Chapter 279

We were getting closer to the walls of Traehall with the six remaining monsters on our heels. We needed to kill them before we reached the town if we wanted any hope of the guards opening the gates for us. It would take something big to kill them before we reached the city. I really wish I had Morrigan in the fight right now, but she was keeping the smoke at bay with her wind magic.

I slipped my book of recollections out of its sheathe on my waist and flicked it open with one hand. I grit my teeth and dodged an attack from one of the fleshy spider demons. Trying to mentally thumb through the rituals while riding with one hand was difficult. I wouldn't be able to cast a ritual while moving like this. I didn't have enough hands to hold my book open, cast with my other hand, and control the reins of the construct at the same time.

Wait, construct. Did I even need the reins to control it? I could just command it mentally, couldn't I? It wouldn't work for the others, but it should be fine for me. I would just need to stay firmly in my saddle the entire time. I grabbed the horn of the saddle and dropped the reins on my lap. With a nudge, I was able to continue controlling my uuna construct with only my thoughts, but that presented another problem. I would still need to steer with my mind while trying to cast a ritual spell at the same time.

A loud screech of metal rang out and I was forced to cling onto the saddle again as I shifted. One of the spider demons had managed to slash at me while I was distracted. My armor had deflected the blow, but it had nearly thrown me off my mount. What I was trying to do was risky, but I didn't think I would be able to deal with the situation in any other way. Not without Morrigan's help.

I pulled up my status and tried desperately to find something that could help in this situation. I almost skipped right past a whole column before going back and looking at one of the entries. I remember thinking it could be useful at the time, but I don't think I've ever used it. [Prostitute Skill - Go Unnoticed]. It was like the reverse of a taunt. It would let me blend in with the surroundings more, but I didn't know if it would be strong enough to help me here. It was worth a shot, though.

"I'm going to do something that might make them stay off of me, so be careful!" I called out to the group. I felt positive responses from everyone through the bond.

I activated the skill and felt an odd tingling feeling as it activated. For a moment it didn't change anything, but it quickly became clear that it had been effective. The demon that had been chasing me started to pull toward Torien. She quickly noticed and changed her target to the closer demon while Silva locked down the additional one that was closer to her. They must not have enough Will to resist the effect. That was perfect.

I took my hand off the horn of my saddle and flicked the book of recollections open again. I needed something big... fire mana seemed appropriate since there was plenty of ambient mana to draw from here. This was one of the dungeon traps that seemed pretty effective with a little bit of tweaking. Useful but a bit circumstantial. It would require a lot of mana to activate. Normally something of this size would wring me dry, but I only had to add a small modification on the fly to realign it with ambient mana instead of my own. This ritual circle had a feature that I desperately needed though, the part that allowed me to target a specific kind of enemy, demons. I hadn't untangled that part of the ritual from the rest of it yet, but that part alone made the entire ritual worth keeping on hand. I would be able to cast this massive spellwork without hitting any of my friends or bystanders. The circle was stationary, so I would have to time it correctly while moving, but I think I could do it.

When I had the ritual set firmly in my mind, I activated [Light Scribing]. The mana twisted in my hand and began to quickly draw the ritual magic out. It was a complex circle, complex enough that most people wouldn't bother trying to use it. All attempts to simplify the ritual, both my own and the ones by the writers of this book, had failed. While that didn't make it unusable for me, it made the ritual take much longer than normal to cast. Time ticked by as I waited for it to complete in my hand, and my friends did their best to keep control of the demons chasing us. Luckily, [Go Unnoticed] had been effective at keeping the monsters from focusing on me with both hands off my saddle.

I looked behind myself as the ritual closed on completion. I would have to time this perfectly. The ritual circle would be massive, so I didn't need to worry about harming anyone caught in the crossfire, but I still needed to target it far enough ahead of us that it would hit them as we moved past. If I timed it too late, all the demons would sail right by it. I looked forward. We were getting close to the city gates now. If this worked, we would be safe to enter. Assuming they let us in. I couldn't face the possibility that they wouldn't.

"I'm casting, don't worry about friendly fire. It's targeted!" I called out.

The ritual finished and buzzed with potential energy in my hand. I looked forward, picked my spot, and activated it. A large red circle drew out in front of us more than three times the size of the road. The lines of the ritual embedding themselves in the ground flared to life and soaked in all of the ambient fire mana. The mana was collecting so fast that I was worried it would activate too early! I gritted my teeth and hoped I had timed it right. The anxiety and anticipation ate away at me right up until we had crossed the edge of the circle.

I sighed with relief as the spell activated right then. The red flames I expected to see burst to life in golden colors instead. The demons screamed as the gold flames seared them to death at the same time my [Go Unnoticed] skill broke. One of the spider-like demons slashed at me, but now that I wasn't focused on the ritual, I grabbed the saddle horn and willed the uuna construct to leap out of the range of its attack. The demons crumbled and fell apart as the golden fire incinerated them. By the time all of us exited the circle, they had burned completely to ash.

[Your party has defeated a group of long-legged imitators]

"What the fuck was that, Lilith?!" Torien yelled out.

I snapped my book shut. "Ritual magic!"

"No shit! I meant—"

Torien was cut off as another screech sounded from the sky. I hadn't been ready for the banshee this time and I wobbled in my seat. I only barely managed to cling to the saddle of my mount when the monster's screaming suddenly stopped. I looked up, feeling dizzy. The banshee that attacked me had been speared through the throat with a shadow arrow wreathed in fire. The banshee tumbled to the ground hard and exploded into dark miasma on impact.

"Looks like your [Flame Imbue] works on my shadow arrows if I draw them from my quiver!" Torien called out.

My eyes snapped forward when I saw movement on the battlements of the city wall. "Someone's on the wall!" I called.

Sure enough, people were peeking through the crenels on the walls. They looked tired and hungry but were holding bows or crossbows and collecting mana. We were getting really close now. We would need to slow down before we reached the walls. We would still need to hold the demons at the gates for them to let us in. I didn't see any more demons on us yet, but that could change quickly.

"Silva, do you hear any more nearby?" I called out.

"Some, but nothing big like those lanky bastards!" she called back.

"We need to hold the gates so they can let us in!" Torien yelled, mirroring my prior thoughts.

From this distance, we could see the piles of bodies at the gates. They were demons like we had thought, but that was strange. The demons we had been fighting turned to miasma when we killed them. Why were these ones different? The demons were recognizable to me. Shadow horrors, some of the very first demons I ever came across in the Midnight Castle Dungeon. Why were their bodies piled up at the gates? Why were there so many of them?

The caravan slowed to a stop, and the rest of my friends and the succubi girls led by Eira fanned out around us. Morrigan came up to me and wiped the sweat from her brow. "Someone else is maintaining the wind currents here and keeping the city safe from the smoke. I can fight again now."

"Are you going to be okay to fight? You have been casting since we entered the forest," I asked.

"I'll be fine. I still got enough stamina to keep going," she replied confidently.

"Shadow stalkers!" Torien called out.

Groups of demons like a wave spilled out of the forest after us. It would be an imposing sight if I hadn't been familiar with them. I felt fear and anxiety creep into the bond from Eira's team, but I quickly intervened to buffet them with confidence. These monsters wouldn't hold a candle to any of us. They were weak. We could handle it. My surge of confidence in them was mirrored and then strengthened further when the twins, Bella, and Silva confidently added to the feeling. All of us were resolute, we would hold them off, no problem. Cecilia unlatched the uunas from their breeching shafts and they began to circle the area defensively.

I poured mana into [Fireflies] and spread them around us. If they were anything like the faceless shadow demons in the Goldenhearth Castle, it should weaken them and make them easier for our group to kill.

The first of the shadow demons to cross the threshold of my fireflies stumbled, fell, and were quickly cut down. There was a good mix of ranged and melee fighters among us, and the shadow stalkers were indeed weak to our coordinated efforts to hold them off. Arrows, magic, and melee weapons poured into the horde of demons while Bella and Nelly healed off the minor wounds the less experienced fighters were taking. Kal'daeryn roared and tore into the nearby monsters like a berserker, using the metal claws the church of Velenthel had gifted her to hold off the horde. I pulled out my mithril sword and fought off the ones that came near my stretch of the line.

"Are they opening the gates?" I called out.

There was a pause before Torien called back. "It looks like they're arguing about it!"

I frowned but refocused on the horde. We could hold them off for a while, but we needed them to open the gates.

"Fellia, Gwen, Quinn! Signal them while we fight off the demons!" I yelled.

[Fireflies] turned out to be quite the blessing to have right now. The light magic slowed and weakened the shadow monsters enough that the others were able to tear through them without any trouble. The problem was that there were still too many of them.

I looked over my shoulder and saw the three I called out waving at the people on the wall, but it didn't look like things were going to iron out right away. I needed to buy us some more time.

I stepped away from the line holding the demons back. "Hold them. I'm going to create a kill box!" The moment I stepped back, Nikka protectively took my place and slashed at the nearby demons. God, I loved that uuna. What a good girl.

I slid my ritual book out of its holder again and flicked it open. Like in the capital, we needed to funnel them into one spot to make them easier to fight. While this was effective for now, the demons kept coming, and our stamina wouldn't last forever. We needed to hold them as long as possible, at least until the people in the city felt safe enough to open the gates for us.

The river fording spell had become a favorite staple of mine. It had been so effective every time I used it. Used properly, the sheet of strong ice would create a wall to funnel the enemies through. I didn't think it would handle prolonged direct attacks, but demons tended to be stupid enough to take the path of least resistance. Once again, I felt the mana swirl in my hand as the ritual magic took shape. As complex as this ritual magic was, it felt so much easier than the last one I had used. Soon enough, I felt the magic vibrating in my hand, and I began to carve a wall of ice around us, springing from the walls of the city, leaving only a small opening of maybe one yard.

Just as I finished and the havoc became more controlled, I heard another roar behind me as someone leapt off the wall and landed inside the horde of demons. Raksha'va stood in the middle of the crowd with two long swords and blitzed through the demons as I heard the gates behind me rumble as they opened.

Raksha'va looked worn down and tired. Her fur was matted and dirty. But all that said, she looked fierce. Similar to the way Kal'daeryn fought, she slashed and tore through the horde of monsters like a bladed top. She cut through them with a graceful momentum that almost looked like a dance. The swarm of demons thinned, and I could hear the caravan moving again as they started entering the city.

I hadn't been able to sense the strength of others the last time I saw her, but now that I knew what I was looking for, I could tell she was as strong as Sophin, maybe stronger. Raksha'va looked drained when she returned through the gap in the wall of ice, but she had a fierce smile on her face as she approached.