There are imps falling from portals everywhere in my dungeon. My undead are more than up to task though, so I focus on the main battle. Merlin, Gorger and the demon are looking at each other.

The staredown only lasts for three additional seconds, then the demon leaps down into the pit.

The black glass-like blade of the demon cleaves down into Gorger, that single attack cutting through his flesh and bone, stopping at his breast.

Merlin shoots his beams at the demon, who swiftly pulls its sword from Gorger’s flesh and uses its wide body to defend against the beams.

Gorger, who’s already regenerating, spews five firebolts right onto the demon's face, propelling the huge monster a few steps backwards.

I see that the flames have done no noticeable damage against the demon, and then tell them to hold a bit.

I have an experiment in mind.

Gorger unleashes his tongues and starts to spew acid bolts, using his tongues to manipulate the speed and trajectory of the attacks.

Merlin, however, decides for a more direct approach. He creates ten {Reave} claws and explodes towards the demon.

Unlike Gorger, Merlin is confident in testing his body against the obsidian blade.

The demon tried to parry Merlin’s claws with its blade, but Merlin simply caused the claws to detach and change their path. The demon was caught by surprise and gained a few shallow wounds on its arms; its sword struck Merlin but was only able to crack his skin, which seemed to surprise it even more.

Merlin attacked again, a simple swipe towards the leg of the demon, who simply lifted its foot to avoid it. In that moment the teamwork of the undead showed itself, Gorger redirected one of his acid bolts towards the other foot of the demon, right as Merlin was attacking it.

The attacks cause the demon to slip and fall, Merlin combined his five blades into one. The blade ignited itself in necrotic fire, it is going straight for the heart, yet the demon is able to avoid it.

With a quick and simple move the demon parries the attack with his blade, which surprisingly did not even crack, Merlin does not let up but the demon is quickly able to parry its way back into standing. All the while Gorger was spitting on it, but it was ignored even though I can see the sizzling on the skin of the demon.

The demon unleashes a huge swipe of its sword, and a conflagration of fire follows, swallowing both Merlin and Gorger.

Who does not particularly care about it, Gorger simply eats the fire. Merlin fights it with his own fire, creating a purple splotch in the middle of the giant flames.

I tell them to keep laying it on the demon, my little plan is running into some imps.

I feel the demon activating a skill, even though I have not been able to {Analyze} him. It blurs through with extreme speed towards Gorger, but instead of charging into him, the demon stops just in front of his face.

The demon has a solid two heads in size over Gorger, it lifts its black blade high and unleashes a multitude of slashes on him.

The slashes leave a trail of red, then a trail of embers and finally a trail of fire, which keeps growing stronger with each attack.

The waves of flame roar as the sword bites into Gorger, who has simply taken a defensive position.

Merlin sees this, and decides to quickly turn back to shoot a few spells on nearby imps. He’s doing so to help me in my little plan.

Gorger is not simply taking the attacks, each wave of fire is absorbed by his hungry body, helping him heal.

After almost 20 seconds of pure hacking and slashing, the demon finally stops. He looks down at Gorger, who’s none the worse for wear.

“You…absorb fire.” It says, sounding like it just noticed this now.

After, what? 20 attacks? 30?

“Not the brightest flame in hell, I bet.”

“You!” The demon turns to Merlin, snarling like a baboon. It then quickly turns back, and in a single elegant swing, decapitates Gorger. Granted, Gorger was thinking a little bit too much of himself for weathering that little combo.

An explosion of fire under the demon’s feet carries him forwards, towards Merlin. The head of Gorger is still sailing upwards as Merlin grabs the incoming blade with his ten claws. He causes them to explode, hoping to either make an opening or blow the blade away. Yet the demon is too good of a swordsman, and the blade stays firmly in its hand, it even absorbs the momentum gracefully, transitioning into a swipe.

Merlin shoots his {Reave} claws and tries to distance himself, yet the demon is able to keep up.

Gorger grabs his head from the air, puts it back together and then starts to spew large amounts of acid on the demon. I can see in his eyes that he is… surprised? Did he think Gorger would die if decapitated? Maybe mildly incapacitated?

No matter, my little plan is very close now, which is very good. Merlin is a fearsome fighter, even though he’s a mage.

It makes sense, he’s always fighting Stinger, his battle instincts are sharply honed. But, he lacks a breadth of experience, he has never fought such a strong sword-wielding enemy. In all the fights with Stinger, Merlin has to do his best to make sure she does not get in close and lay waste to him with their powerful combos. Now, however, he’s facing the opposite problem, he has to get close to an enemy that has a longer range than he does.

Well, the tables are about to be turned.

A bunch of drone skulls fly about, shooting and body checking the imps nearby, opening a way to the pit. Four skulls come through that opening, carrying a small holy ice shrine. They place it just at the cusp of the ring and quickly activate it.

The effect is immediate, the ring is drowned with a mixture of holy and ice mana. The demon’s expression morphs into one of fear, before masking itself as anger.

“You!” It screams.

Merlin forms a huge {Reave} made of ice, the very act of interacting with the mana hurting him.

The demon attacks with its blade, a river of orange flame bursting from the sword. The demon screams, unbridled rage and fear mixing into its voice. Yet before the howling flame and the icy claws can meet, Gorger attacks.

He sucks in all of the flame he can, using his mouth to eat the demon flame. Both him and the flame are weakened by the cold, and he devours the flame like a hungry predator.

The blade and the claw meet, the blade shatters into five large pieces, and many more splinters. The claws bite deep into the body of the demon, and then explode. The demon tries to burst away, but even that short-lived flame is eaten and weakened by Gorger.

A second ice claw cuts into its body. I can feel the fear of the demon, a coat of flames bursts from his body, protecting it.

Merlin creates a large ice spike, it pierces the demon in the abdomen, almost tearing it in half.

Then Gorger comes in, his arms eat the arms of the demon and his head chomps down on the demon’s head.

The shrine is deactivated. Gorger keeps sucking the mana and the body of the demon. The body is frozen and broken apart. Then it breaks further, becoming fine dust.

Which, by the way, there’s a lot of demon dust all over my dungeon now… I can see the slimes seem to be cleaning already.

Invasion Over!

Gorger burps, and a mixture of demon dust, flames and frost come out of his mouths.