by Zack Finley
Their skin was a glistening iridescent dark red, and their blood oozing out from around the many bolts stuck in their hide was black and viscous. They had glowing eyes, tusks, a black tongue, and vicious looking teeth.
While it looked like the whole courtyard in front of the gate was swarming with demons, there were only eight. We needed to do something to focus their attention on us and give our allies a breather.
Argon began our assault with force blasts and lava bullets. These were no more effective than crossbows. Together we prepped a large cube of conjured lava sized to catch several at once to be followed by tornado aimed to slam the stragglers into the ground. As Argon was launching this coordinated attack, I pelted the demons with high-speed baseball sized rocks aimed at their faces.
The lava didn’t kill the demons, but it sure pissed them off, relieving the pressure on our allies.
Argon and I had their full attention.
A lucky tornado toss stunned one and I finished it off with a rock headshot. Either I was getting better, or there was a lot of adrenaline because the rock took the demon’s head clean off. This gave me more confidence in the weapon. I began targeting one demon at a time with a series of headshots. Argon triggered several more lava dumps and hit them with a water blast.
This solidified the lava around several demons trapping them, making them easier targets. I kept hitting them, but the rocks just bounced off.
“They have strong force shields,” Argon sent. “We can’t hurt them seriously until we wear those down.”
She switched tactics, using force magic to weaken one of the trapped demon’s shields around its head. Argon then targeted the weakened zone instantly with a series of my high speed sharpened stones.
This was a lot more effective as the trapped demon went down, now headless. But we were in one spot too long. The combined fire stream from at least four demons blasted the battlements in front of us. The firestorm slammed into us, knocking us off the battlements, and into the air.
Time slowed down, reminding me of the moment the IED blew up. Argon and I were surrounded by flames, I felt the pull on my fire magic as our wards tried to keep both of us from frying. Argon and I were still in synch. She was methodically conjuring a bubble of air to cushion our fall. Her calm helped me focus. I stopped flailing and remembered my training. I had significant experience with rough landings. I might not have a lot of magical knowhow, but I knew how to fall. Within a heartbeat, I readied my body into a better position to land, feet first.
Our collision with the floor came sooner and harder than I expected, driving the air from my lungs. I lay on the stone floor a moment to catch my breath and check for any permanent damage.
“Are you seriously injured,” Argon asked through our link.
“Just had the wind knocked out of me,” I answered, “how are you?”
“Better than it could have been,” she sent, just as medics rushed to our side.
Both of us waved the medics off, and we headed back toward our place on the battlements. We had six more pissed off demons to take down.
While we scrambled up the steps to return to the battlements, Argon was layering several spells. More lava dumps followed by a series of force infused rock missiles. Tornados were keyed up to distract any not trapped by the lava.
In our absence, the demons had renewed their assault on the other battlement and main entrance to the gatehouse. A series of lava dumps, missiles, and tornados confused them. The demons stopped their attacks on the other battlements but failed to realize where the attack was coming from.
This confusion gave us the chance to concentrate on one demon at a time. We found it took six rock force missiles to take down one demon as long as there was no delay between them. Their force shields rebounded quickly. Five more to go.
We discovered the best way to keep them from retaliating was to send them for a spin in a tornado. Argon concentrated on keeping all but one within her tornados’ grasp, leaving me on offense.
Even engaging one demon at a time was no guarantee I could slam six rapid shots into one spot. I felt Argon tiring from the effort to keep so many powerful air spells operating at once. I needed a spell to hold the demon in place while I pelted it. I conjured a block of stone around the demon. It stopped the demon from moving, but now I had no target. The demon freed itself in less than a minute. But now I had the tactic clear in my mind. This time the stone only enclosed the bottom half of the demon, holding it stationary just long enough for me to decapitate it.
I now had the winning combination. Argon released the next target. I made quick work of it. We repeated the pattern until it was over. We’d won.
I slumped to the ground with my back to the battlement, exhausted. All my magics except mind magic were glowing and just above half full. Or was that half empty? As the battle adrenalin waned, my entire body began to complain about abuse. My chest, right knee, and right hip seemed the worst injuries, but I had plenty of other aching muscles as well. While I felt like I’d gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel, the injuries weren’t serious. Probably a lot of deep bruises and pulled muscles but no broken bones. I was still combat effective.
Through our combat tie, I felt Argon going through the same assessment. Her force magic was seriously depleted, and her air magic was down by half. She had a similar general ache from the fall with her worst areas in the chest and left knee.
“Demons seldom cross the gate with fewer than twice this number, so I suspect we aren’t done yet. While you banish the lava and rocks from the battlefield,” Argon said, helping me up, “I’ll find out how many more we can expect to face.”
The battlefield was littered with pockets of crusty still-smoldering lava, blocks of stone, and the remains of eight demons. I hadn’t banished anything before so this would be a new spell for me. It took only a few abortive attempts before I discovered the process. It took a lot less magic to banish stone than to conjure it. I didn’t need to worry about banishing too much stone because the wards imbued in the courtyard resisted my magic. I was slow to get started, but very quickly the stone was gone leaving eight headless demons lying in random heaps. Several were still smoking from contact with the lava. All had plenty of crossbow bolts stuck in them.
I wished I had some air magic because the oily stench of burning demon filled the arena and made my eyes water.
Task done, I noticed Argon and Jamal near the entryway. A medic had bound Jamal’s arm to his side as a temporary measure to immobilize it. His face was so blackened in places, I was sure he had serious burns. His studded leather armor was charred all across the chest.
Every one of Jamal’s men still on the battlements had similar injuries. The medics were still working to stabilize the more seriously wounded.
No one was standing down; these warriors were expecting the fight to continue at any moment.
I left the battlement to join Argon. She and Jamal were having a tactical disagreement. She wanted to attack. He wanted to just hold the line. Argon was definitely going to win this argument so I prepared to go back into battle. I drank heavily from my canteen before handing it to Argon.
“Thanks,” she sent, taking a long swallow, then handing it back. “You and I will be going into the tunnels after the demons as soon as Jamal finally agrees it is the only course we have. We can’t let the demons send for reinforcements, so we really don’t have any choice. They ambushed and killed his routine patrol. He has no idea how long they’ve been on Jaloa.”
I was still very hazy about how the demons got here. Argon said earlier the demons came through the gates. Now I was curious about those gates to hell. Was it a one-way trip?
Jamal finally caved in. I wasn’t sure why he argued as long as he did. Argon wasn’t going to leave the initiative in the hands of the demons. While going into a tunnel after them wasn’t going to be fun, letting them gang up on us would just get more of his men killed. I’d rather face one or two at time.
Jamal sent two of his gua
rdians to open a very small side door for us to exit. We had to duck through one at a time. No demon was squeezing through that door. The guardians pulled it closed as we exited. Behind us, I heard them slam down the drop bars holding the door shut.
The dense smoke from the burning bodies hovered low over the courtyard forming a hazy stench that made it hard to breathe. Argon was reluctant to use her air magic to blow it away because we still didn’t know how many demons we were about to face.
The courtyard ended against a cliff broken only by three large tunnels. I had explored lava tubes before, and these tunnels resembled those. I felt strong wards acting upon us, although their complexity was more than I could interpret.
Argon assured me the courtyard wards were beyond her understanding as well.
“I don’t understand how the demons were able to attack in strength. The wards should have helped more than they did,” Argon sent. “I suspect some of the demons were boosted by killing the patrol. Demons get a sharp boost in power immediately following a kill. It fades quickly, but those bad boys were definitely boosted."
Good to know about demons. If those weren’t boosted, I’d hate to run into any that were.
Argon had us start with the tunnel Jamal said the demons came through. Before we entered she checked our wards. She had me set up an emergency teleport back to the guardhouse. She insisted on taking point.
“Our best strategy is to isolate them one by one. Their force fields are too strong for anything else,” Argon sent. “I don’t have as much force magic as I’d like, so the brunt of the offense is on you. I’m going to try a stun this time to immobilize the targets. If that works, it should make it easy for you to take them down one at a time. I’m wary about using tornado too much in a small enclosed space. One large enough to tie up a demon is too large to work reliably in a tunnel. I can try pinning them with a sustained air blast if I need to.”
I felt her ready the stun, rock, and missile combos. No lava this time. Argon thought we’d need some cover in the tunnels. She had me key up a short stone wall to deploy in front of us when needed.
I wished I’d thought of doing that before we got pounded by the earlier firestorm. Live and learn.
We crept into the tunnel, thankfully leaving the burning demon stench behind. I tried sniffing the air coming towards us from the tunnel depths, but my nose was still too corrupted to discern anything new.
Scorch marks and abandoned gear were remnants of past battles. Not all of the battles were between Jamal’s patrols and the invaders.
“These tunnels connect two gates linked to different worlds,” Argon sent. “These aren’t necessarily from fighting by the guardians. Sometimes, denizens from the different worlds fight and kill each other.”
Argon used her air magic to listen far ahead. The guardians maintained light sources in each tunnel. As long as they were intact, we had plenty of light to see by.
We moved carefully through our tunnel, with Argon using air magic to mask even the faint sounds of our footsteps.
We came to a branch in the tunnel. My nose was no longer clogged with the aroma of roasted demon. I catch a vague scent of musk coming from the right fork. It was as good a reason as any other to look that way. Argon set a temporary ward at our back to warn us of anything sneaking up behind us.
A faint sound from ahead put us both on full alert. We continued creeping around the bend in the tunnel, staying low and tight to the wall.
We surprised two demons. Our surprise advantage was slim, but it was enough for Argon to launch our pre-arranged attack, leading with stun shots and following up with a raft of headshots. I followed immediately with a waist-high stone wall to block any retaliation.
It was good that I put up the wall because we had missed the third demon. It stood up and blasted us with a strong force and fire combination directed straight at me.
I saw stars, and my head felt like it was going to explode. For a moment I didn’t know where I was. The first thing I saw once the stars cleared was Argon looking over me. My directional sense put me back in the guardhouse.
“Can you sit up?” Argon asked.
“What happened?”
“You took a full blast from the demon. It knocked you out. I engaged our emergency teleport, and returned us to the guardhouse,” she said.
Other than a few addled brain cells nothing seemed permanently damaged so I sat up. Big mistake. Another round of stars before my vision returned to normal. I checked my wards, and they were still recharging. My fire magic was still hovering above half full. My force magic was on the empty side of half.
“Have you recovered enough to return to the battle?” Argon asked.
Right. Demons.
While my body was badly dented, it hadn’t broken. Next time I would remember not to stand there like an idiot. I was lucky it didn’t kill me.
I reached out to rejoin our combat weave. Argon welcomed me immediately. The demon blast had knocked me out and seriously depleted my wards. She’d teleported us to safety as a precaution. She also was clearly expecting us to head straight back into battle.
No matter how badly my head hurt, I wasn’t going to let her down.
Argon helped me to my feet. We keyed up our latest demon killing combination. The mind magic stuns worked better than we expected. This was a good thing since we both had used a lot of force magic. It looked like my fire magic would only help us on defense as the demons weren’t affected by it.
Argon had a brief discussion with Capt. Jamal before we were back out into the courtyard, retracing our steps. The pall of smoke above the courtyard was clearing, though the stench remained. I tried to take shallow breaths to save my sense of smell for the tunnels.
Argon was on point, again.
When we got to the fork, Argon confirmed her ward was still in place. This meant the demon was still in the right fork. I didn’t need to worry about my sense of smell, the stink of demon blood covered everything.
We were disappointed when we edged around the bend in the tunnel. The two dead demons were still there. The one who tagged me was still loose. We found the remains of one of Jamal’s guardians. The demon that surprised us must have been feasting on them.
“Demons eat people?” I sent.
“Demons eat anything that breathes,” Argon replied.
Good to know.
We skirted the grisly remains with Argon using air magic to dampen our footsteps and enhance any sounds coming from ahead of us.
The air in the tunnel was not stagnant, it was pushing in our face. As we left the smell of dead demons behind us, I picked up a hint of musk coming from deeper inside the tunnel.
“We are nearing the tunnel area housing one of the world gates,” Argon sent. “I expect to see several demons there.”
We’d only gone a few feet further when we heard them. They were still out of sight, but I could tell there were several jabbering together. It sounded like three or four demons. They weren’t concerned about being overheard.
“Ready?” Argon asked as she hugged the right tunnel wall in a crouch. We could see the tunnel continuing in front of us. There was a large open area to our right. That is where we expected to spot the demons.
I conjured a shield wall to provide cover as we entered the room. We were lucky. The four demons were having a vigorous argument and failed to spot our arrival. Argon stunned them and pounded their heads one at a time until they were dead.
We crouched behind my shield wall until the last one fell.
A 10-foot diameter round metallic frame dominated the room. A dark red barren landscape was visible through the faint film covering the frame’s interior. This had to be the world gate. On the other side of the gate was a different planet.
“Don’t even think it,” Argon sent. “I doubt you’ll find any breathable air on the other side. Magic may not work either.”
Of all the things I’d seen on Jaloa, this was the most mind-blowing.
“Is this gate always
open?” I asked.
“Yes and no. It is always open, but the world on the other side changes randomly. There are plenty of worlds beyond this one, most seem peaceful," Argon said. "But some beings, like the demons, constantly seek new worlds to conquer and relentlessly test their world gates. Shala is responsible for monitoring and defending this gate and one other. Other gods have similar responsibilities with other gates. While Jamal and his guardians handle most incursions through Shala’s gates, other gods will send reinforcements should any guardhouse be overrun. Turning back invaders is a responsibility our gods take very seriously.”
“Have you ever been through the world gate to visit a world on the other side?” I asked
“No, besides the issue of breathing, I didn’t want to be left in the other place when the gate shifted to a different world,” Argon sent.
“I suspect we have a few more demons to slay,” Argon sent, moving to where the tunnel continued on the other side of the room.
I couldn’t resist looking through the gate, careful not to break the film barrier.
“I don’t see any reinforcements lining up on the other side,” I sent.
“That is good. Usually, demon worlds send a small group of weaker scouts. This time they came in force with a much stronger class of demons than I’ve run into before. It will get a lot worse if they sent back a demon to recruit a bigger mob,” Argon sent.
We crept into the next tunnel, leaving the gate room behind. Argon posted another ward to warn if demon reinforcements came through the gate behind us. Getting caught between two mobs of demons was something I didn’t want to think about.
We passed several more mangled and partially eaten remains.
“These are not Jaloan,” Argon sent, examining the carcasses. “They must be from the second gate.”
“Is every gate world full of invaders?” I asked.
