This got the attention of the remaining 4 wizards, and 2 of them turned to see what was going on. Emett was immediately attacked by a swarm of demons and a few zombies. The massive sword did a good job of cutting through the demon and zombie flesh, so he was able to hold his own for a while, but he was bound to get tired. Emett had to end the fighting as soon as he could, or he was going to become too tired to swing that giant sword.
Then Emett remembered his secret weapon! He shouted his war cry as loud as he could. This caused all of the monsters to freeze in place for a moment, and the wizards all staggered where they stood. This momentary disorientation of his enemies let Emett break through the line of demons and cleave one of the wizards from crown to crotch. This caused the demons attacking Emett to vanish back into the ground and left him with just the zombies to face. Emett shouted again and attacked the other wizard controlling the zombies. The zombies fell out of the fight as soon as their master was slain; this left only the two wizards facing Alison.
Alison stopped fighting the summoned monsters and switched her efforts to the two wizards. She was able to engulf them both in a fire wall, and the wizards vanished into a pile of ashes. The two heroes were almost stunned by the sudden end to the hostilities; they were both exhausted by the battle. Alison still had enough strength left in her magic to recharge the stamina of both, but they still needed to rest to let their fighting juices calm down.
They sat on the lid of a convenient chest and surveyed the room. Most of the fire had been confined to one end of the room, so there were several chests and an armor rack left undamaged by the fire that Alison had concocted. Hanging from the armor rack was a magnificent set of full armor painted in distinctive colors. Once he had caught his breath, Emett walked up to the armor and put both hands on it. "Hat, what can you tell me about this beautiful armor?"
That is the armor once worn by a great hero, Roland of Orleans. It has several magical attributes that I think you would find very helpful. It is resistant to all elemental forces, fire, lightning, and cold, and to poison and magic. If you wear that armor, you will be fully protected against all types of attack except purely physical ones, though it will reduce the force of a blow by 75%. It has a special magical lining, so that you must take off all of your clothes and wear the armor next to your skin. It will be quite comfortable, so that you need not worry about that.
The armor has the further advantages of reinforcing your stamina, so that you will not tire as quickly, and it will augment your vision, so that you can see in nearly total darkness. I highly recommend that you don that armor before you leave this room!
That was enough information for Emett. He stripped and put on Roland's armor. He felt great, completely recovered from his recent fight as soon as the last piece of armor was fastened into place. The armor felt as light as conventional cloth clothes, so he knew that the armor was fitted with an attribute which reduced its apparent weight.
They looked around and found a large hoard of gold, so it would be a very long time before they really needed to restock their money belt. They also found a number of flasks of manna, a few of which Alison clipped to her belt, and the rest were stored in Emett's weapons pack. They also came across a very beautiful amulet that Hat could not identify. Alison liked it so much that she decided to wear it, even if it did appear to be magically worthless.
By now, they were adequately rested and ready to resume their fight against evil. They did hope, that by killing off this batch of evil wizards, they had stopped the attacks by the undead on the townspeople. However, they were sure that they would meet more examples of evil monsters before they finished their search.
The next level down was similar in appearance to the one that they had left, but the only monsters they saw were a few bats and a few goat-men. Alison took care of the bats with her fire wall spell, but Emett wanted to test his new armor by handling the goat-men by himself. The new armor absorbed all that the goat-men could dish out, and Emett went through them with his battle ax like the proverbial hot knife through butter. In practically no time, they had this level cleared.
They headed for the room where they expected to find a portal, because there was a purple aura emitting from the doorway. However, it was not the kind of portal that they expected: the doorway, itself, was the portal. They found themselves in a large room that was fitted out like the most ornate cathedral, except that all of the usual holy items were replaced by symbols normally associated with the devil and devil worship.
As they got their feet planted firmly on the ornate floor and were looking around in awe and disgust, a door burst open and a creature entered, bearing an archery bow and wearing a quiver of arrows glowing red. The creature was a succubus in the form of a beautiful naked woman with wings. She was about the size of the average human woman, but no human woman could hope to be that beautiful nor that sexy. However, her actions were anything but sexy. She screamed a wordless, but piercing cry, and shot one of her arrows at Alison. Emett flung out his shield arm and deflected the arrow, but this only brought on another scream and an arrow aimed at him.
Alison countered with an exploding fire ball which caught the succubus in the chest and blew her into many pieces; each piece of the monster vanished in a puff of black smoke. The screams by the succubus must have attracted the attention of some of her sisters, because a gang of succubi came boiling through the door, raging and shooting their arrows tipped with magic energy. Not knowing a better way to protect Alison, Emett jumped in front of her and blocked the arrows with his own body.
The magic resistance of Emett's armor did its job of shielding both of them from the worst of the arrow onslaught, but he was still feeling some discomfort from having all of that energy dissipated around him in such a short time. Meanwhile, Alison had sent forth her fire wall to attack the succubi, and it was doing a creditable job, though the succubi were somewhat fire resistant.
They eventually managed to defeat the succubi that had attacked them in this room, but how were they going to handle moving down a corridor? There, they could be attacked from both sides, and Emett could not shield Alison from the front and back at the same time. They needed a solution to this problem before they left their current location.
Alison had another conference with Hat, and they came up with a workable solution to the problem. Alison could construct a shield that was impenetrable to be dragged behind them as they walked forward on their way. This shield would have to be impenetrable to Alison's spells, too, if they were to be sure of its protection. Alison and Emett settled for this spell and walked toward the door that the succubi had come through.
Chapter Seven
Alison and Emett were worried about an ambush as they exited the Church of Satan, as they called it. A short consultation between Alison and Hat resulted in a projected spell in front of them which took on the appearance of a mirror. Alison could turn it in any direction so it was now possible to see around corners and into rooms before they actually entered. The mirror was also a barrier to physical items, but it would not stop spells, so it was only of marginal protection.
Alison projected her mirror out the door and recoiled, instinctively. Just beyond the door at either side was a great number of the succubi waiting to ambush the two heroes as they came through the door. Alison threw up the safety shield to the right of the doorway, completely blocking that group of succubi from attacking them while they were eliminating the ones on the left.
Alison attacked the succubi on the left with the fire wall while Emett took care of those who were sufficiently fire resistant to escape their destruction by the fire wall. Several times, they had to make use of the stamina renewal spell cast by Alison as they tired from their exertions. This had turned into a major fight, and they had hit the lesser of the two forces arrayed against them.
They had to rest for a while, since the stamina renewal spell did not restore them completely. Alison used her last remaining stamina to establish 3 more shield walls so that the
y were surrounded by what she hoped and believed to be impenetrable barriers to any thing that could be thrown at them. The problem was that they had no way to know what else might have arrived to fight against them while they were resting. They ate a snack and even slept for about an hour before attempting to overcome the enemy still arrayed against them.
They felt that they had recovered enough, so Alison, with considerable trepidation, dropped the shield to the right of the doorway and started pushing her firewall forward into the host of enemies. The result on this side was the same as the result on the other. Most of the succubi were destroyed by the fire wall, but a few survived and had to be eliminated by Emett and his trusty sword. Alison and Emett were very tired when the battle was over, but they took the time to rest again before continuing their search through this area.
Alison had found a way to make the shield self sustaining, so she could leave it to do its job while her attention was diverted elsewhere or while she was even out of its immediate vicinity. Fortunately, she could deactivate the spell from a long distance, so she did not have to return to the spell to get rid of it.
They started off down a corridor and came to a place with 2 doors on opposite sides of the corridor. They didn't want to be blindsided, so Alison blocked the corridor ahead of them and one of the doorways with her barrier spell. Emett threw open the other door and found that he faced a phalanx of mops and brooms. With a sheepish grin he closed the door. He turned back to Alison and asked her to remove the shield blocking the other door.
That done, Emett threw open the door and was hit by a blow in the chest from a monster fist. This was no mop that had flung him across the corridor! Alison dosed Emett with a healing spell, and he bounced to his feet with his battle ax at the ready. He saw a being built much like a barrel, except that it had 4 short legs and two giant arms and hands. Its head was disproportionately small and looked like the head of an aardvark. This couldn't be a natural being—it had to come from some insane wizard's distorted imagination. But, whatever its source might have been, it was intent on pulverizing Emett.
The creature ignored Alison, as if she had no importance, which was lucky for Emett, for this freed her up to cast healing spells as he might need them and to try various magic attacks on the monster. However, the monster completely ignored her fire, lightning, and cold spells; these spells were having no effect at all. Alison consulted with Hat and concocted a poison spell which she hoped would do some good. This spell seemed to work, but the rate of poisoning was very slow. Every time the monster returned from the green aura he wore while poisoned to his normal pinkish color, she would zap him with a new poison charge. There was no telling how long it would take for this spell to work.
While this was going on, Emett was trading blows with the creature. This was damned hard work! The ax was taking chunks of flesh out of the creature, but it seemed to have little overall effect. The ax cuts were working, but so slowly, that it was a question as to whether the creature would succumb first to the ax or to the poison. The Emett figuratively kicked himself, he had forgotten his war cry. He screamed out his wordless battle cry and the creature was staggered! Emett screamed again and again, as he chopped at the creature, and the ax cuts finally seemed to be having an effect. The shouts from Emett were very effective, but they were so loud that Alison had to cast a spell over her ears to dampen the volume she was hearing; Alison was sure that she would go deaf if she had to listen to these shouts for very long.
Now, the combination of the poison, the ax cuts, and the shouts were having an effect on the creature. It seemed to wilt under the storm of physical and auditory blows that were being dealt, and it finally fell to the floor. When it flopped out on the floor, it began to emit a brown vapor from its nose and mouth. As this vapor came out, the creature shrank; it finally got so small that it disappeared. Emett, Alison, and Hat were baffled by this, but they didn't care as long as the creature was no longer a threat.
Again, they rested a few minutes before resuming their trip through this ghastly level of the cellars. When they were ready, Alison lowered her shield over the rest of the corridor, and they found themselves facing more of the small demons, this time wearing leather armor colored green, and their battle axes had green blades. Alison immediately began casting her moving fire wall, sending it toward the demons. They turned to run, but Alison cast her impenetrable shield behind them, trapping them between the moving fire wall and the barrier. It took two doses of the fire wall to get every one of the demons, but the corridor was finally cleared.
Alison said, "Hat, I am bushed! Is there any way for us to transport ourselves back to the tavern for the evening and return here tomorrow morning without using the portals?"
"Yes, there is such a spell. But it only works for places that you have already been. You can use it to return to the tavern and come back here because you have already seen both places, but you cannot use the spell to move you farther on your journey, because you have not physically been there, yet."
"Great! There are a couple of things we need to do here, first, but I'd like to return for a hot meal for supper. Emett, let's make sure that the places we have already been on this level are clear. I'll block them off if they are and we can rest for a while. And I'll bet you know what I mean by 'resting.'"
They walked back through the current level, making sure that it was clear. When they got back to their original entrance, Alison cast a spell blocking that entry. "Now, I'm ready for supper!"
Alison got the transport spell from Hat and whisked them back to their room at the tavern. They cleaned up a bit and walked into the tavern's serving room where they were greeted by the owner and several patrons. Emett asked, "How long before supper?"
"You can eat right now if you would like. We have roast venison with vegetables. Is that satisfactory?"
"By all means! I feel like I could eat the whole deer, so I hope you have plenty." Emett laughed to show that he was only joking, since the innkeeper turned pale at Emett's statement. They ate supper and were prevailed upon to relate their adventures of the last two days. The listeners were all amazed at the description of the 4-legged creature, since none had ever heard of such a thing. At last, Alison and Emett returned to their room where Alison was relieved of her tensions by Emett; of course he got something from the effort, himself.
The next morning, they returned to the Church of Satan and resumed clearing out the evil creatures. These creatures were mostly succubi, so Alison's moving fire wall was the weapon most often used. Most of their loot consisted of flasks of manna, but they also picked up some gold along the way.
Eventually, they came to what appeared to be the last room at this level which they had not checked. They opened the door and saw a room full of succubi and a man standing at some sort of altar. The man was dressed in what at first looked to be priest's robes, but they soon saw that there were subtle differences. For example, the cross emblazoned on the back of the robe was upside down. The man intoned in a strange-sounding voice, "WELCOME, YOU FOOLISH CHILDREN, TO MY NEW CHURCH! NOW THAT YOU ARE HERE, YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE. YOU WILL JOIN ME IN SERVING MY MASTER FOREVER!"
Alison asked, "Are you the former priest of the church above these cellars?"
"YES, I AM! BUT I WAS OFFERED THIS OPPORTUNITY FOR A GREATER CALLING! I WOULD HAVE BEEN A FOOL TO TURN IT DOWN! AND THE PEOPLE OF THE TOWN ARE SUCH EASY FODDER FOR MY SLAVES!"
Emett said, "Well, we are here to put a stop to that."
The man in the robes turned red and gestured at his minions to attack. Alison sent forth her wall of fire and began frying the succubi right and left. Meanwhile, Emett leaped at the insane priest and prepared to swing at him with his ax. Before Emett could make contact, he was struck by a fire ball that threw him back several steps. Grunting in surprise, he charged at the priest. This time, he made contact with the priest with his ax. The priest laughed as the arm Emett had struck fell off and was replaced by a Dragon's forearm and claw.
Emett though
t, "Dammit, I forgot again!" He shouted his battle cry, and the priest quailed at the sound. Nevertheless, the priest was able to grab the ax handle with his Dragon hand and break off the ax shaft just above Emett's hand. The priest threw the ax at Emett, but Emett was able to block it with his shield. As Emett watched in horror, the priest morphed into a mighty Dragon, and Emett had to shield his face from a blast of fiery breath from the Dragon's mouth.
Emett plucked a pike from his magic pack and, luckily, he was strong enough to use it with one hand as handily as if it was only a short spear. The pike was 14 feet long, so Emett was able to stay out of the Dragon's reach as he poked the magical beast with its point.
The Dragon was shocked to find out that its seemingly impenetrable scales were no barrier to the point of the magical pike. The Dragon was able to twist and turn so that Emett could not get a good angle to stab a vital organ, but the stabs were gradually weakening the Dragon. Meanwhile, at every opportunity, the Dragon was spouting flame in Emett's direction. So far, he had not scored a direct hit, but Emett was feeling the effects of the constant barrage.
Emett had been shouting at random times as he got a chance, and the Dragon was affected by each shout. Then, Emett had an inspiration: he timed a shout to coincide with a stab. This time, the point penetrated much farther than it had been doing. Now, Emett knew what to do. Every time he stabbed, he also shouted. This combination was really getting to the Dragon, he was obviously weakening. By this time, Alison had disposed of the succubi and was able to give her full attention to helping Emett; she dosed him with a healing spell every time the Dragon spouted flame, and she kept his stamina topped off, too.
Journey to the Unknown Page 6
