The next morning Niklaus awoke instantly. Something was amiss, he could feel it.
"What is it?" Sasha asked. Niklaus couldn't be too sure, but something was definitely amiss. He looked around and noticed that Math was watching the morning sun rise. He got up and walked over to the furclad warrior.
"Aren't you going to overheat in all that?" he asked, gesturing towards Math's attire.
"Like my cousin Ulfgar, our people are resilient to the weather. I am fine," the warrior replied, gazing off.
"Cousin?"
"We hail from the same line, one that goes back to Bul-Kathos and his brother Fiacla-Géar."
"Aren't they gods?"
"They are our ancestors. In a sense, we revere them as gods, but they are not gods as you would think of them. However, they did live, and Ulfgar and I are of their descendents."
"That's why you decided to get along?"
Math smiled. "Yes. It is a terrible sin to war within your family, and Ulfgar and I saw our error and have united as family."
The sun rose a little higher.
"What of your family?" Math asked suddenly.
"My father was a Protector of the Word many years ago, and I am his only son." Niklaus drew Silence. "This was his sword, he gave it to me when our monastery was overrun by demons."
"Overrun?"
"More like they allowed themselves to be corrupted."
"Have you no other family?"
"No."
Math thought for a while. "Ulfgar holds you in high regard, higher than me, and we are cousins."
And with that, the Druid got up and went back inside, leaving a very puzzled Niklaus.
"Any idea what that was?" Niklaus asked.
"Hells, I dunno. All this family love crap is foreign to me," Sasha said, equally confused.
They were interrupted by a low rumbling outside the city. Niklaus sprang to his feet while Sasha ignited the Aura of Blessed Aim, sharpening his vision. The others leapt to their feet and armed themselves quickly.
The band exited Niklaus' shelter and out of the alley. Everyone looked worried except Niklaus, who only looked concerned.
"Let's spread out," Ulfgar said, uncharacteristically serious. The others nodded and moved into the nearby bazaar, creating as much space as possible while keeping within eyesight of each other.
"What is it?"
"We didn't just happen on this place," Sarah said, knocking an arrow and pulling into her hood, "some demon chased us in here, and we thought it safe."
"Why?"
"This demon burrows, and the city is on hard rock, we didn't think it could burrow through solid rock."
"So what kind of demon is it?"
By way of explanation, the bazaar ground suddenly exploded, throwing earth and stone everywhere while a huge demon leapt out of the ground. The demon soon landed on what looked like thousands of legs terminating in hardened spikes. Spying on the humans, it attacked instantly.
One of its huge spiked legs came crashing down, and Niklaus spun roughly away, slicing futilely with Silence as he narrowly avoided the claw.
"Sunuvabitch!" Sasha shouted.
"Scatter!" Sarah shrieked in command, launching a blizzard of arrows at the demon's head.
"It's Adthck!" Sasha shouted at the same time.
"Huh?" Niklaus answered, somewhat distracted by all the legs that seemed to orient on him.
Sarah was about to repeat herself when the demon turned into her blizzard and charged. If not for Simon's sudden intervention, she would surely have been turned to pulp under the massive demon's thousands of legs. Adthck halted suddenly as it found itself blinded, unable to see anything.
Sarah promptly ran like hell.
Adthck was an Evil, however; while not one of the Three or even the Four Lesser Evils, he still commanded many powerful magics, and Simon's curse only lasted a matter of moments. It was enough, however, and Sarah dashed between buildings.
"It's one of the Evils," Sasha explained as she ignited the Aura of Blessed Aim, "I don't know why it's here, but it must be something big to get someone that high up into Sanctuary."
Niklaus digested this information as he picked up a large rock and chucked it at the demon millipede's head. The rock richochetted off, but distracted the demon long enough for Sarah to finish her escape.
Unfortunately, the demon also zeroed in on Niklaus, who belatedly realized he had picked up another rock with the same intention as before.
With an apologetic grin, he dropped his rock and dove down the nearest alley as Adthck changed trajectory and charged at him.
Niklaus fled down the narrow alleyway, hoping its width would hinder the beast.
"Um, Nik?" Sasha asked, "that demon is an overgrown millipede, a glorified conscious battering ram, and coincidentally one of Duriel's disciples. D'you really think some crumbling architecture is gonna stop it?"
Niklaus' eyebrow raised towards his hairline as he pondered this new data. Then his heart raised into his throat as he heard a demonic avalanche approach.
Adthck was not, in fact, hindered in the least by such minor triviances as buildings. It neared the warrior and spat caustic phlegm at its quarry.
Sasha ignited the Aura of Vigor, and combined with Niklaus' sudden moment of inspiration (roughly translated: pants-staining rush of adrenaline) and Adthck stopped anew as its quarry disappeared, and briefly wondered if that damn Necromancer had set another curse on it.
It wondered again as something appeared--again seemingly out of nowhere--to crash headlong into its face. Only slightly puzzled (as most of its emotional response capabilities were rather preoccupied with excrutiating pain) it attempted to remove the large axe embedded between its eyes. Unfortunately for the demon, hellish evolution had not quite caught up with ranged offensives, and Adthck's mandibles were entirely incapable of removing the axe. It knocked its head against the ground to dislodge the weapon, but again its mandibles proved a hindrance and all the demon got for its efforts was a sore jaw.
Suddenly a new pain exploded out of its back, and it turned to regard a furred warrior ripping another axe out of its back and rearing to strike again, lumberjack-style. If Adthck could smile, it would have; however, the first axe impeded any facial expressions. Regardless, the attacker on its back could be dealt with easily. It was about to turn its head and snap the man in two when suddenly its powerful neck muscles were overpowered by an overwhelming force. Its head wrenched around until it was eye-to-eye with a mountain (rather an interesting situation, having a murderous-looking moutanin staring back). With a determined look, the mountain rudely retrieved his axe out of the demon's face. Adthck reared back and screamed in pain as ichor rained on the continent.
With murder in its eyes, the demon spread its mandibles to consume the land mass in front of it, only to notice that it too had disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Looking up, it saw the human had become airborn, his bulk blotting out the sun, axe raised high.
~~~
"Nik, get your pants off!" Sasha screamed as Niklaus ran.
"I hardly think this is the time or place for--"
"Not that, stupid! Your pants are melting!"
"Gaah!"
Niklaus hastily pulled his pants off and stood in only his tunic, boots, and weapons, watching in fascination as the acidic spit dissolved his pants.
A sudden burning sensation in his posterior warned him that some of the phlegm had in fact gotten through the material. Sasha hastily ignited another Aura, purging the toxins from his system as he resisted the urge to scratch furiously.
Soon the burning was replaced with a cooling sensation, and Niklaus sighed with relief.
Sarah burst into the enclosure and regarded Niklaus with absolute horror.
"...My pants were melting," Niklaus answered lamely.
"I can see that," Sarah asked, forcing down an uncustomary smile as she regarded his melting pants. She silently added her own private comment.
A not-so-distant roar forced them into the present and they realized that the demon was still quite alive. They ran back into the alleys of the Lost City (or not) to wreak further irritation to the greater demon.
Simon had meanwhile taken advantage of Ulfgar's and Math's distraction to see about raising a small army utilizing the local fauna. This consisted of the zombies and other undead that had served faithfully under the snake-men. With the demise of the nest, they had wandered aimlessly, mindlessly attacking anyone who wandered in. Although Niklaus had done a good job removing most of them, enough remained for Simon to form a defensive line.
Right now they formed a shield wall that the northern warriors were dashing towards. The simple-minded zombies parted enough to let the warriors pass.
As the shield wall closed, Adthck put on a burst of speed, and would have grinned at the fell inevitability of its rush.
The mortals would die. Horribly, if at all possible.
Adthck crashed headlong into the shield wall, and the humans scattered. The undead, being...undead...and thus rather slow, were mowed down.
Adthck raised its head in victory, and promptly collapsed as its wounds caught up with it.
The demon was rather confused by this: aside from the axe it had intercepted with its face, there shouldn't be any other significant wounds. Yet as it looked down the length of its body, Adthck saw severe damage to its shell. It looked at the retreating backside of the crippling necromancer and with an enraged roar, charged after him.
Niklaus ran into the foray and saw Simon running like hell. He ran to help and saw a shield laying on the ground. It was peculiar, holding a dozen or so spikes around the edges and extending from the boss. Snatching the shield as he ran, Niklaus dashed towards the behemoth.
"Look, the tail," Sasha said, directing him to two poisonous stingers that moved angrily. Although the stingers themselves were not so welcome, the soft joint tissue behind them was very much so.
Niklaus charged in, leaning behind the shield. He neared and Silence slashed at the stingers, cleanly removing them from battle and Adthck's behind. Yet the venom that flowed through those stingers was close to spilling onto Niklaus, and would have been lethal even if absorbed through the skin.
Niklaus continued his charge, however, and rammed the shield into Adthck's posterior, preventing any of the venom from pouring onto him.
The demon paused, realizing something was terribly wrong. Looking back, it realized that all was not well in Sanctuary.
However, Sanctuary was the least of the demon's concerns at the moment, because one of those damn mortals had stuck a shield up its ass.
Affronted in its backside, Adthck hissed and spun angrily, attempting to dislodge the intrusion. Niklaus hastily twisted the shield, tearing open capillaries and arteries in Adthck's hindquarters. Adthck screamed again and Niklaus dodged away.
The demon reared and turned to face Niklaus. This was the demon who had conspired against Sasha to bring about her death, this was the demon who had served Duriel when Sasha had gone into exile with the Three, and this was the demon who had done...something else to her. It had been a long time ago, but Sasha was sure it was something really awful.
When Sasha saw those mandibles and bug-eyes (pardon the pun) she became a little upset, and the fiery oranges and reds of the Aura of the Fanatic exploded from the the succubus' essence and surrounded Niklaus.
Duane of Skelgard saw Sasha's Aura and gaped. Only powerful Paladin, having spent years devoted to the Light, were capable of receiving the Aura of the Fanatic. It was a sign of true devotion and the mark of Heaven's Blessing.
Hastily, Duane lit his own Aura of Concentration and Charged towards the demon, refusing to be outdone by this demon, no matter how cruelly he mocked the Light.
Adthck saw the two Paladin charge in, and did something no millipede should be able to do, no matter how overgrown or demonic. It's rear claws dug in to the earth, and its top half reared up into the air. Usually such a sight made mortals stain their pants; however, Niklaus had discarded his and Duane was too jealous of Niklaus (only in a devout and pro-Light sort of way, of course) to think about such petty things as fear or survival.
Adthck oriented on the two approaching Paladin and readied an eldritch spell, only to be interrupted by several sharp objects thunking into the wound in its face. Distraught, the demon tried to focus on the source of this new attack and found the human woman and the large male launching bits of wood and metal into his wound.
Then Adthck was distracted again by two more thunks, which were not so much akin to "thunk" as they were to "crash! bang! oh hells that hurt!" Niklaus and Duane had adjusted trajectory to meet Adthck at his midsection, and the demon was improperly balanced to receive such an attack.
As such, the demon toppled over in a very undignified heap. Niklaus and Duane peeled away to regroup and charge again.
At about that time the group became a team. As Niklaus and Duane peeled away, Simon attacked the demon's psyche again, blinding him as Ulfgar leaped overhead, throwing his daggers into the joints in each leg. By the time the curse wore off, Ulfar had landed safely on a rooftop and out of sight.
Sarah, meanwhile, had found her own rooftop and was firing as fast as she could draw and aim. She aimed at the demon's eyes, forcing it to twist and turn to avoid her arrows.
Niklaus blazed in again, racing towards the beast's head. At the last moment, he Charged, Silence aimed like a lance.
Another interesting facet about a Paladin's Charge is that the idea came from long ago when the cavalry charge was the most lethal force in a large-scale battle. When approximately 600 cavalry charge into the foray, the sight is something to behold.
Visual aesthetics aside, there has yet to be anything that can stand in the way of those shock charges.
Niklaus roared in and thrust through the demon's armored hide to sink into its neck. He hoped fervently that he hit something critical as Adthck staggered sideways under the impact.
Duane came in on the other side, sword in hand, but Adthck sensed the holy blessing he radiated and turned to snap at him. Niklaus thus found himself off the ground and hanging onto Silence's hilt for dear life.
A warrior bearing a demon-inspired Aura may have surprised the demon, but it did notice a flailing human, and turned to Niklaus with murder in its eyes. The demon's head reared towards him, and he had no choice but remove his father's sword.
He hit the ground hard, and coughed. Sasha screamed in BloodLust, and the Paladin rolled to his feet.
Just in time to catch one of the demon's legs across his midsection, hoisting him unceremoniously into the air and despositing him roughly in a room. Fortunately, the wall he passed through to enter the room slowed him enough for the next wall to completely halt his advance.
BloodLust be damned, that hurt. Niklaus rolled around on the ground a little, clutching his head while even Sasha sobered up considerably.
A few short moments and Sasha could have ignited her healing Aura, but as both their wits were scrambled, she couldn't have ignited a fire with flint and tinder. Adthck was preoccupied with their companions at the moment, though, and they found themselves a moment of respite to collect their wits.
"Aw shit that hurt," Sasha complained. Niklaus would have nodded, but the world was spinning enough and he didn't want to add any further trajectories.
Niklaus finally staggered to his feet as Sasha collected her wits. Groggily she finally managed to ignite the healing Aura and they both felt the benefits immediately. Niklaus cracked his neck and felt ribs grind back into place and musculature heal.
"I always hate that part," Niklaus commented as the rest of the healing process completed.
"I could always let you go on with the punctured lung," Sasha said dryly.
"No no, just complaining about a perfectly acceptable system."
"How demonic of you. Should we perhaps go and help our comrades?"
"How human of you."
With a grim smile, Niklaus drew Fury. Silence was a noble sword, but Fury just might be able to finally defeat the Minor Evil.
Meanwhile, Adthck was finally about to slay one of these pesky humans. So far they had been able to keep it off balance and never able to focus on just one, but now it was able to take down this pesky female with the bow.
Held aloft, its pincers piercing through her arm, she struggled futilely against the incredible pain. She stabbed repeatedly with her rapier, but simply couldn't pierce the tough shell. The demon's inner jaws moved upwards, reaching towards its prey.
The sudden loss of a mandible came as quite a surprise for demon and human alike. Sarah fell from her considerable height, but luckily Ulfgar caught her before she could fall.
Adthck spun around to confront the other Paladin, wreathed in the fires of his Aura. Sand whipped around him and into the air as the Aura blazed in dangerous reds.
Adthck might have laughed if it possessed such emotional responses as humor. It didn't, so the demon began looping around the Paladin.
Niklaus was hardly the image of panic or even remote concern. His expression spoke of slow vivisections and similar sweet nothings.
Or perhaps Sasha was expressing herself more at that moment.
In the grand scheme of things, it really didn't matter all that much, because shortly thereafter Niklaus deprived the demon of its other mandible. Adthck squealed in rage and would have stared agape at the human, but no longer could. The demon backed up and brought its length into line, preparing to charge the foolish mortal that had hurt it so.
Adthck still possessed abilities beyond his brute strength, however. Such as the ability to form an eldritch shield before him to shield him from his own colossal collisions. Such a spell was particularly effective against the Holy Paladins, since the orientation of their respective magical mights were so diametrically opposed they would naturally resist each other, much like repelling lodestones. Each regarded the other for a moment, before Niklaus raised Silence like a lance and Adthck lowered its head.
They Charged.
Another interesting fact about a Paladin's Charge is that the idea came from long ago when the cavalry charge was the most lethal force in a large-scale battle. When approximately a thousand cavalry charge into the foray, There was no quarter or surrender. The cavalry simply mowed down anything in its path.
It was this bit of human history that Niklaus found himself reenacting as he bore down upon the approaching demon.
Sasha and Niklaus roared in their defiance, and the Aura of the Fanatic exploded, blinding everyone around them. For just a moment, the Aura extended into Silence, imbuing the weapon with unfathomable power as the Aura, nay Sasha herself, fed into the cold steel.
The two unstoppable forces met, and against all odds the multiton demon lost against the human. The impact shook through the demon's length as Silence sank through Ulfgar's initial wound. The holy weapon tore through to the base of Adthck's head, pinning it to the ground as a veritable shock wave tore through the demon's being and causing its delicate internal organs to rupture.
Yet the sheer physics of a two hundred pound human and a multiton demon charging towards each other at full speed should have left the human a greasy spot on the ground.
Any seige engineer would have thrown up his hands and crawled into a bottle of strong liquor.
Adthck, no seige engineer, simply collapsed.
"Aww, did we hurt ourselves?" Niklaus asked, then smiled with far too many teeth as Fury raised for the deathblow.
"What manner of mortal are you? No Paladin's Auras can pierce my magic!" Adthck responded in his own language.
Niklaus leaned a little closer, so only the demon could hear. "No *holy* magics could do so," Niklaus specified, smiling, "Sasha sends her regards."
At that moment, a terrible burning sensation coursed from the demon's behind. Aghast, Adthck realized that the poison from its stingers had finally crept into its nervous system and had worked through to kill the huge demon.
Adthck stared, horrified that it had at last fallen, knowing this was the ultimate end. In that moment between existence and nonexistence, it thought it saw something in addition to the paladin. Another form, screamingly female, terrifyingly seductive.
A succubus.
Sasha.
Adthck's eyes sparkled in stunned recognition, then dimmed forever.
"What is it?" Sasha asked. Niklaus couldn't be too sure, but something was definitely amiss. He looked around and noticed that Math was watching the morning sun rise. He got up and walked over to the furclad warrior.
"Aren't you going to overheat in all that?" he asked, gesturing towards Math's attire.
"Like my cousin Ulfgar, our people are resilient to the weather. I am fine," the warrior replied, gazing off.
"Cousin?"
"We hail from the same line, one that goes back to Bul-Kathos and his brother Fiacla-Géar."
"Aren't they gods?"
"They are our ancestors. In a sense, we revere them as gods, but they are not gods as you would think of them. However, they did live, and Ulfgar and I are of their descendents."
"That's why you decided to get along?"
Math smiled. "Yes. It is a terrible sin to war within your family, and Ulfgar and I saw our error and have united as family."
The sun rose a little higher.
"What of your family?" Math asked suddenly.
"My father was a Protector of the Word many years ago, and I am his only son." Niklaus drew Silence. "This was his sword, he gave it to me when our monastery was overrun by demons."
"Overrun?"
"More like they allowed themselves to be corrupted."
"Have you no other family?"
"No."
Math thought for a while. "Ulfgar holds you in high regard, higher than me, and we are cousins."
And with that, the Druid got up and went back inside, leaving a very puzzled Niklaus.
"Any idea what that was?" Niklaus asked.
"Hells, I dunno. All this family love crap is foreign to me," Sasha said, equally confused.
They were interrupted by a low rumbling outside the city. Niklaus sprang to his feet while Sasha ignited the Aura of Blessed Aim, sharpening his vision. The others leapt to their feet and armed themselves quickly.
The band exited Niklaus' shelter and out of the alley. Everyone looked worried except Niklaus, who only looked concerned.
"Let's spread out," Ulfgar said, uncharacteristically serious. The others nodded and moved into the nearby bazaar, creating as much space as possible while keeping within eyesight of each other.
"What is it?"
"We didn't just happen on this place," Sarah said, knocking an arrow and pulling into her hood, "some demon chased us in here, and we thought it safe."
"Why?"
"This demon burrows, and the city is on hard rock, we didn't think it could burrow through solid rock."
"So what kind of demon is it?"
By way of explanation, the bazaar ground suddenly exploded, throwing earth and stone everywhere while a huge demon leapt out of the ground. The demon soon landed on what looked like thousands of legs terminating in hardened spikes. Spying on the humans, it attacked instantly.
One of its huge spiked legs came crashing down, and Niklaus spun roughly away, slicing futilely with Silence as he narrowly avoided the claw.
"Sunuvabitch!" Sasha shouted.
"Scatter!" Sarah shrieked in command, launching a blizzard of arrows at the demon's head.
"It's Adthck!" Sasha shouted at the same time.
"Huh?" Niklaus answered, somewhat distracted by all the legs that seemed to orient on him.
Sarah was about to repeat herself when the demon turned into her blizzard and charged. If not for Simon's sudden intervention, she would surely have been turned to pulp under the massive demon's thousands of legs. Adthck halted suddenly as it found itself blinded, unable to see anything.
Sarah promptly ran like hell.
Adthck was an Evil, however; while not one of the Three or even the Four Lesser Evils, he still commanded many powerful magics, and Simon's curse only lasted a matter of moments. It was enough, however, and Sarah dashed between buildings.
"It's one of the Evils," Sasha explained as she ignited the Aura of Blessed Aim, "I don't know why it's here, but it must be something big to get someone that high up into Sanctuary."
Niklaus digested this information as he picked up a large rock and chucked it at the demon millipede's head. The rock richochetted off, but distracted the demon long enough for Sarah to finish her escape.
Unfortunately, the demon also zeroed in on Niklaus, who belatedly realized he had picked up another rock with the same intention as before.
With an apologetic grin, he dropped his rock and dove down the nearest alley as Adthck changed trajectory and charged at him.
Niklaus fled down the narrow alleyway, hoping its width would hinder the beast.
"Um, Nik?" Sasha asked, "that demon is an overgrown millipede, a glorified conscious battering ram, and coincidentally one of Duriel's disciples. D'you really think some crumbling architecture is gonna stop it?"
Niklaus' eyebrow raised towards his hairline as he pondered this new data. Then his heart raised into his throat as he heard a demonic avalanche approach.
Adthck was not, in fact, hindered in the least by such minor triviances as buildings. It neared the warrior and spat caustic phlegm at its quarry.
Sasha ignited the Aura of Vigor, and combined with Niklaus' sudden moment of inspiration (roughly translated: pants-staining rush of adrenaline) and Adthck stopped anew as its quarry disappeared, and briefly wondered if that damn Necromancer had set another curse on it.
It wondered again as something appeared--again seemingly out of nowhere--to crash headlong into its face. Only slightly puzzled (as most of its emotional response capabilities were rather preoccupied with excrutiating pain) it attempted to remove the large axe embedded between its eyes. Unfortunately for the demon, hellish evolution had not quite caught up with ranged offensives, and Adthck's mandibles were entirely incapable of removing the axe. It knocked its head against the ground to dislodge the weapon, but again its mandibles proved a hindrance and all the demon got for its efforts was a sore jaw.
Suddenly a new pain exploded out of its back, and it turned to regard a furred warrior ripping another axe out of its back and rearing to strike again, lumberjack-style. If Adthck could smile, it would have; however, the first axe impeded any facial expressions. Regardless, the attacker on its back could be dealt with easily. It was about to turn its head and snap the man in two when suddenly its powerful neck muscles were overpowered by an overwhelming force. Its head wrenched around until it was eye-to-eye with a mountain (rather an interesting situation, having a murderous-looking moutanin staring back). With a determined look, the mountain rudely retrieved his axe out of the demon's face. Adthck reared back and screamed in pain as ichor rained on the continent.
With murder in its eyes, the demon spread its mandibles to consume the land mass in front of it, only to notice that it too had disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Looking up, it saw the human had become airborn, his bulk blotting out the sun, axe raised high.
~~~
"Nik, get your pants off!" Sasha screamed as Niklaus ran.
"I hardly think this is the time or place for--"
"Not that, stupid! Your pants are melting!"
"Gaah!"
Niklaus hastily pulled his pants off and stood in only his tunic, boots, and weapons, watching in fascination as the acidic spit dissolved his pants.
A sudden burning sensation in his posterior warned him that some of the phlegm had in fact gotten through the material. Sasha hastily ignited another Aura, purging the toxins from his system as he resisted the urge to scratch furiously.
Soon the burning was replaced with a cooling sensation, and Niklaus sighed with relief.
Sarah burst into the enclosure and regarded Niklaus with absolute horror.
"...My pants were melting," Niklaus answered lamely.
"I can see that," Sarah asked, forcing down an uncustomary smile as she regarded his melting pants. She silently added her own private comment.
A not-so-distant roar forced them into the present and they realized that the demon was still quite alive. They ran back into the alleys of the Lost City (or not) to wreak further irritation to the greater demon.
Simon had meanwhile taken advantage of Ulfgar's and Math's distraction to see about raising a small army utilizing the local fauna. This consisted of the zombies and other undead that had served faithfully under the snake-men. With the demise of the nest, they had wandered aimlessly, mindlessly attacking anyone who wandered in. Although Niklaus had done a good job removing most of them, enough remained for Simon to form a defensive line.
Right now they formed a shield wall that the northern warriors were dashing towards. The simple-minded zombies parted enough to let the warriors pass.
As the shield wall closed, Adthck put on a burst of speed, and would have grinned at the fell inevitability of its rush.
The mortals would die. Horribly, if at all possible.
Adthck crashed headlong into the shield wall, and the humans scattered. The undead, being...undead...and thus rather slow, were mowed down.
Adthck raised its head in victory, and promptly collapsed as its wounds caught up with it.
The demon was rather confused by this: aside from the axe it had intercepted with its face, there shouldn't be any other significant wounds. Yet as it looked down the length of its body, Adthck saw severe damage to its shell. It looked at the retreating backside of the crippling necromancer and with an enraged roar, charged after him.
Niklaus ran into the foray and saw Simon running like hell. He ran to help and saw a shield laying on the ground. It was peculiar, holding a dozen or so spikes around the edges and extending from the boss. Snatching the shield as he ran, Niklaus dashed towards the behemoth.
"Look, the tail," Sasha said, directing him to two poisonous stingers that moved angrily. Although the stingers themselves were not so welcome, the soft joint tissue behind them was very much so.
Niklaus charged in, leaning behind the shield. He neared and Silence slashed at the stingers, cleanly removing them from battle and Adthck's behind. Yet the venom that flowed through those stingers was close to spilling onto Niklaus, and would have been lethal even if absorbed through the skin.
Niklaus continued his charge, however, and rammed the shield into Adthck's posterior, preventing any of the venom from pouring onto him.
The demon paused, realizing something was terribly wrong. Looking back, it realized that all was not well in Sanctuary.
However, Sanctuary was the least of the demon's concerns at the moment, because one of those damn mortals had stuck a shield up its ass.
Affronted in its backside, Adthck hissed and spun angrily, attempting to dislodge the intrusion. Niklaus hastily twisted the shield, tearing open capillaries and arteries in Adthck's hindquarters. Adthck screamed again and Niklaus dodged away.
The demon reared and turned to face Niklaus. This was the demon who had conspired against Sasha to bring about her death, this was the demon who had served Duriel when Sasha had gone into exile with the Three, and this was the demon who had done...something else to her. It had been a long time ago, but Sasha was sure it was something really awful.
When Sasha saw those mandibles and bug-eyes (pardon the pun) she became a little upset, and the fiery oranges and reds of the Aura of the Fanatic exploded from the the succubus' essence and surrounded Niklaus.
Duane of Skelgard saw Sasha's Aura and gaped. Only powerful Paladin, having spent years devoted to the Light, were capable of receiving the Aura of the Fanatic. It was a sign of true devotion and the mark of Heaven's Blessing.
Hastily, Duane lit his own Aura of Concentration and Charged towards the demon, refusing to be outdone by this demon, no matter how cruelly he mocked the Light.
Adthck saw the two Paladin charge in, and did something no millipede should be able to do, no matter how overgrown or demonic. It's rear claws dug in to the earth, and its top half reared up into the air. Usually such a sight made mortals stain their pants; however, Niklaus had discarded his and Duane was too jealous of Niklaus (only in a devout and pro-Light sort of way, of course) to think about such petty things as fear or survival.
Adthck oriented on the two approaching Paladin and readied an eldritch spell, only to be interrupted by several sharp objects thunking into the wound in its face. Distraught, the demon tried to focus on the source of this new attack and found the human woman and the large male launching bits of wood and metal into his wound.
Then Adthck was distracted again by two more thunks, which were not so much akin to "thunk" as they were to "crash! bang! oh hells that hurt!" Niklaus and Duane had adjusted trajectory to meet Adthck at his midsection, and the demon was improperly balanced to receive such an attack.
As such, the demon toppled over in a very undignified heap. Niklaus and Duane peeled away to regroup and charge again.
At about that time the group became a team. As Niklaus and Duane peeled away, Simon attacked the demon's psyche again, blinding him as Ulfgar leaped overhead, throwing his daggers into the joints in each leg. By the time the curse wore off, Ulfar had landed safely on a rooftop and out of sight.
Sarah, meanwhile, had found her own rooftop and was firing as fast as she could draw and aim. She aimed at the demon's eyes, forcing it to twist and turn to avoid her arrows.
Niklaus blazed in again, racing towards the beast's head. At the last moment, he Charged, Silence aimed like a lance.
Another interesting facet about a Paladin's Charge is that the idea came from long ago when the cavalry charge was the most lethal force in a large-scale battle. When approximately 600 cavalry charge into the foray, the sight is something to behold.
Visual aesthetics aside, there has yet to be anything that can stand in the way of those shock charges.
Niklaus roared in and thrust through the demon's armored hide to sink into its neck. He hoped fervently that he hit something critical as Adthck staggered sideways under the impact.
Duane came in on the other side, sword in hand, but Adthck sensed the holy blessing he radiated and turned to snap at him. Niklaus thus found himself off the ground and hanging onto Silence's hilt for dear life.
A warrior bearing a demon-inspired Aura may have surprised the demon, but it did notice a flailing human, and turned to Niklaus with murder in its eyes. The demon's head reared towards him, and he had no choice but remove his father's sword.
He hit the ground hard, and coughed. Sasha screamed in BloodLust, and the Paladin rolled to his feet.
Just in time to catch one of the demon's legs across his midsection, hoisting him unceremoniously into the air and despositing him roughly in a room. Fortunately, the wall he passed through to enter the room slowed him enough for the next wall to completely halt his advance.
BloodLust be damned, that hurt. Niklaus rolled around on the ground a little, clutching his head while even Sasha sobered up considerably.
A few short moments and Sasha could have ignited her healing Aura, but as both their wits were scrambled, she couldn't have ignited a fire with flint and tinder. Adthck was preoccupied with their companions at the moment, though, and they found themselves a moment of respite to collect their wits.
"Aw shit that hurt," Sasha complained. Niklaus would have nodded, but the world was spinning enough and he didn't want to add any further trajectories.
Niklaus finally staggered to his feet as Sasha collected her wits. Groggily she finally managed to ignite the healing Aura and they both felt the benefits immediately. Niklaus cracked his neck and felt ribs grind back into place and musculature heal.
"I always hate that part," Niklaus commented as the rest of the healing process completed.
"I could always let you go on with the punctured lung," Sasha said dryly.
"No no, just complaining about a perfectly acceptable system."
"How demonic of you. Should we perhaps go and help our comrades?"
"How human of you."
With a grim smile, Niklaus drew Fury. Silence was a noble sword, but Fury just might be able to finally defeat the Minor Evil.
Meanwhile, Adthck was finally about to slay one of these pesky humans. So far they had been able to keep it off balance and never able to focus on just one, but now it was able to take down this pesky female with the bow.
Held aloft, its pincers piercing through her arm, she struggled futilely against the incredible pain. She stabbed repeatedly with her rapier, but simply couldn't pierce the tough shell. The demon's inner jaws moved upwards, reaching towards its prey.
The sudden loss of a mandible came as quite a surprise for demon and human alike. Sarah fell from her considerable height, but luckily Ulfgar caught her before she could fall.
Adthck spun around to confront the other Paladin, wreathed in the fires of his Aura. Sand whipped around him and into the air as the Aura blazed in dangerous reds.
Adthck might have laughed if it possessed such emotional responses as humor. It didn't, so the demon began looping around the Paladin.
Niklaus was hardly the image of panic or even remote concern. His expression spoke of slow vivisections and similar sweet nothings.
Or perhaps Sasha was expressing herself more at that moment.
In the grand scheme of things, it really didn't matter all that much, because shortly thereafter Niklaus deprived the demon of its other mandible. Adthck squealed in rage and would have stared agape at the human, but no longer could. The demon backed up and brought its length into line, preparing to charge the foolish mortal that had hurt it so.
Adthck still possessed abilities beyond his brute strength, however. Such as the ability to form an eldritch shield before him to shield him from his own colossal collisions. Such a spell was particularly effective against the Holy Paladins, since the orientation of their respective magical mights were so diametrically opposed they would naturally resist each other, much like repelling lodestones. Each regarded the other for a moment, before Niklaus raised Silence like a lance and Adthck lowered its head.
They Charged.
Another interesting fact about a Paladin's Charge is that the idea came from long ago when the cavalry charge was the most lethal force in a large-scale battle. When approximately a thousand cavalry charge into the foray, There was no quarter or surrender. The cavalry simply mowed down anything in its path.
It was this bit of human history that Niklaus found himself reenacting as he bore down upon the approaching demon.
Sasha and Niklaus roared in their defiance, and the Aura of the Fanatic exploded, blinding everyone around them. For just a moment, the Aura extended into Silence, imbuing the weapon with unfathomable power as the Aura, nay Sasha herself, fed into the cold steel.
The two unstoppable forces met, and against all odds the multiton demon lost against the human. The impact shook through the demon's length as Silence sank through Ulfgar's initial wound. The holy weapon tore through to the base of Adthck's head, pinning it to the ground as a veritable shock wave tore through the demon's being and causing its delicate internal organs to rupture.
Yet the sheer physics of a two hundred pound human and a multiton demon charging towards each other at full speed should have left the human a greasy spot on the ground.
Any seige engineer would have thrown up his hands and crawled into a bottle of strong liquor.
Adthck, no seige engineer, simply collapsed.
"Aww, did we hurt ourselves?" Niklaus asked, then smiled with far too many teeth as Fury raised for the deathblow.
"What manner of mortal are you? No Paladin's Auras can pierce my magic!" Adthck responded in his own language.
Niklaus leaned a little closer, so only the demon could hear. "No *holy* magics could do so," Niklaus specified, smiling, "Sasha sends her regards."
At that moment, a terrible burning sensation coursed from the demon's behind. Aghast, Adthck realized that the poison from its stingers had finally crept into its nervous system and had worked through to kill the huge demon.
Adthck stared, horrified that it had at last fallen, knowing this was the ultimate end. In that moment between existence and nonexistence, it thought it saw something in addition to the paladin. Another form, screamingly female, terrifyingly seductive.
A succubus.
Sasha.
Adthck's eyes sparkled in stunned recognition, then dimmed forever.