Slayer Gothic – The Rockies

National Park. Colorado.

It had taken little over an hour of searching before my girls and I finally found the place we had been looking for. We'd followed a couple of demons who we had spotted while hiking along a nature trail in Colorado's National Park. The monster's hadn't been careful while moving about, and Fred, who had some skill at navigating the wilderness due to her time spent in the Host's dimension, had been able to track them.

Now we were somewhere in the middle of a forest, on a mountain side. Everything was thickly overgrown, so we'd almost missed the entrance the demon's lair. Thankfully for us the entrance had been guarded by a demon, who was now very dead, and since he'd charged at us the creature had show us the way into the caves.

"Why do we never find demons in a nice spa or a five star hotel?" Buffy asked of no one as we entered the underground passage "Just once I'd really like to slay something and then have a nice, hot bath".

With some effort I was able to stop thinking about her all naked and wet while in a bath tub.

"Okay Buffy and I will be up front" I said to the group "Everyone else follow behind, and if a fight starts don't use your guns unless you really have to, we don't want any friendly fire".

Only I would be using a gun as my fellow Slayer favoured a crossbow, and as the rest of girls they all had knives. However they normally let me and Buffy do the fighting as there was always a chance they might shoot a Slayer instead of a bad guy. Besides Amy and Tara were witches, they would favour spells. As for Marcie, she was back to be invisible so it was very important that she keep back as we might not know that she was in the line of fire.

It was dark, very dark, inside the cave so I held a torch in my free hand, and when I could see it better I noted that the cave veered to the left. Also there were several sounds that were familiar, the wind, dripping water, and there was also my Slaydar, it was warning me of a lot of evil up ahead.

Soon I heard sounds that indicated that the evil creatures knew we were here. Perhaps they could smell humans or hear us with senses more enhanced than mine.

A few moments later we came across the first ugly monster, who I shot with my sliced pistol as Buffy let a bolt lose from her crossbow. Right after that one there was a green-skinned demon with large teeth, who I also shot however the creature barely seemed to notice, what he did feel was the knife my fellow Slayer stabbed him with.

Since none of them had a flashlight or something similar, I figured the demons here had night vision capabilities. I didn't, but my vision was superior to that of a human so the light from my torch was more than enough to see by.

Which was what allowed me to avoid the swipe of a claw when we next came under attack. I kicked the monster into the wall. Then because the things weren't giving me much room to work with, I traded my gun for a knife just in time to stab the demon as it recovered from the blow.

The fourth, or possible fifth demon I killed was a female red-skinned humanoid, who wore a short skirt and halter top. She screeched in anger upon seeing me, but after trading a few blows my weapon was inserted into the place where a human being would keep their heart.

Now the cave was starting to slant upwards, and soon we found ourselves in a large cavern that had much more room for fighting in.

"Okay girls spread out and kill anything that looks funny" I ordered "Witches give us light".

Fred took out a pistol, and that didn't worry me as she was a great shot. Meanwhile Amy and Tara stayed together and started chanting something. A moment later magical lights appeared above their heads, and that made it much easier to see. It would have been nice to have them sooner, but those sort of magical lights tended to move about and in a confined area that was very distracting.

As soon as my eyes had fully adjusted we were under attack again and since I now once again had a gun in my hand I shot the first demon I saw. It didn't drop to the ground, but the blessed iron bullets made the monster start to cough and sputter. In order to finish it off I cut the demon's throat open with my very sharp knife before pushing its body to the ground.

"I don't know how we do it" Buffy said "But we make one heck of team".

While in Mareth my fellow Slayer and I had noticed an increase in strength and it seemed to stayed with us. I had no idea why that was, but given all the magical enhancements in that world you could get from just the food I suspected it was something we had eaten.

"That might be the spell I just did" Tara informed everything "I learned it when were in Mareth, its called Might. It only lasts until you stop fighting so I need to cast it again".

She did just that, and for a moment the blonde spell caster looked a little drained, but she recovered fast as she was a very powerful magic user.

"Let's keep moving" I then told the group.

Soon we came across a cavern that was about half the size of a football field if I was any judge, and because it was lit up by oddly coloured fire, I soon realised that this place was the centre of demon activity in the area.

There were demons of human size all standing around some tables and chairs, and nearby was a 4-meter-tall giant of an ice demon, who's red-glowing eyes seemed to be filled with rage. Stranger still, inside the icy body of the big monster, there was some sort of swirling gas.

"What is this!?" the ice demon roared "How dare you enter my home".

The monster seemed familiar somehow, but I didn't think I had seen the creature before today.

"The ice man cometh" I muttered.

Before anyone else could say anything the very cold demon stood up, and since I hadn't realised he was sitting down, I soon discovered that he was closer to ten or perhaps even 12 meters tall than four.

"I am Skrymir, demon of old, ruler of the ice" we were told

Buffy at least was not intimated, but I was because now I knew who this demon was and that made me worried.

"Well guess what" Miss Summers said "I'm the Slayer, kicker of demon butt".

Now it was Skrymir's turn to be unconcerned.

"Once I came close to wiping out the Slayer line" he informed us "Last time I only failed because I was foolish enough to trust two vampires. That will not happen again, this time I will utterly destroy the Slayer even if have to do it all by myself".

It seemed as if demon then gathered water from the air in order to make more ice, and with that ice it created spikes all over its body.

"KILL THEM!" Skrymir ordered.

His emaining minions charged. Fred and I opened fire with our pistols as Buffy sent out another bolt from her crossbow. We downed five of the demons before they got half way to us.

When they finally did get close I moved away from my girls and brought out my sword. Then I kicked a demon before stabbing another through the heart. I followed this by blocking a blow from the monster I had just kicked before moving fast to the right in order to avoid another demon who had just tried to grab me from behind.

For a moment I worried that we might be overwhelmed, but the tide of battle soon turned in the favour of us humans, and the demons began to die.

"Failures!" Skrymir roared.

The two demons who were still standing weren't for long as the ice demon picked one up in each hand, then bodily fluids made an appearance as the big bad made more icicles and they went right through the bodies of the demons that Skrymir held.

"I shall have to kill you myself" the frozen monster said.

Fred must have reloaded at some point because she went through an entire clip in mere seconds. Layers of ice shattered, and while it didn't harm the demon very much it did gave me time to reload. When I was ready to fire I aimed high hoping to at least blind the creature.

"RAAAH!" the frozen being exclaimed

I had no idea how to defeat the ice demon, mine and Buffy's magical swords wouldn't do much to a creature made out of frozen water and the bullets didn't do much either.

"Immolation!"

There was a massive explosion that knocked me to the ground. I lost the ability to see or hear anything for a while, which was scary, but luckily my senses soon returned.

"Is everyone okay?" I heard Marcie inquire.

Everyone was more or less intact.

"What the hell was that?" I asked of anyone who would answer me.

When I got to my feet I saw that Amy had a guilty look upon her face.

"I got this amulet from a lizard guy" she explained "It holds... well it held, a powerful fire spell inside it. The amulet only works once so I was saving it for a big fight. But it shouldn't have made anything explode".

Fred figured things out before I did.

"The gas" she said "the stuff that was inside the ice demon guy. It must have been flammable. When I shot him a little of leaked out, so the fire spell would have ignited all the gas and boom".

Amy could have gotten us killed. On the other hand if she hadn't used the magical item then Skrymir might have killed us all.

"Just shout out a warning next time you're going to blow something up" I requested of the witch "other than that you did great".

(Line Break)

RV. The Rockies.

"So who was that Skyrim demon?" Buffy asked me once we got back to the motor home "You knew him. I could tell when he told us his name. You made a knowing face. Did you fight him in your dimension?".

My cover story about being a Slayer from an alternate world were the Slayer was always male, had a few holes in it, but for some reason everyone accepted that I had jumped a dimension and taken over the life of the me of this universe just after he had died.

However despite it not making much sense I wasn't that confused as to why people believed it as inserting a person into this world wasn't exactly hard. In the TV show the Monks of the Order of Dagon had done it when creating Dawn, and possible they would do so again in this reality.

"Skrymir" I corrected Buffy as Amy checked out the nasty cut that was on my arm "Not Skyrim".

That was a whole different topic of conversation.

"And I never met him until today" I told the girls of the group "But I've read about him, and from what I know he was killed in 1940".

Given the way everyone was looking at me, it was clear that it was now story time.

"Back then the Slayer was called Sophie, she was young Danish woman who lived in Copenhagen. In 1940, she was tasked with hunting down and killing two vampires: Spike and Drusilla, because the two of them were at that time slaughtering potential Slayers".

A question was then asked.

"A what Slayer?" inquired Fred.

I wondered if Buffy even knew about them, but I figured that even if she did the others didn't and they should know.

"A potential is a girl who might one day be the Slayer" I explained "I don't what makes a girl a potential Slayer or how the Council finds them, but most are assigned a Watcher to help prepare them should they be chosen".

Now it was Buffy's turn to request information.

"But I was already the Slayer when Merrick showed up" she said "How come he didn't come find me sooner?".

Merrick had been Buffy's first Watcher, and had died shortly after meeting Buffy when he committed suicide to protect her from the vampire Lothos.

"No idea" I admitted "Whatever method they use clearly doesn't work as well as it should".

I then got things back on track.

"Anyway the Slayer back then died in combat against Spike later on in the year" I went on to say "Which in a perverse way was actually a good thing as Skrymir was attacking the Watcher HQ at the same time and that was where all the remaining potentials were being kept safe. Because Sophie died one of the girls at the HQ became the Slayer, and that led to Skrymir being defeated. The Council was never sure if he was dead, and now we know for sure he wasn't. He must have fled to States".

I also knew that Spike and Drusilla had slain Skrymir in this lair, which at that time had been in Europe. Clearly in this verse the demon had somehow survived.

However I hadn't though those events to be cannon because Spike was only credited with killing two Slayers, one during the Boxer Rebellion in China, and another in New York during the 1970's.

Perhaps Sophie the Vampire Slayer hadn't died the same way she had in the book Pretty Maids All In A Row I'd have to find out more, but that could wait until we were back in Sunnydale.

"Okay so where to next?" Buffy asked now that story time was over "Still going north?".

That was the plan.

"The Rockies extend all the way into Canada" I said "So I figure we skim the edge of the range and camp out for a while".

So far I'd had no luck with my contacts. They were having trouble finding assassins, and none of the bounty hunters I'd hired had gone to Lorne's place to claim the reward. Which meant that until something changed there was no reason for us to anywhere at all. With that in mind it made sense just to go wherever we pleased.

"No more caves!" Buffy yelled as Fred got behind the wheel of the RV "I mean it I want to stay above ground, at least for a while".

That was not something I could promise if we kept on our current course so I decided to change our plans. We needed to go somewhere fun.

"Girls!" I called out "We're going to Niagara Falls!".

This was met by cheers.