[16] Soul Shocking

Daimons were soul-sucking Vampires. They love dark places and were absolutely ugly.

Their faces were something of a mash-up between a Nemacyte thorax, wrinkly and thin, and a Leech, littered with teeth and malleable.

Really, I would prefer not having those things anywhere near me, but it wasn't as if the Dungeon was going to listen to any of my pleas, even if I was Undead.

Another sucky thing about Daimons, was that they were one of the few intelligent Undead Spawns. They had their own fortress for crying out loud!

I slid my palm over my face, groaning. A few of the Daimons started to pour from the fortress and I regretted making any sort of sound.

Yes, that's right. Since Daimons were a sort of intelligent Spawn, that also meant the fact that I was Undead was of no consequence. If the thing was moving, they would try for a meal. And man was I about to move.

With a sudden instinctual idea springing into my head, I turned around, lifted my arms, and made myself into a Lich jet pack.

The sequence of continuous Fireballs destroyed any of the ground beneath me, propelling me quickly passed the fortress and higher into the air. The Daimons though, were not about to give up their food so easily.

One of them, I had to assume an underling of the Floor Boss, lifted a staff into the air.

Oh shit.

A second later my jerky Fireball fuel was nothing. The Daimon had Magic of its own, pulling me down in some type of magnetic vortex.

"Dude, seriously? Can't I clear a Dungeon in peace?" The Daimon clicked its teeth, sending the rows of more teeth spiraling into a creepy follow-up melody. I assumed that meant,

"Would you let some other Spawn steal your snack after weeks of starvation?"

No, no I wouldn't.

Even I could admit that souls were tasty, and I'd only ever eaten a rabbit's before. Comparing that to a powerful Spawn....

I really didn't want to think about it, also I was afraid I'd start drooling if I did. I definitely did not want to get the idea in my head that Human souls were appetizing.

I spun so my feet would hit the Daimon's mouth first, so that I maybe had a chance of falling into the crowd and escaping, but then realized my Lich Transformation apparently did not extend to include clothing.

My poor, poor armor was back with the wolves, probably half disintegrated in stomach acid.

Panicking, I listed off my Skills mentally. Lich Transformation had been active for the past few floors, so no help there. Fear of the Undead obviously hadn't helped against these soul-suckers, and I had no idea how to activate or learn the Lich's Blessing. My only option was Black Aura.

With the teeth a millimeter away from munching my toes, I shut everything out, vaguely recalling something about the skill that caused it to improve with extreme focus.

That's right...water! It could freeze water if I focused hard enough. Saliva counted as water, right? I really hoped it did.

I closed my eyes nice and tight, wishing dearly that the Daimon hadn't started on my soul quite yet.

Screeches so shrill I suddenly wished that my hearing had been stolen in place of taste, rattled from the closest Daimons. I landed on my side, sprawled over two rock-hard Daimon bodies.

I watched as the magical Daimon tried to shake the layer of Frost from its teeth, taking its claws to its face and slashing out so many of its molars that a shark would wince in pity. I scrambled to my feet, only to realize I didn't have any.

Wonderful.

I realized transforming back to my Human form would mean I'd have to crawl around as a torso, so I decided to just accept that I would be temporarily feet-less. I glanced back at the screaming Daimon.

Hahaha, toothless. Toothless, get it?[1] Yeah, it's bad. I took time to really pay attention. Yeah, it's bad, it's terrible.

The ice had only just frozen the ring of Daimons around the underling, and the others appeared somehow more starved than than my previous assaulters.

They surged forward, and I speedily fumbled to blast myself into the sky again, blue glow igniting a weird color of green on the melting ice.

I jetted myself until the fortress was a black dot in the distance and there wasn't a Daimon screech to be heard. Then, I fell onto the earth and waited for my Magic to restore itself. Couldn't go facing a Daimon Lord with no feet and no Magic. I was still uncertain about the whole immortality thing, and I didn't want to have to die again in order to find out.

I wondered how long I'd been in this Dungeon, and how long it would be until I had to eat. I feared what would happen if I went without sustenance for more than two days.

I turned onto my side, and startled.

Laying right next to me, still emitting warmth, was a dead Human. I reached out to feel for a pulse, when the face of the Human twitched, and its eyes opened.

[1] reference to How To Train Your Dragon, in which there is a type of dragon that seems to have no teeth, but actually possesses several layers of sharp pointed incisors