There were 8 witches in total that surrounded the party. Consisting of two types when Gabriel inspected them. Now he leveled up his [Inspect] to LVL 2 with one (SP), he could see more information.

[Witch of the [Horned God] - LVL 15 – Curse mage]

HP 2000/2000 MP 600/600 Additional info: A mage that has been corrupted by the [Horned God]’s blessings. Giving her a more brutal nature and increased Curse spell damage.

[Witch of the [Horned God] - LVL 15 – Demonologist]

HP 1500/1500 MP 800/800 Additional info: A mage that has been corrupted by the [Horned God]’s blessings. Giving her access to summon [Demons] from the underworld.

There was only two [Demonologists] and the rest were [Curse Mages]. They all looked fairly similar. In dark green tattered robes with long ratty hair. Boils covered their faces giving them a sickly look.

Gabriel quickly issued orders to the party.

“[Rex] and [T] focus on defense and watch out for the curses, they should have a couple of debuff ones but the main one to watch out for is [Soul Burn]. If you see one summoning a purple-colored spell, make sure to dodge. [Phat-Cat] and [Mouse] stay behind the brothers and focus fire on the curse mages. [Gremlin] and I will take a [Demonologist] each. Let’s go!”

Gabriel was the first to move as he ran towards a Witch holding a gnarled wooden staff. She had already begun to use a summon spell when he was issuing orders. A Pentagram circle appeared on the ground at the edge of her feet. A clawed hand came out of the circle, it stuck it’s claws into the earth on either side. The claws used the ground as purchase to leverage itself out of the summoning circle.

The demon was now directly in front of Gabriel’s path to the Witch. It had a pig like face, with tusks coming out of its mouth. A large turtle like shell was on its back, made out of a dark rocky substance. The Demon held a large Wood cutters axe in its hands.

[Turtled Demon – LVL 15 – Summon]

HP 3000/3000 Additional Info: Turtle Demons have a hard rocky shell on their back that is near indestructible. If close to death or feeling threatened by a specific attack, they will hide under the shell to avoid it.

Gabriel charged the demon; he was wielding his Khopesh and had a hand free. He ducked under a wide swing of the demon’s axe. Getting close to the demon he stuck his sword between its legs. Using the curved part of his sword, he hooked its foot and pulled hard.

The back-heavy demon fell on its rocky shell. Like a turtle, it was stuck on its back and couldn’t pull itself up. The [Turtled Demon] was usually a pain in the ass to fight because of their rock-hard shells. That’s unless you got them on their back, then they became easy pickings.

Gabriel ignored the demon after he immobilized it and attacked the Witch instead. A summoned creature gave no EXP and would disappear if their summoner was killed. Gabriel found no point wasting time on the demon. He used his free hand to pull out one of his throwing axes and chucked it at the Witch. The axe slammed into the witch’s chest; the blade stuck deep in her flesh.

Gabriel stood still and used [Recall] pulling the axe back to him. Because of the Witch’s frail thin body, she came flying with the axe. Gabriel stepped to the side and did a 360 spin to build up force while using [Heavy Chop] to cut her head clean off as she passed.

The rest of the party was still fighting their own battles. 3 of the 6 [Curse mages] were already dead, with bolts and burn marks all over their body. The [Wolfpack] were making quick work of the other three. Tom was having trouble with his [Demonologist], her summon was a small demon called an [Imp]. It had wings and would fly around throwing fire spells at you.

Tom at that moment was chasing around the [Imp], yelling curses at it while swing his large hammer. Due to his height as a Dwarf, he couldn’t even reach the flying [Imp] making it look comical at best. Gabriel couldn’t watch any longer.

“[Gremlin]! Forget about the demon it does barely any damage, just focus on the [Demonologist]. Once you kill her it will disappear” Gabriel yelled at Tom.

“Fu*k! Fine!" Tom said in a huff with one last swing at the air.

[Gremlin] used [Charge] and made a b-line towards the witch, when he got there he hit her with a [Grand slam] knocking her off her feet. He followed up with an over-head swing and slammed his hammer down. The Witch’s head burst like a melon.

“Take that you ugly bit*h!”

Gabriel went to join the [Wolfpack] mopping up the last two Witches. He threw out two axes in quick succession. Finishing one entirely and making another disrupt her spell. [Rex] took the opportunity to use [Shield Bash] to stun her and [T] unloaded a flurry of attacks before bringing her HP down to nothing.

All enemies were cleared and they received a notification.

[Your party has slayed the following: Exp divided by 6]

8x [Witches of the Horned God – LVL 15 (Curse Mage)] -EXP 16,000 2x [[Witches of the Horned God – LVL 15 (Demonologist)] -EXP 5000

Besides Tom and Gabriel at LVL 10, everyone else was LVL 12 and still a good way from Leveling up.

“What is up with those axes man, they took away half the Witch’s health in one hit?” [Rex] asked while looking at the axes imbedded in the corpse of the Witch.

Gabriel shared the stats of his throwing axes to the party.

[Witch’s Bane throwing axes (Rare) (Rune) (Throwing weapon) - Req. 20 Strength]

Based damage – 50-80

Special effects:

Increased 20% critical hit chance Every 5 points of strength increases base damage by 5 [Retrieval Rune] With 5 MP can use [Recall] to summon your axes back to hand. Cooldown 15 seconds 50% increased damage to Witches or any creature with more than 50% Dark Affinity

“Oh, those are amazing and super useful. But I thought I saw them being sold at the Auction?” [Rex] asked looking a tad confused, he didn't remember seeing Gabriel anywhere at the Auction house.

Gabriel just flashed a smug grin at [Phat-Cat].

“Wait a minute... the person in the VIP box, was you!? Everyone thought it was one of those Nobles” [Phat-Cat] questioned.

“Yeah, it was me, I put up the Summoner equipment for Auction. In doing so they treated me as a VIP. No big deal honestly” Gabriel replied off-handily.

[Phat-Cat] took a threatening step towards Gabriel all of a sudden.

“Why did you sell the Summoner equipment. You should have told me! I would have bought it!” [Phat-Cat] yelled at Gabriel looking actually hurt.

“Why would you want to be a Goblin Summoner. Those creatures suck anyway” Gabriel questioned.

“No they don’t! They are adorable. They're just misunderstood! Hmph!” [Phat-Cat] said punctuating her sentence in a huff.

Gabriel was perplexed by [Phat-cat]’s defence of goblins. He looked at the other boys for clarification. Rex decided to explain.

“Don't worry [Osiris]. She finds the weirdest things cute. Even when we were kids, she used to like to keep spiders. She would hold them and pet them like they were a cat. It was terrifying.”

Gabriel nodded like he understood. Inside though ‘Da fu*k! Spiders are cute to her, I knew it! she’s crazy’.

“Okay [Phat-cat] I will promise you that if I get another Goblin Summoner book, I will give it to you first. Now let's loot these Witches and move on. We have wasted 15 minutes already and poor [Billy] will become dinner at this rate” Gabriel promised [Phat-Cat] to placate her.

The party all nodded in acknowledgement and picked up the pace. Gabriel had [Mouse] and his lucky hands loot the Witches. As always, he managed to get about 30 Gold. A pair of High-steel gauntlets and greaves that went to Tom, because besides Tom’s Hammer the rest of his gear was (Common).

Mouse also managed to loot a [Slow Curse - (Spell book) (Uncommon)]. The party agreed to sell the spell book and split the profits when they got back to Roma.

Making their way through the cave system they were ambushed three more times. For a total of 20 Witches slain. Reaching the end of the cave system. The party exited the cave and was standing at the part of the mountain that jutted out in the shape of a cliff.

There was a large compound about 200 meters from the cave entrance taking up the rest of the cliff grounds. There was a large building in the middle, its architecture was of a Japanese style, looking like a 5 floor Pagoda. There was a 10-foot-high stone wall facing the cave Entrance, blocking entry to the compound. What looked like Witches and Demons manned the walls and Two large Horned Demons stood guard in front of the only Gate in site.

Gabriel ushered the party back into the Cave entrance and out of view from the people on the wall.

“Alright everyone, this is going to be a tough battle. Once we start, I imagine we will be in battle for a while. Does anyone need to take a break before we begin?” Gabriel asked the party.

[Mouse], Tom and [Phat-cat] decided to take a bathroom break and grab a snack. [Rex], [T] and Gabriel shot the sh*t while they waited for the other to return.

Once everyone was back, Gabriel began to tell the party his plan.