Alexander Quin blinked in and out as he dealt with a large demon still trying to break in a Guard barracks. The ebony thing struck with tentacles whipping at the demigod as he tried to deal with it.
A war party had been with the commander. Arrows had struck most of them down as their chief smashed in the front of the barracks. Alexander had appeared to deal with the demon as the guardsmen tried to rally.
More demons flocked to the conflict. While they loved terrorizing harmless civilians, crushing the will of opponents trying to stand up to them was better. It allowed them to create a terror that wasn't normally felt.
Alexander moved to stand between the demons and the barracks. It was too bad Macomber was nothing but a ghost. Someone capable of doing a banishment spell would be good to have at the moment.
He could use some help as he watched more and more demons form behind their commander. It was going to be a lot work to deal with all of them by himself. He readied himself to attack any of the beasts that came too close to where he stood.
Two people in clownish colors appeared from opposite ends of the street. They wore blank face masks with numbers painted on the white surface. One seemed to be laughing as they closed on the confrontation.
“Avri Noll seems to have asked her clerics to help us,” said Macomber. “That's a piece of good luck for us.”
“I'll say,” said Alexander. “I wonder how many demons they have killed tonight. We don't need them using their grants and blowing up like you did.”
“We don't need them blowing up right this second,” said Macomber.
“Lady, and Gentlemen,” said the cleric from the right hand of the street. “I am Forty Two, the answer to your problems.”
He bowed at the end of his pronouncement.
“And I am the Great and Mighty Hundred to One,” said the other Cleric. She curtsied with the spread of imaginary skirts. “Death is my lover, Destruction my brother.”
“That was poetic,” said Macomber. “I'm afraid that I came up in a grimmer practicality.”
“Avri Noll's people only look harmless,” said Alexander.
The clerics turned to face the demons. Their weapons shone in their hands. Their attitude seemed to be one of amusement at the prospect of killing a horde of demons.
“Do you wish to dance with us, demons?,” asked Hundred to One. She flexed her shoulders in her green and yellow jacket. “We're ready when you are.”
Alexander remained behind the two clowns. His ability was great, but he didn't need to throw that much around if the other two were as good as their demeanor suggested.
He dealt with some of Avri Noll's swordsmen in the Brotherhood. They were walking meat grinders in the right situations.
Leaping out in front of lesser clerics was just asking to get chopped up by their grants when they used them.
The demons muttered to themselves. Evidently they had dealt with some of Noll's swordsmen too. Finally, one braver, or stupider, than the rest charged at the masked couple. The clerics did a quick rock paper scissors, and Forty Two stepped forward to meet the demon before he could rush down on them both.
A streak of garish color and a black cloud met between the two forces. A loud clash of arms ensued as they danced in their battlefield. The masked man stepped back in a cloud of ash.
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“That was extremely exciting,” said Hundred to One. She clapped her hands in appreciation. “Very good. Can I have a go?”
“I would love to see such a high number in action,” said Forty Two. He made a go ahead gesture with his empty hand.
Hundred to One stepped forward. She made a few experimental slashes with her sword, listening to air sluicing around it as it moved. She nodded to herself.
“I'm ready,” she said. “Would you mind sending someone over? This is my first time in a battle in so long.”
Alexander thought that last statement was a lie to blind the demons to the truth. The cleric had probably reached her high number by constant killing. Avri Noll didn't allow her representatives to slack off in her speciality.
A demon that resembled a lion and a crab jammed together scrambled across the space. The other masked human seemed to be a threat. This one was a slim female of the species. What could she do against his hardened shell?
Hundred to One vanished as the demon went for her with its pincers. It paused in confusion. Its prey shouldn't have just disappeared from in front of it. The sound of chopping filled the air. Parts of the demon flew upwards as it came apart under the attack. The cleric appeared a few feet away from where she had vanished.
Alexander nodded from his position. The woman had sped up her personal time somehow and cut the lion crab a hundred times in the few seconds where she was moving so fast she couldn't be seen by normal eyes.
No wonder she had been designated Hundred to One.
Forty Two clapped his hands at the display. He nodded in appreciation.
“I'm working on a Thousand to One,” she said. “When I get that down, I will request a change in numbers. So far, I can't generate more speed and compression.”
“You will get it,” said Forty Two. “I have faith in you. I will stand as a sponsor to your number change when you get it down.”
“Enough of this,” said the commander of the original war party. “Kill these three, storm the barracks, kill all the humans inside. Then we'll move on.”
“That was totally the wrong decision,” said Hundred to One. She pointed her sword at the charging horde. A hundred blades sprayed the demons, slicing into them with a spinning motion. Some were too tough for the blades. The fast impacts still made them pause in the middle of the onslaught.
Forty Two raised his hand. Light formed the curving hook of Avri Noll's personal symbol. Forty two slashes sliced the closest demons. Some of the blows reduced their targets to ash, but not all of them.
The crowd split to surround the three. Alexander called on his personal power. Time changed for him. When he was done, he snapped back to reality and flexed his arm. His minute of power had let him take a huge bite out of the enemy force. Clouds of ash jumped in the air in an erratic display.
Alexander looked around. The clerics sliced the demons around them with abandon. It was hard for them to inflict killing strokes as they had to really work to stave off death with the numbers pressing down on them.
“Increment slash again if you can,” said Hundred to One. “We need to get out of this circle.”
“It will be my pleasure,” said Forty Two. He turned and cut a demon down, before raising his hand and calling on his goddess. Demons went down under the onslaught, some dead, some wounded and knocked out of the way.
Hundred to One pointed her weapon in the same direction he had picked. She called on her storm of blades. That punched a corridor through the crowd, sliced up some of the nearby buildings, and made her laugh lightly as demons rushed to close the gap.
Alexander called on his reserve. He stepped into that open space, dealing inhuman blow after blow before he reappeared. Columns of ash flew in the air. He pushed a victim into his friend before slicing the both of them again with swings of his weapon.
“Well done,” said Forty Two. He stabbed a demon in the eye before moving to assist Alexander. “Who's your patron?”
“Don't have one,” said Alexander. He blocked blow after blow as the demons tried to regroup around them.
“Don't worry,” said Hundred to One. “We won't hold that against you.”
She stabbed a demon trying to claw Alexander in the back. It backed up a few steps. She lunged and stabbed it through its torso. She stepped back from the ash floating in the air.
“Thanks,” said Alexander. “I'm going to punch through this crowd. Follow me as best you can. I'm pretty fast when I want to be.”
“I think we can handle it,” said Forty Two.
“Go ahead,” said Hundred to One.
Alexander reached down and called on his minute of power. He extended the range so it covered his two new comrades. They marched through the crowd, cutting down any demon in their way. They felt the shift back to normal on the other side of the circle.
“Impressive,” said Hundred to One. She turned and blasted the crowd behind them with abandon.
“I agree,” said Forty Two. He stabbed a demon that had gotten too close. “That was impressive.”
“Let's retreat while we can,” said Alexander. He backed up, blocking any attack that came close to him.
The clerics shrugged and joined him, covering the sides so they could retreat in order.