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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2131534" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 357 Arun’s ability to detect evil revealed the second ambush, giving them a few precious seconds to prepare. They’d followed the corridor to another room that showed clear indications of being a demodand lair—the tarry gunk the farastus secreted covered everything, and even Mole did not advocate lingering long for a detailed search.  There was little more than smooth walls and a few rounded boulders in any case, so they crossed to the doors in the far wall, and passed into another passage that wound deeper into the complex to the east. They all felt the pressure of time’s rapid passage, but they’d learned caution.  Thus it was that when they entered the passage, which appeared to stretch on unbroken for as far as they could see, suspicions arose and they paused a moment for Arun to draw upon his gifts. “Evil.  Just ahead, to either side of the tunnel.”At that warning, Nidrama drew upon her innate powers, summoning a bright eruption of daylight that filled the passage with its warm glow. In the bright light, they could see that a length of the tunnel bore another irregularity; more of the dark curtains that were designed to blend in with the surrounding stone walls. As it was clear that the companions were not going to be surprised, the curtains were drawn back to reveal a pair of vrock demons, their vulture-like heads bobbing in eager anticipation of the fray as they regarded the intruders.  Each was prepared, surrounded by a swirling nexus of mirror images, and they immediately rushed down the corridor, their compact wings beating powerfully to augment the hops from their powerful hind legs. Dannel immediately lifted his bow to fire, but Nidrama, her attention focused upon Arun, forestalled him.  “Hold your missile, archer,” she said.  Dannel looked at her in surprise, but obeyed.  The demons would be on them in seconds, quickly closing the distance between them. Arun lifted his sword, holding it straight out, the point directed at the demons.  As the others watched in surprise, a gleam of light erupted from between the paladin’s fingers, tight around the hilt of the weapon, traveling down the straight steel before flashing out in a momentary pulse of golden radiance.  Arun looked as surprised as the others at the unexpected display, but the effect was immediately obvious as the mirror images suddenly vanished, revealing the true locations of the vrocks. The demons hesitated in surprise, faltering just for a single heartbeat before leaping once more to the attack.  But that second cost them.  Dannel’s arrow knifed into the first demon’s shoulder, doing little damage through its resistances, but throwing off its momentum and forcing it to wildly adjust to bring itself back into stride. The second demon abruptly stopped five paces from the ready ranks of the companions, leapt into the air, and released a terrible, piercing screech.  Dannel staggered back, stunned, but the dwarves easily resisted the effects, and Nidrama’s only response was to lift her blade and meet the second vrock as it hurtled itself forward, tearing with all four talons at the celestial.  The assault might have been effective, if it had been given time enough to complete its full attack; as it was the creature’s first claw tore a minor gouge into the celestial’s exposed forearm, but then it came under immediate counterattack from the deva and from Hodge, who’d come forward swinging Arun’s holy sword.  Both scored hits upon the vrock, Nidrama driving it back with a serious blow to the body, and then Hodge finishing with a violent swing that took the demon’s left leg off just above the knee.  The vrock, screeching in agony, fell to the ground, flapping out the last of its life in a spray of demonic ichor and mottled feathers. The second vrock, driven to a fury of bloodlust, leapt at Hodge. It managed to clip him on his temple with a lashing claw, driving the dwarf back.  Flapping its wings madly, it lifted itself three feet in the air, preparing to shred the dwarf with a full assault of claws and bite. And then Arun stepped forward. The demon seemed to recoil from the piercing glimmer of the holy avenger, but it was too late for it to escape.  The paladin seemed possessed as he swept the blade twice through the air, each time cleaving deep through demonic flesh, and finally lunged, driving half the length of the blade through its body, transfixing its heart.  The demon seemed to deflate, sinking to the ground and trembling once, then falling still.  Mole materialized behind the demons, where she’d been waiting for a good moment to backstab one of them.  The entire battle, from the time that the vrocks had first revealed themselves, had taken less than fifteen seconds. “Wow,” she said.  “Cool sword.”</blockquote>

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