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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2284907" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 401The Lucky Money burned, a bonfire that lit up the surrounding jungle.  The balor used its power of telekinesis to snap a load-bearing support, bringing down an expanse of burning roof onto a room full of screaming, helpless civilians.  The demon took delight in the sudden halt to their screams—though their panic had been quite satisfying too.  It knew that its assault would provoke a response, and it found itself looking forward to that as well. Even so, the ferocity of that counterattack took it somewhat off-guard.* * * * * “What’s happening?”“Man can’t even get a bloomin’ night’s sleep ‘round ‘ere…” “An all-out attack…”“It’s destroying the inn…”“Cagewrights…”“I told you that they would not sit around and wait for us to return…”“It’s evil, overwhelming… a greater demon…”“A balor, I’d expect; I only got a glimpse of it…”“A balor?  You’ve got to be kidding!”“The refugees will be slaughtered…”“Hells, we’ll be slaughtered!”“Arun, wait!  We must prepare before we face it…”“Jenya, get the people out, we’ll do our best to hold it off…”* * * * * A compact figure appeared in the ruin of the second story hallway, now open to the outside, and the widening swath of ruin and destruction wrought by the demon.  Already about a quarter of the structure had been destroyed, and the screams of those trapped in the rubble echoed those of the people trying desperately to escape the crumbling structure.  A man appeared in the ruin of the common room below, clad in a blue tunic, thrusting a longspear at the demon in an act of futile defiance.  The head of the weapon melted as it entered the nimbus of flame that surrounded the demon’s body, the steel bending uselessly off its armored hide.  His sacrifice was in vain as the demon barked a laugh, separating the man’s head from his shoulders with a casual swipe of his massive sword. “Pathetic.  I was led to believe that there would be some resistance, at least…”Even through the chaos it had created, the demon’s sharp senses detected the charge of another man who’d appeared in the upstairs hall, this one a brown-skinned dwarf, pushing through the dangling wreckage of ruined beams and shattered masonry.  It also recognized the power in the sword that the man carried; power that could hurt it.  The demon recognized this foe as one of those that had been shown to it, one the enemies who had caused so much difficulty for the Cagewrights.  Not one of those that its master bore such a fierce hatred for, but that wouldn’t save him against the balor’s power.  The demon enjoyed destruction, but it was eager to join in combat against real foes that could give it something of a challenge before they fell to its terrible might. It was clear that this enemy was not prepared for battle.  Though clearly a warrior, he wore only a hastily donned chain shirt, not the heavy armor that might have given him a chance against the balor’s assault.As the man reached the end of the hall, the demon snapped out its flaming whip, intending to divest this foe of his dangerous weapon.  The eager tongue of the whip snapped the warrior’s wrist exactly as intended, but somehow he yanked away, ignoring the tongues of flame that bit at him, avoiding being entangled in the sinuous strands, carefully crafted from the flayed hides of a hundred victims. There was nowhere for the warrior to go as the hallway suddenly ended, but to the demon’s minor surprise he simply leapt out over the gaping ruin, landing heavily in a jumble of roofing tiles and wooden beams a few feet from where the balor stood.  Ndulu felt an explosion of pain that lanced up his left leg into his body as the dwarf gashed the limb with his holy sword, a cold iron blade that burned with the pure divinity that was anathema to its kind, even to the mightiest of their race.  Furious, the demon unleashed a power word that gratifyingly impacted the warrior, knocking him roughly prone, stunned.  Inwardly the demon was pleased; a more powerful foe would have been able to shrug off the effects of the magic, and likely would have been some trouble with that damned holy blade. “A valiant effort, knight, but doomed to fail…” the demon droned, its words mocking. Light flared from within the building, resolving into a quintet of brilliant white globes that rose out of the gaps in the structure.  The five globes of light rose up into the air, firing beams of golden light that seared into the demon.  They caused obvious damage, even through its many defenses, but the marks they made in its hide were barely scratches to one such as it. “Lantern archons, how droll,” the balor said, rising up to its full height, chuckling.  “Is this the best you fools can manage?” But others were joining the fray now, the response that Ndulu had been expecting to provoke.  Two more warriors appeared at the edge of the ruined common room.  They charged toward the demon, but the debris impeded their rush.  One, a dwarf with a large waraxe, stepped on a solid-looking piece of roofing and broke through, entangling himself momentarily.  The other, clearly possessed of outsider blood, actually made it close enough to attack with his own axe, but the weapon glanced off of the malignant radiance of the balor’s unholy aura.  The balor turned to deal with this new threat, but even as it shifted a missile streaked from above, striking it solidly in the shoulder.  The demon instantly spotted the source, an elf archer lurking in the ruins of the hallway above.  Ordinarily a mere bowman would have not given it pause, but the arrow was also blessed with holy power, from the way that it burned in its hide.  These were enemies that clearly had experience in battling fiends, although Ndulu doubted that they had ever faced the likes of it, one of the lords of the Abyss. They had managed to hurt it, although the injuries thus far were mostly pinpricks, scratches.  But still, enough was enough.  Ndulu called upon the full power of the Abyss, speaking a word of blasphemy.  It watched with gratification as its foes collapsed, one after another, paralyzed.  The lantern archons popped out of existence; what was left of them might be found as a bright-colored smear on a rock somewhere in Celestia.  None of them could resist it, and now they were as good as dead, helpless to do anything to stop it.</blockquote>

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