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Chapter 25 - Chapter 24 - Demon of the Maw

Selm

Burned Village of Beldeth

For all of their words of valor, the dyokyon was not an easy kill, even with the entire group's efforts. Perhaps they could have easily done it were they all fit and healthy, but they were not. Not a single one of them was uninjured. Even the untouchable mage, who Selm had not seen get so much as a scratch due to his magical spellwork-created protection, was battered and burned. 

However, they shared one detail with the demon: the more they were wounded, the more savagely they fought. At this point, fear of this beast had been almost extinguished in most of them, save Inathia. The fear that they had felt at seeing its horrid form and its demonic power had been replaced with a burning(ironic, wasn't it?) rage and a need to see the demon obliterated. 

They roughly surrounded the beast as it recovered from Baz's divine strike. The impact site on the creature was smoldering with a silvery glow, the skin of it practically peeled back to reveal vulnerable flesh beneath. 

Eldrig banged against his shield, attracting one of the head's attention. "B-by the wil-will of the Crown, y-you are to die m-monster!" He shouted, his voice echoing from beneath his helm's visor. Immediately, the left head struck out to bite him, but glanced of the shield and got a shallow slash across the face in reward. Its blood sizzled weakly against Eldrig's armored form. 

Runner and Selm had split from each other, each taking a position that suited them: Selm was near the dyokyon's line of sight, and Runner was out of it. 

Selm had been relying on commands and quick words of magic up until now for fear of a longer incantation going wrong. With a proper group and vanguard, she could comfortably cast something more powerful. The school of utterancy excelled in many forms, one of the most powerful forms being through song. Selm began to sing, wrapping the air with magic to charm the dyokyon. She did not need the charm to distract the demon, nor did she ask for total control of it. She simply asked for it to still itself, for as long as the charm could hold, if at all possible. It was similar to what she had done to many gnolls by now. An unmoving target makes for a quick and easy subdual. 

The downside of this magic was that Selm had to concentrate on humming the tune into the air and weaving the magic into the sounds. Again, not something she could easily do whilst dodging gouts of fire and swiping claws. Selm was immensely grateful for the teamwork everyone was taking part in that made this maneuver possible. 

Runner and Yule were busy on either side of the demon. One of them was pelting it with icy lances of varying strength. The cold was freezing the skin until it was brittle and cracking or puncturing small holes into the meat of the creature. The other was sneaking close, stabbing a blade into the demon, then retreating. Runner had learned her lesson and was keeping the blades in the beast for now. Selm wondered just how many daggers the human had.

Baz had summoned a spectral mace, a direct mirror to the physical one he held but pale silver, that was now floating above the right head of the demon tauntingly. Every now and then it would swoop down and bash the demon on the nose. A very effective distraction when Baz was also slamming the trisected mouth with his steel. Selm was reminded that Baz was not some cranky old half-orc by how deftly he avoided massive swipes of the demon's claws. 

Inathia was occasionally switching with Eldrig and Baz, using the massive shield to cover them when the third maw spat its explosive gunk or the other heads decided to spit flame. 

With a cry, Eldrig was knocked back. A particularly vicious claw scraped across his breastplate, scoring deep gouges into the metal. While not tearing all the way through, it had pushed him back significantly. Inathia swooped in behind him to steady him. 

"T-Thanks!" He shouted, rattled. The dragonborn nodded in return, using the shield as cover while he readjusted his shield on his arm. 

Baz grunted in pain, more molten fluid spraying across his already torn-up arms. He backpedaled, getting some distance to hold onto his holy symbol. With an incantation and prayer, his arms began to rapidly heal. Not waiting for the effect to finish, he charged back in, swinging his mace towards the jaw that he was determined to break. 

With a healthy final hum, Selm released the charm she had been building towards her target. She felt the magic encircle the demon, licking at the edges of each of its minds. She prayed to the gods that the spell took hold. They were in for an even more grueling fight should it fail. 

With a startled whine, the entire demon shuddered. Then it halted completely. "Strike now!" Selm heard Yule shout unnecessarily. They had been waiting for this moment. An opportunity to ravage the demon's vitals freely. 

"I am, you ass!" Runner shouted back from the other side of the demon. 

Selm held her mind on the spell whilst rubbing at her throat. What damage had been healed by the potion was already coming back. That and her magical reserves were nearly empty. She could cast a dozen more cantrips, but actual spells would be a burden too heavy.

She did get to see the rest of them leap at the demon, ripping into it with fervor. The pain they were causing would cause the spell to break, so they only had seconds to act. Seconds they were putting to good use. A slew of visceral noises erupted from the dyokyon's direction from various catastrophic wounds. 

On the left head, Runner and Eldrig had gotten lucky enough for the head to be stuck at a low angle. Eldrig's blade skewered through the demon's right eye and likely deep into its skull. Runner had taken a serrated blade and had sawed her way into the vulnerable neck, right below the head. Rivers of the demon's blood spilled from that wound, burning Runner's hand terribly(a tradeoff that Runner grimly had made). 

On the right head, Baz and Yule were not as lucky with the head's position. It was raised high above them, barely in reach for Baz to slam his mace into the bottom segment of the jaw. His spectral mace once more clubbed the top of the demon's skull. Yule was the one who benefited the least from the bought pause, his powerful spells were all rather ineffective against a beast born of flame. It did allow him to make a well-placed shot of ice into the right eye of the right head. 

Inathia, despite her abhorrent fear of fighting, had rammed her shield against the middle maw, lodging it as deep as she could into the chest of the demon. It wouldn't fit standing straight up and had to be turned twice on two different axes. The act was oddly reminiscent of fitting a bookshelf through a smaller doorway to fit into a study. Shieldless, Inathia had lept back towards Selm to protect her. 

Remarkable…Selm thought to herself. Their efficient use of five seconds was truly remarkable. Against a foe so fearsome, they were still fighting strong. A small smile crept onto her dry and cracked lips. This experience, as traumatizing as it was, had changed something inside her. The dwarf was not the same person she was when she left Lordidan, now even more so. 

The spell snapped suddenly, the demon thrashing in place. Runner was thrown back, Eldrig's arm snapping back to catch her while leaving his sword buried where it was. Baz tactically retreated, holding his holy symbol and his mace tightly in either hand. Yule was still far off to one side, and Selm and Inathia were decently far enough in front of the monster to be unaffected by its movements. 

Howling wildly, both of the heads of the demon flailed about, but were growing weaker by the second. They both suddenly fell limply to the ground, lifeless. But the demon was still standing, which concerned Selm. 

"Why is-" She started before she heard an ugly gurgling bellow coming from the third and final maw. 

Yule barely had the time to shout "GET DOWN!" to everyone before an explosion rocked the battlefield. Selm felt both heat and force at that moment. The prior from the ignition of the volatile blood inside the maw igniting. The latter from Inathia slamming into her, propelled by the ensuing blast. 

Hit by a scaled wall of dragonborn, Selm was promptly knocked unconscious.

~~~

When Selm came to, the battle was over. In fact, the battle was over the moment that explosion happened. Inathia's shield had caused all of the gunk inside the demon to become stuck inside its chest-mouth, becoming a devastating weapon against itself. The shield had not survived. Thankfully, it had blocked a majority of the blast from not hitting them. Inathia and Baz still got pelted with splinter shrapnel, but it was nowhere as bad as it could have been. 

As they stood around the melting corpse of the demon, they reveled in their accomplishment. Yule told them that, because it was a demon, it would leave only a tar-like residue as its remains. Very rarely did demons leave any sort of trophy behind for those who defeated them. Pity.

"Still wish I could keep a tooth or something…" Runner groused, staring deep into the dark ooze in the center of the ruined road. Baz grunted in agreement. 

"Acquisition of demonic material is most efficient in their planes of origin, I am afraid," Yule said. "Frankly, I would not like to travel to the Abyss at the moment. Quite done with fire, for the moment." 

Selm let out a hoarse giggle. "Ironic, coming from a pyromancer." 

The mage simply rolled his eyes. "Were it the Infernum, I would happily change my tune. Abyssal flames? No, thank you." 

"Y-you all are in… q-quite the jolly mood f-for nearly dying," Eldrig commented softly.

The rest of them shared a look. It was true. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or the euphoria of triumph, but Selm felt good. She felt proud. Along with her allies, she slew a demon who had dared to invade the lands of Keldanis. Like Keldar, she too drove back the monster and made this a safer place. She felt damn proud of herself. 

…and, of them. 

"We almost died for the second time, true," Yule reasoned. "But…"

"I feel so fucking alive!" Runner shouted. "Is this what winning feels like? I wanna win more!"

Baz shook his head. "No, not just winnin'. This is our triumph." He grinned, his tusks glinting from the flames around them. "It is a damn good feelin'.

"It was scary…" Inathia muttered. She paused briefly before continuing. "But I protected you. That much I can do. That much I did." She looked down at her hands in slight wonder. The pink-scaled fingertips were covered in soot, their gradience into her scarlet scales hidden. She promptly looked down again before whimpering. "Can I have clothes now?"

"Ope-"

"Shit, sorry."

"On-one mo-moment. I'll g-go get o-our ba-bags."

"Me n' Yule will help," Baz coughed, taking off his shirt and throwing it to Inathia. The group's men turned and began walking out of the Beldeth towards their stashed equipment, which was deemed too heavy to fight with. 

"Come along Inathia, let us get away from all of this flame and rubble. I think I spied a well that still stands nearby. We can try to clean off a bit there," Selm said, taking the whole situation in stride. In all of the heart-thumping excitement, they had forgotten that nearly everything Inathia was wearing had been incinerated. "And while we do so, we can talk about your heat resistance. I am immensely curious." 

"I think I'll just follow the guys-"

"No Runner. You are a mess as well! We need to clean off that hand before Baz can repair it." Selm was no healer, hells she could not remember for the life of her how the healing utterancy worked, but she knew clean wounds healed faster with the aid of magic. 

"Eshah…" The rogue did not argue any further, resigning herself to being helped along by Selm and Inathia. She definitely still had something broken inside of her by the way she limped along but she remained stoic and silent about it. Selm was quite surprised that she was still standing. Well, if the rogue could take a backward kick from a literal demon of a monster, perhaps she was tougher than her lithe frame portrayed. 

Selm was glad Runner was still alive. 

She was glad that they were all still alive. Within her, some of that unresolved trauma from the demonic ambush they fell to was unraveled. A little bit of that experience was made easier to cope with. After all, they took down some of the forces that tore them apart, the demon and some of the burning undead. That, at least, provided some catharsis.

When they finally fulfilled their duty to Keldanis, Selm would remember these days with the rest of them fondly. As hellish and trauma-inducing as some of it was, it had taught Selm some lessons she needed. She was no longer a high noble. No longer was she the daughter of a house whose name shook trade across the kingdom. She was Selm, an enchantress who survived death once and laid low a demon. She was weak, yes, but her willpower had more than tripled in the past few weeks. She was certain she could do now what she should have done all those years ago. If Selm ever got the chance, she would. Aldis Bruthor deserved to fall.

Well, she also got to know some interesting people. The adventurers from the caravan: Melia, Savaad, and even Anton(although she still could not recall where she had seen him before). Through their actions, Selm grew dissatisfied with her weakness. They inspired Selm to become stronger and better than she ever was. And the soldiers of the Order. They reminded Selm of the pride of Keldanis and her ideals. Honor. Glory. Justice. Not all in Keldanis upheld those virtues, but people like Eldrig certainly did. 

And then there were the people who died before her very eyes. Runner, Inathia, Baz, and Yule. Each was a mystery in their own right. Each had a story they had yet to tell. Selm would miss them, should they part ways. Perhaps…

No that would be silly, Selm chastised herself. Unless… perhaps their debt was not where their cooperation ended. It was a silly idea, of course. They likely would all go their ways when they no longer needed to stick together. The thought saddened her, but she had grown accustomed to them. She liked Yule's sharp wit and Baz's honest gruffness. Inathia was adorable and Selm felt protective of her. Runner… she was okay. 

With a sigh, Selm returned to washing the soot off of Inathia's wounds the best she could. Thoughts for another day, she supposed. Thoughts for another day. 

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