Jimmy leaned back, almost at an impossible angle, as the shadowy claw swiped where his head had been. He then did a small tossing motion, releasing iron daggers from his wrists which he quickly caught. A double stab impaled the claw, giving him something to break his fall and allowing him to yank himself back up out of harm's way. A left click at the sole of his boot ejected his foot blade which he put to quick use with a short snap kick into the dark mass of his caught foe.

While Jimmy caught and dispatched his ambusher, Chloe and Rina weren't as lucky. From the edge of his vision he saw a large shadowy hand engulf the small druid's head, pushing her face first into the wall and smothering her against it. Rina fared slightly better as tendrils of darkness grabbed her from behind and attempted to throw her on her back. Fortunately the militia girl found time to plant her feet, and was struggling mightily against her attacker, snarling with clenched teeth as she tried to yank pieces of shadow off of her with her heavy leather gloves.

Jimmy wasted no time. He released the claw of his stunned opponent and delivered a series of quick jabs with his blades into its central mass. Jimmy then pounced on Chloe's foe, slicing into its center with deadly precision, even as his previous foe released a chilling death screech. Hitting them was hard, hurting them was easy. While a normal man would basically be flailing at these shrouded creatures, Jimmy knew their weak points. They were demons of shadow, but they did have a rough though barely perceptible anatomy. While he couldn't actually see them, he had an instinct of where they were. His daggers sought out those points, and surgically carved them out.

Having dispatched his second demon, Jimmy turned to Rina as Chloe fell to the ground sputtering and coughing tangible patches of darkness from her nose throat. Jimmy was surprised that the girl was not only still standing but was able to draw a cudgel and swing at the wisps of darkness attempting to grapple her. Though she did more damage to herself than to her opponent, she managed to keep the demon off guard and unbalanced, enough so that Jimmy easily slipped behind it and dispatched it with a single stab with his iron blade.

"Regroup," said Jimmy as flicked the darkness from his blades and scanned the surrounding area. "There's more here. I can smell them."

"Gawd damn, stupid, whore piss," cursed Chloe as she spat the last pieces of darkness out of her. Rina on the other hand just stared at Jimmy in shock with wide eyes.

"You killed all three like they were nothing," said Rina in awe. "Chester and I could only drive them off at the best of times."

Jimmy ignored her praise and scooped up a handful of the fading darkness and sniffed it. The stink of alcohol and musk was undeniable on it. He then walked over to the recovering Chloe and handed her the rapidly decomposing mass.

"What? Come to brag? No I don't want to taste it," said Chloe as she stood wobbly on her feet. The druid hacked a few times, but fortunately there were no more traces of darkness.

"Your nose is better than mine. Tell me what you smell."

Chloe wiggled her nose and grinned. "Yours at least can smell demons. I mean, how did you know they were there?"

Jimmy ignored the question and simply shoved the darkness towards her again. "Just smell it before it fades away."

Chloe sighed as she closed her eyes and took a deep wiff. "Besides the ash and sulfur smell, a fifty seven Red Tornic and a dash of Kwarvatos," she then opened her eyes and gave Jimmy a puzzled look. "That's odd…let me sniff it again," she said as she attempted to sniff Jimmy's hand again.

"No, that's what I thought I smelled as well, but I just wanted confirmation, "replied Jimmy as he tossed the disappearing darkness away.

"What? What does that mean?" asked a puzzled Rina.

"Cheap wine, and expensive cologne," shrugged Chloe. "I don't know much about demons, but that's an odd mix."

"Yes it is," nodded Jimmy as he pointed to the large building they were standing next to. "The demons came through these walls. "

"That's Montgomery's inn, general store, and mining warehouse," said Rina. "Monty likes to save space."

"Is there a basement?"

Rina nodded her head.

"Alright. Rina, get back to your people. Chloe watch the front, while I try to flush them out. The side entrances and windows look boarded up, they can pass through them, but they'll try those last. Cold iron and fire works best on them. "

Chloe began to protest her secondary and less than glamorous role, but Jimmy ignored her and quickly ran up the wall. Though the nearest window was a good twenty feet up and shuddered, he ran and impossibly vaulted against the wall, propelled himself lightly from his first point of contact before grabbing the window sill with his finger tips. As the ledge began to fall apart from his weight, Jimmy swung his legs sideways and up and rolled into a ball as he crashed through the fortunately feeble shudders. A quick tumble and a roll, and the young Blade was back on his feet with daggers ready.

"That would have been embarrassing if I bounced off and fell," he chuckled as he scanned the room. He was in a merchant room, with a simple unmade bed and dresser. There were still packs, and some mining tools, suggesting that the occupants had left in a hurry, which fitted with the town evacuation scenario. He didn't see anything 'otherworldly', but that meant little when dealing with shadow demons. He sniffed the area quickly and when satisfied there were no demons in the room, he slipped into the hallway.

The door opened into a large vaulted room, overseeing a common room. Jimmy could see some stocked shelves to the side and the hint of some tables and a bar beneath him. The Blade quickly did a cursory scan into the other rooms, but did not catch a hint of his prey.

He was sure that they came from inside the building, but could not detect them. Perhaps they stuck to the ground levels, or possibly underground? The former would be manageable the latter would make things difficult. Fighting three shadow demons behind a building in the middle of the afternoon was one thing, fighting them in the depths of a basement or a dungeon was a whole different matter. Or he was reading too much into this? Maybe he killed them all, but he doubt it.

Satisfied that they weren't any foes on the second level, Jimmy located the stairs and easily vaulted down, lightly on his feet.

*Clap Clap*

Jimmy spun around, and grimaced when he saw Rina and Chloe at the bar.

"I thought I told you to guard the door, and you to get back to Chester," said Jimmy.

"I'm sorry," stammered Rina. "But this is my town..I feel..."

"You're not my leader, and you're certainly not Rina's," interrupted Chloe as she poured Rina a glass of wine, when the militia girl didn't take it she simply shrugged again and drank it herself. "Besides, don't get your panties in a knot. Look what I found while you were being super sneaky and bossy upstairs," she said as she tossed him the wine bottle she was holding.

Jimmy easily caught the half empty bottle. He sniffed it once before looking at the label. It was from a small winery outside of Tornic.

"So…the demons had a party and got smashed drunk? I guess that's how you beat them so easily," snickered Chloe with a smile.

Jimmy ignored her taunt as he paced about the room. The scent was stronger here and more importantly was recent. He eventually found some floor boards hiding a cellar or basement, but the trail did not there. "They were here, but they left recently."

"Yeah. You killed them, remember?" said Chloe.

"No. It's a stronger smell. It's the source," said Jimmy. "Wait…You can get that can't you? Your nose is better than mine is it not?"

Chloe shrugged. "Maybe at identifying and locating, but you seemed to have the ability to filter other information. "

Jimmy nodded, filing that footnote for the future. "I think the head demon left earlier or perhaps snuck out the back when its minions attacked us."

"Great," yawned Chloe. "Back to square one."

"Actually, I think I know where its headed," smiled Jimmy.

After a short jaunt to the outskirts of town, Jimmy, Chloe and a reluctant Rina found themselves at an old gnarled tree. The tree stuck out from its mountainous surroundings, but there was nothing remarkable about it.

"They hid in a tree? Are they leprechaun demons or something?" asked Chloe as she poked the tree. "Or did they do the shadowy intangible thing?"

"How long has this tree been here?" Jimmy ignored Chloe's inane questions as he stared at it intently.

Rina scratched her head. "I'm not sure. Years at least, I never thought much of it."

"Boring…maybe we should get back on the road to Grom," said Chloe.

Jimmy nodded as he blocked out his companions' voices and let his vision drift. There was a trick to this, you couldn't find it if you were looking for it. You had to distract yourself. His old master Martinez told him about the spell the infamous Blue Mage often used. She would often hide her lairs and lavatories in plain sight with such a simple spell, going as far as hiding a lair undetected in Jimmy's home town of Veb. Her spell didn't just disguise or cloak, but would mess around with the viewer's memory making them think everything is natural. Jimmy wasn't sure how, but the Baroness Stille was able to duplicate that spell for Martinez to cloak his sanctums after the pair of them raided one of the Blue Mage's libraries.

Martinez and Stille. They were like a father and mother to him. If of course your father was a suicidal self absorbed preening murder machine, and your mother was a half demon saint.

Jimmy chuckled did that make sense? He tried not to think of Martinez too often since their falling out, but Jimmy had an appreciation of his old master. Born of peasants in the dangerous barrens of North Darokin, Martinez had a made a name for himself slaying the local demons and then beyond. Jimmy knew Martinez could have made a name or at least a reputation for himself as a thief, but his old master never abandoned the ways of demon hunting. That is, until his big falling out with Stille.

Baroness Stille. The thought of her sent a shudder down Jimmy's spine. One of the most beautiful and more importantly scholarly women in the realm, she was also the closest thing he had to a mother after his real one died. While his aunt and uncle were his guardians, it was the Baroness that took him in and gave him a decent job, and a real future. Which was all the more shocking when she revealed to him her demonic heritage. She was a tiefling, a creature with a demonic bloodline, one of the most reviled races in Grom, but she was one of the few that hid it well. With her natural beauty and grace, only her visible bluish hair gave away her non human heritage, though most people simply thought she was an elf or anemic half elf. It wasn't a big secret for her, several of the other servants knew, but Jimmy felt the trust she placed in him when she revealed to him her small horns and retractable claws.

Jimmy looked up to those two, and regretted it bitterly when they grew apart. He often….

Jimmy stopped and blinked as a handle came to view on the tree. It didn't shimmer or pop out of nowhere. He simply noticed it for the first time. The Blade quickly grabbed the handle and twisted it, untangling the roots and revealing a dimly lit stair case, before the enchantment took hold in his mind again.

"What did you just do?" asked Rina in shock as Jimmy strode down the stairs.

"It's hard to explain. You just have to distract yourself to get past this magic. Think about people,objects, even events you don't normally dwell on," muttered Jimmy.

"Like your Princess?" chuckled Chloe as she made his way behind him.

"Yeah something like that," lied Jimmy who then stopped and turned to Rina. "You should head back now. I'm not kidding this time. The demons we faced are nothing compared to those ahead of us. "

The militia woman began to protest, but Chloe intervened. "Hey, leave her alone. She just wants to help her town out. Make a stand, fight in what she believes in, all that stuff. Just give her a chance. Isn't that right Rina?"

"Yes, that's it.. I mean no…that's not the reason at all..." jprotested Rina.

"Eh? " asked both Jimmy and Chloe in confusion.

Rina took a deep breath. "I tried to tell you earlier before the demons attacked. I couldn't care less about the town, but I care about Martin, the man that Chester was complaining about. I didn't see him amongst the evacuees, but I care about him. He has his faults, but..but he promised to take me away from here. "

"Martin? " asked Jimmy as realization dawned on him.

"This guy said he was going to take you away? " said Chloe simultaneously with her all too familiar eye roll. "You don't seriously believe that?"

Before Rina could answer, Jimmy stopped as he spotted a man passed out snoring at the bottom of the stairs. The stink of wine and cheap cologne confirmed who he was even before Rina pushed passed him to be at his side.