"Stay back." Kazan said leaving the safety of the Tower of Ryvylin’s hall."Are you sure you don’t need backup?" Matthew asked, while he walked outside.
"I need the warm up." He smiled at Matthew.
The Baalor noticed him instantly and shot a laser beam from its eye in his direction, but the swordmaster dodged it with ease.
"Yes, hold your fire. Let the elf deal with it." Catherine instructed her men by the radio. "Can he handle it?" She asked, looking at Kazan’s borrowed equipment and questioning his prowess.
"Watch." Matthew smiled at her.
Kazan calmly walked towards the Baalor and slowly nodded a greeting at the demon.
The demon was not amazed, it tried to stab the elf with its trident, but the swordmaster took a small step to the side casually avoiding the attack. Then it tried to slash with its flaming sword, but it missed just as easily.
Before the greater demon could bellow in anger and try a third attack, Kazan moved quickly and cut off its head, making it fall to the ground in an ugly sounding thud.
The elf looked at the sword in his hand. It was bent out of shape. He discarded it on the ground and picked up the flaming sword testing its weight in the air with a few precise strikes.
As expected by a level 83 swordsman. Quick and precise, the same way he teaches his students.
"Got a better sword?" Matthew joked with him.
"Worse balance, not as sharp. But it will hold my mana better." He smiled at Matthew.
"Holy fuck. That was god damn Baalor. You killed it like it was a child." Catherine said with wide eyes.
"They’re not that tough." Kazan smiled at her. "But if that was their frontline..." Kazan’s voice got somber. "We’re in trouble."
"Trouble?" Catherine asked.
Kazan didn’t have time to explain. Catherine’s radio suddenly flared up with voices declaring enemy contact from all sides.
"A gate opened over us!" Someone screamed.
"All the others were just distractions to isolate you all." Kazan quickly summarized the enemy’s strategy.
The building started to shake in its foundation. The gate was trying to suck it in just as it did to Saint Helen’s hospital. However, the Tower was built to a higher standard than the hospital was and held fast in the ground.
Imps then came down flying from the gate in the sky and started to be shot down by the gunman and arches perched on the building’s ledges.
Cambions started to throw fireballs and barbed demons assaulted the windows and doors in the ground floor.
Catherine’s chakrams flew around covered in electricity, killing the lesser demons around. Her husband, Kleb, took the form of a half wolf, merging with his wolf spirit familiar, and joined the fray with Cathbad by his side. The cait sith was empowered by the totem warrior’s Boost Pact skill that allowed the caster to increase the power of their pacted spirits.
Matthew used his guns to keep the demons at bay. Spreading unholy fire outside with each bullet coated in it.
Ffyr and Kazan stood still waiting for an opportunity to act.
Then another Baalor came flying in. It dodged gunfire and broke the front glass to enter the barricaded wall. It gave no warning and shot a laser beam from its eye at the defenders.
It was Catherine that raised a mana wall to protect them.
Ffyr acted next, sending flying blades of air to cut the greater demon down.
Kazan charged behind the blades and with a single stab, pierced the Baalor’s heart with the flaming sword he took from the other one he slew.
The adventurers in the hall almost celebrated the death of that powerful enemy, but before they could, 2 more Baalors entered the building.
Matthew kept one distracted with unholy flaming bullets while Kazan engaged the other.
The elf was caught off guard by the strength of the Baalor he faced. That one was stronger than the other two. It could hold its own against the swordsmaster.
While the two traded blows, the Baalor under Matthew’s fire shot a laser beam causing the ground and walls it hit to explode with the sudden raise in temperature from its beam.
Matthew shifted his guns to his blades, with miasma coming out of his body, he engaged the Baalor in close combat to prevent it from shooting again.
They traded blows for a while.
Catherine, Kleb and the other adventurers focused on killing the weaker demons that flooded the hall after the greater ones.
Ffyr snuck behind the Baalor, Matthew was facing and with two powerful wind blades, she cut off its wings.
When it screamed in pain, Matthew seized the opportunity to open its belly open with Belial’s blade, scything its life away.
At the same time, Kazan dodged a trident stab aimed at his face by ducking and kicking the demon’s legs. The Baalor fell to the ground and, before it could do anything, Kazan decapitated it.
"Hold fast!" Kazan shouted to boost the adventurers morale.
Catherine’s lightning chakrams bounced around the cambions that came in shortly after causing enough damage to their Vital Shields for the other weaker adventurers to bring them down.
Matthew and Kazan worked together now to bring down the increasing number of Baalors that assaulted their positions.
In the middle of the chaos, Matthew recognized someone in the distance. Pale skin, two long and big black bird wings on her back and red shining eyes. She was wearing the same iron spiked and revealing outfit she wore in hell. It was Lenore, the Erinyess Matthew saved in hell while rescuing Nanael.
She was on the shoulder of a giant cyclops who was dragging a car behind him in his hand. Lenore shouted orders and tried to direct her troops, but it was clear she had few effects on her subordinates.
"Kazan. Can you hold the front for a while?" Matthew asked when they had a brief moment of rest.
"I can. Do you have a plan?" The elf asked him.
"No, not a plan. Just have a question." Matthew said.
Kazan didn’t understand him, but just shrugged it off.
"Do what you need to do. Things are not dire. Yet."
"Ffyr. Stay behind as well. I’ll be right back." Matthew said while melting into the shadows.
In so much chaos, very few are the ones that pay attention to a shadow out of place. Matthew easily snuck behind the demon forces finding Lenore on top of the cyclops trying her best to direct the fighting.
While she screamed orders at a pair of Baalors that just laughed at her, she jumped down to the ground from the shoulders of the giant.
"Malphas gave me command of this force. You will obey me!" She said using her domination spell to bend the will of the Baalors to hers.
"Malphas has no say in the Prime." One of the Baalors laughed. "And your spells have no effect on us."
"Yes. Little Erinyess. Why don’t you open your legs to us if you want us to do anything? It’s way easier that way." The second one laughed.
Lenore’s face contorted in anger. With a flicker of her hand, the cyclops behind her swung the car it had in its hand at the second Baalor crushing it on top of the greater demon.
The first Baalor charged at the giant with a spear it had in its hand, but the cyclops defended himself with the spiked metal straps it had tied around its other arm.
The Baalor crushed by the car flew out of the debris covered in cuts and bleeding its lava hot blood on the floor. It charged at the cyclops legs, making it fall to the ground.
When the first Baalor got on top of the cyclops and was about to kill him with a stab of its spear on his throat, Matthew rose out from the shadows using his two blades to take out the Baalor’s head from behind.
The second Baalor was caught by surprise by Matthew’s intervention and was a bit stunned, not sure what to do.
Lenore was the one to act next, stabbing the Baalor on the back with a knife covered in poison that acted fast on the greater demon.
It stumbled back immediately, losing all its strength.
The cyclops rose to his feet and crushed the languishing Baalor under its massive hand.
Lenore recoiled looking at Matthew. She was surprised by seeing him there, but also a bit ashamed. With a simple look, she ordered the cyclops to keep the demons away while she pulled Matthew inside a nearby building so that no one could see them.
"Lenore." Matthew simply said in an accusing tone.
"Matthew." The Erinyess responded nervously.
"So you’re back working with Malphas." Matthew shook his head. "Did Celaeno kick you out?"
"She... She did." Lenore confessed with a deprecating laugh.
"And you crawled back to Malphas." Matthew admonished her.
"Not by choice." Lenore hugged herself.
It is then that Matthew noticed. Her pale almost cotton white skin, once perfect, had now several faint scars on her torso.