Artificial 3: The Valla Chronicles

Chapter 4: Dusk Tribe Infiltration

(Neil's POV)

The crew followed me all over the place, forests,
cities, lakes,
and across the ocean.
It took us a while,
but we found ourselves in Antarctica. The scent was the strongest there. We followed it to two different locations locked in giant circle leading to the demnsion where the Ice Tribe lives and the other where our sworn enemy is, the Dusk Tribe.
Instead of going into the lion's din, we walked into the Ice Tribe where we froze our asses off,
the blizzard certainly wasn't doing my metal arms any favors,
I hate getting rust on my cyborg like arms.

After a bit more walking, we saw smoke, so we ran towards the source to see most if not the entire Tribe laying down in the snow,
coverd head to toe in injuries,
thankfully,
it wasn't anything serious,
just bruises.
My squad investigates the burning building next to the Ice Tribe Cheif's home,
and they bring the injured Chief to us,
Chief Frost informs me that his family's heirloom,
the Legendary Weapon called Brynhile was taken by the Dusk Tribe and the Demon Lord beat him and everyone up and took off with bith his daughters,
what the fuck is wrong with this guy? Whatever the case,
I want to fight him again.

"Men, make way to the Dusk Tribe, I'll catch up the moment I get this people some aid."
They salute and make haste to leave this frozen tundra,
I immediately direct the Chief and his Tribe to the Wind Tribe where they can lay low until further notice and that they will be accommodated for their injuries and bravery,
once they left,
I left the dimension.
I followed the scent to the demnsion going into the Dusk Tribe.
What lay before my eyes was a giant black marble fortress,
I was expecting something bigger,
to be honest,
the terrain was earthy, search lights flashing in the sky,
multiple watch towers,
and a lot of aura felt underground.

My hypothesis is that the Tribe is underground,
I begin my search by investigating the layout out of sight while hiding in plain sight,
using my shadow runes to keep my hands and feet intact to what I was climbing,
I fired a shadow at some watch towers and brought them down discreetly.
Once they were brought down,
it was only a matter of time before I aroused suspicion.

I climb over the fortress like a border and look down at a giant hole in the ground.
Even though it's always nighttime in this plane of existence,
I could see a castle and a captial city by the castle.
The question is,
how do I get down there?
Going directly into the hole will raise some alarms,
so that's out of the question,
I'll have to find a way in from the top side.

I look around the giant hole as fast as possible,
it must have taken me three hours before I located an entrance hidden on the side of the border,
before I could enter,
I was unfortunately spotted by two Shadow Demon on patrol,
they look at me and immediately circle me,
poking fun at my Japanese ninja like attire and even taking their Eroupean swords and tap my Chokuto sword on my lower back.

"I'd rather not have two dumbass's blood stain my blade, leave while your head is still attached."
I say with a bit of malice,
and they just laugh,
so I cast a shadow rune,
and a long shadow arm draws my Chokuto and cut one in half,
I give the other one my troll face and sever his head,
my shadow arm resheaths my sword, and I finally enter the place,
I take a stealthy approach and cling to the shadows and walls and climb across the cieling like Spiderman and his web crawling ability.

"Aye, it reeks in here."
I grumble, and so far, there is no sign of enemies.
"Chief, do you copy? Our watch towers and men are down above ground, and someone has infltrated into the border's defenses."
A voice says from behind the entrance, walking in,
I cast a shadow rune to conceal myself, and another person walks by with him. From the sounds,
they're in a state of high alert now,
and a large horn goes off.
Seeing as they are on alert,
I fire a shadow wire at them,
make it sticky via aura,
and web them up to the ceiling and finish up with a shadow to the mouth. They should be happy they're able to breathe out their noses.

I wall climb down the tunnel and stealth,
take down another guy on patrol while visible,
and the dummies never expect someone from above.
Further on down the tunnel leads at a slant or more accurate description, diagnally or down a hill,
the next one on patrol was in his Demon Form,
it was a Dullahan carrying its own head, eyes bright red,
almost like it's glowing,
the head was rotating a full 360 degrees, and I immediately concocted a plan.

The Dullahan trips over my shadow wire trap I made,
and I hog tie the legs,
then shadow the mouth shut,
I climb over some loose crates down a level only to see some sort of scanning device like the ones in the spy movies so I stretch my shadow and pull all the bodies to me and put their faces to the machine,
yeah,
the Dullahan's face was the correct one. Going into the hallway,
it stopped looking like a cargo bay and looked more,
ummm....... modern,
to say the least.
The walls were solid cement,
and it had some chairs and freshly made brew, almost like it's a break room,
the next room had brick flooring,
and I was spotted to which I knocked them out with some simple boxing.
They want to throw some hands,
and I'll give it to them.

After knocking out two Dusk Tribe Demons,
I look around and see that this is a mail carrier room of sorts or perhaps a messenger room as their were owls with straps on their backs that could fit letters in,
I got some hoots,
so I enter my Demon Form and hoot back, translation: 'You're not supposed to be here, leave at once or awful things will befall you.' Ignore them and climb down more loose crates to another tunnel,
no enemies sight,
no aura could be sensed,
so I casually strolled down the tunnel. "You look like you'll make a fine snack weakling."

A demonic voice says.
I throw my guard up and put my hand on my Chokuto,
I look around and try to sense aura............ nothing.
Loud barking suddenly goes off in my ears as a Cerberus jumps out at me from the shadows,
I cast a shadow rune and make a large shadow hand hold back the wild beast as it claws at me and each of it's three heads try their hardest to push me back, they break my grip and fall three fire a massive fireball from each of their mouths, I leap away and fully draw my Chokuto in reverse grip.

"I didn't know a pure bread from Hell was here. You can clearly talk, so want to introduce yourself, mut?"
I say to try to provoke it into attacking, I may not be able to win,
but the least I can do is slow it down and make the cieling collapse on it.
"My name is Herman. Before I eat you, tell me why the Wind Tribe has sent you to my domain?"
I give the doggo a troll smirk.
"Why would I tell a dead man why I'm here and you called me a snack? Last I checked, snacks don't talk."

I can see my provocation is irritating Herman,
so I decided to add fuel to the flames. "But to humor you, I'm wondering the planet, killing bitches that have a stick up their ass like you, Artificial Demon politicians, negotiators, list goes on." I say as I look interested in my sword as I do flashy stunts with it.
"You have the audacity to mock me and my Tribe? Choose your next words carefully. Otherwise, I might give you a slow and painful death."

It begins growling and snarling like the wild animal it is,
but reading between the lines,
this doggo is bluffing.
It isn't the Chief.
As a matter of fact,
it's nothing more than a hound taking orders from it's higher ups.
"Enough chit chat fido, we gonna dance or what? Come on, little guy, I'll take you for a little walk."
I talk to it like it's a pup,
finally,
all that provoking paid off as it charges at me,
I fire a shadow at the ceiling,
and it ramms all three heads against the wall, bits of the ceiling fall on it, making it yelp,
then turning around at me.

I drop down and create multiple shadow ships attached to my fingers and whip it a bunch of times,
it fire breath attacks me and I dodge, it lunges and I demonic leap over it then zip back onto it's stomach,
I start punching and kicking the heads, then they grab me with their teeth and throw me,
they charge again,
I dodge,
ceiling falls a bit and hits their heads and back,
they lunged and attempted to claw me, I created a giant shadow hand and slap their faces,
grabbed them and slammed their heads against the wall repeatedly until it gave up.
It whimpers at me as it loses most of its teeth in the process.
"What's wrong, snaggeltooth? What happened to your tough talk? Not so big and bad now, are you little man?"
It lays down in submission to me. "Please let us live, I beg of you."
Fat chance that will happen unless..... "I'll let you live on one condition, turn yourself into a weapon for me, betray me, and you die, cooperate until this is over, and I'll let you run free."
They say deal then glow a bright red as they morph into a bo staff and levitate into my hand,
I give them a test run using flashy over the top bo staff twirls and stunts,
then strike a pose.
"WHOOO! STILL GOT IT!"
A handful of Dusk Tribe Demon show up in their Demon Form, looking like a type of parasitic knight with one eye.
It looks like I get to test these bad boys out.