C209: One against the World

C209: One against the World

Alt Title teaser: Bad Boys

Date published: 4/15/2025.

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"Well, let's get this show on the road"

["I believe you should activate the divine domain when you get a free chance. I do believe some unwanted elements have come to cling to you"] Raphael warns Axel as he thinks over his actions and ponders where a possible intrusion point could be in his powers or psyche. He leans more towards his psyche as [Raphael] would have stopped any attempts of sabotage but his own actions being controlled are quite a possibility still.

"Raphael, can you do something for me?" 

["...Very well"]

Axel observes the pillaring inferno of an arena around him as another demon takes the stage by floating high above Axel.

"Hateful sufferings upon all mortals, blade meets blade, fist against fist, blood for blood, all for the blood god. We have a special treat here today, here to offer blood and skulls to our lord. The question now is how long will he stay or even live." The announcer gives a proper introduction, seemingly more tame than what Axel expected but it makes sense. All are here in Khornes domain, before the lord himself, they must play the part they are given. Like little puppets on strings. 

"My mortality is none of your concern, just send the demons I'm supposed to kill. We will see what happens from there. Do start off strong, Im plenty capable" Axel retorts, while not speaking loudly nor using his own magic, everyone is able to hear him well enough as if he spoke to their face. Axel grows slightly interested in the partial magic that is likely used to amplify the screams of this arena's victims for the audience's entertainment. 

With no response back, the bronze gates shudder open to reveal various lesser daemons, primarily gargoyles and flesh hounds and a single bloodletter. Axel is horrendously offended by the lineup that he just snaps his fingers to twist their necks until their heads pop off along with their spines. The skulls disappear as if a natural offering to the skull throne.

"Next, more enemies, harder, stronger, only your beloved princes grant me any form of entertainment. Much less you all."

No answer once again from the speaker but the audience is in throes as they call upon more blood, more murder and more skulls. They do not disparage Axel for his usage of magic, there are many reasons due to that but the simplest is that any dissatisfaction with him would be dislike for Khorne and his rule.

The bronze gates which had barely even opened before are pushed open as a new group of towering daemons of 13 feet tall. They give off the typical christian demon look with red skin and thick goat like horns yet their size and the large wings would point them into being Balrogs instead. Yet the similarity ends there as some of these towering pillars of meat and muscles have cybernetic limbs to replace lost ones while others have turned their mechanical limbs into new weapons like the integration of a chainsaw arm. 

All wield various types of armor that looks like straight from dead space but yellow or red due to being made out of bronze while the rest are bleached in blood. Amongst these who have not lost limbs or suffered grievous wounds, are those that wield giant power weapons: a hammer and sword linked by a chain, a halberd even larger or as large as the demon, giant axes and swords.

The largest amongst these demons known as Bloodthirsters stands at a solid 15 feet tall, blood trails down his yellow eyes, Axel would think this one in agony if not for the obvious rage upon the greater daemons face upon spotting Axel. 

"I am Vangash'hagash (Van-gash ha-gush)(at least how I pronounce it), the ever-bloody. You destroyed the world of Kathalon, base of the Eye of Terror. I shall repay this shame by depriving you of your skull"

"Hmm, yes, very sad, anyways" he snaps his fingers again but is shocked to find that while a few were lifted up and their necks trembled in the air, none actually died. They soon wrestled off the energy holding them up and charged at him. 

The first attacks with a spike whip which Axel has to jump over as he moves to close the distance only to get intercepted by a shield three times his size that sends him flying back. Yet Axel is not flung very far as he kicks the air, causing a shockwave that negates his speed to zero.

Summoning multiple arms on his back, Axel once again charges into the fray as he now pushes the shield user back enough to get underneath the demon and snap his legs before jumping up along his thighs and belly to uppercut his head, knocking it back but not dead yet. 

Axel dodges a sword that nearly decapitates the other demon as it rushes Axel, swing after swing with minimal dodges. He kills the demon by creating a sword of pure lightning which he uses to slit the throat of the daemon but doesnt stop there as he drags the blade all around the demon's neck before jumping and pulling the whole head off by the horns. Without actual decapitations, a simple slit throat would not have killed any of these demons. 

The head only teleports away when Axel let's it go, the rest of the body stays behind as it's unwanted by anyone. Changing from a simple straight sword to a great sword, Axel meets another greater daemon head on with their own giant battle axe that comes down with massive force for a lovely high pitched screech as the lightning acts like metal colliding with metal.

CLANG Clang CLANG clang. 

Axel shoves the battle axe user away as has to deflect a few light blows from the chain linked sword-hammer user before dashing towards the battle axe owner again. The great sword severs the tendons of the axe user as he falls down but tries to punch at Axel. It collides but only for the hand to be split in two as the daemon groans in pain before bringing out a giant knife from under its other arms vambraces. 

An underhanded swing of the great sword which splits the knife in half, both halves go towards Axel but the same can be said for the slide as even when he is stabbed with two massive holes in his body, he still splits the rest of the demons other hand in half before continuing to drag the blade and do the same vertical split on the demons skull.

Rumble

The dead body collapses as Axel looks at the spikes inserted in both sides of his guts, his slime physique makes quick work of it as the halves of the giant knife are spit out and Axel returns his attention to the other blood thirsters. 

With only a few bloodthirsters left, the previously mentioned named lord, Vangash'hagash, rushes at Axel, stomping over the lesser daemons who were unlucky enough to get in the middle of the demon lord's charge. 

Wielding a large hand axe in the right and a flaming sword in the left. Both weapons bear the marks of battle, cuts, scratches, energy blast marks akin to explosives all over the blade that it's indistinguishable from any other mark. It's only when the sword burns it's special nightmarish light that the marks are visible, akin to proud battle markings. Vangash has both blades touch which promptly ignites the large handaxe as it too brightly burns now to reveal similar markings but the thick scent of blood is more apparent as the stagnant blood that stuck to the blade now burns in the flames.

At the same time that 'the ever bloody' rushes at Axel, another bloodthirster who wields a proper hammer much larger than the demon itself (think dark souls asylum demons). Axel reshapes his weapon into a whip this time around as the large axe from Vangash comes down on him. 

With a quick twirl, Axel wraps his whip around the axe and pulls it just enough for the demonic axe to collide with the swung down great hammer. 

CLANG.

 The sound of the two weapons colliding causes a shockwave that causes the two demons to nearly turn hostile on each other but Vangash has his own priorities and tries to attack Axel again while the other daemon would have turned his attention to Vangash but Axel punched the giant monster in the head which knocked him back to his senses. Seeing the artistic way of dodging, attacking and killing, the crowd goes wild. 

Akin to an art show; Axel hops, flips and deflects all sorts of weaponry coming towards him, not just from the two giants swinging their giant weapons at him but also the smaller human sized gremlins and gargoyles or flesh hounds that sought to deprive Axel of his flesh and bones. 

Most of these weaker creatures were just directly split apart into their own meat chunks by Axel's whip, well that or they got crushed by the great hammer owner and burned to ash by the 'ever bloody'. 

The two demons accumulate quite a few injuries over the past few minutes yet the audience reaction seems to lessen over time and this shows as the bronze gates once again open to reveal a new set of foes. This is a collection of skull cannons, a long range daemon chariot, Doom Blasters, the example of demonic artillery tanks and the final addition is a single ForgeFiend and a single MaulerFiend. 

These Fiends are special as they are advanced mechanical creations completely autonomous and with a ravenous pursuit for death and destruction. Officially named Daemon Engines, these two fiends are considered a staple for any demon lord to take down mortal artillery or simply purge a large number of enemy troops. 

ForgeFiends specialize in ranged combat as Axel spots the two arms are both Hades AutoCannons but it also has it's jackal like maw perpetually opened wide with heat emitted from it, likely as a nuanced EctoPlasm Cannon or a ranged power weapon in the form of a Heavy Flamer. It is a strange mix of a standard forgefiend and a Cerebite forgefiend due to that plasma cannon and it's unusual for the two types of weaponry to mix in the heavy frame of the corrupted creature. It's maw drips with ectoplasm as the densely packed metal shifts about as it's hunched over bipedal form takes step after step to get into proper position and out from under the bronze gate to properly begin to lay down artillery fire and actual fire.

The MaulerFiend is what Ais' new mastiff could be if it was bigger and stronger. While in a similar size as the ForgeFiend, the Maulerfiend is built to be sleeker and faster for the actual purpose of going behind enemy lines to sabotage and kill. This proper quadrupedal creature has both front and back paws outfitted with something called MaulerFists, a type of adamantium power fist for specialized clawing actions to tear apart its foes. Of course there is also the multiple tendrils from it's sides that are the magma cutters. These cutters are used for grabbing smaller or normal size foes but they can also begin climbing on larger foes which marks these good boys the perfect tool to take down even imperial Titans.

The skull chariots spread out around, setting up while Axel still continues dodging the attacks but knowing that the two fiends are the real greatest threat to him, moreso the ForgeFiends artillery. Utilizing the horizontal swing of the great hammer, Axel launches himself at the Doom Blaster as the whip in hand morphs into that of a halberd and then strikes out to destroy the first explosive shot from the infernal cannons. 

Landing behind the artillery cannon, he spots the Maulerfiend encroaching on him, as it launches itself at him, Axel slides underneath the giant robot dog and clips one of it's legs to reduce it's mobility. It roars in response as it's cutters attempt to yoink him but he sidesteps out of the way. 

Turning his attention back to the doom blaster, he finds the tank attempts to lower it's barrels to aim directly at him as vents open from it's sides to send out floods of fire toward him away but expecting some sort of defense system, he was not disappointed as the actual fire does not really harm him due to the devouring aura around him. It's only the force behind how the flames are released that push him back but he just lifts his halberd and cuts one of the three barrels on top. From the cut barrel, Axel slashes down to cut the treads and stop its movement in most directions. 

The introduction and battle against these ranged troopers riles up the demons once again and even Khorne can appreciate the level of skill used to fight off the two bloodthirsters with such ease and even use their power to launch himself at the backline that just formed.

The enemy encampment immediately collapses under Axel's actions as he summons spectral swords to deflect the majority of bombard he faces before finishing off the Doom Blaster. His next target is the fiend which constantly chases him around. Sharp claws where a single one is longer than his own legs come to tear him apart as the MaulerFiend uses its cutters to manually control its broken leg.

Axel swings his halberd with expert precision to collide with the claws and while he is able to push the robot dogo away, the cutters come after him which causes him to jump back to disengage before rushing forward to dismember the extra limbs, the mauler does try to bite his head off but he gives it a hand instead.

The MaulerFiend now locked in place on Axels left arm, it attempted to rip him apart but with electromagnetism, the mechanical construct is locked in place and Axel charges at the skull cannons. Using the MaulerFiend as a bat, the chariots are crushed one by one until only the bloodthirsters remain, even the mauler has been badly ravaged as Axel also used it as a shield against any of the shells from the now destroyed cannons. 

CRASH clink clink clank

Letting go of the mauler, it collapses into chunks of metal as the magnetism made it look like it was holding up fine when that was not the case. Transforming the halberd into a double-ended scythe, he begins to walk towards the two last demons that had been chasing him this whole while but with Axel's speed they could never catch up. 

With his scythe, he catches both weapons of Vangash'hagash on the hooks of his scythe and he pulls the demon down, just in time for the great hammer blood thirster to bring his weapon down and it just so happens to collide with the horns of Vangash, crushing them like twigs, the demon roars in agony while Axel squished himself into a puddle before reforming when the demon pulls the hammer back. 

Channeling his [war gods wrath] and [Titan Strength] to blow a chunk in the hammer demons guts. He feels a strange bloodthirsty feel press on him after using those abilities and Axel understands the few details that [Raphael] had told him before he started fighting. Calming down, Axel calmly decapitates the hammer demon and claims the weapon as his trophy, the same can be said for Vangash'hagash, who was still kneeling but quickly getting up from the blow to it's head. 

Yet it was not quick enough as the double scythe morphs into a normal one, specifically one that is rainbow colored and 10 ft tall via reinforcement from [Spirit Energy] as it comes down to bisect the demon. 

With the battle ended, Axel begins his next job. Extending mana tendrils, he begins to siphon energy from all the daemons bodies, refueling his own energy reserves as well as a little something extra but he also steals both Fiends. Maybe he can redesign them into Panzerhund (wolfenstein) whilst keeping the original weaponry. The other metal and weapons are kept as well, be it to remake the metal into better weapons by the giants hand.

Expelling a deep putrid breath and looking up at Khorne and his throne, Axel only says one thing.

"What's next?"

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Alt Title: Great Arena, Denied Vengeance, Bad Doggies

Word count: 2796

Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.