Noll’s daggers sank deep into Vinea’s lower left mouth petal, catching between the hard stone scales of its exterior and its soft, fleshy interior. With his legs braced on the outside, Noll leveraged his full strength and pulled hard, ripping a huge chunk out of the edge of the Demon’s jaw. Multiple long tentacles snaked out, trying to catch hold of the therion, but he simply whipped a blade through the air and cut the tips off of a few reaching tentacles and was gone. It was a superficial wound, one that would neither kill nor ultimately inconvenience the massive beast of a foe, but it certainly had to hurt to have blood spilled that way. Not just from a physical perspective, but also from a sense of pride. It was that demonic sense of pride that was their target, at least for the moment. As it turned out, Demon Prince Vinea had something of a superiority complex.
And it did not like having its plans foiled.
“She rages…” Alex continued her running translation, whispering into Jay’s ear as she watched the Demon Prince. “She orders… The Mire Hounds… To kill the Horned One…”
“Then I guess I’m not doing enough to piss her off then, huh?” Jay joked as she watched her selves battle the Demon from a distance. “I’ll have to step up my game.”
“No…” Alex disagreed, her three eyes never leaving the scene before her. “She hates you… Hates that… You live… Hates that… You are here… Her focus… Is you…”
“The feeling’s mutual…”
Syd dodged out of the way of another rock blast, this one’s spell runes not forming quite so instantaneously as the first time. Darting close to Vinea, she slashed at a cluster of eyeballs that lined the inner edge of the Demon’s lower right jaw. Her attack caused a spray of black blood and furious flailing of dark tentacles, but Syd was more than fast enough to dodge out of the way of the grappling attempt. Vinea appeared to have plenty of spell power and Vitality, but Agility clearly wasn’t its highest stat.
As both Syd and Noll struck the colossal wyrm from two sides, the many lesser Demons that were still flowing out of Vinea’s open mouth were doing everything in their power to rip the two warriors assailing their prince apart. Despite their numbers, the two ignored them almost completely. Thanks to their magnified size, the mire hounds were nothing but pebbles under their feet as they charged and stomped around the overrun city street. The unrelenting simulacrum and dead heads were still threats, but between the two of them, none that stuck their nonexistent noses out of Vinea’s throat lived long enough to matter. The only lesser abominations that lurked on the field that caused both Jadis and Noll to ruthlessly focus on them when they appeared were the essence leeches. Even Noll showed the eel-like Demons respect, not letting any that showed their heads come close to touching him before swiftly slicing them to pieces.
“Pillar…” Alex said, pointing at the eastern side of the street. “Second Pillar…” she continued, indicating another spot on the west.
Syd shouted out a warning to Noll and, in the next instant, both dodged out of the way of two huge stone pillars that erupted diagonally from the ground. Both columns were angled such that if either Syd or Noll had been caught in their attacks, they would have been hurled inside of Vinea’s open maw. Having whipped around to dodge out of the way of the magical attack, Syd used the momentum of her movement to forcefully propel her leg into the base of the pillar in a spinning kick that shattered the stone like glass. The magically compacted rock cracked, then crumbled, falling apart as the main shaft of the column smashed down on dozens of the Demons flooding through Vinea.
“Hey, we ready to do this shit yet?” Kerr called from her position behind Jay. “I think more of the mud dogs are starting to notice us.”
“Just step on them, then!” Sorcha scolded from where she hunkered in an open window of the building they were all hiding behind. “Don’t be lazy!”
“I’m not lazy, I’m getting antsy,” Kerr retorted as she absentmindedly squished a mire hound under her boot. “I hate waiting like this.”
“You’ve only got one lust empowered arrow,” Jay replied without looking back. “We’ve got to wait for the perfect shot.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know…”
Jadis knew the feeling, even if she was actually directly involved in combat at that moment, unlike Kerr. Her Syd self was doing everything she could to distract Vinea, and the Demon Prince was certainly being distracted according to Alex’s translation, but so far it had not been enough. Evidence of their inadequacy presented itself a few seconds later as a burst of blazing red fire followed by a flash of holy yellow light lit up the night sky.
Severina and Aelius, the fourth Seraphim Jadis had yet to officially meet, had been attacking Vinea with as much fervency from above as Syd and Noll were doing from below. Constantly swooping low and strafing the huge Demon with aerial strikes, their attempts were consistently met by either huge stone shields that would temporarily materialize in midair, or blasts of rock shrapnel that forced them to veer off course. On multiple occasions, Jay spotted blue-winged Tacitus following behind either Aelius or Sev in an attempt to ferry Bridget close enough to land her lantern attack, yet each time he had been forced to pull out of the dive to avoid mortal injury. Despite being an entirely land-based combatant, Vinea’s defenses against aerial opponents were proving to be annoyingly formidable.
The only one of the Seraphim who had come close to landing direct blows on the Demon Prince since it had taken up a defensive position on the ground had been Noct. Rather than diving from above, the belt-wrapped woman kept flying in low and slow, almost like she was sneaking through the air. While she had come close enough to stab Vinea a couple of times in the side with Thea’s spear before being forced to pull back, Jadis didn’t think the attacks were doing much. It didn’t look like Noct had any kind of skills or spells to empower her attacks the way Severina and Aelius did, which meant each spear stab was the equivalent of a bee sting to the titanic creature. At least the venom of the weapon was probably doing something to slowly eat away at Vinea’s health.
It would require a deviation of the plan and could either put Bridget at greater risk or weaken their overall attack, but Jadis was seriously considering shouting for Tacitus to bring the lantern warrior down to her Syd self so she could carry her close enough to land the vital blow. Syd would then have to devote time to getting Bridget out of the way rather than landing empowered strikes, but it was better than not lighting Vinea up in blue flames at all. If Dys didn’t already have a passenger, that part of Jadis could have done the job, but two passengers in a chaotic battle were too many to keep safe, even for her.
“She is… Casting… A wide spell… She wants… The Demons… To keep you… On the ground…”
Alex’s warning was accompanied by a host of the mire hounds and even a couple of still-active simulacrums throwing themselves at Syd and Noll. Their actions were intended to slow or stall the two, which Jadis was sure she would have caught onto even if Alex hadn’t been there to interpret the Demon Prince’s broadcasted plans. As such, both were quick to get out of the way even though there were no overt signs of Vinea casting any spells.
Jadis wasn’t sure why the runes she associated with wizards casting magic were not always appearing when the Demon cast its spells. She supposed it was entirely possible that it could have two or more completely different types of spell-casting classes, but something about the Demon’s magic plucked at her gut, telling her there was a different answer. Either way, the source of Vinea’s spells was an academic question that was hardly important when she was in the middle of trying to kill the big bitch.
A flash of runes that filled the air in a wide arc in front of the Demon’s monstrous maw was the last second warning before the spell was cast. Both Noll and Syd were already in the air, legs, lifted as they jumped out of the way, but the effect still caught them somewhat. Hundreds of stone spikes, each one ten to fifteen feet long, erupted from the ground in a roughly cone shape extending two hundred feet from Vinea. Most of the Demons that had been within the spell’s range were impaled by the sharp rocks, doing the job of killing off many of the fodder that Jadis had been largely ignoring. Vinea’s spell was brutal, slaughtering the Demon’s own kin far more than causing damage to Syd or Noll, though neither of them got away clean. One of the spikes had managed to pierce the old wolf’s right calf and another knocked Syd into the rubble of a destroyed building. Jadis couldn’t do much for Noll, but at least Eir was able to immediately undo the minor damage done since she was with Jay.
The spikes weren’t the full effect of the spell, though, as Jadis realized a moment later.
All of the stony thorns fell apart, crumbling into piles of rough sand that mixed and churned with the dead and dying Demons that littered the street. The speed of their blending was unnatural, clearly a product of magic, and in moments the whole area around Vinea had been transformed into a goopy morass of foul earth that clung to anything it touched like a living thing. Despite her size and strength, Syd could feel the swampy muck holding onto her, trying to slow her movements and hold her down.
“Fucking asshole,” Jay snarled at the realization. “The bitch made it so that if we plant our feet close to her, we’ll get bogged down.”
“Do we back off and regroup?” Kerr asked, her tone filled with a mix of worry and frustration. “Try from another angle?”
“We might need to—”
“No…”
Alex forcefully interjected, her words punctuated by her tentacles flexing in excited agitation. Her face was lit by the fire of a righteous fury as she glared triumphantly at the massive Demon Prince. When she spoke again, Alex’s tone burned with justified wrath.
“She grows tired… Her magic wanes… She depletes… Vinea starves…”
Starves was an… unusual word to describe the Demon’s condition. Nevertheless, odd verbiage aside, Jadis understood what Alex was saying. Vinea’s magic reserves were low. The worm-like beast had to be running on fumes after all the spells it had been casting nearly nonstop. Even if it had a high recovery rate similar to Alex, it would still take time to regenerate its magic. Not even a Demon Prince had infinite resources.
“Hit the fucker now!” Syd shouted as loudly as she could so that all could hear her.
To accompany her words with action, Syd hefted a massive chunk of stone wall that had once been part of the building she had landed in. She was pretty sure it had already been rubble before she’d fallen into it. Mostly. In any case, the broken piece of masonry made for a handy missile, which Syd put to immediate use by hurling it with all her might at a fleshy spot deep inside Vinea’s maw. Either taking her cue or just of the same mind, Jadis saw Noll rip a sharp slab of rock from near where he had landed and hurl the object at the Demon like a discus. In the same instant, both Severina and Aelius dove at Vinea’s head, their respective lights blazing as they jointly smote their enemy with Divine magic.
The four-way attack was met with three spell shields. Two were conjured at precise angles, blocking both Syd and Noll’s improvised projectiles, while the third was one large slab that appeared above the Demon’s head to block both Seraphim at once. It was that broad, imprecise barrier that gave Tacitus the opening he needed. Flying in high from the west, he followed close behind Aelius, but not so close that he struck the barrier at the same time. Instead, his dive was timed so that he reached the Demon Prince a half-second after the conjured spell shield faded into nothing. If Vinea had made a smaller shield, it might have seen Tacitus coming and held the barrier longer. Or, if it had more energy, it may have taken a more offensive measure that would have driven the large Seraphim back like it had many times before. Instead, Tacitus was able to swoop in close enough that his passenger finally delivered the fiery blow they had all been waiting for.
Demon Prince Vinea’s gargantuan form blazed brilliantly with Bridget’s azure flames, creating a shockingly bright beacon that lit the sky more brightly than even Aelius’ artificial sun. Every person within miles would be able to see the burning Demon, and for the next five seconds, any attack that struck the Demon would do an additional fifty-percent base damage.
Before even the first second had fully passed, an eight-foot-long arrow, empowered by every applicable skill that Kerr possessed, pierced deeply into the base of Vinea’s top jaw, just above the point where it met the Demon’s skull. The ranged attack had come at a sharp angle from above, so Jadis was a little worried that it wasn’t as perfect a shot as she would have wished for. However, by the shout of elation that came from Kerr, it sounded like she approved of the placement of her arrow.
“Fuck yeah!” the therion cried out in delight. “Now fucking catch me!”
To make sure that every skill possible had gone off for Kerr, including her one that offered improved accuracy if she were at a higher elevation than her target, Jadis had gotten creative. While Syd had been hurling masonry, Jay had been tossing her horned lover into the air. Of course, Sorcha had already cast her partial invisibility spell on Kerr, so when a therion more than twelve feet tall went rocketing up into the night sky, she wasn’t quite as noticeable as she would have been otherwise. Kerr got a damage boost for ambushes too, after all.
Kerr’s Lustful Arrow had been masterfully shot, and the empowered attack had clearly affected Vinea. Jadis could see the Demon’s body shudder in pain as the giant missile that had pierced its body crumbled into pieces, its power spent. The damage from a fully lust-charged arrow was great on its own, and made far, far greater when combined with Nox Archer’s Brutal Shot, Colossus Slayer, and every other bonus Kerr could pour onto the single attack at the same time. Add on Bridget’s spell, and Jadis had no doubt that Vinea was feeling some of the pain it deserved at that moment.
Despite the undeniable power of Kerr’s surprise shot into Vinea’s jaw, Jadis knew it wouldn’t be enough to kill the Demon Prince. Even presuming the massive foe had already taken twenty percent of its health as damage over the course of the battle, which was a generous estimation, Kerr’s arrow wasn’t likely to do more than double that percentage. That left Vinea with more than half of its health, at a minimum.
Of course, their plan didn’t end with Kerr’s empowered bow shot. It merely began there.
Syd launched herself through the air, aiming directly for the Demon Prince’s upper right jaw petal. From the other side of the intersection, having been hidden out of sight until that moment, leapt Dys. Jadis’ other self aimed for Vinea’s left upper jaw, the one opposite of Syd. With battleaxe extended overhead in one hand, she prepared to strike the Demon with as much force as she could muster.
Naturally, Vinea saw the two gigantic Nephilim sailing through the sky and cast defensive shield spells to block them from landing their dual attack. Jadis could only imagine the shock the prideful Demon felt when both Dys and Syd’s weapons completely shattered the heretofore unbreakable barriers without slowing. The long blade of Syd’s sword staff pierced straight through the outer shell of the Demon’s hide and punched through to the inside in a spray of dark blood. Dys’ axe cracked open a deep gouge where she landed, though her impact was far more bombastic as she landed with her feet outstretched and used her axe to hook into the Demon so she was hanging on the top edge of that jaw. The explosive power of Jadis’ two massive bodies slamming into either side of Vinea’s open maw shook the Demon, causing its colossal form to rumble like a living avalanche, and as it started to move, it tried to close its jaws to protect its more vulnerable inner flesh.
Maybe it was preparing to shake the Nephilim off. Maybe it was going to cast a spell that would blast the two giants from its face. Or maybe it was just trying to get away, having finally realized that it had made a truly enormous error in judgement when it decided to fight Jadis and her team. Whatever Vinea’s thoughts were at that moment in time, Jadis couldn’t say she cared. The result would be the same regardless.
“Got you…” A partially translucent Aila whispered from where she was nestled in the crook of Dys’ left arm.
A trio of arcane bolts that orbited around each other sped from the tip of Aila’s outstretched staff. Having switched one passenger for another while Noll and Syd had kept Vinea distracted, Dys had been waiting with Aila under one arm for just this opportunity. The redheaded arcanist’s tri-bolt flew directly into the ragged hole left in the Demon Prince’s flesh from Kerr’s arrow, letting the magic go deep within the wyrm rather than just bouncing off the exterior. Without a moment to spare, too, as Bridget’s Light the Target Up only had a second or two left.
This had been Aila’s plan from the start. Recalling the power her arcane explosion had generated when contained inside a solid space like Trummelton’s kitchen during the cultist attack on the capital, she had come up with the idea of putting both Kerr’s arrow and her magic to maximum effect. Originally, Jadis had thought it was going to be just a regular arcane bolt Aila would be working with, but it looked like she had either regenerated just enough of her magic reserves to reach the amount she needed to cast the one hundred point version of the spell, or she had checked a few more notifications while waiting and gained another level or two. In any case, Jadis braced herself, as she knew the coming tri-bolt explosion would—
An immense bubble of flesh formed in less than a second, ballooning outward so quickly that Dys barely had enough time to turn her body so that Aila would be protected. A moment later, the bubble burst and a torrent of black blood and demonic viscera sprayed the area. It was a violent storm of arcane energy mixed with truly copious amounts of Demon gore, and it splattered out from Vinea’s half-closed mouth and onto the sodden street below, feeding more blood to the swamp the Demon Prince’s magic had created.
A noise like a thousand metal trees groaning in a hurricane shook Jadis’ teeth as Vinea let out an unearthly shriek of agony. The terrible noise was punctuated by a crack, then a crashing rumble as the bone in Vinea’s upper jaw fractured and split, giving way under the immense damage that had been done to it. The top petal of the horrid wyrm’s flower maw had been broken, and a second later it crashed heavily upon the ground.
“Nobody buries me under a mountain of shit and gets away with it,” Syd laughed in triumph. “Now’s our time, everyone! Go! Go! Go!”
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