Chapter 241

Now that a majority of the smaller demons had been killed we could afford to fight the larger demon up close. Judging from its spells, the demon was a caster, but looking at its size and bulk I wouldn't bet that it couldn't protect itself up close too.

I refreshed my armor of light and turned to Morrigan. "Can you recast their armor?" I asked.

She nodded. "I can generate enough terra magic for that with my staff. Unless you think fire would be better?"

"If we're going in up close, I would rather them have more physical protection," I replied.

"Okay, I got it." Her staff of manaflow began to exude terra magic which she then collected and recast on Silva and Kal'daeryn.

I turned around and looked over the group of former slaves. Bella and the two hyenakin had killed a few of the smaller demons that had gotten through, as well as one of the blood threshers that had snuck up from behind us while I was distracted. The talkative hyenakin didn't seem to be having issues with the sword I lent her yet and the quiet sister had picked up a sword that had been dropped by that guard we had rescued initially. It seemed they would be fine back there for now, they weren't having any trouble protecting the others. We didn't have much time before the bone twister cast another fireball at us so we couldn't relocate them to somewhere safer yet.

I hopped down from the icy wall I had created and landed next to Silva and Kal'daeryn. "We need to attack it from up close, she wasn't able to kill it on her own," I said nodding in the direction of Lorriene who was still recovering on the wall.

Kal'daeryn glanced back at Nelly who was comforting the other former slaves. Her eyes trailed over the corpses of the demons we hadn't caught ourselves. They had been tangled and poisoned by Bella's magic and thoroughly slashed up by the two Hyenakin.

"Fine," she grumbled. "But your nature mage better be able to protect everyone."

"She will." I turned to Torien who had followed me from the wall. "Tell her," I said nodding to Lorriene, "to rest, but ask her to be ready to jump in if our nature mage needs the support. You and our primary mage will come with us to fight the demon after the next time she interrupts its fireball."

"Got it," she acknowledged. I caught the faintest hint of a smile as she followed the order.

I tapped Mimi through the bond to get her attention. "I want you to stay with these guys while we fight the demon."

"Okay! I'll make sure to protect them!" she said enthusiastically before heading back to the group of former slaves.

Silva took a step towards me. "I can hear some of the guards approaching from the west. I think we should block off that road so they can't interfere with our friends," she said pointing to a spot on the street.

"You think they're a threat?" I asked as I made my way to the place she indicated.

"I don't know. They may have an issue with the slaves we freed, or they might help us against the demon, but I would rather face the demon without their help than risk fighting the guards at the same time," Silva replied.

"Okay." I stepped toward the street and cast the water fording spell again. A large expanse of ice cut through the street where I pointed my sword, walling off the path to the bazaar from the west. The exertion left me panting when I finished the spell. "I'm not going to be able to do that again for a while. This magic is pretty mana-efficient for a ritual, but it still eats up a lot."

Silva nodded. "This should be fine. It'll slow them down if nothing else."

I stepped up to the gate that Kal'daeryn had been holding alone while waiting for us. She had picked up a spear from the ground that had been abandoned by someone that was presumably turned into a demon. I stood next to her and Silva joined me on the other side. There were still some of the smaller bone demon thralls around but they weren't mobbing our chokepoint anymore. The remaining ones were spread out through the bazaar so they weren't as much of an immediate threat anymore. Each of the bone demon corpses represented a dead person and from looking around I could see the husks of flesh they had been spawned from. The only thing left of the people was skin and fur after their skeletons had ripped themselves out of their remains. It was a grotesque sight, the only thing that tempered it was that there were fewer of them than the people that were here normally, which led me to believe a majority of the people had escaped.

The husks of skin left behind on the ground were from priests and paladins of the Tamin church, slaves, and the poor from the southern quarter who were outside when the demon turned on them. These slaves and beastkin must have been the ones cheering as the demon assaulted the slaver's guild, not knowing that it would turn and kill them as soon as it was finished.

The bone twister launched another fireball at us and Morrigan's spell clashed with it in the air once again. The demon went right back to channeling another one as Morrigan and Torien joined us after climbing down from the wall I had built.

"Go!" I called out before running at the demon with my friends by my side.

After noticing our charge, the demon released the spell it was channeling and roared. The remaining nearby thralls rushed at us. Torien started firing at them as they approached and Morrigan redirected the fire mana the demon released into firebolts that struck at the thralls charging us. The smaller thralls didn't have the same fire resistance the larger demon did so they were quickly dispatched by the two twins before any of them reached melee range.

Silva was the first one to clash with the huge demon. Up close it was easier to gauge how big it actually was. It was more than twice Silva's height, around one and a half stories tall. The idea that it would be slow and lumbering because of that was unfortunately proven not to be true, as it roared and threw a fist at Silva. She dodged out of the way and slammed her spear into its arm, lightning crackled out of it when it hit. The monster seized up for long enough to give Kal'daeryn a shot at the monster's ankle but she wasn't able to get the spear in deep enough to sever anything important.

I cast [Blade Waltz] on myself knowing that the increased finesse would be necessary to dodge all of its melee attacks. One bad hit could cripple me or worse. It attempted another punch at Kal'daeryn this time but missed before attempting to throw a faster firebolt at Silva. The firebolt splashed across Silva and singed her fur from the unexpected attack. She just grit her teeth and went in for another slash that forced the monster to seize up again.

The moment it was vulnerable I dashed in and tried to stab it with my thin mithril sword. I had expected more resistance than I got when I reached it, the mithril sword turned out to be able to pierce more deeply into the demon than the mundane spears had. Unfortunately, despite the deeper stab, I still wasn't able to get it deep enough to strike anything important from this angle. But I was able to activate my true goal with that attack, [Melee Hex].

I felt the magic take and the hex come over the demon. It was one of those abilities that's effects were difficult to measure directly but I had seen how helpful the debuff to the monster's luck could be in the past. The hex would make it stumble and miss attacks at every possible opportunity, its usefulness couldn't be understated.

I leapt backward as soon as the monster was hexed and ran over to Kal'daeryn. "Hold on, let me touch your spear!"

She was confused by the request but did as she was told. I wrapped my hand around the weapon and wild cast [Ice Imbue] to wreathe her borrowed spear in icy rime using all the ambient ice mana floating in the area. "This should help you get better hits on the demon."

"Thanks," she grunted before dashing in for another attack.

At around the same time lightning sparked and coated Silva's spear as well. She apparently had a similar ability of her own that I hadn't ever seen before. She was already panting and tired from the fight though, so I suspect that her mana pool wasn't very deep.

Icicles and arrows started pelting the monster's face, unbalancing it and making it flail to avoid the attacks. One of the icicles deflected off the demon's face and knocked a barrel behind the demon's foot just as it was stepping back, making it land on its ass. The three of us instantly took the opportunity to push forward and attempt to gut the monster. I managed to get a few stabs in before a giant foot coiled back to slam into me. I barely saw the attack coming in time to throw a [Light Ward] up in front of me to soften the blow. I tumbled backward but managed to avoid any serious injuries before quickly getting back to my feet. I was feeling a little unsteady but I didn't feel too worse for wear.

When the monster managed to rise to his feet again the entire front part of his torso was covered in blood from the stab wounds we had managed on it. None of them were deep enough to hit anything vital but all of them were dripping blood onto the stone ground. The demon roared in anguish as the bones underneath its skin began to reshape themselves even as icicles and arrows continued to pelt him. Long spears of bone pushed through the skin on his arms giving him new weapons to defend himself with. Plates of bone grew from his shoulders to better block his face from the magic and arrows that had been threatening to blind him since the start of the fight.

He slashed at Kal'daeryn with one of his bone spears. Her reflexes were strong enough to catch the spear with her own, but the shaft buckled and snapped in half, barely holding together enough to block the attack. It spun away and slashed at Silva again, but she managed to sidestep away without risking her own spear to the attack. Kal'daeryn roared and threw the broken spear away before getting even closer and trying to attack the monster with her claws. While it wasn't as effective in penetrating the demon's skin, she did draw a lot more of the demon's attention that way.

I flipped open my book of recollections with my left hand so that I could recall a specific dungeon trap that I had copied down without any changes. [Light Scribing] resolved the ritual and I placed it down behind the demon. With a quick use of [Light Signal], I drew a ring of light around the trap on the ground to indicate it to my teammates.

"Push the demon into the circle!" I called out. A moment later I cast [Light Burst] and popped a bright flare right in front of its eyes to daze and confuse it. The monster roared and covered its eyes with one hand while flailing with the other. A loud crack sounded over my right shoulder and an arrow slammed heavily into the demon, making it stumble backwards. A split second afterward, a large chunk of ice was hurled at the demon too, making it trip backward and land onto the trap I created.

Spikes of ice shot up from the circle piercing the demon through in several places and chunks of ice flash froze its limbs in place. The demon screamed and struggled in its frozen bonds. The ice cracked and broke in places but for the moment the ice held it still. Silva planted her feet and started charging something big. Her spear started crackling energy as electricity arced off of it and along the ground as the magic pressure built. Kal'daeryn took advantage of the moment to gouge the demon's eyes out with her claws and jumped away as soon as she was finished.

There was a pause for a moment as the only thing that could be heard was the cracking of ice as the demon struggled and Silva's spear as it continued to gather energy. I was worried for a moment that whatever Silva was doing would come too late, the demon looked almost free of the trap, but those fears were unfounded. Silva's magic finally released.

In less than the blink of an eye, Silva had shot forward and her spear sunk deeply into the monster's torso before violently exploding into arcs of lightning. The monster blew up from the inside out, spraying blood and viscera into a cone in front of her. The demon had been obliterated and only its head and a few pieces of its legs had been left after the attack. Silva took a few steps back from what was left of the demon's corpse before falling back on her ass exhausted.

[Your party has coordinated to defeat a horde of Bone Thrall Demons][Your party has defeated a Bone Twister Demon][Your Level has increased from level 51 to level 52][Novice Magic Swordsman has increased from level 12 to level 14][Luck Magic has increased from level 6 to level 10][Mana Sense has increased from level 8 to level 9][Ritual Magic has increased from level 16 to level 17][Light Magic has increased from level 12 to level 15][Enhancement Magic has increased from level 9 to level 10][Swordsmanship has increased from level 38 to level 39][Learned Luck Magic Spell Wager][Learned Luck Magic Spell Carousel][Improved Luck Magic Spell Blackjack][Learned Light Magic Spell Light Siphon][Improved Light Magic Spell Light Signal][Learned Enhancement Spell Augment Strength][Learned Enhancement Spell Augment Speed]

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