Two days passed and the Abyssal creatures continued to flow in a frothing wave. The ever increasing debt was a sick joke of a clock to inform Mitch of time passing. Mitch and Sable kept their hunger and thirst clear by healing themselves with flesh from Mitch's reserves.

  Active Debt: -934,498* > -935,830*

  The Monsters twisted forms rippled with malice and strength. Mitch braced his exposed flesh, Rex’s weight bundled against his back like a shield of seething anger.

  The hound’s dark tendrils pressed protectively against Mitch. He was eager to cover his master, but Mitch had already convinced Rex to hold his position as he allowed the monsters to land hit after bloody hit. He needed to be as strong as possible.

  Each tear, slash, and stab jarred Mitch’s body. Blood poured, the monsters stronger than the last wave. But with each blow he took, Agony’s Embrace flared. Every strike of pain was twisted and channeled back into Mitch with intensity. It was pouring fuel into an already raging fire. His body absorbed it all. Every wound was a spark that turned to permanent resilience.

  Affliction Skill Upgraded

  Agony’s Embrace

  Level 7(+1)

  Pain is power. Harness every drop of suffering, turning agony into unrelenting strength. Your torment permanently fortifies your body and amplifies your strength.

  Your acceptance of pain strengthens your resolve.

  Consume Souls or Flesh to heal your Body

  Power over life. Power over death. Souls may fuel what flesh alone cannot. Sacrifice the willing and rebuild what was lost.

  Finally.

  Rex trembled against him, frustrated. Mitch could feel the hound’s anger and impatience. An insatiable hunger to rend and tear the enemies that bit and tore at his master. Mitch held fast, healing the worst of the damage as he let the Abyss’s dark gifts sink into his bones.

  He was becoming an immovable wall of pain and survival, and smiled darkly at his own lack of flinching.

  Not flinching now, am I?

  Settlement Amount: 312(+21) Souls, 342(+18) Beast Souls, 0 Credits, 381 (-4) Flesh.

  Sable dangled from a rock embedded in the infinitely high wall of the Pit. Her threaded-on hands glowed with the eerie purple of her Fracture skill that she sent into the mass of monsters tearing at Mitch. The lines of purple that appeared detonated against thick, rotten skin, tearing it apart in explosions of energy and surgical slices. For her efforts, Sable was growing much stronger as well.

  She pivoted mid-air, shifting the energy in her hands, and slashed horizontally. A sharp wave of Fracture sliced straight through a monster about to bite Mitch’s face.

  Sable’s skill had leveled up, giving her the choice between explosive blasts and razor-sharp slashes. She adapted and practiced her skills as Mitch cultivated his own strength. She moved with confidence, her eyes glinting with the satisfaction of seeing the devastation she left in her wake.

  Yet there was a look of something darker in her eyes as she fought–a cautious, simmering edge as she glanced at Mitch. That control he’d exerted over her still lingered in her thoughts.

  One creature–a skeletal thing with far too many eye holes–latched onto Mitch’s arm with a bite. Rex snarled, but Mitch ignored the beast’s fangs tearing into his flesh. The pain no longer registered the same way it once had. Sable dispatched the creature with a Fracture that sliced through its skull with surgical precision. She offered him a small smile and continued her destruction.

  She’s coming around…won’t be going anywhere near her mind again though…

  Mitch adjusted his grip on the now full sword. Galadrith’s presence filled the blade like a steady pulse. The soul did not just just sit dormant. It was alive, watching, instructing.

  “Brute strength alone lacks finesse. Wait for the opening.” Galadrith’s voice murmured.

  A monstrous creature lunged at him, spiked limbs swinging wildly. Mitch’s instinct was to strike, but Galadrith’s guidance kept him steady. He sidestepped the blow, pivoted, and struck in a clean, swift motion. Blood sprayed as the creature staggered, a gaping wound exploding from Sable’s Fracture. Mitch took deep satisfaction in the ruthless efficiency of the move.

  “Yes…do not waste energy on flashy moves. Precision and control. This is the mark of a true warrior.”

  A large monster snarled and lunged forward, talons swiping Mitch’s chest. He punched it in its face, sending it backwards. Slashing downwards, the blade cleaved through the creature’s arm in a single, brutal arc. It stumbled back, ichor spilling from the stump. A flash of fear in its twisted eyes as it tried to retreat.

  “Oh no you don’t.” Galadrith’s voice rumbled with satisfaction in Mitch’s mind.

  A thick, dark chain shot out from the sword’s hilt, hooking around the creature’s ankle and yanking it back in a slow chunk.

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  Soul Sword Skill Unlocked

  Galadrith’s Chains

  Mitch’s eyes widened as the chain tightened, binding the monster and dragging it back towards him. It struggled helplessly as the other monsters continued to tear into his body.

  “Is that Galadrith? That’s copying me, Gal! I thought we were pals now. Don’t steal my style.” Sable barked out a laugh, cutting through some of the tension that she and Mitch had.

  “Do you see? You have chosen wisely as this blade’s inhabitant.” Gal chuckled in Mitch’s mind.

  The chain held the creature in place before him, and Mitch finished it with a swift strike through its neck. The monster crumpled to the ground. Mitch felt a thrill of power, a visceral satisfaction in controlling the battlefield with such finesse. Galadrith’s power allowed him to reshape the fight to his advantage, and break retreating enemies.

  The control was tempting, an intoxicating taste of dominance that whispered to him.

  “Do not let the thought consume you,” Galadrith warned. “Control is but a veil. To grasp at it is to shackle oneself in its clutches, blinding yourself. One must simply act in a way that exhibits control without thought. We will get there.”

  Mitch steadied himself. This was survival, not a place to indulge.

  Behind him, Rex growled in frustration, his form still bundled against Mitch’s back. His energy radiated with barely contained aggression.

  “Let him out, already. I can hear him all the way from up here.” Sable offered from where she hung as she tied down another monster with her wires before popping its head like a berry.

  Go, and be safe, Mitch relented mentally to Rex. The Shadowshroud sprang forward. A dark, wiry shadow that leapt from his back with frightening speed.

  The hound’s form had grown lean and muscular, each limb coiled with power. After consuming the Behemoth’s body, Rex’s density had increased. As had the hounds viciousness.

  Rex’s pup body now moved with the lethal grace of a predator. His tendril hair lashed out as he dove into the horde, jaws snapping, tearing through the nearest monster with a brutally strong jaw.

  Blood and ichor sprayed as Rex’s maw clamped down, shaking a small monster dead with a bite and a violent shake of his head. He moved like a blue, darting between creatures and tearing into them. Rex was no longer a fledgling replacement for a shirt. The beast had grown alongside Mitch, and was now a force in his own right. Mitch wondered what Rex might eventually become.

  Mitch watched, pride filled as Rex tore through his share of the monsters. The hound’s ferocity mirrored his own hunger for strength.

  With Rex connected to him, Sable’s mix of skills to trap and slaughter, Mitch’s strength growing continually, and Galadrith’s wisdom and power, he felt ready to break out of the Pit.

  Rex chewed through the throat of a monster, Sable sliced and blew apart the remaining monsters, and Mitch brutally cut through those hurting him in front of him.

  He wondered when the horde wave would stop. It had been coming for days now, and Mitch was done with being a prisoner.

  Mitch siphoned the souls and bodies of their fallen. He pulled Flesh across wounds the monster’s had managed. Fresh scars were added to his body, and Mitch felt a morbid fascination at his still changing body.

  Settlement Amount: 355(+21) Souls, 359(+17) Beast Souls, 0 Credits, 418(+27) Flesh.

  The remaining monsters hung back, cowering as they assessed the carnage before them. He raised his blade, and met their glowing eyes with a challenge.

  “Step up, and die.” He said coldly.

  The creatures stirred, eyes glinting with a mixture of fear and rage. Sable descended from her wire beside him, her stance confident and steady. Rex leapt back from the body he consumed and covered Mitch. He transformed to perfectly placed dark armor that coated Mitch’s scarred, strong frame.

  I am not alone any longer. Mitch thought, feeling the power of his allies bolster his resolve. Each member, Sable, Rex, Galadrith–they lent him strength that felt unbreakable. He would crush the Abyss for ripping souls out of him, and protect those that he could.

  One of the monsters, a skinny beast with scarred flesh and multiple mutated limbs, took a shambling step forward. Far too many legs made it look like a malformed human spider hybrid.

  Instead of charging, it paused, and lifted its horrifying head to meet Mitch’s eye. There was intelligence there. A spark of autonomy fighting against its monstrous instincts. Mitch felt like he was watching a willful prisoner that had begun to hate its chains.

  In a broken voice, the creature rasped, barely making sense. “Join…you? Can..us?”

  Mitch’s taunt faded on his lips as he stared back at the cowering beasts. For a moment, he considered rushing the monsters and ending them where they stood. To claim their bodies and souls to further his own development.

  But the creature held his gaze, its grotesque eyes filled with a strange, desperate defiance.

  Behind the creature, the remaining horde stirred restlessly. This was a hint of rebellion. The idea of an ally within the Abyss was shocking to Mitch.

  His eyes narrowed, a flicker of empathy breaking through his hardened exterior. These monsters weren’t just mindless drones; some still held a will of their own.

  And some, hopefully, weren’t just content with the chains the Abyss had forced upon them.

  “Interesting, isn’t it?” Sable said softly, “Even the Abyss breaking and using souls…you still can’t suppress a creature's will…not fully at least.”

  Mitch weighed his options, watching as the creature edged forward. It was hesitant but determined. He could see the loyalty shift in its eyes–a glimmer of possibility.

  “You’ve had a taste of power, but there is always more. You could command them…” Galadrith’s voice trailed through his mind, the faint thrill in it nearly tangible.

  Rex sat on him like slick plate, watching the creatures cowering with interest. Here were other monsters that seemed to not want to harm his master, and join him in service.

  Mitch walked up to the shambling mess of a creature. It had far too many legs. Its eyes were incredibly far apart. It was skinny and underfed. He looked past it at the others.

  Creatures of all shapes and horrors, all hewn together by the Abyss’s cruel hand.

  He saw them. Sparks of intelligence, subtle glimmers of autonomy flickering within the shadows.

  He slotted Galadrith onto his back. The act was more than practical; it was a gesture. A sign of trust.

  If these monsters could rebel, perhaps his own fate wasn’t sealed.

  “Prove your loyalty, then,” Mitch challenged, and reached for the Abyssal creature’s mind with Abyssal Bind.