48. Scout
The last hour was just more sensual touching, and by the end of it, she was in a haze, unsure whether up was down, or left was right. It felt as if everything was sex, and she was so, so confused.
But the words were eventually spoken.
"You're done for the day. I'm satisfied with your performance. Take a recovery potion outside, and we'll see you tomorrow night."
Raven hobbled to the potion, and actually bumped into the door before she got to it. The recovery potion helped, she felt the fatigue clear up, and some of her willpower return. Her sight also returned to normal, instead of just a vague haze. She walked back quietly, and yet everything still tingled.
A part of her didn't even want to think about tomorrow. She just wanted to get back to her room, and collapse on a normal bed and fall asleep.
***
"How was it?" Aman asked with absolute cluelessness that wanted to make Raven go mad. She wasn't even sure why she was mad, because, he didn't know. Nysta the nun though, was more helpful. She walked closer to her, and then just touched her.
"Here's something for your first day pulling an all nighter. [Lift Spirits]." Nysta said with a smile, as the effects of the holy spell suddenly washed through Raven's body.
At that moment, it felt like she had an epiphany, like, she survived the first day, didn't she? How bad could it get? The ranger-archer returned the nun's smile and thanked her. "So- what are we doing today?"
"Just some exploration."
Raven nodded. "That sounds great."
***
"The demons are up in that location?" Nysta asked uncomfortably, while Wynn, the dragon mage, merely nodded.
"I can smell a whiff of demonic presence in the air."
Raven nodded at her team. "I'll go ahead and scout it out."
The hero nodded. "I'll come along."
Raven turned and activated [Silent Steps] and [Forest walker], as she rushed from branch to branch, with her bow and quiver of magical arrows. This was her element, wind blowing in her hair, as her senses darted from place to place. She loved this sensation, and felt the hero's presence closely behind.
She heard him whisper through a magical communication ability. "I'll race you!"
She smirked. The hero may be blessed, as her feet faintly glowed. She sped ahead, and eventually came upon a large encampment of demons, all mustering for war.
The demons took on many forms, many types. Each demon lord influenced the powers of its subordinate, each demon lord representing an aspect of power harvested from Hell. Each sub-demon was linked to the demon lord, in the aspect of power it took. Each demon lord grew in power as it aged and collected more energies from the living beings around them.
Each aspect had a slightly different way of gaining power, though the demon lord Karras, that would soon invade Errama took the Aspect of Greed. Greed, for demons, took the form of harvesting souls by destruction, collecting treasures, and growing the size of it's enslaved army.
It was strange that a demon valued wealth, but it also meant these demons were intelligent enough to make trades. Demons multiplied by many, different horrific ways. The most normal ones were from spawning pools, created by demonic breeders. Stronger demons were created from the souls of the dead. Even more powerful demons spawned from the souls of powerful warriors and wizards. Demons could even impregnate mortals to spawn more demons. Each aspect developed their own means of multiplication.
Some demon lords essentially cut out a piece of themselves to create champions. An investment that the death they cause would help the demon lord grow even faster.
It was for this reason demons find it hard to coexist in this world and default to slaughter. The mortals are no more than cattle to be slaughtered for power. The wiser ones would consider 'farming' the mortals, but wisdom was lacking in powerful demons.
"Small party of fifteen demons. Humanoids." Raven said. The demons were grotesque creatures, with huge bodies, and obscene body parts. Yet they were clearly influenced by the people of this world.
In their homeworld, in 'Hell', the demons were eldritch creatures, sometimes blobs of energy, sometimes just masses of tentacles.
"We can take them." Aman said, confident. The hero's sword charged with heroic energy.
"We should wait for the rest to arrive." Raven countered.
They watched the demons chat among themselves. They had a language of some sort, unique to the demons, but could also speak the common tongue. Why they could, was a mystery, but to Raven's eyes, the real demon lord was not here yet. This was just an advance party, a scouting party.
Five of those demons chattered, and then, started to move in another direction. "We should stop them before they leave."
Aman charged out alone, and Raven's eyes was shocked. His heroic body glowed, and he smashed into the center of the camp, drawing the attention of all the demons.
"[Holy Circular Strike!]" A huge circular ring of energy blasted outwards and cut into the demons. The demons staggered backward. The strike hurt, but wasn't enough to kill them instantly. Some day, when Aman's heroic powers grew even more, it will.
Two of the demons decided to speed off.
"Raven! Cut them off!" Aman shouted as he activated his [Blessings] and started to fight the demons.
Raven cursed and activated a movement ability to intercept the two demons. The rest of the party would arrive soon, but Raven activated her own ability to fire magical arrows rapidly.
The two demons didn't expect her, as one of her arrows blasted the heads off the first demon. The second one, though, had magic and began to flee with it. It's movement was random, erratic and honestly quite fast.
"Shit." She cursed as the demon dodged her arrows. She chased, and chased, leaving the main battle behind. She was fairly sure the hero could handle the bigger party. He is the chosen one.
The demon reached a segment of the forest where it was dark and filled with strange plants. The demon stopped and turned to face her. It roared, and then attacked. Raven found it strange that it stopped, but, she wasn't going to turn down her good luck.
Her arrow smashed into the demon's head and caused it to explode. She'll need money to make more powerful arrows, each of her magical arrows were loaded with her magical power.
The demon, however, even with it's head gone, flailed, and then stumbled back into the mass of the strange plants. The strange plants however, wriggled, and then, to her horror, ate the demonic mass.
It was a monster plant!
"Fucking hell." Raven cursed, and then, decided it was best to retreat. There was a bigger battle to fight, and Raven returned to find the hero and the rest of the party finishing off the rest of them.
"You alright?" Aman smiled as the ranger returned.
"Yup. Had to chase it for a bit, but finally killed it."
"Great." The hero nodded. "I still feel it's presence, though. There-"
"There's a large patch of monster plant of some kind. Very big. I think we'll need to prepare if we want to face it."
The entire party comprised of the hero, Kiara, Hannah, Wynn, Nysta, and now Raven. Kiara, twitched uncomfortably as the battle was over, her face a little reddish. But she took a deep breath, and her facial complexion turned to normal.
"Monster plants - perhaps some other day." Aman said. "Think, we need to spy on the demons some more. Let's go back for today."
The party didn't disagree.