image [https://i.postimg.cc/8PWW12cd/ch-86-vol-3.jpg]
Thanks to the map that Samael and I made, we found an alternative path that avoided larger packs of enemies, especially those harrowing hags. Our detour added an extra thirty minutes to the trek, especially since we had to drop off a few humans we'd helped in safe spots, but it was more than worth the time.
Finally we reached the main plaza area, although right now it was a hotbed of demonic corruption. What I assumed were once shops and stores were now things that looked like prison chambers with barred windows. When I zoomed in with my telescopic vision, I swore I could have seen people held up in those, but I couldn’t get close enough to confirm. Even if I could, that sludgy webbing was all over the inside of those rooms, making things difficult to interpret.
What was even worse was that the webbing was occasionally spitting out night hags from it, bolstering their reinforcements.
"It's spawning demons like that dark water," Indena commented.
She wasn't wrong. It made me wonder if that black webbing was an evolution of the demon water. It was hard to tell from our cover at the entrance, but that demon water was actually being shot up into the air from a corrupted fountain in the center of the plaza. Some of that webbing was coming out of it, or maybe feeding into it.
Regardless, the plaza looked packed with enemies. But there seemed to be a single boon in our favour. A few of them were nodding off, probably out of boredom.
Before too long, most of the night hags were curled up and sleeping. The bowalkers also looked like they were having trouble holding themselves up. And luckily, there weren’t any harrowing hags to speak of...yet, at least.
“What do we do?” I asked Uncle.
“Let’s give it a few minutes," he replied. "We'll see if they all fall asleep."
His plan seemed silly, but twenty minutes later, it actually proved accurate. They all went under like it was nap time.
I wouldn’t say the path to the castle doors was completely clear, since a lot of enemies were just sprawled across the ground, but getting there would be a lot easier now that they were asleep. We just had to be quiet.
We tiptoed around, very careful not to make a sound. The only background noise giving us some cover was the wind and that evil fountain. It was looking like we might make it to the castle without alerting anything.
Indena's eyes darted to her right in absolute horror. I followed her gaze and noticed something fluttering down from a balcony.
“Is that a chicken?” she whispered, watching a bird land and stride toward the evil fountain.
That wasn’t just a chicken, it was a rooster. But it had weird black feathers with a crimson hue to them, as well as glowing red eyes and webby black feet. Definitely demonic.
Wait...a rooster?! Don't they...?
"Aaaacaddoo!"
The rooster loudly let out a reverberated wake up call, then all the sleeping enemies began to rise!
“Make a break for the door!” Uncle shouted, bringing up his longsword and deflecting the first arrow of many.
Indena and I were too exposed, so she started spawning up flame walls for protection.
But one arrow escaped her notice, and it would hit us for sure!
My arms instinctually raised up as if to cast a spell. My crystal heart, eyes and hair turned from their usual colours to a hot orange. Marks like swirling flames appeared all over my body too.
“Flame wall!” I announced, as a small wall of fire exploded to life in front of me, blocking the arrow.
“Woah!” Indena cheered. “When did you learn that?”
“Just now, I guess!” I replied as my eyes, heart and hair reverted to their normal colours.
This must have been my Copycat Magecraft ability at work. It allowed me to copy mage powers I've seen and learn to use them myself. The issue was it was only around 7% of the powers strength, and I’d already sapped my mana reserves with just that one flame wall alone.
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“I’ll handle it from here, Shrimp!”
Indena was firing off big bolts of flame at each of the bowalkers on the roof, while also rising up plumes of fire to destroy arrows as they came at us.
Uncle had managed to clear out a large chunk of enemies by deflecting arrows around and cutting down night hags, but I could feel the earth shaking stomps of harrowing hags heading this way from other parts of the town.
"Caaacaaadoo!" cried the rooster again, now trying to peck at Uncle's leg.
Uncle tried to escape the demon rooster with a kick, but then a whole flock of them surrounded him.
Where the heck did they come from?!
He was trying to get away, but they were ferocious!
“Uncle! Once you kick a chicken, they all aggro on you!” I shouted. It’s the unspoken law of chickens everywhere. Once you hurt one, you hurt them all.
If Indena and I hadn't been focused on the bowalkers, we'd have fried those feathery jerks and ate well tonight. But to Uncle's fortune, something gaited out from the fog to help.
“Meow!”
A purple cat attacked one of the demon roosters, causing the flock to focus on her instead.
"Caaacaadoo!"
“Meow!”
The cat had a bag around her and an oversized purple hat. She reached her pawn into the bag and tossed three tiny vials of glass at each of us.
*CRASH!* *PWOOF!*
A puff of pink and blue smoke swirled up and around our bodies. There was a sharp *Waaah* sound after that. When I looked down at my hands, I couldn’t see them anymore. That little kitty must have hit us with an invisibility potion.
I checked my status screen for any active effects. It said that this invisibility would last for ten seconds.
“Everyone! Bum rush the door!” I shouted.
The invisibility held just long enough for us to escape the enemies notice. We were about to get to the castle doors, but the very land before us warped into a river of lava. Now the only way to cross was a drawbridge on the other side of this evil mote.
I tried to fly over, but my right most wing was still pretty unresponsive. Uncle was too busy dealing with the foes tailing us to fly over too.
That left Indena to figure something out.
“You think you can go and get down the drawbridge?” I asked her.
“I can’t fly, but lemme try something!”
She took a few steps back to get a running start. Before she ran, she placed her hands against the ground and a pulse of orange energy radiated across the soil, all the way into the lava river.
A huge wave of lava rose up, she ran to it and surfed it across the gap.
“That’s awesome!” I cheered.
Once she hit the other side, she made a beeline for the bridge controls.
*Raaa!*
But a harrowing hag was waiting for her over there!
“Damn it!” Indena had to dodge several heavy attacks, one clipped her foot and caused her to hit the ground.
She blasted the hag with heavy flames, making it stumble backwards. Then she jet forward with fire and punched the hag with her stardust reinforced gloves.
That good hit stunned the hag, leaving a nasty burn mark over her skin. Indena thought she'd given herself a chance to get the bridge down, but that hag wasn't out yet.
The hag swelled up her legs and stomped her feet around like she was having a super tantrum. Each stomp created a powerful quake, disrupting the entire battlefield.
Indena couldn't get close. Even her flames were being redirected by the shockwaves of the tantrum.
The hag made one major stomp and sent a rock up into the air. It came crashing down, heading straight for Indena. Her leg was wounded, so she had to be careful and use her fire to help her jet around.
Rocks started falling down like meteors. Indena ignited her flame aura and blasted around to avoid them.
It was then that the harrowing hag's tantrum eased, and her breathing became heavy. Her body shrunk significantly too, appearing more frail then swoll
Indena had another opening. She blasted in and struck the hag right in the temple, cracking that oversized demon's skull!
"Tuckered yourself out, did ya'?" Indena taunted as the hag fell over. It wasn't dead, but Indena could get that bridge down.
She limped to the drawbridge controls, then jiggled the lever until the whole bridge came down, allowing us to cross.
Uncle and I ran quickly. The doors to the castle opened automatically as we approached, so we made it inside.
The doors weren't closing on there own, so Uncle took both ends and slammed them shut, using a big piece of wood to bar it. Hopefully those demons wouldn't be getting in here anytime soon. I did see some vents above us, so we probably didn’t want to stay in this spot too long.
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