Bloodlines Online

As he destroyed the heart of the lizard he was fairly satisfied but tired from the rough encounter.

’Damn my stamina is to low to be doing such crazy shit...’

He quickly left the reptile and lept back into the air to continue destroying the forest.

As he destroyed more and more of the forest he eventually began to get notification of consumed targets.

He did not really focus on it until he began to hear the screams of women in the swamp, he was about to go search for them before he stopped when he remembered the fact that only one of them told anything to their friend about her behavior.

’Let them burn...’

He chose to continue the destruction.

~

As the group of infernal women explored the swamp they began to notice more activity from the creatures.

First they had to battle a tree viper and they were exhausted.

They eventually found a turtle, a creature that was known for attacking from the water with poison coated jaws to kill prey.

The turtle was moving faster than they had seen one ever moving and it was fleeing the same direction as the viper had been fleeing.

The turtle was more difficult for them but they were able to eventually slay the beast since it did not have the murky swamp water to hide it.

As they slew the turtle they left to find more prey but they heard a strange noise, the sound of crashing trees.

When checking the direction it came from they immediately got themselves ready but this specific monster was to much for the exhausted state they were in.

Because of this giant lizard charging them they turned to flee but then one of them saw a welcome sight.

”Black fire! Remember that male’s spell? It caused black fire! He must be chasing this one down so let’s take it out and help him.”

”Absolutely not, he fled like a coward and is not using us as the distraction? Unacceptable!”

”Oh my god shut up Astra he just got sick of you I bet.”

”Nonsense, he is a male and males must understand their place in our world. He will eventually marry and when he does he will not be able to handle the life of a husband and the life of an adventurer.”

The group quit bickering as they began to battle the reptile but they quickly realized that they were outmatched and not only outmatched but they had other dangers to be concerned with.

The lizard was thrashing them despite the danger of the flames slowly killing it and they quickly realized that they were fighting a creature that was fighting for it’s life.

Eventually the lizard gravely injured one of the demoness women and began to flee, this act surprised the women until they heard the cracking of branches behind them and upon turning around they screamed in fear.

A wall of black fire that coated every single living thing was consuming the forest which only left them with a single direction to flee.

”HEY! MALE! STOP THE FIRE BEFORE YOU KILL US!”

The four of them began screaming to catch the attention of their ally but nothing seemed to catch his attention.

They fled from those flames and as they ran they noticed that the light coming from above was getting weaker until it vanished entirely.

Without the light they had to follow astra who held a ball of fire to light the way but this slowed their progress which made the flames catch up.

The farther they went the more they saw other creatures fleeing through the swamp and these creatures had severe injuries from the fire.

With the fire expanding rapidly the four women were forced to run faster without being as careful over pitfalls, those with a poisonous miasma inside could easily be identified but traps without mana as the basis were not rare.

The first one to fall was Leanna, a demoness that had not spoken much.

She feel due to a hole in the ground which one leg had fallen into, the sickening snap of broken bone before she shrieked made the hearts of the three women go cold before they began to search for a way to heal her quickly.

”GO! LEAVE ME! I’LL JUST RETURN OUTSIDE!”

The trio did not want to leave her but they were forced away when she swiped at them with her blade.

”Just don’t get killed by that reckless male...”

As she saw them flee she spoke her last words before the shadowfire overwhelmed her and the most intense pain she had ever felt began to flood her mind.

She felt a primal scream of raw pain get ripped from her throat while she tried to end herself with the blade she carried but the pain of the fire was to much for her.

Her coven was forced to flee while listening to her scream in excruciating and unnatural pain.

The shadowfire spreading across the tree tops gave it an easy path down the trunks, and with the fire slowly boxing them in they had to be even more careful.

”We have to find a clearing!”

”You know those are rare!”

”Would you two shut up and keep looking!”

They kept fleeing the flames but there was only so far they could go in this forested swamp, only so far until tragedy struck once again.

The three of them kept rushing further and further until they heard the sound of snapping wood.

A tree that resembled a mangrove was falling over as it’s standing root system was eaten through far faster than the trunk.

The falling mangrove style tree made them flee even further as they knew that these particular trees held a dangerous poison that it used for defense from beasts.

The tree hit the ground and released a cloud of miasma that began to rot the foliage around it, this made them cover their faces but the exposed skin still recieved harm.

Soon they saw a break in the trees and as they threw themselves out of it they found themselves in a clearing.

The first thing they saw was a hoarde of beasts trying to slaughter one another as they had sought this safe haven as well.

The trees did not extend here which was strange until they saw the singular tree trunk in the center of this clearing.

”Oh by the abyss it’s a death tree!”

They now understood why the clearing was a warzone.

The death trees were home to a very specific species of insect that would protect the tree at all costs, these six legged insects would use their venom to cause such severe pain that those that were stung would fall into a rage that only ended when the venom worked it’s way out of the system or into the heart to kill them.

For insects that were nearly a foot long with three inch stingers it made a significant threat.

They noticed the bugs on these animals and after a quick scan they remembered the name of these beasts.

”Psycho Ants!”

The ants were stinging the beasts in multiple places while they slaughtered one another and some even seemed to be attacking themselves.

”Look! That one is trying to hemorrhage!”

”Damn it’s actually smart.”

In this world if one studied long enough they would be able to understand the many details of damage over time effects.

Just like how burning an enemy can cause the cauterized effect which stops healing of the area for a short time, bleeding can also cause the hemorrhage effect.

Although cauterizing oneself stops healing it can also stop bleeding however.

In a similar way the hemorrhage effect is able to reduce the effects of poison in the body as the tainted blood is removed.

Against an army of Psycho Ants this benefit is pointless however as the ants simply swarm the body and inject more and more venom which cannot be completely removed.

Despite the intelligence of the beast it could only bleed itself to death or succumb to the venom as it fell to the ground.

They watched this slaughter with a sick fascination until Jahlee spoke up.

”The fire is spreading on the ground!”

That was when they noticed that the mossy ground was being consumed as well.

”DAMMIT! WHAT IS HE TRYING TO DO?!”

The shadowfire spread across the ground in a slow creep.

”Astra you have to go find him and stop this! He’ll kill us and destroy this run!”

”I’ll make that uppity boy beg for forgiveness for what happened to Leanna!”

She began to spread her wings but Angelique stepped forward.

”You caused this! If you hadn’t pissed him off with that backwards thinking of yours he wouldn’t have left and he wouldn’t be destroying the swamp!”

”My fault? MY FAULT?! HE’S A MALE HAVING A TEMPER TANTRUM AND DESTROYING EVERYTHING WITH HIS DANGEROUS POWER HE DOESN’T EVEN DESERVE!”

”SHUT UP ASTRA! YOU WILL MAKE IT WORSE IF YOU SAY THESE THINGS TO HIM!”

As the two most outspoken infernal women screamed at each other they saw something odd.

Balls of dark energy were raining on the hoarde of rabid beasts.