Phantasmal Party

by Trey Myr

  A desperate Lucy used her Chromatic Storm spell to cover the green demoness, catching the phantasmal cat-kin with it, but the demon just slithered out of the tier two spell, looking none the worst to wear.

  Ed quickly resummoned the cat-kin and dvergr, but the demoness just smiled cruelly. "Not bad, mortals. But your weapons can't harm us, and you will run out of mana eventually. Lay down your weapons and swear to serve us now, and my sister might stop before she kills your hobgoblin friend there."

  "Demons are not known for fair dealings," Katya cautioned. "Dropping our weapons would just make it easier for her to kill us."

  "That might be true," the demoness's smile grew even wider, "but it's not like you have a chance to win, so why not take a chance that I might be telling the truth?"

  As if to punctuate the demoness's words, Ingrid mistimed a block and her companion caught her shoulder in the hook of its khopesh and pulled her forward to stumble over a the black snake tail.

  Before the grinning demoness could capitalize on her success, however, a thundering sound shook the ground, and a bright streak of light was fired from above the party, piercing her left shoulder and resolving into a huge arrow. As the demoness staggered backwards, the archer dropped from the sky and stood between her and Ingrid.

  Half again as tall as Ingrid, the newcomer had light blue skin, long black hair and a pair of huge white wings, and was holding a longbow scaled for him. A huge longsword was strapped to his back, and as soon as he landed he dropped his bow and drew it.

  "Do not listen to the foul spawn of hell, mortals. They might be able to kill you, but they cannot take your souls unless you swear to them!"

  "You can't take on two of us, featherbrain. Leave this place and the mortals, and we'll let you go with your wings still attached. Stay, and we will eat angel wings in hot sauce for dinner."

  "You know I cannot do that, serpent. And even if I fall here, I will still take at least one of you with me!"

  The demonesses just grinned, battle fever bright in their eyes, and slithered towards the angel, who didn't wait for them but leaped at the black demoness, moving far faster than someone of his size had any right to move, and swinging his massive sword at his enemy. The demoness ducked under the swing and prepared to attack the angel with all six of her swords, but the deadly attack was just a ruse, and the angel buffeted her with his right wing, throwing her at least ten meters away.

  The second demoness caught up to him before he recovered from the attack, and her spear pierced his wing, causing him to shout in pain and turn towards her.

  It was soon clear that the angel was a superior fighter to the demonesses, and the green demoness retreated from his great sword, losing one of her arms before she could get out of range, but her companion slithered back into the fight, and as strong as he was, the winged warrior was at a disadvantage when facing two of the vicious snake women, and had to switch to a more defensive stance, constantly moving to prevent the demonesses from flanking him.

  The angel flew right, trying to place the green demoness between himself and her sword wielding companion, and swung at her with his sword, but she slithered away from the attack, and he could barely get his guard up in time to parry six rapid sword attacks, forcing him to retreat before the green demoness could attack from his flank. The two demonesses pressed their attack on the angel, alternating attacking him and retreating from his ripostes.

  Without enough room to take flight, the angel was forced to remain grounded, and the demonesses spread to his sides, making sure he couldn't attack one without turning his back to the other. The angel was fighting almost entirely defensively, moving his sword almost faster than Ed's eye could follow and blocking almost all of the demonesses' attacks.

  Almost being the operative word, as even the angel's incredible skill couldn't block attacks from eleven different directions at once, and small wounds soon started appearing all over his body.

  "We need to help him," Ed whispered to his friends, trying to keep the demonesses from hearing him.

  "Are you insane?" Lucy asked in a heated whisper. "We can barely scratch these things. They'll swat us like flies."

  "We don't need to kill them. Just keep one of them busy for long enough that he can kill the other. He's better than any of them, but together they'll wear him out and kill him, and then they'll come for us."

  "I hate to suggest this, but maybe we should help demons," Katya joined the conversation. "They are winning, and it is possible that if we help we can generate good will, enough for them to help us out of this place."

  "We are not helping those snakes," Ingrid shook her head. "There's no way we can trust them not to kill us after they win."

  "I can't believe you're talking about which side to help here. What we need to do is take the opportunity to run away from here while the demonesses are busy."

  "Look at the valley, Luce. There's no way we can sneak past all of them, and we don't even know where the exit is. We need help to get out of here, and the angel is our best bet."

  "What's your plan, Ed," Ingrid asked.

  "We'll take on the green one. She has one less arm, so we might be able to hold her off for longer. We can't do much damage here, but status effects might still work. Katya, you start trying to daze the demoness with your song, and then I'll have the melee phantasms try to crowd it in melee range while the rest of us try to deal as much damage as we can at range."

  "I know that you can't possibly be lumping me in with the 'melee phantasms', Ed, so what am I doing while the rest of you are trying not to let a demoness kill you?"

  "You're taking the cloud horse and charging from above. I'm hoping that between the momentum, your Charge Shard and your Sharpness, you'll be able to actually pierce that thing's tale and pin her to the ground long enough for him to kill the other one."

  The battle didn't stop while Ed was explaining his plan, of course, and by the time the cloud horse was summoned and Ingrid was taking to the air, the angel was looking truly battered, with his left wing broken and dragging behind him, and multiple scratches and bruises all over his body.

  When Katya started her song, the green demoness swayed from side to side for a couple of seconds, but then she shook it off and went back to attacking the angel, completely ignoring the dvergr and cat-kin approaching her. Knowing that the melee phantasms wouldn't be able to hurt the demoness, Ed ordered them to physically block her way instead. The snake woman hissed in anger and struck out at the phantasms, which couldn't take more than one or two hits each, but still managed to delay her by a few more seconds, giving the angel a chance to corner the sword wielder. Ed quickly summoned the two again, while Lucy and the kitsune peppered the demoness with Firebolts and Acid Bolts, which she ignored in her haste to go to her companion's aid.

  The melee phantasms attacked again, managing to delay their target for a few more seconds, during which the angel managed to hit the black demoness with a mighty kick, throwing her five meters backwards, and then leap towards her before she could recover and bring his great sword down on her shoulder, cutting diagonally all the way to her opposite armpit and splitting her apart.

  The green snake woman screamed in rage and charged at the angel's back, thrusting her spear into his back, but before she could do anything else, Ingrid dove down on the cloud horse's back, piercing her tail with a heavy lance and driving it at least a meter into the ground.

  The angel stumbled forward, crying in pain, and managed to turn around to face the pinned demoness, raised his sword and beheaded her in one swift swing, and then dropped down to his knee, clutching the tip of the spear where it came out of his chest.

  "Thank you for your assistance, mortals. There are not many who would choose to stand and fight in a seemingly lost battle against a foe they cannot hurt. I would offer to aid you on your way out of this battleground, but I am wounded grievously, and cannot remain on this plane for much longer. All I can offer is my blessing and the information that your way out lies i
n the demons' lair on the left side of the valley."

  A bright light spread from the angel, engulfing the party, and when they could see again, the angel was gone, and a message screen appeared in front of every one of the delvers.

  Blessing of the host

  An angel has given you his blessing, to aid in your fight against the forces of darkness. For the next 24 hours, all of your attacks will count as Celestial.

  Duration: 24:00:00

  Chapter

  17: Fight or Flight

  "One day of ignoring the damage resistances of anything classified as 'infernal'," Ed said after reading the message. "Not quite as good as light element attacks, but it'll at least let us hit the demons."

  "It should be enough time for us to find door out," Katya said. "But we should not tarry. Loot bodies fast and go, since someone is sure to have heard commotion."

  A search of the dead demons turned up a Swordsman Classshard and a variety of weapons all made form abyssal iron, two of which might be of use for the party.

  Abyssal Iron Spear

  This spear is made of a hard, black wood, with an abyssal iron head.

  Quality: Excellent (+20% damage)

  Special: Abyssal Iron ignores the physical damage resistance of celestial beings

  Abyssal Iron Hammer

  This hammer is made of a hard, black wood, with an abyssal iron head.

  Quality: Excellent (+20% damage)

  Special: Abyssal Iron ignores the physical damage resistance of celestial beings

  "I really hope we won't have to use these," Lucy said when Ingrid and the phantasmal dvergr each took one of the abyssal iron weapons.

  "Agreed," Katya nodded. "It will not be good for us to have to fight both sides of war."

  "Not precisely what I meant, Katya."

  "I am not much for sentiment," the Drab shrugged.

  "Regardless of the reason, you're both right," Ed intervened. "We should try to avoid fighting the angels if possible."

  "We need to move," Ingrid pointed at a group of a dozen snake women who were making their way towards the party. "Those demonesses will be here in ten minutes or so, and we really don't want to be here when they do."

  "Right. Ing, you take the cloud horse up and see if you can find the demons' lair, and the rest of us will start walking."

  Ingrid took off on the winged horse, and the rest of the party started to get down to the valley floor. Unfortunately, there were six more demonesses waiting for them at the bottom, and they charged the party immediately.

  Lucy created a Chromatic Storm in front of the party, catching three of the attacking demonesses, and the shouts of pain and rage from within the storm made it immediately apparent that unlike their previous fight, the spell was doing real damage to the infernal creatures. Ingrid dove down on the back of the cloud horse, spearing one of the remaining three demonesses through her shoulder, and immediately leapt off the horse's back and followed up with a shield bash, stunning the snake woman. Taking advantage of the opportunity, a precise arrow from the clockwork archer pierced her eye and finished her off.

  The two unhurt monsters were met by the phantasmal dvergr and cat-kin, who were clearly outmatched by the expert demonic warriors, but could still slow them down enough for Ed, Lucy, Katya and the phantasmal kitsune to bombard them with spells, knives and bullets. By the time the dvergr and cat-kin were down, the two demonesses were wounded, and very clearly angry. A few seconds later the three snake women caught in the Chromatic Storm managed to leave its area of effect, and Lucy let the spell die. Ingrid's shout taunted all five demonesses to her, and she was slowly giving ground under their attacks. Fortunately for Ingrid, with all five crowding her, they had too little room to properly wield all of their weapons, and she managed to block most of the attacks, and between her armor and the phantasmal nymph's healing, her hit points were dropping rather slowly.

  "I can't hold them forever!" She shouted at her companions, still retreating slowly from her attackers.

  "Katya, can you try to daze them again?" Ed asked the drab. "If the buff applies to it, we're in a much better situation here."

  Katya started to sing, and two of the attacking demonesses broke off their attack and started swaying to the music. Unfortunately for Ingrid, the remaining demonesses now had more room to bring their many weapons to bear, and she had no relief from their relentless attacks.

  "Focus on them one at a time," Ed said as he resummoned his phantasms and sent them to assist Ingrid.

  The dvergr attacked one of the snake women attacking Ingrid, and the monster turned to attack it, leaving Ingrid facing two demonesses. The cat-kin quickly joined the dvergr, and together the two managed to keep her from killing them again.

  Meanwhile, Lucy and the phantasmal kitsune launched Fire and Acid Bolts at another one of the demonesses attacking Ingrid, and Ed quickly raised his rifle and joined them. The demoness, already wounded from Lucy's Chromatic Storm, fell under the combined barrage, and Ingrid took the opportunity, Shield Bashed her last opponent, and started quickly slashing at the stunned monster with a large halberd. Together with Ed, Lucy and the kitsune, the demoness was quickly killed, and the four turned their attention to one of the dazed enemies after another, and the battle was quickly over.

  Before the delvers could start searching the bodies, the group of twelve demonesses that Ingrid spotted earlier appeared again, and the infernals shouted in anger and started to slither towards the party.

  "Ing, summon your mount," Ed ordered. "Lucy rides with you and Katya with me. We can't win against twelve of them at once."

  Ingrid quickly used her phantasmal arms ability to conjure the horse created by her charge Skillshard, and lifted Lucy to sit behind her on the saddle, while Ed mounted the cloud horse and Katya settled behind him.

  "You did not have to bring me to demon war if you wanted hug," the drab said while settling her arms around Ed's stomach, "asking me would have worked."

  Ingrid and Lucy, mounted on a wingless horse, started riding away from the approaching demonesses, while Ed took a few more seconds to dismiss his summons into the summoner Classshard’s store pattern ability.

  “It’s more that you’re larger than Lucy, and I wanted to balance the load on the horses as much as possible,” Ed said while pushing Katya’s hands a bit higher on his stomach and away from the front of his pants.

  “And now you are calling me fat? This is really not good way to get hug, Ed.”

  “That’s not what I meant!,” He urged the cloud horse up into the sky, zigzagging on the way up to avoid the arrows shot by two of the closing demonesses. “It’s just that Ingrid is a lot heavier than the rest of us, even without her armor and…”

  “I am only teasing,” Katya cut his explanation off. “You three are very close, and I am feeling somewhat left out, so I am letting tongue run away from me a little.”

  “I guess we are a little closed. I’m not even sure how it happened, you know. One minute we’re all just having a little fun and some stress relief together, and the next thing I know I’m can’t help but think about us as ‘us’, and that almost automatically excludes everyone else.”

  “Is really not that hard to explain. Everyone with proper Shard can see you three share auras with each other. It normally only happens when people are together for years.”

  Having reached a safe height, Ed leveled the cloud horse’s flight, hovering above Ingrid’s ground-bound charger. “Huh. I guess that does make sense, with the way the phantasmal Shards work. I’ll have to talk to them about it when we’re back at a safe place. But if you could see that we share auras like this, why did you want to join the party? You had to know you’d be left out.”

  “Is because of my build. With Bard as my base class but the rest of my Shards more appropriate for a Rogue, I am ‘sub optimal’. Or so I have been told on far too many occasions. ‘If you were assassin, we would love to have you!’” she added in a mocking tone.

  “Ouch,”
Ed winced at her words.

  “I started following you out of curiosity,” the drab continued, “since there are not many three person parties out there, and when I saw your phantasms, I thought you had enough variety that you would accept me even with sub optimal build. Especially since you really did need someone who can think the sneaky thoughts.”

  “Heh. I guess that does make sense.”

  “And then I saw you give kobold Shard to Lucy, and I thought you could give me cat-kin and make me proper Rogue too, so I just had to join. Although I did not quite understand what it would mean…”

  “Yeah, I don’t think I would want to accept a phantasmal Shard. I’m still not quite sure why Lucy insisted on it so much.”

  “Mysterious are the ways of woman,” Katya shrugged.

  “To change the subject slightly, why did you choose Bard as your class if you were going for a Rogue position? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

  “I got bard Shard from Babushka for sixteenth birthday. I was already good singer then, and always wanted to follow Babushka footprints, so I was happy to get it. But then I entered Labyrinth for first time, and I learned that being Bard means calling attention from all monsters, and that I would rather not be one who gets that attention. Drab class is not well known, since most Bards want all attention they can get, but is also not that big secret, so once I found about it I got Invisibility Shard to qualify.”

  “And by the time you figured out people would have an issue with the non-standard build it was too late to change it.”

  “Precisely. I could get new Shard more fitting for ‘normal’ Bard position, but will still have Drab rank up instead of Skald or Battle Drummer or whatever.”

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that, Katya. But you being part of our party is working out well, I think. Even if you aren’t part of our ‘inner circle’, or whatever it is.”