Captain Jack surged forward, moving with the kind of quickness I rarely saw in people who weren’t me. In a breath, he was standing by the Queen’s side, plunging his rapier into her shoulder. “I suggest not letting her think. She is up to something, and I don’t care for it.”
My wings unfurled, and carried me forward, to join in the Captain’s assault. In my hands was my trusty sword, an old friend that I kept close at hand. It was practicality that made me choose to use my magic, for the most part, rather than the blade, but with only one foe before me, I saw no reason to hesitate. The black blade of Soul’s Violation, wreathed in the icy cold of my own magics, slashed down, across the queen’s body, ignoring the armor she wore completely. The queen was dead before she even hit the ground.
The next instant, my world turned black, as unholy flames erupted from the queen’s corpse. They did not burn like actual flames, which was a blessing in disguise, for they burned me well enough all on their own that I was having trouble keeping my feet. When the torrent cleared, I saw that all the queen’s guards were dead, and none of us had escaped the fire. But, at the same time, my eyes went wide, for the queen had been reborn through that unholy fire, as a full-blooded succubus! And worse still, she had two balors by her side!
“Shit!” Vestele cursed, at the sight of the three demons facing off against them. “Blessed Malcanthet, heal us in our hour of heed!” Healing power went out in a wave, restoring the wounds of all our non-undead party members. Or, at least, the ones that were still grouped together, the wave did not reach far enough to get to me, and Vestele cursed again, moving forward as she did so.
Siora, on the other hand, grinned. “Now, this is something I can do something with! Mel, I’m grabbing the one next to you!” Stepping forward to stand side by side with her sister, she targeted the Balor standing over me, and cast a spell. The next moment, the balor’s face lost its malevolence, becoming blank.
The succubus that was once queen displayed a nimbleness she had not displayed before, diving between the balor’s legs and coming up on the other side. She stroked the balor on his backside, and, at that touch, the blank look left the balor’s face, while a look of smug contentment graced hers. “Oh, no. These are my boys. You can’t have them, wench! Not now that I have ascended, with Lord Graz’zt’s favor!”
The balors smiled at each other. “Oh, it has been so long since we’ve gotten to play in the mortal realm, brother, but I think we might see to our defenses first,” one said, as he cast an unholy aura around the three demons in the room.
The second baloro grinned. “Indeed, brother.” He waved a hand at the twins, and I sensed a pulse of magic, but nothing happened. His grin slipped a bit, and he unleashed another effect. “Though it seems that these playthings are going to be significantly harder to break than our last ones.”
“Then we’ll just make them sorry they were ever born, brother!”
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Fartooth chirped unhappily, and unleashed a flurry of strikes against the balor by my side. “Focus on the balors, one at a time! Get them down as quick as you can! Then we can concentrate on the bitch in charge!” Two of the arrows bit, and made it through the demon’s protections, causing him to snarl as his attention turned to the little kobold.
However, he should have been paying more attention to the skeletal mage. Stepping forward, she raised one hand and pointed it at the balor. “Die.” With that single word, a bolt of necrotic energy leapt from her fingertip, and struck the balor. The balor’s eyes rolled back in its head for a moment as the spell hit, before it disappeared into black smoke, returned to the Abyss.
Jack slipped the tip of his rapier up through the balor’s defenses with a practiced flair, hitting him once in the flank, and the second time in the groin. While it did not do nearly as much damage to the demon as it ought, the pain was enough that the balor’s rage was focused solely and completely upon the swashbuckling skeleton. “Go on and take care of the queenie, lass. We’ll keep her pet demon company.”
“Right!” There wasn’t anything else to say. Jack and I were the best ones to keep the demons occupied, and we were already engaged with our targets. It only made sense.
Darting forward, I wreathed the shadowy blade in further blackness, and slashed at the demoness. My blade struck true, slashing her across the belly, and striking deep. More importantly, my ability struck true, her scream of pain music to the ears. “When I’m done with you, bitch, you’re going to be so ugly that even the blind men wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole.”
Vestele flew up behind me, and touched my wing. “And let her run back to Graz’zt, knowing that it was the servants of Malcanthet and Auril who shamed her.” As she spoke, healing power went through me, taking care of all my wounds.
Siora grinned as she uttered a spell under her breath. “These demons think that they are so tough. But I bet their master will be quite displeased with them when they get hurled into the Abyss. At least the first one got sent back before he could really be shamed.”
The queen snarled, “Peasants! Damned swine in service to a trumped up harlot with airs not fitting her station! I’ll feast on your flesh as I offer your souls to the Lord!” As she spoke, she hit me with some magic, but it did nothing. She ran, sheltering behind the other balor’s bulk, and my blade simply slipped off her magical protections, refusing to bite.
The remaining balor snarled. “Impudent whelp! Allow me to teach you some respect! BURN!” And, with a wave of his hand, a firestrorm descended upon the throne room, burning all of us, save for Nalea, who looked untouched.
The little kobold did not even flinch at the flames. Instead, he simply sent another volley of arrows at the demon. Two of the arrows hit, neither one doing much in the way of damage, but each one added on to the wounds the demon had already received, and chipped away at his vitality. They could do this!
Again, the undead mage held up a hand, and unleashed a beam of icy cold. This time, she chose an easier target, for the balor’s size worked against him. The ray struck true, and the balor roared in anger at the injury done to him.
Captain Jack stabbed forward with his rapier again, scoring two scratches with the tip of the blade, before once more aiming at the demon’s vitals, this time slipping the blade up, and just between the balor’s ribs. “Come now, big and ugly. Ye ain’t got time for spellwork, not while’s I’m ticklin’ yer ribs like this. Or mayhaps you like it? You one of those types, hmm?”
Moving quickly, I followed the Queen, ducking under a sweep of the balor’s longsword as I did so. “Running away already? But weren’t you the one who was looking down on us ‘peasants’? You were so proud of becoming a demon, weren’t you? Where has all that confidence gone?” As I spoke, I unleashed a burst of negative energy, striking all those around me, including the Captain. But it was negative energy, so I knew it would heal him. The other two, however, were only going to suffer more from the side effects.
Vestele chuckled. “She realized the truth about your aura, sweetie. Realized that it left her vulnerable, and that her master’s gifts were not as potent as she was led to believe!” And then, with an invocation of power, she unleashed a spell upon the queen. The next instant, the queen’s flesh collapsed in on itself, leaving a sickening ball of flesh behind, as her armor and weapons fell about what was left of her corpse. At the same time, the balor, his summoner gone, disappeared in a burst of black smoke.
We had won.
Frozen Soul -
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Book I - Game Start
Omnibus I - Books 1-4
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