Phantasmal Party

by Trey Myr

  “Yet.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Not part of your inner circle yet. I am still thinking about asking for cat-kin Shard.”

  “I can’t say that I understand that, but it’s obvious that we’re working well together, so if you do decide you want it, it’s yours.”

  “Thank you, Ed. I will let you know if I decide I want it.”

  Katya seemed content to end the conversation on that note, which suited Ed perfectly, since he spotted some more groups of snake women close to Ingrid and Lucy’s path, and had to concentrate on charting them a course that led them safely around the hostile parties.

  Another hour of carefully maneuvering around groups of demonesses saw the party to the entrance to a large cave. The entrance was guarded by four of the now familiar snake women, each one armed with three halberds, as well as two smaller, two armed snake women carrying twisted black staves.

  Ed landed the cloud horse out of sight from the cave’s entrance and waited for Ingrid and Lucy to catch up. By the time the party was reunited, he’d managed to resummons all of his phantasms.

  “I think this is at least one of the entrances to the lair our angelic friend was talking about,” he said once everyone was prepared. “We’ve got four of the regular demonesses and two more that are either mages or healers guarding the entrance.”

  “Ugh,” Ingrid muttered. “More varieties of creepy crawly people.”

  “I’m with Ing on that one,” Lucy grumbled. “The regular demonesses were bad enough, and I really don’t want to find out what their mages can do.”

  “I hear you Luce,” Ed answered. “But we don’t really have much of a choice, unless you want to see if the angels have a door out too.”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to bet on that,” Lucy nodded. “Let’s just get this over with, and hope the Labyrinth doesn’t have too many more surprises for us today.”

  The first clue the demonesses had that they were under attack were a pair of Chromatic Storms hitting both sides of the cave entrance at once, covering all six of the snake women. While they were trying to fight against the raging winds to get out of the spells’ area of effect, a discordant song reached the ears of the two halberdiers and one mage standing to the left of the cave entrance, and they found it impossible to tell left from right, and even ‘down’ seemed to be less obvious than it should be.

  The other three demonesses, however, managed to leave the storm’s area, only to be met by a heavily armored hobgoblin, who Shield Bashed the first demoness to reach her, stunning her and kicking her back into the storm. The second halberdier squared off against the hobgoblin, and the mage behind her immediately cast a silence spell, silencing the disorienting Drab’s song, and freeing her companions to slither out of the second storm.

  “Drop the storm!” Ed shouted as soon as the last demoness left the area of effect, and Lucy ended her spell, switching to Icebolts instead and leaving the kitsune’s storm active with one stunned demoness still inside.

  Ingrid shouted to provoke the melee fighters to attack her, leaving the mages vulnerable to the attacks from the rest of the party, and the first mage quickly went down under a barrage of bullets, Icebolts, thrown knives and arrows. The second mage, faced with the cat-kin and dvergr, took a deep breath and expanded it in a cloud of black fire, incinerating them before they could reach her.

  Ed dropped his rifle to resummons his minions while the rest of the party switched their aim to the second mage, who had just enough time to cast a barrier spell before the barrage hit her. She smiled viciously at seeing that the attacks were blocked, and launched a ball of black flames at Lucy.

  “That was a darkness and fire attack!” Lucy shouted after taking the hit. “It took out nearly all of my barrier, and would have killed me without my shield!”

  Fire Shield

  Tier 1

  Level 5

  Sealed

  Covers the caster in a layer of nearly invisible flames, which reduce fire damage by 75% and deals 10-20 fire damage to melee attackers hitting the caster.

  Duration: 5 minutes

  Mana cost: 20

  The Fire Shield had a really good synergy with Lucy’s Elementalist class, since she could switch it to protect against any of the four basic elements, but since she could only have one active instance at any time, it was only really useful when she knew what element she would need to defend against.

  Fortunately for Lucy, the connection between demons and fire was well known enough that she decided to cast it just in case the mages could use fire magic.

  The constant barrage of spells and missiles was enough to break through the demoness’s barrier spell, and by the time the phantasmal dvergr and cat-kin rejoined the fight, the snake woman was bleeding and frozen enough that a blow from the dvergr’s hammer and a stab from the cat-kin’s dagger were enough to finish her off.

  The stunned demoness caught in the kitsune’s Chromatic Storm had also succumbed to the constant elemental damage, and the party was left fighting three halberdier demonesses.

  Ingrid was hunkered down defensively, blocking as many attacks as she could and trusting to her armor and the phantasmal nymph’s healing to ensure that the attacks she couldn’t stop wouldn’t bring her down. With the enemy mages down, the party’s ranged attacker could target one halberdier after another, and the three joined their companions in death soon after.

  “We need to be careful going in,” Katya said while the party looked for loot. “If that fireball took out Lucy’s barrier with her fire shield active, it would have killed me or Ed instantly.”

  “I’m not sure what we can do except try to kill their mages as fast as possible,” Ed answered. “And we’re trying to do that anyway.”

  “You need to stay further back, Ed. You rifle has better range than fireball, and you need to start using it. And I need to stay invisible as much as possible.”

  “And you two need to leave the mages to the phantasms and me,” Lucy added. “As long as you don’t attack them directly, they should concentrate more on us.”

  “Yeah,” Ingrid joined in. “Take out the melee heat faster and I can tank the mages. That fireball would barely tickle me at this point.”

  Searching the bodies yielded twelve infernal iron halberds, which the party decided to leave behind as too heavy to lug around, and a Fireball Skillshard.

  Fireball

  Tier 1

  Level 0

  0/1000 essence

  Launch a ball of fire to a distance of up to 30 meters. The ball explodes and deals 1-6 fire damage to everything in a three meter diameter.

  Mana cost: 10

  Lucy declined the Shard, saying that she didn’t have a slot for it, and wouldn’t have one in the foreseeable future, and the party entered the cave.

  The first dozen meters of the cave looked like a naturally occurring tunnel, but after that the rough walls smoothed over and the uneven floor became as straight as the best dwarven construction. Torches appeared in regularly spaced sconces, and artwork depicting snake women torturing members of any race of Labyrinth dwellers the party has even heard of filled the spaces between the torches.

  “Such charming place,” Katya muttered after glancing at a particularly vivid mosaic depicting what was clearly a de-winged angel. “I cannot imagine why I did not book vacation here before.”

  “Well, you know what the yelp reviews say,” Lucy answered. “The view is nice and all, but the accommodations are just the pits.”

  “And the prices are just off the scales,” Katya added. “I need to tell Babushka to open franchise here. She will make killing”

  Ed motioned them to keep quiet, as he thought he could hear a voice from further in, and pantomimed for Katya to sneak forward to scout.

  Katya used her invisibility Shard, and vanished from sight, leaving the rest of the party behind. After a couple of quiet minutes, her voice reached Ed’s ears, seemingly out of nowhere.

  “Corridor is expandi
ng into large room here. There is big chair in back with different type of demon sitting on it, and I can see what looks like door out behind him. I can see at least twenty demonesses, and at least five are mages. I do not think we can win this in straight up fight.”

  Ed kept quiet, knowing that Katya’s class only let her send her own voice away, and she wouldn’t be able to hear him anyway.

  “There are two more corridors at sides of room. I will explore other directions and let you know what I find.”

  “This looks like it’ll take a while,” Ingrid said after hearing Katya’s report. “We should find somewhere to hide until Katya is back.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Ed motioned the party back towards the more roughly-hewn part of the cave, where he had the phantasmal dvergr excavate a small passage into the rock, and expand it into a small room. The dvergr then closed the corridor behind them, leaving a few small holes behind for air and Katya’s voice.

  “Nice job!” Lucy said once the party was safely hidden. “Can we tunnel behind the large room and into the door?”

  “Not going to happen, I’m afraid. It’d take far more mana than the dvergr has. As it is, I’m going to have to dismiss and resummons it before it can let us out of here.”

  They waited in the small room for half an hour, and Ed was starting to get worried about the possibility that Katya got caught, when her voice suddenly reappeared in his ear.

  “I think I have plan. There is prison here with some angels. Guards are sitting in outer room and leave cells unwatched, but I think that whole corridor is trapped. If we can free prisoners, they can cause maybe distraction and pull demons out of main room. Can you send me cat-kin with active stealth and tell it to obey me? I will be back at entrance corridor in five minutes.”

  Ed made the dvergr open the exit from their little hideout and sent the cat-kin out to meet Katya. Five minutes later, Katya’s voice whispered a final instruction. “I have kitty here. Wait until you hear commotion and then enter big room. I do not believe we can remove all demons from way, but it should at least reduce them to manageable number.”

  It took fifteen more minutes for Katya’s commotion to materialize.

  “The prisoners are escaping!” The demoness’ voice barely reached the party in their walled alcove, but the booming voice that answered it was loud enough to hurt Ed’s ears even as far away as he was.

  “Go and hold them off! Do not let them out of the guard room!”

  Ed got a message that his phantasmal cat-kin had taken enough damage to be dispelled just as Katya’s voice returned.

  “Most demons have gone to fight angels. Big one is still in room, with two more helpers. Now is good time to attack them and try to get out.”

  The phantasmal dvergr quickly removed the wall shielding their little alcove, and the party ran towards the big room.

  The entrance to the room was flanked by two large fire pits burning with sickly looking green flames. A walkway made of bones that had been somehow melted together linked the entrance to a large bone throne on the opposite side of the room.

  The figure sitting on the throne must have been at least three meters tall. He, and it was very clear that the figure was indeed a ‘he’, had furry legs ending in cloven hooves. His naked torso was red as blood and heavily muscled, as were the two huge arms. His head might have been considered handsome, with a well-groomed goatee and square chin, but the cruelty in his eyes completely ruined the image. Two long black horns rising form his brow completed the demon’s image.

  A snake woman mage stood to either side of the large demon’s throne, and as soon as the party entered the room they raised their twisted black staves, preparing to blast Ed and his friends with whatever terrible magic they had available.

  Before any magic could be cast, however, the large demon raised his left hand and the demonesses froze in their place.

  “Mortals,” the demon’s deep bass voice boomed. “It has been far too long since I had mortals in my halls. Have you come here to pledge your souls to my service?”

  “Try to stall him for a bit,” Katya’s voice whispered in Ed’s ear.

  “I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Ed answered, “but the possibility has never even crossed our minds. In all honesty, we’re just passing through here, and if you just let us go through that door behind your throne, we’ll stop troubling you.”

  “Your intentions are amusing, mortal, but you will find that you have to abandon them. Your only options are to pledge to me, or die by my hand.”

  “Those really aren’t very appealing options,” Lucy said. “You really need to work on your sale pitch a bit more. I mean, you should at least tell us what we get if we pledge our souls, otherwise it’s just a pig in a poke.”

  “You get to keep your lives, mortal. And you should be happy to even be offered that!”

  “That’s a very scrawny katta in that sekken,” Ingrid shook her head. “I don’t think I want to be buying that.”

  “Then you sha…”

  The demon’s dramatic declaration of the party’s imminent death was cut off by the scream of one of his demoness helpers, and the appearance of Katya behind her, with a long dagger piercing the snake woman’s kidney.

  The demon lord roared in anger and tried to swat at Katya, but the Drab managed to maneuver the wounded demoness into his way and rolled away from the stunned mage.

  “Melee on the big one, the rest of us focus on the mages!” Ed shouted, and started to shoot at the wounded demoness, joined quickly by Lucy, Katya and the phantasmal kitsune and Archer. Ingrid ran towards the big demon, who was just getting up from his throne, and stunned him with a Shield Bash before he could attack.

  Meanwhile, Ed sent both the phantasmal dvergr and the cat-kin towards the unwounded mage in an attempt to keep her too busy to cast.

  Unfortunately, the demon lord shrugged off the stun almost immediately, and stomped his hoof on the floor, staggering all of the party’s melee fighters. He then clapped his hands together, and a huge claymore made of black fire appeared in his grasp.

  A sweep of the flaming sword nearly took Ingrid’s head off, but she managed to get her footing and bring her shield up in time to block it, getting knocked back by the force of the blow. The unwounded demoness took the opportunity of her opponents being out of balance to cast a spell that covered her body with a metallic sheen, and a loud clanging sound when the dvergr’s hammer slammed into her made it clear that the defensive spell would make it a lot harder to harm her.

  The rest of the party was doing better, and the stunned demoness was unable to raise any defensive magic before the barrage of spells and missiles killed her.

  “Daze the mage, Katya! The rest of us, focus on the boss!”

  Katya started to sing a discordant melody, and the iron-skinned demoness began to sway in confusion. Ed transferred the dvergr and cat-kin to attacking the demon lord, and had the kitsune drop a Chromatic Storm on the mage, hoping that the multi element spell would manage to find a weakness in the spell.

  The demon lord let out a thundering roar, stunning everyone around him, and kicked out at Ingrid, his massive hoof crushing her shield and breaking the arm holding it, and lashed out with his sword to slice the cat-kin completely in half, dispelling it.

  Ingrid staggered backwards, dismissing her shield and the armor covering her arm, and the phantasmal naiad started healing her as quickly as it could.

  The demon lord didn’t come out of the exchange unscathed, however. Firebolt burns, arrows and bullet wounds were already beginning to accumulate, and a large bruise indicated that the dvergr’s hammer had struck home at least once before it too was dispelled by the flaming sword.

  The demon smiled viciously when he saw that the party was out of melee fighters, and turned to attack the still singing Katya, but Ed resummoned the dvergr in its path, and when the demon stopped in surprise, the clockwork archer shot him at the back of its knee, making the large monster stumble.

  �
�A phantasmal Summoner,” The demon growled as it staggered back up. “How unusual. We could still make a deal that lets you leave with your skin intact, if you would just offer me the souls of your bound companions, mortal.”

  Ed didn’t bother giving the demon an answer, and instead summoned his cat-kin back, but kept it close to him, letting the dvergr battle the monster on its own. The demon used its stomp attack again, staggering the dvergr and killing it before it could recover, and started to run towards Ed, who sent the cat-kin into combat before starting to summon the dvergr yet again.

  The agile cat-kin managed to dodge the demon’s powerful but slow attacks, and the party continued to pepper the large monster with spells and projectiles until the demon used his roar attack again, stunning the cat-kin long enough for him to kill it, and Ed sent the dvergr, followed by the newly healed and armored Ingrid back into melee range.

  More and more damage piled onto the demon, and with the party now familiar with its special attacks, Ingrid was able to get out of range of his stomp and roar attacks whenever he tried to use them, leaving whatever phantasm was there at the time to take the follow-up attack before closing in again, and it wasn’t long before the large monster fell before the party’s combined attacks.

  With the demon lord dead, Ed had the kitsune dispel the Chromatic Storm, and while the demoness inside was still armored, her spell couldn’t block off all of the damage from Ingrid’s halberd and Ed’s Chromatic Field, and she soon joined her master in death.

  With the battle over, Ed could hear the noise of the larger fight between the angelic prisoners and the large force of demons, and it seemed to be closer to the main room now than it was when they first entered.

  “I don’t think we have much time,” he told his friends before going to search the large demon for loot. “I really don’t want to be caught up in the prison escape if we can help it.”

  “I completely agree,” Ingrid answered. “I could really use some down time after this fight.”