“Badass?” Aila repeated, looking up at Syd.
Jadis had almost forgotten that she still held Aila in her arms. Apparently, the term “badass” wasn’t a commonly used one on Oros, if at all. Though linguistic differences between Imperial and English was not something she needed to be bothered with at the moment.
“Yeah, badass. Should we get involved with all that?” Syd brushed past Aila’s question and motioned towards the battle happening further down the valley.
Aila frowned at the sight, her answer coming slowly.
“I’m not sure we’re needed,” she stated hesitantly. “Those are the Flame Wolves. They’re one of the most elite mercenary companies in Weigrun. I doubt they need the help.”
Jadis hadn’t heard of the “Flame Wolves” before or of their prowess, but she had to agree with Aila’s assessment. The mercenaries did not look like they needed help, despite fighting off a force many times larger than those Jadis had seen while roaming the Broken Hills so far. Despite being outnumbered, it didn’t look like the Flame Wolves were taking any casualties. Or if they were taking injuries, they were being healed almost immediately by a figure Jadis spotted in the back lines.
Also dressed in black and red robes like the wizard but sporting a metal chest plate, a man was holding his hands out before him, both palms sporting golden glows that were obvious even from a great distance. Whether he was buffing the fighters or constantly healing any injuries taken, Jadis couldn’t say, but it was clear the man was some kind of cleric casting divine magic.
No, the Flame Wolves had the battle well in hand. Her and Aila’s abilities were not needed.
As if to punctuate Jadis’ thoughts, the floating wizard finished channeling his spell and an orb of fire the size of a beachball flashed forward from him, striking the unknown giant spider demon that was still limping towards the battleline. Another massive explosion shook the air as it impacted the spider, the shockwave powerful enough that many of the bone thieves fighting the mercs stumbled, if they weren’t knocked off their feet outright. The bramble fiends caught in the blast were scattered like tumbleweeds, their weight nowhere near enough to resist the effects of the blast.
Strangely, the Flame Wolves were unaffected by the shockwave from the explosion or were at least prepared for it. They immediately took advantage of the disruption it caused their enemies and hacked away at any downed demons, slaughtering them wholesale.
As the smoke and dust cleared, Jadis could see that this second magical blast had been enough to bring the ten-legged spider demon to a crispy end. Its body had been shattered by the spell, cracks in the charred shell letting out smoke from the boiled flesh within. She couldn’t smell it yet, but she was certain that the flash-fried monster was going to smell like burnt earwax just from the look of its still-burning body.
Jadis had paused watching the fight long enough that her escort had enough time to catch up, their horses drawing up next to her three selves and Aila as they continued to watch the battle. It didn’t look like it was going to last much longer, not with how quickly the Flame Wolves were dispatching their numerous foes, but the two grundwyrms were still putting up a fight despite the powerful blows being leveled against them.
“By the gods! Where did so many come from?”
Jay glanced over her shoulder at Eir’s exclamation. The elf had drawn up close to her along with the escort and was watching the goings on with rapt attention, a look mixed between horror and fascination painted across her pretty features. The question was an apt one. Where had so many demons come from? Why were they all congregated at this location, a place basically in the middle of nowhere, now?
She’d been caught up in the excitement of watching what came across as a show. Jadis had forgotten for a moment that this was a very real life and death struggle and had just stood there with her brain turned off like a trio of dumb oxen. Even if the Flame Wolves didn’t need her help, that didn’t mean she should be just standing by like a feckless observer.
Jadis’ multiple eyes scanned the surroundings, looking for any signs of further danger or any clue as to what could have brought so many of the demons to this one location. She didn’t know what she could do with the information, but she didn’t know that she couldn’t be helpful either.
After a few seconds, Jadis spotted something that she’d initially overlooked due to the far more eye-catching activity of the battle. Along one side of the valley where the demons and Flame Wolves fought was a shadowy spot on the side of the hill that the demons had their backs to. With just a casual glance, it looked like nothing more than a fold in the landscape, darkened by the long shadows cast by the waning light of the evening sun. But when she gave it a second look from the three subtly different angles of her multiple selves, Jadis realized that the dark spot was more than just a shadow. In fact, the more she stared at it, the more it looked like a partially hidden entrance to a cave.
“See that?” Jay pointed at the deep shadow. “I think that might be a cave. Let’s go check it out.”
“What? Why?” Aila asked, startled out of her own observation of the battle. “Why would we?”
“Because if that’s a cave, it might be where those demons came from,” Jay answered, already starting to move.
“And if that is where those shit stains came from, then more might come from there too,” Dys added.
“And we happen to have a mage with us that’s perfect for blocking off choke points,” Syd finished her explanation as she carried Aila, running behind her two other selves.
Jadis’ arrival at the battle scene had her at a right angle to the embattled forces so it took no maneuvering for her to get behind the demons’ lines. As she sprinted into position, she kept an eye on the fight and saw when the wizard clearly caught sight of her. She was half worried he would start casting some of those explosive spells her way, but he seemed to take her appearance in stride, instead simply continuing to cast smaller darts of flame to strike demons below him.
As she passed close enough to the giant spider creature to feel the heat coming off if its smoldering body, she realized that she’d been wrong. It smelled far worse than burnt earwax. More like burning dog hair mixed with vinegar.
In moments Jadis had reached the dark shadow on the hillside and confirmed that, yes, it was indeed a hidden cave entrance. Not naturally hidden, either. A round layer of grass and dirt that was clearly separate from the rest of the ground was partially covering the opening, leaving a crescent moon of the dark exposed. Reaching it, Syd put Aila down a few yards back while Jay and Dys grabbed hold of what was, for all intents and purposes, a hidden door and lifted it out of the way.
The door was perfectly round and was twice as big around as she was tall but weighed surprisingly little. While the outer side of it was contoured grass that Jadis was sure blended perfectly with the side of the hill under normal circumstances, the inner side of the door was a uniform flat white surface made from thickly layered spider threads. Behind the door was not just a cave, but a tunnel of the same dimensions as the door, its wall made of the same thick, off-white thread.
Jadis couldn’t see far down into the tunnel. It was lightless and the setting sun did nothing to illuminate it as it sloped down into the earth due to the angle it was facing. Still, even over the battle noises behind her, Jadis could hear the sounds of movement coming from further down the black abyss before her.
“Trap it up!” Jay shouted as she took up positions in front of the entrance.
Jay and Dys took the left and right sides while Syd, wielding the weapon with the greatest reach, took up the middle. Standing behind them, Aila immediately began casting spike trap after spike trap, their glowing rune circles appearing all across the curved floor of the tunnel entryway. She spread the softly glowing traps out so they blocked off a full third of the way up either side of the tunnel walls and, with her greatly expanded magic pool, it wasn’t long before she had thirty of the trap spells in place.
“Eighty magic points left!” Aila called out, keeping Jadis aware of how much magical gas she had left in her tank for more spells.
As she finished calling out her update, the sounds of hoofbeats drowned out anything else she might have had to say as the guard escort arrived. Leaping down from their horses, they all took up a defensive line directly behind Jadis’ three selves, their shields creating a curved wall that left Jadis room to move.
“Sorry ma’am, but this doesn’t look like a situation we can allow you three to handle alone,” Ealdread called out to Jay from his position standing at the far left of formation.
Jay huffed out a sigh but didn’t bother arguing. The guardsman was right. This wasn’t just about her hunting for demons to gain levels. This was a far more serious situation. The tunnel before her was without a doubt the way the demons were sneaking such large numbers into the lands surrounding Far Felsen unnoticed. That made this about the safety of the city, not just her personal experience gain.
The sounds echoing within the demon tunnel grew closer, focusing Jadis’ mind on the task at hand.
From the shadows came a familiar shape. A bone thief ran forward on two legs, an odd assortment of arms flailing wildly from its bulbous hard core while four animal skulls of different shapes and sizes clattered together threateningly. The silent abomination rushed towards her, just as intent on stripping the flesh from her skeleton as every other bone thief Jadis had met and slain. As it got within a few dozen feet of Jadis, its bony foot stepped on one of the ghostly rune circles Aila had cast.
In an instant the bone thief’s leg was shattered by a three-foot spike of ghostly force magic and, as it tumbled forward and hit the ground, another force spike trap was triggered, splitting its core in half, killing the demon instantly.
“Where the hell were spells like that when these fuckers were all around trying to kill me,” Dys murmured, marveling to see a demon that had once been a serious threat slain with hardly any effort expended at all.
Seconds later and more of the demons were appearing from the shadows, but they weren’t just bone thieves. Bramble fiends and twisted wretches charged up the tunnel as well. First there were only a few, then more, then dozens of corrupted monstrosities came out of the dark.
As soon as they got within range Aila’s traps began going off, killing and maiming more than a dozen of the demons in a matter of moments. Despite the devastating passive attack, there were still more of the demons coming behind those that had fallen. A surge of adrenaline rushed through Jadis’ bodies as the first of the demons, a twisted wretch, came close enough for her to attack. With a forward thrust of her massive steel lance, Syd pierced the corrupted boar-like form of the wretch through the chest and, with a flick of her wrists, tossed the demon to the side where it landed on another of Aila’s traps that was placed partially up the curved wall, killing it in a gory spray of guts and blood.
“Alright you ugly-ass shit-eaters!” Jadis shouted in a synchronized war cry. “Fucking bring it on!”
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