[73]

Our juvenile ploy failed, not that that outcome astonished any of us.

Raxx’s wind blade reached the demon first. Yet, despite his severe injuries, the black scaled behemoth had no issue spinning around to intercept the attack with his gigantic blade. Joy’s follow up arrow met the same fate, clinging off the black metal sword and sending sparks into the darkness of the cave. My Haunt hex fizzled because of an unseen resistance the creature had, but I halfway expected that.

The enormous Hellspawn bellowed in rage at our cowardly attack. “FOLLOWERS OF THE TRAITOR GODS, TODAY YOU WILL DIE!”

Leaping forward on his good leg, the demon moved forward in a blur. His sword crashed down toward Raxx like a falling mountain. Fortunately, Raxx had the excellent sense to dodge out of the way with a wind assisted leap. Still, the force of the blow cracked the earth and sent rocks and dust flying into the air.

Because of my magical armor, I was unaffected by the projectiles.

My teammates were not so lucky. Raxx, who had been the closest, took a stone to the head that nearly knocked him off his feet. Meanwhile, Joy had to give up on the arrow she was about to loose and cover her face. Having dirt in your eyes was probably not conducive to good shooting.

Had we not been enemies, the power of the monster would have left me feeling something like awe. From that one counterattack, I learned that we would have died quickly if the demon had been at full strength.

Thankfully, that was not the case.

The weakened leg of the demon gave out, and the creature crashed to the ground on his knees. Sensing an opportunity, I jumped forward with a textbook perfect stab. My foe’s eyes narrowed at my maneuver, probably because I looked absurd, jumping forward without a weapon. At the last second, I correct his error in judgement, summoning my poleaxe and lancing into the exposed burn wound in its torso.

True to my earlier assessment, the Hellspawn almost blocked my strike with his superior reflexes. However, with his blade stuck deep into the ground, and one of his legs not working, there was nothing he could do to avoid my weapon. Instead, the tilt of his giant blade knocked mine off course a hair. What should have been a deep thrust skittered along the side of his skin, leaving a jagged cut. It was not a lethal blow, but it had to hurt like, well, hell. The demon hissed in pain.

Not wanting to invite his retribution, I danced out of what I suspected his range was, then went another ten feet just to be sure.

It was a good thing, too.

A blast of purple flame shot forth in a cone out of the creature’s massive black hand, filling the cavern with the stink of brimstone. Though the heat did not injure me, its closeness singed my eyebrows away and caused me to trip backward over my feet.

The light of the hellfire revealed the shadowy shape of the warlock, crouching down above us on the first step of the ziggurat. In his hand, he held up a vial of acidfog, which I was sure he intended to throw in Joy’s direction. I felt a surge of gratitude toward Vascora. My eyes would have seen him in the darkness, eventually, but not while I looked in the opposite direction. It was only by pure chance that I fell on my back and caught sight of the sneaky bastard.

Not having much time, I tried Haunt on the soulless bastard. The hex had thus far worked exceptionally well on intelligent tainted, and this was the first time I was close enough to use it on him. Besides, it was very unlikely that I would hit him with my other ranged attack. I was not skilled enough to shoot a crossbow upside down.

A forlorn wail echoed from the warlock the moment I felt my curse take root. Unlike in my previous encounters, I could feel the hex reach deep into the core of his being and break something. Black taint flowed out of his cracked veins, and the abomination started making accompanying babbling noises. It was like the last few fragments of his sanity had shattered, leaving nothing but a husk behind.

I suspected it was because he was so far degraded by the taint that his soul was too weak to put up a fight. But whether I was right was immaterial. The acidfog vial fell out of his hand and crashed to the stone at his feet. Black smoke enveloped the pathetic man, cutting off the disturbing babble-screams. Alchemical fog drifted high toward the ceiling in a plume. But I could still make out the silhouette of the warlock’s thin figure from within. He just stood there silently, and it sent a shiver of fear down my spine. It was by far the most disturbing thing I had ever seen, and I knew for a certainty that without the grace of faith in my goddess the sight would have scarred me. That it still might scar me.

+500 Essence

A moment later, I got the notification of his death, and I smiled. It serves you right, you maggot. I hope you burn in hell, I thought, already feeling better.

As I rolled back to my feet, I heard the distinctive clanging noise of two more of Joy’s arrows hitting the monster's armor. Both of my companions harried the demon from afar, smartly staying away from his sword and cone of hellfire. Though neither of their attacks appeared to hurt it.

Unfortunately, our injured opponent had more tricks up his sleeve than we expected. Turning his still fully armored back to Raxx, the temple guardian extended one black finger at Joy and sent a bolt of black lightning directly into Joy’s stomach. The spell had come so fast, she did not even have time to react. I saw her crumple in a heap to the floor in a fit of shaking.

“Joy!” I screamed out in worry and ran a few steps in her direction.

Using our momentary shock, our foe laboriously pushed himself back to his unsteady feet. His sickly yellow blood flowed freely from the fresh wound I had opened on his burned chest. I knew it would just be a matter of time before we had the Hellspawn; we just had to survive long enough for that to happen.

I quickly considered my options.

With Joy out of the fight, only Raxx could threaten it from a range. My crossbow was too slow to use after a single shot. No more forcing the demon to turtle up on its knees, it would soon come after one of us with sword in hand. Having to fight it face to face was the worst outcome possible for us. Neither Raxx nor I had the strength or speed to contend with the monster up close. Even injured as he was, the guardian had already proven that it was still a serious threat.

Darkness might blind the demon, but I was not confident in its success as a tactic. Hellspawn were said to have excellent senses; Ashmere even reported some breeds to rely on nothing but sound to find their enemies. Worse than that, my spell would make it hard for Raxx to see him. Then, there was the fact that I doubted the nightmare would just stand there while I wiggled my fingers and chanted. So, I discarded the idea.

My other hex Hypnotize was worth trying, but only as a last case emergency. I would have to be close enough to look the demon in the eyes, and I was highly skeptical that it would work when Haunt did not. A Hellspawn that had sat in front of this temple for who knows how long, guarding it against intruders, probably had an absurd Willpower anyway.

Sicken was a tier 2 spell, which meant that it had a greater chance of working against the demon’s resistance. With our foe already weakened from multiple injuries, I theorized that his already embattled Constitution would be even more likely to fall before the spell. Regrettably, it too had the same drawback as needing time for me to stand there and chant.

Stupid! Ugz sent.

“Now is not the time!” I exclaimed at my familiar.

I cast. Ugz said, leaping from my shoulder and running toward the cavern wall.

“Wait, you can do that?” I asked. I knew he could use my hexes, but until now he had never exhibited the requisite intelligence to use my spells. I wondered if my advancement had increased his attributes as well.

The demon roared again, cutting off my deliberation.

A follow-up leap sent the horror flying at Raxx for a second time. I expected Raxx to leap to the side again, but this time the demon anticipated the maneuver. More importantly, it seemed to have a better handle on what its wounded legs could handle. Raxx sailed to the right, trying to put it between the two of us. But the demon’s attack had just been a feint. Its leap carried it only a short distance, whereupon it spun on its good leg, then turned on me.

The distance between it and me was much greater than it had been for Raxx, but I did not have the ability to leap out of the way like he did.

Gigantic black fangs were visible just under the metal of its helmet, and its eyes gleamed at me with the promise of violence. I shot my crossbow at its chest, forcing it to turn awkwardly to the side midair. Then, before it landed, I threw myself forward in a roll along the same side as its healthy right leg. My desperate move barely worked, and I felt the wind of its blade rip through the air above my head.

Using the wall of the temple to steady itself, the demon had lashed out at me with an impressive backswing. Following up the attack, it made a slight turn to face me, then opened its empty hand to unleash another hellfire blast on me.

Dread descended on me, as I knew I had no way of getting out of range in time. The purple flames flickered at the palm of the demons until Raxx sliced off most of its fingers with his large two-handed sabre.

“DIE!” it yelled, elbowing the Harak in the face before he could react with its injured arm and sending him flying.

Raxx was tough, but I did not believe he could continue to fight after a hit like that.

The guardian and I faced each other.

I was just about to try Hypnotize on it, when Ugz finished casting my spell. A fountain of black vomit and feces sprayed out of the demon’s mouth and anus at the same time, breaking the standoff. Then, like a felled tree, it fell to the ground on its face.