Prickly

  The devastation in the lower district from previous disasters was the greatest, along with it being the effective first tact with the enemy, the area became a bloody affair. Malen destroyers were frequently deployed, and their supp units mainly posed of whatever throw a lot of problems at their oppos. What the lower district did have in spades was foliage. It spread quickest in the areas where existing infrastructure wasn't a major factor. Pnts trolled by a dryad would normally have direbat applications, but not these pnts. These p to support the main for Malencia.

  A pit fiend bsts its way through one of many brittle walls of the lower district, a corpse slowly sliding off one of its axes as it does so. A traption of fungus rests upon its bull-shaped head, muttering into the mushroom as he talks. The mushroom itself fkes off some small pieces of itself, which get absorbed into the ground. After a short while, the pit fiend holds its head against one of the pnts, listening to the noise ing from it through the fungal device.

  A war cry sounds from the east, more troops to feed into the demon's axes. The initial waves sisted of the weaker troops, fodder to walk into the many traps set by the defenders. The pit fiend charges to meet the advance, and finds a terrified infantry square. Prime prey for the ing sughter.

  It barrels into the group, breaking spears as it does so. One of the men in the group sounds a horn in desperation, for his bravery he gets cut down to size. Fear domiheir minds, where did this thing e from? Where are our reinforts? Did they even hear our call over bat? Will they even respond? Thoughts like these pgue them as the fiend is upon them, cutting into their rapidly dwindling numbers. The beast is clearly wounded, but shows no signs of slowing down as its blood mixes with those of the men.

  Half a dozen decapitations ter, a bst of light nearly blows the fiends head off. It didn't dodge due to some supernatural instinct, it was just lucky the shot missed this time. The source is a soldier full pte armor, priests and nuns take up his rear.

  "Begone foul creature!" The sight of the padin brings a moment of hope to the soldiers that are still in the fight, specialists in dealing with heresy are worth their weight in gold within the fines of this rotten city.

  "Devastator requests reinforts in the north of sector D5. Enemy elite spotted." The odd way the demon speaks makes the padin frown, rand and file soldiers of Malencia had dispyed simir levels of speech, were they truly corrupted to the point that their very voice was being taken away?

  The padin wastes no time p the implications of heresy. Listening to the whispers of madmen is a bad idea. He charges at the fiend, who has now taken a defeance close to the standing armymen of Faeruhe poor bastards are too shaken and dazzled to dispy their previous bravery, at least they aren't running away. As the fiend and padin battle it out, swainst dual axes, a few things bee clear. The padin is skilled, while the fiend is more ing than is often give to the more physically ined enemies of humanity. It tries to lure the padin close enough to the fodder so it always choose to jump the terrified soldiers.

  The padin's nightmares e to fruition, as the fiend unches an attato the men. Fortuhe attack is blocked by the priests who quickly form a barrier, the holy knight puhe demon for this a by chopping off one of its arms, but the demon merely looks a tad dejected that the padin didn't even bat a the attack. Either he had more faith in the priests than expected, or he truly didn't care for his colleagues.

  Despite losing an arm, the demon still puts up a though fight with the remaining arm. The defensive fighting style of the fiend is an unusual sight for demons, who usually prefer dealing as much damage as possible at the cost of their bodies. If destroyed by normal means they reform in their own dimension anyway, holy magic is the reliable way to permaly crush them, but sihe disappearance of the gods that type of magic has bee finite.

  The battle still turns against the demon in time, wounds building up. The loud noise of a cart approag doesn't stop the intense 'duel' betweees. The padin is too focused on inflig wounds on the demon, while his supports remove his own during the fight. Yet, as the noise of the cart grows louder, a smirk grows on the fiend's face regardless.

  Behind the fiend, a cart pulled by eldrittities and stacked with liquidators arrives. The liquidators don't bother dismounting from the cart, instead using the railing to steady their aim.

  "Twenty pert charge! Fire!"

  *BLIING*

  A hail of bullets desd on the field, the soldiers that were watg the duel i apart as they momentarily fot that this is a warzone. Some of the priests fall to the barrage as well, not having been in time to defend themselves from the attack. The sounds of thunder and dying rades distracts the padin for a split sed, a fatal mistake in front of a one-armed pit fiend. The axe of the fiend lodges firmly in the neck of the elite, who tries to grab at the axe in a futile endeavor to get it out. Even if he had the strength to do it, he 't get a good grip on the axe now covered in his own blood, and he slowly sags to the ground. The fiend doesn't waste the ce to brutalize the skull of the padin to make sure he doesn't get back up.

  The short moment of victory for the Malens is interrupted as the head of the fiend explodes in a bright light. This time, the opening shot of a bst of holy magic was enough. It wasn't enough to permaly kill the fiend, but a lengthy banishment would have to suffice for now, as the headless corpse falls to the ground. Two more padins with their retinue's have shown up to the fight, and the remaining liquidators choose to flee with their cart rather than stand and fight. Listening to their fungal radio for more pces they assist batants.

  As the cart rounds a er, a group stands in their path. The liquidator at the helm alerts their team to the group of adventurers in their path, intending to run them over before bsting them to kingdom e. They run straight into the small armored adventurer, but instead of crushing him beh their wheels their steeds crash, and their cart practically explodes into bits like they hit a cliff face head on. A mage between the adventurers bsts the stunned eldritch creatures with lightning, leaving the liquidators stranded here.

  In the fusion, only a few liquidators see death ing in the form of a literal rain of arrows ing from a single elf. The sergeant rallies some of the survivors to return fire, but any shots are blocked by a priestess with the adventurers. A man with a longsword beheads the sergeant from there, and the liquidators that tried to run were all stabbed by a wolfgirl.

  Asahi takes a short moment to his bde while looking at the wreckage of the cart. Something about all this seems familiar to him, and he doesn't like it. The tactics employed, the ons, even the way they dress.

  Prickly