Were they able to hear? Are any following me?

<It looks like the sound carried through the cave quite well and the invader is forcing almost all the demons to give chase, but was that really the best thing you could think to yell?>

It doesn’t matter if it worked, now how’s everything else looking?

<The poisoned caltrops seem to have affected a few of them, but the amount you put on each wasn’t enough to do immediate harm, it might just slow them down a little. As for the electrified section of the cave, it’s acting as an annoyance at best. They definitely seem angrier as they run through it, but I think that’s just making them chase you harder.>

Oh great. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to get too much effect out of the lightning enchantment he’d made, the skill it had been produced with was meant to concentrate the mana at a specific point to get a greater effect, to spread it through a caves entrance and power it through a tool that had been designed to acquire mana for completely different enchantment while still receiving it from his own personal supply would never have been good enough for what he was currently using it for.

What about the demons? Have any gone underground yet?

<It looks like they’re staying above to hunt you for now, luckily we were right about their body structures.>

The gods watching the situation had been observing the demons around Thera and came to a conclusion based on their body structures. Despite how varied each one was from the other there were two things they were sure about, each of them would be suited for tunneling to one extent or another, and despite that, it still shouldn’t be as efficient for them as just running, with tunneling likely to be a developed trait to help them hide from any potential threats. Now that they were going to fight, they were going for speed instead.

That meant he needed speed above all else, which continued to be his weakest attribute. They set up the main part of the trap as far away as they comfortably could, preparing it under the watchful eyes of the gods who were on guard to warn them about any demons approaching, he just had to hope he’d make it there before anything caught up.

His small saving grace was that the cave was deep and the demons made their home towards the end of it. But they were beasts that destroyed worlds, he couldn’t depend on that to be enough to let him pull off what he needed to, and the screaming of his god in his head told him it already wasn’t looking good. The urge to look back was overwhelming, but he couldn’t give in. Anything that slowed him down, even for a second, could be enough to get him killed. He needed his entire focus to be on running, putting one foot in front of the other, not missing a single step as he went. Falling meant death, being too slow meant death, just being unlucky meant death, and not only for him, but likely Will and the ones he wanted to save as well.

The passing of time meant nothing to him. Even though it could only have been a few minutes it felt like hours, and worse, beyond the sound of his own heart beating in his ears he could hear something else. Footsteps, dozens of them pounding against the forest floor and only growing louder as the seconds ticked by.

As fear started to grip his heart he saw his target. What looked like a plain dirt area in front of him, with Will waiting at the end, crouched down but ready to fight. All that mattered was if Ben would live to make it to him.

Saying a quick prayer and hoping against hope that all the untested components of his trap wouldn’t get him slowly and painfully killed, he crossed the dirt expanse, not slowing down for a second as he could feel the pounding of the earth behind him, he was almost there, Will was only a few feet away.

<DODGE!> His god suddenly screamed at him, but there was no time for him to react and he felt thick claws tear across his back, ripping his flesh open while at the same time pushing him and the creature that attacked him across the boundary he’d needed.

Will got up and threw himself at the demon that had taken him down, and in doing so stopped providing power to an enchantment Ben had created earlier.

It was during his first weekend hunt with Thera he realized he couldn’t get monsters to just throw themselves into a pit trap, even if it was sufficiently charmed, if the creatures could tell they would die from it. He’d wracked his brain to try and figure out a solution to it, but the best he could come up with was to just cover it and reset the trap each time it went off.

He probably could have created a trap door of sorts to cover it with that could reset itself each time something fell through, but that would mean lugging it into the forest. It was then he started playing around with ideas for magic solutions. Sure, given his lack of mana and Thera’s inability to use magic tools without destroying them it wouldn’t be possible unless he decided to waste some of the valuable magic materials he’d been given by her parents, but he wasn’t that desperate at the time.

Now though things were different. He had Will, who had enough mana that he could make a powerful mage even without having any magic skills himself, and he had the need, so they found a space between two closeby hills, had Will dig it out to be as deep as he could in the span of a couple hours before filling it up with poisoned spikes, while Ben knocked down a few thin young trees that were long enough to act as beams to cover the whole thing and placed his barrier enchantment on top of it.

Because of the size of it and the vast swath of area he needed to cover, he couldn’t make the barriers as powerful as he could or else the mana cost would be too high, so instead they needed Will to pour as much of his own into the enchantments as he was able to when he saw them approaching to try and strengthen it so it wouldn’t collapse as he crossed it.

His friend must have already expended a great deal of it this keeping it in place while he waited so that the shin dirt layer they placed over the barrier would hide the deadly pit below it from the coming beasts, but as Ben turned around, ignoring the pain that tore through his back he knew it had all been worth it.

The force of their fall and the weight of their bodies ensured the spikes did their job, and screams of pain filled the pit as the survivors felt the poison enter their bodies, rapidly rotting their blood from the inside and filling them with agony. It was a good start, but he couldn’t celebrate yet.

Soon some would escape, and even poisoned and injured, they could still make sure he and Will died with them if they weren’t careful.

Still, he was comfortable seeing that it worked and as quickly as he could rushed over to Will, who was fighting not only the demon that got its claws in him but four others that managed to escape their fall. He could see the ones that his friend were going against were sleeker than many of the others that were currently skewered in the pit, likely giving him the speed to reach him before the others and jump to safety once the barrier cut out, while at the same time providing advantages for their other activity of burrowing through the ground.

His blood was still clearly on one of the things front claws as the others swarmed around, sensing his friend was the greatest immediate threat, but Will seemed to be holding his own, avoiding each swipe and getting his own punches in quicker than it could handle. Even one on five it wasn’t a match no matter how dangerous a small pack of demons might be. A person with awakened skills was a whole other beast compared to an average hunter and it was obvious why the gods would work so hard just to summon two hundred people like that. With every attack avoided and given he could tell Will had victory in hand he turned back to focus on the next task, killing any survivors in the pit.

Since he now knew that demons would eventually turn into invaders after they had caused enough death which meant they likely had the same life and death magics they would be known for, meaning that any that escaped might be able to heal themselves, or at the very least delay their demise. Something that couldn’t be allowed when they were so close to whittling down the numbers

He grabbed his hammer nearby and started running down to where each of them was trapped despite his own injury, seeing spikes piercing all the way through them in some cases and he got to work, bringing his hammer down one by one.

No matter how dangerous a creature was, if you destroyed its brain, that was the end. At least demons seemed to play by that familiar rule, Ben wasn’t going to count on that being true of every monster in the world, but as long as it was true of these ones that was all that mattered.

As he went around, bringing death to each of them he didn’t leave a single one unstruck. Now that he knew they were capable of higher levels of intelligence he couldn’t risk that any might be faking their demise, waiting for the right time to strike. As for the ones still struggling, trying to free themselves and swiping at him with abandon he took a different approach.

He pulled any spikes he could from the ground, and with his hammer carefully found wherever he could that would be close enough to the creature that he could drive it into their flesh while avoiding their teeth and claws, moving on and letting the poison do its work as he went to the next demon and the next, until all around him were dead.

He breathed a heavy sigh as he looked at his work, seeing the blood and death around him and hoping it had been enough, but something about it wasn’t right. Killing them all was not quick work, and Will should have been down to help finish the remaining ones so they could start their attack on the cave, and fearing the worst he ran back up to him to see the fight still going on.

Something was wrong though. Will was clearly the stronger one by far. He could move faster and avoid the creature’s attacks and should have been able to continue to deal blow after blow until they were all corpses at his feet, but he didn’t, and it was then Ben remembered what he’d been told when Wedrow first started talking to them about their demon hunt.

The sorrow.

An affliction of the mind that made it hard for a person to kill demons. Ben had no issue and assumed it was some sort of magic passive effect that he was immune to, but Will was clearly not. He wanted to give his friend a chance to get past it himself, but they didn’t have the time for that, there were people to save, so as calmly ask he could, ignoring the pain that filled both his body and especially his back he snuck up behind the group as Will continued to fend it off and brought his hammer down, delivered the finishing blow to one while quickly bringing the swing to the next and the next, finishing off three in quick order.

Unfortunately, from there the element of surprise was gone, and the two remaining beasts were on their toes, weary of him and ready to strike. His only advantage was despite the fact that Will couldn’t finish them off, they were battered and beaten, weakened to the point that even he could stand a chance, and he wasn’t going to let anything get in his way.

Ignoring any sense of danger he had he threw himself at the first one, putting the full force of his hammer behind his swing as he took out one of their jaws, just barely missing the head that could have given him the kill. His first instinct was to jump back to a safer range to avoid a counter-attack, but instead he pushed forward and swung again, a move the demon never expected.

It tried to protect itself the best it could, reaching out a claw and tearing into his bicep, but the pain wasn’t enough to keep Ben's hammer from coming down, and this time his aim was true. The demon's skull shattered under his blow and he felt a brief moment of victory before he was forced to the ground by the remaining one, his body battered and bleeding as he tried to shake it off, but without luck.

There was a moment he thought he was done for, that he’d tried hard but hadn’t been good enough so now he had to face his end, but seeing his friend on the ground about to be torn apart was enough for Will to get past his hesitation and whatever was keeping him from fighting at his full strength. With a lunge he tackled the beast off of Ben and went for the kill, finishing their fight.

<STEALTH LEVEL INCREASED>

<ACQUIRED SKILL HAMMER WIELDER LEVEL 0>

Laying down, battered and bleeding, he couldn’t help but just be happy to still be alive. Getting the skill he’d been working towards and his stealth level finally increasing after almost a year of use was just a nice bonus he tried to enjoy as he got up and made his way to his friend.

The moment Will gathered his resolve to fight the creature and took the life from it, he immediately felt the effects of the sorrow. His eyes went wide with shock and he had to run to the side to vomit as grief filled his body.

“You okay man?” Ben asked in both concern, but also hurry. They needed to get to the others and soon, and if Will didn’t think he could kill anything remaining in the cave that meant he would need to deliver the finishing blow to all of them.

“I’m good, I just wasn’t expecting things to go like that. It just felt so, so wrong.”

“Yeah, I hear passive effects are a bitch. I’m sorry, I know you aren’t doing well, but I need you to pull yourself together so we can save the others, think you can manage?”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Cool, Myriad, what’s the word?”

<Nothing good. The invader seemed to be able to feel the death of the demons and left the cave moments ago before going underground so we don’t know where it is.>

“You’re a god, can’t you see down there?”

<We can look down on the world or detect the vicinity of our believers. The near omniscience you’re looking for is exclusive to worlds that singular gods rule over, not one like this.>

“Damn it okay, and the others?”

<Only a handful of demons had been left with them and Thera managed to take care of them, they’re coming to meet you now.>

“Wait, they should be waiting in the cave for us to come get them! If we don’t know where the last one is and they spent the entire time having their mana drained, they won’t be able to fight!”

<Thera will, and as for the others, well they didn’t want to risk being trapped in the cave in the event anything came back.>

“Damn it, okay. Will, come on, we’ve got to move.”

There wasn’t time to let his friend feel better, not when the biggest threat of all was out there and couldn’t be located while their friends were trying to get to them. If they could just meet up and give the space mages enough time to regain their mana so they could all teleport away then they would be fine, they just had to get there.

With all of that in mind they moved as fast as they could despite their injuries. Well, Ben’s injuries. Will had come out of the fight physically unscathed, it was mentally where he was having problems, but they couldn’t let anything hold them back as they ran.

Myriad was directing him to them as Anailia was guiding Thera, and before long they were within sight of one another.

Ben and Will breathed a sigh of relief seeing them all alive and gave a wave, their pace slowing down as the accumulated stress left their bodies. That was their greatest mistake.

The earth exploded around them before he could react and Will was thrown to the side as Ben was suspended in the air, pain filling him.

He looked at what had him and found a demon, hominid in shape and bloodlust pouring from it. Ben’s first instinct was to run from it, to shake himself from its grip, but as he looked down he realized with horror that he wasn’t being held, he was being pierced. The creature's claw had torn through his abdomen and out his back.

He coughed up blood and knew things weren’t looking good, he thought he heard screaming in the distance but couldn’t be sure over the screams of the creature in the process of killing him.

“YOU!” It roared with a rage Ben had never before experienced. “YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! HOW COULD SOMETHING SO PATHETIC AND WEAK HAVE THE BLOOD OF SO MANY OF MY KIND ON IT!”

Ben knew with a level of certainty he was done for. A claw tearing through his internal organs wasn’t something he could just walk away from, and he could already tell the monster that had him was leagues above anything he’d seen in the world. It was like being in front of a mountain he knew he couldn’t climb.

So this is an invader. He thought to himself, and could only be grateful it hadn’t run out with the rest of the demons when he hurled his taunt into the cave. If this creature treated him seriously from the start, then things would have gone much different.

And yet, despite all of that, Ben was still feeling like antagonizing it. “Says the guy related to a big pile of corpses.”

He wished he could have thought of something more clever, but the pain was intense and he wasn’t sure he had much longer. Still, it got the job done as the creature's rage became so thick he thought he could cut it.

He was sure the thing was going to finish him then and there, but instead it stared at him for a moment before turning to his friends and stretching out a hand, prepared to attack.

“NO!” Ben yelled, unwilling to let this monster go through with whatever it had planned and did the only thing he could think to do. He connected with it.

All of the pain he’d been feeling from the beating he’d taken rushed into the creature as the creature's overwhelming rage rushed into him and Ben felt it preparing a skill, the effects of his connection not being enough to shake a monster like this, so he did what he could to make it worse.

Using both of his minds and the effects of his four levels of blessed focus, he directed every bit of himself to feeling the pain he was in, exploring his suffering in the most horrifying way he could so the invader would have to feel it too, and it was just enough.

The flow of whatever skill it attempted was disrupted, and it was enough for a swift counterattack from the others while it was distracted. Ben wasn’t even sure what they did. One moment he was connected to the monster, seeing the rage on its face, and the next the connection was broken almost instantly, and its head was gone.

It took a moment for the creature's body to realize that fact, but when it did it collapsed on the ground, Ben coming with it and feeling the pain of the fall.

He was still stuck on its arm, but it didn’t matter. Everyone was safe, and he was feeling tired. All of the stress that accumulated since Thera was taken had left him and he closed his eyes.

<COMPLEX MIND LEVEL INCREASED>