Mitch didn’t need to signal his command physically; his Abyssal minions had already recoiled. He had sensed the threat Butcher exuded and ordered Varak and the other Abyssal creatures to stay back.

  The pigman stood massive and sweating, his beady eyes shining with sadistic delight as his snout flared, taking in Mitch’s scent.

  Butcher grinned as he scraped the cleavers against each other. The metal sparked and shrieked. With a snarl, Butcher hurled himself forward, swinging both cleavers in a ruthless arc.

  Mitch sidestepped the first cleaver, only to feel the second one bite into his arm. The blade’s rotten energy tore through Rex and then his flesh. Poison flooded into his flesh from Butcher’s attack.

  He gritted his teeth, the pain and healing he sent fueling him as he spun. With Galadrith raised, Mitch drove the blade deep into Butcher’s side. The pigman bellowed, his hand reaching to slap Mitch back with surprising speed that belied his bulk.

  Mitch stumbled back, weakened. Immediately his senses caught the sickly-sweet scent of rot pouring from the wound that Rex had reformed to cover. Mitch sent healing towards it. Butcher had left his mark and Mitch had to burn a mountain of flesh to stop the rot from the attack.

  Settlement Amount: 353 Souls, 359 Beast Souls, 0 Credits, 792(-38) Flesh.

  Rot empowered attacks?

  Sable tried to find an opening. Her wires snapped toward Butcher, but they veered off, erratic and weak.

  The aura Butcher emanated seeped into her mind and frayed her control. He could feel it within their bond.

  Her breaths were too shallow and panics, each step halting. She was struggling, and stumbling over her wires as she tried to rally herself.

  Mitch could feel the fear that toyed with his mind as he faced off against Butcher. Like a thumb pressing onto a bruise. Mitch sensed the marked dread tainting his concentration. It wasn’t a natural fear. But something the Butcher could push onto him.

  Is that a Skill?

  Mitch took the fear Butcher was releasing and shoved it firmly into Devoid. He wasn’t able to help Sable’s fraying emotions, and kept fighting.

  How is anything supposed to fight back if he can spread raw fear? Against creatures he imprisons no less.

  In that moment, Mitch made it a personal commitment to not burn any more souls against this monster. He would not sacrifice any more to take down a man who scarred flesh and souls for a living. Even against Abyssal monstrosities that mostly wanted to kill Mitch. He would not use Deathhowl, nor Soul Sacrifice, nor any minions.

  This is personal.

  “Sable, fall back! He’s releasing an aura!” Mitch barked, narrowly avoiding another swipe as Butcher’s cleaver swung towards his chest. Butcher’s lips twisted into a grotesque smile, his cleavers glowing with putrid, fetid energy. With a flick, the pigman hurtled them through the air, nearly taking Mitch’s arm off, before they were called back into the man's hands.

  Mitch’s shoulder took a slash, and Mitch felt the slight panic from his Shadowshroud as the beast’s plate was split.

  Mitch’s armour was gouged and the blades reached flesh. He had to do everything he could to pour reserves into healing his decaying body.

  Settlement Amount: 353 Souls, 359 Beast Souls, 0 Credits, 702(-90) Flesh.

  Rex whined in protest, his shadowed form clinging protectively to Mitch’s torso as cleaver after cleaver struck. Mitch carved Butcher’s sweating flesh in thick grooves. The pigman’s attacks were monstrously strong, carving rotting wounds into Mitch’s hardened body and Rex’s plate.

  As each of Butcher’s cleaver strikes left a shallow, gnarled grooves in the hound’s armor, Rex roared in pain. Mitch could heal himself, but not the hound. Rex was not a minion, but a loyal creature regardless.

  Mitch felt Rex’s wounds like a surge of hot iron in his veins. “Rex, pull back, I can’t heal you like I can heal me.” He commanded, voice low, heart pounding in fury and frustration.

  But Rex remained, his form shifting against Mitch’s torso. A cleaver sliced into the Shadowshroud’s side, piercing Mitch’s flesh in the process. Rex let out a pained growl that turned to a snarl. Mitch tapped into his reserves to heal the spreading damage of Butcher’s malevolent cleavers.

  Settlement Amount: 353 Souls, 359 Beast Souls, 0 Credits, 644(-58) Flesh.

  “Damnit it, Rex! Fall back.” Mitch ordered. And this time, with a growl of protest, Rex leaped off his body, retreating to the sidelines. His hound form bled black ichor on the ground and watched the fight with the others.

  Butcher’s grin widened as he saw Mitch’s bare chest. “Ahhhh, so many scars. How pretty. How many more can I add once I win?”

  Both cleavers raised high. Mitch met him with Galadrith, the soul sword shuddering in fury within his grip. Both of them locked into a brutal rhythm of blows. The air was thick with the smell of blood and rancid decay that Mitch had to fight to heal through. Each swing carved gashes in both men.

  Every strike Mitch landed chipped away at Butcher. Blood seeped constantly from the wounds he had inflicted. Butcher retaliated just as fiercely, his cleavers tearing into Mitch’s body with each brutal swing.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Each cut from Butcher left rot festering in his flesh, and Mitch’s skin burned as the infection seeped in. A sickening purple spread from each wound. But he pressed on, calling on Agony’s Embrace to turn every surge of pain into raw power. His veins pulsed with it.

  Mitch healed some wounds while allowing others to deepend, a dangerous dance of pain emboldening strength. If he could keep the rot back, he could kill Butcher.

  Butcher’s laughter erupted through the prison as he flung a cleaver that buried into Mitch’s exposed shoulder, spreading rot with a sickening crackle.

  Mitch clenched his teeth, feeling the rot spread to his head. With a roar, he ripped the cleaver from his flesh. Blood poured down his chest as he moved forward and healed the infected wound with a swath of his stored flesh.

  Settlement Amount: 353 Souls, 359 Beast Souls, 0 Credits, 583(-61) Flesh.

  Galadrith hummed with anticipation, and Mitch took the opportunity, stabbing the blade deep into Butcher’s leg.

  “Hold him,” Mitch growled.

  Galadrith responded, a chain spiraling from the blade’s hilt to shackle Butcher’s ankle. Butcher staggered at the sight, and Mitch seized the advantage.

  He slashed at the pigman’s exposed flesh, hacking away at his body. Precision be damned. Mitch wanted to carve the man up.

  Each blow weakened the Butcher further, the pigman clearly lacking a healing ability even with his monstrous strength to punch through Rex and Mitch’s hardened body.

  But the monstrous pigman wasn’t finished. In a last, desperate act, Butcher’s beady eyes flared with hate.

  He gripped his remaining cleaver, rot energy swirling around its jagged edge, and hurled it straight at Mitch’s throat.

  The blade struck true. It carved deep into Mitch’s neck, below his jaw. Hot blood sprayed from Mitch’s hammering heart. It painted the ground in thick arcs.

  Mitch staggered back, vision immediately dimming as the world began to fade from the blood loss.

  His grip faltered, Galadrith nearly slipping from his blood-slicked hand. His heart beat immediately beat more slowly, each pulse weaker than the last.

  But beneath the pain, a deep, seething rage ignited Mitch.

  Now I’ll have a scar there.

  It was the same rage that had led him to his first murder of the Grimmer, and then drove him to carve his way through Abyssal monsters. It was the same anger that fueled every step forward he took against his Abyssal Debt.

  He would not die here–not by the hand of this lacking beast.

  Letting his blood coat his body, Mitch pulled flesh out of his core against his throat. His flesh sizzled against the rotting energy of Butcher’s strike. Mitch continued to pour more flesh into the wound, sealing it up tight underneath a pink scar that carved across his throat.

  Settlement Amount: 353 Souls, 359 Beast Souls, 0 Credits, 497(-86) Flesh.

  Blood filled his veins. Transformed from his own Affliction Skill, it was recycled from flesh that he had parted from souls he held.

  Forcing his head up, Mitch looked straight into Butcher’s eyes. Mitch’s own feral grin spread across his face. “Is that all you’ve got?” he asked, his voice defiant.

  Butcher took a step back, fear painted across his small, piggish eyes.

  Mitch wasn’t just standing; he was surging forward.

  Every slice with Galadrith dismantled Butcher’s form. Each strike tore through layers of flesh and fat, his cuts deepening until sinew and muscle hung in tatters. The cold rage fueled by Devoid carved the butcher of the prison. Mitch wasn’t surprised when the skill leveled.

  Affliction Skill Upgraded

  Devoid

  Level 5(+1)

  Lock away undesired emotions and thoughts. Feel only what you wish.

  Your sacrifices are rewarded with power.

  All emotions and thoughts must be addressed eventually.

  +Instill primal fear within your enemies as they witness your power.

  Butcher, no longer able to wield his cleavers from cut tendons from Mitch’s sword, dropped to his knees. A groan escaped his fat swollen throat.

  Mitch loomed over him, bloodied and healed but with a victorious gleam in his eyes. He stood there, chest rising and falling with the satisfaction of triumph.

  With Butcher no longer able to cast his fear based aura, Varak and Sable quickly moved in.

  Sable spun the cleavers in a mess of wires. The pigman’s gaze turned to panic as he watched his weapons taken from him.

  “Not yet…boss,” Varak said coldly while measuring Mitch’s murderous stance. “Has answers.”

  With a sharp whistle, Mitch called Rex over. The Shadowshroud limped to his side. Rex’s form was wounded, and ichor spilled from the beast’s black fur. Mitch placed a steady hand on Rex, guiding the hound’s gaze towards the fallen man before them.

  Eat. But do not kill.

  Rex lunged forward, his powerful jaw clamping onto Butcher’s flesh. He began to consume as Butcher screamed from pain. Feeding on the pigman restored some of Rex’s health and closed the wounds.

  Mitch watched coldly, his eyes hard, as Rex tore into the fallen torturer of the prison.

  “The dog gets the flesh. I get the soul.” Galadrith’s fury was potent through their bond.

  “He controls them with fear,” Mitch said to Sable and Varak. “He wasn’t that strong. Galadrith was much stronger. The only way he truly controlled the creatures in here was through the fear aura.”

  “Yes!...Fear. Stink. Is same.” Varak confirmed as she poked Butcher in the eye with a clawed finger.

  The silence in the prison hung. The other prisoners had watched the battle with their tormentor. Butcher’s gasps were growing weaker, but the man’s vitality was something to behold.

  Mitch called the Abyssal bugs forward to swarm around Butcher’s body. They gathered and surrounded him in a circle, their twitching pinchers and mouths a promise.

  Even in his critically wounded state, Butcher’s eyes widened in fear at the tiny creatures that watched him.

  “Time for a final twist to your own game, Butcher.” Mitch’s voice was a deadly whisper as he called Rex back from his feast.

  Immediately after, he commanded a small amount of bugs to cover the man's face, but not to bite. Not yet–at least. If the Abyss was going to torment him endlessly, Mitch figured he could return the favor in part.

  “Now, let’s get some answers. Still with us, Butcher?” Mitch asked the groaning pigman that lay on the ground before them.