The head of a praying mantis, golden eyes unblinking. Insectoid limbs, chitinous plating, with an icy blue sheen all across its body. Clawed hands and feet, with a razor-spiked tail and a set of mandibles that could rip heads from shoulders. It stood easily ten feet tall, its entire body radiating sheer cold, enough to turn the stone around it into nothing but glacier.

  "RRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!"

  It shouted with the freedom and rage of a being that had been sealed for who knew how many years, and I felt my entire body shake as the sound bounced off ice and stone. It was like my brain was shaking in my skull.

  An Ice Devil. A CR 14 creature, one that even much higher-level parties tended to have difficulty taking on. Just one attack from the thing could easily end either of our lives- and not just knock us unconscious, but outright kill us.

  But we weren't fighting it conventionally.

  "Now!" I shouted as the Ice Devil had just made it into the room.

  "Raaaah!" Bucket yelled as she sent out a massive cloud of pink and white powder from a bag she had prepared, dumping it over the Ice Devil.

  Either caught by surprise or not, its attempts to instinctively avoid the cloud were null, as the powder clung and even froze to its body. Ice Devils, and most devils for that matter, were innately magic resistant, giving them a much easier time avoiding effects like this. I didn't even need to use Chronal Shift; we had a solid advantage now. Faerie Fire revealed invisible creatures, as well as some other effects, but the biggest one was that it gave you and your allies advantage on attacks. Only made sense- it would be tough not to aim at the thing glowing!

  "GRRAAAAHHH!!" It shouted, screeching as its limbs thrashed at the cloud, trying to scrape off the powder to no avail. That was the other thing- after being applied, it would only disappear after the caster lost concentration.

  Best thing about Rope Trick? Attacks can't pass through it. We would only need to lean out to attack, whereas it would need to jump and grab onto... well, there wasn't anything to hold onto; it was a ledge into an extra-dimensional space. We were untouchable so long as we could duck back in before it lunged at us with a jump.

  Now, that was saying something- devils were plenty bright enough to hold actions- now, whether or not it had the ability to pull off an entire mult-attack mid-air, that was to be found out.

  But this dramatically improved our chances of survival.

  While it was distracted, I cast Minor Illusion, my hand whisping about towards the archway it just ran through- forming it to look exactly like the rest of the wall, as though it had never been opened.

  The Devil shouted something in infernal again, before looking up at where our hole in the ceiling was. It jumped up at us, but the claws scraped against the invisible sheen of the entrance, providing nothing.

  "Haha! Oh my God, yes! It works! Bucket, blast that bastard!"

  With a growing grin on her face, she poked her hand out right after he dropped to the floor again, blasting him with a beam of force.

  fweEEEN-CLANG!

  The blast bounced off the Devil's plating- even with absurd bonuses from her own intellect, the debuff on the creature, and our Emboldening Bond, on top of Bless, it still wasn't enough.

  "Keep at it, throw everything you have at him! Just don't hang outside the hole too long, and don't let him grab you!"

  I said, keeping the ready action of my own to yank her out of the way if the Devil ever lunged at her.

  I was counting in my head- we had maybe 100 seconds before we'd get hypothermia and start freezing to death, our bodies shutting down. If we could kill this thing before then, we'd be able to quell the cold and make some heat with Produce Flame to halt the process just enough to get out and warm up again. We needed to go quickly, and as much as this was a game of whack-a-me for the Ice Devil, it would learn sooner or later that we were freezing to death, and could very easily wait us out if it decided to use an Ice Wall.

  It hadn't noticed the illusion, and either didn't have a high enough passive investigation stat to see it, or wasn't bothering to. It was clearly thinking hard, I could tell the way its antenna were twitching rapidly, trying to figure out a way to reach up and get us. Its attacks couldn't pass through, nor could it reach in and get us without severe risk to itself. Even if we only had the most basic attacks, it was such a big demon I doubted it could get more than an arm or a head through the hole in our Rope Trick.

  It lunged again, screeching as its claws scraped HARD against the hole.

  Bucket slipped out again, me holding onto her thighs, as she bent backwards and blasted the Devil again with her turret and her Acid Splash.

  The acid sizzled off harmlessly, but the blast managed to knock it back a little, dinging its insectoid armor.

  "Yes! That's it! You got him!" I said, yanking Bucket back into the pocket of safety.

  It shortly became a routine. But soon, the Ice Devil grew smarter- it started jumping up to attack less, and started producing wall after wall of ice with its freezing breath and magic- not only providing itself cover to hide behind, but shortening the window that Bucket actually had to aim and fire at the thing.

  It became a war of readied actions- I tried melting away at the ice with Firebolt, but due to the frigid air, I could only take them down so fast, and often not before the Ice Devil could create another one.

  It started getting worse. A tiny knick on Bucket's face. A scrape on her arm. Damage to the turret. Worst of all, it was costing us time. Seconds ticked by. The Ice Devil didn't tire, but we did.

  Bucket's core was burning. We were both freezing. It grew harder to breathe, as though our lungs were freezing over.

  I stopped Bucket on the next go around.

  "Bucket, use that last spell slot, and cast grease on the floor," I whispered quickly.

  "What? My acid practically rolled off it! You think it'll trip and fall?"

  "Not if you time it right after it leaps at you next, right where it will land. After you do, I'll try to keep it in check. That way, we can save some time, and you'll have an easier time getting it.

  The room was only so large. And, given how the wording was for the second ability on the wand we had gotten in that ravine- I could restrain it from where we were, so long as I went down the rope a little. That way, we could restrain it, in mid-air, suspended over nothing, and strangle it. Bind it, whatever. It would be severely limited, with only its head inside our little pocket.

  We were running low on time, and while it was somewhat injured, we weren't keeping pace.

  But this depended heavily on whether or not I could Chronal Shift and Silvery Barbs the saves well enough to bind it properly. And, y'know, be strong enough to actually hold its weight so it couldn't reach in and cut the rope around its neck- otherwise, we would burn those spell slots and go back to what we were doing, which was a losing battle.

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  "Alright, fine, you got it- but this better work!"

  She shouted, before gazing down, waiting the few moments for the next swing, letting her torso dangle out of the hole.

  From her perspective, the room had completely frozen over in the short frame of time the Ice Devil had been up here. All the ice walls it had made had only made mirrors out of the room, and the Ice Devil was using them to significant effect. It made her trip up a few times, but thanks to her own Observant abilities, it wasn't hard for her to see where it was truly approaching from.

  "GRRAGHH!" It roared as it lunged out from behind an ice wall, before Bucket managed to curl back up and out of the way, a gash forming on her back as one claw barely managed to cut through her half plate. The wound quickly developed frostbite, turning a stark purple.

  "Fuck! Goddammit, you piece of shit!"

  She shouted, ducking back down in half a second and dumping grease all over where the creature was about to land.

  The Ice Devil splayed out, arms and legs outstretched, and managed to land standing, before sliding off the grease with unnatural ability, dipping toward cover.

  "No you don't!" I shouted, ducking out of the hole after Bucket again curled back up, forcing Chronal Shifts onto the Devil- this came without saves, and rewound time. Everything went gray for a moment, as only I and the Ice Devil retained our color. It was as if I was seeing in an even more monochrome darkvision.

  The Ice Devil was forcibly thrust back in time to when it was falling, and as time resumed just as quickly as it stopped, the Devil screamed as it landed face-first into the grease.

  "Now get up here, you blue bitch!" I shouted, whipping the wand outwards and sending a gnarly, root and thorn-covered vine from the end, out towards the fiend!

  It rushed across the space, trying to wrench hold. It thrashed out in response, the Ice Devil swatting away the vine and rolling over onto its back and jumping back up again, lunging at me!

  "FOOOL!!! YOUR ATTACKS MEAN NOTHING!!" It roared, as its mandibles splayed wide!

  "BACK!!!" I shouted, using my other charge of Chronal Shift again, sending it reeling back to before the vine whipped outwards. Again, the world went gray for a moment as I rewound time. I twisted my wrist, my hand clawed as if grasping the very hands of time for just the briefest of moments. The Ice Devil's eyes gleamed as it was forced back to when the vine was reaching out for it, as his back was turned and his face in the grease.

  With the world gaining color again, the vine whipped out and strangled the Devil's arms to his sides, before yanking him out of the grease and forcing him up towards our pocket of safety's entrance.

  "I got him! Get your turret, and blast his face!"

  I shouted, stamping the wand underneath my foot and using the rope to quickly begin strangling his neck, tying it as tightly as I could, as soon as I could.

  I could send the Devil thrashing around in the binds, trying again and again to escape as its tail whipped around, cutting up the vines and thorns that continued to regrow.

  Bucket scrambled over, before stamping her foot down on the forehead of the Ice Devil, shoving her turret to the side of his face. Pulling the trigger-

  ffwweeEEEENNN-

  The blast rocked a hole into the Ice Devil's head plating, but only formed a dent.

  "Again! Don't stop! Keep going! Use everything!"

  I shouted as I kept tightening the rope around the Devil's neck. I felt the magic from the wand begin to give out as his thrashing became stronger and stronger.

  "Stop, dammit!" I shouted, thrusting one of my hands off the rope and into his skull, casting a point-blank Silvery Barbs. I felt the luck shift, fate strands bind again, even for the smallest of moments, before the bonds around the Devil's arms tightened back up again.

  Another blast of force energy to the Devil's face, point-blank.

  ffwweeEEEENNN-

  The hole in the Devil's head grew larger, but it wasn't enough. Acid Splash was dumped into the mandibles, recklessly biting for anything and everything it could get hold of.

  We heard the sound of his tail piercing repeatedly at the entrance to the hole, cutting vines like a boar crashing through a forest.

  It was hurting my hands, these damned soft baby-hands Chagrin had, to hold this rope and keep it tight around the Devil's neck. I could hear it beginning to choke for air, as ichor was slowly seeping out of the wound on its head, and its vocal cords melting away as acid was dumped down its throat by Bucket.

  ffwweeEEEENNN-

  Another blast to the side of the head. The bonds became looser—another spell slot burned on keeping the damned thing in its bonds.

  I was worried we would run out of time, even still, even at the rate we were at, before finally-

  SPLAT!

  The head of the Devil exploded after another four blasts from her turret. We were both covered in cold, purple ichor before the remainder of the corpse dropped to the floor of the room beneath us, and the entire place felt a good 20 degrees warmer. Still cold just from the sheer amount of ice, but warmer. We had a bit more time.

  We both sat in silence for a moment, looking at each other, coated in the blood of the fiend. We sat there, staring, long enough for the blood and the corpse beneath us to turn to ash and drift away in the faint breeze.

  We let out a joint sigh of relief- both of us visibly relaxing into the confines of our little pocket of safety. Neither of us wanted to move from where we were, both exhausted and at least partially injured.

  I burned my last second-level spell slot on Healing Word on Bucket, seeing how she had been rather severely scraped up, even by the tiniest of cuts the Devil had made.

  I hummed a prayer to Eldath, both as thanks and as a hope that she would heal Bucket, and promptly after, a soft, glowing golden light flowed from my mouth to her wounds, which were healed shortly thereafter.

  We just sat there, eyes closed for a while on opposite ends of the pocket, breathing heavy from the fight. I was utterly drained of spell slots and of my class features, and it felt difficult to move just from how cold we were.

  I felt some shifts in the pocket, as Bucket crawled over and leaned against me, resting her head against the nook in my armpit and chest.

  "I'm cold. And I think we'd be dead if not for your plan, so... Don't think too hard about it."

  I didn't say anything and just reached into my Bag of Holding to pull out my blanket, draping it over us and taking a short nap with her there.

  ...

  Some time passed, and I knew we were running short on how much longer we could hang out in the pocket. I slowly undid the blanket, much to Bucket's groaning, and let down the rope into the dungeon again before the pocket kicked us out. Bucket rubbed her eyes, and I stretched my back, before we got to heading down into the chamber the Devil had risen out of.

  Over the course of the hour or so we had inside the pocket, the ice had steadily begun to melt, and the temperature had risen to a brisk, albeit bearable, temperature. We made our way down the slippery steps into the Devil's chamber, and what we found nearly blew our minds.

  "HOLY FUCK!!" Bucket shouted, rushing into the room as the reflective light of gold and platinum bounced on her goggles and plate mail.

  "Do you SEE ALL THIS?! Fuck the anvil, look at this stuff! There's so much!"

  She was amazed, and I had to clench my jaw to prevent it from hitting the floor.

  Wall to wall, it felt like a pile of gold and platinum coins that had been shoddily thrown against it. In front lies a perfectly golden sarcophagus, one fit for a child- its entire cover was riddled with images of praying mantis bugs, which only led me to assume whatever poor kid was buried here was likely the cause for the Ice Devil. There were a few silver chests spotted among the piles of coins as well. One contained what looked like a belt with the emblem of a blue-faced, white-bearded man. I'd need to identify it and the other items with it, but I had a good idea of what this did. The other two chests were smaller, but contained what looked like a small pink and green spherical stone- an Ioun Stone of Leadership, which I could recognize almost instantly. This could boost your base charisma stat by 2, which was a solid boost, especially given our current level. Beside it was a ring, adorned with exactly a dozen amethyst and onyx gemstones, which was very obviously magical. I ended up shoving both into my backpack, along with the belt I had found. Bucket and I could always debate later over how we wanted to split everything.

  Over by Bucket's side of the room, she found what looked to be a Manual of Iron Golems, a set of Boots of the Winterlands, and a Staff of Fire. They were iconic and relatively easy to recognize, whereas I believe I would only have trouble identifying the ring I had found.

  This was an excellent haul. Paired with what we had found further up in the dungeon, we would be walking out of here with more money than we likely knew what to do with—especially given that it would be a pain to carry it all.

  We combed the place for traps, of course, but only found the kid's corpse, a small memorial plaque to him with a name long since scratched out. It felt bad tearing the place up for some loot, experience, and money. Still, in all honesty, this was history likely from centuries ago, and being rid of a devil that powerful was a boon for anyone in the nearby lands.

  We spent the next few hours making a barrier in the dungeon's entrance out of wood and rocks, before meticulously combing through every room in the place for traps, hidden treasure, and carefully taking stock of our newly acquired gear.

  Sure, this would easily add a day's worth of travel to our journey, but given the loot and the score we had made, I would argue it was well worth it.

  Was this a blessing from Eldath? Was the ruler of this realm, be it a higher being or not, preparing us for something more challenging to come? Or had we just hit a series of strokes of luck, only to manipulate it even more when we were destined to die here?

  We started piling all the gear, treasure, and money we had found. It was one hell of a haul.