Carthage Falls

I grabbed the presence by the ankle as they tried to get away. I threw the person to the ground. They bounced and rolled as I walked up to them. Dressed in all black with a face covering, the person cowered before me.

"Please sir William don't attack me! I come from the queen's recon team. Carthage has fallen! A demon lord took the king's head yesterday. We need you to take it back." A weird voice asked holding up a hand to stop me from attacking.

"Why should I save that city?" I asked unimpressed.

"The queen has personally asked for help. She begs for your assistance in saving her sister who resided in the city. We have her safe for now, but I don't know how long our troops can hold out. Please assist us!" The hooded figure bowed.

"Tell the queen to not ask favors anymore after this for a bit. I will go however you need to go find Kiosha. She went to see her tribe nearby, have her meet me there." I said walking away from the person.

I hurried back to the village; my mind was on how I was going to liberate the massive city of Carthage. I wonder how they took it without us hearing about a battle. Octavia met me at the gate and saw the worried look on my face.

"What's wrong my love?" She asked nervously.

"We have a request from the queen, we have to retake Carthage and rescue someone for her," I said with a sigh.

"Is that all you worried about my love? No matter what I know you will figure it out without issues. Now darling we should prepare to leave." Octavia said as she hugged me.

I Smiled at her confidence in me, reminding me I shouldn't forget who I was. My mind immediately went into overdrive with ideas on how I was going to deal with this. I settled on the simplest yet most head-on approach. We walked to the mansion and Octavia flittered to the room while I pulled Mr. Sterling aside.

"I need you to run things for a bit, we have an urgent mission. I hope you can show me what you're capable of. If anything, just hold out till whoever Serenity is sending to replace me gets here. Be careful and keep your guard up, no reason for this city to get destroyed. I will return to check on things later on." I explained to him.

"I shall do my best to impress you, my lord!" He replied with a bow.

I nodded as Octavia came down with our armor and weapons. She helped me get into my armor and I hers. We gathered two of the fastest horses we could find and set off galloping towards Carthage. We rode for a few hours before the morning sun began to rise. A beautiful scene while riding a horse at max speed. The countryside flew by as we hurried towards our objective. I hoped the Kiosha would meet us there on time. The large city walls began to appear on the horizon. No smoke or evidence of fighting yet which I found to be weird. We passed several abandoned carts and wagons, but no bodies were seen. We got off our horses and made camp about three hundred yards away from the main gate. We had found a grouping of trees and brush to hide out in. We waited till dark came around again to get closer.

"Octavia, can you fly us over the city I need to see what's going on inside," I asked.

"Of course, darling, we need to be careful though, I would rather keep the element of surprise for the moment." She said wrapping her arms around my waist.

She flung us up into the sky with one fluid movement of her wings, I was shocked at how truly large Carthage was. There was a total of three walls. The massive outside wall stood about thirty feet tall and was as wide as a road. The second was as tall but just wide enough for patrolling men. While the third circled what I assumed was the lord's castle. Each walled section seemed to be for a specific part of the city. The first ring was full of storefronts, restaurants, and other retail places. The second ring was nothing but residential buildings, with a few sections defiantly reserved for the slums. In the middle of the city was a large river running through and out into a waterfall over a large cliff nearby the city. I noticed several large demons patrolling the streets, but no humans or demi-humans were in sight. The streets looked extremely empty otherwise. Finally, we heard the reasoning behind why.

"All residents must stay in your homes! any caught outside will be executed. The demon king will spare your lives if you cooperate with us. The lord here has perished, so once again please stay inside your homes." A gruff demon's voice seemed to echo in the air.

"They are forcing everyone to stay inside, but why? What's the reasoning for all of this, there's no slaughter there's no war here? What is going on?" I was confused, the city had fallen into enemy hands, yet they weren't pillaging or destroying everything.

Octavia landed back near our camp, something wasn't right, and we needed to find out what.

"Well, I guess I'm going to go make a commotion now. Stay here Octavia wait for Kiosha." I said wrapping a large green cloak around myself.

"Understood my darling, be safe and come back in one piece," Octavia said planting a kiss on my cheek.

I walked towards the massive city gates, no one manned them, not a demon in sight either. I moved towards the wall and began climbing it. Thirty feet looked like nothing till you tried to scale a wall that high. I sighed; this queen was a pain in my ass, why is it every time she comes around, there's nothing but trouble or work for me to do? It took me a whole hour to climb the wall, by the time I reached the top I was drenched in sweat. As I stood on top of the wall I got to see the city in a different light. Several demons were converging on a large clearing that looked like it was meant for public auctions. They lined up in formation and began marching towards the gate. Two large demons' rode on giant lizard-like mounts leading the marching demons.

"Well, they look like a good place to start if there's anywhere to start this," I muttered to myself dropping down from the wall.

I landed right in front of one of the lizards, I swung my sword, decapitating the mount with one fluid swing. The demons stumbled back in surprise as I cut through the second lizard and turned my attention to them.

"It's time to pay for your sins." I glared at them with a wicked smile.

I cut down the patrol in seconds, however, one of them managed to let off a firework. Suddenly loud yells and the sounds of troops moving towards me filled the air.

I cut a path before me, the demons seemingly throwing themselves at me. Blood seemed to linger in the air as more and more died at my hands. It felt like I had been fighting forever when the city gates exploded open. In rushed Octavia and Kiosha followed by a large army behind them. The dark green skin of the orcs turned red with blood in minutes as they joined the fight. The demons began falling back as much as they could while trying to avoid death. A giant demon rounded a street corner, barreling towards me. In his hands was a wicked giant ax. He swung at me madly. my blade caught it and flung it back towards him. The giant ax flung back into his skull instantly killing him. We cut through entire legions as we cleared the city, however, it was endless. No matter how many we killed there was always more to kill. Some of them ran while others tried desperately to hold their front line. Their effort mattered not as I began flinging spells at them left and right. My hindering vines also prevent a lot of them from escaping our grasp.

"Mortal, you dare kill my kin. you have a lot of guts. You will die here today I hope you know that!" A loud gruff voice echoed throughout the air.

"Well, I think the scores are in our favor, how about you get your ass down here so I can kick it as well!" I yelled back.

Suddenly the entire ground was filled with black, swirling fog. I heard Kiosha gasp and I spun around to see a Large red demon behind her, his sword in her gut. He raised her over his head and flung her over his head. Her body rolled on the ground and came to a stop.

"You mother fucker!" I howled; waves of power echoed from my voice.

Every window on the street exploded as I rushed towards the demon. I dropped my sword and began pummeling the demon's face. rage filled my mind as I just unloaded hit after hit on him. He tried desperately to fight back, I grew frustrated and kicked the demon in the ribs. I could hear Octavia ordering the orcs to hold back the demon horde while she attempted to save Kiosha. My fists kept on target, each hit harder than the last, sending blood flying. I could feel his strength waning as I kept up the pressure. My knuckles had begun to bleed which only made my rage worse. Everyone had even stopped fighting to see the absolute whoop down that was taking place. The demon tried to swing back only to have his arm caught.

"Oh, you fucked up!" I said with a devilish laugh.

I slammed my free palm into his elbow, absolutely shattering his elbow. The Demon bellowed and fell backward. Holding his hand up he begged, bartered, and pleaded for mercy.

"Oh, we are way past that now, way, way past that. I will make you an example of what happens when you hurt my people." I said as I grabbed the arm, he was trying to hold me back with.

I kicked him in the face and planted my foot in the middle of his back. I pulled with all my might, causing the demon to panic and scream. I felt his muscles tearing apart as I pulled. With one good yank, his arm came off at the shoulder. I started smacking him with it, each strike smacking him in the face as he tried to stop the bleeding. His once demonic face looked nothing like the fearsome image it once held, now just a mass of beaten meat. I continued beating him with his arm until his head was nothing but mush. My rage wouldn't subside, I spun around, ran towards another group of demons, and continued my rampage. I killed hundreds of demons within minutes, my fury driving me beyond any physical limits. They tried to run out the gate, but the orc tribe blocked them, the only way out was through me and none of them wanted to face that kind of horror. Several began yelling that I was a monster, That I was a freak of nature. Time seemed to fly as I fought. Several larger demons even tried to escape my wrath, but it was pointless. At that moment they could only hope that I exhausted myself so the massacre would end. Night gave way today, there were no demons left for me to fight. I stood amongst the bodies huffing. My body hurt like crazy. While I caught my breath a system prompt popped up.

The user will undergo evolution in ten minutes. please get to a safe place.

"Octavia please tell me she's ok." I managed to utter through clenched teeth.

"We are lucky it missed her vital organs; it will take time for her to recover but she should survive," Octavia said looking worried.

We were all drenched in blood, the streets showed the signs of the absolute massacre that had just taken place. A large dark green orc walked up to me and bowed his head.

"My name is Agarath, I am Kiosha's father. To see such strength and ferocity in a human is rare. I am glad that my daughter has found such a strong mate. Your offspring shall shake this world!" Azarath laughed as he slapped my shoulder.

"Thank you. Your daughter means a lot to me. It hurts my heart to see her wounded in such away. I blame myself for her injuries, I won't allow it to happen again in the future." I said as I walked away.

I made my way out of the city back to our camp after I made sure Octavia could locate Serenity's sister without my help. My body kept getting heavier and heavier, I barely managed to make it to the makeshift bed I had made before my body completely gave out. Everything screamed out in pain. I could feel my consciousness fading.