The huntsman spurred his horse forward and brought his massive axe down in a sweeping arc. Ashtoreth leapt back to avoid the greataxe. Then, as he came forward to unleash another hail of blows, she dropped her weapon, dove forward, then leapt into the air and pushed against it, pressing the sword into the dirt and simultaneously catapulting herself through the air and toward the heap of dead dogs.

The huntsman’s horse reared, but as it turned toward her, Ashtoreth broke her sword, causing both horse and rider to be engulfed by a sudden burst of violet hellfire that set the surrounding foliage, along with a nearby tree, ablaze.

Again, she saw that the huntsman and his horse were seemingly completely unharmed by the flames. Somehow, they had even higher profane resistance than she did.

She conjured her sword again as she ripped a heart free of one of the burning dogs and consumed it.

The huntsman rode clear of her violet flames. Ashtoreth waited, trying to time her throw perfectly, then launched her newly-conjured sword at him, throwing herself backward in the process.

Her blade missed the huntsman, flying past him to bury itself into a tree even as the counterforce sent her backward through the air to land with her feet planted against the trunk of another tree herself. She snarled, bursting her sword once again to engulf the distant tree in hellfire and set its trunk and branches alight.

She leapt off the side of the tree, dropping down to land amidst its roots as the huntsman changed the course of his charge. Then she reached out and tore another heart from one of the dogs, conjuring her sword once again.

The huntsman reached her riding full tilt, swinging his axe at her from horseback as he rode past, the blow surely strong enough to slam her backward and into the ground.

Instead of raising the sword to block him, she thrust it into the ground at an angle and pushed off it, leaping far into the air and over the pile of dead hounds. She burst her sword once again as the huntsman's axe passed through the air where she’d been, again bathing him and the forest around him in a harmless plume of violet fire.

She struck the ground, rolled to her feet, then turned as she tore free a new heart and conjured her sword again.

The huntsman’s horse reared in the midst of Ashstoreth’s violet fire, and the huntsman laughed as the tree next to him crackled with violet flames.

“You can’t hurt me, can you, little archfiend?” he boomed. “You can’t even hurt my steed.”

Ashtoreth’s feet moved across the battlefield, her eyes never leaving the huntsman. She needed him to think he had her, to let his guard down….

“But you can’t hurt me either,” she called out. “Not without catching me first.”

The huntsman laughed. “If I have to do this for an hour before your power runs dry, so be it. I enjoy the thrill of the chase.” he said. His turned his horse and began to gallup toward her.

Again she threw her sword, at him, sending her backward to land feet-first against the trunk of tree behind her. Again, the sword missed the huntsman, burying itself in another nearby tree before she burst it to conjure it in her hand.

But she wasn’t done repeating herself. As the huntsman closed in on her, axe raised, she planted her sword and leapt over him, landing near the pile of burning hounds to consume another heart. Once more she burst the sword and left him unharmed as the tree nearby was engulfed in a plume of fire.

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But this time, she conjured her weapon and charged.

The huntsman cocked his head, then spurred his horse onward. He raised his massive axe for another mighty blow.

Ashtoreth had judged the distance well—they met each other at the center of the ring of burning trees she’d created as she dodged and harmlessly attacked him. And because her horns acted as a casting focus, she could draw flames into her sword at a high enough range to draw from the whole of the forest around her.

She sucked the fire from the trees around her, drawing the flames through the air and into her sword just as she and her enemy came together. She used her [Mighty Blow]....

The huntsman's axe met her sword with a crash like thunder, but now her strike was so forceful that she almost knocked his weapon clean from his hands, his horse staggering from the force of her blow.

Ashtoreth was already rolling and drawing more fire into the sword as the huntsman let out a shocked cry and recovered, pivoting his steed toward her. He turned and got his bearings just as she finished bringing the sword through a tremendous overhand arc, using another [Mighty Blow] as she brought it down….

Her sword struck the huntsman’s steed, shearing through its armor and burying itself halfway into the horse’s neck.

The horse fell to its knees, and the huntsman let out a cry of surprise and brought his axe down toward her. She leapt back and pushed against Luftschloss, toppling the horse as the counterforce pushed her clear out of the path of the huntsman’s blow, flipping back through the air to land clear of the huntsman and closer to the remaining two burning trees before bursting her sword and conjuring it again as she rushed forward.

The huntsman got clear of his falling horse with surprising agility, rolling free of the saddle and coming to his feet to move toward her.

Ashtoreth charged, more fire flowing away from the burning forest and into her sword. She planted her feet and thrusting forward with all her momentum, extending herself to the fullest and using another [Mighty Blow] as the huntsman brought his axe up to parry the thrust.

But her blade was too heavy. His axe couldn’t push it away fast enough, not through the power of her [Mighty Blow]. She drove her sword-point hard into his shoulder, crumpling the metal of his pauldron and knocking him flat onto his back as the forest filled with the sound of breaking metal.

She sucked more fire into the sword, enough so that the whole glade became nothing but charred trees that glowed with violet embers, then brandished the weapon and watched the huntsman carefully, timing her blow.

He pushed himself to his feet, staggering forward. She watched as he unsteadily raised his axe, found the weakness in his stance, his bearing, and delivered another [Mighty Blow] that caught him in the leg and sheared it off at the knee, the strike so forceful that it sent him spinning to the ground.

A hollow howl of pain came from beneath his visor, and as he fell, she let go of her sword, rushing forward to grab the haft of his axe and jerk it free from his weakened grip in a moment of surprise.

She tossed the axe away, then grabbed the hilt of her greatsword again and loomed over him.

“Wait!” said the huntsman. He lifted the visor on his helmet. “Wait! I submit! You have bested me; I will serve you, O archfiend, until—no!”

Ashtoreth had no more hellfire to consume, so while he spoke she funneled all of her [Bloodfire] into her weapon, then raised it.

The huntsman protested as he raised his arm to shield his face from her final [Might Blow], and her blade obliterated his hand, then clove off his head and left his neck a charred, smoking lump before burying itself into the dirt beneath him.

{You gain [Huntsman of the Wood Core]; Tier 1 Boss}

{You gain [Hellsteed Core]; Tier 1}

Asthoreth let out a relieved and satisfied sigh. “I feel that took forever,” she said. Then she looked at the scorched trees around her. “Are you still here, Dazel?”

If he’d been ripped apart in the fray, she was going to need to summon him again….