawed fingers into his neck from both sides before gathering fire in her palms.

Screaming already from the searing pain of just having the flames pressed against his skin, the vampire quickly became quiet as they exploded outwards and consumed his entire body.

Making sure that he was dead, Jennia turned towards Allaire's fight.

She had been attacked by the only woman of the group, with the female vampire having quickly managed to cross the gap between them. But despite being forced to ditch her bow, Allaire was in a far more advantageous position compared to her opponent.

Both of them specialized in speed, with Allaire's aura enhanced body being closely matched with the vampire's speed. But in addition to this, she also had magic and elemental manifestation, both of which surpassed what was expected for her respective ranks.

Needing only two quick exchanges in which her sword clashed with the woman’s claws to capitalize on this, she swung her empty hand just as her opponent retreated a few steps. As soon as she did a whip of hardened light materialized in her hand, catching her opponent off guard with its speed and winding around one of her legs.

Quickly following this up with bolts of light that struck her torso, Allaire tore away most of her upper body. Noticing the heart to be intact enough for the vampire to start regenerating, she conjured five chains from the ground around her that caught the woman's wrists, ankles, and neck.

“You now have two options. Either you answer all of our questions voluntarily and get a painless death, or don't, we'll get our answers anyways but it won't be painless for you.” Allaire said to her.

Looking back at her with fear in her eyes, the woman only needed to notice the sadistic smile on Jennia's lips and compare it to Allaire's trustworthy one before she nodded.