Jimmy's 'elaborate' plan wasn't that elaborate at all. In fact it was pretty simple. Sneak into the Asura base while following the other demonic faction to avoid their defenses. At worse the Marilith and the Hoplite and whatever else they have recruited ahead of them would be defeated, but even then Jimmy and Chloe would have to deal with a weakened foe while rescuing the Baroness. At best, the two factions would wipe each other letting them have free run of the base.
It was an easy matter to track the pair. They made no effort to conceal their trail, which was logical since they soundly defeated Jimmy and Chloe earlier. Their path lead to the standing stones in the middle of the island that Jimmy had visited so long ago. Dead tieflings littered the area. The place he first met Ulfgar. While this was the place Ulfgar had hinted at in his 'invitation' to Jimmy, the young blade knew in his gut it wouldn't be so simple. There was more to this place than meets the eye, and the crack in the ground from the ajar megalith proved this.
"This place stinks," commented Chloe with her nose up high.
"I've been to this place before, though only on the surface. Prepare to smell a lot of brimstone, acid, corpses, and other forms of rot. It won't be pleasant. This is literally a gateway to the lowerplanes. A wound on the world created by the imprisoned god Rovagug, sealed by ancient magics. "
"Well, it looks like those magics failed," shrugged Chloe. "Are you sure about all this? I'm actually quite all right about seeing you banished and me relegated to snitch again. If we play our cards right, we might live very long and productive lives."
"Having second thoughts?"
Chloe laughed nervously. " Of course not. I live for this stuff. I was …like….seeing if you were."
Jimmy considered her statement and then held a finger up. Chloe stared at him puzzled as the Blade darted behind one of the larger standing stones for a few seconds before returning. "Well, if you have no other reservations, lets do this."
Chloe nodded and grinned. Jimmy hopped into the hole followed by the dryad.
The tunnels were confining, twisting, and reeked from a choking aura of despair. Jimmy could see Chloe was suffering from it. He could see her getting more nervous, sullen and of course jumpy. It wasn't surprising since only those that were trained in this environment or those that were born into it would be immune to its effects. Demon hunters like himself, clerics, paladins, and inquisitors were trained to resist against this evil miasma while Demons, Asura, Devils and their like wouldn't even notice it. Jimmy once heard that even tieflings, those demonic half spawn mortals, true Drow, and even Mindflayers were shaken from this dark domain.
"Are you sure you don't want to turn back?" asked Jimmy. Chloe looked nervous, but before she can confirm his statement, he added. "Cuz, you know, you look kind of skittish right now. If you're scared, I can escort you out."
Chloe sneered at him as she shook her head vigorously, some of her bravado was restored.
Jimmy considered sending Chloe back, but he needed her for this. As good as he claimed he was, he wasn't above tilting the table in his favor. It was selfish, but he needed her, and he wasn't above simple goads to spur her on.
The tunnels were networked into a web like structure, alternating from clusters of interconnected rooms and tunnels to seemingly random access tunnels between the clusters.
Jimmy and Chloe passed a couple of puddles of ichor, presumably slain Asura or demons by the Marilith faction. From the size of the pools they were quite large, possibly giant sized, but it was hard to determine their type or even their size from their remains. Demons and Asura died in very random and bizarre ways. Some would simply slump down like mortal corpses, while others dissolved into ichor, or others turned into ash or smoke. Jimmy once witnessed a demon explode into a shower of maggots, and another simply imploded on itself though those were quite rare instances.
After the ichor they found themselves into a Forge Halfling warren, or a Dretch lair for the uninformed. There were still dissolving pools and corpses of the small bloated creatures scattered about, and even a cursory examination revealed there were at least fifty of them slain. There were more of course, there were always more, but Jimmy and Chloe easily took them out when they mounted a 'counter' attack against them. This sudden burst of violence seemed to cheer up the druid, which didn't surprise Jimmy since she did have a type of primitive hunting instinct about her.
As they pressed further down following the Marilith and her partner, Jimmy paused as he sensed something amiss. He released his crossbow from his sleeve and took aim at the darkness.
"Whoa…it's just me," said Nymk as she stepped out of the darkness with hands open before her.
Jimmy stared at her, looking for a blur around the edges, or even a faint trail of ichor. When his eyes and more importantly his nose did not detect any type of disguise or illusion he relaxed slightly as he waved her towards them.
"Nice job getting this far, and a nice diversion too. I didn't expect you to assault this place frontally, but it worked. A lot of the demons have been drawn off," said Nymk.
"That wasn't us, " said Chloe." Some rival gang of demons, lead by a house wife demon and her Hoplite stooge."
"Eh? House wife demon?"
"Nevermind, did you find the Baroness?" interrupted Jimmy.
Nymk nodded but she did not look pleased. "Aye, but she's heavily guarded. Two of the Golden Destroyer's top lieutenants I think. A Succubus and some weird shapeshifter creature with strange backward hands."
"A Rakshasa," sighed Jimmy. " Dangerous shapeshifting animal spirits, predominantly tigers, that are often allies to Asura. I fought a greater one before. That's how I first met Sam…"
Jimmy stopped, he had said too much.
"Who is Sam?" inquired Nymk.
Chloe grinned ear from ear. "Sammy, Samantha, or whatever her name is….His beeeutifuuull Princess. It was love at first sight, but she dropped his ass when she realized he was broke as dirt."
Jimmy reeled from that comment. He wanted to correct her, but it was close enough to the truth. He regretted not sending the druid back to the swan boat.
"A beautiful Princess and her spurned lover, oh ….this is interesting," giggled a deep feminine voice from the darkness ahead. "I'll be sure to torture the full tale from you."
The trio readied their weapons. Scimitar, crossbow, and claws.
"Well, there's goes our ambush," said a more masculine but nervous voice.
"I can't help it, especially when the prey is so …interesting," replied the feminine voice. "I see, a woman, girl, and a boy. But my senses….they say a potion, a tree, and…and someone familiar though I don't recall him."
"I get it they are weird. Fine let's get this over with and you can sort this out later," sighed the masculine voice.
Jimmy noted that the second voice was moving to his right, possibly getting in position for a flanking attack. It was practically invisible, with its ability to merge in the darkness and even its abnormally soft footfalls. It would have gotten the drop on anyone else, except himself of course.
Jimmy didn't hesitate. He took aim at the darkness and fired. It was a blind shot of course, but Jimmy was rewarded with a surprised yelp of pain.
"Ahh! It…it hurt me!" shouted a tiger headed man in merchants clothes as he stumbled out of the darkness, impaled with a holy cold iron bolt. Jimmy was glad he met Nymk first, even though she had lead these two to him. It didn't take a demon hunter to figure out which was the Succubus and which was the Rakshasa talking from the shadows, though it probably took a demon hunter to realized only blessed piercing weapons had any chance of hurting the tiger spirit.
"That's quite enough," said the deep feminine voice. While it had a seductive voice, it suddenly took on an oppressively alluring tone. Jimmy's mind flashed with images of Sammy under the mango grove. They were so young, their thoughts were so pure. It seemed so simple, so right. He loved her, she loved him. What else did they need?
NO
That's now how it went. Jimmy might have loved her, and she might have loved him, but he loved her more. The end.
Jimmy's mind snapped out of it, as a pair of wild eyes stared at him from the darkness ahead. Nymk had fallen to one knee under the mental assault, but Chloe was nowhere to be seen. What was worse was that the tiger man was advancing towards them with his claws extended. Though Jimmy had shaken off the psychic assault, he was still shaky on his feet. He drew his main gauche while tossing his crossbow at the Rakshasa.
The weapon hit the tiger man squarely on the chest. It was a relatively weak blow, but the creature jumped back skittishly, no doubt still reeling from the blessed crossbow bolt earlier. Jimmy would have smiled if his very custom, and very expensive crossbow didn't hit the tunnel floor hard with an audible snap. He had no time to worry though, as he took advantage of the distraction. He twisted to the side and darted towards the eyes, slashing slightly below them to hit the creature's main body mass.
Though his tactic was desperate it seemed to work, as the Succubus broke from the shadows and countered his blade with iron claws. With the blade batted aside, it took no hesitation as it leaped towards him and attacked with a flurry of fangs, claws, and wings.
While Jimmy was able to parry most of the attacks he was still impressed. Most Succubus would run when their deceptions were uncovered, but this one was not only attacking, but was actually pressing him back. For the time at least.
Jimmy wasn't some run of the mill adventurer. He was James the Blade. The "James the Blade." While he valued humility, he recognized the power of confidence as he slipped towards the creature, ducking under a wing buffet and blocking one of her claws. He drew right up to her body, pressing against her tantalizing skin and meeting her surprised but still alluring eyes, before spinning behind her as he plunged his main gauche into her back.
Before the creature recovered, Jimmy slashed away at one of her wings with such force it severed one at the base. Instead of screeching in fear or pain the Succubus simply rolled forward and sprang out of his reach as it once again pivoted towards him.
"I know you now. While my memory is hazy, you were the boy in the woods, the half fiend's plaything," taunted the Succubus as it licked her lips hungrily as she plucked out his main gauche and tossed it to the side.
Jimmy recalled a succubus when he first met his master Martinez but he had no desire to exchange words with this creature. While it was a viable tactic against other demons and lower planar creatures to get them to lower their guard or to infuriate them to make a mistake, it was nothing but a losing proposition against a Succubus. Instead Jimmy made a mental note of how strong and fast his opponent was and how much damage it had sustained. Though it was missing a wing and suffered a deep stab in its back, it seemed to ignore those wounds as it sized him up. More importantly Jimmy spotted Chloe had returned and was wrestling the Rakshasa in the background in her Chloeverine form. While her claws and fangs couldn't penetrate the creature's hide, it effectively neutralized him as the creature thrashed helplessly underneath her.
Jimmy didn't wait for his companion to assist him, a Rakshasa was definitely the more dangerous of their two opponents. He drew another dagger in his off hand as he darted forward, jabbed his rapier towards the Succubus' chest, which she easily parried, feigned a step back before launching himself forward once again.
It should have caught the demoness off guard enabling him to plunge another dagger into her, but instead he dropped both his weapons as she grabbed his wrists in a display of insane speed.
"That might have worked on most demons," taunted the Succubus as she began to crush his wrists, " sadly I'm… OWWW!"
Jimmy didn't hesitate as he slammed his head against the bridge of her nose. He probably hurt himself more than the supernatural hide of the demoness, but it did stun her enough to loosen his grip. With the seconds he bought himself, he slipped loose his deva hair garrotte from his sleeve and wrapped it around her neck. He gave it a half twist before slipping behind her and placed himself to back to back against the squirming demoness as he pulled hard, hard enough to yank her head over his shoulder.
"AACCKK..GASSPP..HISSS"
Jimmy poured on his strength, he felt her strength slipping, but suddenly he found himself stumbling forward off balance.
Jimmy reacted instantly, drawing two more daggers and stabbing the air around him. He didn't need a visual confirmation to know that his enemy had teleported, and he simply did a practiced pattern to make sure she wasn't nearby.
"Oh, you're good, but this little game has gone on long enough," said the throaty feminine voice from the darkness. Jimmy was annoyed that even with his scent ability he couldn't pinpoint her, but noted with satisfaction a wheeze in her voice. As he waited the next attack, he glanced and saw that Nymk had recovered and was laying into the Rakshasa with her scimitar, even as it slashed wildly at the pair with its razor sharp claws. Chloe's claws were ineffective against the tiger demon whilte the Arbiter's blade fared better but not by much. The two look like they were going to be worn down by attrition, but Nymk inadvertently twisted the bolt that Jimmy fired into it earlier and was rewarded with a feral shreik from the Rakshasa. Chloe and Nymk glanced briefly at each other, before glaring at the now panicked Tiger man. The tide of battle had changed.
Before Jimmy could lend them a hand, a shadow of fury, claws, and fang sprang from around the corner. He judged it was a good fifty feet between them, plenty of time to react, but before he could, the Succubus slammed into him, sending him hurtling away as the creature latched onto him with ripping and biting madly.
As he tumbled down the tunnel, was it a sloping passage? Jimmy felt a bite to his shoulder, a rock to his head, his arm being shredded, and a slice across his lower leg, near his crotch. It happened so fast, but he didn't panic. He'd gone through worse from bigger.
The young blade simply rolled into a ball for protection. Blood poured over his eyes but when he got a better sense of his where his opponent stood, he kicked strongly into its mid mass. He wasn't sure if he would connect or not, failure meaning exposing his midsection to most likely a lethal retaliation, but he was rewarded with a thud and an 'ommf'.
Instead of wiping the blood from his eyes, Jimmy struck. Knowing that this might be the end, he threw a pouch of blessed cold iron filings into his foe's face. He was going to save that for the Golden Destroyer, but now was no time to hold back.
"SKRREEEEE!"
Embolden by his opponent's shriek, he lurched forward with the last of his strength, ramming his shoulder underneath the creature's soft breast, followed by a series of strikes to her stomach with his leather gauntlet.
Normally that was a maneuver suited more for a bar room brawl, but considering he had cold iron knuckles and silver spikes embedded in his glove, he was rewarded with meaty pulp and demonic viscera covering his fist.
Jimmy half expected the demon to surge in strength and continue the struggle, since its teeth and claws were much more powerful than his 'loaded' sap gloves, but the Succubus' will to fight was not as strong as his own. It screeched and thrashed wildly, before falling on all fours and scampered off like some wild animal.
Jimmy kept his guard as he drew more daggers, expecting another attack from either the Succubus or her allies. When none came, turned back and faced a maze of tunnels of before him. Which one did he fall from? Why did they all look the same? Was everything getting darker? He knew he had to get back to Chloe and Nymk, but instead he simply slumped to the ground as his strength finally left him.