The Mountain Pass

Damian led the group down the trail leading towards the mountains, while Aiden took up the back. His mind still adrift as thoughts of home already plagued him even if it were a mere hour away. But his memories of the other villagers would crop up and remind him why he wanted to leave, not just to escape the harsh thoughts and emotions showed towards him, but to rub it in their faces that his curse was nothing but gossip. Occasionally he would inspect his new sword, the Kossori Blade, and see that it indeed was a chained sword. As on closer inspection showed segment lines that when pulled on would extend out a foot from the other segment. The green aura that it let off wasn't there at the moment as it seemed to have a skill tied to the weapon.

[Serpent's Venom: Activates poison effect onto the weapon. 10 SP]

Seeing the cost of his SP wasn't too much of a surprises as it is a magic weapon. So of course there had to be a cost for using a interesting weapon such as it was. Plus the ability to summon a snake to attack at a distance was very nice to have. Sheathing the sword he saw that they had reached the edge of the forest that led into the mountains.

"When we enter the pass, be on your guard, Demons tend to roam through it around noon so we best make haste." Damian said as he drew a red longsword from its sheathe. Wilfred had his staff, Olivia with her bow and daggers, and finally Mia summoning a three eyed raven to scout ahead. It quickly left and squawked as it flew high above, its red eyes sharply watching for danger. While Aiden drew the Kossori Blade and held it in his left hand.

Their quickened pace made it a little noisier than needed but they didn't want to get stuck in the pass. The mountains loomed over like giants looking down at small cattle. For the pressure of their presence made Aiden feel small and nervous. Snow started to appear as they kept climbing up into higher elevation. It was the only way through the mountains which took them an hour to reach. The sun was fast approaching its highest point.

Aiden could feel eyes on him as they started reaching the deeper snow. A rock fell from the upper part of the mountain and bounced off some ice that broke and fell to the snow below. That is when Aiden's eyes saw the warning that appeared before him.

[Warning! Demon's sense your presence, prepare to fight or hide.]

[Difficulty: Medium]

Aiden saw this and went forward to Damian, "Damian sir, I think we are being watched, I have a really bad feeling about this." Damian's eyes looked into Aiden's as he knew the sense of fear. But Aiden was trying to make sure that someone knew the demon's were about but they didn't know where. Damian turned to Wilfred then to Mia.

"Have your bird fly near the edge of the pass above us," he said to Mia who nodded and then looked at Wilfred. "Wilfred, see if you can detect any of the demons with your magic." The old mage nodded and silently chanted to himself as he a blue ring around his staff began to manifest. Mia's raven demon hovered just above the ridge and looked about.

That was when Wilfred gasped, "They are all around us!" He shouted as soon as the raven started to alert the group of the demons. Damian cursed as he thought they had more time. But it was too late to think as he shouted for the group to move and defend themselves. They all rushed through the snow as the snow above them began to shift.

White creatures with thin limbs and icy protrusions from their bodies began to rise from the snowcaps. There had to be a more than 20 of those demons and even the rest of the group were not happy with situation. Olivia just complained about how she knew the pass was dangerous while Wilfred bickered back saying it was the quickest.

Mia ran next to Aiden who kept looking about as his feet plunged into the inches of snow beneath him. One of the demons came down from the ridge leaping at Olivia who causally threw out a dagger piercing the head of the demon who burst into a cloud of white specks. Aiden saw as those specks flowed towards Olivia and vanished into something on her. To what he guessed was her Agate.

"Aren't you going to use that sword or run like a scared child?" Mia asked coldly. Aiden looked down and then back up to see one of the bone thin icy creatures leap at him. He quickly swung his sword at the demon as it cut a deep wound into its torso. It screamed before he jumped into it with the sword pointed under its chin. As it died he got some information on what they were called.

[Ice Ghoul: Rank D]

[Weak to fire and poison based attacks, Quick on their feet, weak vitality, strong strength stats.]

[Gained 500 Souls]

[Souls: 1210]

Aiden saw this and as he watched the body twitch and dissolve. Looking towards the now many more demons coming his way from it screaming he decided now was a good time to use what he had. Spending the 10 points to coat the blade in poison he watched as symbols on the blade lit up and produced an ominous green color. As demons were moving closer Aiden used the feature of it being a chain sword and start swinging the blade while out.

"They are weak to poison and fire!" Aiden called out, which made Damian turn and slash one behind him. Then his sword became a burned torch as he continued to slash through several of the demons. While Mia returned the raven and summoned Ignitus to deal with protecting her and the others. The demon roared and started to squash the puny demons left and right. As for Aiden who dodged a few attacks, though without armor he was quite exposed.

[-45 HP]

[No armor, damage received increased by 15 by rank D demons]

Aiden felt a cold claw strike his back as he spun around and had the chain sword extend and coil around the demon. Yanking it back towards him the blades all ripped through the demon like butter. But he quickly retracted the blade as it burst into a cloud of souls. He needed to make sure not to take anymore hits like that as his system warned him about the increased damage.

He felt incredibly exposed as he cut through a couple more demons racking up 2,000 more souls from an additional 3 kills. He began to lay out a few traps as they ran. His SP getting reduced by a bit by the traps and having used the blade's ability to add poison. They all came to a stop as the pass narrowed to only allow on person through at a time.

Mia told everyone to go and that Ignitus would handle the demons. As the others ran ahead Aiden tried to pass bay Ignitus but was stopped by the demon. When he looked up he saw it's eyes peering at him with intensity.

[The demon Ignitus will not let you pass, for it wants you to stay and fight to protect its master.]

"Come on Aiden!" Mia called out but Ignitus continued to look down at Aiden. When she saw Ignitus preventing him from going she tried to order him to let him through but wasn't listening. Olivia grabbed her by the arm and told her to run but Mia began to protest. But it was too late as the pathway began to close up from snow falling through it blocking Aiden's escape.

[Difficulty increased to Hard]

[With Ignitus' help, survive the onslaught of demons coming to kill you.]

[Rewards will be determined on how many you kill. No souls will be earned during this.]

Aiden couldn't believe what just happened not only did he get stopped by a summon but it ignored its master to keep him in a death trap. Turning around he looked at the horde of Ice Ghouls before them. He gripped his sword with two hands and felt it lighter in his hands. Then something unexpected happened as he turned to look at Ignitus.

"Fight... survive... kill..." Ignitus spoke words as he punched one of the ghouls that leapt at him. "Stronger... become... stronger..." Aiden understood what was happening or at least he had a guess. Demons could sense that he had the brand the same way Ignitus did. But this particular demon wanted Aiden to get stronger for what reason he knew not. But it was all a surprise to him as he never heard a demon talk before.

"Fine, I'll help, but you are so on my kill list after this." Aiden said as he cut down a ghoul, making the demon laugh. They both began to strike, cut demons to pieces, carve their way through the horde of ghouls. Aiden just kept watching a counter of how many he killed go up as another showed how many Ignitus killed. It was going to be a hard challenge it seemed more and more were coming with no sign of stopping.

Aiden kept swinging his blade, extending it and cutting rows of demons down with the poisoned blade. Ignitus slammed its fists into the bodies of all the smaller demons. It's speed and power were more than enough to handle the puny weaklings. But the sheer amount were not in their favor. As Aiden took another hit reducing his health even further down.

[-45 HP]

[HP: 70/160]

He used a Healing Potion to recover 24 HP and an additional 16 on top of that over 10 seconds. The system was helping him greatly as it allowed him to interact and voice his commands freely. Summoning the potion to his hand from the inventory with ease of use. He was knowing that spending SP was important in their survival, but not to spend it all at once. But he wanted to try the summoning serpent skill from the blade.

The blade started to turn black as he noticed snow swirl and spiral out. That was when a massive snake head like the one he killed shot out of the snow and caught several ghouls before dragging them back into the hole then disappearing. 'That was awesome!' He thought though couldn't focus on it as the horde kept coming. He didn't know how long he had left to kill but he had caught up with Ignitus from that one use. It looked like they were going to pull through.